This had been Shinji's intention and plan from the very beginning.
He knew the setting of Noragami, though he had not known that an incarnation of a god or buddha could also undergo generational succession through Nirvana, before their so-called "heavenly mandate" was fulfilled.
But he also understood that against beings connected to gods and buddhas, ordinary methods would not truly work.
Birth, aging, sickness, and death were fatal to mortals.
Not necessarily to those related to gods and buddhas.
Gods and buddhas relied on faith to build their power.
Faith relied on divinity.
To deal with them, one had to shatter the shell of divinity and deliver the ultimate humiliation.
…
However, Uesugi Kenshin ultimately succeeded in achieving "Nirvana."
After all, she was an incarnation of a god or buddha, connected to mythology. Once self-annihilation and Nirvana began, they were not so easily interrupted.
In Shinji's impression, the only one capable of interrupting the generational succession ceremony of gods and buddhas was the Lord of the Heavenly Gods, the ruler of Takamagahara, the supreme deity of Shinto, Amaterasu Ōmikami.
An incarnation of a god or buddha clearly was not.
But Shinji's goal had already been achieved.
He had never intended to completely block Uesugi Kenshin's return, let alone completely destroy the Echigo Uesugi clan.
He had only meant to delay and inflict enough damage on the Uesugi.
So, before the five hundred most faithful believers of Bishamonten, he had shattered the inviolable golden body of Bishamonten's earthly incarnation, making a "god-buddha" kneel before him.
And he had left his own "thread" within Uesugi Kenshin's soul, within the unfolding Nirvana of self-annihilation.
From then on,
Even if Bishamonten descended again in Echigo, its faith would be impure, no longer aloof.
From then on,
That being would, from the depths of its being, be unable, and dare not entertain thoughts of opposing him.
Otherwise, the Spirit-Seeking Bow Arm Change, with its inevitable hit… would make it kneel again.
Thus, the golden light scattered, and this "generation" of Uesugi Kenshin dissipated in humiliation.
Thus,
The five hundred elite personal guards looked up, bewildered, their eyes empty.
All momentum and force had vanished with the god's kneeling.
Shinji did not trouble them.
No need.
He needed them to return, to spread the news of the god's kneeling…
That was enough.
Watching the five hundred elite personal guards retreat north in disarray, raising dust, and the Hōjō army departing in silence, Shinji turned his head. He saw Kikyō's gaze on him.
Her expression was strange, somewhat… odd?
As if to say, so this is what you like?
Shinji's face was expressionless, his zombie face saving him again.
But just then,
In the moment he turned,
The sky changed.
A second ago, the eastern horizon had shown the pale light of dawn, the sun slowly climbing along the mountain ridges.
The next second,
The light vanished.
As if someone had taken a massive curtain, starting from the western sky, and drawn it inch by inch, swallowing the newly risen sunlight.
It was grey-white demonic aura, so dense it was almost tangible, surging from the western horizon, like an invisible wall spreading east at a visible speed.
The sky over a hundred miles was covered.
The weather over all of Musashi Province changed in an instant.
Dawn faded. Clouds pressed down.
Daylight was gone.
Shinji's hand went back to Muramasa's hilt.
He felt it.
Demonic aura.
A demonic aura so vast it was hard to describe.
Not the turbid energy of a Seventh Transformation demon that could cover an area, not the oppressive force of Kidōmaru that could pressure miles around.
True demonic aura that altered the weather.
Demonic aura that reversed the airflow over all of Musashi Province, so vast it was despair-inducing.
In Shinji's understanding, only one level of demon in this world could do this.
Etherealization.
A great demon that had completed twelve transformations, entering the Thirteenth Transformation.
Kikyō's expression changed.
Grave.
Solemn.
Standing before the torii gate, she gripped her bow. Spiritual power surged spontaneously from her palm, white light seeping between her fingers.
Behind her, Momiji and Botan in the shrine were so frightened they could barely stand.
The pressure of that demonic aura, even through the barrier, made it hard for them to breathe.
Botan collapsed to the ground, her talismans scattered. Momiji clung to a torii pillar, her face pale.
Shinji's gaze went straight to the sky.
At the center of the churning turbid clouds.
A shadow was falling.
Falling straight down from a great height.
Like a meteor from beyond the sky.
The grey-white demonic aura was torn apart by that shadow, forming a massive vortex. At the center of the vortex was blackness, not because of darkness, but because the thing itself swallowed all the light around it.
Accompanying its fall was a wildness.
A domineering, irrational wildness that made every living thing under heaven want to prostrate itself in fear.
A great demon.
A true great demon!
The direction of its fall, Kaede Village.
Boom!
That shadow crashed down.
With the brute force that tore a hole in the sky, with the savagery that made the demonic aura for miles reverse, that colossal thing plummeted straight down from the center of the grey-white demonic vortex.
The ground cracked.
The shockwave spread in all directions from the impact point. Soil, rubble, and uprooted trees were swept up by the air pressure into a ring-shaped storm wall, pushed out for hundreds of paces.
The barrier trembled violently as the shockwave hit. Kikyō poured all her spiritual power into stabilizing the light.
Momiji and Botan were knocked down again. Little Kaede ran out from the backyard at the noise and ran straight into Kikyō's arms, caught one-handed.
The dust cleared.
At the impact point was a crater twenty yards across. The rock layer at the bottom was fractured into a spiderweb, grey-white demonic smoke still rising between the rubble.
At the center of the crater, something crouched.
Seven and a half meters.
That was its height while crouching.
Its size was immense and astonishing.
Though it had a vaguely humanoid outline, its two thick legs were tucked beneath it, its knees bent backward like a spider's hind limbs. Its wide feet dug into the bedrock.
Six arms extended from its torso.
The top two were the thickest, resting on its knees, their knuckles as wide as bowl openings.
The middle two were slightly thinner, crossed over its chest.
The lowest two were the longest, hanging to the ground, their fingertips buried in the soil.
A white bone mask covered its entire face. The mask was shaped somewhere between human and spider: a broad forehead, flaring cheekbones, a sharp chin. Its surface was smooth as porcelain, with only three narrow slits left for its eyes and mouth.
Behind those slits were two masses of greenish-yellow light.
Behind the bone mask, red hair was wild and disheveled.
Tsuchigumo.
A great demon.
A true great demon.
When Shinji reached the outskirts of Kaede Village, his crimson demon mask was already back on his face, purple electric arcs jumping around him.
He recognized this thing in an instant.
From Kyoto.
Under Hagoromo Gitsune, no, more like an ancient great demon that Hagoromo Gitsune had persuaded to act.
Four hundred years ago, it had challenged the then-Master of All Demons, was wounded, and fell into a deep slumber.
In later times, even Nurarihyon, who became the Master of All Demons in Edo, dared not face its edge.
"The Shikon Jewel." Three words squeezed from the gaps in the bone mask, rough, deep, like the rumble of a boulder rolling down a mountain compressed into human speech. "I've come for the Shikon Jewel."
"Who has it? Hand it over."
Its voice was not loud, but the demonic aura that poured forth made the ground for miles tremble. Even the spiritual light of the barrier showed visible ripples.
"Otherwise I'll flip this land, people and mountains, all together."
Before it finished speaking, it moved.
The two lowest arms swept out.
Just a wave.
As casual as a person swatting a fly.
But the air pressure from that sweep ground everything within a hundred yards to dust, soil churning, rubble flying.
Kikyō had already passed little Kaede to Momiji and Botan, telling them to take her into the main hall.
The white-and-red shrine maiden stood again before the torii gate, longbow in hand, spiritual power condensing.
Her face was cool and solemn.
Shinji landed beside her. Their eyes met for an instant in the dim light of the demonic-aura-filled sky.
No words needed.
No superfluous communication.
Just that instant of eye contact was enough for them to coordinate seamlessly.