[Part 1/4]
A hawk soared through a cloudless, clear sky.
It was a large hawk, a very large hawk.
From its great height, it surveyed the land with a proud, arrogant gaze.
The hawk's eyes focused on a collection of tiny people below.
From this vantage point, the crowd was clearly divided into 3 groups.
Each seemed to belong to a different faction.
One group was trying to intimidate their way into the territory with threats and arguments, while another was trying to stop them but was clearly rattled and overwhelmed.
The last group had arrived but seemed completely lost, unsure how to react to the unfolding situation.
It was a rather comical sight.
'...'
The hawk gazed down at the scene with obvious boredom.
The princess, sharing the hawk's vision, felt the same.
She was disgusted, repulsed—and sneered.
It was a pointless farce, a meaningless squabble.
If she were in charge, she would have already slaughtered the lot of them—the ones building walls.
Enduring their speeches was both wise and refined, she supposed.
It was like giving them extra time to destroy the evidence, wasn't it?
...She really is a foolish girl, the princess thought with disdain as she watched the country girl desperately corner the Juuyaku exorcists.
The princess couldn't understand why he, or even that foul-smelling old woman, would give her any attention at all, considering how mediocre she was.
A special ability?
Or was it because of the maid incident?
No, that wasn't it.
Then why?
Why that cow...?
'...!'
After a moment of hesitation—contemplation—no, the princess realized those thoughts were irrelevant.
She clicked her tongue, cutting off that pointless train of thought.
Right.
There were more pressing matters. Things that needed to be prioritized.
There was no need to concern herself with this.
No time to dwell on it.
Therefore...
'Sōten, forward.'
At the cold command directed at him, the hawk's gaze shifted from the details below to the mountains.
It focused on what lay ahead.
...Rugged mountains where there shouldn't be a single mountain hut.
From those mountains, black smoke rose, drifting high into the sky in several plumes.
The princess knew exactly what that meant.
'Descend.'
The hawk obeyed the command echoing in its mind.
It twisted its body, executing a sudden backward flight.
The objects it had been carrying slipped from its talons.
At the same moment, the hawk shot upward, rapidly ascending to a higher altitude.
This was to conceal its own body.
Now that it had released them, it was no longer protected by that power.
Being seen was one thing—but being shot down was unacceptable.
Especially when there wasn't a single cloud in the sky to hide behind.
Meanwhile, the objects plummeted toward the earth, cutting through the wind.
Without a sound. Without a trace.
And, in the end, without even the sound of impact.
Almost nothingness—an intrusion, an infiltration, cloaked in absolute silence.
Its distinctive, bulging eyes locked onto the mountain range.
The landing point had deviated slightly from the intended trajectory.
But it was within the margin of error.
──The master won't punish me for this.
Now... hurry.
'...!!'
The invisible youkai let out a voiceless growl—grrrr—then dashed forward.
Its movements were swift and silent, leaving neither sound nor footprints behind.
It wove through the network of traps with practiced ease, heading toward the mountain.
Toward him.
To make sure everything was in time.
And the object strapped to the back of the shikigami youkai...
It stared at him, too.
It raced like a shadow.
An ominous red glow blazed in its wake, leaving afterimages that flickered like will-o'-the-wisps.
'Fssshhhhh!!!'
A partition made of Reitetsu iron, as thick as a man's back, was blasted through like a fragile shoji screen.
A sturdy cage, woven in the traditional grass youkai style, was torn apart as easily as somen noodles.
The specially-crafted grass dolls, deployed as gatekeepers, were ripped limb from limb the instant they appeared—scattered across the floor like broken toys.
Moments later, poisonous gas flooded the corridor.
But the shadow pressed forward, unfazed.
Its respiratory organs and skin decayed and regenerated in an endless cycle as it moved through the toxic cloud.
Shatter the door—crush everything in the way.
Crushing ten thousand obstacles in its path, the marauder finally reached the underground greenhouse's botanical garden.
There, giants of brute strength stood ready to block its way.
'Heh heh heh... kuh kuh kuh!! You've made it this far! I'll give you credit for your audacity!'
The voice rumbled from the lead figure, a hulking man with bull horns.
'But your luck runs out here!! Time to teach you a lesson... don't you think!?'
Juuyaku Tetsubota, the leader of the Juuyaku family's secret martial arts corps—the Rasetsu—roared as he hefted a massive slab of Reitetsu iron like it was weightless.
At his side stood Juuyaku Kamino-Zaemon, the Shigazo, and Juuyaku Hinokago Shinchosuke.
Each of the three wore a cruel, confident grin as they brandished their weapons, poised to greet the intruder.
Their confidence wasn't baseless.
They had each integrated the Calamity Youkai Factor, the ultimate culmination of the Juuyaku clan's forbidden arts.
Their bodies radiated a fusion of youkai energy and spiritual power, not merely increasing their strength—but multiplying it exponentially.
Years of relentless training and countless battles had forged them into living weapons.
They could easily overpower ordinary exorcists, especially in an ambush like this.
And their opponents?
Exhausted from the grueling journey, outnumbered... and walking straight into a trap.
This wasn't arrogance. It was certainty.
'RAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHH!!!'
'Hmph, beasts!!'
There was no response.
Only the roar of a beast, something beyond human.
Then, the bull general braced himself.
His muscles bulged further due to the enhancement, and he raised an iron bar like a shield... then activated a spell from behind it.
A shadow charged forward. Just before impact, a Barrier Curse, constructed using top-tier spiritual power directly drawn from Spiritual Veins, sprang up to protect the Rasetsu.
Its strength could even withstand a full-power blow from an oni.
Meat-eating parasitic plant seeds had been planted on the floor in front of them.
Their plan was to immobilize their opponent's legs, bind them, and then exploit the fatal opening...!!
'Ru...?'
The bull general's vision spun.
He saw the Shigazo and Inosuke behind him, their faces contorted in shock.
'Ah...'
The bull general's consciousness faded, vanishing forever.
And he understood.
He understood what had happened.
Before he could even muster an emotion, his life was extinguished.
'Gwooo...'
'You bastard!!'
The shadow, after smashing through the Barrier Curse and casually tossing aside the severed head of the Rasetsu leader like a piece of junk, was immediately met with a counterattack from Shishikura.
It happened in a flash, yet he was able to move with incredible speed thanks to one of his inherent 'authorities,' 'Lion's Heart Pillar.'
This power nullified mental manipulation, overcame cowardice and fear, allowed him to act bravely in any situation, and enabled him to make the best decisions based on animal instinct... but in this case, it only hastened his demise.
'Gah?!'
Wielding a blade that matched his own size, Shishikura charged like a whirlwind. He realized there was nothing where he had swung his blade, and then he realized there was nothing in his own gut, and he died.
A moment later, blood gushed from the gaping hole in his chest like a fountain.
Inosuke didn't even have time to activate his authority, 'Inokogiri Sai (Boar Rend).'
The curse imbued within the ominous fangs that grew due to his youkai transformation could, if the conditions were right, even deal a blow to a god. But he simply didn't have that kind of time.
'Gyaah?!'
Shishikura's 'heart,' struck with a fastball while he was in the middle of his youkai transformation, literally crushed Inosuke's eyeballs.
The boar-man instinctively covered his face in pain.
With a short, "Ogh," he collapsed to his knees.
His throat had been pierced with a hand blade.
'Oooooooh!!!!'
Needle horns instantly filled the botanical garden.
This was the doing of Juuyaku Kashamaru Kakichi, one of the Rasetsu who had been hiding near the doorway, intending to coordinate with the other 3 to attack the intruders from behind.
The horns of the giant, who had transformed into a deer, grew like a tree diagram, filling more than half of the room with their sharpness.
They were like a random collection of needles, boasting hardness that surpassed even steel. They stole the life force of anyone they pierced and, above all, had the property of reaching out like the hands of the dead, seeking their prey.
The cage of horns quickly enveloped the shadow.
...A tiny gap, like the eye of a needle, in the prison of horn needles.
The shadow trying to slip out from there was a trap.
A way out that had been deliberately created.
Waiting at the end of that path, sharpening his claws, was Juuyaku Tetsujōbō Korōsai.
The shockwave from the slashing attack, unleashed by razor-sharp claws, filled the entire escape route.
It was physically impossible to dodge.
Countless sprays of fresh blood danced through the air as the attack, capable of gravely wounding even calamity youkai, landed.
Flesh tore.
Bones cracked.
...belonging to Inosuke.
'A demon...'
Using his dead comrades as a wall of flesh, Korosai's curse against the approaching shadow went unfinished.
Kicking the shredded boar, stomping on it, the shadow leaped forward and sliced the tiger man into 3 pieces.
The carnage from a single swipe of the claws...and then a torrent of Needle Horns descended.
The shadow roundhouse-kicked the triple-sliced tiger away.
Crack, crack, crack, crack──the barbed wire constructed of Needle Horns was forcibly broken by a barrage of skeletal cannon fire.
The blood-soaked hole slowly began to close, extending from the surroundings, but it was far too slow.
'Impossible, this can't be happening...!!'
Those were Kajikichi's last words, spoken just before the blow that would end his life.
His dazed, almost delusional ramblings were, however, understandable.
The culmination of the Juuyaku family's 'ancient' techniques.
A successful product, built upon countless corpses and the passage of time.
Well-founded confidence born from vast experience and training.
Despite battle tactics, strategies, and the advantages of the terrain honed through diligent research...this one-sided carnage was simply too much to bear.
It couldn't be.
The fallen deer-man's corpse, consumed by despair.
A pool of blood spreading across the floor.
Chunks of flesh slammed against the wall.
A slaughterhouse....
'Ggrrr...!'
Looking down, the shadow that had slaughtered the waiting guardians with lightning speed, stopped in place, a stark contrast to the earlier blitz.
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