"If you had just behaved yourself and completed your revival quietly, I wouldn't have bothered interfering any further. But since you dared to lay your hands on my people… then I'll have to make sure you leave those hands behind.I'm quite curious myself—are your tentacles more numerous, or is my Raikōhō stronger?"
The mission the System had given Tenjoin Yūdō earlier was simple: assist Hagoromo Fox in reviving Abe no Seimei, and ensure that Hagoromo Fox would not once again be cast into Hell.
Now that the "Nue" had successfully been born, strictly speaking, the first condition of his mission had already been fulfilled.
This was also precisely why Yūdō had previously allowed Ushioni and Ichimoku to leave unhindered. Otherwise, had he exerted just a bit more of his strength back then, even Nurarihyon would not have been able to stop him.
Facing a once-in-four-hundred-years opportunity—meeting the Hundred Demons' Lord at the height of his former glory—Yūdō's belligerent oni blood naturally began to boil.
As for what form the Nue would take after its full resurrection… Yūdō honestly couldn't be bothered to care right now. At present, all he needed to do was ensure Hagoromo Fox's safety.
He had been more than happy to sit back and watch whatever the Nue chose to do.
But the moment that so-called "Nue" extended its tentacles toward the yōkai of Kito-in—
Yūdō could no longer remain indifferent.
Whoever dares touch my family… I will cripple them.
Savage lightning erupted, violently severing every single tentacle the Nue had extended. Since those tentacles were, in essence, parts of the Nue's own body, the instant they were cut off, the Nue let out a shrill, agonized scream.
"It hurts! It hurts so much, Mother!"
The Nue instinctively cried out for Hagoromo Fox's help.
Unfortunately, Hagoromo Fox herself was already struggling just to survive. Distracted by her constant concern for the Nue, she had already been heavily wounded several times by Rikuo Nura.
"Why are you hurting Nue?" Hagoromo Fox shouted furiously. "Didn't you say you were willing to assist me before? Or have you decided to betray me now?"
If one judged Hagoromo Fox purely as a yōkai, she was undoubtedly a symbol of cruelty and ferocity.
But from the perspective of a mother, there was no denying it—she was fiercely protective, even great in her devotion.
Despite being in grave danger herself, the first thing she cared about upon seeing the Nue gravely injured was still her child.
"Our cooperation was clearly defined from the beginning," Yūdō replied calmly."It was only meant to last until the Nue's birth. I didn't bother interfering with his little tricks before—after all, the stronger the opponent, the more excited I get.
"But now that he's stretched his hands toward my people, I'm sorry—but I can only teach him this lesson the hard way."
As Yūdō continued chanting, enormous Raikōhō blasts descended from the sky one after another, the spectacle resembling a meteor shower crashing straight into the earth.
At first, Yūdō only destroyed the tentacles that reached toward Kito-in's yōkai.
But soon enough, he clearly got carried away.
From that point on, he stopped caring whose yōkai were involved—as long as it was a tentacle belonging to the Nue, he obliterated it without exception.
The battle at Nijō Castle grew increasingly chaotic. The yōkai on the battlefield were utterly confused, no longer knowing which side their leader stood on—or who they were even supposed to be fighting.
Meanwhile, Yura Keikain, who had been in seclusion mastering Hagun, finally completed her training. Accompanied by a guardian spirit at her back, she entered the battlefield as well.
Possessing extraordinarily powerful spiritual strength, Yura's talent had long been the envy of Ryūji Keikain. She had already reached the level where she could summon multiple shikigami simultaneously.
Strong spiritual power, a direct bloodline from the main house—these were precisely why she had been regarded as the most promising candidate to master Shikigami · Hagun.
And she did not disappoint.
Before the battle of Nijō Castle ended, Yura successfully learned Shikigami · Hagun and joined the fight.
Unlike ordinary shikigami, Hagun was not a simple spiritual construct. To activate it, the caster had to calm their heart, pray for strength, and chant an exorcism incantation.
And what was summoned was entirely different from entities like Tanlang or Wuqu.
What appeared… were the successive heads of the Keikain family themselves.
In fact, the guardian spirit standing behind Yura right now was none other than Keikain Hidemoto, the thirteenth head of the Keikain family.
Because Hidemoto's spiritual power far surpassed that of the other family heads, they could only manifest as skeletal forms—while he alone could appear as a fully humanoid figure of spiritual energy.
"I don't recognize that chant," Hidemoto remarked with interest. "Is that also a form of onmyōjutsu?Still… that young man's strength is astonishing. An onmyō technique with such power and such a wide area of effect—and he's casting it continuously without any strain. Even I, back in my prime, might not have been able to do that."
Having been dead for four hundred years, Hidemoto was clearly starved for stimulation. Like an excited chatterbox, he found everything novel, endlessly whispering into Yura's ear.
Unfortunately for him, the girl who summoned him was fundamentally a kuudere—expressionless and taciturn—which left Hidemoto feeling deeply frustrated.
He, Keikain Hidemoto, one of the strongest onmyōji in the family's entire history—who had sealed countless great yōkai and thwarted Hagoromo Fox four hundred years ago—
And now he couldn't even get a decent reaction from a junior?
"This is humiliating…"
"That person…" Yura murmured, eyes widening. "Is that Brother Yūdō? I knew it. With his personality, there's no way he'd stand by when Kyoto was in danger."
While Hidemoto was still marveling at Yūdō's power, Yura herself had already noticed him in the sky. To Hidemoto's shock, the girl he thought utterly expressionless actually lit up with unmistakable joy.
More than that—when she said "Brother Yūdō," Hidemoto could clearly sense admiration in her tone.
That stung.
Even he, the strongest head in Keikain history, had only ever received respect from Yura—never admiration.
"That man… you know him?" Hidemoto asked. "Then why do you call him 'brother'?"
As the most powerful head in Keikain history, Hidemoto's perception was on an entirely different level. Even though Yūdō appeared human and his yōki was perfectly concealed, Hidemoto could tell at a glance—
That man was not human.
No—more precisely, he was not fully human.
"Brother Yūdō is from the Tenjoin family," Yura explained. "They seem to be an onmyōji clan like ours.I met him in Ukiyoe Town. He taught me many things and always took care of me, so calling him 'brother' is only natural."
Back at the Keikain main house, Yura had many brothers—but her relationships with them were distant at best. Even the one she was closest to, Ryūji, treated her only with strict discipline.
It wasn't until she went to Ukiyoe Town and met this "outsider brother" that she felt genuinely cared for.
"I see…" Hidemoto said slowly. "Yura, I don't know the full nature of your relationship with this boy named Yūdō, but I must tell you something.
"What you know is incomplete. Tenjoin Yūdō is not a pure human—he is a half-yōkai.That said, I'm no fossil. Who says onmyōji can't befriend yōkai? I got along just fine with a certain slippery monk, after all."
But Hidemoto's words barely registered.
Yura was already frozen in shock.
A half-yōkai…?
Hidemoto had no reason to lie to her.
Which meant—not only had Rikuo Nura been hiding the truth from her all this time…
But even the brother she admired most had deceived her?
"Yura—watch out!"
Because her mind wavered, Yura nearly got bitten by a yōkai mid-battle. Thankfully, Tanlang returned in time, slamming the attacker to the ground.
"Yura," Hidemoto said sternly, "no matter how shaken you are, this is a battlefield. You can sort everything out afterward.
Have you forgotten the conviction you held when training Hagun?Right now, what matters isn't why they lied to you—but how many people you can save."
Those words snapped Yura back to her senses.
Puffing out her cheeks in frustration, she shot Yūdō a glare from the sky—then summoned three shikigami at once and plunged back into the fight.
With Yura joining the battle—and Yūdō's sudden turn against them—the situation on Hagoromo Fox's side deteriorated sharply.
Inside the massive flesh cocoon, Abe no Seimei ground his teeth in fury.
He was so close—just one final step away from reviving at full power. And yet obstacles kept piling up.
He had absorbed plenty of flesh and yōki, but it was still not enough for a perfect resurrection.
That Tenjoin Yūdō… his spiritual power seemed inexhaustible. Every time Seimei targeted prey, his absorbing tentacles were severed.
As the situation grew increasingly dire, Seimei finally turned his gaze toward Hagoromo Fox—who was locked in bitter combat.
And he made a cruel decision.
Since Yūdō kept interfering, absorbing enough yōki from lesser beings would take far too long.
So Seimei shifted his target—to great yōkai.
And among everyone present, the one with the greatest yōki…
Was Hagoromo Fox herself.
Without even a moment's hesitation, the Nue controlled countless tentacles and launched a sudden attack toward Hagoromo Fox's unguarded back.
From beginning to end, Hagoromo Fox had always been nothing more than a pawn in Abe no Seimei's resurrection.
Yet there was no denying it—she had gone to extraordinary lengths to give birth to him.
To the Nue, she was effectively his mother.
And yet—
For the sake of reviving more quickly, Abe no Seimei did not hesitate to stab his own mother in the back.