It was hard to describe the mood of Moryo at this very moment.
Why did he ever listen to Yomi's slander and set his eyes on stealing Ryosuke's body?
Just thinking about that made Moryo regret it.
It wasn't that he regretted attacking Ryosuke. Now that Ryosuke had gained the whole world, Moryo wanted to accomplish something great. One day, the two of them would inevitably have a life-and-death battle.
What he regretted was that he should not have left his perfectly fine original body unused, and instead tried to play tricks, wanting to steal Ryosuke's body.
Moryo had always done things in an upright, straightforward manner, using strength to make others submit, crushing anyone who stood before him.
Precisely because of that, even when he was finally sealed away by the First Shrine Maiden, he still felt that it was simply because his skills were inferior.
During the days of being sealed, what he wondered about was how to start over again, and he even felt a bit of regret that the First Shrine Maiden had died early, leaving him no chance for revenge.
'It's all because of Yomi's plan.'
Moryo glanced at Yomi, who had just been beaten up badly by little Naruto and could no longer stand back up.
Before, he had even thought Yomi had some kind of hidden trump card. Now it seemed Yomi was nothing more than a self-important idiot.
'Fortunately…'
Moryo closed his eyes and let out a light sigh, 'Everything has returned to the correct path.'
The earth split open, and one after another, purple-black tentacles stretched up from beneath the ground, whipping violently the moment they emerged.
The daimyō's mansion took the first heavy hit.
This courtyard-style estate was smashed into a massive field of ruins under the lashes of the tentacles.
Hundreds of attendants and samurai, who had already had their souls sucked out and were half-dead, were completely crushed in the rubble.
Strands of purple-black divine ghost power wrapped around their mangled corpses, giving birth to brand-new undead soldiers.
Immortal and indestructible, so long as there was enough divine ghost power, an endless number of undead would join the battlefield.
This was what made Moryo terrifying.
Moreover, because he had forcibly undone the seal, more than thirty percent of Moryo's divine ghost power had diffused into the city.
This was a weakening to Moryo, but it also became his weapon.
Since he couldn't use it directly, he simply spread that leaked power outward, using it to contaminate the civilians in the city, expanding the strength of his undead army.
"Not good!"
Shrine Maiden Shion spread her hands, wanting to seal this leaking portion of divine ghost power.
But the spreading range was too large. The divine ghost power erupting from underground was like thick volcanic ash, covering the sky over the city, blocking out the stars and moonlight, falling straight downward.
This range… Was beyond Shion's abilities.
Moryo growled, "Shion! I told you, you would pay the price for your choice!"
He didn't care about the lives of civilians. Compared to creating an undead army, Moryo clearly understood that only by his own strength could he defeat Ryosuke standing before him. If he had any other option, he absolutely would not waste this thirty percent of divine ghost power.
All of this was because of that damned Shion.
"How… how could this happen…" Shion fell to the ground.
The moment Naruto came running out with the others, sending Yomi flying with a heavy punch, Shion really thought they had won.
She underestimated how powerful Moryo was.
Even more, she underestimated how ruthless he was.
Moryo's goal in doing this was simple, no matter who won between him and Ryosuke today, the people of the Land of Demons would have to be buried with them.
Kakashi stared at the divine ghost power descending from the sky. His brows furrowed deeply. The range was too wide. Even if he used Kamui until it smoked, it was impossible to absorb divine ghost power of this scale.
"Is there really no way?"
A hand rested on Shion's head.
The same gesture that Moryo had made not long ago.
But this time, the feeling it gave her was warm.
"Leave the rest to me."
Ryosuke's voice came from beside her.
A purple vine wrapped around Shion's waist, swung her hard, and threw her a hundred meters away, far from the battlefield full of cracked earth.
Her small body traced an arc through the air.
She dumbly stared at Ryosuke's back, her eyes full of confusion.
Ryosuke was indeed strong, so strong that it surpassed what a shrine maiden from a small country could imagine.
But Moryo, divine ghost power, that was a completely different matter. Ryosuke had never come into contact with divine ghost power before…
So what could he possibly do?
While Shion was thinking, she saw Ryosuke take out a gleaming jewel.
In an instant, the howling storm abruptly stopped.
Not just the wind, Shion and Moryo, who were both skilled at sensing divine ghost power, clearly perceived that the extremely yin natural energy flowing quietly in the air was suddenly suppressed by an even more massive force; it could not move at all.
"This is…"
Moryo's pupils tightened slightly.
Ryosuke glanced at him and said quietly, "Since you've met the masked man, and the White Snake Sage, didn't they tell you…"
"That I know a little bit of natural energy?"
Ryosuke held the Dragon-Snake Bead up with one hand, the other hand placed lightly behind his back, and slowly floated into the air.
Whoosh!
A thread of crimson-gold flame coiled around the Dragon-Snake Bead, erupting into ten thousand rays of golden light beneath the night sky, radiating outward and illuminating the entire city.
The forcibly suppressed, frozen divine ghost power turned into ink-colored fireflies, all pouring into the Dragon-Snake Bead.
In just one or two breaths, the sky became clear again. All the divine ghost power spun and sealed itself inside Ryosuke's palm, without a trace leaking out.
Kakashi gently caught Shion.
She couldn't believe her own eyes.
A crisis capable of destroying an entire city had been resolved so lightly, so effortlessly.
At this moment, Shion finally understood.
"This… is 'Ryosuke'…"
Spectators only saw the surface, but only Moryo truly understood what the concept behind Ryosuke's power meant.
"You're not sealing it!"
"You're trying to control it, using it!"
Moryo stared at the Dragon-Snake Bead in Ryosuke's palm. Thinking again of the cosmic stars he had seen in Ryosuke's consciousness space, he suddenly realized, "You're just like me, both monsters wearing human skin!"
"Heh."
Ryosuke let out a faint laugh.
He had no intention of wasting words on Moryo. He put away the Dragon-Snake Bead and once again drew the Great Blade of Destruction, charging toward Moryo's true body amid a storm of raging winds and lightning.
"You really think I'm afraid of you?!"
Moryo screamed, and massive four-to-five-meter-wide tentacles whipped at him like steel whips, tearing apart the lightning and colliding with Ryosuke's long blade.
BOOM!
One human, one ghost, clashed in midair.
Moryo's true body was enormous. Purely from a brute-strength perspective, he was even stronger than most tailed beasts.
He originally thought this blow would send Ryosuke flying.
But the two remained locked in place.
No, this wasn't a stalemate.
Ryosuke's five fingers pierced into Moryo's tentacle. The tips of his fingers burned with strands of Ripple Flame, scorching Moryo's flesh with an unpleasant sizzling sound.
Moryo let out a sharp scream of pain.
But the Ripple's damage was extremely limited.
A force that could ignite and tear apart tailed beasts only left five hollow holes in Moryo's tentacle.
Moryo pulled back his tentacle and fired wave after wave of purple-black arrows.
Ryosuke dodged easily and summoned Killer Queen, throwing out a bomb.
A sudden explosion destroyed a small part of Moryo's body.
The next second, the blown-apart section reattached itself to Moryo's body, restoring the injured area.
Afterward, Ryosuke tried several more methods, but none of them were ideal.
"It's useless! Ryosuke, I admit you're strong, but you can't kill me! And I..."
Moryo attacked like a madman, "...can kill you!"
Ryosuke tilted his head slightly, dodging another tentacle.
Moryo was nearly immune to all known attack methods. To deal with him, one had to either use Senjutsu, using natural energy to clash and slowly neutralize and consume his divine ghost power…
Or use a shrine maiden's sealing technique.
But the former would consume all the divine ghost power.
It was equivalent to Ryosuke working so hard, finally seeing hope for breaking through the Ripple barrier, only for everything to end in nothing.
And the latter…
Ryosuke glanced back at the tiny Shion.
He let out a quiet sigh.
"Let's not trouble a child."
Seeing Ryosuke's troubled expression, Moryo burst into wild laughter.
It should have been like this from the beginning.
Why bother with occupying Ryosuke's body?
Killing him was better than taking it.
"Ryosuke! What else can you do?!"
Moryo roared and launched another attack.
Hundreds of tentacles turned into razor-sharp blades, stabbing toward Ryosuke from all directions.
A smile curled up in Moryo's heart.
At this moment, Ryosuke lifted his hand and gently touched the corner of his eye.
Pinching with his thumb and index finger, he drew out a drop of tear from his eye.
The tear, slowly pulled free, condensed into a thin, irregularly shaped blade about one foot long.
Wanting to devour Moryo, yet unwilling to let a child take any risks, Ryosuke was too "greedy", wanting everything. So, he could no longer rely on conventional means.
The translucent, thin tear-blade spun lightly between his fingers, and Ryosuke held it like he was holding a pen, pointing it toward Moryo.
"Are you ready to accept misfortune?"