WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Chapter 77: Kyoto Night Parade of One Hundred Demons (11)

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The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons' main camp.

The uproar among the yōkai was growing fiercer.

I think I knew why.

Even from this far away, I could feel enormous demonic power prickling against my skin. An overwhelming presence was reaching all the way here.

If I could feel it, there was no way the yōkai couldn't.

The difference was that the numbing presence wasn't an ally to me.

To the yōkai, it was the most reassuring ally they could possibly have.

【Kyoto White-Faced Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox has been resurrected!】

【This time, the world will belong to the yōkai──!】

The yōkai's morale surged.

This wasn't good.

"Kohaku! Let's go back!"

"W-wait a moment, my lord! We need to take the fox orb!"

Kohaku hurriedly gathered something we'd forgotten in the rush.

It was the seven-tailed fox's fox orb, after it had absorbed the Six-Tailed Fox's fox orb.

I didn't know much about it, but it had to be valuable.

"Good job. Hold on tight!"

I grabbed Kohaku and used spatial movement to leap straight to where Gari and Eight-Foot Sister were.

Snap?

【Devour?】

"We're done stirring up the main camp. We've got to take that thing down now!"

The two understood my intent right away.

At that moment, the surrounding yōkai tried to attack me for appearing out of nowhere.

Crunch!

Their attempt failed when Eight-Foot Sister swung her iron staff and crushed their heads.

I had deliberately not used sacred relic transformation on the Benkei's Iron Staff Eight-Foot Sister carried.

It seemed too inflexible to limit its targets to wicked beings alone.

Still, its raw physical force was apparently enough to crush yōkai.

【Kill them!】

【Offer their corpses to Kyoto White-Faced Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox!】

Gari and Eight-Foot Sister had already killed plenty of yōkai while causing chaos, yet they were still this aggressive.

That was probably how immense Kyoto White-Faced Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox's influence was among the yōkai.

Enough that the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons occurred every time it returned.

"Yeah, I'm not dealing with you guys~"

There was no reason to meet their loyal, reckless charge head-on.

I had spatial movement.

Bang!

When I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them again, I was high above Kyoto.

Under the dark red sky, Kyoto White-Faced Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox hovered with wings spread wide.

I had planned to slam it into the ground first, but a torrential downpour began at just that moment.

It was an unbelievably heavy shower.

It looked like Kyoto would flood if it kept up for even an hour or two.

Still, even this natural disaster was good material for me.

"I knelt upon the ground, tucked my face between my knees, and prayed earnestly! Then heaven shall give rain and the earth shall bear fruit! There is great rain! This is rain sent down by Jehovah, Lord of Life!"

Creating rain from a clear sky would be difficult.

I had never tried it, but I could tell that causing a natural phenomenon would take an absurd amount of expectation.

But what if the storm clouds were already there?

What if rain was already falling?

Then I didn't need a great miracle that created a natural phenomenon. All I had to do was bless the water already there, which wasn't much different from what I normally did.

It seemed less effective than holy water I created myself because I had no salt, but I could make up for that with volume.

The storm clouds and pouring rain received my blessing sacrament, becoming holy water that rained down on Kyoto White-Faced Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox.

【What?! What is this···?!】

Kyoto White-Faced Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox panicked.

Understandably so. How could it have known that the rain it had summoned would turn into hydrochloric acid and pour down on it?

But this wasn't enough.

To drive it into the ground for certain──

"Jump above its head! Tear off its wings!"

Snap!

【Devour!】

I used Spatial Magic once more to take position above Kyoto White-Faced Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox.

From there, we let gravity take over.

Gari and Eight-Foot Sister fell toward the soaking-wet creature at the same time.

【Devouuuuuur!】

Eight-Foot Sister raised the iron staff and swung down with tremendous force, but──

"Oops, I missed."

A coordinate issue made her miss.

【Devouuuuuuuur────!!】

Eight-Foot Sister plummeted toward the ground.

Gari, on the other hand, successfully tore off one of its wings.

【Kraaaaaagh!】

Good. It worked.

At the same time, I used spatial movement to reach Eight-Foot Sister, caught her as she fell, and leaped into the shrine grounds.

"Whew!"

"Whoa, you scared me! It's Yohan?"

"Pastor Park!"

Pastor Park, Pastor Go, and even the Tsuchimikado Chief Priest were all gathered there.

"So what's going on? I can smell fox demon, too."

"A demon and a fox did a Super Electromagnetic Fusion."

"Huh?"

"This isn't the time! We have to deal with it!"

"It looks like it'll die if we leave it alone... Whoa, what is that?!"

Flames were rising from the fur of Kyoto White-Faced Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox after it crashed to the ground.

The fire was so intense that the torrential rain evaporated before it could even touch it.

"We have to stop it first! Ninjas! This is the final round! Are you just going to stand there and watch those demons mess with us?! Get them!"

Pastor Park charged into battle like a heavily armored cavalryman, rushing straight at the enormous fox yōkai.

His fearsome punch, or rather, his glowing knuckle, struck Kyoto White-Faced Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox with a heavy thud.

【Urgh!】

I knew he was strong, but he made a monster that huge stagger with a punch.

"Pastor Park, are you even human?!"

"The early history of Korea's exorcism world was a barbaric age, before professional exorcism had spread······."

"What does that mean?"

"You know Ms. Park from the Mystic Association. The old people who survived those days did so because they were strong."

The weak died.

When you saw an old person in this line of work, you should think of them as a survivor.

That was terrifying.

"I'll prepare Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi again. But... it won't be easy because of the demons."

"Why not?"

"The seal created with Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi was designed to contain a single Kyoto White-Faced Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox. But now two demons have possessed it. Even if it is one of the Three Sacred Treasures... it will be difficult."

Then I remembered something and met Pastor Go's eyes.

"Then we just need to pull the demons out of the fox, right?"

"Yes, but... do you have a way?"

I nodded.

"Let's go with an exorcist classic."

* * *

The fox was rampaging.

It was a fire fox that spewed flames from its entire body.

Pastor Park and the ninjas remained unharmed even in the face of hellfire that would burn anyone to death on contact.

The reason was that the disaster Kyoto White-Faced Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox had brought upon itself, the torrential rain that would soon drown Kyoto, had become rain of holy water and protected them.

If the demons' flames were hellfire that left not even bones behind, the holy rain was the breastplate of righteousness that protected God's sons and daughters from that fire.

Warriors fought the burning beast, wearing the rain of holy water as armor.

Pastor Park stood at their head.

"Hup...!"

Pastor Park caught Kyoto White-Faced Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox's front paw as he drew in a breath.

With the monstrous strength that had once strangled the Jangsan Tiger to death, he lifted the fox yōkai's paw for an instant.

【······!】

Kyoto White-Faced Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox couldn't help but be shocked as its own paw rose into the air.

This old man had become stronger than before.

Of course. He was a living legend in Korea's exorcism world.

Just as yōkai and evil spirits accumulated mystique when their fame and stories were passed down, humans could as well.

This was why some survivors displayed strength beyond human limits.

A being who accumulated countless accomplishments and legends could become something close to mystique itself.

Among those born with spirituality who became legends in the field, people like this occasionally appeared.

【But you are only human! Do you think you can stand against me, who has amassed thousands of years of mystique in a human body!】

"Urgh!"

Even Pastor Park's strength couldn't compare to Kyoto White-Faced Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox's monstrous power.

"Pastor Park! Are you all right?!"

Pastor Go rushed over and supported him.

"I'm not all right... That thing's much stronger than it was twenty years ago..."

"Judging from those wings, it seems a demon associated with beasts has possessed it."

"Beasts... There are far too many demons with wings. As for the flames..."

There were many.

Amon, Belial, Balam, Auns.

There were also plenty of beast demons.

Marchosias, Andras, Malphas, Phenex, Halphas, Furfur...

As they recalled the demons' names, Kyoto White-Faced Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox shook off the ninjas and charged.

Crack!

Gari and Eight-Foot Sister stopped it.

Kyoto White-Faced Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox grew more cautious when it faced Gari.

【An angel... The demons within me are warning me, even though this isn't your true body. But can you do it? With only a mouth?】

Crack!

Kyoto White-Faced Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox and Gari began to brawl.

But their odds were low.

Two descended demons had possessed the body of one of the Three Great Evil Spirits.

Unless Gari's true body descended as it had when Martim was subjugated, a mere avatar wouldn't be enough to overpower Kyoto White-Faced Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox.

Still, they bought time.

"Pastor."

"Yohan."

"Could we use an exorcism ritual to pull those demons out? Like driving demons out of someone they've possessed."

"······Hm?"

Pastor Park thought Yohan's suggestion made sense.

Pulling out a possessing demon and driving it away was the foundation of exorcism.

The possessed target was a yōkai, but the basics of exorcism might still work.

"But how? We don't have time to learn the demons' names──"

Yohan pulled something out.

It was one of the holy relics that had just been inside Gari's mouth.

Pastor Kim Collection, European History Series No. 22, <Saint Patrick's Bell>.

Along with it were the Gutenberg Bible, Seventh Edition, holy water, holy oil, and Peter's Cross.

"Let's try it."

"A genre shift from a fantasy war to classic exorcism."

"Wow, a fox yōkai gets possessed by demons, and this is what happens."

The three each took a holy relic and stepped forward.

"First, let's weaken it. Exorcism will work better if its body is weakened."

"How? It's too large to bind..."

"I just fired a Dragon."

"What?"

"Pardon?"

The two stared blankly at the detonator Pastor Park had pulled from inside his clothes.

A Dragon was coming.

Yohan knew what that meant, and his face went pale.

"Yohan. Bind it at the right moment. I'll give the signal."

"Pastor Park... I think you're even more of a brute than I thought."

"You little punk?!"

Pastor Park gave him a solid knuckle rap on the head.

Yohan nearly passed out from the blow ringing through his skull, but it was an impact he had become used to in Dream Journey to the Peach Blossom Land.

"Well... I should get used to it. Still, nothing weakens an opponent like physical force."

Holding Saint Patrick's Bell, Pastor Go looked toward the starry sky.

A Dragon was falling.

* * *

Dragon

The Great Monster Annihilation Warhead, Dragon Spear.

A consecrated bunker-buster created by the Catholic Church.

It carried a twenty-ton warhead and flew at Mach 7. It could only be launched by a special detonator permitted to Paladins of the Vatican City Holy Knights.

To create it, spiritual power unconsciously gathered from hundreds of thousands of worshippers in cathedrals was drawn together through the Pope's sermon and used to consecrate the steel dragon.

The detonator's original owner had been a pastor once recognized as East Asia's only Paladin.

But he had been gone for a long time.

Its authority had passed to his mentor, Pastor Park Tae-jin.

"Your Eminence, the thirteenth Dragon has requested launch authorization."

"······It's Pastor Park's Dragon."

Cardinal Rosinald, director of the Vatican City Holy Knights' anti-monster response bureau, commonly called the Vatican Special Affairs Bureau, sighed at the report.

It had originally been one of three Dragons meant to sink the sea monster Kraken in the Bermuda Triangle.

He had been dumbfounded when he heard that they had recovered and repaired one that had failed to launch, but it was actually being fired after all.

Was this fate, too?

He had been startled when they requested permission to use a Dragon not long ago.

"Authorization granted."

"Yes, Your Eminence!"

Once Cardinal Rosinald approved it, a ballistic missile launcher in the East Sea launched the Dragon.

It reached Mach 7 in an instant, crossed the skies above the East Sea, and would plunge into the resurrected fox in Kyoto.

"Lord, let the spear You have blessed become the spear that pierces the leader of evil."

The priests in the Vatican Special Affairs Bureau's situation room made the sign of the cross alongside the cardinal.

Soon.

The Dragon, tracing its final trajectory, fell toward the fox.

Footnotes:

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