The suspended downpour suddenly broke, crashing back down onto the earth in a torrential deluge.
'I have to finish this right now!' Inoue thought, a guttural growl rumbling from deep within his chest.
Crack!
A loud clap of thunder rumbled just then...
"Secret Art: Divine Spear!" Inoue called out.
The razor-sharp claws extending from Inoue's massive paws elongated, gleaming like polished silver blades before erupting into roaring, divine orange flames. Snapping his sail-like wings backwards with explosive force, he blasted the surrounding floodwaters outward.
Inoue transformed into a blinding streak of orange light, charging directly at the monstrosity.
Crossing his path at high velocity, Inoue slashed violently with his right claw, tearing from left to right, his left claw carving from right to left. His flaming blades carved deeply through the entity's chest and torso, etching a massive, burning 'X' into its bone-white flesh.
"Kkkkkrrrt...!"
The creature wheezed, clutching its torso with both hands. The deep, hollow gash oozed thick, black tar-like substance, but before it could knit itself back together, Inoue's holy fire caught hold, violently scorching the wound from the inside out.
'That took a massive toll on my Reiryoku... but I think I actually got it—'
Inoue's breath caught in his throat.
The scorched flesh surrounding the 'X' began to shrivel and bubble violently. Instead of trying to heal the burned tissue, the monster simply shed it, dropping the massive lump of ruined flesh onto the muddy ground like a piece of melting, burning rubber.
"KKKKKKRRRRRRR!"
The creature roared, the sound vibrating through the rain-soaked air.
High above its faceless head, a dense, crimson orb of concentrated Reiryoku began to coalesce between its two horns. The radiant heat pulsing from the sphere was so extreme that every falling raindrop within meters instantly sizzled and flash-vaporised upon contact, cloaking the monster within an expanding, blinding shroud of white steam.
"Onmyōdō?!" Inoue gasped, but he didn't have a single second to ponder.
A razor-thin beam of crimson light shot through the steam fog, scorching the muddy ground instantly dry and turning the sludge back into baked earth. Moments before impact, Inoue flapped his sail-wings violently, diving sideways to evade the blast.
Though the searing heat singed the fur along his flank, the beam tore past him and slammed directly into the translucent boundary wall behind him. The entire barrier shuddered violently, micro-fractures splintering across its surface with a sharp crack.
'No... that isn't Onmyōdō,' Inoue realised as he hovered in the air, his chest heaving. 'That's pure, unrefined Reiryoku!'
Before he could stabilise his flight, hundreds of glowing crimson spheres materialised in the air surrounding him, encircling him in an instant.
"Huh?! Shit!"
Inoue dove toward the earth, but the hovering spheres were relentless. They swarmed after him like a hive of angry hornets, detonating in fiery bursts whenever they drew near. Though Inoue possessed superior agility, the sheer density and volume of the barrage proved overwhelming.
He couldn't dodge them all. One of the crimson orbs locked onto his trajectory and slammed directly into his side.
BOOOOOOM!
The resulting detonation was exponentially larger than any of the individual blasts. As the monster's compressed, volatile Reiryoku collided with the divine Flames of Kita cloaking Inoue's body, the two opposing energies violently amplified one another, triggering a catastrophic explosion that engulfed the entire courtyard in a blinding flash of fire.
"Kukukukukuku..."
The creature's laugh echoed through the courtyard, sounding like a blunt mallet pounding against hollow wood.
"Wea... weak... You are so weak..."
A jagged, lip-less mouth ripped open across its faceless skull. It looked down arrogantly at Inoue, who lay slumped in the mud, bleeding profusely. One of his sail-wings had been severed completely at the root, and crimson blood trickled from his ears, eyes, and nose.
'Damn it... He really got me,' Inoue thought, his vision blurring as hot blood pooled over his forehead and dripped into his eyes.
'I was already drained from trying to force that spatial teleportation through the boundary... On top of that, channelling the Flames of Kita when I have no natural affinity for them drained what little Reiryoku I had left.'
"Weak... Weak..." the creature repeated endlessly, spewing the word over and over like a sinister toddler that had just learned its very first phrase.
'I guess... this is how I die, huh? Well, figures. After all I have done in my life, I guess this is my karma?' Inoue thought, gritting his bloody fangs.
Shaking violently, he dug his remaining claws into the mud and forced himself back up onto his knees.
'If I'm going to die here anyway... I might as well give him everything I've got left!'
Gathering every remaining drop of Reiryoku in his body, Inoue unleashed a final, desperate roar.
The flames engulfing his body flared violently, shifting from deep orange to searing yellow, then white, before finally settling into a brilliant, blinding shade of royal blue. The heat radiating from his form distorted the surrounding air, warping the silhouettes of nearby buildings into shimmering mirages. Beneath his paws, the mud bubbled, solidified into glass, and then melted directly into churning magma.
Looking down at Inoue, the creature froze. The arrogant, childish demeanour it had displayed seconds ago vanished instantly as its predatory instincts screamed a single, desperate command:
RUN!
Yet, trapped by its newly developed ego, the monster refused to flee. Standing tall against the suffocating heat, it began frantically charging its own final attack. A brilliant light coalesced between its horns, deepening from crimson into a volatile, dark purple.
"Secret Technique: Deity Roa—"
Before Inoue could shout the full name of his technique, the roaring blue flames surrounding him abruptly snuffed out. His massive Guardian Form collapsed into light, shrinking instantly back into a tiny, blood-soaked two-tailed cat.
As Inoue plummeted toward the earth, he didn't hit the ground. A pair of steady, gentle hands caught him out of the air.
"Master... you're here..." Inoue whispered, his heavy eyelids fluttering shut as unconsciousness took him.
"You did well, Inoue," Yorimitsu murmured softly.
Beside them, the glowing crimson butterfly Gabimaru had created flapped its wings one last time and dissolved into thin air.