"Kaede, maybe you should take a look at this."
On the other side, Kaito suddenly pointed toward a fragment of broken tile half-buried beneath a straw mat.
Hanakaiin Kaede walked over, picked up the fragment, and examined it carefully.
It was dark brown, thick in material, and slightly curved.
"It seems to be part of some kind of vessel."
Thinking this, Kaede stood, took a few steps back, and scanned the area. Soon, around another bulging straw mat, he found several more similar fragments.
Finally, he lifted the mat in one motion—and underneath it lay a half-broken earthen jar, its surface still plastered with several sealing talismans.
"Mr. Kurotsuchi, did you break something here before?"
"Huh?"
Kurotsuchi Takeshi, standing by the entrance, froze for a moment. After recalling the events of that night, he scratched his head blankly. "I can't really remember. It was pretty dark back then. I came in here to take shelter from the rain and tripped over something—maybe I accidentally broke it when I fell."
"I see."
Kaede set down the tile fragment. Although he couldn't detect any trace of demonic energy from it, his instincts told him otherwise. Following that intuition, he tore off one of the sealing talismans attached to the jar and pocketed it for later.
The group continued to search for a while longer until a series of hurried footsteps echoed from outside the shrine.
"Kaede! Shunta! Kaito! Are you here?"
A voice called out loudly.
"Senior Mitsuhiko? We're here!"
Shunta, who had been standing closest to the door, rushed outside and found several older Onmyōji in hunting robes approaching at a brisk pace.
At the front was a young man of about twenty. Upon seeing the three apprentices safe, he let out a quiet sigh of relief before turning to the others emerging from the shrine.
"Any findings?" asked the Onmyōji named Mitsuhiko.
Kaede shook his head. "The Kagura bell didn't detect any trace of energy here."
"Is that so?" Mitsuhiko cast his gaze toward the dilapidated shrine. Instinctively, he tilted his head slightly, his eyes sweeping across the area.
The air here carried an unsettling tension, as if invisible threads were coiling around his body. Yet, whenever he tried to focus on the sensation, it vanished.
"Senior Mitsuhiko, do you know anything about this old shrine?" Kaede asked.
"A little," Mitsuhiko replied. "Long ago, the locals here used to worship spiders as gods—praying for fertility, family prosperity, household safety, and protection against floods."
He paused, his tone darkening. "It's also said that human sacrifices were once offered here. Later, when a Buddhist statue replaced the old deity, those practices gradually died out."
"Spiders, huh?"
Shunta and Kaito exchanged uneasy glances—they still remembered Kurotsuchi's account of his recurring dream, where the two women performing the sacrifices each had a giant spider crawling on their faces. The spider statue found inside the shrine was likely the very object that had once been the focus of worship.
At that moment, Kaede suddenly had an idea. He turned toward their client.
"Mr. Kurotsuchi, do you remember where you were digging in your dream?"
"Yes," Kurotsuchi said, pointing toward a slightly sunken spot in the center of the room. "Right there."
"What's on your mind?"
Mitsuhiko, recognizing the serious look in Kaede's eyes, didn't dismiss his junior's suggestion. Though young, Kaede possessed extraordinary talent as an Onmyōji—and carried the proud lineage of the renowned Hanakaiin family of Kyoto.
It should be noted that among Onmyōji, those with family backing grew far faster and achieved much higher potential than others.
As a rule, family Onmyōji were stronger on average than those employed by the government, and the official Onmyōji, in turn, far surpassed the wandering freelance exorcists. Of course, there were always exceptions—those rare individuals who transcended the system itself.
So far, however, only one person had truly done so: the Department of Onmyō's white-haired Doctor—Lord Dōman.
Kaede laid out his thoughts plainly. "Since our client said he was digging something up in his dream, why don't we just dig it out ourselves and see what it is?"
"That's a very risky move," Mitsuhiko said gravely. "We could end up provoking whatever's behind this."
"I understand," Kaede replied with a nod. "But isn't it an Onmyōji's duty to protect ordinary people from the harm of evil spirits and yōkai? If we retreat every time out of fear, wouldn't that betray the responsibility and respect entrusted to us?"
If Satsuki were here, she would have acknowledged that his words were admirable—yet perhaps a little too stiff and self-righteous. Clearly, the young Onmyōji still had room to grow in emotional maturity.
Fortunately, Mitsuhiko and his companions were of the same straightforward kind. Rather than arguing, they seemed genuinely pleased by Kaede's impassioned declaration.
"Well said! That's exactly the spirit we should have." Mitsuhiko stepped forward, giving Kaede a brief pat on the head before turning toward the shallow depression in the ground. After studying it carefully, he said to the others, "The pit doesn't look very deep. Let's first try using an Earth-Moving Spell to see what we can find. If that doesn't work, we'll have some laborers help us dig it out."
"Understood."
The accompanying Onmyōji quickly took their positions around the pit, forming a small ritual array. Each held a talisman between their index and middle fingers, raised vertically before their faces. Then, all six began chanting simultaneously.
Moments later, glowing patterns appeared beneath their feet—lines of light intertwining to form a six-pointed star, with the pit precisely at its center.
The soil in the center began to rise, lifted by an invisible force, drifting upward before being deposited neatly to the side.
Compared to manual digging, the spell's efficiency was several times greater.
Soon, Shunta, who had been observing the pit, suddenly called out, "Senior Mitsuhiko, you can stop the spell now—we've found something!"
The group halted their chanting and dispelled their talismans before gathering around the edge of the pit to look inside.
At the bottom lay a massive, jar-like object—an ancient earthen vessel.
What caught everyone's attention, however, was its condition. The vessel was entirely covered with sealing talismans and bound tightly with corroded iron chains. Just one look was enough to make everyone present feel an instinctive sense of dread, as though something ominous was sealed within.
"Is this our clue?"
Mitsuhiko and his group carefully lifted the massive earthen jar from the pit.
The vessel was thick and solid, so large that it would take two grown men with their arms fully extended just to encircle it. Even hauling it out of the hole had already pushed them to their limits—there was no way these slender-bodied Onmyōji could hope to carry it all the way back to Fushimi Inari Shrine.
"Looks like someone will have to stay here overnight," Kaede said, gazing at the enormous jar.
Then he turned toward Kurotsuchi Takeshi. "Mr. Kurotsuchi, do you recognize this jar?"
Kurotsuchi had been staring at the vessel for some time, his wide eyes filled with a mix of fear and familiarity as he circled it cautiously, careful to keep his distance.
"I remember it! I've seen it before! This jar appeared in my dream—it was used to receive the offerings! Those two women poured the dead spiders and human blood into it!"
"An instrument for live sacrifice rituals, then," Mitsuhiko murmured, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. After examining the talismans and seal papers on the jar, he stood and said, "All right, we'll take over from here. Kaede, Shunta, Kaito—you three can return first."
"That's it?"
Shunta and Kaito exchanged disappointed looks, both turning subconsciously toward Kaede.
It felt as if they were a single step away from uncovering the truth, only for the allotted time to run out. Yet unlike Kaede, they didn't have the status or confidence to speak out. As Onmyōji assistants without noble lineage, their talent and rank were meager, leaving them no ground to challenge a superior's order.
That was why they had chosen to follow Kaede—this young Onmyōji, though a bit brash, was kindred in spirit and temperament. While the three were currently on the same level, everyone knew that Kaede's future as a member of the Hanakaiin family would be vastly different from theirs.
As a family-born Onmyōji, Kaede would one day take up a post within one of the four divisions of the Bureau of Onmyō. There, he would rise steadily through rank and seniority until he held true authority. By then, he would surely need trustworthy subordinates—and for people like Shunta and Kaito, that would be their one chance at advancement.
Such patron-client relationships were exceedingly common in Heian-kyō, one of the few ways for those of humble birth to climb upward.
Thus, Kaede's voice carried weight here—he could say what Shunta and Kaito could not.
"Senior Mitsuhiko, it's almost nightfall. Traveling back to Kyoto after dark is dangerous. I'm just a trainee, after all—if we run into any yōkai on the road, things could get ugly."
"No need to worry," Mitsuhiko replied calmly. "I'll stay here with two others to keep watch. The rest of you can escort these three back safely."
Mitsuhiko could easily see through Kaede's intentions, and he was about to refuse outright when suddenly, a sharp pain shot through his waist.
"Who's there?!"
He shouted, spinning around instantly, eyes sharp and body tensed for combat.
But in front of him, there was nothing—only the massive earthen jar, and Kurotsuchi Takeshi standing some distance away with a bewildered expression.
"M-Master, what's wrong? You're scaring me!" Kurotsuchi stammered.
Mitsuhiko reached for his side, but there was no wound—no blood, no mark.
Still, he did not relax. His instincts screamed danger. The sensation had been too real—like being pierced from behind by a thin dagger or a needle. It couldn't have been an illusion. Something was here, hidden from view. Even after that direct provocation, he could find no trace of its presence.
Then, as he turned toward the shrine's front gate—his vision suddenly shifted.
In an instant, the entire world turned black and white.
Mitsuhiko glanced around quickly. The astonishment on everyone's faces told him he wasn't the only one seeing it. Every person present was now standing within that same eerie monochrome realm.
"There's something here capable of unleashing a Demon Domain!"
The experienced Mitsuhiko immediately recognized the cause of the strange transformation around them.
"Demon Domain?!"
At the sound of that term, all the senior Onmyōji present—except for the three younger apprentices—went pale.
"A being capable of manifesting a Demon Domain… That's far beyond anything we can handle. We'll need Master Keimei himself to deal with this!"
One of them spoke shakily, though he knew full well it was already too late for reinforcements.
A Demon Domain—an aberrant phenomenon akin to a Divine Domain. It was an ability possessed only by those who had once been gods but had since fallen into corruption, becoming vengeful spirits or monstrous deities.
Within such a domain, escape was impossible unless one either defeated the master of the realm—or fulfilled its lingering desire.
—So that's it…
A flash of realization struck Kaede's mind. The main deity once enshrined here must have been the one suppressing a fallen spider god. When that Buddha statue was moved elsewhere, this corrupted god finally found its chance to awaken.
His gaze fell upon the jar bound in chains. The true body of that wicked god… must be sealed within that vessel.
At that moment, two crimson flames—like blood-red will-o'-the-wisps—floated out from the pitch-black doorway of the shrine. They circled the jar once, releasing a faint, high-pitched chittering sound.
Then, before everyone's eyes, the two ghostly fires warped and reshaped into the forms of shrine maidens—each with a massive spider clinging to her head.
The transformation didn't stop there. Within seconds, the two figures twisted grotesquely into monstrous beings—spider-headed women—who immediately slammed their limbs onto the jar, shattering the rusted chains and tearing apart the sealing talismans with desperate, self-destructive force.
The Onmyōji nearby tried to intervene, but before they could even move, they realized their bodies had already been bound—entangled in layers of thick, white spider silk. They could only watch helplessly as the spider-headed creatures broke the seal.
A surge of black miasma erupted from the jar, shooting skyward. An aged, hate-filled voice echoed through the monochrome world.
"At last… After all this time, the foolish humans have moved the image of Bishamonten. And since the god once worshiped here no longer exists—this shrine, too, has no reason to remain!"
The black miasma descended like a storm, condensing into a colossal shadow that crushed the entire shrine to dust in an instant.
As the stunned Onmyōji lifted their gaze upward, they finally saw the figure within the darkness.
It was a giant—a monstrous being wearing a demon mask, its enormous limbs stretching outward in all directions.
A deity once revered by mankind, now twisted into a vengeful monster—
The Fallen God of the Earth: the Tsuchigumo.