Yu was not stupid; he did not believe that a cat with less than one percent of its power could hide his aura.
Although that cat indeed possessed considerable power compared to ordinary humans, that power was even weaker than the power of yokai demons. So how could it possibly hide him?
Therefore, when the cat said it wanted to ask him to kill the Heretic Ebisu, suspicion began to grow in Yu's heart.
First, Yu did not believe that an ordinary divine beast would dare try to kill a Heretic God. Second, divine beasts often appeared because of Heretic Gods, usually coming into this world together with them.
So, that cat had not simply appeared out of nowhere as it claimed, but had come into this world under Ebisu's influence!
In other words, when Yu met that cat, Ebisu was already near the shrine!
At first, Yu did not suspect the old woman's identity.
Only after seeing Ebisu did Yu suddenly connect everything in his head.
Eriri had disappeared, and the first aura he sensed truly belonged to a Heretic God.
However, Ebisu had used some trick to hide his aura — no, more precisely, he had imitated his aura as a divine beast and even lured Eriri, all in order to attract him.
As for the reason he wanted to attract him, it was simply because Ebisu had discovered his aura from the very beginning and wanted to lead him into a meeting. Ebisu was the God of Commerce, representing merchants, and most merchants were cunning; they never acted rashly before fully understanding the situation.
And in that shrine, Yu had only met two people: one was the cat that claimed to be a divine beast, and the other was the old shrine miko.
Yu was somewhat familiar with that Ebisu shrine. Edo visited it every year, and Yu would occasionally take the Nakano quintuplets there to play when they were little. Yu had probably already met the shrine maidens of that shrine before; most of them had certain physical defects, similar to Ebisu.
Yu did not know when a healthy old woman had appeared in that shrine, but what he did know was that the old woman was not normal.
Based on all that, Yu already had a certain idea in his mind, which was why he used Moon Authority to teleport the old woman here.
"She really looks like an ordinary person."
Looking at the old woman calmly standing ten thousand meters above the sky just like an ordinary person, Yu could not help but click his tongue in amazement.
Ebisu's ability to hide his identity and alter his aura surprised Yu. He had fought many Heretic Gods, but none of them had been able to escape his perception to this level. Ebisu was the first.
"So I was discovered from the very beginning."
The old woman looked at Yu and spoke, her voice gradually changing from an old woman's voice into a neutral one before finally becoming sharp and hoarse.
As the old woman's words fell, her hunched body suddenly straightened, and then steam began erupting from her entire body, as if all the water in her body were completely evaporating!
Soon after, the old woman's skin became wrinkled, causing Yu to feel a wave of disgust.
Immediately afterward, the old woman's wrinkled skin, like a piece of cloth, suddenly tore apart, shattered, and turned into a sky full of skin fragments, revealing Ebisu's true form before Yu.
What appeared before the young man's eyes was a distorted U-shaped head with eyes on both ends of the U, three arms, and the shriveled legs of a skinny old man.
Looking at the old man, Yu's expression became strange.
He knew that Ebisu was Hiruko, a deformed child, but Yu did not expect Ebisu to be deformed to this extent. He almost had no human shape at all, and it was no wonder Izanagi and Izanami had abandoned him into the sea.
"Campione, you observe very carefully, but I don't know how you found me. Logically speaking, unless I personally appeared before you, you shouldn't have been able to notice me at all~"
Ebisu waved his hand, and the old man sitting on the dolphin who still looked somewhat human transformed into a goldfish with a hook hanging from its mouth, floating toward Ebisu's third hand, where Ebisu caught it.
Using Wind to support himself while sitting on the dolphin, Ebisu looked at Yu with his gray-black eyes and spoke.
"I didn't actually notice you; I was just guessing."
Yu shrugged. The things he had noticed earlier were not strong evidence. If anything, they were only Yu's assumptions, or perhaps his sixth sense as a God Slayer.
Hearing that, Ebisu, who had just been sitting on the dolphin with a deep and mysterious posture, froze. His completely inhuman face became extremely displeased. However, thinking about the power Yu had shown earlier, Ebisu did not easily move against him.
Yu had tested him earlier, and he had also tested Yu, right?
Only, he did not get any results, while his true form had been exposed by Yu.
Ebisu was a god who valued his life. He had finally escaped from mythology and arrived in the modern world. If he were sent back into mythology now, if he had to meet the parent gods who had abandoned him with such hatred...
Ebisu was unwilling! Moreover, he still had not brought divine punishment upon this land, so how could he leave so easily?
"Campione, you are very good, but unfortunately, far too arrogant."
After regaining his composure, Ebisu remained silent for a while before suddenly showing a strange smile toward Yu. His pale, sharp shark-like teeth were neatly arranged inside his mouth, and combined with Ebisu's bizarre face, they made Yu feel constant discomfort.
After Ebisu finished speaking, he did not hesitate. He raised his hand and waved it. The next moment, the wall of Wind blocking the fish suddenly collapsed, and the fish rushed toward the people below.
"Go! Go and slaughter those sinners who pollute the sea!"
Seeing this, Ebisu swung his large hand, and his aura suddenly surged. As if influenced by Ebisu, the sea creatures rushed toward the crowd below without hesitation.
"Whoosh~"
Two enormous whales led the attack, their truck-sized bodies charging toward the people below as if they wanted to crush all the humans who hunted their species into pieces.
Yu silently watched this scene, not stopping Ebisu or the deep-sea fish.
He was not the guardian god of those people. Moreover, Japan had caused enormous damage to the ocean over the years, and whalers would hunt large numbers of whales every time they went out.
Yu had not stopped those things before, so he certainly would not stop them now.
If those whalers did it to earn money, feed their families, and survive, then the actions of those fish now were the ocean's revenge.
Yu was neither a messenger of nature nor a messenger of humanity, so he would not interfere too much.
The reason he had initially used the wall of Wind to stop those fish was only to give the Nakano quintuplets a chance to escape quickly. Yu believed that Ichika and the others were not stupid and understood that the current situation was not a joke.
Estimating the time, Yu felt that Ichika and the others had already returned to the villa complex.
Inside the villa complex, Yu had already arranged a group of Moon God Envoys. He had even summoned Lancelot with Joyeuse and ordered him to return to the villa complex for protection. As for the other people, Yu had also arranged a large number of Moon God Envoys and certain impurities.
Moon God Envoys could be considered an unsolvable existence when it came to physical attacks, but if a Moon God Envoy became trapped, only impurities could help.
"The whales, the whales are falling toward us!!!"
"Wait, no, quickly, run!"
"Boom!!!!"
When the Wind was taken under Ebisu's control and withdrawn, the fish empowered by Ebisu became avengers from the deep sea. In just a single breath, they crashed down from great heights directly into the urban area.
At that moment, people also realized that something was wrong. The fish filled them with fear and terror. But when people reacted and tried to turn and flee in panic, it was already too late.
How could the fish let them go? When humans hunted in large numbers, they had never thought about sparing the fish.
Rumbling and dust rose at the same time. An enormous whale, like a meteor, slammed into a building and destroyed it. When the whale emerged from the ruins, its scar-covered body was stained crimson.
It was unknown whether that crimson color was blood flowing from the whale's wounds or the blood of the people inside the building.
Besides the whales, there were also marlins, like oceanic spears, turning into silver streaks of light. Every flash meant a head heavily falling to the ground.
In an instant, the city below turned into a scene of hell.
"Heh, Campione, won't you save those people?"
Listening to the screams of the people below, Ebisu's ugly face twisted into a smile as he looked at Yu and asked.
In truth, Ebisu did not expect his actions to succeed, because Yu was here and could stop the fish at any moment if he wished.
But Yu did not do so. Why? Ebisu was not sure, perhaps… Yu too had become completely disappointed in humanity.
"Isn't killing you the same as saving them?"
Yu smiled faintly, and as he spoke, killing intent began to rise around him.
"Campione, I still say the same thing: you are far too arrogant!"
Seeing Yu like this, Ebisu sneered mockingly as the corners of his lips curled upward. As his words fell, a figure suddenly appeared behind Yu.
The moment the figure appeared, a pair of shriveled bluish-black hands with long dark-purple nails suddenly shot forward, directly piercing through Yu's chest.
"Campione, I don't understand how you became a God Slayer, but… you are far below my expectations."
Ebisu's murky eyes, after successfully carrying out the sneak attack, shone with contempt as he spoke to Yu.
However, just as Ebisu's voice faded, a sharp and piercing sensation, as if it could cut through everything, arrived behind him.