Penetrating Strike

Twilight faded as night descended. Inside the abandoned building, the malicious divine fragment hung in mid-air, a cruel grin on his face as he relished the scene of the siblings turning on each other below.

Watching the disillusionment in Ai’s eyes and the profound grief on Keisuke’s face, a surge of uncontrollable pleasure welled up in the Pale God’s heart, causing him to let out a childish yet eerie laugh.

"Heeheehee... Despair, suffer... You thought you could take Ai and escape my grasp, but you have been my playthings from the very beginning. I’ve been bored for over five hundred years; your resistance has provided me with quite enough entertainment... Heehee..."

Keisuke, unable to break free while clutching his own sister, looked at the Pale God with a struggling gaze and spoke weakly.

"You... monster... Gwah!"

As soon as Keisuke finished speaking, a burst of illusory blood sprayed from his tongue. Without any visible movement, the god had damaged Keisuke’s spiritual body.

"What are you saying? I am a god... the god the Shindai family has enshrined for generations. For a mortal who was supposed to inherit the headship and serve me devotedly to speak such sacrilegious words—truly, the world is going to ruin..." As the Pale God spoke, numerous illusory wounds erupted across Keisuke’s spirit. Keisuke screamed in agony, but he couldn't form a single coherent word.

Admiring Keisuke’s pain, the Pale God felt increasingly delighted. He only stopped when he saw that Keisuke’s spirit was on the verge of dissipating from the torture.

"Heehee... Now is not the time for your soul to be extinguished. I want you to witness Ai officially becoming my bride and being sacrificed to me... Now... first, let me take your spirit." The Pale God reached out toward Keisuke.

At that moment, the sound of rapid footsteps echoed from the nearby stairwell. Two figures ran up—it was Yayoi and Keitaro. When Yayoi saw the scene, her brow furrowed. She immediately pulled a cloth doll from her backpack and hurled it forward. The doll struck the Pale God with precision, and after a moment of distortion, he was sucked inside...

Watching this from behind, Keitaro couldn't help but complain internally.

'Is... is this a Poké Ball catching a Pokémon?'

The divine fragment was sealed within the soul-binding doll. Keisuke’s spirit drifted back weakly, becoming even more translucent and ephemeral, while Ai collapsed directly onto the floor. Yayoi sprinted forward, grabbed the doll containing the divine fragment, and placed it inside a bag filled with salt and covered in talismans. She then pulled out a cord and tied it tightly.

"Ai... are you okay!" Keitaro rushed over to check on Ai, finding that she had lost consciousness.

"She’s fine... she just lost consciousness after being invaded by a spirit..." Yayoi said, gripping the bag firmly as she glanced at Ai. Then she turned her gaze toward Keisuke. His current state was highly unstable, appearing as though he might dissipate at any moment.

"Possess this; it will help you recover a bit..." Yayoi said as she tossed another doll toward Keisuke. Keisuke hesitated for a moment before possessing it.

Just then, the bag in Yayoi’s hand began to shake violently, and a childish voice drifted out from within.

"Don't do this! He wanted to hurt Ai! He wanted to kill her! I was the one protecting her, didn't you see? I am Ai’s guardian spirit..." The voice in the bag was urgent and innocent, as if it truly cared for Ai. Yayoi remained completely unmoved. She lifted the bag and pulled a phone from her pocket. The screen displayed a GPS map, and next to it was a fluctuating audio waveform.

"Stop acting. I placed a transmitter with listening capabilities on Ai. I heard your entire conversation, you malicious god."

Hearing Yayoi’s words, Keitaro, who was propping Ai up against the wall, couldn't help but shudder. He wondered where his childhood friend Eiko got a transmitter with a bugging function... Because his spiritual perception was insufficient, he hadn't heard the conversation between the Pale God and Keisuke.

Upon hearing Yayoi’s words, the bag stopped shaking. A moment later, the childish voice spoke again, but this time the innocent tone was gone, replaced by a burst of eerie laughter.

"Heehee... For a medium to resort to such disgusting modern technology, it really is quite interesting. I was originally thinking of playing with you all a bit longer... But if that's how it is, I have no choice..."

As the childish words echoed, the bag began to rock violently. Sensing danger, Yayoi threw the bag forward. With a sudden expansion, the bag exploded, along with the doll inside.

After the doll burst, the Pale God reappeared in the air in the form of a boy. His pitch-black eye sockets stared at Yayoi, a cruel, mocking grin on his lips.

The moment the Pale God appeared, an invisible pressure radiated from him. Yayoi felt a sudden shiver.

'Is this... the majesty of a god? Even if it’s just a fragment...'

"Heeheehee... You should feel regret, little medium. If you hadn't exposed me and had played along, I might have let you go once I’d had my fun. But now, prepare to receive divine punishment... There is only one end for those who dare to defy my will..." As the Pale God spoke, the oppressive aura around him expanded rapidly. Yayoi’s expression froze for a moment before she suddenly turned and ran.

"Pick up Ai and run!"

Grabbing the doll Keisuke had possessed, Yayoi shouted as she passed Keitaro. Keitaro was stunned for a second, then immediately followed her lead, hoisting the unconscious Ai onto his back and following Yayoi down the stairs.

The Pale God did nothing to stop them. He simply watched them run down the stairs and then split his mouth into a grin.

"Run, run... You can't escape me anyway. I want to see how long you can last..." As he spoke, the boyish god rolled up his sleeve, brought his deathly pale arm to his mouth, and bit down hard. Illusory blood sprayed from his arm, turning into sparkling crystals that dissolved into the air.

"Now... you wretches of the demon realm who scent this divine blood of faith, gather here! Turn this place into a ghostly domain and devour those lowly blasphemers..." With a mouth full of illusory blood, the Pale God laughed hideously. His unleashed power permeated the space, luring in all the hidden entities of the demon realm.

...

On the other side, Keitaro and Yayoi were struggling down the stairs. Because he was carrying a person, their speed was very slow; they had only descended two floors so far.

"Huff... huff... So tired. Yayoi, can we slow down? We’re moving so slowly and that god you mentioned hasn't caught up. Maybe he let us go?" Keitaro panted, exhausted from carrying Ai. Beside him, Yayoi, who was lighting the way with a flashlight, answered sternly.

"No, he won't let us go. That guy is extremely conceited. He hasn't caught up because he wants to toy with us like playthings. We’d better leave before we fall into his trap..."

As Yayoi spoke, she felt the surrounding air turn cold. The Yin Qi suddenly thickened, and the flashlight’s beam dimmed. As the sound of rustling whispers rose around them, Yayoi’s heart sank.

She was very familiar with this feeling. This was the formation of a ghostly domain, a phenomenon triggered only when a large number of malicious spirits and ghosts gathered. People caught within a ghostly domain could be easily attacked by spirits; even normally harmless ghosts could become lethal.

Feeling the freezing aura, Yayoi rushed to the edge of the building and looked down. Below, countless shadows were rapidly converging. A vast number of ghosts with grotesque forms were swarming at the base of the building, including many powerful and terrifying malicious spirits.

These specters poured into the abandoned building, some passing through the walls, some floating straight up, and others running up the stairs. They surged toward the upper floors at incredible speed. Most of the lower floors were already overflowing with ghosts, and Yayoi could already hear the wailing howls rising from below...

"This is bad... There are so many of them..."

Seeing this, Yayoi’s heart tightened. She realized that charging down into that swarm of malicious spirits would lead to a bad end.

"Keitaro... we can't go down this way. Let's head back first and then—" Yayoi turned to speak to Keitaro, but as she did, she saw him being pinned against the wall. Countless ghostly hands were reaching out from the wall behind him, holding him fast. His mouth was even covered. No matter how much Keitaro struggled in terror, it was futile. The unconscious Ai had fallen to the floor, and many ghostly hands were grabbing her as well.

'So fast! They're already up here?'

Seeing this, Yayoi grabbed a bag of salt from her backpack, intending to rush over and scatter it to save Keitaro and Ai. However, at that moment, a rotting ghostly hand reached out from the floor and grabbed Yayoi’s foot. Losing her balance, she fell forward onto the floor, the salt bag landing to the side.

'Oh no...'

As she fell, Yayoi’s heart skipped a beat. Countless terrifying ghosts rose through the floorboards, their hollow eyes staring down at the fallen girl.

"Heehee... You're finished... little medium..." On the floor above, the Pale God sneered, his mouth stained with blood.

Pressed down by countless ghostly hands, Yayoi was powerless to resist. At that moment, a terrifying malicious spirit with disheveled hair, grotesquely wide eyes, and a gaunt face appeared before her. He reached out and passed his hand through Yayoi’s head, accurately pinching her brainstem. He prepared to use the thick Yin Qi to materialize his fingers and rip the brainstem out...

The surrounding crowd of ghosts and spirits all watched this scene together.

Suddenly, the sound of air turbulence erupted in the space. A frantic wind pressure blew in from the edge of the floor, kicking up dust. All the malicious spirits and ghosts were drawn to this sight, turning their heads toward the source of the wind. What they saw was a brilliant, shining light suspended in mid-air outside the building.

"What is that..." Yayoi, lying on the floor with her head tilted, looked toward the dazzling white light. She realized it was coming from a giant object flying outside. Squinting through the glare, she blurted out.

"A helicopter?"

Beside the abandoned building, a rugged and sturdy Inari Shikigami hovered in the air, its high-speed rotors pulling its heavy frame. The nose of the attack helicopter was pointed at the building, and its brilliant searchlight cut into the dark floor, illuminating countless evil ghosts.

"Lord Inaba! Target spotted!" In the pilot's seat of the Inari Shikigami helicopter, Miko, dressed in her miko outfit, spoke sternly. She could clearly see Ai and the other two surrounded by ghosts under the searchlight.

"Is that so... In that case, let's begin. I’ll play with this little toy too~" In the weapon operator's seat, Miketsu, also dressed in miko robes and wearing a headset and goggles, stretched lazily. At the same time, her hands moved to the weapon controls, and her eyes filled with dense threads of causality.

"After all, I can be considered an Inari miko now, can't I?"

As soon as she finished speaking, Miketsu pressed the button on the control stick. Simultaneously, the single-barrel autocannon mounted beneath the fuselage roared to life. Amidst the surging tongues of fire, a dense stream of armor-piercing rounds shrieked out, punching through the fragile brick walls. The malicious spirits and ghosts were shredded and blown apart before they could even react.

In an instant, the entire upper body of the spirit about to pull out Yayoi’s brainstem vanished completely. The ghosts around him were also torn to pieces and turned into ash. The malicious spirits inside the wall behind Keitaro, along with the wall itself, were reduced to rubble. Terrified, Keitaro shrieked and curled into a ball on the floor, miraculously escaping without a single scratch or splash of debris.

"What is this thing?..."

The Pale God’s expression froze as he sensed the anomaly. He immediately flew toward the edge of the floor to see what was happening.

"Miko, circle around..."

"Yes, Lord Inaba!"

In the pilot's seat, following Miketsu’s command, Miko—blessed with mysterious power—nervously operated the controls to begin circling the abandoned building, keeping the nose pointed toward it the entire time.

In this manner, Miketsu smiled as she operated the single-barrel chain gun, pouring fire into the building from different angles to exterminate every evil spirit hiding within. Whether they were hiding in the floors or the walls, the powerful firepower pierced and shattered them. With deliberate skill, all the bullets avoided the building's main structural areas to prevent a collapse.

The Inari Shikigami helicopter slowly descended as it flew, ensuring its firepower reached every floor. The converging malicious spirits and ghosts fled in terror in all directions.

"Where did this disgusting machine come from! How dare you ruin my game!" Suspended in the air near the edge of one of the floors, the Pale God shouted in rage. He reached out toward the helicopter below and clenched his fist in the air.

Suddenly, a giant illusory white hand appeared around the Inari Shikigami helicopter and squeezed down, seemingly attempting to crush the aircraft. But the moment the hand closed, countless golden incantations lit up on the attack helicopter. The semi-illusory hand shattered instantly, and the Pale God’s expression went rigid.

"What..."

"Those guys... did a decent job with the curse protection. I don't even need to step in..." Sitting in the weapon seat, Miketsu smiled, then spoke to Miko.

"Miko, change direction..."

"Understood! Lord Inaba."

Under the Pale God’s stunned gaze, the massive armed shikigami turned its body toward him. The brilliant beam of the searchlight hit him, and then... from the weapon rack on one side of the armed shikigami, a small rocket shot out with a 'whoosh,' accurately striking the pale figure. Instantly, a brilliant crimson lotus erupted in the dark night sky.

Watching the grand fireworks display before her, Miketsu took off her headset and leaned back comfortably in her seat.

"Fun."