To save Ayaka, Hyakusuke flew towards the collapsing crevice, reaching out his hands to embrace her before leaping into the air.
The swarm of snakes released by the black-clothed Onmyoji desperately stretched forward, but failed to catch him and Ayaka, both of whom plummeted downwards with the rubble under the pull of gravity.
"Damn it."
At this crucial moment, the "Shrinking Earth" spatial jump technique didn't activate.
No, it was because, during such a rapid fall, there was no way to jump to a point further and further away in the air; the Shrinking Earth's spatial teleportation had distance limitations.
The scenery overhead grew more distant, the cracked opening resembling a well, and all he could hear was the rushing wind.
"Damn it."
Hyakusuke didn't have time to think about other problems; he needed to prevent himself from falling to his death. Spiritual power could strengthen the body, but if they fell too deep, even if he could survive, Ayaka, a normal person, would die.
"...Kishin Divine General."
Spiritual power surged within Hyakusuke's body, and he roared, activating the power of the Kishin Divine General in that instant, making his body lighter.
However, it was far from enough.
With no point of leverage in mid-air, he drew his ninja blade and hurled it into the distance.
Whoosh!
The ninja blade pierced into the rock wall.
Hyakusuke's figure began to slide through the air, colliding with the wall. His right hand tightly gripped a strand of spider silk, while Ayaka was held in his left arm.
This was spider silk recovered from the "Spider Demon Nest," extremely tough. His gloved hand gripped the silk tightly, and he breathed a sigh of relief.
"Just how deep is it between the first and second levels of the Maze...?"
As he was pondering, the spider silk emitted a metallic groan, and Hyakusuke quickly looked up.
"Not good."
Desperate claws gripped his heart. At the critical moment, Hyakusuke made a desperate gamble, concentrating all of his spiritual power within his body and then unleashing a burst of black and red light.
He focused and released his power, transforming it into a massive and ferocious beam. If it were called the Kishin Arrow, it didn't resemble an arrow; this beam could only be described as a thick stake.
This power slammed downwards, striking the ground.
The momentum of the fall slowed, but the moment they landed, there was still an impact like being pulled upwards by the hand of a giant. Hyakusuke crashed into the ground, but even in this situation, he managed to exert the remaining strength, his feet hitting the ground first, and rolled to the side.
Instantly, the dark outlines of the scenery and the ground seemed to swirl together in his eyes, spinning endlessly.
He must have been rolling continuously, but he always kept the petite girl in his arms. Finally, this strange spinning sensation stopped abruptly when his shoulder slammed into something.
"Cough..."
The concussion in his head made him want to vomit.
'Is this water?'
His right hand lightly touched the ground, noticing that he had landed in a puddle, no, the surrounding environment was also filled with stagnant water.
'The second level shouldn't have water; could it be that we've fallen into an even deeper underground space?'
Suddenly, he coughed a few times, with the taste of iron in his throat.
"I must have suffered considerable injuries."
Waves of intense pain constantly surged through his body, making it impossible to distinguish which bones were fractured and which internal organs were damaged.
Fortunately, his regenerative ability was exceptionally strong, so even with such severe injuries, he wouldn't die.
"Miss Ayaka."
Hyakusuke revealed an expression as if he was enduring pain, asking with a bitter tone, "Are you not injured?"
The girl in his arms was still in a state of shock. She shrank into his embrace, her eyes wide with a dazed expression, and only nodded slowly after hearing him ask a second time.
"Good."
Hyakusuke guessed that she shouldn't be injured, after all, he had focused on protecting her with spiritual power throughout the entire process.
"Then we can't stay here... because the enemy is also nearby—"
At the same time he said this, some kind of sound came from all directions.
"Croak", "Croak", "Croak", "Croak", "Croak", "Croak", "Croak", "Croak"...
Hyakusuke and Ayaka's expressions became tense.
"—I really guessed right."
The enemies should be the third level's youkai, "Giant Toads," coming from all directions. These were giant toads the size of water buffaloes.
Their wide eyes shone behind the dark puddles and stone ruins, and their throats emitted ecstatic "Gurgle" murmurs. Opening their blood basins mouths would be enough to swallow an adult male alive.
Moreover, judging from their hungry gazes, they seemed to regard Hyakusuke and Ayaka as prey.
"...The number is astonishing."
Hyakusuke sighed. What could he say? His luck was truly terrible.
He knew he had no choice but to unfasten the Seven-Section Staff from his waist, gently shake it, and restore the seven-sectioned spear.
Besides fighting, it seemed there was no other choice.
...
Explosions echoed constantly in the darkness.
The Giant Toads were targeting the two prey, relying on numbers to form an encircling attack, spitting acid-like saliva from their mouths.
These acid projectiles came like cannonballs, but were neutralized by the power of the Curse Repelling Barrier generated by the Cursed Treasure Beads.
"Just relying on these kinds of tricks, you can't hit me."
Mikado Tenzen smiled as he waved his hand, and paper doll shikigami shot out from his sleeves.
The shikigami landed on the nearby rubble and stones, the paper dolls stuck to the stones, and immediately began to absorb the surrounding materials, quickly forming one humanoid figure after another—they were in samurai stances, their entire bodies composed of stones and mud.
"Slaughter them all!"
Mikado Tenzen gave the order, and the stone golems immediately engaged in battle with the surrounding toad swarm, a one-sided battle.
The stone golems created temporarily using shikigami were powerful. Their bodies were made of stone, and they could defeat enemies with their bare hands.
“What disgusting things.”
The fox girl, wearing single-toothed wooden clogs, looked disgusted. She hid within the protection of the curse-reversal barrier, stepping gingerly in the puddles, carefully lifting the hem of her kimono to prevent it from getting wet.
“Hahaha… so there are monsters like this underground.”
Mikado Tenzen narrowed his eyes and smiled.
He had taken out a glowing jewel from his pocket, and its powerful spiritual energy supported an absolute barrier against magical attacks.
The giant toads were also surprised that the acid attacks were ineffective, and switched to spitting out thin, long tongues. The tips of their tongues were sharper than steel spears and could pierce through rock.
However, at that very moment, a huge, steel-colored tail coiled around like a giant snake, blocking all the attacks.
“…Truly filthy and ugly things.”
The fox girl spoke unkindly, but she only defended and had no further intentions.
“Fighting such trash is really disgusting~~ Old man, why don't you take care of them?”
“Miss Suzune is as willful as ever.”
The fat old man said with a smile, “It was the same before. If you had used the precognitive power of ‘Kudan,’ we probably wouldn't have been ambushed and ended up down here, right?”
“Huh?”
The fox girl sneered haughtily, “Old ghost, what are you talking about? Why should I use Kudan's power? It's just dealing with a few pieces of trash. Shouldn't I say that you were too careless and got ambushed by the enemy?”
“Is that so?”
Mikado Tenzen smiled, releasing an extremely strong killing intent.
“Miss Suzune is indeed carefree. I hope you can still put on such a face in front of that lord if you fail the next mission.”
“Old ghost, if you want to die, you can say it directly. I don't mind sending you to Buddha right now…”
The fox girl Suzune's blood-red lips twisted, and her whole body emitted a soaring killing intent. Just being between the two of them made the surrounding temperature seem to rise.
Bang!
Suddenly, a large toad with dark red skin rushed out, inhaling sharply, its abdomen bulging, and simultaneously spitting out a fireball.
The fireball, the size of an adult's head, scattered sparks and exploded on the steel tail, displeasing the fox girl Suzune.
“Get out of here!”
The huge fox tail, as large as a giant snake, swept away the fireball and the red toad not far away.
“Old ghost, you canceled the curse-reversal barrier.”
She looked at Mikado Tenzen with hateful eyes.
“Could it be that you really want to die?”
“Not at all.”
The fat old man laughed.
“However, it seems that there are many inconveniences in cooperating with Miss Suzune. Then, let's act separately?”
Without further ado, he put away the jewel and bounced away like a rubber ball, rushing off in another direction.
“That damned old ghost.”
The fox girl Suzune cursed. However, after the fat old man Mikado Tenzen left, she rolled her cunning eyes and revealed a sneer.
“Good, I finally got rid of that troublesome fellow… Now, it will be convenient for me to act.”
As she said this, she tapped her toes on the ground, and with a whoosh, she disappeared from the spot, clearly moving quickly in another direction.
…
In the dark third-level space.
After a fierce battle, Hyakukei's face and clothes were covered in dirt, and his breathing began to become disordered. He gritted his teeth, biting his lip hard, and looked down at the spear in his hand.
“I never thought… the spear would be damaged.”
The Seven-Section Spear was considered a good spear, but after so many battles, it had become severely damaged, despite his careful maintenance.
However, every weapon has its limits. There were already several cracks on the shaft, and the blade was the same.
‘It should be that the load-bearing capacity of spiritual power has a limit… The core of the shaft is sacred tree, but overuse will also damage it…’
Just then, two giant toads pounced from the left and right. Hyakukei raised his spear, not to pierce the enemy.
Instead, he avoided the impact of one giant toad, and at the moment the other giant toad spat out acid and its tongue, he used the spear to deflect the opponent's attack, predicting the toad demon's actions before launching a counterattack.
Now, the spear was already overloaded and could not be used recklessly.
Hyakukei switched his thinking to how to avoid and defend.
Good, the giant toad on the right acted first, not spitting out acid, but attacking with its webbed claws.
He used the spear to deflect the incoming claw, kicked the ground, and distanced himself from the other one.
He had to adopt a conservative approach, deflecting, receiving, and parrying, or using the spear to support his body to avoid losing his balance.
“This kind of fighting… is really troublesome!”
He gripped the spear shaft and leaped up, dodging the giant toad's attack, and used the butt of the spear to poke out one of the giant toad's eyes. The spear flipped, and several Qi Luo Arrows shot out from the spear tip, killing the other giant toad.
Because of the severe consumption of spiritual power, he did not use techniques such as Shrinking Ground, but instead swung the spear, stabbing the other giant toad to death from a blind spot.
“Hoo… that really consumes stamina and spiritual power.”
Hyakukei breathed a sigh of relief.
“T-That… is it because of me?”
Ayaka clung to his back.
“—Is it because of me, a burden?”
“Not at all.”
Hyakukei shook his head.
“Let's not talk about that now… Let's quickly find a safe place to hide. This is the third level of the Maze Path, and this is not a safe place.”
He looked at the pitch-black surroundings, and a sense of confusion arose in his heart about the next course of action.
“…I just hope that the rescue can arrive sooner?”
The swarm of snakes released by the black-clothed Onmyoji desperately stretched forward, but failed to catch him and Ayaka, both of whom plummeted downwards with the rubble under the pull of gravity.
"Damn it."
At this crucial moment, the "Shrinking Earth" spatial jump technique didn't activate.
No, it was because, during such a rapid fall, there was no way to jump to a point further and further away in the air; the Shrinking Earth's spatial teleportation had distance limitations.
The scenery overhead grew more distant, the cracked opening resembling a well, and all he could hear was the rushing wind.
"Damn it."
Hyakusuke didn't have time to think about other problems; he needed to prevent himself from falling to his death. Spiritual power could strengthen the body, but if they fell too deep, even if he could survive, Ayaka, a normal person, would die.
"...Kishin Divine General."
Spiritual power surged within Hyakusuke's body, and he roared, activating the power of the Kishin Divine General in that instant, making his body lighter.
However, it was far from enough.
With no point of leverage in mid-air, he drew his ninja blade and hurled it into the distance.
Whoosh!
The ninja blade pierced into the rock wall.
Hyakusuke's figure began to slide through the air, colliding with the wall. His right hand tightly gripped a strand of spider silk, while Ayaka was held in his left arm.
This was spider silk recovered from the "Spider Demon Nest," extremely tough. His gloved hand gripped the silk tightly, and he breathed a sigh of relief.
"Just how deep is it between the first and second levels of the Maze...?"
As he was pondering, the spider silk emitted a metallic groan, and Hyakusuke quickly looked up.
"Not good."
Desperate claws gripped his heart. At the critical moment, Hyakusuke made a desperate gamble, concentrating all of his spiritual power within his body and then unleashing a burst of black and red light.
He focused and released his power, transforming it into a massive and ferocious beam. If it were called the Kishin Arrow, it didn't resemble an arrow; this beam could only be described as a thick stake.
This power slammed downwards, striking the ground.
The momentum of the fall slowed, but the moment they landed, there was still an impact like being pulled upwards by the hand of a giant. Hyakusuke crashed into the ground, but even in this situation, he managed to exert the remaining strength, his feet hitting the ground first, and rolled to the side.
Instantly, the dark outlines of the scenery and the ground seemed to swirl together in his eyes, spinning endlessly.
He must have been rolling continuously, but he always kept the petite girl in his arms. Finally, this strange spinning sensation stopped abruptly when his shoulder slammed into something.
"Cough..."
The concussion in his head made him want to vomit.
'Is this water?'
His right hand lightly touched the ground, noticing that he had landed in a puddle, no, the surrounding environment was also filled with stagnant water.
'The second level shouldn't have water; could it be that we've fallen into an even deeper underground space?'
Suddenly, he coughed a few times, with the taste of iron in his throat.
"I must have suffered considerable injuries."
Waves of intense pain constantly surged through his body, making it impossible to distinguish which bones were fractured and which internal organs were damaged.
Fortunately, his regenerative ability was exceptionally strong, so even with such severe injuries, he wouldn't die.
"Miss Ayaka."
Hyakusuke revealed an expression as if he was enduring pain, asking with a bitter tone, "Are you not injured?"
The girl in his arms was still in a state of shock. She shrank into his embrace, her eyes wide with a dazed expression, and only nodded slowly after hearing him ask a second time.
"Good."
Hyakusuke guessed that she shouldn't be injured, after all, he had focused on protecting her with spiritual power throughout the entire process.
"Then we can't stay here... because the enemy is also nearby—"
At the same time he said this, some kind of sound came from all directions.
"Croak", "Croak", "Croak", "Croak", "Croak", "Croak", "Croak", "Croak"...
Hyakusuke and Ayaka's expressions became tense.
"—I really guessed right."
The enemies should be the third level's youkai, "Giant Toads," coming from all directions. These were giant toads the size of water buffaloes.
Their wide eyes shone behind the dark puddles and stone ruins, and their throats emitted ecstatic "Gurgle" murmurs. Opening their blood basins mouths would be enough to swallow an adult male alive.
Moreover, judging from their hungry gazes, they seemed to regard Hyakusuke and Ayaka as prey.
"...The number is astonishing."
Hyakusuke sighed. What could he say? His luck was truly terrible.
He knew he had no choice but to unfasten the Seven-Section Staff from his waist, gently shake it, and restore the seven-sectioned spear.
Besides fighting, it seemed there was no other choice.
...
Explosions echoed constantly in the darkness.
The Giant Toads were targeting the two prey, relying on numbers to form an encircling attack, spitting acid-like saliva from their mouths.
These acid projectiles came like cannonballs, but were neutralized by the power of the Curse Repelling Barrier generated by the Cursed Treasure Beads.
"Just relying on these kinds of tricks, you can't hit me."
Mikado Tenzen smiled as he waved his hand, and paper doll shikigami shot out from his sleeves.
The shikigami landed on the nearby rubble and stones, the paper dolls stuck to the stones, and immediately began to absorb the surrounding materials, quickly forming one humanoid figure after another—they were in samurai stances, their entire bodies composed of stones and mud.
"Slaughter them all!"
Mikado Tenzen gave the order, and the stone golems immediately engaged in battle with the surrounding toad swarm, a one-sided battle.
The stone golems created temporarily using shikigami were powerful. Their bodies were made of stone, and they could defeat enemies with their bare hands.
“What disgusting things.”
The fox girl, wearing single-toothed wooden clogs, looked disgusted. She hid within the protection of the curse-reversal barrier, stepping gingerly in the puddles, carefully lifting the hem of her kimono to prevent it from getting wet.
“Hahaha… so there are monsters like this underground.”
Mikado Tenzen narrowed his eyes and smiled.
He had taken out a glowing jewel from his pocket, and its powerful spiritual energy supported an absolute barrier against magical attacks.
The giant toads were also surprised that the acid attacks were ineffective, and switched to spitting out thin, long tongues. The tips of their tongues were sharper than steel spears and could pierce through rock.
However, at that very moment, a huge, steel-colored tail coiled around like a giant snake, blocking all the attacks.
“…Truly filthy and ugly things.”
The fox girl spoke unkindly, but she only defended and had no further intentions.
“Fighting such trash is really disgusting~~ Old man, why don't you take care of them?”
“Miss Suzune is as willful as ever.”
The fat old man said with a smile, “It was the same before. If you had used the precognitive power of ‘Kudan,’ we probably wouldn't have been ambushed and ended up down here, right?”
“Huh?”
The fox girl sneered haughtily, “Old ghost, what are you talking about? Why should I use Kudan's power? It's just dealing with a few pieces of trash. Shouldn't I say that you were too careless and got ambushed by the enemy?”
“Is that so?”
Mikado Tenzen smiled, releasing an extremely strong killing intent.
“Miss Suzune is indeed carefree. I hope you can still put on such a face in front of that lord if you fail the next mission.”
“Old ghost, if you want to die, you can say it directly. I don't mind sending you to Buddha right now…”
The fox girl Suzune's blood-red lips twisted, and her whole body emitted a soaring killing intent. Just being between the two of them made the surrounding temperature seem to rise.
Bang!
Suddenly, a large toad with dark red skin rushed out, inhaling sharply, its abdomen bulging, and simultaneously spitting out a fireball.
The fireball, the size of an adult's head, scattered sparks and exploded on the steel tail, displeasing the fox girl Suzune.
“Get out of here!”
The huge fox tail, as large as a giant snake, swept away the fireball and the red toad not far away.
“Old ghost, you canceled the curse-reversal barrier.”
She looked at Mikado Tenzen with hateful eyes.
“Could it be that you really want to die?”
“Not at all.”
The fat old man laughed.
“However, it seems that there are many inconveniences in cooperating with Miss Suzune. Then, let's act separately?”
Without further ado, he put away the jewel and bounced away like a rubber ball, rushing off in another direction.
“That damned old ghost.”
The fox girl Suzune cursed. However, after the fat old man Mikado Tenzen left, she rolled her cunning eyes and revealed a sneer.
“Good, I finally got rid of that troublesome fellow… Now, it will be convenient for me to act.”
As she said this, she tapped her toes on the ground, and with a whoosh, she disappeared from the spot, clearly moving quickly in another direction.
…
In the dark third-level space.
After a fierce battle, Hyakukei's face and clothes were covered in dirt, and his breathing began to become disordered. He gritted his teeth, biting his lip hard, and looked down at the spear in his hand.
“I never thought… the spear would be damaged.”
The Seven-Section Spear was considered a good spear, but after so many battles, it had become severely damaged, despite his careful maintenance.
However, every weapon has its limits. There were already several cracks on the shaft, and the blade was the same.
‘It should be that the load-bearing capacity of spiritual power has a limit… The core of the shaft is sacred tree, but overuse will also damage it…’
Just then, two giant toads pounced from the left and right. Hyakukei raised his spear, not to pierce the enemy.
Instead, he avoided the impact of one giant toad, and at the moment the other giant toad spat out acid and its tongue, he used the spear to deflect the opponent's attack, predicting the toad demon's actions before launching a counterattack.
Now, the spear was already overloaded and could not be used recklessly.
Hyakukei switched his thinking to how to avoid and defend.
Good, the giant toad on the right acted first, not spitting out acid, but attacking with its webbed claws.
He used the spear to deflect the incoming claw, kicked the ground, and distanced himself from the other one.
He had to adopt a conservative approach, deflecting, receiving, and parrying, or using the spear to support his body to avoid losing his balance.
“This kind of fighting… is really troublesome!”
He gripped the spear shaft and leaped up, dodging the giant toad's attack, and used the butt of the spear to poke out one of the giant toad's eyes. The spear flipped, and several Qi Luo Arrows shot out from the spear tip, killing the other giant toad.
Because of the severe consumption of spiritual power, he did not use techniques such as Shrinking Ground, but instead swung the spear, stabbing the other giant toad to death from a blind spot.
“Hoo… that really consumes stamina and spiritual power.”
Hyakukei breathed a sigh of relief.
“T-That… is it because of me?”
Ayaka clung to his back.
“—Is it because of me, a burden?”
“Not at all.”
Hyakukei shook his head.
“Let's not talk about that now… Let's quickly find a safe place to hide. This is the third level of the Maze Path, and this is not a safe place.”
He looked at the pitch-black surroundings, and a sense of confusion arose in his heart about the next course of action.
“…I just hope that the rescue can arrive sooner?”
