"Miss Chiaki isn"t cowardly or useless at all," Seiji told her seriously. "You had the courage to walk here by yourself. That was critical to suppressing the spirits here.""Seiji-san probably could have suppressed the spirits even without me here."
"That might be true, but things would have been far more troublesome without Miss Chiaki around."
"No matter how troublesome the issue, Seiji-san can deal with anything as long as you take it seriously."
"I"m only a single Yin Yang Master. What I can accomplish is limited… Miss Chiaki"s a.s.sistance is incredibly important."
After hearing his sincere words, Chiaki harrumphed softly as her lips arched slightly upward.
She then looked towards the building which was in front.
A shrine was there… under the dark sky and flying flower petals, the originally beautiful and divine shrine now seemed ominous and cold. Eerie red mist permeated the entire shrine.
The sculptures around the shrine were completely enveloped in red mist—their contours could barely be seen. All the stone lanterns in the shrine were currently unlit, with ominous red mist all around.
Suddenly, there was a clamorous sound as cherry blossoms swirled within the mist, forming a tremendous number of dark red shadowy humanoid figures. There were male, female, young, and old, and they all had empty holes where their eyes should have been. They also had vicious expressions and distorted limbs…
Chiaki was quite frightened by this scene.
Something flashed in Seiji"s eyes as he whipped out a talisman. The silent black-clad warrior next to him also raised her longsword.
Whoosh… the evil spirits rushed over in their direction!
Seiji recited a spell that created a flight of white light on his and Chiaki"s bodies.
The black-clad warrior greeted the evil spirits with her sword. A blueish-white flame started spreading on her sword as it lengthened into a giant spiritual sword.
s.h.i.+ng! One swing of the sword slew many evil spirits.
Even more evil spirits kept swarming in. The warrior continuously swung her sword to slay evil spirits while using agile footwork to dodge their attacks.
However, the evil spirits were incredibly numerous—endless, even. No matter how fast the warrior"s movements were, it was impossible for her to dodge all the attacks. She could only take the remaining attacks with her armor and helmet.
"Will Kagursan be alright?" Chiaki couldn"t help but ask as she saw the warrior fighting against so many evil spirits.
Chiaki had never even seen this female warrior"s face before. She only knew that the warrior"s surname was Kagura, and that the warrior was female… Or, more accurately, Kagura wasn"t a warrior, but rather a Spirit-branded Retainer.
"She"ll be fine. With such weak spirits, it doesn"t matter how many come at her. They won"t be able to harm her." Seiji sounded absolutely confident.
His Spirit-branded Retainer named Kagura was able to keep the majority of evil spirits occupied. Only a few evil spirits came over to attack him and Chiaki. However, these few evil spirits were all instantly vaporized by the barrier Seiji had set up.
Seiji held many talismans in his hand as he started uttering an incantation with a serious expression. The talismans then began to glow white as they started burning with a golden-white flame.
Seiji waved his hand, tossing out all the burning talismans which stuck themselves onto the shrine"s stone lanterns.
There was then an explosion of light that instantly dispelled all the red mist around the lanterns while also lighting them.
With all the stone lanterns now lighted, the ominous aura around the shrine was diminished as the lanterns let off a pure white light.
The number of evil spirits pouring out of the temple obviously started to lessen.
However, the clamorous sound became even louder. The divine sculptures around the shrine began to rumble, making a scarily abnormal sound that resembled both howling and roaring. The red mist around the shrine instantly started expanding and becoming denser while absorbing large amounts of cherry blossoms.
Feeling that something even scarier was about to arrive, Chiaki listened to her heart and hid herself behind Seiji.
Seiji took out even more talismans and began to incant again.
Kagura made a pose as a gigantic blue-white female shadow arose behind her back. The female shadow waved her hand and released a large amount of faint blue mist which eradicated the remaining evil spirits.
*Boom!!* There was a tremendous sound which seemed to even shake the heavens. Two gigantic stone lions suddenly materialized.
Rather than being actual lions, these stone lions were closer to the divine.
Stone lions were originally intended to be majestic guardians. But right now, they appeared vicious and evil, with mouths gaping, sharp fangs, sharp claws, and blood-red eyes. The red mist also swirled all around their bodies, giving them quite the ominous impression.
Before the stone lions could attack, Kagura first pointed up towards the sky with her sword. The shadow behind her back clasped its hands together, shooting out a dense blue mist towards the stone lion on the left!
Roar!!! The left stone lion opened its mouth and roared, causing dense red mist to react explosively around its body and block the blue mist attack.
The right stone lion viciously pounced towards Kagura, swinging its sharp claws…
At this moment, Seiji waved his hand again, tossing out all the talismans he had. The talismans penetrated through the right stone lion"s protective red mist and stuck themselves to its body.
"Snare!" Seiji made a hand seal with his other hand and activated his spell.
All the talismans instantly glowed with a blinding white light as the right stone lion suddenly stopped in its tracks, as if someone had pressed the pause b.u.t.ton.
Meanwhile, Kagura raised her sword and charged at the left stone lion!
The left stone lion counterattacked with its sharp claws and fangs. Even more red mist kept erupting from its body. However, the shadow behind Kagura"s back kept dispelling the red mist with its blue mist.
The Spirit-branded Retainer"s fierce battle against the divine envoy stone lion was astonis.h.i.+ng to behold.
Yet, the Yin Yang Master seemed rather quiet and even elegant.
Seiji unhurriedly incanted and made another seal.
The talismans on the right stone lion kept glowing brightly and dispelling its red mist. The white rays of light that the talismans let off were gradually spreading over lion"s entire body.
The right stone lion continued to remain completely still. Its giant body was trembling slightly, and it let out a guttural roar. It could be seen that the lion was furiously struggling, but was completely unable to move.
"As expected of the famous Seiji Kamijou," Chiaki praised in her mind.
How many Yin Yang Masters in the world would be able to calmly suppress such a frightening evil spirit?
She felt delighted that such an incredible person told her that her a.s.sistance was important.
A while later, Kagura managed to cut off the left stone lion"s head with her spiritual blade! The lion"s body vanished into mist and became nothing more than shattered stone.
At almost the exact same time, white light covered the right stone lion"s body, cleansing it completely and transforming it back into a complete and normal stone sculpture.
"Let"s go, Miss Chiaki." Seiji smiled.
"Alright, Seiji-san." Chiaki almost answered in such a way, but she maintained her own cool image and simply uttered a sound of agreeance.
Chiaki, Seiji, and Kagura then walked into the shrine…
================================================================
Chiaki gradually came back to her senses.
She blinked and felt like her head was somewhat dizzy.
"Chiaki…" a voice spoke up beside her.
She turned around, only to see a familiar handsome face.
Seiji smiled, and asked concernedly, "Welcome back. How do you feel?"
Chiaki dazedly stared at him for a moment before she realized what was going on.
"I"m alright… I just feel slightly dizzy."
"Just some slight dizziness? How about your body?"
Her body… Chiaki hadn"t felt much originally, but now that he asked, she focused on her body and actually felt fatigued.
"I"m a bit tired…" She reflexively tried to move, but instantly felt numb and pained all over!
"Ouch…" She couldn"t help but moan in pain.
Seiji immediately hugged her as he cast a healing spell.
Chiaki instantly felt much better.
"Why do I feel like this…"
"You Visualized for an incredibly long time. It"s already past 2:00 am in the morning."
"What…?" Chiaki was astonished to hear this.
Only now did she notice as she looked around her that not a single person was present in the dojo anymore apart from herself and Seiji.
"Where"s everyone else?"
"They"ve already all left and gone home."