Even though Tsubaki was already kneeling on the rocky slope, her spiritual power sealed, her body in a mess, her scheme exposed, her rhetoric ineffective, and her two junior sisters wavering.
Even the 'fallen priestess' drama she had painstakingly arranged had been smashed to pieces by Kikyo with one arrow and one sentence.
She had lost.
In everyone's eyes, she had completely lost.
But Tsubaki's mouth—at an angle no one noticed—twitched.
She lowered her head.
Her long black hair fell, covering most of her face.
From the outside, she looked like a loser who had accepted defeat.
Then, she laughed.
It wasn't the kind of carefully polished, elegant smile from before.
It was a twisted laugh, having reached the end and simply tearing everything apart.
Clearly, Tsubaki did indeed have energy left, she had... a trump card.
And...
Boom!
Thunder rose again, and lightning exploded. At the moment she began to laugh, the Muramasa at Kanbe Hikaru's waist was already out, carrying blood mist and surging with lightning!
Tsubaki was directly submerged by the surging light, left dumbfounded—
"!?"
The crowd was slightly startled, and the two young priestesses from Tahoto were also frightened.
Only Kikyo: "..."
The priestess glanced at Kanbe Hikaru, who had suddenly drawn his blade beside her. She saw the pale-haired Oni Samurai looking stern, yet his face was written with smugness, as if saying, 'Look, this is what they call a resemblance between spouses.'
Kikyo naturally knew that Kanbe Hikaru was 'imitating' her.
She also silently lowered her bow and arrow; both were very clear that they didn't have the habit of letting an enemy release their power while just watching.
Unfortunately...
"Heh."
"Hehehe."
"In that case—"
Tsubaki's laughter rang out once more, and her figure appeared further away, on a small hill dozens of paces off.
She was in a wretched state, her body bearing the tattered remains of being swept by lightning and blade light; her face was pale, yet she was still there, still alive.
Had this woman prepared her escape in advance?
Kanbe Hikaru clicked his tongue, thinking that she truly lived up to being a boss from the original work; when fully prepared, she was indeed not so easy to deal with.
He then saw the Tahoto priestess pull her hand from her sleeve, clutching a paper talisman in her palm.
The patterns on that talisman were not any kind of orthodox priestess technique... Seeing this charm, Momiji and Botan both turned pale simultaneously.
That was the Unsealing Charm.
The key to the Tahoto seal.
In this world, Tahoto was an ancient spiritual tower that suppressed evil, maintained by the spiritual power of Tsubaki's master and every generation of guardian priest before her throughout their lives.
Beneath the tower, a demon—an evil spirit—sealed hundreds of years ago was being suppressed.
As their master's last disciples, Momiji and Botan had inherited the duty of guarding Tahoto.
And Tsubaki was their senior sister.
The paper talisman in her hand was precisely the Unsealing Command their master had created just in case while he was alive—it had been stolen by Tsubaki without their knowledge.
This was the true backup plan Tsubaki had prepared to deal with Kikyo... If she failed to shake Kikyo's state of mind, then this move would be her final killing blow.
"Tsubaki! You're crazy—!" Momiji was shocked, even somewhat terrified.
"If you release the thing sealed under Tahoto, no one will be able to stop it—"
Tsubaki ignored her.
As she crushed the talisman, her other hand formed a hand seal.
It wasn't an attack—the spiritual power in her body was sealed, and she couldn't project it outward to attack, but she could still activate a pre-prepared technique.
Especially... since that technique was not meant for demons.
But for humans.
It was the so-called... Black Magic!
"Senior sister, you actually learned the Black Magic that Master forbade—?!" Botan was no longer just horrified; she was beyond terrified.
To this, Tsubaki simply curled her lips into a smile, her long hair fluttering.
What she used was the forbidden Black Miko Art of Tahoto, which connected herself with the evil spirit imprisoned beneath the tower—an unstoppable convergence with a demon.
For ordinary people, approaching that imprisoned demon was naturally an extremely terrifying curse.
But for Tsubaki, it was not.
For her at this moment, such a method was more like an instantaneous teleportation.
Yet no one could stop it!
Tsubaki's specialty had never been exorcism, but Black Magic directed at people... She had originally intended to shake Kikyo's mind and cast a Black Miko Art on her while her spiritual power was out of control.
Unfortunately, she had not succeeded.
"Tsubaki—!"
Momiji rushed forward, the talismans in her hand transforming into countless paper dolls that flew out together!
But the moment the white light exploded, the dozens of paper dolls only passed through the residual spatial ripples.
Tsubaki had vanished.
Only her final voice remained in the air, drifting with a cold, mocking laughter.
"Kikyo, Kanbe Hikaru, come and chase me."
"I'll see you... at Tahoto."
...
Momiji stood where she was, her face deathly pale.
Botan's talismans were scattered all over the ground; her large eyes were wide with shock, and her lips trembled, unable to make a sound.
They finally realized.
What their senior sister wanted to do.
They were now completely certain that they had been deceived.
"Tahoto..."
Botan's voice trembled: "Senior sister, she's going to unseal—"
"That demon."
Momiji finished her sentence, her voice sounding as if it were squeezed out from between her teeth.
She turned around and looked at Kikyo and Kanbe Hikaru; those eyes that had been full of hostility toward Kikyo just a moment ago now held only one emotion.
Fear.
"What's sealed under that tower is no ordinary demon."
Momiji's voice was hurried:
"Master said that it was a terrifying monster, an evil spirit that was sealed hundreds of years ago—it had devoured the population of an entire town before it was subdued. Master used a lifetime of spiritual power to maintain the seal, and his final instruction before passing was—never let it out."
"If senior sister... if Tsubaki breaks the seal—"
She swallowed hard.
"That demon will absorb all life around it, and it will quickly recover its former strength..."
Kanbe Hikaru shifted his gaze from Momiji and looked toward the west.
Tahoto was to the west.
About a hundred li away from Kaede Village.
One could only say that she truly was the Tahoto priestess who was proficient in Black Magic in the original work; Tsubaki's sudden teleportation was something they could not prevent.
But even with that level of Black Miko Art, it was still impossible to arrive in a single step.
They still had time to give chase.
"Kikyo."
He spoke.
"Mhm."
Kikyo had already slung her longbow onto her back, and her white hair ribbon was tightened once more: "Kaede, look after the village."
Little Kaede blanked for a moment, then nodded vigorously.
"Big Brother, Sister Kikyo, please be careful."
Kikyo glanced at her younger sister and said nothing more.
She turned to Momiji and Botan.
"Rest assured."
Only two words.
Momiji opened her mouth, wanting to say something—perhaps an apology, perhaps an explanation, or perhaps she just wanted to ask a question.
But Kikyo did not give her the chance to speak.
"Let's go."
Kanbe Hikaru's hand was already pressed against the hilt of Muramasa.
[Thunder Muscle] activated.
Purple electric arcs exploded beneath his feet, and the ground cracked.
In the next instant, his figure transformed into a bolt of purple lightning, charging into the night.
Kikyo followed closely behind.
White spiritual power surged around her, and the moment her feet left the ground, two birds transformed from shikigami flew out from her sleeves, carrying her body as she swept westward.
Her speed was not slow, but it wasn't extremely fast either; she could only follow from a distance.
Momiji bit her lip, grabbed Botan's hand, and followed.
Four figures disappeared into the night.
Kaede Village returned to silence.
Only the moonlight shone upon the few piles of ashes that were finally dissipating on the ground.
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