A few kilometers away from where the battle between Hisagi and the special-class cursed spirits was taking place, two children, along with Toge, were running with all their might, far down the path they had been told to follow.
"We need to hurry, Daiki; those demons might catch up to us." A boy named Dai was running through some bushes while holding the hand of his best friend, Daiki, who was being watched over by Toge.
The surroundings were dark, so they couldn't run very fast without stumbling a few times. However, their will to live, along with their desire to escape the demons, was too strong to stop.
They were following Toge, who, in critical moments, killed the cursed spirits that appeared in their path. He had been protecting them all this time, which was why they were running as if nothing else in the world mattered. "We have to watch out for the monsters; they could eat us before we reach a safe place."
"No place is safe, so we should keep running quietly."
Crack!
At that moment, a figure suddenly appeared in the darkness. Seeing the two children, who were easy prey, the thing hiding in the shadows rushed forward, baring its fangs.
Dai stepped in front of Daiki, intending to stop the monster that was about to attack them. He didn't make a sound and simply waited for his death.
Toge had little cursed energy left and could only murmur, "Stop."
Boom!
But just then, the cry of an animal was heard. When Dai opened his eyes, he saw a tall man with pointed ears and small horns on his forehead. This man, who seemed to be a priest, looked at the cursed spirit that had fallen far away and then turned around, only to see the two terrified gazes of the children.
"You must have gone through a lot, but now you're safe." The priest bent down slightly, and with a wave of his hands, the children's wounds were completely healed.
"Who are you?" Daiki couldn't trust just anyone, as they could be a demon, but when he saw the man's pointed ears, he knew he was something similar to the monsters nearby.
Toge walked toward the man and murmured, "A Yokai."
"I'm just a priest, a spiritual agent, so sorcerers like you can identify me. Are there others fleeing from the demons?" The priest, who hadn't revealed his name, had come to this place to ensure no more innocents would be affected by the demons in this battle.
Daiki's eyes lit up as he remembered something and shouted, "Priest, you must save the superhero who helped us."
"A sorcerer?" The priest could sense large waves of spiritual energy in the distance, along with massive explosions coming from far away, so the battle might still be ongoing.
"Yes, he's fighting many of those powerful monsters... He's not very big; he looks a lot like an older brother I used to have before the spirits killed him. I don't think he's more than twenty years old."
The priest was about to ask what kind of demons they had seen, but at that moment, the surroundings fell silent, and a powerful lightning explosion struck the ground where they stood.
"Everyone, take cover!" The priest pulled out a crystal sphere, and murmuring some mysterious words, a circle formed around him, shielding both himself and the children.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The rippling waves swept everything away; the trees disappeared, and this once fertile land turned into a hellscape within minutes after the massive lightning bolts hit the ground.
"What an incredible destructive power..." The priest's eyes shone with awe, knowing that these waves of power could reach the level of an extremely powerful being.
But there was no time for celebration—he had to focus on keeping the shield up and regenerating it long enough for everyone to emerge unscathed from this devastating attack.
Toge, of course, couldn't say anything since reinforcements were on their way.
Flames tore through the sky, and after causing great destruction, they fell furiously onto the ground, creating massive waves of fire that burned at extremely high temperatures.
After a few seconds, things seemed to calm down. The priest looked around at the less intense flames but didn't lower his barrier for fear of more attacks.
When he was sure everything was clear, the priest kneeled down in front of the group of children and said, "Listen carefully. Once I drop this shield, you both need to hold hands and run in that direction. Don't ever look back."
"Will you be okay?" Daiki didn't know how strong this man was, but what he had just done was truly something a priest could survive on his own.
The priest smiled kindly and said in a soothing voice, "Run and trust the boy who's been taking care of you."
After saying these words, the priest turned toward where the strong traces of mana still lingered and furrowed his brow. "I hope I don't end up in such a complicated place in the future."
…
"I need to see the results." Hisagi stood up after unleashing that powerful attack, which had consumed a third of his spiritual energy—an overwhelming amount.
Looking around, he saw the corpses of many cursed spirits being consumed by the waves of flames, but he couldn't find Hantengu, who suddenly emerged from beneath the earth. "To think you had this power hidden... You're truly a terrifying being."
Hisagi furrowed his brow, raised his sword toward Hantengu, and, seeing other cursed spirits appearing in the air, knew things wouldn't be as simple as he'd hoped.
But he wasn't discouraged. Suppressing the pain in his body, Hisagi spent more spiritual energy and, without hesitation, launched himself into battle. "If you're coming to kill me, expect to be killed too!"
Boom!
The sky filled with orange fire, and in an instant, hundreds of ice spheres hurtled toward Hisagi as he charged forward.
An irony, as Hisagi's fire could not be extinguished by anything in the world.