"Silver, draw your sword!"
With Chisato's whisper, a metallic arm gripping a colossal silver sword emerged from Chisato's shadow amidst the deafening roar of gears—and swung the massive blade toward Inuyasha's direction!
The sword sliced through the air without a sound, cleaving through space as effortlessly as cutting tofu, leaving behind a black rift in its wake.
Inuyasha, who had leapt from the shrine and was sprinting into the forest on all fours, suddenly saw a flash before his eyes—as if a silver light had swept across the woods.
He instinctively halted, an indescribable terror shooting up his spine.
Then—Crash! Boom!—a thunderous noise erupted.
Row after row of towering ancient trees split diagonally along their trunks.
With earth-shaking roars, the forest collapsed, sending clouds of dust and flocks of birds scattering into the sky.
Witnessing this, a cold sweat trickled down Inuyasha's temples. He gulped and stammered:
"Did... did something just fly over my head?"
If he had taken one more step forward...
The thought of being bisected filled him with dread.
Even for a yokai, such an injury would be fatal.
As fear gripped Inuyasha,
The silver light flashed again.
This time, however, Inuyasha clearly saw its trajectory—
Because this time, the light originated right before his eyes.
Even to ensure Inuyasha could see clearly, the light moved extremely slowly, like an old woman walking.
Yet watching that massive sword, whose blade was wider than his entire waist, slowly slice through space...
Inuyasha's legs trembled uncontrollably. He dared not move, yet feared staying still.
The silver greatsword gently swung, leisurely splitting the space before Inuyasha.
Then, a door-like opening resembling an eye was carved out.
Through the gap, Inuyasha could clearly see the scenery inside the shrine.
"But I'm currently in the forest..."
Inuyasha watched this scene with heart-pounding terror, yet understood in his heart that the previous strike had likely been a warning.
A warning specifically for him.
At this moment, Luo Shu, on the other side of the rift, glanced at Inuyasha and teased:
"The test is over. Did you really intend to test Silver's edge with your skull?"
Hearing this, Inuyasha looked at Luo Shu with words stuck in his throat before shamefully admitting:
"My legs went weak... can't move."
Seeing this, Luo Shu chuckled and turned to the dumbstruck Fumonshichi:
"Fumonshichi, go fetch this trembling husky back."
"Well... retrieving him isn't an issue, but..."
Fumonshichi stared at the silver metallic arm slowly submerging into the shadows behind Chisato Nishikigi and couldn't help asking:
"What... is that thing?"
Luo Shu replied with perfect calm:
"Skill Demon God 'Silver' - standard elite equipment for the SDS in the future. Impressive performance, isn't it?"
Fumonshichi's mind buzzed at these words.
'You call this standard equipment?'
That sudden slash earlier had nearly caught even him off guard.
And that blade... it seemed capable of freely severing space.
A space-cutting blade!
How could something like this become mass-produced equipment?
Suddenly, Fumonshichi felt an urge to defect to the SDS.
The Metropolitan Police Department only provided Bujin-shū with qi activation, while the SDS handed out terrifyingly powerful gear like this!
After witnessing that single slash, Fumonshichi couldn't imagine what level of physical training could possibly withstand it.
With trembling hands, he lit another cigarette - the previous one had long fallen to the ground when his jaw dropped.
"What level would that thing reach?"
Seeing no reason to conceal the information, Luo Shu smiled:
"Internal assessment places it at Hero Rank. For Bujin-shū's scale, that would be upper-level Master."
Then he turned to the equally shocked Yukari Oikawa:
"For Nura Clan's standards, roughly average Great Yokai level."
"Great Yokai level..." Yukari fell silent.
Now she understood why Nurarihyon had emphasised building good relations with the SDS before their departure.
If they could mass-produce equipment at Great Yokai level...
Being only a Great Yokai herself, Yukari suddenly felt like an outdated relic about to be washed away by the tides:
'I think... I might be falling behind the times...'
Meanwhile, Fumonshichi had already carried Inuyasha back through the spatial rift.
Seeing this, Chisato Nishikigi, who'd been maintaining the passageway, finally exhaled in relief and dispersed her Dying Will Flames.
Just from those few moments, Chisato Nishikigi's Dying Will Flames had already depleted by about ten per cent.
If she fought at full strength, she estimated she could only control Silver for no more than 10 minutes.
Though slightly better than Ultraman, such a duration was still rather short.
And this was with most of the energy being supplied by the Solar Furnace.
"Well, I've only just acquired my Dying Will Flames. With some training, maintaining it for one or two hours shouldn't be a problem."
A Hero Rank combatant who could sustain an hour of battle could already sway the outcome of a military conflict.
After all, combat power rivalling that of upper-tier Masters and Great Yokai was rare, even on a global scale.
Averaged out, there might not even be three per country.
As for the SDS, while they couldn't mass-produce such powerhouses like bullets, manufacturing them like cutting-edge fighter jets was within their capabilities.
"Initial activation complete, Silver Sword test concluded..."
"Pilot preliminary condition stable..."
Takina Inoue, standing nearby, glanced at Chisato Nishikigi while dutifully recording the data.
Meanwhile, seeing Inuyasha finally settle down, Luo Shu smiled and retrieved the contract once more:
"Sign it."
"Compared to dying, becoming a house pet isn't so bad, is it?"
Inuyasha seethed internally, but under Luo Shu's gaze that clearly challenged him to try running again, he gritted his teeth, bit his thumb, and pressed a bloody fingerprint onto the contract.
Seeing this, Luo Shu couldn't care less about how much Inuyasha objected.
They could always send him to the SDS's training facility later - the organisation had plenty of people who could discipline him. Coincidentally, the newly established SDS Operations Department branch in Chiba could use some extra manpower. Throwing Inuyasha in there as labour wasn't a bad idea.
At least he was a half-yokai with Great Yokai blood. If paired with Tessaiga and properly trained, he could reach Hero Rank.
Though the Skill Demon Gods were at similar levels, there was a difference between a controlled machine and a living being.
After all, activating a Skill Demon God consumed considerable resources, whereas Inuyasha only needed bones to keep going - far more cost-effective.
And if Inuyasha obtained any Abyss Artefacts during missions and delivered them here, Luo Shu could exchange them for points from the system.
Thinking this, Luo Shu's gaze towards Inuyasha warmed slightly:
"Now that we're all on the same side, we can discuss Tessaiga."