The Seven-Colored Bombardment

After Minamoto no Yorimasa hurriedly left the small building, the men in black continued their mission. Together, they descended through a secret passage into a spacious underground chamber. Within the subterranean space supported by wooden beams and stone pillars, several cold, drifting blue ghost fires hovered in mid-air, illuminating the surrounding darkness.

Inside the chamber, over a dozen square wooden boxes were arranged neatly on a long table against the wall. An infant lay inside each box, fast asleep within swaddling clothes covered in talismans. On the opposite wall of the chamber was a pitch-black tunnel leading to an unknown destination, blocked by a wooden lattice gate.

"Move the Chigo infants quickly! Transfer them out!" the man who appeared to be the leader barked after scanning the room. His subordinates immediately complied, stepping forward to close the ventilated lids of the wooden boxes and preparing to lift them.

At that moment, a copper bell hanging in a corner of the chamber began to ring violently. It was followed by a series of vibrations and heavy thuds from above, accompanied by a continuous roar of chaotic noise.

"The base is under attack! Half of you stay here to continue the transfer. The rest, follow me up to provide support!"

Startled by the situation, the leader shouted his orders. He immediately split the group, leaving some to handle the transfer of the female infants while he led the majority back up the secret passage. He knew the surface base was lightly manned; if it were breached too quickly, there would be no time left to move the children. Someone had to buy them enough time.

After the leader and the majority of the guards departed, the remaining men scrambled to carry the wooden boxes containing the infants. Among these men, one noticed the significant decrease in their numbers. He pulled a sake flask from his robes, and as he watched his "comrades" busily working, the skin around his eyes suddenly sprouted thick fur.

This surprise attack against the black-clad guards was coming from more than one direction. Tonight, they would find no escape.

...

Within the valley, inside the Minamoto secret base, various yokai leaped down from the top of the cliffs, landing on the small buildings and erupting into a fierce conflict with the guards stationed there.

While Miketsu engaged Minamoto no Mitsunaka, her yokai forces had begun their own operation. They had bypassed the pre-established warning barriers and gathered at the summit of the valley. Once they confirmed that Mitsunaka had been lured away, the crowd of yokai leaped from the heights, launching a raid on the secret base of the shadow guards.

Because they were attacked suddenly while their numbers were thin and their leaders absent, the guards remaining on the surface suffered heavy losses in the first moments. They were on the verge of a total collapse; had their underground comrades not reinforced them in the nick of time, the battle would have ended almost instantly.

The shadow guards were a secret unit used by the Minamoto Clan for covert operations that could not see the light of day. Its members possessed significant skill in Onmyojutsu. For these Minamoto casters, if they weren't crushed in the initial wave of a surprise attack, things would become troublesome once they summoned all their Shikigami and activated their magical arrays.

Due to a scarcity of flying yokai to serve as transport, the number of yokai accompanying Miketsu was small. Most were agile types suited for hit-and-run strikes; the heavy-hitting yokai suited for prolonged siege warfare were not among them. Consequently, after the initial wave of the surprise attack ended, their momentum began to wane.

Although the men in black had suffered heavy losses initially, they managed to rally with reinforcements. Once they had fully summoned their Shikigami and established their formations, the situation turned into a stalemate. The shadow guards and their Shikigami clashed with Miketsu’s yokai within the base. The battle became a contest of endurance; if it continued this way, even if the yokai won, they would suffer significant casualties.

"Retreat! Fall back outside the base!"

Makoto ripped through the chest of a man in black with her sharp claws. Scanning the battlefield, she shouted the order. Her voice was sharp and piercing, like a bird's cry, quickly spreading across the entire battlefield. The yokai, long accustomed to Makoto's commands, broke off from combat and retreated rapidly. Yamausagi timely used her abilities to assist in her comrades' withdrawal. To stay light and fast, she hadn't even brought Mountain Frog this time; instead, she released her power while riding atop a yokai bird, occasionally using her folding fan to swat guards off their flying Shikigami.

"Hura hura! Everyone, let's go!"

Miketsu had only brought agile, high-speed yokai this time, and under Yamausagi's acceleration, they became even faster. They successfully disengaged from a battle that threatened to turn into a costly war of attrition, retreating swiftly into the deep forest. When the Shadow Guard leaders prepared to pursue, their head officer immediately stopped them.

"Do not pursue! Obey Lord Mitsunaka's orders—protecting the safe evacuation of the Chigo infants is the priority. Do not fall for another distraction play!"

The leader of the guards shouted at his men, reining them back into the base. They established a solid defensive posture, prepared at any moment for another yokai strike.

Every man and Shikigami stood as firm as a mountain within the base.

After all the yokai had withdrawn, Makoto flapped her wings and landed on a tree branch. She pulled a tiny paper crane from her robes and whispered to it.

"Message received from Tamamura's side. It is confirmed that the targets are all in a secret room deep underground; they will not be easily harmed. We have fully withdrawn from the battlefield, and the enemy is holding their defensive line. Now... you may attack as you wish."

High in the sky, far from the battlefield, a girl in black with bare feet floated slowly with her eyes closed. When the paper crane in her ear emitted a sound, she slowly opened her eyes.

"Understood..."

As the girl spoke softly, several cracked and fragmented masks emerged around her. These masks floated in the air, all facing the same direction, shimmering with a seven-colored brilliance.

A massive, terrifying demonic energy erupted from Menreiki. The seven-colored light on the masks became blindingly bright. This horrifying volume of demonic energy surpassed any of the yokai that had participated in the raid, directly approaching the level of Owl himself. The guards in the base could not help but turn their gaze toward the source. In the far reaches of their vision, a seven-colored star hung high in the sky.

"Be destroyed..."

With a whisper, Seven-colored demonic flame Bullets surged from the seven masks around Menreiki, flying at high speed toward the base below. When the leader of the guards saw the massive shells of demonic power hurtling toward them, he shouted in desperation.

"Run!"

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

After accelerating to their maximum velocity in the air, Menreiki's Seven-colored demonic flame Bullets slammed into the Shadow Guard's position one after another. The entire base was struck by consecutive blasts, and a massive amount of demonic power erupted. In a flash of blinding light, the base and everything within it were swallowed whole.