Phoenix Wings Soaring

Facing the Moon Feather Princess descending from the heavens, carrying a shockwave of boundless energy, Mokou followed Suwako's guidance and resolutely flew straight toward the incoming threat. Amidst the world ravaged by frigid winds, a streak of fire rapidly ascended. At this moment, Mokou decisively used the ability she had long considered a taboo.

"Vermilion Bird Seal... Rise!!"

Her hands formed a seal, and the crimson bird mark on her forehead lit up. Mokou attempted to summon the spiritual power from the Vermilion Bird Array of the Four Symbols, but she failed. Her heart tightened.

"Damn... I'm too far from Heian-kyo..."

After being pursued by the Moon Feather Princess's canopy all the way from Hokkaido, Mokou had already crossed the North Sea of Japan and reached the territory of East Siberia. This location was far from the Japanese archipelago and Heian-kyo, where the Four Symbols Array was established. It was beyond the limit of the array's response range, rendering it ineffective.

As a grand array that relied on ley lines, the Four Symbols Array had a distance limit. This distance was not small—with Heian-kyo as the center, it covered roughly the entire Japanese archipelago. Hokkaido was just about the limit. This was the primary reason Miketsu had originally placed Mokou and Kaguya in Hokkaido rather than Antarctica; she needed Mokou to be able to use the Vermilion Bird Seal to exert her maximum combat power.

However, things had deviated from Miketsu and Eirin's expectations. Mokou and the others were now facing an enemy whose strength far exceeded their predictions. This forced Suwako to shift their position to delay being discovered by the Moon Feather Princess, which in turn caused Mokou to be unable to activate the Vermilion Bird Array.

"Ah, the distance is too great... the ley lines won't respond?" Looking up at the sky, Suwako immediately realized the problem Mokou was facing. Miketsu had already briefed her on the Four Symbols Array, so she understood Mokou's current predicament.

"Whew... I guess there's no other way. Even if it benefits that snake, this is the only option... I'll give you a hand, Immortal!"

As she spoke, Suwako gripped the divine stone in her hands tightly. Concentrating her mind, she slammed it violently into the ground, then mobilized the ancient god power within her.

Suddenly, Suwako's pupils radiated a strange light. In her eyes, the earth became transparent. Beneath the surface, the surging rivers of energy—the ley lines—became clearly visible. These rivers intertwined and branched out, spanning the entire globe to form a dense, spherical network.

This entire network was now reflected in Suwako's eyes.

"It's been a long time... but now is not the time for nostalgia..." she murmured, looking toward the southeast. Her eyes immediately locked onto a ley line surging abnormally in the distance. Suwako knew that was the one corresponding to the Vermilion Bird Array.

Reaching out, Suwako made a grasping motion in the air. It was as if she had seized that ley line in her hand; the compressed energy surged even more wildly.

"Come here!!"

With a shout, Suwako pulled with all her might. The ley line was forcibly yanked from its original position. In an instant, the entire Vermilion Bird Array ley line was dragged from beneath Heian-kyo to the site in East Siberia.

As an ancient god who once ruled the earth, Suwako possessed the divine power to manipulate ley lines at will.

Suddenly, from the frozen tundra covered in ice and snow, a massive stream of crimson energy shot into the sky. It enveloped the flying Mokou, pouring vast amounts of spiritual power into her body.

"What... this is..." Feeling the crimson spiritual power wrapping around her, Mokou was momentarily stunned. She didn't understand how the Vermilion Bird Array could respond from so far away. However, her shock lasted less than half a second. Adopting a 'whatever, as long as it's here' attitude, she vigorously absorbed the spiritual power rushing toward her.

A faint phoenix cry echoed through the heavens and earth. A dazzling burst of fire erupted from Mokou's body. In an instant, she transformed into a giant firebird burning with raging flames. The firebird spread its flaming wings, spanning dozens of meters, and trailed long tail feathers as it charged straight toward the sky.

Seeing this, Suwako's gaze flickered. She scanned the surroundings and then made another grasping motion with both hands, seizing two more nearby ley lines and dragging them over.

"You can have these too!"

Suwako forcibly knotted the two newly captured ley lines with the Vermilion Bird ley line connected to Mokou. Under the might of the ancient god of the earth, the energy from these two East Siberian ley lines was forcibly injected into the Vermilion Bird ley line and then funneled into Mokou in the sky. In an instant, vast areas of forest in the distance withered away.

With the spiritual power of two additional ley lines forcibly injected, the firebird in the sky suddenly ballooned in size. Its wingspan instantly approached three hundred meters. At this moment, Mokou possessed power that far surpassed that of an ordinary Divine General.

Under such colossal energy, Mokou's physical body had long since been incinerated. She was now using her spirit to barely maintain the firebird form constructed of massive energy. This state could not last long; her highly unstable burning body would soon collapse and turn into a super bomb.

And that was exactly Suwako's goal. She intended to turn Mokou into the ultimate bomb to deal with the Moon Feather Princess!

As the merging of the ley lines finished, several cracks appeared on the divine stone in front of Suwako. She then collapsed weakly onto the ground. Watching the streak of fire disappear into the clouds above, she spoke weakly.

"Go, Immortal... Like this, you should be able to kill that thing... at least once..."

The fire phoenix let out a long cry. The giant flaming phoenix broke through the thick cloud layer, leaving the blizzard below and reaching the stratosphere. Then, she continued her ascent until she saw the Moon Feather Princess directly above her, trailing silver light as she plummeted from beyond the heavens.

"Phoenix Wings Soaring!!"

Silver light and raging flames collided in the upper stratosphere. In the next moment, unparalleled energy exploded at the peak of the firmament. Violent energy raged chaotically, the powerful shockwave dispersing the heavy snow clouds. The dazzling firelight illuminated the false night sky of the Siberian wilderness.

This explosion of energy even temporarily shattered a portion of the False Canopy, making it clearly visible even from outer space.

"Is it... over there?"

Floating in orbit, Miketsu saw the scene below. She gripped her Demonic Fang Blade and dove down.