Arid Flame

Around the revival of the ancient god Yamata no Orochi, war ignited among the gods above the heavens. Driven by a loathing for the world's rejection, seeking to avoid being confined to the Celestial Realm in the future, and aiming to create a never-ending age of myth, the chief gods who had ascended from humanity united. Together, they sought the power of the ancient god in an attempt to rewrite the world.

The conflict between the gods and the world reached a breaking point, and the war of the gods officially began. From the Celestial Realm to the mortal world, from the East to the West, the final outcome of this war would determine the future fate of this world.

In the Japanese Archipelago, within the ruins of Heian-kyo, Miketsu and Amaterasu began their formal engagement. Due to the suppression of her divine authority, Miketsu did not hold any advantage in this battle.

After successfully reviving the Great Snake, Amaterasu had quietly ascended back to Takamagahara. From there, she began projecting a massive amount of divine power into the mortal world to construct a powerful avatar to oppose Miketsu. As the chief god of Yamato, she possessed a capacity for divine power projection that other modern gods could not match. Even from within the Celestial Realm, she could quickly intervene in any part of the Japanese Archipelago with her divine power, even creating powerful avatars with strength close to her true body.

Facing Miketsu, Amaterasu was extremely cautious. She was unwilling to face Miketsu in her true form; the arrow Miketsu had fired at her in Takamagahara still left her with lingering fears. The Chang'e Power Concentrate in Miketsu's hands forced Amaterasu to prioritize the safety of her true body, and the divine power projection granted by her status as a chief god allowed her to deal with Miketsu even from the Celestial Realm.

On the battlefield, Amaterasu's avatar stood high in the firmament, transformed into a dazzling, fierce sun. Under extreme heat, it radiated beams of scorching solar rays toward Miketsu. Miketsu relied on her causality vision to evade every ray and countered with several bolts of lightning using the power of Dakini-ten, but they were all dissolved within the incandescent glare.

"This is a bit troublesome..."

Miketsu whispered to herself as she watched the scene. With her Inari divine authority suppressed, her long-range capabilities were significantly diminished, making it difficult to threaten Amaterasu. Furthermore, due to the extreme heat surrounding Amaterasu's avatar, Miketsu could not easily engage in close combat. With her strength suppressed, Miketsu could not pose any substantial threat to Amaterasu's powerful avatar.

Faced with this situation, Miketsu shifted her thinking. Instead of attacking Amaterasu, she targeted the weakened and incapacitated Great Snake. As long as the Great Snake fell again, the plans of Amaterasu and the other modern chief gods would be ruined. Unfortunately, against the revived ancient god, all of Miketsu's attacks were completely ineffective. Even if the Great Snake offered no resistance, Miketsu could not leave a single mark on its scales.

In Takamagahara, seeing her avatar hold the advantage, Amaterasu nodded slightly. With a gentle wave of her hand, she projected even more divine power into the mortal world, forcibly opening a massive passage leading to it.

Suddenly, the clouds above Heian-kyo surged, and a massive Celestial Gate opened. From within, enormous iron chains shot out—not toward Miketsu, but toward the incapacitated Great Snake on the other side.

The Great Snake's massive body was bound in coils by the iron chains and was then slowly pulled directly into the sky. Seeing this, Miketsu immediately knew what was happening. Amaterasu wanted to take the Great Snake to the Celestial Realm to officially implement their plan.

Miketsu immediately flew toward the Great Snake, intending to prevent it from being taken to the Celestial Realm. At that moment, Amaterasu's avatar made a new move.

"Arid Flame..."

Spreading its hands, the light radiating from Amaterasu's avatar suddenly exploded. The intensity of the light shining upon the earth increased a hundredfold in an instant. For a time, the intense glare was so bright that people could not open their eyes. The temperature of the surrounding space rose rapidly, and the large swaths of dead trees around Heian-kyo all ignited under the high heat. Instantly, a vast sea of fire began to burn furiously.

Compared to the concentrated solar rays from before, this move of Amaterasu's was an all-encompassing, continuous high-energy radiation with no blind spots. Under the steadily rising ultra-high temperature, even a god could be scorched to death, and unlike the solar rays, it could not be dodged.

The moment Amaterasu's Arid Flame shone down, Miketsu's causality vision told her the power of this move. If she were directly hit by this light, she would be severely burned in less than three seconds and scorched to death within six. There was no way to evade it; she absolutely could not advance while enduring such radiation.

Seeing this, Miketsu instantly came up with a new strategy. She urgently changed direction and dove headfirst toward the earth below.

"Boom!"

Miketsu smashed her fists violently against the ground, punching a tunnel into the earth and diving straight in. She hid underground before the temperature reached a fatal level, using the thick layers of soil to block the deadly sunlight.

"Hiding underground? But if you do that... you won't be able to come out at all..."

Amaterasu whispered as she watched Miketsu's actions. She then began to continuously increase the radiated energy, attempting to completely pin Miketsu underground so she could not emerge.

Meanwhile, Miketsu did not sit idly by. Instead, she continued to use her fists to excavate a tunnel at high speed. Guided by her causality vision, she quickly dug to the north of Heian-kyo, reaching the middle of the base of a tall mountain range.

"Then... this position should be about right..." As she spoke, Miketsu condensed a golden light blade in her hand. Her Inari spiritual power would not be suppressed if it were not used directly against Amaterasu.

Miketsu's light blade quickly elongated, piercing through the rock walls of the mountain. Then, with a circular slash, she severed the mountain body from the ground. Immediately after, she gripped the Blade of the Three Realms at her waist, which had not been used for a long time, and gathered demonic power from within it.

"Lost noble power..."

Amidst a massive roar, Miketsu's form suddenly grew. In her giant state, she directly hoisted the entire mountain that had been severed from the ground, using it as a sunshade to face Amaterasu in the sky once more. Even Amaterasu, high in the Celestial Realm, could not help but be moved by the sight.

"Now... go!"

Miketsu threw the mountain on her shoulder with all her might toward the sun disk acting willfully in the sky. Seeing this, Amaterasu immediately had her avatar concentrate the radiated energy into a beam directed at the mountain. The massive mountain, hundreds of meters high, began to melt rapidly from its peak to its base under the high-temperature radiation, becoming smaller and smaller.

Finally, at a distance of about a hundred meters from the fierce sun that was Amaterasu's avatar, the entire mountain was completely melted. However, after the mountain vanished, what was behind it was revealed: Miketsu, carrying another mountain.

Relying on the previous mountain as a shield to block the high-temperature radiation, Miketsu had successfully approached the inviolable sun. Seeing this scene, even Amaterasu in the Celestial Realm was stunned.

"What..."

"Eat this mountain!"

Miketsu whispered as she smashed the mountain into the face of Amaterasu's avatar. Under the massive impact, the avatar Amaterasu had meticulously prepared was directly shattered, and the intense sunlight instantly vanished and dimmed.

Having dealt with the obstructive avatar, Miketsu looked toward the Great Snake again. She saw that more than half of its massive body had already been pulled into the Celestial Gate, which was now closing.

Seeing this, Miketsu immediately flew toward it, attempting to stop the Great Snake from being taken by Amaterasu. However, just as she approached, the weakened Great Snake actually raised its powerless heads and lunged at her. Miketsu, unable to read the causality of an ancient god, nearly fell for the trap.

Fortunately, because the Great Snake was weak, its speed was not fast. Miketsu urgently flew backward and successfully dodged, but she missed the optimal moment. The Celestial Gate closed, and the Great Snake was taken to Takamagahara. Miketsu was left standing there, stunned.

"The Great Snake... He wanted to be taken to the Celestial Realm?"

She whispered. In the Great Snake's eyes just now, she hadn't sensed the slightest hint of being a prisoner. Instead, there was a trace of triumph...

Suddenly, an ominous premonition rose in Miketsu's heart.