As the wind blew over under the pale night. An unconscious God hovered, stopping at a certain point. The moonlight shone bright towards him, the rather plain and unappealing appearance he had earlier suddenly started to form cracks.
With the moon reaching beyond the path of the heavens, another individual appeared right behind the suspended merchant.
"Apologies, Vendor-san."
Wind formed under his feet as he drew his blade, emanating a radiant crimson colour. Takemi's clothes flowed like drifting clouds, his eyes wide and sharp, his grip on the blade firm and ready to slash.
Tilting his blade, he immediately went in for the instant kill, but to his surprise, as he swung his blade to the once severed neck, the back of the merchant's ear moved slightly.
"Hey now~
Who might you be~?"
A rather unpleasant voice resounded in the minimal space they were in.
"You're not the God of Sword that I know~"
He steadily moved his head towards the side where the blade was.
As if in slow motion, the turning of the merchant's head was way faster than the actual swing of his blade.
"Tell me...~ Who are you~?
His cold, enigmatic voice thoroughly pierced into the ears of Takemi. Despite that, even after hearing his unpleasant voice, Takemi didn't waver, gripping the hilt of his blade ever tighter, speeding up the process of his swing.
Even though he had already mustered all the strength he had at that moment, the two individuals met eye to eye.
"What are you~? A phony~?"
Beyond his facial cracks and pale crimson eyes with 3 spinning pupils right inside his iris, what struck Takemi the most was his cold, wry smile and unbothered look, as if he was talking down to him.
With the hot and cold blade transcending even space, Takemi has successfully cleanly cut off his head from his body once more.
However, the outcome didn't change; all it did was only temporarily make him immobilized.
Having not lost his composure, Takemi took another deep breath after that one clean slash.
"Haaa..."
His breathing turned cold in an instant, even to the point of forming small fractions of frozen air particle.
Taking up another stance, he shifted his grip along with the blade in his hands.
Takemi's eyes were fixated on the merchant's heart. Aiming his blade at his core, he lunges right towards the other half.
Swinging his blade upwards, using the earlier momentum, precisely targeting the core at the same level as his heart.
"RAIKIRII!"
His blade started crackling, and the crimson hue of his blade turned instantly pale ice, with threads of pure lightning emerging from its entirety.
The bright white light closely resembling the light of the high moon has started to draw its way into the merchant's heart with a loud ominous roar resembling that of a dragon.
*SLASH!*
Upon successfully slashing through his heart, Takemi gazed upon his open chest to find the core, which had supposedly been also cut in half.
'?!!'
However, his eyes widened in question, as the black ink splashing down into the merchant's chest was just pure liquid.
Not a speck of shard was sighted to have been slashed through by his blade.
"Heh~ So that's what you're after."
The merchant spoke with a hateful grin on his face.
"I'll have to let your hopes down because...
I don't have one~"
Although he was still incapacitated, both of the merchant's hands moved, grabbing the collar of Takemi's clothes whilst his head was still levitating; he opened his mouth, aiming at the God of Sword.
A flash of black light appeared, leaving the domain of the merchant's mouth, piercing through the heavens itself as it made its way towards Takemikazuchi.
'Farewell, Faker~'
At a not-so-far distance, blinding light shone through, enveloping Takemikazuchi.