WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Chapter 75: Kyoto Night Parade of One Hundred Demons (9)

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The moment I brought down Raiju, the thunder and lightning yokai, an enormous amount of spiritual power flowed into me.

That was a lot.

More than Jorogumo or Yuki-onna?

"It looks like this thing was a bigger deal than I thought."

"Of course! Raiju was a great yokai feared even on the Chinese continent! To dispatch such a yokai before it could even do anything! You're incredible, my lord!"

Kohaku made a huge fuss as she praised me, but Raiju really must have been powerful.

"Looks like things have started on the other side too."

The stench rolling in had been far from ordinary, so I figured Raiju hadn't come alone after all.

I'd heard that if the fireworks went off, the claymores went off too. Things must be a complete mess inside.

"Should we go help?"

"T-There, my lord?"

"Pastor Park and Pastor Go must still be fighting hard too."

The others from Holy Temple Church had come to support this battle as well.

They were all veterans, so I wasn't worried, but there would probably be fewer casualties if I helped.

"Hmm..."

"My lord? What's wrong?"

"Hold on. Let me concentrate."

After taking down Raiju, the air around us had become relatively clean.

And there were two directions where I could smell something.

One was the grounds of Heian Shrine, where the battle was taking place. The other was...

"That's closer than I expected."

The stench was worse in that direction.

Most of the yokai had entered the shrine grounds, yet it still smelled this bad?

Which meant...

"That way's the right answer."

Let's go.

When I started walking, Gari and Eight-Foot Sister followed.

"M-My lord! Let's go together!"

Kohaku came hurrying after me.

I wondered who was waiting at the end of that foul smell.

* * *

"Why can't we break through?!"

At the main camp of the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons, the fox yokai Tsukiyo and Ayame stared in disbelief at the stalled battle on the shrine grounds.

It was stalled.

They had recruited several great yokai for this Night Parade, and they had more than enough numbers.

Yet they couldn't break through.

Was the enemy simply well prepared?

Their numbers weren't much different from last time.

Then why couldn't they force their way through with far greater strength than before?

"That Tsuchigumo bastard is withdrawing from the front! A few of his legs get torn off, and he runs away right away!"

"..."

Ayame fumed, but Tsukiyo saw the battered Tsuchigumo and thought it was understandable.

The ninja, onmyoji, and exorcists had equipment that was far too powerful.

Japanese yokai, most of whom were evil by nature, were vulnerable to exorcists' sacred relics, but this was like...

"Did every last one of them arm themselves with sacred relics?"

"What? That's impossible. Unless the Vatican robbed an entire museum and handed it all over..."

Ayame dismissed it as absurd, but it was exactly what had happened.

The combined exorcist, ninja, and onmyoji forces were all armed with relic-grade equipment.

From kunai and arrows to swords, spears, talismans, and firearms.

Sacred relics consecrated for eternity.

The sacred relics consecrated through the divine blessing sealed within Baek Yohan, the king of Second Kings appointed by God, weighed roughly 1.2 tons.

It was enough for every gathered fighter to carry at least one sacred relic.

Overwhelming firepower.

Normally, when humans fought yokai, the humans took defensive positions and prepared all kinds of countermeasures.

The difference in raw ability between them was too great.

Humans usually made the best use of their wits, found ways to exploit weaknesses, and built up responses, but...

Right now, they were hunters carrying guns as they hunted wild beasts.

They were slaughtering yokai with the overwhelming new weapon called a gun!

"How... How can this be?!"

How much planning had gone into this?

How much preparation had gone into this Night Parade of One Hundred Demons?!

The last Night Parade had even led to the resurrection of their mother, the Kyoto White-Faced Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox.

She had been sealed again by the Tsuchimikado Clan and Pastor Park shortly after her resurrection, but the nine-tailed fox's return itself had succeeded.

At this rate, they wouldn't even reach the Killing Stone sealing her.

"Big sis! Look at that!"

Ayame pointed beyond the yokai formation.

A monster was devouring the yokai.

"What the hell is that...?"

It was a huge mouth.

A huge mouth was gobbling up every yokai it could find in the main camp.

"S-Stop it!"

"How are we supposed to stop that?! Even a great yokai got eaten in one bite!"

"Aaaah! It's shooting something out of its mouth!"

"What the hell is that..."

Eight-Foot Sister appeared behind it.

She had a flamethrower mounted on her, and she was setting fire to everything in sight as she burned the yokai.

Damn it.

We had chosen a place far from any humans, and now the enemy was bringing out heavy weapons.

And not ordinary heavy weapons, either.

That fire... The yokai were burning to death far too easily.

It had to be flames fueled by some special oil.

"You idiots. There are several great yokai here. This is a suicide attack...?!"

Wait.

Those were anomalous beings.

Anomalous beings that had sided with humans. In other words, familiars.

If those things slaughtering yokai in the main camp were familiars, where was their master?

"Ayame! Find the sorcerer..."

Squish!

Something pierced Ayame from behind.

"Th-This is?"

A sword.

The incantation engraved on its blade was well known to yokai who had lived long lives.

Sun, moon, stars, and constellations.

Mountains, rivers, plants, and trees.

According to the Chronicle of the Yellow Emperor's Fundamental Deeds, it was the divine sword used by the Yellow Emperor, one of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors.

The Xuanyuan Sword.

And that wasn't all.

Thud, thud, thud!

More swords flew in and pierced Ayame one after another.

The Seven Stars Sword.

The Dragon Spring Sword.

The Peachwood Sword.

The Eight Trigrams Sword.

The True Martial Sword.

Each was a treasure worthy of being called a famous blade.

They were ancient demon-slaying swords, precious artifacts that had endured throughout China's long history.

Tsukiyo went pale when she realized that even among the swords flying toward her, there were many treasures comparable to those blades.

"S-Save me..."

Ayame collapsed, coughing up blood. She didn't last long before dying.

It was only natural.

The Xuanyuan Sword alone made survival impossible.

On top of that, she had been shredded by ancient treasured swords. There was no way she could live.

Rustle!

Sheets of paper flew in. Hundreds of holy pages attached themselves around Tsukiyo.

"A barrier?"

"The Lord is my shepherd. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for You are with me."

The Gutenberg Barrier prevented anomalous beings from entering or leaving.

Containing the secret technique of two thousand years of Catholicism, it was a declaration that the exorcists' hunt had begun.

"You..."

"Unbelieving fox. Accept your punishment quietly. The Lord Jehovah's iron chariots, which will grind you to dust, have arrived."

An exorcist.

The yokai of the Japanese archipelago hated the exorcists who had crossed over from the land beyond the sea with every bone in their bodies.

The pastors from the Korean Peninsula who had prevented the resurrection of the Kyoto White-Faced Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox, one of Japan's three great evil spirits.

They had kept a close eye on them, and once again, a new figure had overturned the board.

"Kohaku! You bitch, did you betray us?!"

"Eek!"

Kohaku hid behind Yohan. Then, perhaps regaining her confidence, she clenched her fist and pointed it threateningly at Tsukiyo.

"My lord! That's her! She's the ringleader behind this Night Parade of One Hundred Demons!"

"Isn't she your sister, though?"

"Please don't mistake something like that for my sister! She was born a few hundred years earlier and treated me like a slave. I wasn't even treated like a fox!"

They were both children of the Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox, but the age gap was large, and apparently they had been treated differently.

Come to think of it, Kohaku hadn't seemed all that upset when one of the fox yokai she called sister had died in an instant.

"You traitorous bitch! I'll kill you alongside that filthy Korean bastard!"

"What?! Filthy Korean bastard?! You fucking racist bitch! I won't forgive you in the Lord's name!"

Yohan crumpled several pages of holy paper from the Gutenberg Bible in his hand and scattered them into the air.

The pages transformed into holy swords in midair.

Using the spiritual power control he had learned from the Tsuchimikado Chief Priest, Yohan moved the swords all at once.

Whoosh!

The holy swords shot through the air, only for Tsukiyo's elongated fox tails to whip out and knock them away.

Her soft clumps of fur were as hard as steel. It had to be fox sorcery.

Yohan didn't dwell on the failed attack. He lifted the treasured swords and spears he had prepared beforehand with spiritual power.

"That trick again!"

Tsukiyo's eyes flashed as she released an enormous amount of spiritual power.

It immediately rushed toward the weapons Yohan had suspended in the air.

"...!"

Their movements stopped.

The swords and spears Yohan had lifted with spiritual power clashed with Tsukiyo's spiritual power, and she tried to seize control of them!

"Stupid human! Don't you know that simple object manipulation, unlike a proper spell, can be interfered with in an instant?"

I'd heard about it.

Unlike a sorcerer's spell, pushing or lifting something with spiritual power was an extremely simple act.

Which meant someone with more refined spiritual power control could interfere and take control away.

"Do you think a mere human can defeat me, someone who has lived for hundreds of years? Your spiritual power control and the amount of spiritual power you possess aren't even worth comparing to mine!"

That should have been common sense.

Or it should have been.

"...Huh?"

Tsukiyo realized that the swords and spears she was interfering with were gradually moving.

She had intended to keep them completely still... No, she had intended to turn them toward Yohan. How?

Her control was superior.

She could tell from the way their spiritual powers tangled and interfered with each other.

This man was a newcomer who couldn't be called experienced.

He had exceptional talent, but little experience.

He was nowhere near enough to challenge a great yokai who had lived seven hundred years.

Yet if she was being pushed back...

"I'm... losing in spiritual power?!"

Tsukiyo realized why and was horrified.

She, a great yokai who had lived seven hundred years, was losing to a mere human in the amount of spiritual power?

It was impossible.

It couldn't be possible!

"Ghh...!"

Tsukiyo poured every bit of her spiritual power into taking control of Yohan's weapons again.

His spiritual power was far more immense than she had imagined.

How could a mere human body hold such absurd amounts of spiritual power?!

"Grrrrgh!"

Even after releasing spiritual power to her limit, Tsukiyo felt it wasn't enough.

At this rate, she would lose.

She couldn't lose like this!

That's...!

At that moment, Tsukiyo spotted something left behind by the dead Ayame.

The fox yokai had been banished by the highest-grade demon-slaying swords so completely that not even a corpse remained.

All that was left was a small jade bead.

A fox orb.

The vessel where fox yokai accumulated spiritual power throughout their lives.

"Ghh!"

Tsukiyo reached toward Ayame's fox orb.

The instant it landed in her hand, Ayame's immense spiritual power was absorbed into Tsukiyo's own fox orb.

I did it! With this, I can win!

Tsukiyo immediately poured those additional resources into the battle of spiritual power.

The result soon became clear.

Of the twelve treasured swords and spears aimed at her, seven turned toward Yohan.

I won!

The moment she smiled in victory, Tsukiyo fired one treasured sword that she had taken complete control of at Yohan.

"Urk!"

The sword struck Yohan squarely in the chest.

Thud!

"M-My lord!!"

Yohan fell, and Kohaku ran to him in shock.

"Huff! Huff! Huff! You monstrous bastard...! I had to pour out all my spiritual power, along with Ayame's, just to beat you."

He truly was a being beyond the realm of humans.

How could someone like that exist in this world?

There were a few powerful people beyond the realm of humans, but she had never seen a monster who could overwhelm a great yokai through pure raw power.

But she had won.

Just as she smiled with satisfaction...

"Ouch... That felt like getting hit dead-on by a baseball."

"What?"

"M-My lord!"

Tsukiyo and Kohaku both stared blankly at Yohan as he stood.

Yohan brushed his coat as if dusting it off.

There wasn't a single injury on his body.

"If I hadn't been wearing this holy armor coat, I think at least a few ribs would've cracked."

"H-How...?"

She had clearly struck him in the chest with a treasured sword.

Yohan grinned at Tsukiyo's confusion and picked up the sword that had hit him.

"I consecrated this, so it can't hurt people anymore. It's a sacred relic. Or should I call it a holy sword now?"

Yohan slashed his own wrist with the treasured sword.

Yet the sharp blade couldn't even break his skin.

The treasured sword, transformed into a sacred relic by the blessing of kings, had become a holy sword that cut only wicked beings.

"Ghh!"

Tsukiyo desperately poured out spiritual power to use her sorcery.

But a treasured sword Yohan quickly lifted shot forward and sliced through Tsukiyo's side.

"Argh! H-How?!"

"Didn't you use up all your spiritual power? Uh... I actually had some to spare."

"What... did you say?"

She had poured out all that spiritual power and barely turned things around, yet he still had power left?

Then why?

"Since I was losing in control, I deliberately turned it into a battle of raw power. Looks like you fell for it."

It had all been a trap?

How could a human go that far...

"Nice, Kohaku. That was a good plan."

"What did I do? Your spiritual power is just that incredible, my lord!"

Hehehe!

Tsukiyo stared at Kohaku's sly laughter in disbelief.

"Kohaku... You?!"

This had been your plan?

Yohan overwhelmingly surpassed her in sheer spiritual power, but compared to a great yokai, his control was immature.

So they had worn down Tsukiyo by making it a back-and-forth contest of raw power.

All while handing her holy swords that couldn't injure Yohan even if she used them.

"You've run out of strength, right? Let's make this easy."

"Ah..."

Tsukiyo went limp and looked at the approaching Yohan in terror.

A monster.

Where had a monster like this even come from...?

"P-Please spare me."

"Huh?"

"I-If you spare my life, I'll become your servant! I-I'll be much more useful than Kohaku!"

Yohan felt a strange sense of familiarity.

It was exactly like Kohaku had been, groveling before him and grabbing at his pants while begging for her life.

Did fox yokai all change their attitudes this quickly?

But there was one decisive difference.

"No. You stink too much."

"What?"

Yohan lifted the Xuanyuan Sword.

Just before it shot forward...

"You moron! What do you mean, I stink, you filthy Korean bastard...?!"

Thud!

The Xuanyuan Sword pierced Tsukiyo, then burned her body away without leaving anything behind.

All that remained from the great yokai who had lived seven hundred years was a fox orb that had absorbed even the Six-Tailed Fox's power.

The moment Yohan grasped it...

Whoooosh!

The air changed.

Yohan was the first to sense it, and he spoke.

"What is that?"

The presence was coming from Heian Shrine.

The battle should still be raging on the shrine grounds.

Suddenly, the world felt red.

That strange spiritual phenomenon he had seen at an Ill-Omened Site, or when a spiritual vein ran wild.

If it wasn't that...

"A demon?"

Footnotes:

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