On the scorched black earth burned by fierce flames, Miketsu stood beneath a tall pillar of charcoal. The ichimegasa hat on her head was long gone. An eerie wind blew through her short white hair, and her crimson eyes silently watched the Demon-Faced Centipede in the distance. Beside her, Tsuruha, who had collapsed on the ground, stared at the scene in disbelief.
"Lady Uka... why didn't you flee? This... this place is extremely dangerous, please..."
"Rest well, Tsuruha. You're not in good shape right now." Miketsu sighed inwardly as she looked at the divine fox beside her, who was struggling to stand up and shield her.
On the other side, the Demon-Faced Centipede, having missed its attack, recovered and rose again. The feelers on its head twitched violently, as if sensing a peculiar aura.
"It's... you..." The Demon-Faced Centipede's hoarse whisper was filled with endless fury and resentment. It clearly remembered this girl before it; she was the one who had blinded its eyes, which had yet to recover.
"It's me..." Watching the Demon-Faced Centipede, Miketsu stepped forward.
Right foot forward, left foot back and together; then left foot forward, right foot back and together... Following a certain pattern, Miketsu was now performing a strange sequence of steps. As her feet continuously landed on specific points, an invisible power spread out from beneath them.
"Die!"
With wild fury, the Demon-Faced Centipede burst forward, propelled by its hundreds of legs, and charged straight for Miketsu, kicking up clouds of dust and knocking over countless charcoal pillars.
"Lady Uka, be careful!" Seeing this, Tsuruha couldn't help but cry out. The Demon-Faced Centipede's speed was not something an ordinary human could evade.
Sensing the Demon-Faced Centipede rushing toward her at high speed, Miketsu remained unmoved. Her expression hardened, and she silently chanted.
"Pacing the Dipper..."
Miketsu's figure suddenly accelerated in an instant, becoming a fleeting afterimage that dodged the Demon-Faced Centipede's powerful strike.
Missing its strike, a trace of astonishment rose in the Demon-Faced Centipede's mind, but its assault didn't pause. Its long body immediately turned and lunged at Miketsu again, yet it still hit nothing but air.
Miketsu's form was like an illusory phantom, constantly disappearing and reappearing amidst the Demon-Faced Centipede's storm-like attacks. Neither the centipede's attacks themselves nor the debris they kicked up could touch her in the slightest.
The agility Miketsu displayed now was in no way inferior to Tsuruha's.
Upon closer observation, one could see that Miketsu was often dodging the Demon-Faced Centipede's attacks in advance. Her steps seemed to predict the direction of danger to some extent, allowing her to evade beforehand.
Witnessing herself moving so nimbly through the dangers assailing her from all sides, Miketsu couldn't help but marvel inwardly.
So that's it. Is this the so-called 'Pace of Yu'?
Walking according to the Big Dipper, praying to the spirits of heaven and earth. While enhancing speed, it also uses steps for divination, foretelling and neutralizing danger. This divine-invoking pace, said to have been created by Yu the Great, is itself a divination ritual. By using these steps to engage an enemy, one can divine their movements and thus anticipate their actions.
It seems I've learned something incredible.
Seeing the scene before her, Tsuruha's jaw dropped. She knew very well that Miketsu's current agility relied on a strange movement technique, and the power driving this technique was one she was most familiar with.
"Lady Uka... is actually using spiritual power..."
Tsuruha never imagined that after only being gone for about ten minutes, Miketsu was already mastering a brand-new power she had never encountered before. Tsuruha couldn't understand where this spiritual power on Miketsu came from. Even the former God of Inari had never used spiritual power to perform techniques.
So where did the spiritual power Miketsu was using come from?
"Damn... you..."
"I'm going to... tear you to pieces..."
Seeing that it still couldn't hit Miketsu, the Demon-Faced Centipede was clearly growing frantic. The demon faces on its body opened their mouths once more, and rows of sharp spikes saw the light of day again.
The Demon-Faced Centipede didn't want to get entangled with Miketsu any longer. When facing a nimble enemy it couldn't hit, the solution was simply to destroy everything around it. No matter how agile one was, it would be useless against a wide-area attack.
The Demon-Faced Centipede began to writhe its body again, using the spikes on its body to stir up demonic energy. That tyrannical storm of demonic energy would once again sweep across the land, leaving no one able to hide or escape.
Having witnessed this move from the Demon-Faced Centipede before, Miketsu's expression hardened. She immediately stopped in place. This time, she didn't flee. Instead, she formed a hand seal in front of her chest and began to chant an incantation.
The spells of Onmyodo are ever-changing and numerous, but almost all of them require the caster to provide corresponding spiritual power to be successful. The amount and quality of the spiritual power provided directly determine the spell's power. Therefore, one could say that casting a spell is a process of releasing spiritual power; without spiritual power, no spell can be cast.
However, there is one category of spells that is an exception. Casting these spells not only requires no spiritual power but may even grant it. This is because the true agent of these spells is not the caster themself, but another existence.
This is the God-Invoking Incantation. It uses a spell as a conduit to pray to the gods of all directions, beseeching them to grant one power to subjugate demons or bless the human world. Thus, it is less an incantation and more a prayer; its essence is to communicate with a deity and provide a channel for that deity to bestow power.
Generally speaking, the God-Invoking Incantation is not a spell suitable for combat, because whether a god responds or not depends entirely on their mood. Therefore, before invoking a god, one usually prepares many offerings to please the deity and increase the success rate. But during a fight, no one will give you time to set up an offering table. Besides, even with offerings, a god might not necessarily respond. In short, the success of a God-Invoking Incantation depends entirely on the whim of the invoked deity, making this practice the most esoteric part of the already esoteric Onmyodo.
Ultimately, it's because no one can truly fathom a god's mood.
But Miketsu was different. She had a god here who was predictable, reliable, absolutely dependable, and who wouldn't even accept a single offering.
And that was herself!
I won't refuse if I'm invoking myself, right?
Although I can't directly release divine power, I can respond to my own invocation!
Facing the whirlwind of demonic energy stirred up by the Demon-Faced Centipede, Miketsu remained unmoved. At this moment, her face was exceptionally devout.
"By righteous decree, I urgently summon; by the order of Ziwei!"
"I respectfully beseech Uka-no-Mitama-no-Kami, may your awesome spirit swiftly descend, to annihilate calamities and disasters, to execute evil and vanquish demons, may this divine incantation transform into light!"
"As swift as the statutes and ordinances!"
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