The purifying silver light of the Sword of Extermination tore through the air, plunging towards the woman's chest with the absolute will to destroy all evil. At the critical moment, the woman's chaotic gray eyes flashed sharply, and her figure strangely blurred and teleported again, narrowly avoiding the fatal thrust, reappearing on a relatively flat, giant broken pillar in the ruins below.
However, Mahoraga's sword seemed to have already predicted the landing point of her teleportation.
Almost the moment her figure solidified, the heavy Sword of Extermination was already upon her, shifting from a thrust to a slash, swung with a dull roar like tearing air! Before the sword even arrived, the silver-white positive cursed energy, purifying evil spirits, made the "deathly stillness" aura around her seem like ice and snow meeting the sun, emitting a dissolving hiss.
The woman gritted her teeth. The death blade in her hand, filled with gray light, met the attack head-on instead of retreating. Her body twisted sharply, sliding past the swinging sword with a millimeter to spare, and her gray blade, like a venomous snake striking, aimed directly at Mahoraga's eyeless head where it seemed to connect to its neck!
This move was fast and ruthless, fully exploiting Mahoraga's large size and possible slight turning lag, showcasing her millennia-accumulated combat instincts.
Clang—!
Another piercing metal clang! Mahoraga's left hand had been raised at some point, and the dark gold bone armor on its forearm precisely blocked the gray blade. However, the "deathly stillness" contained in the woman's strike was extremely destructive, leaving a faint, ashen trace on the bone armor, which seemed to be rusted by time.
The two combatants crashed from the sky into the ruins on the ground, engaging in a chaotic melee.
The woman's movements were treacherous—sometimes teleporting like a ghost and thrusting from unbelievable angles; sometimes releasing the "deathly stillness" force, forming a gray energy field that stagnated life force and eroded cursed energy, hindering Mahoraga's movements.
Her swordsmanship was even more refined, blending the cunning of some ancient sword style with the ruthlessness of a cursed spirit's instincts. Every strike went straight for the kill, carrying the desperate artistic conception that everything must end.
But the more they fought, the more horrified the woman became.
This shikigami named "Mahoraga" possessed physical skills far beyond her understanding of "shikigami" or "creations"—ancient yet sharp tactics.
In the first dozen exchanges, thanks to the strangeness of her teleportation and the corrosive properties of the "deathly stillness," she still held a slight advantage. She had managed to slash Mahoraga's torso a few times, leaving shallow ashen marks. Mahoraga's movements, though powerful and heavy, seemed a bit "clumsy," always a step slower than her, as if it were... observing and measuring.
But soon, things began to change.
The massive Dharma wheel behind Mahoraga, which had been slowly rotating at a constant speed, began to have runes and patterns flow like a waterfall. And its fighting style started to evolve at a visible rate.
Mahoraga's swordplay was no longer broad and sweeping, but became extremely delicate and subtle. Its blade tip would meet the nodes where the gray blade's power flowed, using a clever destructive force to invisibly dissolve the woman's continuous attacks. In this swordsmanship, there was a faint shadow of the woman's own knife skills, but it was more efficient and deadly.
When the woman tried to create distance and blur slightly with the "deathly stillness" force field, the Dharma wheel behind Mahoraga accelerated slightly, and the silver-white positive cursed energy halo around it also adjusted its oscillation frequency, creating a strange resonance that repelled and neutralized most of the eroding gray aura! Although some penetration still occurred, the effect was significantly reduced.
From evenly matched...
No, the woman was horrified to find the scales were tipping towards Mahoraga!
Mahoraga's learning and adaptation speed was terrifyingly fast. It was like a sponge with infinite capacity, a frighteningly complex combat machine constantly "reading" her combat data—her teleportation patterns, her power habits, her knife preferences, even the different ways she used the "deathly stillness" force—all were quickly analyzed, deconstructed, and then optimal countermeasures found.
Fifty exchanges later, the woman had lost her slight advantage and was in a situation where she was defending more and attacking less. Mahoraga's offense was like a tide, wave after wave, and the Sword of Extermination sealed off most of her escape routes.
Every time the heavy sword struck, her hands went numb, and the "deathly stillness" luster on her gray blade gradually dimmed under the continuous flow of positive cursed energy. Even more terrifyingly, more and more variations appeared in Mahoraga's movements, clearly born from her own, yet more perfected and threatening!
Bang!
The woman was shaken back by a powerful collision, crushing a charred stone slab beneath her feet. She gasped sharply, and for the first time, a clear sense of fear and disbelief appeared in her chaotic gray eyes. What kind of monster is this?! A shikigami? It's simply a battle god capable of evolution!
At that moment, a calm, indifferent voice came from a few meters above her head.
Genji had descended at some point, hovering over the battlefield, his indigo hunting robes spotless, the wings behind him slightly folded. He looked down at the fierce close-quarters combat below, his deep indigo eyes emotionless, like watching an experiment with a predetermined outcome. He spoke slowly, his voice not loud, but clearly overriding the noise of clashing blades, reaching the woman's ears, as if explaining to an invisible audience:
"Mahoraga's 'adaptation' ability is well-known throughout the world."
He paused, as if feeling the need for some "science popularization."
"But most people, including many top sorcerers, still have a superficial understanding of it," Genji spoke in a calm, decisive tone, like a professor in a classroom. "They think 'adaptation' is rigid—a specific attack corresponds to a specific crack. When fire comes, adapt to fire; when lightning comes, adapt to lightning. It's like opening a key one by one."
He shook his head slightly, his gaze falling on the constantly revolving Dharma wheel behind Mahoraga.
"Wrong."
"The essence of Mahoraga's 'adaptation' is a supercomputer, based on immense cursed energy and numerical information beyond human comprehension," Genji said slowly, each word like a heavy hammer striking the woman's heart. "It's not just 'memorizing' a certain attack and then 'generating' antibodies. It understands—understands the composition of the cursed energy contained in that attack, the nature of the power, the principle of its operation, and even... the rules behind it."
"The so-called adaptation process is essentially a process of its calculation."
"The Dharma wheel turns, performing unimaginably grand calculations. It determines attack patterns, analyzes weaknesses, simulates next moves, and optimizes response strategies in real-time. This calculation speed far surpasses any known biological brain or artificial computer."
Genji's gaze fell on the woman's increasingly pale face, and he continued in a blunt, but chilling tone:
"The results of the calculations form the optimal 'response algorithm,' which is stored in Mahoraga's 'memory'—you can think of it as the 'basic rules' or 'combat instincts' of its existence. The next time it encounters an attack with the same 'characteristics' or 'rules,' even if the manifestations are different, it can instantly call up the corresponding 'algorithm' to respond, and the efficiency is greatly increased."
"And this brings another characteristic," Genji raised his voice slightly, with a hint of almost ruthless pride befitting a creator. "Mahoraga's algorithm results have a high degree of 'universality' and 'transferability.'"
"Simply put, this is 'cross-adaptation' and even 'coverage adaptation'."
"Your technique, your swordsmanship, your teleportation—this is not the first time these have appeared in this world. If Mahoraga has encountered them before, there will always be similar solutions stored within its body."
"Faced with Mahoraga's 'calculation' and 'adaptation,' you are just another... 'dataset' to be analyzed, learned from, and completely controlled."
"And now, it's almost done."
As if confirming his words, the situation in the battle below suddenly changed!
The Dharma wheel behind Mahoraga suddenly increased its rotation speed by a notch, emitting a low, rapid hum!
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