"Dream on," the kunoichi snorted, watching with sadistic satisfaction as the creature that had caused the deaths of so many of her friends and acquaintances suffered.
Immobilized, wounded, weakened, and constantly drained of his strength by Kongo Fusa, Morieu could not resist the seal for long and was soon completely erased, leaving not even a speck of dust behind.
Compared to the enormous amount of death and suffering he had brought upon Oni no Kuni, the terrible enemy died very quickly.
Watching the last traces of the demon's body evaporate, Miroku swayed and sank to the ground, as if unable to believe her eyes.
"I'm alive..."
Suddenly laughing, the high priestess fell back onto the cold stone and melted into a happy smile, looking up at the blue sky.
In the distance, she could hear the joyful cries of Numa no Kuni's troops, who had not seen the demon's death but had heard it clearly. Kana sat down next to her, also smiling happily, and on the other side, the young shinobi who had given her hope approached.
Miroku saw with her gift a long life ahead of her, and at that moment, life was beautiful, despite the pile of problems that would soon fall upon her after the victory.
***
The brief but bloody battle ended, and after quickly capturing the remaining demon worshippers, who had been reduced to a pile of rubble after Morieu ripped their chakra out, the forces of Numa no Kuni, having lost about a third of their numbers despite all their preparation, began to prepare for the return journey.
In any other similar situation, the ruler of the country that had provided assistance would certainly have taken advantage of the opportunity to expand its territory at the expense of a severely weakened neighbor, but over the past hundred years, Oni no Kuni had seen many crises, and each time the borders remained unchanged.
The reason for this is quite simple: everything that could be cut off had already been cut off, and ninjas are much less effective at fighting demons than priests trained for this purpose, not to mention all sorts of powerful beasts of the Bijuu level that break through once every generation or two and wipe out the people around them.
And if they are intelligent, then it's game over. No one wants to take on such a headache, so the locals are left to stew in their own juice, as long as they don't spread their nastiness to their neighbors.
Considering that half of the neighboring countries had only daimyo guards as their armed forces, with no hidden villages, due to their extreme remoteness and distance from the main cash flows along the coast, and the small amount of valuable resources they produced, this was understandable.
Miroku got away with giving some money, almost symbolic for the temple, and that was the end of it.
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