NoveLight ™
1. [Story Mode]
The Yokai Sage Mihura, now reduced to a human form,
stood before the Silent Swordswoman, blade in hand,
and the battered Inmyeon Jiju.
It was the same setup as at the start,
but the circumstances had changed.
The Sage roared in fury:
"Do you even understand what you’ve done?!"
Inmyeon Jiju responded coldly:
"I don’t care to know."
"There’s only one thing I want to see—"
"The look on your face when I take your head."
Her gaze was devoid of sympathy or mercy,
a gaze colder than ice.
The half-yokai refused to let herself get carried away by emotions
until her vengeance was complete,
while the Yokai Sage, enraged at the collapse of his twenty-year plan,
was blinded by his own fury.
Though Inmyeon Jiju was calmer,
even a single misstep could undo twenty years of meticulous preparation.
"Hesitation, when faced with an enemy before you while dreaming of rivaling great yokai, has tied your own noose."
"I acknowledge it. Young half-yokai, your determination… and the fact that I underestimated your human friend."
The air shifted as the Yokai Sage shed his complacency.
Yokai energy and the natural energy he had harnessed for decades
became visibly aflame in pale purple light,
engulfing his entire body.
"First, half-yokai, I’ll crush your reason to fight."
With a surge of overwhelming yokai energy,
he conjured a summoning circle in the air,
from which two massive spider-like humanoid figures emerged.
"M-Mother? Father? No… this can’t be real!"
The half-yokai Inmyeon Jiju froze.
Her long-lost parents had returned after twenty years—
not as they were, but as fully-grown Inmyeon Jiju,
larger and stronger than she could have imagined.
"This forest has outlived its usefulness.
I summoned guardians to protect the northern edge of the forest, and now I’ll reclaim the yokai energy I spent creating the rain."
As the Sage's talisman lit up,
the downpour that had been flooding the Great Forest ceased all at once.
"With the reclaimed energy, I will cast a forbidden seal to amplify my power. Today, only one will leave here alive.
Until the final survivor is determined, no one can escape this barrier.
Fail to resolve this in ten minutes, and all will be sealed within it for eternity.
Even I am not exempt."
By wagering his own life and freedom,
the Yokai Sage invoked an immense forbidden seal.
The more significant the cost, the greater the power returned to him.
Even on a difficulty setting where she hadn’t died once,
the relentless field clears had only made the challenges escalate.
"Mom, Dad, step aside! I’m so close to killing him!"
"Do you think I’ll allow that?
Every time you strike me, your parents will tear off one of their own legs.
Like this!"
"Nooo!"
Rip!
Her parents, now puppets, tore off their own legs and wielded them as weapons.
The shock caused Inmyeon Jiju to lose the will to fight entirely.
The battle shifted from a 2v1 to an overwhelming 3v1.
"Let’s determine the final survivor."
The final phase of the hidden boss raid began.
2. [Player Mode]
The adult Inmyeon Jiju were unlike anything before.
Their unyielding, impenetrable bodies
and massive size made them disasters in their own right.
Now, there were two of them.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Their seven legs struck down like iron pillars,
each blow shaking the ground as they charged.
As soon as one attack ceased,
Bang!
Talismans imbued with ominous yokai energy
rushed toward the Silent Swordswoman.
She narrowly dodged between the towering spiders,
only for the talismans to explode where she’d stood,
melting the ground into a swamp.
"!!"
The final phase had entered a brutal battle of spatial control.
The two half-yokai, with their massive bodies and unyielding legs,
pushed her into corners,
while the Sage’s talismans erased any terrain she could use to maneuver.
If she moved between the half-yokai,
their relentless strikes resumed.
To most, it appeared to be an airtight assault.
But Speedmaster, watching, saw through it.
"Attacks that destroy terrain are more threatening to the half-yokai than the human.
If she can hold out, there’ll be a moment when the half-yokai sink first."
Even an unbreakable assault would eventually end.
That moment would be the Silent Swordswoman’s opportunity—
if she could endure until then.
"But can she last that long?"
The relentless strikes came one after another,
leaving no room for hesitation.
Yet her focus remained unshaken.
Her gaze locked onto the joints of the two half-yokai,
tracking their movements.
"This woman is terrifying.
She’s reading every motion perfectly."
Relying not just on speed but also
reading her opponents’ movements in advance,
she anticipated every attack.
Even when the two half-yokai unleashed a barrage of fourteen legs,
like an intense rhythm game,
she evaded every strike without fail.
Even as the relentless assaults from the two adult Inmyeon Jiju bore down,
the Silent Swordswoman’s concentration never wavered.
Thud— Thud— Thud—
To onlookers, it was a chaotic storm of legs crashing down in rapid succession.
But for the Silent Swordswoman, who had elevated her focus to its peak,
the attacks seemed to slow,
each movement meticulously mapped in her mind.
Her gaze tracked the range of motion for each joint,
calculating their limits and predicting their next strikes.
"Of course. She isn’t just dodging randomly."
In that split second, Speedmaster explained the unseen mastery to his viewers:
the Silent Swordswoman wasn’t merely reacting.
She was memorizing the attack patterns and mapping out three-dimensional escape routes
to thread through the gaps with precision.
Even when an attack closed off all options,
she would counteract the force of a strike with the recoil of her own attack,
using the momentum to shift her trajectory and create new openings.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The attacks grew faster.
To the audience, it was breathtaking to witness the relentless rhythm of her evasive maneuvers.
But to Speedmaster, it was clear:
"This isn’t just dodging. She’s predicting, counteracting, and saving her energy for a decisive strike."
The relentless battle wore on.
The Silent Swordswoman’s endurance,
against the Yokai Sage’s continuous assaults,
against the crushing attacks of the adult Inmyeon Jiju,
was being pushed to its limit.
But finally, the massive forms of the two Inmyeon Jiju faltered.
Their immense weight and size, paired with the swampy terrain,
caused their legs to sink deeper into the liquefied ground.
The two Inmyeon Jiju, their towering forms now immobilized by the terrain,
had become vulnerable.
The opportunity for a counterattack had finally arrived.
"There’s no time to delay."
The Silent Swordswoman took a decisive step forward.
She launched herself into the air,
using one of the sinking Inmyeon Jiju as a springboard.
Boom!
With the explosive acceleration of her Cheonghae Breathing Technique,
her body seemed to blur into motion.
Her blade, imbued with the full force of her inner energy,
aimed directly for the Yokai Sage.
But just before the strike could land,
one of the Inmyeon Jiju, under the Sage’s control,
intercepted her mid-air.
The Silent Swordswoman crashed to the ground.
Her momentum, halted by the unexpected defense,
sent her sprawling into the swampy terrain.
The Yokai Sage's laughter boomed across the battlefield:
"Did you think I wouldn’t anticipate that?!"
Despite her flawless execution,
the Sage had used the immobilized Inmyeon Jiju as shields,
forcing her back to square one.
"No…!"
Even the audience was stunned.
It seemed as though the battle had turned irreversibly against her.
But amidst the despair, Speedmaster’s voice cut through:
"It’s not over yet. Remember, her ally isn’t out of the fight."
The younger Inmyeon Jiju, who had been sidelined by the emotional shock of seeing her parents,
finally broke free from her paralysis.
Her voice trembled but carried resolve:
"My parents… they’re already gone. Just puppets controlled by the Sage."
The Yokai Sage sneered:
"Foolish child. Must I make you experience your parents’ deaths firsthand for you to understand?!"
But the younger Inmyeon Jiju’s response was unwavering:
"If you were going to say that, you shouldn’t have turned them into this in the first place."
With newfound determination,
she charged forward, using her parents’ immobilized forms as stepping stones,
her movements calculated and precise.
"Use me as your foothold!"
The Silent Swordswoman met her gaze.
It was a plea for vengeance.
The Silent Swordswoman leapt once more,
this time launching herself off the younger Inmyeon Jiju’s back.
With her newfound momentum,
she soared directly toward the Yokai Sage.
But the Sage refused to back down.
He spread hundreds of talismans in a massive burst of purple light,
unleashing his ultimate attack.
"Your death is certain!"
The Silent Swordswoman’s blade raced forward,
but just before she could be struck by the Sage’s energy,
the older Inmyeon Jiju, breaking free from his control in their final moments of clarity,
released powerful silk threads.
The threads twisted the Sage’s arm at an impossible angle,
forcing his ultimate attack to miss its mark.
The Silent Swordswoman seized the opening.
Her blade pierced through the Sage’s chest,
its devastating energy ripping through his body with overwhelming force.
Boom!
The Sage staggered. His body, torn apart, began to collapse.
"This cannot be… I, who sought to rival the great yokai… defeated by mere humans and a half-yokai family…?"
The Silent Swordswoman’s final slash severed his head.
The Yokai Sage Mihura’s lifeless body sank into the swamp,
marking the end of the hidden boss raid in the Melting Great Forest.
Tftc