Extraction

A sword? A broken blade with only the tip remaining? Pierced into the girl's chest? Was that the "cause" that could end the battle with her?

Looking at the scene, many thoughts rushed into Miketsu's mind. Clearly, that strange broken blade was the source of the girl's sinister power. She seemed to have become hostile and delirious under its influence. In other words, if she found a way to destroy the blade, could she restore the girl's sanity? Was this the "cause" to stop the battle indicated by her causality vision?

As the hole in her chest fully healed, the girl's expression tightened, and flames erupted from her body again. Tsuruha and Makoto, who were suppressing her, quickly released their jaws and claws, pulling back before being burned. Then, wreathed in flames, the girl charged at Miketsu once more, engaging in close combat.

Facing the girl's relentless attacks, Miketsu had no choice but to respond. Although she could easily gain the upper hand and suppress the girl with support from Makoto and Tsuruha, she couldn't completely incapacitate her. They were stuck in a stalemate, endlessly consuming energy without a decisive advantage.

This couldn't continue; she had to find a way! Miketsu continued to ponder how to deal with the girl. According to the feedback from causality vision, the key to stopping her was the broken blade inside her chest. If she could destroy it, the girl should regain her senses.

But the problem was that the broken blade remained intact even after a direct hit from the Golden Light Spell. How could she destroy it? The Golden Light Spell was one of her strongest techniques. If even it couldn't break the blade, what else could she do?

Perhaps... the Golden Light Spell is spiritual power. If spiritual power is ineffective, she could try demonic power.

Acting on the thought, Miketsu seized an opportunity created by Makoto and Tsuruha. She swung her demonic blade, releasing a Wind Scar. The wild blade of demonic energy sliced off the girl's arm and a large portion of her chest, exposing the broken blade inside, but it didn't damage it at all. The intact blade was immediately enveloped by the girl's rapidly regenerating body. Seeing this, Miketsu's heart sank. Was demonic power useless too? Or was her output simply insufficient to destroy it?

Amidst her confusion, Miketsu engaged the girl again. After fighting for so long, the opponent's strength and power remained as steady as ever; instead of being exhausted, she seemed even more vigorous. In this endless entanglement, Miketsu continued to think.

Demonic power didn't work, and spiritual power didn't work... The only option left was to find a way to tear the broken blade directly from her body. Although risky, it was the only reliable plan at the moment.

"Tsuruha, Makoto, suppress her from a distance."

Following Miketsu's order, Tsuruha spat a burst of foxfire at the girl. While the flames couldn't burn her, they temporarily obscured her vision. Taking this chance, Makoto flapped her wings, and the shimmering Golden Feathers shot out, accurately pinning the girl's limbs and shoulders. The girl was forced back and pinned against a massive rock. She emitted intense flames, trying to incinerate the Golden Feathers holding her, but she couldn't ignite them.

Itsumaden's Golden Feathers could become exceptionally sturdy when infused with demonic power, allowing them to be used as weapons that could be retrieved.

Seeing the girl trapped, Miketsu prepared to strike. She sheathed her demonic blade to one side and silently chanted an incantation, a faint crimson aura rising from her body.

Miketsu was chanting, but this time the incantation was different from before. It contained a large amount of unintelligible phonetics. It was Sanskrit—Sanskrit that Miketsu had forcibly memorized the pronunciation of. She didn't know the meaning of these words, but she knew this was a Deity-Summoning ritual for her syncretic counterpart, Dakini-ten! As a guardian deity, Dakini-ten had a specific Deity-Summoning Spell!

"Yaksha Strength..."

The crimson aura seeped into Miketsu's body, and she instantly felt a surge of immense power flowing through her muscles. This was a new Deity-Summoning Spell Miketsu could use, derived from the Yaksha Strength blessing of the ghost-god Dakini-ten!

Qin Xin transformed into a fox mask, and Miketsu was instantly enveloped in a blue cloak of demonic energy. She rushed at the girl, who was currently pulling out the Golden Feathers, with incredible speed. She curved her hand into a claw and thrust it directly into the girl's chest.

The demonic energy cloak repelled the flames on the girl's body. Under the immense Yaksha Strength, Miketsu's hand shattered the girl's sternum, pierced through her chest, and accurately grabbed the hidden broken blade, pulling it out with a violent yank.

In this process, Miketsu touched the broken blade directly, coming into close contact with its sinister power for the first time.

"Th-this is..."

A strong sense of nausea and repulsion rose in Miketsu's heart. She quickly threw the broken blade aside. The blade, covered in flesh and blood, landed on the grass.

On the other side, the girl, with the blade removed, suddenly stopped struggling. The fire on her body gradually died out. Her vacant eyes slowly closed, and she collapsed.

Miketsu was startled by the sight. She carefully checked the girl and breathed a sigh of relief when she found she was still breathing. She had almost thought the broken blade was the source of the girl's immortality and that losing it would mean her death.

Fortunately, that wasn't the case. The girl seemed to have just fainted temporarily, and her immortality was still continuously healing her.

After confirming the girl was safe, Miketsu turned her gaze to the broken blade she had just discarded. To her surprise, the broken blade had suddenly turned into a fragment of white bone from an unknown part of a body. This small piece of bone was rapidly weathering into sand and dissipating into the air now that it was separated from flesh.

Watching the dissipating blade, Miketsu remained silent for a long time. The moment she touched the blade, she finally understood why her spiritual and demonic powers couldn't destroy it.

During that brief contact, Miketsu discovered that the fundamental nature of the sinister power within the blade was something she was actually very familiar with. It was actually divine power...

Such a fallen and sinister power, identical in nature to the blood sacrifice power of the leopard cat yokai, was actually divine power—the same power she possessed but had been unable to use until now.

At this moment, Miketsu understood something. Perhaps divine power manifested in completely different ways depending on the deity who possessed it... Perhaps not all gods were like her, and not all divine power was the same as hers.

Unlike the Inari divine power, which was full of life, noble, and pure, the divine power in that broken blade was dark, fallen, and filthy...

What kind of god would possess such divine power?

While thinking, Miketsu looked at the unconscious girl beside her. This question would likely have to be answered by her.