Deep in a dense forest in Shikoku, within the divine realm of the tanuki yokai, a gathering of old friends who hadn't met in a century continued in a clearing surrounded by numerous tanuki statues. Sitting at a large stone table, Tamamura listened to Nura Rihyon’s purpose for visiting and couldn't help but cover his mouth in thought.
"I’m not involved in the clan’s affairs anymore. I’ll call a few of my sons over later; you can ask them..." As he spoke, Tamamura grabbed a handful of rice from a bucket in front of him and began to chew.
"Your sons?" Rihyon’s expression tightened at Tamamura’s words. He changed the subject. "Tell me, Tamamura, do you have a son named Tamazuki?"
"Hmm? How did you know? He’s my youngest. He has the highest talent among my living sons. I even gave him the largest territory." Tamamura smiled as he spoke, seemingly doting on this son. Hearing this, Rihyon’s expression became grave as he looked at Tamamura.
"Tamamura... what I want to say is that the yokai who tried to assassinate me mentioned the title 'Lord Tamazuki'."
"What?" Hearing this, Tamamura froze. The rice he had just grabbed remained suspended in his hand. He stayed in that daze for a long moment before finally reacting.
"Wait here for a moment."
As he spoke, Tamamura put the rice back into the bucket and picked up a leaf from the ground, placing it on his forehead.
With a soft poof, Tamamura’s stout form was submerged in white smoke. A grayish-brown large bird emerged from the smoke and flew directly toward the distant sky. In less than fifteen minutes, the large bird returned from the horizon, landing in its original spot. Another burst of white smoke erupted, and as it cleared, Tamamura reappeared. This time, his face was incredibly dark, and his eyes glinted with deep solemnity.
"The blade... it's gone. Tamazuki, that little brat... he actually..." Tamamura growled, his fists clenched and teeth bared in fury. Seeing him like this, Makoto frowned slightly and placed her tea back on the stone table.
"What happened? The blade? Who are you referring to?"
"I can't believe that brat actually tricked me!" Tamamura shouted, nearly roaring. In his rage, he stomped his foot, causing the ground to shudder and crack. Facing this outburst, Rihyon and Makoto watched in silence.
After taking several deep breaths and clutching his chest, Tamamura managed to calm the fire in his heart. Once he caught his breath, he looked toward Makoto.
Meanwhile, in the night of Tokyo, the moon rose higher. In a certain remote and deserted district, the area had transformed into a ghostly domain. Cold, eerie air gathered as various demonic energies intertwined, reflecting the brutal slaughter of yokai.
Outside the abandoned mall, the battle between the Nura Clan and the Shikoku yokai had been raging for some time. Under the performance of the Young Lord of the Nura Clan, the scales of the battle had tipped entirely in their favor.
Beneath a wall riddled with cracks, the battered Tamazuki stood up slowly, leaning on a broken tachi. He raised his head, and blood from his forehead flowed into his eyes, turning his vision crimson.
In that blood-red world, the white-haired yokai youth was an unbearable sight. Tamazuki stared intensely at the demonic blade in the youth's hand, his expression filled with resentment and confusion. 'Why? Why does Nura have such a powerful demonic blade? Where did it come from?! How did Nura get it? Why are there no legends about it?' Generally speaking, any powerful demonic blade in the world had its own legends. Most were forged during the Sengoku period. Those that remained were either sealed by the Inari or the Onmyo Agency or held by yokai generals of various regions. There were only a dozen or so famous ones, and he had never heard of Nura possessing one.
"Do you still want to fight? It's meaningless. You can't beat me. Surrender. Your subordinates are bleeding. Continuing like this only adds to the casualties."
Standing his ground, Rikuo pointed his blade at Tamazuki. The latter slowly straightened his body, gripped his broken tachi tightly, and gave a cold laugh.
"Surrender? To a quarter-blood who isn't even a true yokai lord? Don't think you can look down on me just because you got a demonic blade from somewhere!" As he spoke, Tamazuki gripped the broken tachi with both hands as a sinister, purplish-red aura began to swirl around it.
Seeing this aura, Rikuo frowned slightly.
"Behold the true power of a demonic blade! Release your power! Devil King's Mallet!" The corpses of the fallen yokai and scattered limbs were ensnared by the aura. They rapidly liquefied into a pulp of blood and flesh, channeled through 'pipes' of purplish demonic energy into the broken tachi. The blade greedily swallowed the flesh harvested from the battlefield, undergoing a drastic transformation.
Amidst the rising purple malice, the tachi began to mutate. The originally rusted blade twisted and writhed, sprouting numerous chunks of fresh meat and pale bone. In an instant, the old, broken sword transformed into a 'mace' of tangled flesh and bone spikes, losing any resemblance to a sword.
"This..." Rikuo was stunned by the sudden change. He decisively moved, swinging his demonic blade to unleash a Demon Wind Cleave toward Tamazuki.
Facing the frontal attack, the flesh-wrought blade in Tamazuki's hand split like a living creature into countless bone tentacles that lashed out like snakes. The invisible wind blade was dispersed after cutting through several tentacles, failing to harm Tamazuki in the slightest.
"Hahaha! See! This is the power of the Devil King's Mallet! This is the strongest demonic blade! Now die, Nura Rikuo!" Laughing maniacally, Tamazuki swung the Devil King's Mallet. Dozens of fleshy tentacles lashed out at Rikuo, forcing him to block and retreat with his own blade.
'This demonic blade... is alive. And it's strong. It blocked my attack on its own?' Rikuo thought as he fought and retreated. Gradually, the two of them drifted closer to the main battlefield behind them.
"Have you felt the terror of the strongest demonic blade? Die! Nura Rikuo!" Tamazuki swung the mallet wildly, its tentacles constantly striking at Rikuo. However, as they entered the blood-soaked center of the battlefield, a sudden mutation occurred.
Those fleshy tentacles growing from the Devil King's Mallet paused as they caught the scent of even thicker blood. Seeing that they couldn't immediately take down Rikuo, they stopped attacking him. Instead, the tentacles lashed out in all directions, striking indiscriminately at the surrounding yokai. In an instant, several Shikoku yokai who were moving toward Tamazuki were skewered. They twisted and melted in agony, dissolving into blood and gore that was absorbed directly by the bloody tentacles.
Watching this, Tamazuki was horrified.
"What? What are you doing?! Nura Rikuo is over there! Over there!" Tamazuki waved the fleshy mallet, pointing it toward Rikuo, trying to force it to obey his command.
However, the only response he received was a fleshy tentacle lashing back at him. The Devil King's Mallet had gone out of control and was devouring its master. Tamazuki’s stunned expression froze on his face as the tentacles turned on him.
Suddenly, Inugami, who was fighting nearby, saw this and rushed over to shove Tamazuki aside. Tamazuki’s grip loosened, and the Devil King's Mallet fell from his hand. Yet the tentacles didn't stop. Craving more flesh, they continued their assault, skewering Inugami entirely.
With a howl of agony, Inugami was reduced to blood and gore and absorbed by the Devil King's Mallet. Tamazuki, who had been thrown a distance away, watched this scene in a daze. Once Inugami was absorbed, the mass of flesh that formed the mallet expanded several times over. Without a wielder, the elongated lump of meat writhed on the ground like a giant maggot. More tentacles sprouted, sweeping across the area and harvesting over a dozen yokai in an instant. Because it had dropped near Tamazuki, the area around him was decimated. With continuous consumption, the flesh mass grew at a frenzied pace, splitting into even more tentacles. The entire battlefield was gripped by fear of this nightmare creature. Both Shikoku and Nura yokai stopped fighting and scrambled to flee from this source of horror.
At this moment, the executives from both the Shikoku and Nura factions began to work together to resist the lashing tentacles, protecting their respective groups. However, they soon found themselves in a bitter struggle.
"Disgusting! What on earth is this thing?! I... I can't even freeze it!" Yuki-onna tried to freeze the tentacles with cold air, but the overwhelming number of tentacles shattered the ice and continued their advance.
"What is this sinister thing... it's never-ending." Kubinashi used his strings to slice the tentacles, but they regenerated instantly. Thus, both sides were trapped in a desperate battle against the relentless onslaught of the Devil King's Mallet.
As it absorbed more flesh, the meat mass grew to a height of seven or eight meters. Even more tentacles grew from it, putting immense pressure on the gathered yokai.
Slicing through two tentacles, Rikuo stared at the writhing, bloated anomaly. Seeing the crumbling defenses around him, his expression turned grim.
'I can't let this continue. I have to resolve the core of that thing immediately! Normal wind attacks aren't a threat to it. In that case, I'll bet all my remaining demonic power on this one strike!'
With that thought, Rikuo gripped his demonic blade tightly. He took a deep breath and poured every ounce of his remaining demonic power into the blade. Instantly, a torrential surge of demonic energy erupted from the sword. Rikuo knew that the characteristic of his blade was that the more power he poured in, the stronger it became. What he was about to perform was his strongest strike!
With a loud shout, Rikuo leaped into the air and swung his sword. Intense demonic energy gathered at the tip and radiated outward, transforming into a massive Demon Wind Cleave. It plowed a deep furrow into the ground as it surged toward the fleshy aberration, shattering every obstructing tentacle. Finally, it sliced the ten-meter meat mass clean in half, scattering countless pieces of flesh.
Success! However, only a second later, the situation took a turn for the worse.
Before everyone's eyes, the two halves of the meat mass quickly merged, and the wound healed as if it were new. Amidst the surrounding horror, the restored meat mass began to retract its tentacles and rapidly elongated its body, twisting and deforming.
"What is this thing? How is its vitality so resilient... Ugh, it’s even more disgusting now!"
Leaning on his blade, Rikuo looked at the writhing, elongating blood-red flesh with a look of despair. He no longer had any demonic power left to fight. Yet, the enemy seemed entirely unaffected. Rikuo tried to speak, but a terrifying roar cut him off. He raised his head and looked at the massive creature that had finished its transformation.
It was a giant snake over thirty meters long, nearly filling the entire street, constructed entirely of fresh, raw meat. Dozens of distorted, pained eyeballs glared at the tiny crowd below. A stench of blood radiated from it, and intense fear emanated from its center, leaving the horrified yokai unable to even think of running.
"Run..." Rikuo tried to lift his blade to counter-attack, but his weakness caused him to stumble and fall. Seeing this, Yuki-onna rushed toward him.
"Young Lord!"
However, the expected pain did not arrive. Instead, a deep and familiar voice rang out.
"Your training is still far from enough, Nura Rikuo."
Hearing that voice, Rikuo snapped his eyes open. What he saw was a black robe fluttering in the evening breeze.
With just a single finger, Miketsu held back the charging giant snake. The terrifying force was effortlessly neutralized. The entire blood-red snake body froze in place, its numerous pupils filled with shock.
"Phew. I wanted to see if you could solve the problem yourself, but I didn't expect this. To think that some dregs of that guy still remain in this world."
Miketsu exhaled softly and gave the giant snake a light push with her finger. The head of the blood snake flattened as if struck by a titanic force. With a wail, it was sent flying, crashing directly into the distance.
Under the stunned gazes of both the Nura and Shikoku yokai, Miketsu reached out and pulled the Demonic Fang Blade from the ground. She then pointed the tip toward the massive creature emerging from the dust ahead.
"I’ll only demonstrate this once. Watch closely... the true power of this sword!"
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