Witnessing Kaguya eliminate Naraku after watching their dogfight, Luo Shu couldn't help but raise his hand and applaud lightly.
Clap! Clap! Clap!
The rhythmic sound of applause echoed.
Kaguya turned her head sideways, her gaze icy as she regarded Luo Shu's smiling face, frowning:
"It seems you still don't understand your current situation."
"On the contrary, I understand my situation perfectly well."
Luo Shu shook his finger in denial.
He looked up at Kaguya on the high platform. Though physically looking up, Kaguya strangely felt she was the one being looked down upon.
This sensation made Kaguya frown involuntarily.
At this moment, Luo Shu asked softly with a smile:
"Before things escalate, I'd like to ask one final question."
"Are you truly confident you can handle us so easily?"
Kaguya paused, then sneered:
"What nonsense are you spouting at a time like this?"
She glanced at the robe draped over her arm, feeling the endless surge of powerful Spiritual Power, and revealed a mocking smile:
"Surely you don't think you can escape my grasp now?"
"I see. The robe's return and the techniques in this castle are your confidence?"
Luo Shu nodded in understanding, then stroked his chin:
"Though we've had some disagreements earlier, our conflict hasn't reached life-or-death levels yet, has it?"
"What do you think?"
Kaguya countered. Just then, a gleam of light flashed across the ancient mirror in her hand.
In the next instant, Senhime Rin Getsu's figure appeared within the mirror.
Kaguya looked down with pity in her eyes:
"Blame yourselves for bringing such a pure-blooded yokai before me."
As she spoke, Senhime Rin Getsu's pupils in the mirror suddenly turned blood-red, as if she were losing control.
Reflected in reality, an unusual Spiritual Power seemed to surge from Senhime Rin Getsu's body.
The next moment.
BOOM!!
Kaguya had somehow raised her arm, now encased in a transparent spherical barrier, blocking an enormous canine claw.
"How is this possible? Why can't I draw out the darkness in your heart?"
Kaguya stared in shock at Senhime Rin Getsu, who stood firm with one arm transformed, her face full of disbelief: "Just who are you?!"
"Trying to manipulate my heart?"
"How very presumptuous of you."
Senhime Rin Getsu gazed coldly at Kaguya.
Originally, she hadn't paid much attention to the matters between Kaguya and Luo Shu, content to remain a silent observer on the sidelines.
But she never expected Kaguya would mistake her for an easy target and set her sights on her first.
Thinking this, Senhime glanced at Kaguya before murmuring her speculation:
"Is this a half-yokai's jealousy towards purebloods? Hmm, perhaps mixed with the desire to devour purebloods for advancement?"
"You wretch..."
Having her thoughts exposed, Kaguya flew into a rage:
"How dare a lowly yokai like you lay hands on me, a Celestial Maiden!!"
Kaguya gripped her precious mirror with one hand, aiming it at Senhime while chanting what seemed to be an extraordinary spell.
At that very moment, the enormous dog paw locked in a struggle with Kaguya's other hand suddenly paused.
The next instant, Senhime sneered and swung her arm:
"—Meidō Engetsuzan!!"
A perfect full moon unfurled with the motion of that bestial claw.
A pitch-black moon abruptly appeared above the hall, followed by a black hole-like, terrifying gravitational pull.
The dreadful suction instantly disrupted Kaguya's spell, leaving her dumbfounded:
"What is this? The Underworld Gate?!"
"How can this be?!"
A yokai who could casually open the Underworld's gate?
What kind of Dog Demon was this?!
"Nether Moon Demon Wolf."
Luo Shu, who had appeared unnoticed in a corner, remarked calmly:
"A unique Demon Wolf that dwells in the Underworld, traversing between life and death, feeding on vitality and death energy. Currently, only one exists."
Watching Senhime effortlessly trace the Meidō's outline, forcing Kaguya to dodge frantically, Luo Shu couldn't help but murmur:
"Honestly, I'm somewhat surprised that Senhime awakened to a special racial Class after becoming my dependent."
"Thinking carefully now, this must be the Class that Senhime—or rather, the entire Dog Tribe—has been researching all along."
"Whether it's the Meidō Stone, the castle deliberately built so close to the sky, or Tōga's countless incursions into the Underworld—even their graves being established there—all these arrangements were undoubtedly to complete this Class."
"Precisely because of this, with my stimulation, she easily awakened to this special Hero Rank racial Class that wields the triple concepts of life, death, and space."
At this, Luo Shu looked at Senhime and smiled wryly:
"The real reason you stopped caring about Sesshōmaru is because you've already fulfilled the Dog Tribe's ideal, isn't it..."
"What are you muttering about over there?"
Kuesu Jingūji, floating midair atop a magic book, couldn't resist quipping:
"That Demon Dog—no, Demon Wolf now—over there."
"Seeing how heated her fight with Kaguya is, should we step in and join the fun?"
"Is that necessary?" Luo Shu countered with a smile.
Hearing this, Kuesu turned to observe Kaguya being chased around, constantly teleporting via cherry blossom petals, and scoffed:
"You're right. That woman's spatial magic and mirror are indeed impressive, but she just had to run into that Demon Wolf."
"To be honest, a special type of Demon Wolf that hides in the gap between the Underworld and the human realm, only revealing itself at the moment of attack—even with my spacetime technique, I find it particularly troublesome, let alone that Celestial Maiden."
"Honestly, it's just her luck that the Celestial Maiden Kagura happened to provoke a yokai that practically counters her. With all her bizarre techniques, she can't even use a fraction of them now. She's simply asking for trouble."
At this point, Kuesu Jingūji turned to Luo Shu with a playful smile:
"Of course, her worst misfortune was running into you, a master of illusions."
"Kagura is probably still trapped in your illusion, completely unaware that she's actually standing at the main castle's gates."
As her words faded, the surroundings abruptly transformed.
The high platform and bronze mirror vanished, along with the countless massive redwood pillars. In their place stood two towering walls and a long flight of stone steps between them.
Watching the changes with a faint smirk, Luo Shu observed Kagura and Senhime Rin Getsu darting around the steps:
"She should be reaching her limit soon."
"Come, let me see what your true trump card is."
As Luo Shu's voice trailed off...
Kagura, long pushed to her mental breaking point, suddenly clutched her treasured mirror and teleported onto what she believed was the high platform. Standing with her back to the enormous mirror, she addressed Senhime Rin Getsu:
"I must admit, you yokai have some skill—but that's all it is!"
As she spoke, Kagura caressed the mirror in her arms, channelling torrents of Spiritual Power from her feathered robe into it. The energy swirled around her, stirring up fierce whirlwinds.
Her gaze sharpened as she glared at Senhime Rin Getsu, voice dripping with malice:
"Let this end here."
The next instant, the mirror erupted with radiant light.
Massive beams shot skyward from five points around the castle, forming an enormous pentagram in the heavens.
Under the pentagram's glow, Senhime Rin Getsu's face became a shifting tapestry of light and shadow, her expression inscrutable.
Kagura rapidly chanted incantations as the mirror in her hands unleashed boundless floral radiance.
A moment later...
With the final syllable uttered, Kagura spoke with icy certainty, as if victory were assured:
"—Forbidden Art: Meikyō Shisui."
Instantly.
Time ceased its flow.