Lightning

Under the cover of night, for the millions of residents living in the sprawling metropolis of Tokyo, this was destined to be a sleepless night. From the distant horizon, the sound of continuous thunder rolled in, vibrating against the hearts of the people. High-speed fighter jets streaking across the urban sky sparked a mix of terror and curiosity among the masses, while road closures enforced by traffic police bred both driver frustration and a growing sense of unease. Due to the abnormal disturbances from afar, this massive capital was now gripped by anxiety. Rumors of all kinds spread wildly across the internet; blurry videos filmed by campers in the wilderness triggered widespread speculation and debate. Conspiracy theories emerged one after another.

In the face of such public unrest, and to prevent social chaos or crimes triggered by the rumors, the Metropolitan Police Department had deployed its full force. Police cars began patrolling the entire city. Outside Tokyo, in the darkened outskirts, the stench of charred wood drifted into the sky from burning forests. Vast stretches of the mountains were ablaze. Under the Inari forces' saturation long-range fire, the malicious spirit army's defenses had nearly collapsed from the very start. On the blackened battlefield covered by artillery, hardly a single active spirit could be found. Inari fighter jets didn't even need missiles; they easily handled their targets with autocannons. The sporadic anti-aircraft fire from the charred ground below was like water from a squirt gun, posing no threat; instead, once the malicious spirit planes were dealt with, these ground positions were utterly annihilated by missiles diving from the heavens. On the ground, tanks roared along the highways. Malicious spirits that had barely managed to survive the initial baptism of fire tried to block the roads and fire, but their ghostly energy bullets simply dissipated upon striking the tanks' armor. Subsequently, these spirits were ruthlessly harvested by the tanks' top-mounted machine guns. Malicious spirit tankettes charged toward the Inari tanks from the front, firing their cannons. The Inari tanks took the 'shells' head-on, then returned fire with a single shot, turning the spirit tankettes to ash.

Those malicious spirits outside the initial strike zone quickly converged on the targeted areas to fill the gaps in the front lines. However, because the breaches in their defenses were so massive, and the 'hidden eyes' in space were monitoring the battlefield at every moment, new strike targets were constantly assigned to the Inari forces. Under such extreme suppression, the malicious spirit army was completely unable to reconstruct its defenses. Their unstoppable collapse only grew, eventually spreading across the entire theater. The tanks pushing into the battlefield had already charged six or seven kilometers deep into the defense zone along the highways without encountering any significant resistance.

The count of over ten thousand malicious spirits was now plummeting at a staggering rate. The road to the center of the defense zone was wide open; the final assault was about to begin. On a distant hillside, Miketsu, still draped in her black robes, watched the wilderness where the crimson lotuses of fire raged. She couldn't help but smile as she spoke.

"Not bad. This is progressing quite quickly. Once it's all over, I should give them a collective reward." As she spoke, Miketsu shifted her gaze toward the distant, low mountain—the heart of the enemy's defense. In the sky above that peak, thick layers of clouds had begun to gather. These clouds were currently sagging inward like an inverted funnel, and the singularity at the center had already begun to emit a faint glow. From within it, the breath of the Celestial Realm was diffusing.

"However, the progress on this side isn't bad either. Go on, be a little faster. I want to see exactly whose power you intend to invite down."

Inside the mountain, Kitano's face grew increasingly pale.

"How is this possible... to collapse so quickly? Has weaponry developed to such a powerful level in just a few decades?"

Kitano lamented inwardly, frowning. It was clear that the speed at which his malicious spirit division had collapsed far exceeded his imagination. Although he had considered the passage of decades, he never expected it to be this fast! This elite unit, created by the Old Empire for the final decisive battle on the mainland, was currently being utterly crushed, almost without any ability to fight back. Feeling the rapidly diminishing number of his shikigami, Kitano—who had primarily engaged in domestic research and rarely commanded large-scale operations—felt a momentary surge of panic. However, he immediately suppressed his emotions and refocused his attention on the ritual.

He knew that if he wanted to turn the tide now, this was his only hope. Although the opened channel was still far from enough to let a celestial god descend in full, it was more than sufficient to draw down a portion of their power. In this situation, he could only use divine power to repel the enemy first. Looking at Reinin, who was suspended in the air, pale and seeping blood mist, Kitano spoke coldly. Originally, according to his plan, draining Reinin's blood entirely should have allowed a celestial god to descend completely, but now it seemed he had to first draw down a fraction of that power to drive back the invaders.

It seemed that if he wanted to summon several celestial gods, he would have to sacrifice all the members of the Imperial family, leaving only one to succeed the throne. He also wondered if the act of inheriting the title of Emperor would affect the blood's guiding efficiency. Upon the offering table sat a long stone box, covered in charms and dust. It was clear this stone box had been placed here long ago. Like this stone shrine, it was an item prepared in advance for this ritual to reach the Heavens.

Kitano waved his hand, and the stone box on the table floated up automatically, drifting toward him. After catching the box, Kitano brushed away the dust. "Hmph. The rebel army presses in; our cause is in imminent danger. This scene is truly similar to decades ago... Fortunately, to deal with such a situation, we prepared everything back then. If not for Nura Rihan, today's world would have already become a world of the rising sun," Kitano said with a cold snort. It was clear he harbored a deep resentment toward the second head of the Nura Clan, who had killed him at a critical moment and stopped his subsequent plans. Once tonight's matter was settled, the first thing he would do was wipe out the Nura. After clearing the dust, Kitano opened the lid of the stone box and took out the item stored inside. Upon closer inspection, it was a damaged bronze sword, devoid of any ornate engravings, looking ancient and simple.

Looking at the short sword in his hand, Kitano spoke with a hint of relief. Clearly, after his death, his subordinates had actively sealed all the experimental sites of the Onmyo Academy around Tokyo and kept them strictly secret until now. The contents inside had remained untouched.

Kitano's ritual of the Heavens was divided into two phases. The first was to use the Emperor's blood to open a fissure leading to Takamagahara in the Celestial Realm, and the second was to use this fissure to connect with the gods above and have them send down their divine power. Therefore, the Emperor's blood was the medium for the first phase, while the medium for the second phase depended specifically on the god being invited. Near the end of the war, when Japan's defeat was as inevitable as a mountain's collapse, the members of the Onmyo Academy had debated for a long time and very fiercely over which celestial god to summon to turn the tide.

Initially, they thought of directly summoning Amaterasu Omikami, the head of the Mihashira-no-uzunomiko. However, they ultimately discovered that the limit of the channel created by their ritual likely could not accommodate a deity of the Mihashira level. Thus, they selected from among the gods below the Mihashira, finally settling on the most suitable and powerful god of war.

As he spoke, Kitano tossed the stone box aside and shifted his gaze to the unconscious Reinin. With a wave of his free hand, Reinin, still in a faint, was thrown aside and slumped to the ground. Then, Kitano stepped into the center of the swirling blood mist himself. He raised his head and looked through the fissure in the cavern ceiling toward the sky outside—toward the clouds sagging like an inverted funnel, toward the luminous singularity where the clouds converged. He felt the breath of the Celestial Realm radiating from within.

"Gods of the Heavens, listen! The Empire is now decadent and its dignity is lost. Brute rebels and thieves ravage our land. I pray you grant me divine power to revitalize the Empire! Use me as the contract to descend upon the mortal world once more!" While whispering these words, Kitano began to chant the final incantation. With the recitation, the blood mist that had been hovering around him surged toward the sky in a single breath, piercing into the swirling clouds. At that moment, the singularity at the center of the clouds suddenly expanded, and an even more violent radiance erupted from within.

For a moment, everyone present—whether they possessed spiritual vision or not—looked toward that point of light in the sky, stunned by the aura it emitted. In Tokyo, the Onmyoji felt a sense of dazed fascination at this aura, while numerous yokai felt an inexplicable panic. In the underground space beneath the low mountain, at the center of the ritual, Kitano raised the short sword high, pointing it directly at the singularity in the sky that seemed to hold infinite power. He cried out in a loud voice.

"The contract is set, Takemikazuchi-no-Kami! Please use your tyrannical azure lightning to annihilate the petty thieves upon this land!"

Following Kitano's words, a massive bolt of electricity fell straight down from the luminous singularity. It struck the low mountain, punching directly through the thick rock of the cavern ceiling, splitting what was once a small crack into a massive hole. The entire summit of the mountain was shattered by the lightning, completely exposing the hidden space below. That powerful divine thunder struck the bronze short sword in Kitano's hand directly. Behind that dazzling flash of electricity, surging rolls of thunder exploded outward, their power and momentum easily drowning out the sound of the artillery. Shimmering bolts of lightning began to dart throughout the clouds, and a powerful electromagnetic interference began to sweep across the entire battlefield. Instantly, all communications were lost; wireless radios became unusable. The screens at the Inari command center were covered in static. The fighter jets in the air instantly lost contact with the ground control center; the pilots' headsets were filled with harsh interference, and the radar on their screens failed completely.

Even in the distant urban districts of Tokyo, many people's phones became unusable at that moment. Television screens were filled with static everywhere. This sudden bolt of thunder threw the people of Tokyo into a state of terror. The clouds in the sky underwent a change as well, reconsolidating into a giant, glaring face. Between those wide-open eyes, white lightning pulsed. Under the gaze of this giant face, the Inari forces below felt a pang of heartfelt terror; for a moment, no one dared to continue the offensive.

And beneath that giant face, a figure was suspended in mid-air. In his hand, he held a dazzling short sword radiating sparks of lightning.

"Hahaha! It's here, it's here! Finally! Is this the power of a celestial god? Is this the power of Takemikazuchi?! It's truly too strong!" Clutching the sword of lightning, Kitano spoke with manic laughter. Looking at the shattered mountain below, at the awe-inspiring presence that made no one dare to move, and feeling the immense pressure from above, he couldn't help but laugh wildly.

He had not been wrong; the power of a celestial god was indeed vast and infinite. Kitano felt that his current power was enough to level everything before him. "Then, let us start with you... you treacherous troops of Inari!" As he spoke, Kitano's eyes locked onto the fighter jets flying nearby.

On the other side, in the outskirts of Tokyo, the yokai of Shikoku and the Nura Clan were still gathered. While they were originally cleaning up the battlefield, they were suddenly frightened into scurrying in all directions by that world-shaking lightning. The cadres of each faction had a hard time stabilizing the ranks. Unlike the common low-level yokai, the Grand Commanders of both sides didn't react much when they saw the lightning. They gathered together and looked toward the strange sky in the distance, their faces wearing looks of nostalgia.

"Rihyon, did you see that? That lightning is divine thunder."

"Yeah, there's no mistake. It's divine thunder. I didn't think I'd encounter it again after a thousand years... We certainly had a deep impression of it back in Heian-kyo," Rihyon and Tamamura conversed with chuckles. At that moment, Rikuo approached from behind them.

"Grandfather, what did you mean by divine thunder just now?" Looking at Rihyon, Rikuo asked curiously. Rihyon nodded in response.

"Divine thunder is the thunder of the thunder god—the lightning released by a celestial god. Just now, a celestial god descended over there... well, at least a portion of their power descended."

"A celestial god... descended? You mean a thunder god?! This is too..." Rikuo spoke in shock. He scratched his head, not knowing how to describe his feelings for a moment. The concept of a god descending into the world was still far too fantastical for him.

"Yes, it's likely related to those many Showa-era malicious spirits. I once heard Rihan mention that these fellows wanted to rely on the power of celestial gods to win the war."

Rihyon nodded. Hearing these words, Rikuo's expression immediately became much more solemn.

"You're saying... the descent of the thunder god's power is because of those malicious spirits? That means they might be controlling that power!"

"Very likely," Rihyon confirmed with a nod. Rikuo's expression grew even more serious.

"Then aren't we going to help? If the Inari people lose, we'll be next, right?" Rikuo spoke sternly. Hearing his words, Tamamura and Rihyon looked at each other and then burst into laughter. This, instead, left the serious Rikuo completely bewildered.

"Grandfather, what are you laughing at?"

"Hehe, nothing. We just both feel... there's no need for us to step in over there."

"No need? Why?" Rikuo continued to ask in confusion. This time, it was Tamamura who answered him.

"Because... aren't the Inari people already on that side?"

"But the Inari might not be a match for the thunder god!" Rikuo continued urgently. Hearing this, Tamamura and Rihyon couldn't help but exchange another smile, leaving Rikuo utterly perplexed.

"Hey, why do you keep laughing! Was I wrong? Isn't lightning more terrifying than rice?" Rikuo continued. Hearing his words, Tamamura raised a fat finger and said with a smile.

"Regarding this question, Rihyon's grandson, let me ask you one thing. Do you know that 'lightning' can also be called Inazuma?"

"Lightning... Inazuma? Yeah... I know that. It's said it's called that because lightning helps the rice ears grow better, so it got that name," Rikuo recited the explanation from his textbooks. But at this moment, Rihyon stepped in to correct him.

"No... Rikuo, the explanation you heard was distorted later on. The common name Inazuma originally originated from the streets of Heian-kyo a thousand years ago. The original meaning of this name was: 'When lightning meets Inari, it is completely submissive and obedient, not daring to resist, just like a little wife.'"

"Ah?" Hearing Rihyon's explanation, Rikuo was instantly stunned in place. He looked at the surging, immensely powerful electrical arcs in the sky and couldn't help but scratch his head again.

"Could... could there really be such an explanation?"