Chapter 208: Natsuba Hanae’s Arrival
Kujō Main Residence Core Area, above.
From the core area, looking down, one could see everything in this city.
So, when Kujō Sujin used the divine artifact Calamity and Fortune, even the core area began to rise with blood water, let alone the other areas.
The other areas were practically flooded.
The thick, foul-smelling blood, layer upon layer, continuously rose from the ground.
And it swallowed all the corpses and houses from the previous battle, and submerged them under the water.
And in Kujō Sujin’s hands, a bright red, crystalline sea bream was being held tightly by him.
However, he, who was already skinny, his body was now even more shriveled, as if his skin were just hanging on his bones.
The unconscious divinity of Ebisu in the air was instantly evaporated by more than half, becoming the price of activating the divine artifact.
This was the first time Kujō Sujin had used the divine artifact Calamity and Fortune.
Although the price was great, the effect was also extremely magnificent.
Kujō Sujin could feel that as long as he unleashed enough power, this sea of blood could be brought under his control and used by him.
However…
The key point was this sufficient power.
Even after paying such a huge price, the strength Kujō Sujin could exert with the divine artifact Calamity and Fortune was probably less than a tenth.
If he were at his peak, he could probably barely reach a tenth. But in his current state, it was already impossible.
Only the divine realm could unleash the full power of a divine artifact.
And a peak A-rank could also use ninety percent of it.
As for Kujō Sujin, if not for the fact that he was a direct descendant, a direct bloodline of Ebisu, and could be exempt from a part of the price, he probably wouldn’t even have the power to activate the divine artifact.
And Kamishiro Naraku, seeing this magnificent power of the divine artifact…
His pitch-black, inky eyes were shining, filled with a look of longing.
“This level of power…”
“———Is exactly what I long for!”
Kamishiro Naraku, who had broken the convention and had mastered divinity at A-rank, and with him being embedded in Kujō Sujin’s bloodline, his mastery of the divine artifact Calamity and Fortune had reached a level that was unimaginable to ordinary people.
At the same time, he could also feel…
The power that the divine artifact Calamity and Fortune was currently exerting, due to Kujō Sujin’s limited ability, was not even a tenth.
If he were to control it, he could at least exert seventy to eighty percent of its power.
However, because of the existence of Ebisu, and the fact that he was still absorbing its divinity, it was not appropriate to expose it too early.
In his prediction, all the battles would best be resolved by Kujō Sujin. He only needed to assist.
He still needed a long time to develop.
The other places, even if they had a large amount of supernatural materials, how could they be as fast as directly absorbing the power of a god to improve his strength?
Kamishiro Naraku could feel the situation of the divine artifact Calamity and Fortune. As the current master of the divine artifact Calamity and Fortune, Kujō Sujin could naturally feel it even more clearly.
His wine-red pupils, because his power had been almost completely drained, no longer had their previous luster.
But they were filled with a thoughtful look.
He could feel that the supernatural power and the original blood in his body were rapidly depleting.
“No.”
“Although I have mastered the divine artifact and have an overwhelming power…”
“But the price I paid before was just the price of activating the divine artifact. The divine artifact is still continuously drawing my remaining power and the divinity of Ebisu in the air.”
“I have to act quickly!”
Having made up his mind, Kujō Sujin, although he was a disgrace among A-ranks…
But he had also participated in many battles. He understood that in battle, he could not be indecisive.
He looked up at Natsuba Rinrei, who had spread her wings and was flying in mid-air.
Clearly, she was wary of the sea of blood and was avoiding it.
Not only that…
Due to the buff of the divine artifact Calamity and Fortune, Kujō Sujin had previously felt that someone was launching a soul attack, but he didn’t know where it was or who it was.
Now he could see a part of it.
Beside Natsuba Rinrei, a deep blue, blurry figure was floating.
That deep blue aura was exactly the same as the one that had attacked him before. It was a soul-related aura.
Clearly, this was the person.
The divine artifact Calamity and Fortune was draining Kujō Sujin. He had no hesitation, and no words.
With a thought…
He controlled the sea of blood, and hundreds of blood spears, with an unparalleled coldness and deathly stillness, shot out from the sea of blood.
Swish-swish-swish-swish-swish-swish-swish—!
In the next moment, the neat row of blood spears radiated a deep red light, and like sharp arrows shot from a strong bow, they shot at Natsuba Rinrei in groups, one after another!
The power of each blood spear was by no means inferior to Kujō Sujin’s full-powered attack, which was an A-rank attack.
This covering attack, like a torrential rain, was terrifyingly dense.
Seeing this, Natsuba Rinrei was instantly grateful for her decision.
If she had still been near the sea of blood just now, and Kujō Sujin had used such an attack, at such a close distance, she would have had no room to dodge at all.
And now, although it was like a high-difficulty bullet hell game, as long as she was precise enough, she could find the gaps between the blood spears and barely dodge.
An endless stream of blood spears came at her. Natsuba Rinrei did her best to shrink her dragon and feather wings on both sides, almost to the size of her palms.
Then, she flapped her wings at a hummingbird-like speed, a series of afterimages.
And helped her to fly.
Her previous wings were too large, and as a target for the blood spears, they were a living target. She could only expend more stamina to make her wings smaller, to reduce her target size.
She continuously dodged the incoming blood spears, and for those she couldn’t dodge, she used Aosagi no Hi to neutralize them.
But even so, the density of the blood spears was too great.
Two blood spears still hit her body.
Although it was such a scattered attack, its power was considerable. After hitting Natsuba Rinrei, the dragon scales covering her body were blown off, and the cyan fluff within was revealed.
And even the cyan fluff was slightly charred by the corrosive nature of the blood.
After all, under normal circumstances, her double-layered scales, even a mid-A-rank wouldn’t easily break them!
Clearly, although each blood spear had the power of an early A-rank, because it had been rendered by a divine artifact and possessed a wisp of divine power, it could break through her defense!
As time passed, more and more blood spears hit Natsuba Rinrei.
The dragon scales on her body were forcibly shattered, and blood flowed out.
Natsuba Rinrei retreated again and again. She wanted to fly up and escape the distance, and then use the advantage of the sky to suppress the ground and launch an indiscriminate fire attack.
The Red Dragon’s flame could make the blood boil and evaporate, and the Aosagi no Hi’s flame could freeze the blood.
As long as she flew high enough, she would have an advantage.
However, to her surprise, the force of the blood spears was astonishing. They shot straight into the sky without any sign of weakening.
The situation had not changed at all.
And she felt her own injuries were constantly getting worse.
Natsuba Rinrei gritted her teeth, clenched her fists, and a look of indignation appeared on her face.
“Damn it!”
“His strength is inferior to mine, yet he relies on a divine artifact that doesn’t belong to him to turn the tide of battle.”
“How frustrating!”
Before she could finish her sentence, a blood spear came at her head. She twisted to the left, and the blood spear grazed her cheek, and a scratch of blood dripped down.
Then, she turned and looked at Hoshikawa Oto’s situation.
Oto’s strength was weaker than her own, so she was likely in more danger. She couldn’t let her die.
Otherwise, Hanae would be very sad.
However, when Natsuba Rinrei turned her head…
She saw that Hoshikawa Oto’s soul body had actually become the size of a palm, and was leisurely dodging the blood spear attacks.
Natsuba Rinrei: “…”
She had been worrying for nothing. Hoshikawa Oto was doing much better than her.
However, sensing that Oto’s soul power had weakened considerably, it seemed that her form was a completely defensive one. Now, if she were to launch a soul attack, it would likely be ineffective, and was purely for self-preservation.
And Hoshikawa Oto’s speed was not as fast as her own, even with such a small body.
After dodging for a long time, she was also hit by a blood spear. Her soul was visibly torn a little, and a look of pain appeared on her face, and her soul body couldn’t heal.
Seeing this, Natsuba Rinrei’s eyes narrowed slightly.
She couldn’t let this go on. If this attack continued for another half an hour…
With her injuries constantly worsening, she and Hoshikawa Oto would probably be worn down and killed here.
She had to find a way to break the situation.
Natsuba Rinrei observed her surroundings, and her mind began to race.
She looked at the incredibly shriveled Kujō Sujin and couldn’t help but have a guess.
His current appearance, it was clear that his physical strength had dropped sharply. Perhaps the weakness of this indiscriminate attack was his main body.
Thinking of this, Natsuba Rinrei immediately began to act.
She no longer threw flames at the attacking blood spears.
But opened her palms and began to charge. A blue and a red, two fireballs were continuously gathering. A terrifying aura was rising, and it was getting stronger and stronger.
Natsuba Rinrei, while dodging, forcibly withstood two blood spears and did not use a flame attack.
And she forcibly completed her charging.
Then, with a clap of her palms, she fused the two fireballs.
In the next moment, she fiercely threw it out.
The fireball, radiating a heaven of ice and fire, rolled towards Kujō Sujin with an unstoppable momentum.
A single blood spear met the fireball head-on, and the fireball immediately and completely evaporated the blood spear.
This one blow, although it could not be compared to the attack of the orange-red lotus…
But it had barely reached mid-A-rank.
Now, the fireball was about to hit Kujō Sujin’s body, but she saw him pull at the corner of his lips, and because his shriveled face was full of wrinkles, he smiled slightly.
“You overestimate yourself.”
“In the face of the great power of the divine artifact Calamity and Fortune, you still want to resist?”
Kujō Sujin’s gaze was fixed on the attacking fireball. His wine-red pupils were filled with an indifference and contempt.
In an instant, the sea of blood seemed to be angry.
A monstrous, ten-meter-high wave appeared behind Kujō Sujin, and rose higher and higher, surging.
And became his protective membrane.
The fireball fiercely collided with the massive wave. It first froze and solidified, then instantly and scorchingly evaporated. A huge explosion occurred under the heaven of ice and fire.
“Boom———————!”
The blood wave was blown apart.
But Kujō Sujin’s figure appeared, completely unharmed.
The blood wave, rather than being blown apart, was more like it was automatically withdrawn by Kujō Sujin.
Seeing the power that he had been unable to handle before being so easily neutralized by the influence of the divine artifact, his lips couldn’t help but curve into a smile like a chrysanthemum.
However, suddenly…
Kujō Sujin’s wine-red pupils suddenly dimmed, and lost all their luster. His vision went black, and his mind went dizzy.
But then, his pupils lit up again, but they no longer had the same bloody luster as before, but a plastic-like feel.
And he had recovered his clarity.
But what had just happened was definitely not an illusion.
Kujō Sujin’s face was ugly. He held the sea bream in his hand, which was moving like a swimming fish, and felt his own power being constantly absorbed.
“Unleashing the massive wave has also accelerated the absorption of my power.”
“I can’t delay any longer!”
“Even if I have to overdraw my potential, I have to kill Natsuba Rinrei first.”
“As long as I sacrifice her, my overdrawn potential can be replenished by the Natsuba god, and even more than enough.”
“It’s about time.”
“I’ve been using blood spears to attack all this time. It’s about time to make Natsuba Rinrei lower her guard.”
The blood spears had been attacking continuously from the very beginning.
And Natsuba Rinrei had gradually gotten used to the existence of the blood spears. Before, she would be attacked once in less than three minutes, but now she had started to stretch the time.
However, just as she was habitually dodging a blood spear attack…
That one blood spear suddenly linked with the dozens of blood spears below it, forming a blood-red tentacle, and it wrapped tightly around Natsuba Rinrei’s right wrist.
Natsuba Rinrei’s pupils constricted sharply.
In her previous observation, she had already known that after a blood spear left the sea of blood, it couldn’t be controlled in any other way. It had to be re-absorbed into the sea of blood and re-projected as a new blood spear.
She had never expected that Kujō Sujin would actually splice the blood spears, and the tail end of the last blood spear was in the sea of blood, and he had forcibly brought it under his control.
If it had been a tentacle attack from the beginning, Natsuba Rinrei would have been very vigilant. But she hadn’t expected Kujō Sujin to play such a dirty trick.
At such a close distance, dodging was already impossible.
Natsuba Rinrei could only watch as her right wrist was entangled by the blood-red tentacle.
And when she wanted to swing her left fist to strike the blood-red tentacle, another blood-red tentacle used the same trick and wrapped around her left wrist.
And after that, countless blood-red tentacles went mad, and grew savagely.
And they rose from the sea of blood and wrapped around Natsuba Rinrei.
Natsuba Rinrei let out an unwilling roar.
“Damn it!”
Boom——————!
A crimson flame burned all over Natsuba Rinrei’s body, and she scorched the blood-red tentacles. The tentacles were continuously evaporated, but new ones entangled her.
The two were in a tug-of-war.
Kujō Sujin’s face was grim. He hadn’t expected Natsuba Rinrei to have such terrifying residual power.
He was now at the end of his rope, and his strength was not enough.
And just then…
A gentle and soft voice echoed.
“Hmm?”
“It seems it’s quite lively here.”
Kujō Sujin, to prevent any changes, quickly looked over.
And saw a beautiful girl in a red top and white skirt-pants, a kendo uniform, standing on the eaves of a building that had not been submerged, and smilingly looking over here.
…
