"Tch... Mai-dono, that was far too hasty of you," the shadowy man noted, his voice dripping with smooth, casual detachment.
Leaping gracefully off his elevated platform, he deliberately avoided entering the array's perimeter. Instead, he stood outside the boundary, just in time to spectate as a ruthless, arrogant smile spread across Mai's face. Suddenly, a massive, invisible column of downward gravity slammed onto Ayumi, cracking the stone courtyard beneath her feet.
"Ack..." she wheezed through gritted teeth.
The pressure was suffocating. Mai's flaming blade dug violently into her remaining hand, the steel splitting her fingers and tearing the palm clean in half. Grimacing through the pain, Ayumi pivoted on her heel and launched a ferocious, counter-kick aimed at his throat. But before her feet could even connect, a secondary wave of downward pressure slammed into her leg, violently driving it back into the dirt mid-strike.
Ayumi's sharp eyes darted across the perimeter, instantly locking onto the four glowing pillars Mai's vanguard had planted.
"Hmph... to think you actually have someone on your side who possesses the knowledge to refine Spiritual Iron," she mused, her voice strained under the gravity.
"Ohhh... so that is Spiritual Iron...?" the shadowy figure murmured from the sidelines, his eyes narrowing as he analysed the glowing, metallic pillars. A sinister, quiet chuckle escaped his lips. "Hehehe... the Minakaze family truly has done something incredibly interesting. To think they would actively break Royal taboo just to forge that mineral."
The man smiled slightly, a cold, predatory glint in his eye. 'That is yet another magnificent piece of leverage I can hold over their heads when we return... Glancing down at his own palms, he watched as the ambient shadows danced fluidly across his skin like living ink. 'Mmm... but what truly worries me is the state of this domain. The ambient Reiryoku in this Island is so incredibly dense that the boost Mai is receiving from the array right now is something utterly monstrous.'
And stronger, Mai truly was. Receiving the overwhelming spiritual amplification from the Four Poles Array, his raw physical output now vastly eclipsed the weakened maiden's. When Ayumi exhaled a volatile, roaring sphere of her flames, Mai simply swung his blade with a casual, fluid flick. A massive, cascading crescent of spectral Fox Fire erupted from his steel, ruthlessly consuming and smothering her flames until nothing but ash remained.
"Ha... I guess I truly have lost," Ayumi spoke softly, her voice devoid of fear. "It is going exactly the way that Master Orochi wanted, after all."
Before she could even shift her weight, another massive column of invisible, crushing downward force slammed onto her from above, pinning her knees to the cracked stone and locking her completely in place.
"Mmmm... it really is a profoundly funny thing," she whispered, her gaze drifting upward to watch Mai as he began walking toward her with slow, agonisingly deliberate steps.
"Wow... Mai-dono is so incredibly powerful," the low-ranking nobles and warriors whispered excitedly amongst themselves, watching safely from the perimeter.
"To think he managed to totally subdue her in only five short exchanges," a young girl from the prominent Ikozuma clan noted, her fingers clenching her silk robes as her eyes burned with intense passion.
Ever since they left the Academy, she had been utterly infatuated with Mai, trying every conceivable method to capture his cold attention, even going so far as to visit his personal military encampment alone at night. Though rumours had long swirled through the group that the two of them had already shared a bed, Mai had never once acknowledged her presence or her feelings in public. Desperate for a shred of validation, she kept pushing herself to the front of his vanguard, watching his every move with starry-eyed devotion.
"Tell me, brat of the Minakaze..." Ayumi called out, her voice dropping to a hollow, echoing register as Mai stopped just a few paces away from her. Her eyes locked onto his arrogant expression. "Do you honestly believe you can handle the weight of my Karma?"
"Hmph."
Mai didn't even bother to answer. He simply shrugged his shoulders, taking one final step forward. His eyes were cold, venomous, and entirely devoid of mercy as a slow, sly smile spread across his lips, his blade gleaming.
'Tch... if there weren't so many damn eyes watching us right now, she would have made a truly magnificent toy,' Mai thought to himself, his gaze tracking her bound, broken form with a chilling detachment.
"Ahhhhh... what on earth am I even saying?" Ayumi whispered, her failing vision meeting Mai's cold stare.
Suddenly, a hollow, breathless laugh bubbled up from her chest. "Hahahahaha... you... You have the same eyes as my Master."
She remained utterly frozen in place, pinned beneath the suffocating gravity of the array. Her flesh was slowly bleeding out from every single pore; dark crimson dripped down her pale skin as her veins bulged violently and her bones cracked under the sheer, unyielding weight of the atmospheric pressure.
SPLATTT! Grrr Grrrr!
Mai's execution strike was ragged. His blade severed her head from her shoulders with a hard pulling motion. As her head tumbled through the air toward the dirt, the terrifying expression on her face softened, and a small, peaceful smile touched her lips.
"May you live a truly terrible life, descendant of Minakaze," she whispered into the wind.
Thud.
Her head hit the damp earth, rolling a few paces before settling into the grass, her eyes finally dimming.
…
Da…da..dam
…
"Ohhhh... that makes four. All preparations are finally complete."
Orochi stopped dead in his tracks mid-attack, entirely abandoning his current offensive momentum. His head turned slowly toward the west, where Ayumi's life force had just been extinguished.
The terrifying, twisted mask of his face, which had been warped into the likeness of a raging, bloodthirsty demon throughout his battle, suddenly relaxed. The tension melted away, the features softening into a serene, chillingly satisfied smile.
Orochi turned his gaze, calmly watching Yorimitsu, whose physical appearance had undergone a radical, monstrous shift of its own. He stood a little taller, his dark hair falling much longer past his shoulders. The seal of the Ryuu had completely warped, thinning into a single, sharp line that cut straight up through his face and into his hairline, right where a single, ivory horn protruded sharply from his skull.
"Hmmm... you truly are one fascinating creature, Minamoto," Orochi mused, his dual-toned voice echoing across the courtyard.
He glanced upward. At his silent gesture, the dense, suffocating storm clouds parted over the island like a curtain. A single, ominous celestial alignment glimmered in the night sky, and Orochi nodded in cold satisfaction.
"Yes... Everything has perfectly aligned now."
Suddenly, from the eastern sector of the sanctuary where the hanging bodies had been, the roof of the grand pagoda violently shattered. A massive geyser of dark, bloodshot, straight into the heavens. Simultaneously, toward the northern quadrant, the ground groaned and cracked open as yet another shrine rose from the depths of the earth.
"Mmmmm, let's see, yes," Orochi spoke, his voice dropping to a gravelly register. A sickening fracture ripped across his mask as two massive, jagged horns began to protrude from his own skull, tearing through his flesh. "You have a little over three incense sticks' worth of time left to completely defeat me. Fail to do so... and you will die here along with the rest of them, or you could join me." Oroci's head tilted softly.
..
"Tch... all sorcerers are inherently liars," Yorimitsu noted, his expression entirely unbothered by the threat or the offer. His sharp eyes narrowed as he analysed the shifting flow of energy. 'Him slowly explaining the mechanics of the ritual to me... that must be a strict binding requirement for the spell to activate as well.'
With a sudden, violent snap of his wrist, Yorimitsu swung his blade. The sheer wind pressure from the strike instantly cleared the rising dust from the courtyard, revealing the horrific sight of the geysers of blood gathering in the upper atmosphere, forming thick, crimson clouds that completely blotted out the moonlight.