Chapter 3: The Blade of Legend and the Great Demon Lord, Part Five

“All right, my lord!” The girl hurried after him and even reached out to clutch the corner of Zhou Yan’s robe.

After that battle just now, she truly feared that at any moment she might once again fall into some inexplicable illusion.

The two of them entered the cave. Embedded in the stone walls of the passage were lustrous gems that gave off a dim, ghostly glow, faintly illuminating the space.

“Hm, Haze, when we leave later, we can pry these stones out and take them with us. They might fetch a bit of money,” Zhou Yan said with a smile.

“O-okay!” Haze nodded at once.

Glowing gemstones...

She looked toward the wall, and it was as though symbols of money flashed in her eyes.

The cave was not very deep, and before long they had already reached its innermost end.

Then they saw something wholly unexpected.

Deep within the cavern guarded by the One-Book Tatara, there was neither gold and silver nor any heavenly treasure or miraculous herb.

There was only a sword.

A long sheathed blade, enshrined upon a stone platform like a shrine altar.

Judging from its form, it was longer than an ordinary uchigatana; it was, unmistakably, a splendid tachi of extraordinary elegance.

Zhou Yan and Haze approached it together.

“This blade...” Zhou Yan could feel from it a certain baleful, uncanny presence.

“A demon blade...” Haze’s eyes lit up. “This is the demon blade capable of bringing out the true power of the Haze Style.”

“But why would the One-Book Tatara be guarding a demon blade? And what is this blade’s origin...?”

Her face was full of confusion.

The next second, Zhou Yan turned sharply around.

At that exact moment, a low and elegant voice drifted from the tunnel through which they had come.

“This blade is called Beard-Cutter.”

As the words fell, a tall man slowly emerged from around the bend. His long red hair was tied back, and his features were strikingly handsome.

He wore an exquisitely made loose white robe embroidered with golden patterns. The sleeves were long and wide, concealing both hands from view.

Boom!

The moment their eyes met, a powerful demonic aura surged forward like something tangible.

Shock appeared on Haze’s face. She instinctively stepped back half a pace, then immediately reacted.

She spun around, seized the tachi enshrined on the altar, and ran back to stand before Zhou Yan in a protective stance. Her right hand jerked sharply, intending to draw the sword.

But at once, the red cloth wrapped around the hilt and scabbard began to shine with a blood-crimson light. Circles of dense incantations spread out one after another, locking the blade firmly within the sheath.

Haze let out a cry of surprise.

The handsome man opposite watched all this with a smile and said leisurely, “Watanabe no Tsuna used that blade to sever my arm. Though it gained the name Demon-Cutter thereby, the sword itself was sealed by my oni blood. Even if you are a swordswoman of the Haze Style, unless you defeat me, I fear a little girl like you has not the strength to draw it.”

“Watanabe no Tsuna... Demon-Cutter...”

Haze stared blankly at the man before her, an expression of utter shock spreading across her face. “You are the legendary great demon, Ibaraki-Douji!?”

Ibaraki-Douji?

Standing to the side, Zhou Yan immediately understood. He might never have heard stories about boar monsters like the One-Book Tatara.

But a famous demon like Ibaraki-Douji appeared so often in all kinds of Japanese anime and games back on Earth that it was nearly impossible not to know the name.

He looked again at the red-haired man, interest rising on his face.

If this was truly Ibaraki-Douji, he should be enough to satisfy the task requirements of his cheat ability.

The red-haired man ignored Haze, whose shock was laced with fear, and instead looked with keen interest at Zhou Yan, standing behind her.

“How curious. I can sense no demonic power from you at all. In terms of threat, you are beneath even this swordswoman of the Haze Style. And yet... why do I feel that you are extraordinarily dangerous?”

As he spoke, his appearance began to change slowly.

From beneath the skin of his forehead, two black curved oni horns pushed outward, growing at last into a pair of savage, twisted horns more than twenty centimeters long.

Across his face, body, and chest, great numbers of black incantation marks with a sinister air emerged from beneath his skin.

Two long, sharp fangs extended from his mouth. The whites of his eyes swiftly turned black, while his pupils became gold.

His body abruptly swelled and lengthened, and the loose white robe that had hung upon him was stretched tight against him like fitted battle-garb.

In an instant, he became something absolutely no longer human.

His terrifying demonic power burst forth almost as a physical force, stirring the air into violent currents that sent both Zhou Yan’s and Haze’s hair flying wildly.

“Lord Yan!” Haze looked at the dreadful oni before her, forcing down the fear deep in her heart and the involuntary trembling in her body as she said quickly, “Th-this is a terrifying monster that cannot possibly be fought head-on. I’ll hold it back—you run!”

As soon as she finished speaking, she decisively threw the undrawable Demon-Cutter to the ground, then kicked off the earth with force. Her whole body shot forward like a streaking shadow, and even during the charge her hand had already gripped the hilt of her own blade.

Shing!

Slash!

A flash of steel.

Clang!

Her whole body stopped dead.

Before her, the blue-glowing blade had struck against the back of a huge and ghastly hand, like the hairless paw of a beast.

Behind that demonic claw, Ibaraki-Douji’s face was cruel and savage, a scornful smile curling at his lips.

“Plenty of courage. But to attack me with such a broken blade— even for a swordsman of the Haze Style, that is far too much confidence.”

The next moment, he burst into wild laughter. His enormous left arm swept upward, and the violent force sent Haze flying backward on the spot. Zhou Yan caught her in his arms and gently set her down behind him.

“Both of you will stay!”

Ibaraki-Douji’s reckless laughter echoed through the cavern.

*

While that savage, ruthless laughter rang out, Zhou Yan crouched and picked up Demon-Cutter, curiosity on his face.

Seeing that he seemed, like Haze before him, to be attempting to draw the blade, Ibaraki-Douji stopped laughing and sneered.

“A mere human without demonic power, dreaming of breaking the seal of my strength—utter fantasy. Besides, you have no left hand. How do you intend to draw a sword?”

The next second, his gaze shifted.

A smile curved Zhou Yan’s lips. He tore away the plain robe that had concealed his life-armament. His right hand closed around Demon-Cutter’s hilt, and with a twist he drove the blade point-down hard into the ground.

The stone floor shattered, and Demon-Cutter sank halfway in, hilt and all.

Then, gripping the hilt in his right hand, Zhou Yan slowly began to lift.

Buzz!

Just as when Haze had tried to draw it before, crimson light flared, and layer upon layer of incantation-rings tightly bound the join between hilt and scabbard, locking the blade firmly within.

Ibaraki-Douji, who had grown somewhat solemn, let out a mocking laugh.

“It seems you do not understand speech. If your demonic power is beneath mine, then trying to draw it by brute force alone—”

Before he could finish, the muscles in Zhou Yan’s right arm, sheathed in his life-armament, swelled like the roots of a great tree.

“I don’t understand much about demonic power and the like. But whether it can be drawn or not—one only knows after trying.”

The next instant, with Zhou Yan’s teasing laugh, countless marvelous lines of light flowed across the black life-armament covering his body.

The many incantations sealing Demon-Cutter suddenly erupted. They trembled and spun, as though bearing pressure on the edge of their limit.

The aura around Zhou Yan became like mountains of corpses and seas of blood, like a force before which ten thousand armies must part, like a war god descending into the world.

“Impossible!” Ibaraki-Douji’s eyes widened.

He could feel the demonic power he had imposed upon Demon-Cutter being torn apart by a mighty force infused with a terrible will.

This man’s spiritual power or demonic power—no, not spiritual power, not demonic power. It was pure mental force. Pure will.

Ibaraki-Douji’s expression grew ever more astonished.

This man not only possessed astonishing physical strength; even his spirit far surpassed ordinary people... If he were ever to master spiritual or demonic power, how terrifying would he become?

He hesitated no longer. With a roar unlike any human voice, he charged toward Zhou Yan at an exaggerated speed.

He was even faster than Haze at the full height of the demon blade’s power, becoming a mere afterimage, crossing several meters as though by teleportation to appear before Zhou Yan.

His enormous left demonic claw lifted high, purple-red demon fire blazing upon it, and came slashing down toward Zhou Yan’s head.

Looks like it still isn’t enough!

A soundless, fevered grin appeared on Zhou Yan’s face.

Given enough time, he was confident he could erase the demonic power within Demon-Cutter and draw it successfully. But Ibaraki-Douji was clearly cautious and had no intention of giving him that chance.

Then there was only one path left.

I had meant to deal with you as an ordinary human being, but it seems you do not appreciate the courtesy.

Super Fusion!

In that instant, time halted.

Talent activated: Super Fusion

Fusion material: Devouring Prime Insect, the Locust of Malice

A splendid and uncanny light erupted, completely enveloping Zhou Yan’s body.

A shadow of a pitch-black locust appeared out of thin air and, amid the vortex-like brilliance, overlapped with Zhou Yan’s figure.

Fusion complete

Life-Armament Fusion Form — Locust-Eater Armor

Combat in this form requires additional Life-Armament durability consumption: 15 per second

Additional attribute bonuses gained: Physique +37, Agility +34, Spirit +15

Skill 1 activated — Locust Fury Kick (consumes 120 Life-Armament durability per use)

Skill 2 activated — Blood Mist Mode (active consumption: 20 Life-Armament durability per second)

The strange radiance suddenly dispersed.

Behind him, Haze had risen to her knees, clutching her chest, her face full of terror as she watched Zhou Yan on the verge of dying beneath Ibaraki-Douji’s claw.

But in the blink of an eye, everything changed. When the light faded, she saw that Lord Yan’s form had been utterly transformed.

In Zhou Yan’s place stood a figure covered from head to toe in gray-black armor-like matter. At that moment, he casually raised his left hand and steadily caught the wrist of Ibaraki-Douji’s enormous claw as it came down from above.

The blazing demonic flames upon the claw continued to scorch the exoskeleton covering Zhou Yan’s left arm, yet he seemed not to feel them at all.

He lifted his face, now like one wearing some strange helm, and met the disbelieving gaze of Ibaraki-Douji with pale white eyes.

The voice that came from beneath the exoskeleton overlapped upon itself, as though altered by some uncanny effect.

“Now then—which of us is less human?”