Chapter 163: Go, Mimi!
Seeing the dense energy radiating from Luke, the Mountain God seemed delighted. With a crazed smile, it pushed the smooth arm of a young woman out from between several rows of human teeth.
The fingers curled around a bell and held it out before him.
"Wish…"
The Mountain God awkwardly imitated human speech.
'So it grants wishes in exchange for an outrageous price?'
The power inside Luke had clearly made the creature greedy. One glance at the manic grin on its vaguely human fox face was enough to understand its excitement.
Like someone teasing a pet, it kept shaking the soul-stirring bell in front of him, almost as though asking why he still refused to take it.
Luke looked into the Mountain God's bell-shaped eyes. Seeing something almost like anticipation there, he could not help smiling.
"Heh. Pretty generous, aren't you? Then I won't hold back."
Smack!
Luke reached out and seized the bell.
The evil spirit's grin instantly became wider and more sinister. Its mouth tore farther toward its cheeks, while the bells hanging from its furry ears jingled wildly with excitement.
As Luke tightened his grip on the bell, the Mountain God's appearance became increasingly clear in his eyes.
Through that single bell, a connection beyond ordinary reality had formed between them.
"Luke… Nova…"
The evil spirit spoke his name.
'Wow. This thing is seriously happy.'
"A wish, huh?"
Luke tossed aside his glasses and pulled [Carve the Boat to Find the Sword] from his spatial storage. He traced a familiar symbol through the air, and his usual guandao-shaped exorcism tool instantly appeared in his hand.
Ever since acquiring this item, Luke had marked the tools he commonly used with different symbols. Drawing the correct mark with the sword let him summon any non-system object regardless of distance.
The greatest benefit was obvious.
He no longer had to wander around carrying dangerous weapons and risk being reported by helpful citizens.
Mm.
His familiar blade technique.
"My wish is…"
Luke raised the guandao.
"To butcher you."
Without hesitation, he followed the weapon with a barrage of prepared talismans, slamming them onto the ugly creature with practiced ease.
Even an evil spirit this powerful could not completely ignore them.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The talismans exploded across the Mountain God one after another, tearing into its body.
"Guu! Guu!"
The Mountain God released a pained foxlike cry.
'So the fox—or maybe some kind of fox deity—must have become the dominant part of its body.'
Luke carefully studied its structure.
Countless human arms intertwined across its torso, holding densely packed bells, while two enormous bells sat inside its eye sockets.
'Those big bells are probably important.'
Having chosen his target, Luke raised the guandao and drove the blade straight toward one of the Mountain God's eyes.
Good thing the guandao had such reach.
A shorter weapon would have been much more troublesome here.
The blade carved a long wound across the eye socket.
The Mountain God threw back its body in pain, and the flowerlike structure surrounding Luke finally peeled apart, revealing its complete form.
Thick hair covered its fox ears and head, while dense animal fur stretched along its long spine. Human hands and beast claws supported its body, and several fox tails whipped violently behind it.
"Kind of disgusting."
Luke held his long blade as streams of spiritual energy cascaded around him, perfectly matching the blatant look of disgust on his face.
"It's been a while…"
"I can barely remember the last time I ran into something this troublesome."
"%@#!"
The Mountain God finally recovered from the pain and stared at the shattered portions of its outer shell while shouting something incomprehensible.
It seemed furious about the damage, yet its face still maintained that deranged, foolish grin.
The Mountain God extended a human arm holding a chain of connected talismans.
Whoosh!
The talismans slithered forward like snakes and instantly coiled around Luke's legs, binding him in place.
"Ba!"
The Mountain God pointed a finger.
Two fox-masked humanoid shikigami appeared beside it.
Slowly raising their claws, the shikigami charged toward the restrained Luke.
Now that a connection had been established, pretending he could not see them would no longer protect him.
The air cracked as their attacks slammed into his body.
Yet the Mountain God tilted its head in confusion.
It lowered its face and stared through its enormous bell eyes at the "Luke" trapped by the talismans.
As the life energy gradually faded, the truth was revealed.
That was not its captured prey at all.
It was a rabbit doll—
A substitute rabbit doll meant to draw the attention of evil spirits.
"As expected of something canine."
Luke raised his exorcism tool beside the Mountain God's lowered face.
"You sure had fun playing with a doll."
He followed the wound he had already carved into its face and swung the guandao with all his strength.
CLANG—!
An enormous bell crashed to the ground.
Luke had gouged out one of the Mountain God's eyes.
"GUU—!"
A pained fox cry burst from its permanently grinning face.
The Mountain God pointed toward him again.
"Kill."
The instant the crude human word left its mouth, both shikigami raised their hands again.
Luke used [Carve the Boat to Find the Sword] to trace two more symbols through the air, summoning another pair of exorcism tools.
"Keep those two shikigami busy for me."
He spoke to the summoned Kuchisake-onna and Pen Spirit.
Because both spirits were attached to exorcism tools, summoning their tools also pulled their spirits over.
Extremely convenient.
The two spirits glanced at Luke.
Kuchisake-onna cursed under her breath, but both still charged forward and intercepted the shikigami.
By Luke's estimate, they should have been strong enough to defeat the pair.
However, considering how unwilling they were and how likely they were to slack off, simply keeping the shikigami occupied for a while was enough.
The Mountain God raised a huge palm and slammed it toward Luke's head.
Luke threw out another substitute rabbit doll and slipped away from the attack.
The Mountain God stared at the rabbit beneath its palm.
Its Λ-shaped mouth almost seemed to express sadness.
Then every human arm around its abdomen lowered at once.
Countless bells immediately dropped under their own weight.
Jingle~
Jingle~
Jingle~
Everyone present except the Mountain God froze as the overlapping bell chimes filled the area.
The attack did not distinguish friend from foe.
The omamori and talismans Luke had prepared beneath his clothes began failing one after another.
The sound did not injure his physical body.
Instead—His soul took the damage.
Luke frowned deeply and pressed a hand against his head.
It felt as though his soul had been treated like a sheet of paper, folded again and again until countless creases had been forced into it.
It hurt.
And more than anything—It was exhausting.
The bells continued ringing.
The pain tearing through his soul intensified with every chime.
'I can't let it keep ringing those things.'
Luke's vision spun, exploding with strange colors.
Forcing his mind to remain focused, he ripped the [Magical Cat Pendant] from his neck and threw it forward.
"Go, Mimi!"
Luke activated the pendant's active skill—[Summon Mimi]!
The small cat on the pendant expanded in midair, gradually taking on the form of a complete cat.
"Meow—!"
Mimi released a startled cry.
With nothing beneath her paws, she flailed all four limbs wildly in the air—Until she landed directly inside the Mountain God's empty eye socket.
"Uh…"
'Maybe this isn't exactly the nicest way to use her.'
Still, Luke regularly summoned Mimi and spent time raising her affection toward him.
So…
It should probably be fine.
Inside the Mountain God's eye socket, Mimi's body rapidly expanded.
Blazing soul flames consumed her previous adorable appearance, transforming her into something fierce and terrifying.
Blade-like claws began tearing madly outward from inside the Mountain God's eye socket, ripping through its body from within.
Luke had experience fighting evil spirits of this size, so he immediately began arranging the tools he had prepared below it.
He positioned the [Seer's Mirror] together with several ordinary mirrors around the four directions.
Then he used [Omamori Salt] to create multiple piles around the area, mixing spirit stones into the salt and arranging everything into a circle.
The Mountain God realized what was happening and desperately tried to remove the cat rampaging across its body.
Its spirit-banner tails and talisman-covered arms thrashed wildly, rustling violently as enormous power erupted from its body.
"Good thing I prepared for this."
Crack—!
The formation had barely finished activating before the mirrors shattered and every pile of salt instantly turned black.
Meanwhile, the Mountain God's body began melting beneath Mimi's flames.
A constant boiling hiss filled the air.
Luke cooperated from below, hacking apart the creature's body piece by piece.
No matter how violently the Mountain God struggled, it could no longer change the outcome.
DING—!
"Eek!"
Already suffering from a splitting headache caused by the bells, Luke reflexively jumped at the sudden chime.
But a moment later, he watched the Mountain God's body dissolve like snow beneath sunlight.
And he understood.
His main mission—Or perhaps his personal life goal of defeating an evil god one-on-one—Was complete.
The so-called Mountain God had been destroyed.
...
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