In the sky, Kaen, who had transformed into a giant leopard cat, and the pitch-black fox demon alternately attacked the barrier on the ground. Violent explosions erupted from the barrier one after another, creating countless cracks, like a giant battering ram repeatedly striking a crumbling city gate.
"Lord Seimei... I can't hold on much longer!" At this moment, Donan was sweating profusely, maintaining the barrier, clearly struggling.
"We're together..."
Seimei, still recovering from his injuries, quickly poured his dwindling spiritual power into the barrier to relieve Donan's pressure. For a moment, many of the cracks on the barrier were repaired.
Seeing that the barrier below was holding out for a long time, the pitch-black fox demon stopped releasing demonic flame Bullets. After a pause, he soared higher into the sky, and then his mouth began to gather high-temperature flames. His originally pitch-black fur, at this moment, largely reverted to its original white.
The flames in the fox demon's mouth grew fiercer and fiercer, yet strangely, what emanated from them was not solely demonic power.
As if sensing something, Tsuruha, standing by the shore, suddenly looked up at the sky. She saw the pitch-black fox demon in the sky, brewing a powerful strike.
"No, it can't be... that's actually..."
Amidst Tsuruha's astonishment, the pitch-black fox demon finished gathering its power, and then towering flames surged from its mouth, pouring down towards the ground below.
"Heavenly Fox Calamity Fire!!"
The powerful flames transformed into a thick pillar of fire, completely engulfing the entire barrier below. This was not all; after hitting the barrier, this powerful inferno immediately spread rapidly along the ground, affecting the surrounding area completely.
Thanks to the immense power of the flame's source, the rolling flames quickly spread, turning almost half of the Lake Island into an inferno within a few seconds, and this range continued to expand. Any trees or animals caught by the flames were doomed.
The dazzling fire filled the entire barrier, and the intense flames continuously scorched the barrier, causing cracking sounds. Countless cracks once again split open.
Seimei and Donan's expressions instantly turned extremely grim.
"I'll help too!" dojo, seeing this, also quickly joined the effort to maintain the barrier, but it only slightly slowed the rate of the barrier's collapse.
"Ha! You're quite something, fellow! In that case, I'll add my strength too!" Watching the pitch-black fox demon continuously incinerate the barrier and the earth, Kaen also spewed his demonic flames, merging them with the Heavenly Fox Calamity Fire. The already fierce blaze suddenly intensified, and the spreading flames dramatically increased in range, engulfing the entire Lake Island. Now, apart from the towering rocky mountain, all other parts of the Lake Island had turned into a sea of fire.
Under the intense flames, Seimei's barrier groaned violently, and the surrounding temperature sharply rose. The cracks on the barrier grew more numerous and larger, as if it could shatter at any moment.
"I... I can't hold on much longer..."
"Take my spiritual power too!" Seeing the situation, Yura quickly tapped her hand several times, opening her spiritual power channels. Seimei, seeing this, made a gesture with his finger, and Yura's spiritual power was channeled into the barrier. Instantly, Yura felt her spiritual power rapidly draining away; the barrier was like a bottomless pit, frantically extracting her spiritual power.
"This... this won't last long at all!"
Even with Yura's help, the barrier's collapse speed didn't slow much. Watching the barrier gradually crumble, Toga, who couldn't help at all, could only fret anxiously.
Now, as soon as the barrier shattered, everyone would be engulfed by the flames. Although theoretically they could escape deeper into the cave, someone would have to maintain the barrier to buy time for others to escape. Moreover, even if they chose to flee, the nature of the flames would surely penetrate deep into the cave, and their escape speed would likely not keep up with the flames' penetration speed.
Just as Toga was considering with a difficult expression whether he should reveal his true form to block the cave entrance and give others a chance to escape, a hand patted his shoulder from behind.
"Your trouble seems quite significant..."
Hearing the familiar voice, Toga sharply turned around, and what he saw was the figure of the yokai Owl, cloaked in black robes. At this moment, a fox mask had appeared on his face.
"This is yours."
Before Toga could react, Owl, from beneath his black robes, produced a tachi already fitted with a hilt and tsuba, sheathed, and handed it to him.
"This is..." Toga took the tachi. The moment his hand gripped the hilt, he trembled, and the sword in his hand seemed to resonate with him, emitting a faint vibration.
"We can talk later. For now, let's solve the current problem." Miketsu said, drawing another tachi from the sheath at her waist. Its hilt and tsuba were also fitted, and the tsuba's handguard was engraved with the markings of wolves, birds, and rice ears.
The blade in Miketsu's hand hummed, and the wolf-dog emblem on the tsuba emitted a brilliant light. The entire blade rapidly transformed into a massive greatsword in a flash of light. The greatsword had a golden handguard, with golden patterns extending onto the blade.
"Come, Toga, that is your fang. You should know how to wield it."
Hearing Miketsu's words, Toga smiled slightly, then drew his own blade. In a flash of light, another greatsword appeared in Toga's hand. Compared to the one in Miketsu's hand, the handguard of the one in his hand was a mass of soft white fur, just like his own.
"To have the first battle with this sword alongside you, I am truly honored..."
Miketsu looked at the crumbling barrier and the raging inferno outside it. The giant blade in her hand immediately transformed. In an instant, the iron blade changed into a blade of ice crystals, emitting a chilling aura and shimmering with a faint blue light. Miketsu raised it high.
"Step back... Onmyoji..."
Finally, Seimei's barrier could no longer withstand the combined assault of the pitch-black fox demon and Kaen. It shattered like glass. At the same time, Miketsu swung her sword down.
"Cold Ice Break!"
Miketsu's immense divine power surged frantically into the greatsword in her hand. The ice crystal demonic blade transformed the divine power into demonic power, releasing it in the form of an ice and snow storm. Fierce, freezing winds and ice and snow burst forth from the blade, rushing towards the surging flames that had breached the barrier.
The cold winds and ice and snow collided with the raging inferno. Steaming currents spread in all directions. Seimei, Yura, Donan, and Dojo quickly retreated to avoid being scalded by the high-temperature steam.
The standoff between the cold and hot currents lasted only an instant. Then, the ice storm slowly suppressed the flames, gradually pushing the entangled battle line backward, and the temperature in the cave plummeted.
This was the Blade of Ice, the power the blade itself had absorbed from Torin after Miketsu used the Demonic Blade to slay him. This miraculous weapon, in its demonic blade state, could absorb the power of slain demons for its own use, continuously strengthening itself!
Of course, the Blade of Ice merely provided Miketsu with a means of attack. The fundamental reason Miketsu could suppress the pitch-black fox demon and Kaen was her vast divine power.
The conversion between divine power, spiritual power, and demonic power was not one-to-one; it was fifty to one hundred or even more. Miketsu had deeply experienced this when using the Golden Light Spell. She only needed to provide a little divine power to gain countless times the spiritual and demonic power, which, to outsiders, appeared as if she herself possessed incredibly powerful spiritual or demonic power.
"No, it can't be! This level of demonic energy..." Yura said blankly, feeling the increasingly cold temperature around her and looking at Miketsu, who was emitting demonic power as profound and vast as an endless ocean. This level of demonic energy release was even beyond what she had seen from the Demon-Faced Centipede.
Compared to Yura's reaction, Seimei appeared much calmer on the surface. Although Dojo had long since hidden behind her brother, trembling, Seimei's expression remained undisturbed. However, even so, his heart was still churning with various doubts. He wondered about the origin of this yokai before him; he had only felt this kind of abyssal demonic energy from one type of existence.
"A Great Yokai... is that it?"
Compared to the two Onmyoji, Toga was much more boisterous at this moment. Seeing Miketsu gradually push back the flames, he laughed and said,
"Hahahaha!! What astonishing demonic energy! I never thought your strength could reach such a level. Then, I must not fall behind..."
Toga said, raising the greatsword in his hand, then injected his demonic energy into it. Intense demonic energy burst forth from the blade.
Toga swung his sword down towards the direction from which the flames were attacking outside the cave, and a tornado of demonic energy erupted from Toga's Demonic Blade.
"Explosive Current Wave!"
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