Spirit Exorcism.
It is a unique way to defeat the spirits that show up in the human world. There are three ways to summon a spirit to the human realm and the most destructive way is called the Spirit Conjunction technique.
A spirit summoned with this technique forms with its original physical body from the spirit realm.
This type of summoning requires a vessel for the manifestation of the spirit, that is, the body of the summoner. Ordinarily, manifestation of such a creature inside a human body leads to assured the death of the summoner, however, Eight was able to circumvent that with the use of his phase four technique that lets him cheat death.
The physical body of a spirit summoned by this technique is impossible to kill by human strength or aura techniques. It is rare to even cause any lasting damage to such a spirit unless the opponent is a Martial Grandmaster.
The only way to permanently defeat the spirit is with a specific exorcism technique that requires a threefold sacrifice from the exorcist.
To perform a successful exorcism, the exorcist first has to obtain a severed part of the spirit's body to initiate the ritual. After that, the exorcist has to offer the threefold sacrifice to satisfy the bonds of Earth, Sun and Time.
Earth represents the human body.
Sun represents the aura flowing through the human body.
Time represents the life force of the human.
Savai used the Divine Object, which was crafted by his master to perform a single task — cut whatever the thread is wrapped on, to cut the horn of the spirit.
To satisfy the bond of Earth, he poured out 50% of the blood inside his body which resulted in a temporary death.
Before all the blood poured out of his arms, he flooded his veins with aura. He died for a moment but quickly came back to life, because of his ability to temporarily use the aura to perform the same functionality as of blood inside his body.
He may have cheated death with this but it is a temporary fix. He will die the moment aura stops flowing inside his veins.
To satisfy the bond of Sun, he sacrificed his fire aura. He has permanently lost the ability to transform his aura into fire.
The third bond was satisfied with the sacrifice of life force which shortens the exorcist lifespan. The exorcist has no control over how much of the lifespan is sacrificed as it depends on the strength of the spirit. The more powerful a spirit is, the more life force is sacrificed.
If the exorcist lacks the required life force, they die on the spot.
The exorcist can feel how much of the lifespan has been shortened by.
In the case of Savai…
“50 years! I have lost about fifty years of my life.
I didn't think I would live another fifty years at my age!
Sigh!
More importantly, I’ve lost so much blood. I’ll have to defeat ****** quickly.”
Savai, who was standing in front of the white torii gate, thought to himself “So this is where he is. I wonder if I can defeat him in his state” and entered the gate.
As he stepped his feet inside, the torii gate disappeared behind him.
He was standing inside an empty space. As far away his eyes could see, there was nothing but white space. There were no objects, the surface was plain and smooth. The mountains that he was standing in moments earlier, were no longer there.
It is space manipulation, there’s no doubt about it.
My first time experiencing space manipulation of such a scale. It feels like a separate dimension from the human realm. It is uncanny how real it looks.
“Welcome! Grandmaster!
So you have finally defeated the spirit.
How amazing! You’re the first to ever do so. I can’t be any more joyful now that you’re here in my sacred space.”
Savai looked behind, eight was standing there with his right hand placed on the forehead and a smile on his face.
“This would be the greatest fight of both of our lives. Don't you think Grandmaster!"
“I don’t know about that! I have a long life ahead of me, so I might meet someone stronger than you one day!”
Eight moved his hand down and started laughing.
“Hahaha!
Just as I thought! Even at this moment, your sense of humour remains the same.”
“Before we start with this, I want to know.
Why are you doing this? What is it that you’re trying to accomplish?"
“Why?
Why do you ask?
It is simple really.
It is because I can!
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
I don’t need any reason other than I felt like it.
I have fought many but no one could ever stop me!
They all died either by my hands or the spirit’s.
No one could stop me because no was ever strong enough!
You see Grandmaster, when you are strong, you get to do whatever you want.
Whether it is to kill that people you despise or commit a genocide. It doesn't matter. Because no one can stop you!”
“What a rotten thinking you have! Just because you’re strong, it doesn't mean you can go on killing other human beings. Afterall, you are a human yourself.”
“Hahaha!
It is naive of you to think that I’m just another human being.
I have transcended the only thing that made me a human in the first place — death.
You wouldn’t understand unless you were in my place but a being such as myself doesn’t care about death anymore.
Whether it's others or my own, death holds no meaning to me. The only thing that matters is being alive at this moment.”
Eight smiled and said “And oh what a moment it is to be in the presence of such a strong opponent. Truly exhilarating!”
Savai moved his right hand towards his neck, lifted the silver chain that was wrapped around it and grabbed it.
“Something about that way of talking tells me that you didn’t get to socialize with normal humans in your life.” said Savai as he yanked the chain, breaking it apart.
He poured some aura into it.
In the distance, something moved at high speed.
There was no sound. It wasn’t visible by the naked eye.
“Enough talking, Grandmaster. Let’s start th..”
A quick and loud sound of whistle rang in Eight’s left ear. Something from his left side hit him at high velocity. Before he could fathom what the sound was, his head splattered on the surface while his body stood still. The white surface beside him was now covered in red.
Savai moved his arms back and the chain had disappeared. His hands looked as though they were holding something.
That something’s colour changed from transparent to bluish. It appeared to be a chain that was connected together with joints as big as middle finger in length.
The joints were shaped like hollow diamonds (?) made ice, one forming in a straight line and other connecting in the centers of the first two straight diamonds.
The far end of the chain had hit and annihilated the head of eight.
It regenerated, within a second. The smile was still there.
“That caught me off guard. As expected from the strongest martial artist of this world.
Hahaha! This is going to be fun.
So exciting that I can barely contain myself!”
Eight slowly brought his palms together.
Not this again!
“Clap!”
Savai dashed at full speed. He avoided the hit.
As he ran bluish lines of afterimage started forming all round Eight in a circular shape.
I can feel the difference. I can’t reach the same speed as when I faced the spirit. The blood loss has caused strain on my physical ability.
“Why is running the first thing you do? Can’t you face me like a real man, Grandmaster — the strongest?
Afterall what do you have left to lose?”
“Unlike you, I only have a single life and I intend to keep it that way!” echoed around Eight as Savai kept his pace.
Eight moved his head to left then right. He started moving his body to gauge Savai's position.
His smile widened and he clapped his hands.
Iron hands appeared. Savai changed his movement at the last moment to dodge the attack.
“Oh, I missed!”
“Tck!”
I’m not fast enough to trick his senses.
I don’t have my fire aura anymore so if his attack lands, I won’t be able to avoid damage. I can’t use Absolute Crystal anymore because it consumes too much aura. I need to keep the aura flowing inside my veins long enough to defeat him.
There’s no other choice, I’ll just have to rely on simple aura shield.
Savai kept his pace.
“If you won’t stop avoiding me-”
Eight dashed.
“I’ll just have to come to you!”
Savai looked over his left shoulder and Eight was behind him with a smiling face.
The screeching sound followed as his arm moved through the air to hit Savai.
“Aura Shield!”
A cylindrical shaped barrier made of ice appeared around Savai. The punch hit it. It broke instantly but it gave Savai enough time to dodge and gain a lead while Eight followed after him.
Savai moved his right wrist up and started to rotate it.
The chain appeared, changing its colour from transparent to light blue to dark bluish as rotation got faster.
Both were running at full speed. Savia stopped immediately, Eight ducked down to dodge the chain.
“Clap!!”
Savai jumped and with full power he aimed the chain towards Eight. He ducked and dashed forward. He jumped and Savai saw his fist coming towards him followed by the same sound.
Savai moved his right arm back, a chain extended to the surface and pulled Savai’s body back.
“Clap!”
“Aura Shield!”
The hands hit the ice giving Savai just enough time to dodge. He dashed.
Eight followed behind as soon as his feet touched the surface.
“Come on! Show me something as explosive as your first attack.”
“Clap!”
The hands missed Savai as the blue lines of after images kept moving forward.
Eight stopped.
“If that's all you’re going to do, I have no other choice but to end it right here!”
“Blood Moon - Fairy!”
Extreme pressure of air started to flow from the feet of Eight. The air moved his body upwards. He was levitating in the air. He was high enough in the air to see Savai running on the surface. His hair was flowing upwards, he moved his right arm forward.
“This is my latest move and I have to thank that young man for inspiring me.”
He formed a fist with his right hand. With his thumb latched to the first two fingers, he aimed it towards Savai.
His face turned serious and he slowly uttered, “Kyomu Style: Hands of God -”
He flicked his fingers.
“Iron Blade!”
Savai felt it before knew. Two V-shaped ferocious lines of pure aura as long as 3 feet, sharp as blade, rammed towards him at speed that could not be avoided.
Savai crossed his arms and rotated his entire body to flip sideways through the gap between the blades.
The blades of red aura moved through him and sliced the white surface, leaving behind two straight lines of dent.
“Ah! That was dangerous!”
He’s evolving mid-battle. If things weren’t already hard enough, now this!
Savai ran forward. He threw his arm forward, the chain appeared and headed towards Eight at full speed.
Eight flicked his fingers again.
Two blades of aura appeared in front of Savai, he flipped sideways again, the chain wrapped around his body, lost its speed and dropped to the surface.
Savai rotated his body to the opposite side, unwrapping the chain. With his rotating speed the chain rotated and gained velocity.
“That’s more like it!” yelled Eight.
Savai sped up, the rotating chain reached the spot where Eight was levitating. At full speed it hit his right leg and tore through it and wrapped around his left leg.
Savai yanked the chain with full strength. Eight was pulled from the air, before he could hit the surface, he flicked his fingers that sliced the chain.
He landed, the leg regenerated and he dashed towards Savai at full speed.
“Zero -”
The screeching sound followed as he left behind black lines of aura as afterimage. In a fraction of a second he reached Savai.
“One!”
Eight’s fist moved towards him, Savai instinctively crossed his arms and covered them with layer of ice.
“Bang!!!”
The punch hit at full speed and with full strength. The impact launched Savai backwards in the air, over hundred meters in distance.
My bones are broken. If another lands I won’t survive…
Think..
Think…
Think!!!
Thought Savai, as he was knocked back. Eight followed at full speed again.
“Zero -”
The screeching sound followed.
Think…
Savai was still in the air, Eight was about to reach him at insane speed.
Just in the nick of time, Savai channeled the aura in his right arm, he formed fist and pushed downwards.
It happened in a fraction of a second. His fist touched the surface. Eight, in a straight line, charged straight towards him at full speed. The screeching sound almost reached up to Savai and the right fist of Eight hit his face.
Eight’s arm then dropped to the ground, along with his head, torso and legs that had been decapitated.
In front of Savai appeared two thin slabs of ice shaped like rectangles. Eight’s body had hit the slabs at full speed, which severed his body into parts.
Savai stood firm with left arm bleeding and right injured. His breathing turned heavy.
“No “One” for you!”
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Key Techniques Used
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Savai’s Chain: It is a continuous manifestation of his ice aura that forms like a chain. It is shaped like one diamond (?) joining in a straight line other joining in the centre at the empty space of the first diamond. The chain has the ability to turn flexible and rigid based on the small amount of aura that he injects to it. Certain areas of the chain can be turned sharp or really heavy.
Kyomu Style - Iron Blade: It is the combination of Eight’s Hands of God (Iron hands) and Kori’s Iron Blade (from chapter 18). Instead of giant iron hands that crush the opponent inside, this technique forms V-shaped blades of pure aura that can cut through anything with a direct hit.
Zero to One: Another technique that was used by Kori, which Eight imitated to perfection. With this dash technique, the user can travel from point A to point B at speed that far exceeds the user’s actual speed. More information on this in the upcoming Training Arc.
Slabs of Ice: It is a defensive technique that Savai has used before. Last time he made shields of ice in the air, this time he simply formed them horizontally. More on this in the Training Arc.
