Akihabara streets.
Amidst the bustling crowd.
Groups of men and women in orange, birdlike mascot costumes, their faces painted yellow and red, danced strangely through Akihabara's streets.
"Lightning flashes with brilliance~"
"Heiya~"
The costumed crowd danced fervently, their movements resembling a rooster patrolling its territory.
A woman and her companion stopped to take out their phones, filming this performance art group:
"What's this? Cosplay?"
"Haven't seen these costumes before. Are they from some new anime?"
The crowd performing the strange dance grew larger, and so did the number of curious onlookers pointing at them.
The costumed performers paid no attention to the spectators, instead singing their bizarre song with increasing fervour.
"Darkness grows deeper~"
"Heiya~"
"The feast is about to begin~"
"O knight holding the holy key~"
The group converged, their pitch rising suddenly as they lifted enormous keys.
Immediately, many distant onlookers turned pale and fled in all directions.
And then, the next moment—An extremely sinister voice rang out, like a demon crawling up from hell, its hard shell scraping against the ground:
"Become tonight's sacrifice~"
"Become the demons' feast."
The words fell.
In the eyes of all who had opened their Spiritual Perspective.
Crimson suddenly surged forth, as if endless blood had been poured onto the earth.
In an instant, the crimson swallowed the ground before anyone could react.
The common folk who couldn't see the crimson but were engulfed by it collapsed, their Spiritual Power fading into faint white glimmers, swept away by the massive crimson river, becoming mere ripples.
...
Just as the crimson swept across the land.
On the rooftop of a building near Akihabara Junto Hospital.
The black-red ritual ground slowly lit up with a bloody glow.
One after another, millstone-sized spiders crawled onto the roof, chanting the same eerie song in unison.
As the spiders' overlapping voices rose, the dark crimson hue grew increasingly brighter.
...
Meanwhile.
Deep within the Abyss overlapping with reality.
Here, the definitions of time and space blurred, concepts were utterly chaotic, and matter dissolved into swirling Qi clouds, chaotically intermingling.
Yet amidst this disorder.
A red sphere stood silently, as if eternal and unchanging.
The sphere emitted a fiery red glow, radiating scorching light like the sun.
Within that light, a small girl with vivid crimson hair tightly clasped her hands, curled up in the centre of the flames, her strands dancing wildly in the fiery glow.
The scene seemed frozen in eternity.
Until a vivid streak of red rose from somewhere unknown.
Dazedly, the slumbering girl seemed to sense something. Like a helpless drowning victim, she weakly raised her hand, reaching for that crimson hue, and uttered a whisper so faint it was almost inaudible:
"...Save me."
...
"Hmm?"
High above in the sky, Mukuro Hoshimiya hovered in outer space corresponding to Akihabara, glancing around in confusion:
"I thought I heard something..."
"Was it just my imagination?"
She shook her head, hesitated a moment, then sent Luo Shu a message despite her doubts.
"Big Brother said to report anything unusual... This probably counts as unusual, right?"
As Mukuro puzzled over this.
...
Beneath Akihabara's subway station.
In a sealed chamber.
Black-red liquid dripped from the grey metal ceiling, splattering onto the grey floor.
Drop by drop, it pooled into a small puddle.
Then, the puddle slowly bulged, morphing into a massive spider-like figure with pitch-black limbs, a crimson back, and three glowing eyes.
After infiltrating, the spider's three eyes swivelled before fixing on a distant platform, where a glowing, teardrop-shaped red gemstone rested.
"Is that the Yellow Emperor's Blood?"
The Three-Eyed Spider, having successfully infiltrated, shook its head slightly before staring at the crimson teardrop on the platform:
"Thanks to the interference of the tainted blood, I finally pinpointed the location and slipped inside, but..."
The Three-Eyed Spider gazed at the red teardrop, its tone laced with self-mockery:
"I expected barriers here, but to think they'd be interlocking ones?"
When the Three-Eyed Spider spoke, Enigma's voice echoed from her back:
"I once heard Pride mention..."
"The Five Great Powers deploy chained measures at special locations, linking those sites to their Divine Rank Abyss Artefacts."
"Choosing to destroy their designated locations triggers automatic counterattacks from these divine artefacts."
"It seems this place has similar arrangements."
Hearing this, the Three-Eyed Spider fell into rare silence.
Though merely an automatic counterattack from a Divine Rank Abyss Artefact, it was no laughing matter.
Perhaps the great figures of True Hell could withstand it, but unfortunately, she wasn't one of them.
Fortunately, she hadn't come to break the technique here, but to join it.
"Using high-ranking demon blood to mask the barrier technique's detection temporarily, then distorting its target to lock onto the Flame Demon in the Abyss, forcibly manifesting it through the Zhuanxu Sky Severance Formation... thereby realising its escape from the Abyss."
"Heh, forcibly altering the Flame Demon's nature through the Akihabara Grand Barrier's power to sever its connection with the Abyss, then pulling it into the human world - with the backlash fully borne by the grand barrier."
"No wonder Pride prepared this technique. He anticipated these defences couldn't be broken conventionally, and only this method could retrieve the Flame Demon from the Abyss."
Enigma couldn't help but urge: "Enough talk. Begin the ritual!"
"Right. At this point, we must proceed!"
"Commence the Heaven-to-Mortal descent ritual!"
As the words fell, the Three-Eyed Spider dissolved into a black-red fluid again, and, after a slight hesitation, surged towards the crimson droplet suspended in mid-air.
...
Meanwhile, below the platform where the Three-Eyed Spider had stood earlier...
A handsome black-haired youth with dark eyes looked up, lips curved in anticipation as he watched everything unfold.