Mutagen

Old Master Hideo looked at Ren, not minding his wounds. The woman before his eyes would be the new hope for the Ninjas, who had already lost prestige.

Ancient Japan had its own deep roots. After the Gods and Deities of the Lost Era, they had Samurais, who fought bravely, and Ninjas, who wielded tricks and techniques of assassination and infiltration. However, in modern recorded history, there was something deliberately left out.

Among those Samurais and Ninjas, there were individuals who wielded powers beyond norms. Samurais that could fight armies alone and Ninjas who could run above water were just a few of their feats.

Unfortunately, not only were they left unrecorded in history and turned into myths, but all their arts and techniques got lost over time.

During the era when Samurais and Ninjas were overpowering the war, a certain individual accepted the influence of the West. The person gave power to the weak with the help of exploding powder and metal marbles. A power that even the most skilled Samurais and Ninjas could not resist.

The war got overturned. And after that era, the weak ruled the country, and the powerful and skilled became suppressed. The weak took away the swords from the hands of the powerful. It became the start of the decline, and the arts and techniques of the powerful and skilled became lost in time.

And if that was not enough, the weak started their own war. They overturned the powerful. They thought they could do the same to others.

The result became recorded in history. It was a massive defeat with huge losses. And the consequences led to the country\'s treasures becoming lost away from their homeland.

Very few managed to resist the decline. One such was the Isu Clan. Their strength was needed to fight the vicious Demons that could appear at any time. And it was also one of the sources of the Mitsui Clan\'s envy since their Ninjas and Samurais had declined to the point of no return.

Now, Hideo was witnessing the rebirth of the lost art of Ninjas. Unfortunately, it was the young miss of the clan, the one that resisted the clan\'s methods.

The one who turned her back on the clan, which was filled with jealousy and greed.

In the eyes of Hideo, it was such a pity.

If the clan did not cause Ren to leave, would not this achievement also belong to them? The revitalization of the declining Ninjas and the revival of the lost art.

However, it was impossible now. The clan tried to kill Ren. There was no chance of her returning even if he did give up on Keijii.

"Such a pity."

Hideo sighed as he repeated the words in his mind.

And with a shake of the old master\'s head, he decided to finish what he came here for.

All of a sudden, the old master\'s clothing inflated like a balloon. And the sight of that caused Ren\'s eyes to open wide. She immediately increased the output of her Chakra and sent another barrage of petal blades at the old master.

However, Ren\'s [Lotus Bloom] was far from perfect. She might be able to fire one volley due to her strong emotions, but firing consecutive volleys would be hard. It was clear that her next volley would be weaker than the first one, and its activation was slower too. 

As such, the Hideo launched his move faster than Ren. And following the inflation of his clothes, thick smoke came out of his clothing. The smoke began spreading, covering a large area. The fact that his clothes were torn by Ren\'s petal blades just caused the smoke to be released faster and thicker.

What was much worse was that the strong winds of the blizzard were unable to blow the heavy smoke away and helped spread it consistently instead.

In just a few seconds that elapsed, a huge part of the battlefield was covered in blinding smoke. Both sides of the battle were affected, snatching their sight and sense of direction. The smoke covered half of the distance between the river\'s shores, even covering a large part of the docks.

Ren jumped back and stood outside the vicinity of the smoke. She had her sword lowered with a face filled with anger and dismay.

"Damn... it..."

Ren murmured while gripping her sword tighter.

It was clear that she knew that Hideo had already escaped while carrying Keiji.

Was there something Ren could do? Unfortunately, no.

One thing that Ninjas were good at was escaping danger and fleeing from enemies. That was why one should not chase after a Ninja but ambush them instead. 

And Ren... Although she could already overpower her former master in a face-to-face fight, she was still far from reaching the full potential that Hideo had already achieved.

After failing to get her revenge, Ren sighed and turned to face the Reclaimed City.

"This isn\'t over, you old bastards."

Ren said, hoping to curse the hateful members of the family she had forsaken.

It was not wrong that Ren wanted to chase after the old master. Furthermore, even if he hid while fleeing, they would ultimately land at a single destination. After all, the people could run, but not the house.

However, besides her revenge, Ren had other important things to do. For example...

Ren turned her head as she watched the dissipating smoke.

The horde of Demons still trying to step into the Reclaimed City\'s grounds.

Ren brandished her sword once more. This time, it was aimed at the invaders.

On the other side of the battlefield, all of Keiji\'s followers had been dealt with by the members of the Black Lotus. Some tried to surrender, losing their will to fight after seeing the death of their comrades. However, the members of the Black Lotus were unforgiving ones.

Following Ren\'s steps, the members of the Black Lotus supported the good and absolutely detested the evil.

No prisoners were taken among Keiji\'s lackeys. Despite their pleas and surrender, they were still traitors who sided with Demons to invade their homes. These traitors were not deserving of any chance to live.

After killing the last of Keiji\'s followers, the Black Lotus stood strong as they faced the Demon horde to their heart\'s content, trying to protect their homes behind their backs.

The defensive battle continued. Many among the Onmyojis had already fallen. However, compared to the thousands of Demons who had already died, the sacrifice of these brave souls was worth it.

In the center of it all, the waves of flames continued.

Mark and Shin exchanged swords in a deadlock of a battle. And in this situation, it was Shin who was the most perplexed.

At first, Shin did not believe it. However, as Mark spewed the very same [Demonic Flames] from one of his swords, Shin became certain of it.

"How are you able to use Gar\'Vlam\'s flames?!"

Shin finally bellowed as he stared at Mark in a fit of confused anger.

Not only was Mark able to fight face-to-face with Shin, who had already transformed. He also used the same flames. Of course, anyone would find it unbearable if they were in the same shoes as Shin.

"Are you seriously asking me?" Mark frowned. "Do you really think I\'ll answer?"

There was ridicule in Mark\'s tone. However, he was actually relieved to see Shin stop his attacks and ask such a question. It gave Mark a slight chance to pay attention to the other events happening on the battlefield.

In fact, the sudden appearance of the elder that took Keiji away made Mark a little perplexed. It was because that elder was not here when the battle started. He just appeared suddenly and vanished just as fast. Mark could barely detect the elder\'s movements, even with his [Empath] abilities.

But then, the elder\'s sudden interference meant one thing. The Mitsui Clan somehow managed to find out something was wrong with their plans and decided to retreat from the front lines.

This made Mark wonder what the traitors would do. Would they flee from the Reclaimed City, or would they do something stupid. Mark wanted to know.

But dealing with the Mitsui Clan would be for later. At this moment, Mark should focus on fighting Shin while waiting for the right time to push things forward.

Mark was also keeping his attention to check on the girls constantly, monitoring the danger around them. Fortunately, they were fine. They were holding the defensive line on the docks pretty well.

But as Mark continued to monitor the battlefield, he finally realized something odd. No, if this battle lasted this long and someone paid close attention to it, they would notice.

Even if the Demons numbered around tens of thousands, a few thousand had already fallen in just about half an hour. Furthermore, not a single one of them was even able to set one foot on the docks.

Then...

Why were these Demons still running towards the Reclaimed City without hesitation? They would avoid immediate danger and fight to their deaths, but they would still continue toward the Reclaimed City. Furthermore, among these Demons, only about a third had actual combat prowess. The large majority of them were Demons who could not even withstand a punch from Abbygale, who specialized in kicking.

If that was the case, what were they doing? What drove them to attack the Reclaimed City without any regard for their lives?

CLANG!

Mark exchanged another bout of sword clashes with the furious Shin. However, his attention was on something else.

Due to the large number of Demons, he had been avoiding doing this. Since he was in the middle of the army of Demons, he had been sensing their emotions non-stop. He could feel their anger, their excitement, and their hunger. Nonetheless, Mark had yet to probe deeper into the source of these emotions.

Mark\'s [Empath] abilities began working to the maximum. He began probing the emotions of the army of Demons around him.

And there, Mark shivered.

Mark was expecting to feel stronger emotional fluctuations.

But what was this?

Mark\'s eyes opened wide as he saw the blurry image of a giant creature. It was too blurry to make out any concrete details. In the least, Mark saw sixteen red eyes from it.

The image of the monster loomed over the entire battlefield, connected to each Demon attacking the Reclaimed City.

"What are you looking at?!"

Shin\'s furious yell snapped Mark from reality.

The moment Mark came to, he saw Shin\'s swords slashing downward, forcing Mark to cross his swords and block the attack before pushing Shin back with force, causing his arms to glow red.

Shin was taken aback by Mark\'s sudden burst of strength. He was easily pushed away by Mark, who seemed to be out of it.

\'What is going on?\'

Mark thought deeply.

The plan was to stall time and wait for Gar\'Vlam to interfere with the losing fight. However, Mark did not expect to see something like that.

Mark slowly came to a conclusion.

This invasion was not just driven by the hostility between humans and the other races. It was not just Gar\'Vlam\'s ploy.

There was something larger at play. Something more sinister.

At this time...

BOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM!

Explosions suddenly occurred amidst the army of Demons.

"Their Defense Force is here!"

Amihan\'s voice, carried by the wind, entered Mark\'s ear.

As the center of the Demon army became engulfed in flames and explosions, Mark and Shin were forced to retreat.

Within the coastal banks of Kachidoki and even Tsukuda, tanks and soldiers of the Defense Forces began forming their defense lines. They might be late. But at least they showed the power of modern weapons against Demons.

...Which was not very effective.

The explosions managed to cause good damage, but many of the Demons could resist the bullets from guns of lower calibers.

Nonetheless, the army arriving was quite a bit of help in delaying the Demons while those who were capable finished the enemies.

***

On the other hand...

Hideo jumped from building to building, carrying the unconscious young master of the Mitsui Clan on his shoulder.

"GASP!"

A gasp was heard from his back, making Hideo know that the young master had regained consciousness.

Hideo immediately found a safe rooftop where he could put the young master down.

"Master... cough! Why did you?"

Keiji coughed due to the pain in the back of his neck since the elder knocked him unconscious. Analyzing the surroundings, he already knew that they fled the battlefield. Still, Keiji was angry about what the elder did.

"I\'m sorry, but we do not have much time," Hideo sighed as he explained. "Something went wrong with the plans. The Clan Head is dead. He committed suicide to send us the message through the isolation barrier."

Keiji\'s eyes opened wide.

The Clan Head, Keiji\'s father, was already dead.