Yorimitsu blurred forward, his boots kicking up clouds of bone-dust with every explosive step. From the opposite flank, Gabimaru mirrored him, his hands gripping a fresh blade forged from his own concentrated, steaming blood. There were two streaks of red and blue light closing in on the centre.
SWOOSSSH!
They swung in perfect synchronisation, a dual upward strike.
TANG!
A single, sustained note vibrated through the domain. Harumichi didn't dodge; he simply ceased to be there. He reappeared a few paces away, completely untouched. In his place, a massive, gnarled tree erupted instantly from the sea of skulls, its branches surging like tentacles to wrap around the two boys.
"Tch!"
With blinding speed, they carved through the wood, woodchips flying like shrapnel as they dropped back to the ground, resetting their stances.
While Harumichi was focused on the front, Shion and Watanabe struck from the shadows behind him. Watanabe lunged, his blade coated in a white frost, but at the apex of his strike, the leather strap on his sandal snapped cleanly.
His balance vanished. His lethal strike fell inches short as he tumbled forward, his face hitting the jagged bone-soil.
"Got you..." Harumichi whispered.
DO-TA DO!
The Koto notes were played in a rapid, staccato succession. In the same breath, a dozen rusted, giant nails materialised in the air and hammered downward, pinning Watanabe's legs to the ground.
"AHHHHHHH!"
Watanabe's cry tore through the air. But before the final set of nails could pierce his skull, his body turned pitch-black and dissolved into the shadows beneath him. The nails slammed into the earth where his head had been a millisecond before.
"Mmmm. That girl again... her shadow sorcery is getting in my way," Harumichi hissed.
He glanced toward the bone-mountain to find Shion emerging from the darkness, pulling Watanabe's mangled legs out of the shadow-void. Blood splattered onto the white skulls as she began wrenching the rusted nails from his flesh.
"Damn it! Freeze your wounds over!" Yorimitsu roared, turning back to the demon. He threw his hands forward, unleashing a massive blast of orange fire.
Tap!
The sound of Watanabe's blood hitting the liquid in the Great Cauldron was impossibly loud, echoing like a hammer against a bell. In that same instant, a black, searing mark manifested on Watanabe's forehead, a tight, obsidian spiral that pulsed with a rhythmic, sickly light.
"Hehehe..." Harumichi's laugh was like dry parchment tearing. "The Wheel of Dharma has begun to turn."
The spiral began to slowly rotate, its edges burning away as it etched itself deeper into Watanabe's skull.
"Tch... damn it. He's been cursed again," Yorimitsu hissed, his eyes fixed on the mark.
"Does he get off from being cursed all the time?!" Yorimitsu spat. He could feel the air around Watanabe warping; the spiral was siphoning Watanabe's Reiryoku into the air of the domain.
"I shall now tell you how this space works," Harumichi's voice rang out, vibrating with a resonance that made the boys' teeth ache. He placed his Koto down and balanced on it with one hand.
"This Caldron is called Shichishō no Kama."
"Hmmm.." Yorimitsu brow furried listerning to Harumachi
"It requires seven sacrifices for the forge... then seven more for it to unlock. The Seven states of the human spirit: Fear, Sorrow, Desire, Anger, Regret, Hope, and Acceptance."
"What the hell are you talking about? Why are you telling us this?!" Yorimitsu shouted, his chest tightening as if an invisible hand were squeezing his heart.
"Hhehehe," Harumichi chuckled, a large, unnatural grin screeched across his face, his mouth stretching ear-to-ear to reveal rows of needle-sharp teeth.
Da... da... DAM!
Yorimitsu felt a hard tug against his chest.
"I already have four of them," Harumichi whispered, his voice gaining a frantic, rhythmic speed. "The ones you left outside the Kekkai... two of them shared the same emotion, acceptance, since they were servants, so they only counted as one. But the other two were true warriors, just like you. And now that I have his blood... that makes six." He said, pointing at Watanabe.
TANG!
A soft, mournful chime of a bell rang out, shivering through the bone-filled air. Harumichi didn't pause. His words began to spill out faster, driven by a dark, ritualistic fervour.
"According to the laws of this Kekkai, once the cauldron is filled with the blood of four in succession, I can force the others trapped within the barrier to participate."
CLAP!
Harumichi slammed his palms together.
"The contract is complete!"
Blinding shafts of red light erupted from the demon's chest, splitting into jagged streaks that struck Yorimitsu, Gabimaru, and Shion. Instantly, the same obsidian spiral omen burned itself into their foreheads. The air grew heavy as the marks began to glow, siphoning their life force.
"Shit!!!" Yorimitsu roared, clutching his head as the searing heat of the mark bit into his skull.
"Do not fret," Harumichi groaned, his voice turning wet and strained. "For the privilege of binding you all to the ritual, I had two conditions: revealing the technique used to contract it, and surrendering a massive portion of my own power. Our Reiryoku levels are now... somewhat equal, so rejoice. Hehhehe though... mmmmhhhh!" he groaned.
Harumichi suddenly plunged his obsidian fingers into his own chest. The sound was slimy and visceral, the tearing of demonic muscle echoing in the silence. When he pulled his hand out, in his palm sat something small, glowing, and twitching with a frantic life of its own.
It looked like a Yōsei (Fairy) with delicate wings fluttering against the blood on his hand, its tiny face twisted in an eternal silent scream.
"If I eat this mountain Yōsei ... I can raise my level to just one step above all of you," Harumichi whispered, his eyes gleaming with a manic, starving light.
CRUNCH!
The visceral sound of bone and spirit snapping filled the air. A spray of iridescent, glowing fluid coated Harumichi's chin as he chewed the shrieking creature. A sudden, oppressive pulse of Reiryoku exploded outward.
In one swift, blurred movement, Harumichi repositioned his Koto.
THOOM!
A shockwave of pure sound slammed into the squad, blasting them backwards across the bone-field. Yorimitsu dug his fingers into the skulls to stop his slide, his teeth gritted against the pressure.
"Now that we are connected, it is so much easier to have control over your fortunes!"
…
"Keshshh Keshhh Keshhh." Harumichi's choking, wet laugh echoed through the domain. His fingers began to dance across the strings, a haunting melody.
'Shit... shit... shit!' Yorimitsu's mind raced, his pupils dilating as he analysed the shifting flow of energy.
'Think! How do we defeat someone who can steal fortune?"