章 62: Reunion of fated enemies

Masaru was standing looking at the dark shrine ahead of him, the place was quite clean and spotless however the faint traces of chaotic elements which Masaru was familiar with was present in the surroundings.

Currently, he maintained a space isolation barrier to prevent these chaotic elements from spreading further into the world as it contains properties that drive humans mad having behaviours similar to zombies, but the difference was it could be treated so it was not a zombie symptom.

"Sorry for being late Masaru-sama" Masaru smiled looking ahead at the Shrine, he could feel his instincts is tingling his nerves.

"Ichika, I need you to maintain this isolation barrier while I will go in that shrine. No matter what don't drop this barrier because the chaotic elements are dangerous for the surrounding people including you"

When Masaru was certain Ichika understood the situation he took the first step forward, it was difficult to sense with his magic so he had to rely on his physical senses as he continued to thread towards the shrine. If Natural KI had a negative influence on a senjutsu user then these chaotic elements were a negative influence for magic users.

[You know, I have been quiet all this time while you manhandled me to cut a witch's attacks for you?... So what is going--- oh - my - dear - god, why are you a magnet for trouble!?]

"You think I want this? Besides can you even sense anything?"

[Nothing, this area is so polluted that even natural senses will be dull not to mention the magical senses... Boy, it appears whatever is here has been here for a long enough time to transform this place]

Masaru nodded as he slows down his steps the closer he came to the main entrance leading into the shrine, the wooden floors that appeared brand new was creaking under his footsteps as if the foundation that was meant to prevent this kind of loud noise was not there at all. The air as a pungent smell lingering in the surrounding, smell of rotten flesh and blood were mixed within.

The place was extremely quiet while the cold wind would brush past Masaru's face feeling like an ice-cold hand tracing his chin line before fading, the moment he slid the door open looking inside he could see it was empty with no furniture.

Glancing around the room he discovered that the floor of the shrine was covered with a thin black fog reaching as high as his ankles, when Masaru used magic to test it he noticed the fog did not have any dangerous elements in it so he proceeded to enter the shrine.

The moment he was half the way inside the shrine, door behind him slid close. Turning around swiftly he noticed that there was nothing, not even his senses could pick anything up. The room was empty with no sound and no signs of movements.

Unlike the time from the Vatican where Masaru could feel the difference in Dimensions, he did not feel it here, shortly the eerily feeling of being close to these creatures became more prominent. This feeling was completely different from how it was when he faced these things before.

'Could it be they succeeded to open the gate they mentioned?'

Masaru was feeling the gravity of the situation was getting worse than he imagined, if the gate is what he is led to believe and was opened then it could mean that these creatures will be able to enter into the Human world instead of staying inside pocket spaces while waiting for new hosts to walk in their dimensions through specified house doors for them only to possess them.

Masaru walked deeper into the room towards the sliding door in front of him on the right, he came closer reaching his hand out towards the handle to pull the door open but the moment he was about to grip the handle the door.

Suddenly the door handle exploded revealing a human who came crashing through the door looking at Masaru who jumped several meters backwards, when the human glanced at Masaru he noticed those eyes, it was not the eyes of a monster staring at its prey but eyes filled with Madness a strong, abnormally strong desire for destruction.

This was the first time Masaru could see such emotions from this creature who took the human body as a host, out of curiosity Masaru thought of trying to communicate with it.

"Can you speak?" The human only tilts his neck to the left but the moment Masaru focused his sight on the face he could see traces of the skin was peeling off revealing a tint of purple skin underneath the human's skin.

'Could it be this creature is using the human's body to nourish itself from within and grow its body according to the human structure?'

[Forgive my french but Merde! This thing is disgusting! Boy if you using me to cut it up to you better top up my Webnovel account with a month's worth of gold coins!!!]

Masaru could understand Drago's feelings seeing that skin exposed although it's only a tiny spot, it was enough to make Masaru was to throw up from imagining what this monster looks like from underneath, it was simply too repulsive.

"I will cover the blade with a layer of Touki and magic"

[Thank you for your consideration, I appreciate it]

Masaru did as he said covering the sword, it was quite surprising that this creature did not move this entire time but Masaru did not have the luxury to stay still if that gate is really opened it will spell doom for Kyoto.

Taking the first step Masaru disappeared using trackless step, however, unlike those who needed to sense Masaru, the creature was seeing it all. Seeing that his movement could not obscure his presence, Masaru changed his movements into more refined movements that increased his speed with minimal movements instead.

With a swing of his sword he slashes down his sword at the creature who creepily began to smile broadly, the creepy vibe was disturbing enough for it to make Masaru almost falter in keeping the kinetic force in check as it was truly disgusting not to mention he was not certain if the creature intended to do something just now.

The creature raised it's hand to meet the blade but before it met Masaru uttered a strange body enchantment magic spell word that was created to increase specific specs.

"Grant my awareness speed... Reflexive sensitivity Booster"

Masaru's speed of reacting towards the beast was suddenly two-fold faster aiding Masaru to change the trajectory of his sword to slash towards the creature's side which was left wide open. The sword strike was swift and had Masaru's strength behind it but it still was stopped by the creature's strong defence. Seeing this Masaru ripped the sword out of the body was moving backwards.

[This is quite interesting... The monster in the Vatican had super regeneration... The one in Kobe was a Mind attacker... The one in America was a shapeshifter, the one in South Africa had ridiculous strength. And this one, we can call this one a Tank type?]

Masaru thought about Drago's speculation and agreed, this explanation made it easier to understand the different type of monsters.

Masaru knew he did not put in his all in that strike, the natural defence of the beast was a real surprise to Masaru since he did not expect to face the defence was more perverse than other monsters strength.

The creature looked at the side as if it was only annoyed by it then fiercely glared at Masaru, in its rage it began to tear the flesh off its face, the eyes, the mouth, teeth... One by one it was being torn off revealing smooth purple skin every time a piece was ripped off, the strange thing was the fact the creature did not have a face at all, Masaru could see something akin to its mouth was moving as if the current face was still a mask made out of the skin.

[It appears our friend could be called a Tank type but also a face changer? hmmm... there is some small creature within the body as well. Could it be a parasite kind of monster than transforms by feeding on within and assume their identity unless they are forced to reveal themselves?... what a fearsome creature]

"From the looks of it, it does not have a core like the others and its defence is strongest of all the monsters we had faced so far. Let's try it"

Masaru manipulates the energy within his body to enhance his body up to a cellular level while he operated his Ki along with it, Masaru took an Iai stance while holding his sword hilt with his right and his left acted like a scabbard.

Faint traces of energy began to cloak the blade making it appear white like a white flame burning brightly as if to purify the darkness away, the Creature felt threatened by this sword but it's desire to parasite Masaru got it the better of it as it began to charge at Masaru.

"Self-created, Secret sword: Hikari o motomete"

Masaru muttered it softly as he ran past the creature but he did not stop, he placed the sword on his shoulder heading deeper inside the shrine. The Creature slowly began to disintegrate turning into light, this was a technique Masaru created for creatures like these.

He enhanced his body to the highest degree he has along with his reflexive response doubled he could stop before the attack goes too far, the blade is enhanced with light element disintegration magic which destroys its targets from within.

The sword skill was called Seeking Light since the creatures have a natural weakness towards light element because of their dark nature it was one of the few attacks Masaru currently had in his arsenal since the amount of information he had of them was simply too few. And not every ability he had would always work against them.

[To think you pushed your body to such a degree, this is way too risky for you. Especially the fact your soul is not yet completely healed yet, take the pills boy we can't have you collapse here]

Masaru nodded while taking out the medication Ajuka gave for him while walking around the shrine.

"I feel like I can still continue to fight but such an attack I can probably use it two more times" Masaru calculated while inspecting himself.

[My honest opinion, I think that attack was overkill, the monster was on the same level as the other creatures it only had the strong defence. But it makes me worried though, these creatures we fought. What rank would they be if we go according to power ranking of theirs? There is simply too many different types of them]

Masaru finally came across a small room almost completely painted in magic formations using blood, there were a few familiar basic formations using the pentagram as the middle of the formation, but the text is written is simply unreadable almost completely chaotic.

It was at this moment Masaru felt a slight headache in his head, there were only two things that entered his mind and he knew the Spellbook was the one who gave it to him. What is said was {Ancient One, Gate}, from the information he had of the gate opening magic he could understand this was a experimental site for the bigger gate.

"To think they want to open a larger gate" Masaru Muttered as he threw a few blood vaporizing bombs in the room before leaving.

[Is it going to be a long night?]

"Depends, this time I will demand both factions of the Yokai to be stationed around Kyoto since we are no longer safe until those witches are stopped" Masaru spoke his plans to Drago, he felt compared to the other situation this was the direst one of them all.

"Masaru-sama I have released the barrier when I noticed the chaotic elements simply vanished!"

Masaru gently caresses Ichika's head "Thanks for the work, but right now I need you to go to contact all the girls and get them to head towards the West Yokai Faction building. Here is my phone, it has the location marked on it. The situation became a bit more serious than I imagined"

>\/<

"The ancient one is not pleased! Its pawn was killed back in the shrine!" One of the ladies spoke fearfully, ever since they received dark power from the Ancient One it naturally came at a cost.

"But the Yokai did not move tonight!!!" One of the ladies who was in charge of monitoring the Yokai spoke out.

The leader thought for a moment then answered "Then it should be the devils that arrived yesterday... Change of plans we are moving now! We can't have them stop us opening the gate!"

Soon the witches all began to gather moving towards a single location... Where the battle which will decide the fate of Kyoto will be held.

>\/<

Serafall who was currently having a drink with Yasaka received a notification so she accepted the communication magic link with Masaru, but what she did not realize was that Masaru linked to Ajuka as well.

"Please know this is a broadcast message that I am releasing!" Hearing this Serafall set the magic formation to a sort of loudspeaker so Yasaka could hear this as well

"I require hands to either prepare a large teleportation formation to move the monster that would come out to another dimension when it appears or evacuates the residents and visitors of Kyoto from Kyoto itself! The witches are attempting to open some gate that will unleash a far larger Ancient One Creature into the human world.

"Not to the dimensional gap or space spot I previously encountered them in but in the actual human world. Just their presence alone turns the elements in the air chaotic that will turn humans into frenzied beasts and supernaturals who does not have strong energy control will fall for the sleeping disease.

"I don't have the actual time when they will be launching this ritual but I believe it will happen today because they sensed when I killed the creature they summoned as an experimental subject"

"Serafall, if you're still with Yasaka ask her about anything that is related to a gate. Or is there something sealed in Kyoto which we are not aware of?" Hearing this Yasaka turned serious, there is no myth about something sealed in Kyoto, well nothing even further away than the oldest Myth of Japan. The only thing that could be linked with the word gate was two places.

Yasaka asked Serafall to link with Masaru so he could hear her speculations, "Masaru-kun, This is Yasaka. The only two places I can guess hold historical value related to the subject 'Gate' would be Fushimi-Inari Taisha Shrine or Daitoku-Ji Temple. But I think Fushimi-Inari Taisha Shrine is likely the one"

Hearing this Masaru responded "Thanks, I can move faster this way since I was about to arrive by you guys. Yasaka, I need you to speak with the Yokai and relate the information to the---- Fuck!"

Suddenly a blood-red stream of light erupted from the direction of Fushimi-Inari Taisha Shrine, the ominous feeling that the end of the world was spreading. The once thousand Torii gates merged together into one gigantic Torii Gate which acted as a frame for the blood surface, soon black dots began to emerge from the gates.

"Yasaka! The enemies are coming! Call your entire elite or whatever forces you can to evacuate your people and the humans! Serafall sorry to order you but could you assist Yasaka, I will do something about the monster!" The two ladies did not quarrel with him as the battle had already started and it was an urgent situation.

>\/<

Masaru pulled Ichika into his embrace, "Ichika, I hate to do this but let me at least ask you... Are you willing to share a bond that will last till the end of our existence through rebirth till we cease to exist?"

Ichika was bewildered about this question but she did love Masaru in her own way, she was not sure but at least she knew as long as she was with Masaru he would do everything to make her happy so she nodded.

"I will be performing the kiss prayer... So seal up this space" Masaru gave Ichika a deep kiss while using the spellbook as the medium a transparent ribbon was tied around Masaru's soul and Ichika's soul.

The two of them kept kissing as the process was a bit longer for the first use when they felt the connection was established an unknown force of energy began to emerge from Ichika's body and a prayer appeared in her mind.

Ichika stood in front of Masaru, a soft whisper but it could be heard from within the soul itself. This was a vow, prayer and longing for power to protect your sole lover, this was the Kiss Prayer.

"This void represents my pledge. Isolate the evil invading in my beloved's world: Dividing Space"

A Transparent barrier isolated the surroundings where the monsters were spawning from, the barrier was set to prevent them from invading the human world. It divided the reality of humans and monsters by preventing them from being able to detect each other.

It did not take long for Serafall to arrive with a group of devils to support Yasaka in securing the safety of the people, Serafall herself joined to subjugate the monsters since she felt she would be more productive this way. Although in reality, she was recording her battle for a new Magical Girl series!

Suddenly the large territory lit up with a Beelzebub magic formation soon everything that was not human was moved into a special space for Rating Games. This allowed Ichika to release the spell she was maintaining.

"Ma-kun, how are you going to deal with this?" Serafall asked through magic, Masaru smiled bitterly feeling quite frustrated that he could not stop this, really he does. The number of monsters was simply too much.

"Let's divide up in territories and deal with monsters from each side, we will meet in the centre once the battle is over this way"

Serafall who heard this simply snorted "Thanks to Ajuka's help, we have moved to the dimensional gap with the monsters. So Yasaka will be able to restore Kyoto in advance while ensuring that the humans are not affected as you explained previously"

Masaru nodded before heading towards where Akeno and the girls are currently fighting, "Girls, we will be splitting up. Two long-range and two short-range for each team. Jeanne, Angelica, Akeno and Ichika is a team. Everest, Yui, Stephani and me is the second team.

"Take out the smaller creatures with wide-scale magic, please also prepare your hearts for a situation I have to use Kiss Prayer if things are too dangerous..." Masaru and Ichika blushed when he mentioned this, this was enough for the girls to know Ichika went a huge step ahead of them, this professional maid