They could feel a hideous, nauseating miasma drawing near.
It grew thicker as time passed, suggesting that the evil presence was gradually increasing in power. In other words, they could tell that the Evil God’s resurrection was nigh.
They’d had time to prepare. The fact that they had secured the sacred territory’s core first should give them a significant advantage.
It was a round, open area made of stone, about 20 meters in diameter and completely empty, with two doors and nothing more. One door was the entrance they had used to come in; the other was the one the evil emanated from.
They were able to lie in wait for the Evil God to arrive.
They might be able to finish him off before he resurrected.
They weren’t going to let their guard down, of course, but they had hope.
They didn’t want to sacrifice innocent people, either; if they could stop his resurrection here and now, that would be for the best.
The Evil God was now close.
They held their breath, watching the door.
After a while, the sliding door opened.
The darkness was there.
To their spiritually sensitive sight, it seemed there was something pulsing in the darkness.
They opened fire.
They first focused as many attacks as they could on him from long range. They were using assault rifles. Whether monster or evil god, if it still had a physical form, physical attacks would work.
They were using silver bullets that had been blessed by the clergy, so they could count on them doing spiritual damage, too. Of course, distance diminished the spiritual energy of the user, so they didn’t think this barrage would completely finish it.
If they could just shave down the Evil God’s defenses a bit, they could use divine tools that channeled chi to deal the finishing blow, or they might need to directly channel exorcism power into a barefisted strike.
The bullets hit their target. They weren’t deflected; they plunged into the Evil God’s twisted, foul body, causing blood to erupt and flesh to go flying.
“It’s working! Keep it up!”
Following their leader’s order, the monster hunters increased their force. But the Evil God did not stop walking. It moved slowly but steadily towards the center of the room.
The attacks had definitely had an effect, but they hadn’t finished it.
Was it time to switch to direct attacks?
Just as they were beginning to wonder, a change began to occur.
The Evil God was growing.
It was swelling.
Just as they saw where this was going, the Evil God exploded. It had swelled like a balloon, and then burst.
“Did we... beat it?” one of them asked.
Blood and flesh were scattered like a mist, and the Evil God himself was nowhere to be seen. It seemed possible that he really had been destroyed.
But they weren’t about to be so optimistic. The Evil God’s presence had not vanished. On the contrary, its miasma had swelled explosively.
The bloody mist began to settle, revealing three humanoid forms.
One was the boy who had been the Evil God’s host, Hiromichi Rokuhara.
One was an eyeless woman with the lower half of a snake.
One was a slender man with wings.
“Three of them?” The commander was hesitant. If the Evil God had revived, that meant they were finished. He hadn’t had to think any further than that, but he was still surprised to see multiple figures there.
“I see! When you just stuck them all on one person it looked awful, and I honestly had no idea what it was getting at. So it’s a trinity thing, huh?” A red-haired girl spoke as she entered through the door behind the Evil God.
The Evil God apparently had companions. But they didn’t have time to worry about that now.
✦ ✦ ✦
They had to do something about the Evil God. Even if they had no chance of winning, they had to at least try to do some damage.
“Hey, did you shoot something enchanted at us? That really hurt.” Hiromichi did not hide his anger.
“Focus your attacks on the boy! Everyone, switch to melee combat!” The commander unsheathed a katana.
The monster hunters each cast their assault rifles aside and drew the enchanted weapons that they specialized in.
Hiromichi disappeared, then reappeared abruptly in front of a monk. The monk hit Hiromichi with a vajra.
“Yeah, I can tell you have quite a bit of spiritual power, but that doesn’t hurt at all,” Hiromichi said.
The monk shouted out, panicked, and struck at him again and again. Hiromichi didn’t even bother to dodge.
“So that’s our endurance. What about our offense?” Hiromichi waved his hand lightly. It was enough to send the monk’s head flying.
“Dammit! Erect a barrier! I’ll use Dimension Cutter!” The commander had determined that attacking alone wouldn’t do anything. He hadn’t even been able to perceive Hiromichi’s movement.
“Sure, bring it on. Sounds like a good test.” Hiromichi smiled confidently and beckoned him.
If he was underestimating them, that was to their advantage, the commander thought. If he took them for total fools, they might stand a chance. He charged forward before Hiromichi could change his mind, brandished his sword, then swung it down.
Hiromichi didn’t dodge.
The commander’s victory was assured. Dimension Cutter could cut through anything, no matter how sturdy it might be.
But Hiromichi had blocked the blade.
“What?!”
“Heh. So it can cut through anything, huh? Pretty amazing... But it needs to be a Japanese sword? Too bad. That’s in violation of the Swords and Firearms Control Law.” Hiromichi laughed as if he found something very funny. “You want an explanation? I stole your ability. I mean, if you could have hit me before I’d stolen it, you might have won, but...”
Hiromichi snatched his sword away. The commander couldn’t stop him; the boy was far too strong.
Hiromichi gave the sword a test swing. He didn’t have any real swordplay training. He was just swinging it randomly, yet with one cut, he bisected the commander.
“He was so brittle, I didn’t even need to use the ability,” Hiromichi lamented.
Despite seeing the most powerful among them — their commander — defeated, the remaining monster hunters kept up their morale. But to Hiromichi, the remainder were just cannon fodder. His expression immediately shifted to one of boredom.
“I guess you all had better die.” Hiromichi’s left hand glowed. He swept it sideways, releasing a flash.
The upper torsos of all the monster hunters present went scattering.