However, Makiya was an ally who had traveled a vast distance to provide support, so Manta held his tongue, choosing instead to grumble silently in his mind.
Makiya quickly reached the capital's city walls. All around him, soldiers had already drawn their weapons, standing ready with arrows nocked and bowstrings pulled taut.
The soldiers were surprised by Makiya's sudden appearance, but they didn't react further. Before the Immortal Army, all humans were natural allies, and those terrifying stone monsters were the only true enemies.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Huge clouds of dust rose from the forest outside the capital. Accompanied by heavy, synchronized footsteps, massive trees slowly toppled, crushed into wood chips under the trampling of stone feet.
The Immortal Army marched forward relentlessly. Under their master's command, they headed straight for the capital of the Land of Demons, grinding everything in their path to dust. Neither mountains nor rivers could hinder their stride.
They carved through mountains and waded through rivers; only when encountering human resistance would the terrifying stone giants raise their long halberds to slaughter any living soul that dared to stand in their way.
"Ready..." The commander on the wall raised his right hand high, then gave the order: "Fire!"
A hail of arrows took to the sky, falling like a dense rain upon the stone legion emerging from the forest.
The arrows had no effect. Even when the sharpened tips struck the stone giants directly in the chest, they did little more than produce a few sparks, failing to even hinder their movements.
The catapults began to operate. Massive boulders crashed into the formations of the Immortal Army, where primitive physical force finally proved effective. The stone giants at the front were struck in the chest by the projectiles, shattering instantly into countless fragments.
The stone spheres maintained their momentum, carving deep furrows into the ground and smashing a dozen more stone giants in succession.
But before the soldiers could even cheer, the shattered stone fragments began to tremble. Under the influence of a mysterious power, the pieces scattered across the ground gathered back together, restoring the giants to their original forms.
The new recruits felt a wave of despair at the sight. It was one thing to hear of the Immortal Army's reputation, but witnessing their resurrection on the battlefield was another experience entirely.
The veterans remained much more composed, numbing themselves to the task of hauling more stone projectiles, doing their best to delay the army's reach toward the walls.
Whoosh!
Makiya appeared directly in front of the stone giants. The mindless constructs identified a biological obstacle and immediately raised their heavy stone halberds, swinging them down at Makiya with brutal force.
Boom!
The heavy halberds smashed a deep crater into the ground, but Makiya skillfully dodged the attack, his figure flickering as he appeared behind a stone giant.
Placing a hand against the back of the statue, Makiya's chakra instantly surged into its body. He immediately detected a sinister, ferocious power nestled deep within, tightly bound to the stone material itself.
This energy was different from chakra, nor was it the Senjutsu chakra he gathered in Sage Mode. The emotional energy mixed within was far too chaotic and complex; to ordinary creatures, it was like a potent toxin that would instantly corrupt the mind and stir an insatiable desire for slaughter.
'I can't absorb this directly; it would need several layers of filtration. It's not as pure as the Ryumyaku in Loulan.'
The stone giants behind him mechanically raised their halberds to strike, but before they could complete their attack, their target suddenly vanished.
Makiya returned to the city wall and expanded his perception to its limit. He had already recorded the frequency of that evil energy. In a perspective invisible to the naked eye, gloomy and sinister ripples of power were emanating from all directions around the capital.
The Immortal Army had completely surrounded the place. Unless the Priestess could fly, there was absolutely no way out.
Unlike human warfare, which often involved besieging three sides while leaving one open, the Immortal Army had no such intention. Their only goal was to kill the Priestess Miroku.
Makiya hadn't seen the marching route of the stone giants while flying here, which meant there were likely numerous unknown underground rock tunnels beneath the Land of Demons, allowing the legion to complete the encirclement undetected.
The Ashiho brothers, Tomotaka and Manta, followed Miroku's orders and rushed from the palace toward the city walls with their katanas in hand. Their eyes scanned the battlements, but they couldn't see Makiya anywhere.
'Is this ninja dead already?' Manta thought with a sense of unease.
Although he disliked ninjas, his duty to the one he served was to protect Makiya's safety. For that, Manta was even willing to sacrifice his own life.
There was no contradiction between the two.
Priestess Miroku walked at the rear. Messengers constantly brought her first-hand reports, and every sentence made her expression darken.
Enemy traces were being discovered in every direction; they were truly surrounded!
Miroku looked up at the sky. The cunning enemy had managed to surround them without anyone noticing. Was she doomed this time?
The Priestess and Moryo were essentially two sides of the same coin. Moryo was born from the negative emotions of humanity, while the Priestess was the opposite; they coexisted yet restricted one another.
This was why Moryo had not appeared personally. Its goal was to deplete the Priestess's power, waiting for the perfect opportunity to devour her and complete its evolution.
Miroku could not truly destroy Moryo; her only option was to seal it. Once she exhausted her strength resisting the Immortal Army or protecting her people, her inner power would lose out in the struggle against Moryo's influence, leading to her eventual consumption.
Makiya's figure leaped high into the air, disengaging from the stone legion and landing atop the towering city wall.
Seeing Makiya reappear unscathed, the Ashiho brothers, who had been frantically searching for him, let out sighs of relief. Manta frowned, intending to complain, but Makiya didn't even acknowledge them, walking straight down the wall and running toward the city's center.
"What's wrong with him?" Tomotaka scratched his head, unable to understand what Makiya was doing.
"Hmph, he must have been scared stiff by the Immortal Army." Manta sheathed his katana and curled his lip in disdain.
He knew ninjas couldn't be trusted. Once faced with a powerful foe, these faithless mercenaries would be the first to flee. Only a loyal samurai was worthy of trust.
Tomotaka opened his mouth to speak. He had a different opinion than his younger brother; after all, why would someone travel such a distance to help only to be easily scared off? However, Manta had always been the more assertive one in their relationship, so Tomotaka decided not to argue.
Makiya ignored the Ashiho brothers. His power was shared across multiple worlds, and as his strength in the Soul Society grew, his soul's intensity increased, greatly enhancing his perception.
Everything in existence has a unique vibration. An Asura from the world of DNF could perceive the fluctuations of all things. While Makiya couldn't perfectly replicate those specific traits, he could still use the method of sensing vibrations to detect foreign energy.
"Ah, so the Ninja-sama has returned." Seeing Makiya walking back, a look of surprise flashed across Miroku's face before she quickly hid it.
Evidently, she also assumed Makiya had lost his nerve after witnessing the Immortal Army.
"Thank you very much for your support and that of Konoha. The Immortal Army will be handled by my retainers and soldiers. You only need to stay by my side," Miroku said quickly. "When the time is right, I hope you won't hesitate to help block the enemies. If the situation becomes truly desperate, you are free to leave on your own."
Miroku was all too familiar with Konoha's ways. They likely didn't want to help but couldn't refuse the Daimyo's request, so they sent a single person to die as a gesture.
She felt some sympathy for Makiya. To be sent alone to support the Land of Demons against such monsters was essentially being abandoned by his village. Anyone in that position would feel terrible.
Makiya nodded to Miroku without speaking. Most of his attention was focused on sensing the energy fluctuations; he had no interest in small talk.
They might misunderstand him, but Makiya was confident that reality would soon force Miroku to see the situation clearly, at which point she would lead him to Moryo.
Makiya moved past Miroku and headed straight for the Priestess's palace.
It seemed to be the exact center of the capital and housed the tallest building.
"Makiya... sama?" Miroku looked at him curiously, wondering what he was doing.
Behind her, the Ashiho brothers ran back, panting. The three of them followed Makiya all the way back to the palace.
After confirming the central point, Makiya directly released his Golden Light to condense a flying sword, which lifted him into the sky.
"That is..." The Ashiho brothers' eyes widened. Flight! This ninja could actually fly!
Makiya's previous landing speed had been so fast that by the time he canceled the flying sword, the guards had barely reacted. They hadn't realized he had flown in directly, assuming he had used some trick to sneak past them.
If he could fly, everything would be much easier!
The three of them felt a surge of hope. There were no flying statues in the Immortal Army. Despite being surrounded, Makiya could simply fly Miroku out of the encirclement, bringing her to the sealing site without wasting her power.
Makiya reached the highest point of the palace, landing on a terrace atop the fifth floor. Miroku and the brothers hurried up the stairs, only to find Makiya sitting cross-legged with his hands joined together.
"What is he doing? Praying?" Manta asked his brother Tomotaka, equally at a loss.
Tomotaka blinked in confusion, also failing to understand.
"Makiya-sama, please listen to me—" Manta tried to get Makiya's attention, but Miroku cut him off.
Miroku stared at Makiya, her eyes filled with intense dread. It was the first time the brothers had ever seen such an expression on the Priestess's face.
Was this the same Priestess who was always so calm and collected?
In Miroku's perception, Makiya felt like a dormant volcano, with surging, torrential magma sealed deep within. It stood silently upon the earth, but once it erupted, it would be a world-ending catastrophe.
The vibrations of all things converged in his mind. Under the control of his powerful soul, he filtered and discarded the chaotic noise until the cold, unique frequency of the Immortal Army became clear.
"Oh, that's quite a lot of them." Makiya slowly opened his eyes, his gaze piercing through the distance toward the forest beyond the walls. "A total of twenty-five thousand stone giants. With these numbers, wiping out a small country would indeed be effortless."
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