"Ding—!"
As the tiger-slaying spear was blocked by the blade of the Demon King's Little Hammer, Abe no Seimei calmly turned his gaze toward the newly arrived figure.
"So now even you intend to betray me as well?"
The one who had thrust out the spear and rescued Nura Rikuo was none other than Hagoromo Gitsune, still dressed in her black sailor-style uniform.
Yet her condition was clearly different from before.
Though the way she looked at Abe no Seimei still carried traces of affection and complicated emotion, her expression was far firmer than it had been moments earlier.
"Nue, you've gone astray," Hagoromo Gitsune said quietly."Humans and yōkai are beings that depend on one another. If you truly wipe out all humans, yōkai won't survive either.You've been blinded by eternal power—so blinded that you can no longer see anything else.If you insist on continuing down this path… then I can only stop you."
"So that's how it is," Abe no Seimei replied, his eyes narrowing slightly."Because I absorbed too much of your yōki earlier, weakening you—combined with a change in mindset—the other soul finally awakened, didn't it?"
As the greatest onmyōji of all, Abe no Seimei needed only a single glance at Hagoromo Gitsune in her current state to understand the reason for her sudden shift in personality.
The body Hagoromo Gitsune now inhabited did not house just her soul alone.
During the era when the Second Head of the Nura Clan, Nura Rihan, was still alive, Hagoromo Gitsune had been killed by that overwhelmingly powerful man every time she reincarnated.
And so, in order to ensure the successful birth of "Nue," she abandoned her previous method of conquest through brute force and was forced to rely on strategy instead.
The body she now inhabited had been prepared specifically to deal with Nura Rihan.
Because this was not a body gained through reincarnation, but rather a vessel she had possessed through other means, there were actually two souls residing within it.
One was Hagoromo Gitsune herself.
The other belonged to the body's original owner—Yamabuki Otome, the former wife of Nura Rihan.
In the past, Yamabuki Otome had been nothing more than an ordinary human. Naturally, her soul was far weaker than Hagoromo Gitsune's, and so most of the time, Hagoromo Gitsune's soul dominated the body while Yamabuki Otome remained dormant.
But earlier, Hagoromo Gitsune had first been weakened by childbirth, then had a large portion of her yōki forcibly taken by Abe no Seimei.
And finally—when she witnessed her own child, "Nue," truly attempting to kill her without hesitation—her spirit itself was wounded.
Under the combined assault on both body and mind, the second soul dwelling within this vessel awakened… and took control.
Or rather, "took control" wasn't quite accurate.
Because this was a possessed vessel, no matter which soul was in charge of the body, the emotions and feelings of the other soul would still influence it.
Just like now.
Even though Yamabuki Otome held dominion over the body, she still addressed Abe no Seimei as "Nue," and there was still a trace of reluctance in her gaze when she looked at him.
Of course, although Hagoromo Gitsune's eyes held a hint of maternal affection when looking at Abe no Seimei, that affection was clearly far stronger when she turned her gaze toward Nura Rikuo.
That was because the soul currently in control was no longer Hagoromo Gitsune—but Yamabuki Otome.
Though Yamabuki Otome was not Rikuo's biological mother, she deeply loved Nura Rihan, and in her heart, Rihan's child was no different from her own.
Especially given how closely Rikuo resembled Rihan—just one look was enough to max out Yamabuki Otome's affection instantly.
Both of them could be considered her children.
But Abe no Seimei had previously tried to kill her and still stubbornly refused to repent. And now that Yamabuki Otome was the one in control, the choice Hagoromo Gitsune made was obvious.
As for Nura Rikuo, when he noticed the way Hagoromo Gitsune was looking at him, his face was filled with pure confusion.
He genuinely couldn't understand why she was helping him.
And the look she had just given him felt… strange.It was oddly similar to how she had looked at "Nue" earlier.
Rikuo clearly remembered that Hagoromo Gitsune had killed his father, Nura Rihan—even though he had been very young at the time.
What he didn't know was the relationship between his father and the soul currently inhabiting Hagoromo Gitsune's body—Yamabuki Otome.
At this point, Rikuo was even starting to wonder—
Don't tell me… she's taken a liking to me?
After all, the way she had just looked at him—beyond the overwhelming kindness—seemed to carry something almost like the gaze of a lover…
"It doesn't matter," Abe no Seimei said coldly, snapping Rikuo out of his wild thoughts."So what if the two of you come at me together? You'll only manage to cling to life a little longer, that's all.Even if you can wield your mother's power now, with your current condition—what exactly do you think you can accomplish?"
Although Rikuo still didn't understand why Hagoromo Gitsune had sided with him, her joining the fight was undeniably a good thing. With his strength alone, defeating Abe no Seimei was simply unrealistic.
While the battle in the sky raged on, the yōkai and onmyōji on the ground were also fighting with everything they had, desperate to survive.
Faced with a world-ending catastrophe like this, holding anything back would have been sheer stupidity. And at this moment, whether yōkai or onmyōji, everyone chose to cooperate in resisting the looming disaster.
Because once that massive meteor fell, no matter which faction you belonged to—yōkai or onmyōji—no one in this region would survive.
All kinds of Fear and onmyōjutsu slammed into the descending mountain-like meteor, sending huge chunks of rock crashing down in response.
Yet reality proved that Abe no Seimei's confidence had not been unfounded.
Even though the yōkai and onmyōji present had cast aside old grudges and begun working together, human—and yōkai—strength was ultimately limited in the face of a calamity of this scale.
The meteor's descent slowed somewhat. Its size shrank slightly.
But the destroyed portion was still negligible compared to its immense volume.
If things continued at this pace, they would ultimately be unable to escape annihilation.
"Damn it… are we really going to die here like this?"
"That bastard Abe no Seimei—if I become a ghost, I still won't let him go!Deciding the life and death of others with a single word—does he really think he's a god?!"
"What if we change tactics and all work together to kill Abe no Seimei instead?If he dies, will this thing stop falling?"
At first, people were able to fight on through their will to live and the last scraps of hope.
But once they realized that no matter how hard they struggled, they still couldn't escape their fate, some began to lose heart.
And in a moment when unity was most crucial, such emotions were terrifying—because emotions were contagious, whether good or bad.
"Show some backbone, damn it!""Buy me just a little more time! It's only a meteor—once I finish things on my end, smashing it apart will take just a few punches!"
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