The tyrannical evil will washing over Tatsuya was simply too immense, too overwhelming. It slammed directly into his consciousness, threatening to utterly shatter his very spirit.
At that critical, precarious moment, the sheer mental fortitude forged across Tatsuya's two lifetimes flared fiercely within him. Instead of attempting to directly resist the crushing wave of malevolence – a feat he likely couldn't accomplish anyway – he made a daring, instinctive choice. He didn't block it; instead, he actively guided the invasive psychic energy deeper, channeling it into the vast expanse of his own sea of consciousness.
*Large amount of malicious energy detected. Initiating automatic extraction and storage.*
The immense evil will surged into the depths of Tatsuya's mindscape, fully intending to rampage, overwhelm, and seize control. Unexpectedly, however, it encountered Tatsuya's integrated bio-chip, which immediately began operating automatically, executing its programmed protocols. Interfacing directly with Tatsuya's brain, the bio-chip functioned like an invisible, impossibly high-precision instrument. It began rapidly analyzing and categorizing the invading psychic will of the demon Mōryō, systematically compressing and storing the distinct malicious energy components it identified.
A continuous, overwhelming stream of the vast evil will flowed into Tatsuya's mind, only to be relentlessly intercepted, analyzed, categorized, and stored away by the bio-chip's processes. In just one or two short, agonizing minutes, countless fragments of Mōryō's malicious will had been processed and compartmentalized within Tatsuya's mindscape. The sheer volume stretched his mental capacity to the absolute breaking point, making his head throb as if it might literally swell and burst.
If this terrifying state had persisted for even a few more minutes, Tatsuya suspected his mind might have indeed overloaded and shattered under the immense psychic pressure.
Fortunately for him, Mōryō apparently sensed that a small but significant portion of its projected psychic energy was being systematically siphoned off and contained. The evil will – which felt to Tatsuya like an enraged, savage dragon thrashing within his skull – let out a final, furious mental roar of frustration and rapidly, abruptly, withdrew from Tatsuya's sea of consciousness.
Gasp!
As the last vestiges of the invasive evil will retreated completely, Tatsuya's eyes snapped open wide. He was already drenched in sweat, his entire body trembling slightly but uncontrollably from the intense psychic ordeal.
"Tatsuya, are you okay?" "Senpai, are you alright?" "Tatsuya-san!"
Concerned voices immediately sounded beside him – Anko's sharp worry, Kurenai's steady concern, the Miko's anxious inquiry, and the murmurs of the others.
"I'm... I'm alright," Tatsuya managed to say, turning his head slightly to reassure Anko, whose face was pale and etched with deep worry.
"Your eyes!" Anko exclaimed suddenly, still looking concerned, pointing urgently towards Tatsuya's face.
"Tatsuya-senpai, your eyes... they look terrifying," Yugao added with an audible gasp from nearby, shrinking back slightly.
At that moment, Tatsuya's eyes were glowing an intense, unnatural blood-red, giving off an unnervingly malevolent aura that wasn't his own. Hearing their alarmed reactions, Tatsuya instantly understood his body was still under the lingering influence of Mōryō's potent, malicious will. He immediately closed his eyes again, focusing his own formidable mental strength to calm, suppress, and regain control over the residual psychic fragments still echoing within his mind.
After a tense moment of focused effort, Tatsuya opened his eyes once more. The disturbing blood-red color had completely faded, returning to their normal, familiar state.
Seeing this, everyone present – his team, the Miko, the Kumo and Iwa ninja – collectively breathed a palpable sigh of immense relief. Right now, Tatsuya clearly represented the main hope, the core power, for everyone present. If something serious had happened to him during that psychic assault, they likely would have had no choice but to abandon the critical mission to seal the demon.
"Tatsuya, what just happened? Are you sure you're okay?" Seeing him seemingly return to normal, Anko moved closer, supporting him slightly by the arm, her voice still laced with worry.
"It's okay now, really," Tatsuya insisted, waving a slightly shaky hand dismissively. "That was the raw will of the demon Mōryō invading my mind. It tried to shatter my consciousness, overwhelm my spirit, and take control of my body."
"The demon Mōryō excels at manipulating minds and hearts," the Miko warned gravely upon hearing Tatsuya's blunt explanation, her expression tightening. The faces of everyone else present also changed, reflecting the stark reality of the insidious danger they faced. "Everyone must be extremely careful and guard your thoughts from now on!"
Recalling the sheer intensity and invasive nature of the psychic assault he had just endured, Tatsuya couldn't help but feel a chilling wave of residual fear wash over him. If his consciousness, his sense of self, truly had been shattered by the demon's overwhelming evil will, he realized with sobering certainty, he would likely be nothing more than an empty, mindless vessel for Mōryō to command right now. Furthermore, absorbing such a large quantity of raw, concentrated malicious will in one go, even with the bio-chip's intervention, had placed an immense strain on his own mind and spirit. It had been incredibly fortunate that Mōryō's psychic projection had retreated so quickly. If it had persisted in its assault for just a little longer, Tatsuya suspected he might have been the one to break first under the strain.
However, following quickly on the heels of the relief and lingering fear, a distinct, almost predatory glint of excitement suddenly appeared in Tatsuya's eyes.
During that perilous, unexpected mental confrontation, Tatsuya had made a crucial, potentially game-changing discovery.
By utilizing his internal bio-chip to rapidly analyze and categorize the fundamental nature of Mōryō's evil will as it flooded his mind, Tatsuya had discovered something vital: the so-called 'demon chakra' that Mōryō used to animate and control the countless terracotta soldiers… was actually a unique form of mutated energy that was remarkably similar in composition and potential to natural senjutsu chakra!
During the earlier battle outside the Miko's Palace a few days ago, this potent demon chakra contained within the puppets had been heavily saturated and masked by Mōryō's dense, overwhelming evil intent, preventing Tatsuya from discerning its true underlying nature at the time. But now, having analyzed the 'will' component directly, he understood. If the various malicious intentions and psychic fragments embedded within this raw demon chakra could somehow be effectively filtered out... what remained would be almost pure, potent senjutsu chakra.
At this stunning realization, Tatsuya looked down again at the seemingly infinite sea of terracotta soldiers arrayed below the mountain, a fierce, almost hungry gleam flashing in his eyes.
He had just figured out a potential method for dealing with both the otherwise insurmountable terracotta army and perhaps even the source of its power, the demon Mōryō itself.
Instantly, putting his theory into practice, Tatsuya brought his hands together once more, closing his eyes briefly to sense and draw upon the natural energy abundant around Demon Sealing Mountain. Soon, the familiar golden-orange pigmentation reappeared around his eyes, and his hair began to float gently upwards as if defying gravity.
Tatsuya had re-entered Sage Mode, his presence once again radiating immense power. Watching him reactivate the Sage Mode state so quickly after the psychic attack, the nearby Kumo and Iwa ninja instinctively tensed, their faces revealing expressions of deep wariness and profound caution.
Tatsuya leaped forward without hesitation, once again activating his signature Sage Art technique: "Sage Art: Inorganic Reanimation!"
However, this time, Tatsuya deliberately and precisely controlled the range and application of the powerful jutsu, limiting its terrain-altering effect to a specific area spanning only several dozen meters directly around himself.
Crash! Crash! Crash!
As the terracotta soldiers in the immediate outer perimeter of the vast Demon Sealing Mountain army were shattered into pieces by the erupting spikes of rock and earth, Tatsuya simultaneously used his enhanced Sage senses to perceive and actively absorb the potent demon chakra contained within their dissolving forms.
Deprived of the animating, sustaining demon chakra, the seemingly miraculous regeneration process of these shattered puppets instantly halted. They crumbled into completely inert piles of useless, ordinary rubble, devoid of any lingering energy or threat.
Meanwhile, within Tatsuya's own body, the senjutsu chakra he had just expended to fuel the Inorganic Reanimation technique was immediately and fully replenished by the potent energy he had just absorbed from the destroyed puppets. The small, residual amounts of Mōryō's evil will contained within that absorbed energy were safely intercepted, compartmentalized, and stored away by his ever-efficient bio-chip, preventing any negative influence.
"What's this?" "How did Senpai do that? They're not reforming!"
... ... ...
Standing safely behind Tatsuya, watching the destroyed terracotta soldiers crumble into inert piles of rubble without regenerating for the first time, Hayate, Yugao, Anko, and Kurenai all showed visible relief and burgeoning joy on their faces. They knew the individual combat strength of each terracotta soldier wasn't actually that impressive; a skilled ninja possessed many ways to defeat one in single combat. But what had made the terracotta soldiers so terrifyingly troublesome, so seemingly insurmountable, was their apparent inability to be permanently destroyed – their relentless regeneration. Previously, no matter how thoroughly they shattered the puppets, they always revived quickly, making any prolonged battle against their vast numbers seem utterly futile. Faced with such an inexhaustible, immortal army, even the strongest ninja would eventually be overwhelmed by sheer attrition.
Now, seeing the soldiers destroyed by Tatsuya showing absolutely no signs of regeneration, Hayate and the others were naturally delighted by this breakthrough, and also intensely curious about how Tatsuya was achieving this impossible feat.
Regarding this, however, Tatsuya offered no immediate explanation. He knew this unique method worked specifically for him, leveraging his Sage abilities in conjunction with his internal bio-chip. It wouldn't work for anyone else – not even for a powerful, experienced Sage like Jiraiya, Tatsuya suspected. After all, without the bio-chip's unique capability to safely absorb, categorize, and store the overwhelming malicious will embedded within Mōryō's energy, any normal person attempting to absorb that power directly would likely be driven completely mad or have their consciousness utterly controlled by the rampant evil intent long before they could defeat the demon itself.
Seeing that his new method was not only viable but also sustainable, Tatsuya couldn't suppress a grin of grim satisfaction. He immediately began repeating the process in a steady rhythm – destroy puppets with Sage Art, absorb the released demon chakra to replenish his own senjutsu reserves, let the bio-chip handle the psychic contamination.
With this potentially endless, self-sustaining source of powerful senjutsu chakra now effectively available to him, Tatsuya realized he theoretically could stand here and systematically wipe out every single one of the tens of thousands of terracotta soldiers arrayed outside Demon Sealing Mountain, given enough time.
However, always pragmatic, and just to be safe considering the unknown variables surrounding Mōryō itself, Tatsuya decided to stick to the primary objective. He would prioritize getting the Miko onto Demon Sealing Mountain as quickly as possible so she could perform the crucial sealing ritual on Mōryō, rather than getting bogged down in an unnecessarily protracted battle with the puppets, however feasible it now seemed.
Half an hour later, utilizing his newfound sustainable power source, a wide, clear path had been decisively carved through the previously impenetrable stone army by Tatsuya's relentless efforts. The Miko, escorted closely by Kurenai's team and the visibly impressed Kumo and Iwa ninja squads, followed immediately behind Tatsuya along the cleared passage. Watching Tatsuya, who still appeared remarkably energetic and full of seemingly inexhaustible vigor even after continuously casting overwhelmingly powerful Sage Art techniques for half an hour straight, everyone following him wore slightly bewildered and frankly incredulous expressions.
Entering Demon Sealing Mountain itself through the now-clear path at its base, the combined group proceeded smoothly into the mountain's vast inner cavern.
The environment inside the cavern was immediately, strikingly harsh and oppressive. Pools of violently boiling lava bubbled ominously throughout the massive space, emitting constant waves of intense, shimmering heat that made the very air distort, giving the entire cavern interior the unsettling, unreal appearance of an illusory landscape or a mirage.
Furthermore, invisible, utterly silent screams seemed to echo constantly through the superheated air, assaulting one's very mind and spirit with a palpable sense of ancient despair and malice. The moment they stepped foot inside this place, Kurenai's expression became extremely grave, her senses on high alert. As an expert in genjutsu and illusions, she could clearly perceive a powerful, ambient hallucinogenic effect permeating the entire cavern; those with weaker minds or less mental fortitude could easily be bewildered, disoriented, or subtly led astray by the pervasive psychic disturbances here.
In the approximate center of the vast, lava-filled cavern, a large, ancient-looking stone platform extended outwards like a pier, leading towards the middle of the churning lake of boiling lava. The Miko, her expression resolute, led the assembled group out onto the relative safety of the wide stone platform.
Splash! Rumble!
Suddenly, without warning, the lava within the cavern began to churn and boil even more violently than before. The entire mountain structure started to shake ominously, and loose rocks and debris tumbled down from the high cavern walls around them.
Then, from the depths of the furiously boiling lava directly below the stone platform, a massive, truly monstrous physical body began to slowly, deliberately emerge, rising from the molten rock.
It was the grotesque, terrifying physical form of the ancient demon Mōryō itself.