Chapter 30: Taking Action
Extreme fear.
Extreme panic.
Lying inside the coffin, Touma Kazusa's eyes were dull and lifeless. Her limbs would not obey her. She could not move even a finger. Wrapped in the coffin's cold, rigid interior, she stared blankly up at the pitch black sky overhead, a sky with no moon, no stars, only endless darkness shifting with the motion of the procession.
The terror in her heart rose in wave after wave, as though she were being dragged into deep water and drowned alive.
Her thoughts began replaying everything from the beginning like a revolving lantern.
After receiving the talismans from Gin Tsumugi the night before, she had not wasted a single second. She had rushed all over the city, delivering them to the affected students one by one. By the time she was done, dawn had already broken.
Exhausted to the bone, she had returned to her apartment, washed up quickly, thrown herself onto her soft bed, and lost consciousness almost instantly.
But the talisman Gin had given her had not stopped the nightmare.
Not even a little.
The dream came right on time.
And this time, it was even more real than before.
Longer, deeper, more vivid.
Until at last she had jolted awake in cold terror and seen that bridal robe from the Heian Period lying neatly on her bed.
The junihitoe.
The moment she saw it, she knew.
That thing had come for her.
From then on, she lost all control over her body. Even the light in her own eyes had been smothered. She had become a prisoner trapped inside her own flesh, able only to watch from within.
She watched "herself" calmly apply unfamiliar makeup before the mirror.
Watched "herself" skillfully put on the layers of the ancient bridal robe.
Watched "herself" walk barefoot through the streets.
She had tried desperately to resist. Tried to force her mouth open and scream for help at the passing pedestrians.
But none of them reacted.
It was as though they could not see her bizarre appearance at all.
Or perhaps they truly could not.
In the end, she had been dragged all the way here and slowly sunk into Bing Lake.
Now, with her body lying in this coffin and her fate only moments away, she could do nothing except pray.
Pray that Gin Tsumugi had not lied to her.
Pray that the talisman he had given her and told her to keep close would protect her at the most critical moment.
Otherwise
A hoarse, thunderous voice suddenly shattered her thoughts.
"Sacrifice, rise!"
At the same time, Touma Kazusa realized that, without her even noticing when it had happened, the coffin carrying her had already reached the foot of the monstrous Wedding Dress Tree.
Then something even more horrifying happened.
Her body began to float.
It rose straight up from the coffin, slowly, unnaturally, as though invisible hands were lifting her toward the tree. From the corner of her eye, she saw the old man who had so often appeared in her nightmares. At this moment, his face looked even more twisted and hideous than before.
And above her, hanging from the branches, she saw them.
The girls who had died.
The missing students.
Even Kuda Mai, whom she had once believed to be the mastermind behind everything.
They all wore the same eerie smile.
As if they were impatient.
As if they could not wait for her to become one of them.
Another living dead bride hanging from the tree.
When Kazusa rose to the same height as the hanging brides, a red cord snaked down from the branches and coiled itself around her pale neck without her noticing when it began.
The moment she felt it tighten, she understood.
If that rope fully closed, she would become exactly like them.
Below, the old man and the villagers who had become Ghost Servants watched the ceremony proceed. Their mouths split open wider and wider until the corners nearly reached their ears, making their already hideous faces even more grotesque.
"Soon, soon, soon..."
"It is the younger sister... the younger sister from that pair..."
But just as the old man turned that monstrous smile toward the wooden house hundreds of meters away, his expression abruptly froze.
It was as though he had seen something impossible.
"Ban, Un, Taraku, Kiriku, Aku! Connect the five elements, Order!"
"[Five Pointed Star Incantation]!"
Behind the entire procession, Gin Tsumugi stood with a cold expression and a talisman between his fingers.
The moment the chant ended, a pentagram formation burst open with the old man at its center.
It was vast and magnificent, radiating righteous force in all directions. The power of exorcism and purification flared outward like sunlight tearing through a graveyard.
Several Ghost Servants did not even have time to react before they were purified on the spot, dissolving into wisps of green smoke. Many more were struck hard enough that their forms immediately became blurry and unstable, like candle flames trembling in a storm.
"The Domain is strengthening them."
Gin was not surprised.
If a single strike had been enough to erase all of them, this place would not have qualified as a true Domain at all. Within the Wedding Dress Tree's territory, both it and its Ghost Servants possessed a clear home field advantage.
Shrill screams instantly erupted from all directions.
The shock of Gin's sudden appearance was like pouring ice water into a vat of boiling oil.
The entire village exploded into chaos.
Ghost Servants hidden inside the wooden houses came crawling out one after another, their expressions hideous beyond description. Every one of them stared at Gin and Ogiso Setsuna, who stood beside him, with naked malice.
The moment Touma Kazusa saw Gin, hope exploded in her chest.
He really had come.
But the Wedding Dress Brides hanging from the tree obviously did not share her feelings. They hated this intruder who had suddenly appeared to interfere.
The resentment on them thickened to an astonishing degree.
They were unwilling.
Completely unwilling.
Why had no one come to save them?
Why had they been turned into Ghost Servants?
Why had they been forced to endure such inhuman torment?
The few Wedding Dress Brides nearest to Touma Kazusa floated toward her. Their pale hands, mottled with rot and corpse spots, reached for the red cord around her neck, intending to tighten it and drag her into the same fate they had suffered.
"Even now, you're still thinking about swallowing the food already in your mouth. Greedy things."
Gin's voice was cold.
He had not come here merely to destroy the Wedding Dress Tree. He had come to save people too. There was no way he would stand by and watch Kazusa be turned into another hanging bride.
The talisman Touma Kazusa had kept pressed against her body all this time suddenly floated up from her chest.
At the same time, obscure Sanskrit spilled from Gin's lips, solemn and majestic.
"Namah sarva tathagatebhyo sarva mukhebhya sarva..."
"Swiftly, as the laws command!"
"[Fire Boundary Spell]!"
In an instant, flames burst in every direction.
Scorching fire erupted from the talisman floating before Touma Kazusa, spreading with the wrathful force of a blazing sun. The heat rolled outward like a divine tide, engulfing both the Wedding Dress Tree and the Wedding Dress Brides wrapped around it.
The screams that followed were endless.
One after another, the Wedding Dress Brides shrieked miserably as the flames devoured them.
At the same time, the fire of the [Fire Boundary Spell] illuminated the entire village, turning the dead darkness of Mingao Village as bright as day.
When the Ghost Servants saw that fire and that light, their bodies trembled violently.
For the first time, their hideous faces showed not hunger or malice
but fear.
.....
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