Chapter 31: Demon Purifying
"I can move!"
The instant the restraint vanished, Touma Kazusa almost thought she was imagining it.
The sea of fire was right in front of her, blazing so fiercely that it dyed half the sky crimson, yet not a trace of heat touched her skin. Gin Tsumugi had clearly shielded her from the flames. More importantly, the numbness shackling her body had finally broken. Light returned to her eyes, and sensation flooded back into her limbs.
Before she could fully rejoice, however, her body dropped abruptly through the air.
"Spirit Speech: Levitate."
Gin Tsumugi's calm voice rang out beside her ears.
A gentle but irresistible force immediately wrapped around her. Kazusa's falling body steadied, then drifted through the air toward Gin Tsumugi and Ogiso Setsuna.
At the same moment, the Wedding Dress Tree and the countless bridal wraiths hanging from its branches seemed to realize that their prey had been snatched away.
A shrill chorus of hatred tore through the air.
The Fire Boundary Spell that had engulfed them shook violently. Then, with a thunderous crack, a root as thick as an ox burst from the ground and smashed through the wall of sacred flame. After that came another. And another.
In an instant, the Wedding Dress Tree was fully roused.
Roots erupted from the earth like a collapsing forest, spreading in all directions like a vast net cast over heaven and earth. The ground split open with explosive cracks. A freezing tide of yin energy swept outward, so heavy and oppressive that it felt like the sky itself was coming down.
Gin Tsumugi did not meet that first wave head on.
He caught Kazusa, pulled Ogiso Setsuna with him, and retreated from the center of the battlefield in one smooth motion. The moment he put enough distance between them and the tree, he drew a talisman from his sleeve.
"In ancient times, the divine crow whispered of origin. Seven calamities are extinguished, seven stars mark the bounds. Swiftly, by law and decree."
"Seven Pointed Barrier."
Blue light unfolded around the two girls.
Seven translucent mirror like panels, each shaped differently, rose into place and locked together into a protective formation, surrounding Ogiso Setsuna and Touma Kazusa at the center.
"Stay inside," Gin Tsumugi said without turning back. "As long as this barrier stands, neither the ghost servants nor the aftermath of the battle can touch you."
Touma Kazusa stared at him through the shimmering blue barrier. Her throat tightened, but she still forced the words out.
"Then be careful."
Gin Tsumugi gave a slight nod.
"I will."
The next moment, he attached a spirit talisman to himself. Spiritual power surged. His figure shot into the sky and rushed straight toward the Wedding Dress Tree.
Inside the barrier, Kazusa and Setsuna could only watch.
Neither of them spoke, but both silently prayed for him.
This was the first time they had ever witnessed the true power of a yokai up close, and it left them pale. The original village had already been reduced to ruins in the span of a few breaths. The scene before them no longer resembled a battle. It looked like a natural disaster.
High in the air, Gin Tsumugi's gaze sharpened.
"So you've concentrated the power of the entire Domain into yourself."
The Wedding Dress Tree before him had changed completely.
The figures hanging from its branches were no longer limited to the students from Houjou University Attached HighSchool. Intermixed among them were skeletal brides, their flesh long gone, their bones draped in ancient wedding robes. There were hundreds upon hundreds of them, close to a thousand in all. They were the girls Mingao Village had sacrificed during the Heian Period.
At this moment, the aura of the Wedding Dress Tree had risen to its absolute peak.
The roots screamed through the air.
One after another, they lashed toward Gin Tsumugi with enough force to sweep away an army. At the same time, the ghost servants below took advantage of the chaos and rushed him from every direction.
"Uho."
Gin Tsumugi vanished.
He did not clash against the storm head on. Instead, he moved through it at terrifying speed, weaving through the nearly airtight barrage with impossible precision. Wherever his body flashed past, spiritual power condensed into invisible blades and cut down the attacking ghost servants one after another.
Uho was an extremely difficult movement art.
It drained spiritual power at an absurd rate. Among professional class onmyoji in Japan, those who could truly wield it were rarer than phoenix feathers and qilin horns. In practice, it was an art almost synonymous with national class onmyoji.
Before his role playing stage had advanced into youth, Gin Tsumugi had barely dared use it. Even now, he reserved it for battle. Using it casually for daily travel was still a fantasy.
Seeing its first assault fail, the Wedding Dress Tree changed tactics without hesitation.
A thousand bridal wraiths shrieked and surged toward him all at once, like a tide of corpses in wedding silks.
Gin Tsumugi's expression did not change.
He simply drew another talisman, held it between two fingers, and chanted in a low, steady voice.
"All things in the mortal world are bound by law. By the true body of Acala and the force of his original vow, I swear to subdue this wicked spirit and vile ghost."
"Immovable Binding Technique."
The earth exploded.
Chains burst out in all directions, dense beyond counting, each one carrying a crushing power that was nearly impossible to break. They shot upward with lightning speed and bound the rushing bridal wraiths and the Wedding Dress Tree itself, halting its offensive in a single instant.
The tree trembled violently, its roots thrashing, but for that brief moment, it lost the ability to move.
Gin Tsumugi did not waste that opening.
"Namah sarva tathagatebhyo sarva mukhebhyo... swiftly, by law and decree."
"Fire Boundary Spell."
Flames erupted again.
A sea of sacred fire swept through the battlefield like the wrath of a Buddha descending upon the world. The ghost servants charging from below did not even have time to scream before they were burned away completely, leaving nothing behind.
But even so, Gin Tsumugi's eyes remained cold.
It was not enough.
The Fire Boundary Spell was powerful, but against a monster like the Wedding Dress Tree, one that was being amplified by the power of an entire Domain, it still fell short. The sacred flames crashed into the tree and spread across its body, yet failed to truly engulf it. Even the bridal wraiths clinging to its branches did not vanish the way the lesser ghost servants had.
The earlier fire wall being broken apart had already proven it.
The Wedding Dress Tree could endure ordinary sacred flame.
But Gin Tsumugi had never intended to make the same mistake twice.
With a flick of his wrist, another talisman appeared in his hand. This time, the incantation flowing from his lips was stranger, older, and far more severe.
"Filth is purged. Return to the Pure Land. Vajra is purity, and purity is all vajras. I take refuge in the universal vajra. Violent evil and obstructing malice, be broken by the Great Wrathful One. Tremble before holy wrath. Acala, subdue all demons."
"Demon Purifying Talisman."
The talisman blazed with a strange radiance.
Then it sank directly into the flames born from the Fire Boundary Spell.
In that instant, it was like pouring oil onto a furnace.
The sacred fire swelled violently, its intensity multiplying more than tenfold. The flames no longer looked like ordinary fire. They had become something holy and absolute, a purifying inferno that seemed capable of burning through sin itself.
This time, the result was immediate.
One bridal wraith after another turned to ash beneath the white gold fire. As they dissolved, Gin Tsumugi saw fragments of their souls freed from torment. Several of them even knelt toward him in silent gratitude before scattering into nothingness.
An inhuman roar ripped through the battlefield.
The Wedding Dress Tree had finally broken free of the Immovable Binding Technique. Its roots lashed wildly, and from its body poured a surge of yin energy cold enough to freeze an entire lake. It tried to smother the sacred fire, to tear open a path to survival.
It was useless.
The moment Gin Tsumugi used the Demon Purifying Talisman, the outcome had already been decided.
This was the trump card he had gained after bringing the Basic Talisman Compendium to Minor Accomplishment.
And against things like this, it was absolute.
From behind the Seven Pointed Barrier, Ogiso Setsuna and Touma Kazusa watched the inferno devour the Wedding Dress Tree. Even from that distance, they could tell the battle was over.
Gin Tsumugi had won.
"He's incredible..." Touma Kazusa murmured before she could stop herself.
To them, the Wedding Dress Tree had been a nightmare made real, the source of everything, a calamity no human being should have been able to resist.
Yet Gin Tsumugi had crushed it.
Even though she knew little about the ranking system of onmyoji, Kazusa understood one thing clearly now. In the world of onmyoji, Gin Tsumugi was no ordinary figure. Even if he was not standing at the very top yet, he was already far beyond the reach of most.
Ogiso Setsuna felt the same, only more deeply.
If she had not found him in time, she, Kazusa, and the other students of Houjou University Attached High School would have been swallowed by that nightmare one after another.
Then, just as the two girls were staring at the battlefield in a daze, an old voice sounded nearby.
"The evil fruit born from Mingao Village... is finally reaching its end."
Both girls turned sharply.
Not far outside the barrier stood a ghost servant.
It was the old woman who had appeared earlier before Gin Tsumugi and Ogiso Setsuna.
.....
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