Watching as Mahoraga adapted to her own hand-to-hand combat at an astonishing speed and began using improved techniques to counterattack, the last trace of temptation and contempt in the woman's chaotic gray eyes completely vanished, replaced by a cold determination.
Continuing the fight would only serve as nourishment for this monster's growth.
"Enough," the woman whispered, her voice slightly trembling with the force of her concentration. She leaped back lightly, distancing herself several meters from Mahoraga—not to retreat, but to prepare for her next move.
The woman's gray blade, enveloped in an ominous aura of death, suddenly accelerated! This strike abandoned all feints, thrusting straight towards the joint of Mahoraga's right sword arm. Before the blade even arrived, the cold "concept" of the end of all things was already wounding perception.
Genji stirred slightly. Instinct told him she couldn't take that hit.
"Sever."
The thought was like lightning. Mahoraga's right shoulder instantly collapsed on its own!
Its entire right arm was actively detached from its torso and flung backward, a moment before the gray blade could cut it.
Whoosh—!
The severed arm was swept into ash in the air, instantly turning into nothing, leaving not a trace of cursed energy.
If touched, it would die. The conceptual "end" force directly targets existence itself.
If the main body were cut, even a scratch, the summoning of Mahoraga could be forcibly dispelled. It had a similar effect to the original Hiten's barrier user, the first-grade sorcerer, Kiyotaka Ijichi's technique in the domain of punishment and death. It's just that the cross sword of the Japanese machine needs to meet certain conditions to achieve death.
And the woman, as a cursed spirit of death, was even stronger.
Attack and defense instantly switched.
Mahoraga, having lost its right arm, silently retreated, its remaining left arm barely deflecting the woman's relentless, rain-like gray blade attacks.
"Heh... Adapt? Let's see how many times you can break it!" The woman's eyes grew even brighter. Her whole body seethed, her speed increasing another 30%! Her figure turned into a deadly gray shadow, her blade light like a net, blocking all avenues of escape.
Finally, a sword light broke through the defense and struck Mahoraga's left chest!
Got it! The woman sneered inwardly. The direct invasion of "deathly stillness" would penetrate the core, even if it was a divine general...
However, the expected scene of Mahoraga's collapse and disintegration did not occur.
The gray blade cutting into its torso felt like cutting into the thickest gelatin; it was difficult to move forward more than half an inch in depth. At the wound, the silver-white positive cursed energy frantically clashed and annihilated with the gray-black death aura, emitting a piercing hiss. But the next moment, even more silver-white positive energy surged from Mahoraga's body, and the wound shrank and healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Within two seconds, the wound had disappeared, leaving only a faint ashen trace.
"What?!" The woman's pupils sharply contracted. She suddenly raised her gaze to the massive Dharma wheel behind Mahoraga, which had never stopped turning.
The Dharma wheel still revolved at a steady speed.
The woman was stunned. Her attack had clearly succeeded in hitting Mahoraga; logically, Mahoraga shouldn't have had a chance to adapt to it yet. The previous hand-to-hand combat exchanges were just to make her let down her guard, paving the way for her instant-death strike.
She hadn't expected Genji to be so decisive, breaking off his own arm to survive, denying her the information she needed.
What is it adapting to? An alarm bell rang in the woman's heart.
Was it not adapting to the "knife cut," not to the "death aura"...
Was Mahoraga already adapting to her very existence?
How is that possible?!
---
"Time to end this farce."
Genji's indifferent voice came from the air. He wasn't even looking at the battle below. He simply raised his right hand, palm down.
Buzz—!
In the void around him, hundreds of weapon outlines suddenly appeared—knives, swords, spears, halberds, bows, axes... Their forms were different, but they were all semi-transparent indigo, with shimmering light on their edges. Each radiated a sharp aura, no weaker than a special-grade cursed tool.
Disposable construction, cursed energy weapons—Hundredfold Arms.
"Though it's a bit of a copyright infringement, it's appropriate to use here."
"Various craftsmen, go."
"Destroy."
Hundreds of cursed energy weapons, like an army receiving orders, simultaneously changed their sharp edges, transforming into a devastating storm of indigo metal, hurtling towards the woman who had just stabilized her figure, her face still showing shock—
Pouring rain!
---
Facing the storm of indigo cursed weapons falling from the sky, blocking out her view, there was no fear in the woman's chaotic gray eyes, only a cold, mocking mix of contempt and anger.
"Petty tricks," she snorted. The death blade in her hand, burning with dark gray flames, lifted slightly, the tip of the blade pointing straight at the sky.
In her opinion, this seemingly large-scale attack, based purely on numbers, was nothing more than brute force applied by an impatient high-ranking person. No matter how impressive the momentum, in the face of her ability to "erase existence," it was just garbage waiting to be washed away.
She didn't even try to fully dodge, only slightly adjusting her stance, most of her mind still focused on Mahoraga in the distance, which had just healed its wound and was quietly "watching" her.
That was the real threat.
The first wave of dozens of indigo swords and halberds of various forms roared before her! Their sharp cursed energy tore through the air, emitting a piercing scream.
The woman's wrist flicked slightly, and the death blade traced an elegant, deadly gray arc towards the metal storm.
She planned to use the power of "instant death" to turn these weapons created from cursed energy into nothing the moment they touched, just as she had previously dismembered Mahoraga's severed arm, to show Genji that in her eyes, his means to "end this farce" were just tricks that could be broken.
The blade was about to touch the tip of the leading indigo spear.
At that billionth of a second, just as the "erasing" power of the gray blade was about to infect the cursed weapon—
An anomaly occurred.
The indigo cursed weapons, about to be cut by the gray blade and presumably dispersed by "death," suddenly had the building cursed energy flowing within them break down and collapse along a pre-set, extremely precise frequency—and then they exploded from within!
Not destroyed by an external force, but self-destructing!
"Huh?!" The woman's gray eyes contracted, a warning sign flashing in her heart—
BOOM—BOOM—BOOM—!!!!!!!!!
A deafening, interconnected, terrifying explosion erupted just a few meters from her!
This wasn't an ordinary gunpowder explosion, but a pure and violent burst of cursed energy, forcibly detonated and released by the highly condensed cursed energy within the weapons in an instant!
Each cursed weapon turned into a small cursed bomb, dozens or hundreds detonating simultaneously! The destructive indigo blue energy was like a raging tsunami, instantly engulfing the area where the woman stood!
The temperature at the explosion's core was so high that steel would instantly vaporize. The shockwave was like an invisible hammer, crushing the already fragile ruins into powder, scraping the ground layer by layer, exposing the charred rock beneath!
The woman's figure was instantly swallowed by this destructive indigo light. The blade she swung didn't meet cold metal, but a storm of cursed power capable of tearing apart a special-grade cursed spirit's body! The "instant death" arrogance attached to her blade destroyed part of the explosive energy upon contact, but was immediately completely suppressed and overwhelmed by the continuous, multi-layered, berserk cursed power!
"Ungh—!!!"
A short, painful grunt was drowned out by the continuous, thunderous explosions.
She had underestimated Genji. Or rather, she had relied so heavily on her ability to "erase existence" that she forgot battle was not just a contest of rules and power, but a game of wisdom, calculation, and tactics.
From the very beginning, Genji had never expected these disposable cursed weapons to cause the woman "sharp" harm. He knew all too well the difficulty of facing "instant death." Therefore, the "core instructions" he gave these weapons were never "pierce" or "cut," but "explode on contact."
Simple, crude, but extremely effective—especially when the enemy underestimates you and thinks it's just a regular attack.
BOOM—BOOM—!!!
The explosions continued. Subsequent cursed weapons flew into the blast zone like moths to a flame, then precisely detonated at the most optimal distances and in the densest array patterns!
Genji hovered in the air, his deep indigo eyes calmly "watching" the expanding cluster of indigo destructive light below, his hand still in the lowering position, precisely controlling the detonation time and position of each cursed weapon, layering the explosive force without any waste.
After a while, the last cursed weapon was thrown into the light cluster and exploded.
The earth-shattering noise finally ceased, leaving only a low hum and the billowing smoke left by the raging energy.
The dazzling indigo light gradually dimmed and dissipated.
The epicenter of the explosion was revealed.
A massive, charred crater, over twenty meters in diameter and several meters deep, seemed to have been struck by a meteorite. The stones on the crater wall had a vitrified luster, rising with green smoke. In the center of the crater floor, chaos reigned.
The woman knelt on one knee, using her sword to prop herself up, barely keeping from falling. The magnificent black haori on her body was already tattered, the edges of countless burn holes still flickering with faint electric arcs. The exposed pale skin was covered with intersecting burns and cracks; some bones were visible, but no blood flowed from the wounds—only a continuously escaping gray aura and residual indigo cursed energy, eroding each other. Her long, snow-white hair was also singed by the explosion's high heat, lying messily on her shoulders.
The most shocking was her right hand, which held the blade. The flesh on her forearm was mangled, the skin and muscles charred and peeling away in large sections, revealing an inhuman bone structure shining with a dull gray light. The death blade in her hand was extremely dim, with even small cracks appearing on the blade.
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