But although Kōbe Hikaru had made every preparation, once the fight actually began, the gap was still obvious.
Purple light burst apart.
The roof of the castle keep was instantly ground to dust.
Kōbe Hikaru's body was sent flying backward, slamming into the heap of rubble below.
More than half of his bone armor had shattered, his chest a patch of charred black, flesh and blood mangled.
The battle had already gone on for a quarter of an hour.
A few more scorched marks had been added to Kōbe Hikaru's bone armor, and a few more bloody gashes had appeared on the Thunder Beast's body as well.
But,
the gap was still steadily widening.
Kōbe Hikaru rose, swaying, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.
It was not only external injury.
There were internal injuries too.
The Thunder Beast's attacks were not merely physical damage — with every contact, lightning would travel down the blade and pour into his body.
The bone armor could block most of it, but some always seeped through.
That lightning ran rampant inside him, scorching his meridians.
[Bloodthirst Eternal] was desperately repairing the damage.
But it couldn't keep pace with the rate at which he was being wounded.
"Hahaha!"
The Thunder Beast laughed, its voice like thunder.
"That's it? Just that little bit of skill?"
"And here I thought you were something strong — turns out you're nothing more than this!"
It was not wrong.
The gap between Qualitative Transformation and Corporeal Transformation was not something that technique and tactics could make up for.
What the Thunder Beast had completed was not merely a qualitative transformation, but an elemental one — the Thunder Metamorphosis.
This so-called Thunder Metamorphosis meant fusing the power of thunder utterly into one's own being.
Every strand of its fur was lightning, every breath came accompanied by arcs of electricity, and every attack came wrapped in destructive force.
It could even directly transform into lightning itself — or rather, it was lightning to begin with!
The incarnation of thunder!
This was no simple stacking of attributes.
This was a transformation of essence.
Although Kōbe Hikaru's Sixth Transformation had fused with the Bone Soul, reaching — even surpassing — the limits of ordinary transformation at the level of Corporeal Transformation,
in the end it was only Corporeal Transformation.
The gap between quality and quantity was like that between an ant and a giant elephant.
Though the number of transformations did not represent an absolute quantity — and a thing as small and frail as an ant, no matter how many times it multiplied, could not in theory match an unchanging colossal beast — Qualitative Transformation was a different matter.
Qualitative Transformation could alter the very structure of life at its most fundamental level.
And within Qualitative Transformation, whether or not one possessed an elemental transformation made the disparity all the greater!"
"Resign yourself to your fate."
The Thunder Beast pressed closer step by step, its four limbs striding, its pale beast-fur bursting outward amid the crackling bloom of thunder:
"Those bones and blood-mist of yours are indeed somewhat interesting."
"But before true power, they are all in vain."
It spoke with great confidence — arrogance, even.
Because it had already seen through Kōbe Hikaru's hand.
The blood-mist was only a means of perception; it had no offensive power.
The bone spikes were annoying, but a single bolt of lightning could shatter many of them.
This ghost-samurai's way of fighting was indeed varied, but every one of his methods fell within the range of what it could counter.
"Come."
The Thunder Beast opened its bloody maw wide: "Let me devour you and absorb your yōkai aura."
"Perhaps it'll even let me take another step forward."
Kōbe Hikaru did not answer.
He stood among the ruins, both blades planted against the ground, his bone armor already more than half shattered, cracks appearing even across his oni mask.
He looked utterly wretched.
But his eyes were as calm as ever.
"Are you sure?"
he asked.
"Sure of what?"
The Thunder Beast sneered.
"Sure that you've seen through my hand?"
Kōbe Hikaru suddenly smiled.
That smile, showing through the cracks in the oni mask, looked exceptionally eerie.
The Thunder Beast's expression stiffened slightly.
It seemed to sense something by instinct.
But — it was too late.
Boom!
It lunged again, its massive claws wreathed in thunder, going straight for Kōbe Hikaru's skull.
Kōbe Hikaru did not dodge.
He even let go of both blades.
He let that massive claw pin him to the ground.
Crack——
The bone armor shattered completely.
Lightning surged out from that massive claw and poured into his body.
"Die!"
The Thunder Beast roared.
Its claw pressed down with force, meaning to crush Kōbe Hikaru into pulp.
But the next second.
Its motion stopped — and not of its own will.
It was — forced, forced to a halt!
"What?"
The Thunder Beast lowered its head.
It saw it.
Around its own four limbs, at some unknown moment, were wound dense, countless black threads.
Those threads were very fine — so fine they were almost invisible.
They hid within the blood-mist, hid among the bone spikes, hid in every corner of this battlefield.
Like a spider's web.
And also like —
hair.
"This is..."
The Thunder Beast's pupils abruptly contracted.
This was Sakagami Ketsura's hair!
That yōkai who had already been seized by Kōbe Hikaru!
"You think..."
Kōbe Hikaru's voice came from beneath its claw: "Why do you suppose I dragged this out with you for so long?"
The Thunder Beast shuddered all over.
It wanted to break free.
But those hairs seemed to have grown onto its body — the more it struggled, the tighter they wound.
And what was more terrifying —
those hairs were absorbing its lightning!
Zzzt, zzzt, zzzt.
Purple arcs of electricity flowed along those black threads, guided in some direction.
It was underground.
Those hairs were like conducting wires, channeling the endless thunder within the Thunder Beast's body entirely into the depths of the earth.
"Impossible!"
The Thunder Beast bellowed: "How could Sakagami Ketsura's hair possibly withstand my lightning?!"
"Under normal conditions, it indeed could not withstand it."
Kōbe Hikaru wormed his way out from beneath that massive claw and picked up the two blades from the ground.
"But what if it's only conducting it away?"
His gaze fell upon the black threads coiled around the Thunder Beast: "Hair that has grown abnormally damp after being soaked in my blood-mist will conduct electricity."
"Her hair isn't being used to bind you."
"It's used to find your lightning a way out."
"A way out leading underground."
The mutual conquest of physical properties — this principle, as a transmigrator, Kōbe Hikaru could not possibly fail to understand.
The Thunder Beast, too, knew why it had suddenly become unable to exert its strength.
Its lightning was the source of its power, and also its very self — as a yōkai that had already completed a qualitative change, an elemental change, this was all the more inherently so.
But now, that lightning was being continuously drawn away, channeled underground.
Its power — even its very life — was being drawn away as well.
It was like a pool of water: the inlet was still letting water in, but the outlet had been opened wider.
The water level was dropping.
Its power was draining away.
"You!"
The Thunder Beast struggled madly.
Its body erupted with even more violent lightning, trying to burn through those damnable hairs.
But those hairs seemed to be protected by something — no matter how fierce the lightning, it only flowed away along them rather than burning them apart.
It was the blood-mist.
That blood-mist drifting through the air had formed a thin conductive layer over the surface of the hairs, which was at the same time a protective film.
It blocked the direct scorching of the lightning.
And it also gave full play to the function of conducting it away.
The Thunder Beast's voice trembled: "How could you possibly... you're clearly not strong at all..."
"I'm indeed not strong, but all I needed to do was wait."
Kōbe Hikaru walked over at a slow pace, both blades hanging low: "Wait for you to let your guard down."
"Wait for you to think you'd already won."
"Wait for you — to expose an opening."
He stopped before the Thunder Beast.
That once-overweening colossal beast was now bound by countless black threads, unable to move.
The lightning within its body was still draining away ceaselessly, its power growing weaker and weaker.
"How could it be..."
The Thunder Beast murmured: "How could Sakagami Ketsura help you... isn't she your captive...?"
"Who says a captive can't cooperate?"
A muffled voice came from within Kōbe Hikaru's robes.
"I just can't stand those Kyoto types!"
"Making you lot eat dirt — that makes me very happy!"
It was Sakagami Ketsura's voice.
That red comb was trembling within Kōbe Hikaru's robes, the little eyes on the skull glittering with a light of smug delight.
The Thunder Beast was stunned.
It wanted to say something.
But Kōbe Hikaru no longer gave it the chance.
Both blades were raised high.
Muramasa and Sōza Samonji glinted with a cold gleam in the moonlight.
Remember this name.
Kōbe Hikaru spoke, repeating his earlier words: "Kōbe Hikaru, and... Sakagami Ketsura."
"This is the name of the 'person' who kills you."
"And also the name of the oni who cuts you down."
The words rose.
The blades fell.
Two edges crossed.
One black, one silver, slicing across the Thunder Beast's throat.
Blood gushed forth.
That enormous white wolf collapsed into a pool of blood.
The purple light gradually faded from its body.
Like a lamp flickering out.
This was called:
Drawing the lightning into the earth, cutting down the azure wolf.
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