After witnessing Ren Kuroda's sudden surge in power, it was no wonder Enma was shaken to her core.
It wasn't as though she had never encountered half-demons before. In fact, during the ancient age when yokai flourished, she had seen quite a few who could temporarily assume a demonic form. Yet even in that era—let alone now—very few could reach the level Ren had just displayed. Even among the most legendary great yokai, those capable of such power were exceedingly rare.
Enma herself had attained her current strength only through the blessing of Izanami, becoming a being that straddled the line between yokai and god. But Ren? What was his source?
It couldn't be divine power—his own words had made it clear that he stood in opposition to the gods.
"You are strong," Enma admitted at last, her tone losing its earlier laziness. "Stronger than I initially gave you credit for. If that one does not intervene personally, then with your level of power, no one in Yomi could confidently claim victory over you."
She paused, her gaze sharpening.
"But rules are rules. And if we fight seriously, the barrier between worlds may shatter—dragging countless ordinary humans into death along with it."
Her voice grew colder, more resolute.
"So I will give you one final chance. Leave now, and you may still walk away."
A being at Ren's current level—what the system classified as "Transcendent Star Rank," comparable to a mid-tier deity—was not an opponent even Enma could defeat with certainty. And more importantly, a battle between two such forces would wreak catastrophic damage on Yomi itself.
Under normal circumstances, that might not matter. But now, with the boundary between the living world and the underworld growing thinner by the day, any large-scale destruction could cause the realms to bleed into each other.
The miasma of Yomi was poison to the living. If that corruption spilled into the human world, it would turn entire cities into hellscapes overnight.
Even Izanami—for all her hatred toward Izanagi—had never sought the complete annihilation of all life. Her curse had been vengeance, not extinction.
Enma had no desire to trigger a catastrophe that would cost countless innocent lives… nor did she have any interest in the endless "overtime" such chaos would bring.
So, for the first time in ages, she broke her own principles and extended mercy.
Ren, for his part, didn't hesitate.
"If that's the case," he said, meeting her gaze evenly, "then I can take my friends and leave Yomi with me as well, right?"
Avoiding a full-scale battle? He had no objections to that.
Still, the irony wasn't lost on him.
The gods humanity once worshipped had become entities that no longer cared whether humans lived or died—some even seeking to erase them entirely. And yet here in the underworld, beings long feared as bringers of death were the ones worrying about protecting the living.
Enma's answer came without hesitation.
"No."
Her voice was absolute.
"When I say you may leave, I mean you alone. The others who entered Yomi must remain. To enter this realm is to accept death—that is their fate."
She exhaled a thin stream of smoke, her golden eyes steady.
"Given the current circumstances—and your strength, which is sufficient to influence the rules themselves—I am making an exception. But only for you."
Letting Ren go was already a massive concession.
After all, ever since Izanagi had escaped Yomi, Izanami had decreed a single, unbreakable law:
All who enter shall never leave.
Even this exception might earn Enma punishment later. But given Ren's power, she could at least justify it.
Letting everyone go, however? That crossed a line she could not defend.
Those humans had wandered into Yomi by fate.
And death… was the end of that path.
Ren fell silent for a moment.
Then he sighed.
"That's a shame," he said lightly. "Looks like there's nothing left to discuss."
His eyes sharpened, the air around him tightening.
"Then I guess a fight between us really is unavoidable."
He took a step forward, aura flaring.
"If I only wanted to leave by myself, I wouldn't need your permission."
"And if I hadn't come here to save people… I wouldn't have risked stepping into Yomi in the first place."
There it was—the truth laid bare.
Enma's expression darkened.
She had already made the greatest concession she could. Yet this man refused to yield. From her perspective, it looked like he was exploiting her concern over the boundary between worlds—pressuring her into further compromise.
Typical of a yokai, she thought coldly. Why would he care about human lives?
But just as that judgment formed, something shifted.
At Ren's feet, a viscous black substance began to seep outward—like tar, like mud, like something far more sinister.
It spread rapidly.
At first, Enma instinctively moved to evade it. The aura radiating from the substance was foul—twisted, malevolent, steeped in corruption.
But then she noticed—
…it wasn't targeting her.
Instead, the black tide surged past her position, flooding the land behind her at incredible speed.
The crimson sky dimmed, swallowed by a creeping veil of darkness.
The barren earth beneath them transformed, warping into a desolate nightmare—rotting trees, scattered bones, a landscape like a dead swamp stretching endlessly in every direction.
And at the center of it all, Ren stood, his voice echoing across the newly formed world:
"Bound by darkness… shaped by malice… governed by demons—"
"Innate Domain—Demon Territory."
The transformation completed in an instant.
A world within a world.
Enma's pupils contracted slightly.
Ren glanced at her, his tone calm, almost casual.
"You're worried our fight might damage the boundary between Yomi and the living world, right?"
He spread his arms slightly, as if presenting the domain itself.
"Funny. That's something I was worried about too."
A faint smile tugged at his lips.
"I may be a half-demon… and I won't pretend I'm a good person."
"But I don't enjoy killing indiscriminately."
His voice softened—just a fraction.
"And I have people I care about in the living world. I'm not about to let them get caught up in something like that."
He lowered his hand, power pulsing through the domain.
"This ability is called an Innate Domain—a completely independent space."
"At my current level, it's stable enough."
He met Enma's gaze directly.
"So even if we go all out here…"
"…it shouldn't affect the outside world at all."
..
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