Late at night,
Outside the dilapidated shrine in the deep mountains.
Under the faint glow of the moonlight, a snake-woman with the head of a beautiful woman flicked her tongue and moved her massive body.
Sniffing the residual human scent in the air, she slowly crawled toward the shrine.
She was looking for the man named Watanabe Mitsuyuki.
Because he was the master of this generation’s onikiri and the enemy of all demons, he had to die.
And most importantly, he was the youngest genius samurai of the current age; how delicious would that exquisitely tempered and fresh flesh be?
In this era of scarce magical energy, such a body was undoubtedly the most effective panacea for any demon.
Furthermore, that Lord had already given the order.
That monster, born from the resentment and fear of this chaotic era, had ordered all demons to cut off this man’s head and bring back the ghost-slaying onikiri.
And when that time came, he would snap this legendary demon-slaying spirit blade in half right before the eyes of all the demons!
And he would grant immense benefits to the person who accomplished this task!
Thinking of this, she moved her slithering body with even more effort.
After a while, she finally crawled into that ancient shrine.
Under the faint glow of the candles inside, she saw Mitsuyuki sitting there with his head down, doing something unknown.
She immediately realized that this was a perfect opportunity.
She moved her body along the upper part of the shrine, arriving directly above Mitsuyuki’s head.
Finding that Mitsuyuki below still hadn’t reacted, she suppressed the excitement in her heart and slowly leaned down.
Then, the beautiful woman’s head opened its mouth, which began to split bit by bit until the tear reached near her ears.
Finally, the woman’s head vanished, turning into a black snake with a massive, bloody maw.
Just as she was about to strike downward and swallow Mitsuyuki whole…
Mitsuyuki suddenly raised his head and looked at her.
Because it was so sudden, the snake-woman froze in place.
In the reflection of her emerald eyes, she saw Mitsuyuki’s eyes glowing with an eerie red light, his lips curling into a faint smile.
What felt even more unbelievable to her was that she could sense an increasingly dense demonic aura emanating from Mitsuyuki.
Her body couldn’t help but tremble.
Under that demonic aura, a thought of submission—of absolute inability to disobey—surged in her heart!
In the next instant, a cold flash of light flickered.
When the snake-woman regained her senses, she found her face pressed hard against the ground.
Shifting her gaze slightly upward, she could see the half of her body still writhing on the eaves of the shrine…
Just as this thought popped into the dazed snake-woman’s mind…
She saw Mitsuyuki stand up, walk over to her, raise his foot, and crush her head into powder with a single stomp!
“That really was quite crude.”
At that moment, a woman’s faint voice echoed within the shrine.
Illuminated by the weak candlelight, a seemingly delicate woman sat at the very front…
if one were to ignore the shadow cast under the light.
That shadow was of a massive black snake, even more terrifying than the snake-woman!
She had been sitting there watching the show all along.
Since she didn’t want the snake-woman to notice her, the other naturally couldn’t find her.
“Well?
I didn’t lie to you, did I?”
The woman’s vermilion eyes looked at Mitsuyuki as she said with a hint of pride, “The power of Demonization is quite useful, isn’t it?
Especially since this demonic power…
comes from me!”
Mitsuyuki didn’t answer her immediately.
Instead, he looked at the snake-woman’s corpse on the ground, then back at her, smiling.
“Miss Oryou, aren’t you angry?”
“Hmm?” The woman paused, looking at Mitsuyuki in confusion.
“I…
technically just killed one of your kind, didn’t I?”
The woman Mitsuyuki called Oryou followed his gaze to the corpse on the ground, and her expression clearly turned to one of anger.
“Mitsuyuki, I’ve told you many times, I am a dragon!
A dragon!”
“Aren’t you still just a big snake?”
“I could have turned into a dragon long ago!
Pull that damn spear out for me and see if I can’t transform into a dragon!”
Mitsuyuki only smiled at Oryou’s words and didn’t take the bait.
Oryou—that was her name.
Judging only by her current appearance, she looked like a harmless, beautiful, and delicate woman with dazzling long black hair and a pair of eerie red eyes.
…
[You accepted the power of this legendary black snake and became a half-demon.
You do not know what her goal is, but you can vaguely sense that her actions were not out of the goodness of her heart.]
[However, you don’t care much.
After briefly testing the power you now possess, you understand that you truly have the strength to take your revenge!]
“Demonization…”
At this moment, Mitsuyuki’s hand rested on the text of the Heroic Spirit Training Manual.
Reading the memories brought by the projection, he looked at the images of his own eyes turning into eerie red orbs, and then at the black snake who called herself Oryou.
He couldn’t help but fall silent for a moment.
The matter wasn’t actually that complicated.
Mitsuyuki had come here after hearing about the divine spear, and then he encountered Oryou, the black snake sealed deep within these mountains.
She asked Mitsuyuki to help her pull out the spear, but under the warning of onikiri and Mitsuyuki’s keen sixth sense (Minds Eye), he immediately understood that the person before him was definitely a more terrifying existence than Shishio Makoto!
And the truth was indeed so.
She was a kraked dragon who had been sealed for an unknown number of years, and an existence that could fly into the sky and transform into a dragon the moment the seal was broken.
She was a monster that simply shouldn’t exist in this era!
So Mitsuyuki naturally refused her.
After all, if she wanted to, she could swallow him in one bite after the seal was broken.
Thus, without a doubt, Mitsuyuki offended Miss Oryou.
But under such circumstances, when she learned what Mitsuyuki was looking for power for, she still expressed her willingness to give him power, turning him into the current half-demon.
At the time, Mitsuyuki actually hesitated for a while regarding this choice, but in the end, he accepted.
He sensed that Oryou’s intentions weren’t benevolent; it was very likely a form of revenge.
But Mitsuyuki didn’t care much about that.
…
[After some time, you gradually mastered your current power.
Feeling that the time was right, you left this place.
When you departed, although Oryou said nothing, you could clearly sense that she was somewhat disappointed.]
[You told her you would return, and that when you did, you might help her pull out the spear and give her back her freedom, but it was clear she didn’t believe your words…]
[At age seventeen, after many years, you returned to Edo once again.]