Chapter 33 - Trump Card

While the white-robed man was still caught up in his theatrical flair, Ren immediately saw his opening. He wasn't about to stand by and wait for the enemy to finish posing.

Without a single second of hesitation, Ren lunged. His entire body erupted in a brilliant white aura, his internal energy surging to meet the threat.

Closing the distance in a blinding, silver flash, he raised his blade high and brought it crashing down in a devastating, unrelenting Zornhau. A heavy, suffocating pressure exploded from the strike, the sheer weight of his intent bearing down on Orodes and firmly locking the arrogant cultist in place.

"Ah..." Orodes sighed lightly, not even bothering to look up at the descending steel. "How rude."

The exact moment the words left his lips, the space around Ren violently warped. The overwhelming, lethal momentum of his strike vanished, and his entire body suddenly felt as though it had been plunged into freezing molasses. His descending sword slowed to a sluggish crawl, trapped within an invisible quagmire.

'This!' Ren thought, his eyes widening in shock as he strained against the frozen air. ‘What’s this?!'

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. How scary~" Orodes mocked, pulling his hands to his shoulders in a theatrical self-hug.

Then, in a heartbeat, the playfulness vanished. His face smoothed into a cold, expressionless mask, and his eyes filled with a sudden, freezing anger. In a voice as deep and hollow as an ancient tomb, he uttered a single command:

"Sleep."

Orodes dropped into a low, disciplined horse stance. With a deliberate, measured motion, he thrust his palm forward, driving it squarely into Ren’s stomach while the boy was still suspended.

BOOM!

"Pfft!"

A spray of spittle erupted from Ren’s mouth. His body, previously moving in slow motion, was suddenly liberated from the time-snare, only to be blasted backward with the force of a cannonball. He blurred through the air, crashing down hard right next to a terrified Kon.

Thump.

Ren hit the ground with a heavy thud. His vision swam, and his consciousness flickered like a dying candle, threatened by a void of static. 'I can't... fall... so easily!' Ren screamed internally. He clamped his teeth down on his lower lip, biting through the skin until the sharp, metallic tang of blood flooded his mouth, the pain forcing his mind back into focus.

Ren’s durability was immense, and his Ki shielding was robust, but Orodes’ strike hadn't been a simple, blunt-force blow. It was a sophisticated, lethal martial technique, one meticulously perfected during the cultist's century of subterranean exile, designed specifically to completely bypass external defences and send devastating vibrations directly into the internal organs. Despite Ren's gruelling training, his insides felt as though they had been violently liquefied, leaving him gasping for air as he desperately struggled to push himself upright.

"Ren-chan!" Kon shrieked in horror, scrambling frantically to the fallen boy's side.

His small, furry frame hovered protectively over Ren. Trembling uncontrollably, the little fox pressed his paws against Ren's chest, shaking him gently in a desperate attempt to rouse him. "Ren-chan, wake up! Please!" he pleaded, his voice cracking.

But as Ren coughed, a fresh trickle of blood spilling past his bruised lips, it was painfully obvious to the terrified Yokai that his best friend was far from okay.

"Oh? You're still not completely down?" Orodes commented, a flicker of genuine surprise crossing his features as he looked down at the stubbornly conscious boy.

Tap. Tap.

He began to close the distance at a leisurely pace, clasping his hands neatly behind his back. "I suppose this must be why the Lord God has chosen you. Such exceptional talent... at such a young age."

"Stay away from Ren-chan!" Kon snarled, planting his tiny paws firmly in front of his fallen friend.

Arching his back, the little fox hissed fiercely at the approaching cultist. Reacting to his desperate, protective anger, several floating orbs of brilliant, golden fox-fire flickered to life in the air around his small frame. The flames flared aggressively, radiating an intense heat that attempted to push back the heavy, suffocating aura surrounding the Cult Leader.

"Ant," Orodes intoned disdainfully, lowering his cold, apathetic eyes to look down at the trembling fox. "Why is trash like you bound to our Chosen One?"

Without a sliver of hesitation, he thrust his hand toward Kon. A heavy wave of temporal magic instantly enveloped the little Yokai, freezing his golden fox-fire in mid-air and rendering him completely paralyzed.

Unable to react, Kon could only watch helplessly as Orodes delivered a brutal, sweeping kick.

"GAH!" Kon shrieked. The sudden impact shattered his frozen defence, sending his small, furry body flying helplessly through the air. He crashed heavily into a pile of rubble, rolling to a stop far away from Ren’s side.

"Kon..." Ren whispered weakly, his voice rough and laced with pain.

His vision blurred with rage and desperation. Trembling violently, Ren planted his hands against the cracked pavement. Gritting his teeth against the agonizing internal damage, he desperately tried to force his broken body back off the ground.

Orodes watched Ren's desperate struggle with complete apathy.

Raising both hands toward the bleeding boy, he stated flatly, "Let’s sever the bond between you and that nuisance."

Glowing lines of mana began to materialize in the air between his palms, rapidly weaving themselves into an intricate, rotating magic circle. "We can’t have our Lord’s return be disrupted, after all," Orodes continued. His eyes shone with a cold intensity as he focused on constructing the spell.

Hearing the cultist’s words, Ren’s eyes widened in panic. 'NO!'

Ignoring the agonizing pain in his damaged organs, Ren forced his trembling arms to push harder against the pavement. But before he could even scrape himself up into a kneeling position, a heavy boot slammed down squarely between his shoulder blades.

"Guh!" Ren gasped as the swift stomp pinned his back violently to the ground, driving the breath from his lungs.

"Don’t make this harder for me," Orodes warned coldly.

Above the Cult Leader's hands, the intricate magic circle began to pulse, glowing a deep, ominous crimson, the exact colour of freshly spilled blood.

It was Rule Breaker. Originally crafted centuries ago by a legendary witch to shatter her vows with a certain hero, the spell was solely made for contract nullification. Now, Orodes was using that very same ancient magic to violently tear the young Yokai's bond away from its master.

In mere seconds, the crimson magic circle expanded, washing over Ren entirely. Pinned helplessly beneath the cultist's heavy boot, he could only watch in horror as the blood-red light sank directly into his chest.

Snap!

A sharp, ethereal sound, exactly like a heavy iron lock violently shattering, echoed through the clearing.

In an instant, the warm, comforting tether that had linked his soul to the little fox was cleanly severed. A sudden, freezing void rushed in to take its place. The spiritual connection was gone.

Kon was no longer his shikigami.

'Gone... it's gone...' Ren thought hollowly, a suffocating tide of grief rushing into his heart.

The connection between Ren and Kon was never just a contract between a master and his shikigami, nor was it simply a bond between two best friends. It was the very last gift a mother had given to her beloved child. It was the final, lingering tether between a mother and her son.

Hot tears began to pour from Ren’s eyes, carving tracks through the dirt on his face. His fists tightened against the cracked pavement in a desperate, white-knuckled grip, as if he could somehow physically reach out and grasp the vanishing bond but his fingers curled around nothing but empty air.

"P-please..." Ren whispered in desperation, his words choked by a mouthful of blood and tears.

"Hm?" Hearing the broken plea, Orodes leaned in slightly. His eyes danced with cruel, playful delight. "What did you say~?"

"...someone..." Ren choked out, his voice barely a breath against the pavement. "...anyone..."

"Hahahaha! BOY! Give up and come with me!" Orodes threw his head back and laughed uproariously at the boy's despair. "No one is coming to save you! HAHAHAHA!"

Suddenly, a beastly voice cut through the air with a heavy depth.

"Who decided that?"

The words didn't come from Ren. They came from the rubble to the side, a deep, resonant, and demonic growl, sounding like a primordial beast desperately trying to restrain its own wrath.

"Huh?" Orodes stopped laughing and snapped his head toward the voice, his eyes narrowing as he tried to identify the intruder. "Oh? It’s you?"

Standing amidst the dust and debris was Kon. His small frame was trembling, his white fur bristling with unadulterated fury. But he was no longer a helpless little fox. A vibrant, golden aura was now flickering violently around him, expanding larger and larger by the second until it created a suffocating, physical weight that crushed the very air around them.

"This..." Orodes frowned in genuine confusion, stepping back as he sensed the sheer magnitude of the rising energy.

Around Kon, the golden aura hit a blinding crescendo and then, it began to change. The brilliant gold darkened, shifting rapidly into a deep, corrupted black before igniting into a malevolent, crimson red.

Bathed in the ominous light, Kon’s small body began to violently expand. His pristine white fur was dyed a horrific, blood-soaked crimson. Behind him, his single, fluffy tail began to violently split and sprout. One. Two. Three. The appendages multiplied rapidly, whipping through the air until nine massive, blood-red tails fanned out behind his towering, monstrous new form.

It was Blood Burning. Over the last few months, watching Ren’s progress and feeling a crushing sense of helplessness at his own weakness, Kon had secretly developed this forbidden technique to bridge the gap between them. By literally incinerating the Heavenly Kitsune portion of his bloodline, Kon was forcefully elevating himself to the absolute peak of the Ultimate-class in a single, desperate surge.

Of course, such a miraculous, logic-defying technique came with a devastating price. Once his Heavenly Kitsune blood was entirely burned away, he would instantly fall into a comatose state of weakness. For how long? Kon had no idea; the technique was purely theoretical. But left with absolutely no other choice, the little fox had played his final, suicidal trump card.

There was a very real chance he would lose his life right here on this street. But Kon was more than willing to trade his life to save his best friend, Ritsuzen Ren.

ROAAAAAARRRR!

A terrifying, earth-shattering howl erupted from the nine-tailed beast, echoing violently throughout the entirety of Inner Kyoto. The sheer, oppressive weight of his crimson aura permeated the Yokai City like a tidal wave, stopping every single common Yokai dead in their tracks, forcing them to look up in sheer terror toward the epicentre of the roar.

**********

Meanwhile, inside the command room of Tenko-jō...

Yasaka and the Yokai Elders were frantically barking orders to their subordinates. In the centre of the oval table, a glowing holographic map of Outer Kyoto hovered brightly. Across the projection, a sea of crimson dots indicated the invading cultists, while blue dots represented their own defending forces. Scattered chaotically between them were clusters of white dots indicating the terrified civilians.

"Squad 8, there are civilians pinned to your left!" Yasaka shouted into a glowing talisman paper, commanding the Tengu unit on the other end of the magical link.

"Understood," came the deep, static-laced voice of a Tengu warrior.

Similar orders echoed endlessly around the table as the commanders desperately tried to direct the front lines. They were doing everything in their power to quell the city's chaos and save as many lives as possible, turning the command room into a deafening, highly stressful cacophony of shouts and frantic reports.

Suddenly, an oppressive, terrifying aura swept over the entire stronghold.

The room instantly fell dead silent. Yasaka and all the Elders abruptly stopped their work, their heads snapping simultaneously toward the direction of the suffocating pressure. Their eyes widened, filling with a mixture of shock and solemnity.

"A new invader?!" the Nekomata matriarch shrieked shrilly, her hair standing on end.

Yasaka didn’t reply. Instead, she closed her eyes, trying to parse through the overwhelming, violent energy to identify its core. "This aura..." she murmured.

Then, something clicked in her mind. Her golden eyes snapped open in horror. "KON?!" she shouted, her voice trembling as she recognized the underlying signature.

"K-Kon? T-That failure?" the Gama Yokai elder stuttered out in sheer disbelief.

Yasaka didn’t even bother to correct the elder's insult. Moving entirely on pure instinct, she bolted from the table.

BANG!

The heavy doors of the command room violently rattled on their hinges as she threw them open and sprinted down the hall.

'Konyo-chan... Ren-chan... they're in danger!' she thought frantically, her heart pounding against her ribs as she raced toward the battlefield.