Chapter 352: The Way to Kill a God
"I'll leave them in your care for now."
Watching the Inari God and the Nine-Tailed Fox engage in battle, Hikigaya Hachiman descended slowly onto the roof of a high-rise building. After entrusting the three girls to Xiao Wu's care, he leaped down and charged toward the plaza.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Two immense powers clashed violently along the lengths of the chains. Despite the Inari God being a rank higher than the Nine-Tailed Fox, she was currently only able to manage a stalemate. Seeing this, the smile on the Inari God's face instantly vanished, replaced by total concentration as she manipulated her power to suppress the fox.
"It's useless. Perhaps our strength was equal several hundred years ago, but now..."
The Nine-Tailed Fox spoke with a cold sneer while slowly attaching her own power to the runic chains. As the golden divinity began to dim, fine cracks gradually appeared on the surface of one of the chains.
"How is this possible?"
The Inari God's heart jolted at the sight of the cracks. She immediately increased the output of divine power from her body, attempting to repair the chain before the Nine-Tailed Fox could destroy it. However, the speed at which the chain was being compromised far exceeded her expectations. Just as she prepared to salvage it, a crisp snap rang out, and the chain broke into two pieces.
With the binding force of one chain neutralized, the pressure on the remaining chains coiling around the Nine-Tailed Fox suddenly spiked!
"What's the situation?"
Hachiman arrived at the battlefield just in time to see the Inari God's grave expression.
"Very bad. That thing has my power..."
Watching the remaining chains around the Nine-Tailed Fox reach the verge of shattering at any moment, the Inari God's face was filled with helplessness.
"It has your power?"
"Did you forget that the incense of one of my shrines was stolen before? That incense is currently inside that creature's body."
The Inari God jerked her chin toward the Nine-Tailed Fox. The thought of her opponent harboring her own power within its body gave her a massive headache. Although that power was a finite source—impossible to recover naturally unless she was robbed of incense
again—with the stolen essence currently active, it would be nearly impossible to keep the Nine-Tailed Fox here today.
"What if I help?"
Hearing the Inari God's explanation, Hachiman asked the question while simultaneously injecting energy—a fusion of his spiritual and divine power—into the Inari God's body.
"Eh?"
Sensing the influx of a new power, the Inari God turned her head in surprise to look at Hachiman. When did he manage to combine his power with hers to create this new energy?
However, now was clearly not the time for questions. After confirming that Hachiman's power would not be easily corroded by the Nine-Tailed Fox, the Inari God shifted to controlling the silver energy belonging to Hachiman within her body to recast the chains. As the chains gradually turned from gold to silver, the Nine-Tailed Fox, who was struggling to break free, felt the resistance she faced increase significantly.
"Is it that human again?"
Looking at Hachiman standing beside the Inari God in the sky, the Nine-Tailed Fox almost immediately determined that the small fry was responsible for this change.
"Die!"
Filled with resentment, the Nine-Tailed Fox temporarily halted her escape progress. A massive amount of energy began to gather in her mouth, and as the energy took shape, the wicked miasma of all of Chiba began to converge toward her.
"She's using her ultimate (opening her big move) oh."
Unexpectedly, the Inari God let out a very modern-sounding phrase.
"Eh?"
Hearing such a trendy Inari God, Hachiman's brain briefly short-circuited. Seeing this, the Inari God could only sigh helplessly and continue.
"Then I'm using mine too."
"......."
This time, Hachiman understood what the Inari God meant to express. Before he could say anything, the surface of the Inari God's body beside him suddenly lit up with a brilliant glow comparable to the sun...
A black and a white beam of light collided instantly. The resulting shockwave almost instantly leveled the surrounding buildings to the ground.
"Not good!"
Seeing the shockwave continuing to spread toward the neighboring structures, Hachiman's expression turned grim.
"Form the Array!"
Just then, a sharp cry came from the distance. As the figure of the Head Priestess appeared in Hachiman's line of sight, the foxes who had just been resurrected from the Inari Shrine and rushed over shifted into human form one after another. They used the divine power in their bodies to construct a sturdy barrier, firmly locking the shockwave within a specific area.
"ROAR!" x2
Just as Hachiman breathed a sigh of relief because the shockwave was contained, two roars that almost pierced his eardrums rang out beside him. He turned his head to look.
Under the full moon, two giant nine-tailed foxes, both exceeding thirty meters in size, were engaged in a slaughterous struggle within the space constructed by the Inari God.
"Melee combat?"
Watching the Inari God and the Nine-Tailed Fox tangled together, tearing at each other like wild beasts, Hachiman couldn't help but be surprised. After all, for life forms at the level of gods, their method of fighting was so primitive...
"Because ordinary attacks can no longer deal fatal damage to the opponent," the Head Priestess explained, flying up to hover behind Hachiman after dealing with the shockwave that could have destroyed all of Chiba.
"Oh?"
Hearing this explanation for the first time, Hachiman turned to look at the Head Priestess curiously, hoping she would share more information about the God-level tier.
"Speaking of which, Lord Hikigaya, you are almost at the level of a God yourself, right? When the time comes, you will be able to feel it clearly. After reaching the God-level, as long as a sliver of life force remains, it is impossible for you to truly die."
"Moreover, at the God-level, while ordinary spells can cause damage, they are merely like tickling in the face of a God's formidable regenerative abilities."
"The best way to eliminate an opponent of the same God-level is through melee combat. Only by directly destroying the opponent's life core and then using one's own power to disperse the remaining life force can a God-level being be completely killed."
As the only priestess to have survived since ancient times, the Head Priestess clearly understood a great deal about the God-level.
"They are that hard to kill?"
Looking at the two foxes in the distance, who had stopped fighting and were now facing each other down, Hachiman's heart was full of shock.
"Of course. Otherwise, how could they be called Gods?"
"Then what if their power is weakened? Like the Inari God's situation before."
"A deity's status (divine throne) does not demote just because their power weakens. However, because they are weakened, if a rival of the same God-level comes to hunt them..."
Recalling the way most perished deities had met their ends, the Head Priestess fell silent. This was no longer an era belonging to the gods. In Japan, humans only needed five Exorcists to keep the evil spirits thoroughly suppressed. Yet, evil spirits were unaffected by the progress of the era, still lurking in the shadows and accumulating power. Only the lineage of gods like them, who required human incense, was constantly weakening...
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