The Armored Juggernauts that had dropped down in the courtyard immediately started to suppress the area. The freely-swinging eight legs drove off the surrounding people. The silver silk that the samurai spat accurately bound the armed soldier monks.
The ajari were knocked flying after being bound by the Tsuchigumo's thread, then immediately lost consciousness. It wasn't a simple unconsciousness. Rather, it was because the thread absorbed their spiritual power.
Of course, the soldier monks wouldn't just sit and do nothing, and some of them also counterattacked with their automatic weapons. But the rifle bullets were easily deflected off the armor of the Armored Juggernauts.
The Armored Juggernaut was a mechanical shikigami whose metal body was its vessel. Firearms on the level of rifles couldn't even make it lag in the first place. In contrast, the Tsuchigumo fired the cannons installed on either side of its body as if to say 'Not bad, let me return the favor'.
The rumbling sound of cannon fire from the Pacific War era, different from the sound of modern firearms, resounded through the mountain. Smoke curled up from the barrels.
Stone lanterns were shattered, huge trees toppled, and large holes opened up in the monastery. The cannons bombarded the shikyakumon[5] like full-power chainsaws. Though it looked like their accuracy wasn't so good, their effectiveness as a deterrence was the real deal. The soldier monks who had surrounded Harutora before fled everywhere like scattering spiders.
"Well, to be honest, things like military vehicles are exceptional fighting powers."
Harutora murmured to himself with a bitter smile. Even with more than twenty military monks as its opponents, the strength of a single Armored Juggernaut was overwhelming. And though the soldier monks were all armed with firearms, they weren't used to using them and cooperating for a group battle. Judging from the way Jougen commanded them, he hadn't commanded an armed group before. And needless to say, infantry like this were useless against military vehicles.
Before anyone noticed, the two Divine Generals who had announced their uninvolvement beforehand had disappeared somewhere. They were probably afraid of getting dragged in and hence had taken advantage of the chaos caused by the Armored Juggernauts to escape.
"D-Don't panic, just draw back!"
"No, aim! Aim at the shikigami's master!"
It seemed that several high-ranking ajari were shouting angrily. Avoiding the shikigami and attacking the master was a fundamental of magic battle when confronting powerful shikigami. But the excellence of the Tsuchigumo wasn't just in their offense. The Tsuchigumo nimbly used their legs and bodies to block bullets, deflecting all of the shots aimed at Harutora. Then, the people who had aimed at Harutora along with their commanders were immediately dealt with by the loyal defensive shikigami--
"Scoundrel!"
After they were subjected to a fierce counterattack, they went silent. The barrier based on the Mountain Gate would be destroyed soon and flaws had appeared in the array covering the interior of the monastery. Though the main hall's barrier still stayed up, a small defect would have huge consequences since the magic it was constructed with was extremely unstable. Right now, the lag had already subsided from Hishamaru and Kakugyouki.
Then, as Hishamaru danced marvelously through the battlefield, Kakugyouki entered the depths of the main hall, destroying the final barrier. The array had already vanished completely when he came out.
The soldier monks were still putting up resistance, but not long afterwards they saw the second Armored Juggernaut advancing while constantly knocking down the cedar trees to the left and right of the mountain path in front of it. This was the Armored Juggernaut that had just activated by the south side of the mountain and destroyed the barrier at the Mountain Gate.
The monks moaned in despair upon facing the new powerful shikigami. The second Armored Juggernaut's eight legs clanked as it moved and climbed up the mountain path, gazing at the soldier monks. Then, it easily passed through the shikyakumon that had already become cannon fodder. It walked in front of the first Armored Juggernaut as if saying 'Requesting regroup', neatly and respectfully arranging its eight legs. In comparison, the first Armored Juggernaut stamped back respectfully as if to say 'Good work'.
With the two gathered in the courtyard along with the one attacking on the north side of the mountain, the three Armored Juggernauts were all objects that had been stolen from the Onmyou Agency storehouses. Originally, vessels of the level of Armored Juggernauts ought to have been sealed in the Onmyou Agency building's sealed storage room. But unfortunately, the Armored Juggernauts' vessels were too huge, and it was difficult to keep them inside the agency building. Hence, the Armored Juggernauts had been kept in a storehouse administered by the Onmyou Agency under the name of research materials.
Of course, magical security had been cast on the storehouse. Especially after the incident with the 'Child Prodigy' Dairenji Suzuka, that security had become even more serious. Even so, it was quite easy to break into the storehouse compared to the agency building's sealed storage room. Harutora and the others had used stealth magic to infiltrate the storehouse and cleverly stolen the Armored Juggernauts.
"They were originally things I made, so it's more accurate to say that I'm 'taking them back'."
To Harutora who casually said that, Hishamaru replied:
"These things must be very happy right now as well."
"Those things are armaments, not you."
Kakugyouki rebutted.
Also, Harutora had cast some misleading precautions on the simple shikigami guards and workers so that the Armored Juggernauts wouldn't be realized as stolen for a while afterwards. Actually, Harutora and the others had spent the seven days between receiving Jougen's message of 'summons' to arriving at Seishuku Temple on stealing the Armored Juggernauts along with handling and maintenance.
Harutora's reasons for especially utilizing the Armored Juggernauts wasn't because he had anticipated Jougen's next move. Rather, he had prepared them as effective measures to suppress a forested mountain battlefield in case the summons to Seishuku Temple was a trap. In the end, it was just coincidence that they had become an effective countermeasure to oppose this magical-energy-sealing array. But even if he hadn't prepared the Armored Juggernauts, Harutora had other means of destroying the magical array.
Hishamaru returned to Harutora's side, leaving the suppression of the courtyard to the two Armored Juggernauts. Harutora briefly checked the appearance of his defensive shikigami.
"Are you fine?"
"Of course, Harutora-sama."
Hishamaru waved her fox tail, replying pompously.
Kakugyouki shrugged his shoulders at the two, showing a fed-up expression.
"What Harutora wants to hear about is the condition of your 'stability'. It's normally in a pretty bad condition, and the magical array just now could only have impacted it negatively. Why don't you just obediently stay on the sidelines?"
"How foolish. Defensive shikigami are supposed to always stay by their masters. How can I alone stay uninvolved?"
The fox spirit frowned and rejected the one-armed oni's proposal. But Harutora also looked troubled.
"But what Kakugyouki says is reasonable. Hishamaru, you don't need to force yourself that much."
"What! H-Harutora-sama, even you're saying such things? Harutora-sama, are you saying you no longer need Hishamaru!?"
Tokyo Ravens Volume 10-326.jpg
"I never said that kind of thing at all."
"T-Then please don't say such heartless things. My current condition definitely isn't as severe as Kakugyouki says. It's my natural responsibility to move alongside you as a defensive shikigami."
Hishamaru desperately spoke to Harutora with a despairing expression. Tears welled up in her clear blue eyes and the ears on her head and her elegant fox tail trembled pitifully. To be honest, it had been fine when she had her child form, but Harutora was pretty troubled every time he saw her do this kind of thing with her stifling beauty now that she had an otherworldly gorgeous appearance. He smiled bitterly, just replying to Hishamaru with an "I understand". Actually, he felt more at ease letting her follow him by his side than forcefully ordering her to leave and ending up with her secretly trailing him.
Then, Harutora's gaze returned to the battlefield before him again. He wished he could have avoided letting the Armored Juggernauts loose in this old haunt if at all possible. Unfortunately, things had turned into this. The passage of time was truly cruel.
Harutora wore a complex expression as his eyes reflected a scene from the same place but a different time. Then, there was a nostalgic figure from that scene.
"I'm very sorry, Shinra."
Harutora muttered with a lonesome expression.
But it might be too early to say that. The changes to the battle situation brought by the vanishing array weren't just beneficial to Harutora and his two defensive shikigami. Seishuku Temple wouldn't yield that easily.
"Noumaku saraba tatagyateibyaku saraba bokkeibyaku sarabata tarata senda makarosyada ken gyakigyaki saraba biginnan untarata kanman!"
Acala's Fire Realm magic swirled in the courtyard. Harutora and Hishamaru took up stances against this powerful magical energy. Kakugyouki smiled lightly as he marveled. The Fire Realm magic in the courtyard spun into a giant tornado of flame. Sparks scattered in every direction like dust along with the fierce gale.
The power it carried was presently more than the limited-use cannons of the Armored Juggernauts. The tornado of flame swelled more and more into a giant vortex. The two mechanical shikigami were forced to stop in a panic. They were protected by magical armor, so they weren't seriously harmed even after being engulfed by the F
The Armored Juggernauts that had dropped down in the courtyard immediately started to suppress the area. The freely-swinging eight legs drove off the surrounding people. The silver silk that the samurai spat accurately bound the armed soldier monks.
The ajari were knocked flying after being bound by the Tsuchigumo's thread, then immediately lost consciousness. It wasn't a simple unconsciousness. Rather, it was because the thread absorbed their spiritual power.
Of course, the soldier monks wouldn't just sit and do nothing, and some of them also counterattacked with their automatic weapons. But the rifle bullets were easily deflected off the armor of the Armored Juggernauts.
The Armored Juggernaut was a mechanical shikigami whose metal body was its vessel. Firearms on the level of rifles couldn't even make it lag in the first place. In contrast, the Tsuchigumo fired the cannons installed on either side of its body as if to say 'Not bad, let me return the favor'.
The rumbling sound of cannon fire from the Pacific War era, different from the sound of modern firearms, resounded through the mountain. Smoke curled up from the barrels.
Stone lanterns were shattered, huge trees toppled, and large holes opened up in the monastery. The cannons bombarded the shikyakumon[5] like full-power chainsaws. Though it looked like their accuracy wasn't so good, their effectiveness as a deterrence was the real deal. The soldier monks who had surrounded Harutora before fled everywhere like scattering spiders.
"Well, to be honest, things like military vehicles are exceptional fighting powers."
Harutora murmured to himself with a bitter smile. Even with more than twenty military monks as its opponents, the strength of a single Armored Juggernaut was overwhelming. And though the soldier monks were all armed with firearms, they weren't used to using them and cooperating for a group battle. Judging from the way Jougen commanded them, he hadn't commanded an armed group before. And needless to say, infantry like this were useless against military vehicles.
Before anyone noticed, the two Divine Generals who had announced their uninvolvement beforehand had disappeared somewhere. They were probably afraid of getting dragged in and hence had taken advantage of the chaos caused by the Armored Juggernauts to escape.
"D-Don't panic, just draw back!"
"No, aim! Aim at the shikigami's master!"
It seemed that several high-ranking ajari were shouting angrily. Avoiding the shikigami and attacking the master was a fundamental of magic battle when confronting powerful shikigami. But the excellence of the Tsuchigumo wasn't just in their offense. The Tsuchigumo nimbly used their legs and bodies to block bullets, deflecting all of the shots aimed at Harutora. Then, the people who had aimed at Harutora along with their commanders were immediately dealt with by the loyal defensive shikigami--
"Scoundrel!"
After they were subjected to a fierce counterattack, they went silent. The barrier based on the Mountain Gate would be destroyed soon and flaws had appeared in the array covering the interior of the monastery. Though the main hall's barrier still stayed up, a small defect would have huge consequences since the magic it was constructed with was extremely unstable. Right now, the lag had already subsided from Hishamaru and Kakugyouki.
Then, as Hishamaru danced marvelously through the battlefield, Kakugyouki entered the depths of the main hall, destroying the final barrier. The array had already vanished completely when he came out.
The soldier monks were still putting up resistance, but not long afterwards they saw the second Armored Juggernaut advancing while constantly knocking down the cedar trees to the left and right of the mountain path in front of it. This was the Armored Juggernaut that had just activated by the south side of the mountain and destroyed the barrier at the Mountain Gate.
The monks moaned in despair upon facing the new powerful shikigami. The second Armored Juggernaut's eight legs clanked as it moved and climbed up the mountain path, gazing at the soldier monks. Then, it easily passed through the shikyakumon that had already become cannon fodder. It walked in front of the first Armored Juggernaut as if saying 'Requesting regroup', neatly and respectfully arranging its eight legs. In comparison, the first Armored Juggernaut stamped back respectfully as if to say 'Good work'.
With the two gathered in the courtyard along with the one attacking on the north side of the mountain, the three Armored Juggernauts were all objects that had been stolen from the Onmyou Agency storehouses. Originally, vessels of the level of Armored Juggernauts ought to have been sealed in the Onmyou Agency building's sealed storage room. But unfortunately, the Armored Juggernauts' vessels were too huge, and it was difficult to keep them inside the agency building. Hence, the Armored Juggernauts had been kept in a storehouse administered by the Onmyou Agency under the name of research materials.
Of course, magical security had been cast on the storehouse. Especially after the incident with the 'Child Prodigy' Dairenji Suzuka, that security had become even more serious. Even so, it was quite easy to break into the storehouse compared to the agency building's sealed storage room. Harutora and the others had used stealth magic to infiltrate the storehouse and cleverly stolen the Armored Juggernauts.
"They were originally things I made, so it's more accurate to say that I'm 'taking them back'."
To Harutora who casually said that, Hishamaru replied:
"These things must be very happy right now as well."
"Those things are armaments, not you."
Kakugyouki rebutted.
Also, Harutora had cast some misleading precautions on the simple shikigami guards and workers so that the Armored Juggernauts wouldn't be realized as stolen for a while afterwards. Actually, Harutora and the others had spent the seven days between receiving Jougen's message of 'summons' to arriving at Seishuku Temple on stealing the Armored Juggernauts along with handling and maintenance.
Harutora's reasons for especially utilizing the Armored Juggernauts wasn't because he had anticipated Jougen's next move. Rather, he had prepared them as effective measures to suppress a forested mountain battlefield in case the summons to Seishuku Temple was a trap. In the end, it was just coincidence that they had become an effective countermeasure to oppose this magical-energy-sealing array. But even if he hadn't prepared the Armored Juggernauts, Harutora had other means of destroying the magical array.
Hishamaru returned to Harutora's side, leaving the suppression of the courtyard to the two Armored Juggernauts. Harutora briefly checked the appearance of his defensive shikigami.
"Are you fine?"
"Of course, Harutora-sama."
Hishamaru waved her fox tail, replying pompously.
Kakugyouki shrugged his shoulders at the two, showing a fed-up expression.
"What Harutora wants to hear about is the condition of your 'stability'. It's normally in a pretty bad condition, and the magical array just now could only have impacted it negatively. Why don't you just obediently stay on the sidelines?"
"How foolish. Defensive shikigami are supposed to always stay by their masters. How can I alone stay uninvolved?"
The fox spirit frowned and rejected the one-armed oni's proposal. But Harutora also looked troubled.
"But what Kakugyouki says is reasonable. Hishamaru, you don't need to force yourself that much."
"What! H-Harutora-sama, even you're saying such things? Harutora-sama, are you saying you no longer need Hishamaru!?"
Tokyo Ravens Volume 10-326.jpg
"I never said that kind of thing at all."
"T-Then please don't say such heartless things. My current condition definitely isn't as severe as Kakugyouki says. It's my natural responsibility to move alongside you as a defensive shikigami."
Hishamaru desperately spoke to Harutora with a despairing expression. Tears welled up in her clear blue eyes and the ears on her head and her elegant fox tail trembled pitifully. To be honest, it had been fine when she had her child form, but Harutora was pretty troubled every time he saw her do this kind of thing with her stifling beauty now that she had an otherworldly gorgeous appearance. He smiled bitterly, just replying to Hishamaru with an "I understand". Actually, he felt more at ease letting her follow him by his side than forcefully ordering her to leave and ending up with her secretly trailing him.
Then, Harutora's gaze returned to the battlefield before him again. He wished he could have avoided letting the Armored Juggernauts loose in this old haunt if at all possible. Unfortunately, things had turned into this. The passage of time was truly cruel.
Harutora wore a complex expression as his eyes reflected a scene from the same place but a different time. Then, there was a nostalgic figure from that scene.
"I'm very sorry, Shinra."
Harutora muttered with a lonesome expression.
But it might be too early to say that. The changes to the battle situation brought by the vanishing array weren't just beneficial to Harutora and his two defensive shikigami. Seishuku Temple wouldn't yield that easily.
"Noumaku saraba tatagyateibyaku saraba bokkeibyaku sarabata tarata senda makarosyada ken gyakigyaki saraba biginnan untarata kanman!"
Acala's Fire Realm magic swirled in the courtyard. Harutora and Hishamaru took up stances against this powerful magical energy. Kakugyouki smiled lightly as he marveled. The Fire Realm magic in the courtyard spun into a giant tornado of flame. Sparks scattered in every direction like dust along with the fierce gale.
The power it carried was presently more than the limited-use cannons of the Armored Juggernauts. The tornado of flame swelled more and more into a giant vortex. The two mechanical shikigami were forced to stop in a panic. They were protected by magical armor, so they weren't seriously harmed even after being engulfed by the F
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