At this point, killing the Kagamori family head was practically impossible.
Sorasuga Ryosuke held the advantage now, and there was no way he would allow Ren Kuroda to pull something like that off.
If the problem couldn't be solved at its source, then there was only one remaining option—
He would have to find a way to dismantle the seals binding his body.
The Kagamori family's Demon-Sealing arts were indeed formidable, but there was no such thing as an invincible ability in this world, nor an unsolvable curse.
In truth, if the Nichirin Blade — Divine Blessing were in Ren's hands right now, he might have been able to forcibly raise his yokai power and break through the seals by relying on the blade spirit's strength.
But as things stood, the yokai power within him was no longer sufficient to sustain such an attempt—and the Nichirin Blade was currently in the hands of the artificial human "Ren." So relying on the blade spirit was out of the question.
However, forcibly breaking the seal with the blade spirit wasn't the only method Ren had.
A moment later, a wave of unmistakably evil presence began spreading outward from all directions.
Pitch-black darkness poured in, swallowing the surroundings whole.
As that sinister aura suddenly flooded the area, Sorasuga Ryosuke—still gripping the Kusanagi Sword—couldn't help but frown slightly. Even the divine blade in his hand began to tremble violently, as if it had sensed something profoundly unsettling.
Having served as the head of the Sorasuga family for so many years, Ryosuke had encountered countless yokai. Yet never—not once—had he felt an aura so utterly malignant.
So vile, in fact, that even the Kusanagi Sword, one of the Three Sacred Treasures, reacted as though it had detected a genuine threat.
The towering skyscrapers that had once surrounded them were gone. Now, endless darkness stretched as far as the eye could see.
And yet—
Though his eyes were useless in this lightless void, Ryosuke's spiritual perception remained completely unaffected.
Even in pitch-black darkness where one couldn't see a hand in front of their face, he could still clearly sense Ren Kuroda's yokai power, as well as the auras of the other family heads.
Almost the instant the environment changed, Ryosuke followed the fluctuations of spiritual energy in the darkness and moved straight to the Kagamori family head's side.
In his judgment, Ren had created this sudden darkness to sow chaos—and then assassinate the Kagamori family head in the confusion.
But this time, Sorasuga Ryosuke was wrong.
Within Ren's Intrinsic Domain, the hand-devouring darkness wasn't an ability at all. It was simply the natural environment of the domain itself.
The true terror of Ren's Intrinsic Domain lay elsewhere—
Thousands upon thousands of near-immortal oni soldiers.
And the ability to grow stronger by devouring an enemy's negative emotions.
However, during the previous battle in the snow mountains, Ren's Intrinsic Domain had been heavily damaged by the Hiyamura family's self-destructive spiritual explosion. It had yet to fully recover.
As a result, the current Intrinsic Domain — Oni Realm possessed nothing beyond its eerie, bone-chilling atmosphere and ominous, cursed aura.
There were no other beings within it.
That was why Sorasuga Ryosuke and the others mistakenly believed that this pitch-black domain itself was Ren's ability.
"Just as I thought… the damage my Intrinsic Domain took last time hasn't fully healed yet," Ren murmured inwardly."But simply using the power of 'All the Evil of This World' within the domain to devour the seals on my body… that should be doable."
Using All the Evil of This World to corrode and consume the seals—this was the alternative method Ren had devised.
As the crystallization of humanity's collective negative emotions, All the Evil of This World was the vilest substance imaginable. It could easily erode heroic spirits, noble phantasms—anything touched by its influence.
The Kagamori family's Demon-Sealing power was undoubtedly impressive, but from the aura it emitted, it was clearly a highly sacred force.
And sacred power and evil were inherently antagonistic—like light and darkness.
Which side prevailed depended entirely on the level of power involved.
The triple seal binding Ren's body was infused with sacred attributes, yes—but compared to All the Evil of This World, it was laughably inadequate.
No matter how strong the Kagamori family's holy sealing arts were, they were ultimately just the personal power of one lineage.
Meanwhile, All the Evil of This World was born from the negative emotions of an entire world's humanity.
The gap in scale and rank between the two was nothing short of heaven and earth.
Of course, Ren was fully aware that using All the Evil of This World to corrode the seals was not without risk.
That thing was no benevolent power.
It was a mass of negativity capable of eroding the body—and the mind—with terrifying ease. One misstep, and corruption was inevitable.
Especially for someone like Ren, who had already activated Half-Oni Transformation and constantly suppressed the violent oni blood raging inside him—he was far more susceptible to its influence.
Back in the Type-Moon world, he had nearly gone berserk once already because of it.
If not for the blade spirit awakening him, the consequences would have been disastrous.
And now, Ren was attempting to borrow the power of All the Evil of This World for the second time.
The danger spoke for itself.
Granted, this world was no longer the Type-Moon world, so the power of All the Evil of This World here was nowhere near its former peak.
Moreover, it had transformed into his Intrinsic Domain, giving him a degree of control over it.
Even so—
It was still unimaginably dangerous.
But Ren had no choice.
If he couldn't remove the triple seal, he had virtually no chance of victory.
The jet-black, malevolent ground suddenly bulged—and a massive mass of black mud erupted forth.
Drawn by some unseen force, the sludge wriggled as though alive, slowly creeping toward Ren.
In the end, it completely enveloped his body.
Because his Intrinsic Domain had been damaged previously, the All the Evil of This World within it wasn't particularly active right now.
Naturally, Ren didn't dare let too much of it cover him at once.
If he were to become corrupted and lose control here, setting aside whether he could defeat Sorasuga Ryosuke wielding the Kusanagi Sword—
No one present would survive.
That wasn't exaggeration.
As the saying went, go dark and your power triples.
With Ren's current strength, if he truly lost himself, everyone in the Tokyo district—yokai and exorcists alike—would most likely be slaughtered.
The instant the black mud crawled onto his body, Ren felt it—
Violent, bloodthirsty emotions surged through his mind once more.
Those emotions directly stirred the oni blood within him, urging him toward slaughter and endless battle.
But thanks to his previous experience—and the relatively small amount of All the Evil of This World he was using—everything remained barely under control.
And just as Ren had anticipated, beyond affecting his body, the moment All the Evil of This World touched the seals on him, an intense reaction began.
The Five Cardinal Sacred Beasts radiated inviolable holy power—
But the black mud clearly didn't care.
It boldly declared that nothing in this world was immune to being violated.
Wherever the mud spread, the Five Sacred Beasts let out agonized cries.
Though they released surges of holy light in resistance, they were utterly incapable of stopping the black mud's ruthless advance.
At the end of the day, no matter how lofty their image, the Five Sacred Beasts were nothing more than spiritual projections.
How could the personal power of the Kagamori family head possibly withstand negativity drawn from an entire world?
Even if these were the real Four Symbols rather than imitations, they still wouldn't necessarily stand a chance against All the Evil of This World at its peak.
Human darkness was infinite.
Before such power, even so-called sacred beasts had only one fate—
To sink and be devoured.
As the corruption spread, the Five-Spirit Seal on Ren's body began to weaken rapidly.
He could clearly feel it—
The yokai power that had been suppressed was slowly, steadily returning.
On the other side, Sorasuga Ryosuke stood guard with the Kusanagi Sword, shielding the Kagamori family head behind him, still wary of a sudden attack from the darkness.
But then—
The Kagamori family head abruptly felt his spiritual power destabilize.
A moment later, he spat out a mouthful of blood.
Seeing this, Sorasuga Ryosuke was completely stunned.
He immediately focused, carefully sensing the fluctuations of yokai power within the darkness—
Only to realize that Ren Kuroda hadn't moved an inch from his original position.
Had this unknown dark domain inflicted damage on the Kagamori family head through some other hidden ability?
"Sorasuga family head… you don't need to protect me anymore," the Kagamori family head said weakly."That yokai is breaking through the demon-sealing power on his body. What I just suffered was backlash from the seal being damaged."I don't know how he's doing it, but we must stop him immediately. Otherwise, everything we've done until now will be for nothing."
Aside from Ren himself, the first person to feel the erosion of the seal by All the Evil of This World was naturally the one who had cast it.
The Kagamori family head had absolute confidence in his family's inherited Demon-Sealing arts.
He had never—ever—heard of a seal successfully cast by his clan being broken by a yokai.
When facing yokai of different ranks, the Kagamori family always used seals of corresponding levels.
The higher the seal's rank, the more time and spiritual power it required.
But a seal that had already been successfully completed—
Being forcibly broken?
That was unheard of.
Though deeply shaken, the Kagamori family head didn't forget to urge Sorasuga Ryosuke to act quickly and stop Ren from continuing to break the seals.
From the very start of the battle, they had all felt it—
The yokai they were facing was fundamentally abnormal.
Compared to most yokai, this oni possessed far too many methods.
In fact, it felt as though he had more tricks up his sleeve than they did as exorcists.
Despite being only S+ rank, he was far more troublesome than most SS-rank yokai.
His combat power was on a completely different level from ordinary S-rank monsters—something they couldn't even begin to compare to.
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