They had trusted the Kagamori heiress's words—that was why they'd spent half the day painstakingly studying the seal at the ruins.
And yet, their progress had been… embarrassingly minimal.
Still, experts were experts. Whatever she said, they had no grounds to refute it.
But what they had just witnessed—
Ren Kuroda casually tearing open space itself with a single slash, in less than a minute—
That made them seriously start questioning the Kagamori family's so-called expertise.
Sure, they themselves didn't understand anything about seals or barriers.
But when someone else could accomplish the same thing in mere seconds—
While these "professionals" couldn't even open a crack the size of a keyhole after hours of work…
Could they really call themselves experts with a straight face?
"You idiots don't know what you're talking about!" the Kagamori heiress snapped, her face flushed red with anger.
"That guy just now was a monster!
Go ahead—search the entire world. How many people do you think can rip open space that easily?!"
Her pride as a specialist had been challenged by a bunch of amateurs—and this wasn't just about her personal dignity anymore.
This was an insult to the entire Kagamori clan.
And to be fair, this really wasn't their fault.
When it came to seals and barriers, the Kagamori family truly were experts.
Their approach was methodical—like excavating an ancient tomb, breaking through layer by layer with careful precision.
Ren's method, on the other hand…
Was more like blowing the whole thing open with high-yield explosives.
Tearing space apart directly wasn't impossible.
The problem was that it came with far too many uncontrollable variables—and very few people in the world were capable of doing it in the first place.
—
Meanwhile, the very person the Kagamori heiress had just labeled as someone who "lacked aesthetic sense and respect for professionals" had already stepped into the world beyond the rift.
Compared to the human world, the atmosphere here was suffocating.
Death lingered in every corner.
The sky above was an endless expanse of blood-red.
The land below was barren—nothing but rocky hills and desolate plains stretching as far as the eye could see.
Not a single trace of life could be found.
And almost the moment Ren entered—
As if sensing that he was the only being carrying "life" in this world—
Pitch-black creatures began crawling out from all directions, lunging toward him without hesitation.
A cold flash streaked through the air.
Several of the wide-mouthed black monsters that leapt at him were instantly bisected at the waist.
The slash didn't stop there—it continued forward, carving a massive trench into the ground behind them.
"So these are the creatures that attacked Kuka and the others?" Ren muttered. "At this level… they shouldn't have been enough to push them into a corner."
It had been a while since he'd last seen Kuka and the others.
But according to Tsuchigumo-hime, their strength should have improved significantly.
And then—
Ren saw it.
The creatures he had just cut in half…
Weren't dead.
Their severed bodies writhed on the ground, drawn together by some unseen force.
The fragments fused, merging into a grotesque, larger stitched abomination.
And its aura—
Leapt from an A-rank threat to S-rank in an instant.
"I see… so that's how you work," Ren said, narrowing his eyes. "Without a proper countermeasure, you'd definitely be troublesome.
But that won't work on me."
Flames of demonic energy erupted, coiling around the blade of his sword.
"Fūrinkazan Style—Blazing Conquest: Greedy Wolf!"
In the next instant, a blazing slash descended vertically.
With a shrill, agonized scream, the massive stitched creature was split clean in two—
And then immediately engulfed in roaring flames.
The fire consumed both halves completely, reducing them to ash in seconds.
—
"An uninvited living soul… entering the land of Yomi invites only death.
To accept death is your rightful end.
To resist is merely to deepen your sins."
As the last embers faded, a voice—ethereal and distant—echoed through the air.
Then—
Without warning—
A beautiful noblewoman appeared before Ren.
She had a pair of twisted horns upon her head, and in her hand she held an old-fashioned smoking pipe.
Her body reclined lazily atop a drifting cloud, as though she had been there all along.
Ren's eyes widened slightly.
If she hadn't spoken just now—
He wouldn't have noticed her presence at all.
This alone proved it.
She was on a completely different level from those mindless creatures.
The aura surrounding her was… strange.
It carried both the demonic energy of a yokai—
And the divine presence of a god, like the Candleflame Goddess.
"Was it you who pulled my companions into this place?" Ren asked calmly. "What exactly are you… a yokai, or a god?"
If possible, he didn't want to fight her.
Her presence was overwhelming—far stronger than either the Nightblade God or the Candleflame Goddess he had faced before.
Whether he could win was one thing.
But more importantly—
If she delayed him here…
Kuka and the others might not survive.
"If you mean those living ones from before," the noblewoman replied leisurely, taking a slow drag from her pipe, "then they wandered into this realm on their own.
As for me…"
She exhaled a thin stream of smoke, her tone casual.
"You could call me a yokai—and you wouldn't be wrong.
But calling me a god wouldn't be entirely incorrect either.
In your world's terms, I'm usually referred to as a judge of the underworld.
Though when spoken of as a yokai… I am known as Enma."
At her words, Ren's expression grew even more serious.
"So that means… this isn't just some spatial rift," he said quietly. "This is the land of Yomi itself."
Of course he knew the name Enma.
There were countless kinds of yokai, but not all of them dwelled in the human world.
Beings like Enma.
Or the Higanbana.
Or the Aoandon, said to lure humans into the realm of the dead with ghostly tales.
Enma was both a yokai—and something more.
She didn't control the life and death of the living.
But once a living being stepped into the domain of the dead—
Everything was under her authority.
In ancient times, Enma had been revered much like a god, receiving offerings and faith from humans.
At the same time, as a yokai, her ability to harvest the souls of the dead inspired deep fear.
It was precisely this dual nature—
That had given rise to a being that was neither fully god nor fully yokai.
And because she could draw power both from faith like a god—
And from fear like a yokai—
Her strength surpassed that of ordinary gods and yokai alike.