"Foolishness… foolishness… foolishness! This will be the end of us all. Why do all these bugs think they can exist on the same plane as demons?"
She said, effortlessly blocking both combatants with just a wave of her hands.
The clash continued, and the enclosure's shape began to shift. Spikes were sprouting from the "ceiling," their jagged forms made of roots. Raising her hand into the air, she declared:
"Ah, thank the followers of the wicked for allowing me to burn down as many of these pathetic bugs as possible."
The spikes shot toward where the combatants stood, moving with tremendous speed.
"Crap! Miravine, this isn't looking good!" he shouted, his eyes fixed on the deadly projectiles hurtling toward them.
Despite the danger, Cyrus pressed his assault on the malice spirit. As the spikes came within mere centimeters of piercing his back, he shifted tactics. Instead of attempting to overpower the woman's fist, he redirected her strike forward. In the same motion, he twisted his entire body into a 360-degree spin.
Ending up behind her, Cyrus drove the back of her knee with enough force to shatter bone. The spike, initially aimed at him, instead pierced through the woman's head.
"How dare you use… my own body against me, you wretch!"
She swung her arm with blinding speed toward Cyrus's head while rising to her feet. Cyrus braced himself, ready to deflect the attack, but before her strike could land, something collided with her with incredible force.
The impact sent her flying across the enclosure, her body piercing through it and leaving a gaping hole in its structure.
It was Umeboshi. He had finally landed his first decisive blow against her. Resting his staff on his right shoulder, he declared confidently:
"I may be the weakest here, but don't underestimate me or my staff… I'm not called Bokujō no Tatsu for nothing."
"Second Zone Spirit, when I trap you in my canvas world, you'll pay a thousandfold for what you've done to me… and that goes for you too, pathetic shaman!"
She spoke with venom, her voice trembling with rage as she held her bloodied face. Then, with a sudden motion, she severed her black hair in half.
In an instant, the cut hair regrew, but the strands that fell transformed into something monstrous—a scythe formed of roots. Gripping it tightly, she glared at them with her abyssal eyes, reflecting nothing but darkness.
"You'll both beg me to end your pathetic lives."
Both combatants exited the enclosure through the hole Umeboshi had created.
"The spiritual and physical worlds need to coexist—that's why shamans exist. But you… you crawled out of hell and decided to disrupt the cycle for your own malice. At least, I assume you came out of hell."
Cyrus spoke firmly, raising his sword into a battle-ready stance.
"Ah yes, I did come out of hell. The Followers of the Wicked chose ten spirits with the potential to escape the abyss. I'll be forever grateful to them for that," she said, spinning her scythe effortlessly from one hand to the other.
As Cyrus watched the scene unfold, his thoughts raced: I suppose that means the corrupted spirit I took down at the station was one of those chosen… But it's been four years since I became a shaman, and I've only encountered four, including this woman. The first two were weak…
Then, breaking his train of thought, Cyrus shouted with a rare grin spreading across his face:
"They were probably way more than ten corrupted spirits that escaped hell.."
The woman turned her cold, abyssal eyes on him and smirked, her voice dripping with disdain.
"Pff, the rest are all bugs," she said with a wide, wicked grin.
Umeboshi, who had been silently watching the exchange, finally spoke:
"It doesn't matter if there are ten, a hundred, or a thousand of you… All I have to do is send every last piece of your trash back to hell with this staff of mine," he said, pointing his staff toward the woman with a sharp, violent motion that caused a gust of air to ripple around him.
"In the beginning, I didn't care that spirits were devouring the living. But now? Now I care. Don't get me wrong—I'm no hero," he added, his voice cold as his piercing gaze locked onto her. "But you're not going to mess up my turf."
The woman nearly dropped her scythe but then let out a giggle, her tone dripping with mockery.
"Your turf? If I'm not mistaken, it was you fools who decided to enter my hunting ground of your own free will," she said, her grin widening.
Umeboshi responded with a heavy step, the force cracking the ground beneath him. His voice was steady and cold as he declared:
"The entire city is my turf… and I won't let some pathetic, psychopathic maniac ruin it."
The scythe spun violently in the air, a blur of motion as the woman prepared to launch herself toward them.
"Fools will always be fools, no matter the era," she sneered.
"We need to end this quickly," Cyrus said, his form turning into a blur as he sprinted toward the woman with incredible speed.
Cyrus's wooden sword clashed with the woman's scythe, producing an explosive sound that echoed throughout the entire park. Locked in a stalemate of strength, the two combatants pushed against each other with unyielding force.
"Looks like we're evenly matched… in both force and speed. How troublesome," the woman muttered, her voice laced with annoyance.
Cyrus, gripping his sword with all his strength, replied coldly:
"That's why I brought someone along to tip the scales."
In a blur, Umeboshi appeared behind Cyrus, swinging his staff down over Cyrus's left shoulder and striking the woman's head with tremendous force.
"Don't ignore me!" Umeboshi shouted in an arrogant tone, a smirk on his face.
As she fell, the woman sneered, "Don't worry. How could I ever forget a bug that keeps flying around my face?"
In an instant, her scythe extended at tremendous speed. Cyrus managed to dodge out of the way, but when he glanced back, he saw the scythe had caught Umeboshi. It hurled him through the air like a ragdoll, slamming him into a Ferris wheel with such force that the massive structure toppled as he crashed into it.
"This technique allows my scythe to move almost five times faster than I can," she said with a wicked grin. "You're barely able to keep up with me as it is, but for a second-zone spirit like yourself, this should work perfectly."
Cyrus turned back, his eyes widening as he shouted, "Umeboshi!" He stared at the wreckage of the destroyed Ferris wheel in disbelief.
"Don't take your eyes off me," the woman snapped.
Cyrus whipped around at an impossible speed, just in time to see the scythe descending, its tip aimed straight for his eyes. Instinctively, he bent as low to the ground as he could, narrowly avoiding the fatal strike. In the same motion, he straightened and swung his wooden sword upward toward the woman's chin.
She managed to intercept the blow with the snath of her scythe, the force of the clash sending her stumbling back a few feet.
As the sun began to set, the woman spoke coldly, "When I extend my scythe's blade, I can make it move almost five times faster than I can move... but look at this, second-zone shaman."
Cyrus's eyes widened as he saw the scythe, made of roots, extending like tentacles. The blade itself grew in size, first ten times, then twenty, until it reached a massive length, at least a hundred times larger than before.
She grinned darkly, her voice dripping with malice. "A reaper will do anything to claim a life when their turn comes to die... And for you two... not even your souls will be allowed to rest. I will devour everything your empathetic selves can offer. Your bodies, memories, and souls... they will all be mine to digest."
An inhuman smile spread across her face, her eyes burning with hunger. The demon was starving, and everything that once brought joy to this place would soon be hers to consume.
chapter eighteen end