Just as the outside world was thrown into chaos beneath the night's crimson maples, the ancestral hall stood in absolute silence.
Passing through the long corridor, Shion felt a wave of scorching heat rush toward her.
The interior resembled the heart of a volcano. Jagged stone platforms floated over a churning sea of magma, each one barely large enough to stand on. One misstep would mean plunging into the molten abyss below—reduced to nothing in an instant.
The moment Shion stepped inside, a hoarse voice echoed from the darkness ahead.
"You've grown."
Yomi… no.
At this point, it was more accurate to call him Mōryō.
The spirit regarded her with a frail expression, a trace of nostalgia in his voice.
"You look just like Miroku."
He slowly pushed himself upright from his chair. His body was weak—pitifully so.
Even with forbidden medical ninjutsu sustaining him, this mortal vessel could not withstand housing the soul of a calamity like Mōryō. Over the past few days, the body had already reached its absolute limit.
"I remember that day clearly," Mōryō continued, his voice darkening. "Leading the Ghost Legion, I stood on the brink of conquering the Five Great Nations. The millennium kingdom I envisioned was within reach."
His eyes sharpened.
"But because of your mother—because of the power of the shrine maidens—everything was lost."
Shion's breath trembled.
In her mind, the scene replayed—
The colossal golem advancing relentlessly.
The cliff's edge behind her.
A sea of magma below.
The stone blade raised high, descending without mercy—
"Stay back!"
Her voice rang out instinctively.
In that instant, the bell at her chest glowed brilliantly. Several pink beams shot forth, slicing through the three ghost golems before her and reducing them to scattered rubble.
"…What?"
Shion stared at the shattered remains, then at the bell around her neck.
"What's with that look?" Mōryō scoffed. "You still don't understand your own power?"
He shook his head faintly.
"That surprises me more than anything. What have they been teaching you all these years?"
His words struck her like a whip.
"You have no idea," Shion said through clenched teeth. "Every day… every single day… I've been preparing to defeat you—"
"To perfect your sealing technique?" Mōryō interrupted coldly. "To seal me again?"
He let out a hollow laugh.
"Do you truly believe you can?"
Shion subconsciously gripped the bell.
Ryoma's voice echoed in her memory—
Believe in yourself.
You can do it.
Her steps, though hesitant, carried her forward across the floating stone until she stood directly before him.
Mōryō's gaze did not waver.
"Let me make one thing clear," he said quietly. "I cannot kill you. And you do not possess the power to destroy me."
A faint smile curled at his lips.
"That is because we… were once a single divine being."
Shion's eyes widened.
"Liar! You're trying to shake my resolve!"
"Why would I need to lie?" Mōryō replied disdainfully. "The so-called 'seal' is nothing more than merging you and me into one."
His voice lowered.
"When your mother, Miroku, chose to seal me… she chose to accept that fate. She now exists within me."
A flicker of something unreadable crossed his face.
"Long ago, 'I' was too powerful. To prevent that power from being misused, my consciousness was divided into two."
He raised a trembling hand.
"Two hearts—guarding one another, yearning for one another, watching over one another. Coexisting."
His voice echoed through the volcanic chamber.
"Before we even realized it… we were called shrine maiden and Mōryō."
"Shut up! I won't listen to your lies!"
Shion's voice rang through the chamber.
Without hesitation, she strode to the sealing platform at the rear of the hall. Raising her hands, she formed a precise sequence of hand seals, her chakra surging outward.
"Activate… formation… release!"
Four violet orbs of light materialized around her, floating at the cardinal points. The sealing formula inscribed across the stone floor ignited, its markings blazing as a translucent barrier rose, enclosing the platform in a dome of radiant energy.
"An enchantment…" Mōryō narrowed his eyes, his expression unreadable.
Within the barrier, the ground trembled. A white sarcophagus slowly ascended from beneath the magma-scorched stone—the vessel that contained Mōryō's physical body.
Shion inhaled sharply.
This was it.
If she sealed the soul before it could reunite with its body, everything would end here.
But in the next instant—
Mōryō's figure burst forward.
The violent surge of chakra tore apart Yomi's mortal body from within. Flesh ruptured under the strain, unable to withstand the demonic force erupting through it. Yet even as the vessel collapsed, the spirit itself shot toward the barrier like a streak of black lightning.
"No—!"
Shion immediately understood the consequence.
If Mōryō's soul fused with its original body, the seal would become infinitely more difficult—perhaps impossible.
She accelerated her hand seals, chakra flaring wildly.
But she was half a step too late.
A torrent of pitch-black mist exploded from Yomi's ruined corpse and slammed directly into the white coffin.
"BOOM!"
A deafening shockwave tore through the ancestral hall.
The ground split open. Cracks spiderwebbed across the stone platforms as pillars of dark chakra erupted upward. One after another, massive purple-black dragon heads burst from the earth, their forms coalescing from condensed malice and ancient resentment.
The air thickened.
The demonic chakra was so dense it felt tangible—like writhing tentacles lashing through the air. The pressure bore down on Shion's chest, stealing her breath.
"ROOOOAR—!"
The dragon's roar manifested as visible soundwaves, blasting outward and causing the entire hall to quake violently. Chunks of rock broke free from the ceiling, crashing into the magma below.
When the tremors finally subsided—
A colossal, multi-headed demonic dragon, wreathed in pitch-black chakra, loomed before Shion.
Mōryō… had fully awakened.
(End of Chapter)
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