Volume 4 Chapter 10, Part 2 Demon World Outer Realm： Mount Ontake Annihilation War I： R.A.A.T Destruction
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
Screams of realization echoed among those who understood the situation.
”Gah, reinforcements are coming! Just hold on a little longer──believe me!”
Itoko shouted with determination, her voice strong, as she struck the attacking Intermediate Youkai with a powerful blow, knocking it aside and parting the wave of spiders.
In that brief moment, she glanced back at her squad.
Fear was evident in everyone’s eyes; they were reaching their limits.
(How did it come to this…!)
Itoko knew the risks of starting the operation without waiting for the Rank 1 Exorcist, but somewhere in her mind, there was a hint of arrogance.
Perhaps they could defeat the Great Youkai on their own, or at least inflict significant damage and make a substantial contribution.
She never imagined that they might face a situation where the squad could be annihilated before the reinforcements even arrived.
Itoko never doubted that the Touin family head would abandon them, but there was something she didn’t know.
The truth that even the one who gave the order had placed his trust in reinforcements that were never going to arrive.
And so, the moment of collapse arrived.
”A woman…?”
One of the team members, who first noticed her, spoke with a puzzled expression.
”Huh?”
When Itoko looked, she saw 3 women standing on the back of a particularly massive spider at the forefront of the wave.
Among them, one woman stood out, dressed in an old-fashioned black sailor uniform.
Her white skin was accentuated by a red scarf and long black hair, but her most striking feature was her deep crimson eyes, shining like jewels.
The moment their eyes met, Itoko felt a chilling sensation, and she instantly recognized the woman’s true identity.
”Everyone, retreat! I’ll buy you some time!”
A Great Youkai, without a doubt.
The master of this swarm──the queen of the Tsuchigumo!
”Om Mayura Kirandei Sowaka!”
She chanted the mantra, summoning her remaining spirit energy and squeezing out every ounce of strength.
No matter how brief the respite, it would be enough!
Kicking aside a small spider, she cleared a path.
She sprinted forward──or so she intended.
”Huh?”
But before she knew it, she found herself face-first on the ground.
She turned back, confused, and noticed something odd in her vision and a strange sensation in her body.
”Ah… What…?”
Her left leg, from the shin down, which was crucial for kicking and punching, now lies severed on the ground, detached from Itoko’s body.
”Ah… Ah…”
She sees thin, glistening lines in the blood-soaked ground.
Realization dawns; her leg has been cut off.
Her throat trembles, not from pain, but from sheer terror.
She can’t stand.
She can’t fight.
She can’t protect them anymore──
”Gyaaah──!!”
The instinctual fear is palpable, and screams begin to echo around her.
The exorcists, having lost their pillar of support, Itoko, are being overwhelmed by the wave of spiders.
”Ah… Ah…”
In the battlefield she brought them to, her comrades are losing their lives.
”Help,” she hears a voice cry out.
She tries to get up to respond, pushing herself off the ground.
”You’re a strong one.”
”Gah, ahh──!”
Pain shoots through her as countless needle-like objects pierce her hand.
Looking up, she sees a girl in a sailor uniform standing before her.
Younger than Itoko, this ayakashi in the form of a girl.
Beautiful, but even more terrifying.
The youkai energy (youki) she felt up close had been what kept her going, and now it’s gone.
There’s no way they can win, not against this──
”Father… Why?”
She calls out for her family, a desperate act of the cornered.
”But you’re a pitiful child… I bet you were abandoned too.”
Yet, it seems to have piqued the girl’s interest.
With a strangely human-like gesture, she laughs.
”Ouch…!”
”I like your hair. It’s pretty.”
She roughly grabs and pulls Itoko’s hair, speaking with a cruel nonchalance.
”No, don’t touch me…!”
──Itoko had been told that her flaxen hair and pale complexion were signs of her celestial ancestry.
The only proof of her connection to her father, whose surname she couldn’t bear.
Her hair, praised and cared for by her mother, now a mess of crimson and black.
It’s being cut, again and again, carelessly like harvesting flax.
”Stop, stop, no, no, please…!”
Tears stream down Itoko’s dirty cheek.
The girl in the sailor uniform only deepens her smile.
”The woman’s hair that has accumulated so much spirit energy is probably sweet – Harugasumi”
Say she handed a bunch of hair to the woman in the back.
”Oh…!”
Ayakashi, holding Itoko’s hair in her mouth, cried out in ecstasy and laughed.
”Ah, ah…!”
The woman’s dark hair changes, falling off, pale flax colour, and the rough, curly hair is shiny and soft.
(That’s my, that’s my hair…!)
”Give it back, please, give it back…!!”
”Your beautiful hair will remain in the future – you’re happy, right?”
──That morning, Mount Ontake fell to ayakashi’s hands for a moment.
Please bookmark this series and rate ☆☆☆☆☆ on here!
Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
Leave a Reply