Beneath the blood moon and within the pitch-black canopy, the struggle between Miketsu and Moon Feather Princess continued. Their massive forms clashed at close range upon the white crystalline earth, sending clouds of crystalline mist scattering in every direction.
Although Moon Feather Princess was using the vast majority of her strength to maintain the canopy and prevent interference from the various Chief Gods, she still held the upper hand. Due to her innate suppression of Modern Gods and her massive, immortal body, Miketsu—who was unable to project her divine power and felt a constant, mounting discomfort—found herself struggling to withstand the onslaught.
"Cold Ice Break!" Miketsu swung her demonic blade, whipping up a storm of freezing demonic energy that instantly froze Moon Feather Princess. However, the thick ice only caused the princess to falter for a split second before she shattered it with sheer brute force. Unharmed, Moon Feather Princess lunged, a massive claw swiping at Miketsu from point-blank range.
Miketsu narrowly dodged the giant claw and retaliated with a blade strike. This time, however, Moon Feather Princess caught the blade directly in her claws. While pinning Miketsu in place, her other claw began to radiate a piercing silver light.
Alarmed, Miketsu used a burst of strength to sever the claw gripping her blade and retreated. Despite her quick reaction, the silver light grazed her leg. The Chang'e Power contained within the light began to corrode her divine body. With the effectiveness of her causality vision severely diminished, Miketsu's close-combat capabilities were significantly compromised.
With her leg wounded, Miketsu's divine protection—the Vajra Body—failed to defend against such an attack. The wound worsened rapidly due to the corrosion, causing her mobility to plummet. Meanwhile, Moon Feather Princess’s severed claw had already regenerated, and she began gathering silver light once more to fire at Miketsu.
"This is bad..."
Seeing the impending attack and with her movement restricted, Miketsu immediately deactivated her giant form to shrink her size and dodge the silver light. However, just as she prepared to fly away, she found herself plummeting toward the ground.
Throughout the prolonged battle, the battlefield had become increasingly saturated with Chang'e Power. It wasn't just affecting the surface; even the fundamental internal laws of the world were being distorted. The environment within the canopy was becoming more and more like Chang'e's home planet.
On that planet, the principles of flight based on Miketsu's divine power simply did not work.
Miketsu crashed heavily onto the ground. Moon Feather Princess’s massive silhouette charged toward her with terrifying speed. In an instant, Miketsu’s situation became critical.
"Fallen Sky..."
A massive, brilliant explosion of demonic flames erupted against Moon Feather Princess, causing her movements to momentarily stall. Before Miketsu could react, a hand scooped her up, and she was whisked away from the spot.
"Tamamo-no-Mae? You actually came down here?"
Looking at the figure that had suddenly appeared, Miketsu spoke in surprise. Tamamo-no-Mae was currently carrying her, leaping and dashing across the ground with incredible speed.
"The immortal on the moon sent me. According to her, against that thing, a regular god isn't as useful as a yokai... I could have been here sooner, but for some reason, I lost the ability to fly halfway through. My head is spinning like crazy, too," Tamamo-no-Mae said in a low voice. Even though she wasn't a god, she was still affected by the Chang'e Power, though not as severely.
"Her presence distorts the laws of our world. It's normal for jutsu-shiki and abilities to gradually fail. It's not just flight; soon, you might not even be able to release any demonic arts at all," Miketsu explained. Tamamo-no-Mae’s expression turned grave upon hearing this.
"Then how do we deal with her? According to the moon immortal, we need to stall her for a significant amount of time."
"How to deal with her? Heh, let's just say the more primitive the attack, the more effective it is. We need to engage her in close quarters... but right now..." Miketsu looked at her leg with concern. She couldn't treat the wound caused by the Chang'e Power. With her leg injured and the inability to fly, her mobility had dropped too much to engage Moon Feather Princess in melee combat.
'Dammit... what do I do?'
Feeling Moon Feather Princess closing in from behind, Miketsu frowned. Suddenly, a thought occurred to her.
"Hey, Tamamo-no-Mae, let me ask you something."
Tamamo-no-Mae responded with confusion, "What?"
"You... are a fox, right?"
...
Moon Feather Princess flew low over the white crystalline forest. Her perception was locked onto the enemies racing through the woods ahead. She gathered another beam of silver light and fired.
The light struck the crystalline earth, kicking up a massive cloud of dust and debris. From within the crystalline mist, a gargantuan figure lunged out.
Golden fur, elegant markings, long pointed ears, and nine dancing tails—it was a massive fox over a hundred meters long. A fox with nine tails.
The White-Faced Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox—this was Tamamo-no-Mae’s true form!
As the nine-tailed fox burst through the white mist, another large figure appeared. Holding her long demonic blade and having returned to her giant form, Miketsu sat expertly atop Tamamo-no-Mae’s back, charging toward Moon Feather Princess alongside her.
Facing the frontal assault, Moon Feather Princess swung her massive claw. The nine-tailed fox lunged and bit down on the claw, pinning it in place. Miketsu seized the opening, swinging her giant blade in a diagonal slash that cleaved Moon Feather Princess nearly in half, sending her massive body crashing down.
"Hmph... I'm surprised you didn't get thrown off," Tamamo-no-Mae said with a strange tone as she ripped Moon Feather Princess’s arm away. Miketsu replied with a smile.
"Of course not. When it comes to riding foxes, I'm quite experienced..."
'Compared to my Tsuruha, you're just a bit bigger. A big fox is still a fox, isn't it?'
Miketsu tightened her grip on her demonic blade. With her new "mount," her mobility had increased exponentially.
...
Within the canopy, on a hillside far from the battlefield, Eirin was currently kneeling on the ground, staring up at the dark night sky. Her eyes flickered with countless complex symbols; with her Omoikane's Eye active, she was analyzing Moon Feather Princess’s canopy.
Gradually, Eirin’s expression became vacant. The symbols in her eyes vanished, and her red pupils turned pure white. She sat there as motionless as a statue.
Standing nearby, Suwako let out a small sigh of relief. She picked up the blood-stained divine stone at her feet, held it high, and slammed it down with all her might onto Eirin’s head.
Splat!
Blood and brain matter sprayed everywhere. Suwako looked blankly as the fresh gore splattered onto her already filthy clothes, her face devoid of emotion, looking for all the world like a seasoned serial killer.
Eirin, her head crushed, collapsed onto the blood-soaked earth. A moment later, her headless body sat up on its own, and a new head rapidly regenerated from the neck up.
"Phew... Alright, the most critical architecture has been analyzed. I just need to finish the final organization and we'll be successful," Eirin said plainly, shaking her newly grown head. Suwako replied indifferently.
"Just hurry up and finish... this feels weird."
"Ah, it’s almost over. Two more times and I’ll have it fully analyzed. Let’s keep at it!" As she spoke, Eirin looked back toward the sky. A moment later, she went into a trance again.
"Sigh..."
Seeing this, Suwako sighed and raised the stone once more. In the next second, more gore was scattered across the ground. On the other side, Kaguya, who was avoiding the sight, shivered at the sound of the repeated impacts and instinctively clutched the arm of the other Kaguya beside her.
After several cycles of death and rebirth, Eirin finally completed her analysis of Moon Feather Princess’s Celestial Jutsu-shiki.
Rate on N.U.
