The sky, robbed of its support, began to dissolve and collapse.
The boundless cosmos, ablaze with stars, was gradually swallowed and devoured by creeping darkness. The great mystery receded like the tide, leaving only death and nothingness to shred the remaining light with cruel, hooked claws.
"I really thought we'd finally beaten him this time… And he still has more tricks left?!"
Someone voiced what everyone else was silently thinking.
Abe no Seimei himself had declared his plan: before the Fantasy Tree was completely destroyed, he would absorb all the vast energy inside it. If he succeeded, no one dared imagine what sort of hell this world would become.
And by now, it was clear—only Ashiya Douman could possibly stop him.
"Limbo-san! You have to stop Seimei, now!"
"It's too late!"
Abe no Seimei spread his arms wide, as if to embrace the sun, his twisted laughter spilling out, raw and manic. "Nothing can stop it now! Since you refuse to ascend to heaven with me, then fall into hell with the old world!"
Absorbing the Fantasy Tree's power… or being absorbed by it—there was little difference.
Blanketing the world in fantasy, erasing reality, remaking myth itself… The power stored in the Fantasy Tree, equal to a creator god, could never be absorbed by a human—no human body could withstand it. Forcing it in would only mean certain death, their body exploding from within.
Abe no Seimei, pushed to the edge, had lost his reason—but not so completely as to attempt something that foolish.
So he reversed his approach. If he couldn't absorb the Fantasy Tree as a human, he would let the Fantasy Tree absorb him.
He would offer his own body to the Tree, then fuse his will with it, forging the Fantasy Tree into a new vessel capable of housing his soul and ambition.
The Fantasy Tree, though it possessed a weak survival instinct, was still as fragile as a newborn. There was no way it could resist the hardened, thousand-year-old soul of Abe no Seimei.
To Seimei, the tree's will was like a riverbank against a raging flood—his soul would wash it away in an instant.
He felt no attachment to his body or bloodline, even though he'd waited over a thousand years for Hagoromo-Gitsune to be reborn and birth him anew, even though he had once proclaimed this body's perfection to the world.
But after facing the crushing power of Ashiya Douman—whose own body, after devouring two foreign gods, had become something greater than man, god, or beast—Seimei could no longer cling to his own flesh.
It was Douman's defeat of his physical self that drove Seimei to this desperate gamble: to abandon his body and seize the Fantasy Tree as a vessel.
"Let it go! Fall! Yes… This is how it always should have been—this is the true way forward!"
In his madness, the branches of the Fantasy Tree speared through Seimei's body, his blood pouring out, sucked greedily into the tree. "Yin or yang, human or yōkai—all of that is beneath me now. I am truly a god! The god of this new world! This body is a shackle, unworthy of my exalted soul and great ambition. I'll forge the Fantasy Tree into a new vessel—a vessel for a god! The vessel of Abe no Seimei!"
As if it had received some miraculous nourishment, the collapsing Fantasy Tree began violently tearing apart Seimei's body, devouring his flesh and the spiritual power within.
And so, a shocking reversal occurred… The collapse of the Fantasy Tree stopped.
"Stopped" might not be quite right—rather, the Fantasy Tree's growth now outpaced its destruction.
Seimei's current body, after so many reincarnations and harvests, was the ultimate vessel—created by Hagoromo-Gitsune and nourished by the essence of many, standing atop all living things. Add to that his sorcery and overwhelming spiritual power, and the Fantasy Tree was now absorbing more nourishment from Seimei than it had from years of devouring the land's ley lines.
His body was shredded, even his soul and mind being pulled in by a great force.
This was what Seimei wanted: a perfect union with the Fantasy Tree.
His consciousness fell… deeper…
Here was a domain only awareness could reach—a sea of spirit and mind, untouched by the physical.
No light, no flesh.
And yet, Abe no Seimei could still think.
"So this is… the inside of the Fantasy Tree?"
It was like floating in a sea of chaos—nothing could be seen, nothing could be heard.
Without matter, there was no light or sound.
Without a body, there were no eyes or ears.
He confirmed his presence within the Tree. The next step: to find the Fantasy Tree's will, and devour it with his own soul—replace it.
Wait for me… Wait…
There was no air, but his voice rang out.
Like a wounded beast licking its wounds, he howled in the darkness, swallowing hatred and rage, until his malice could smother the world.
"Ashiya Douman… Nura Rikuo… All those yōkai who oppose me, all the humans who betray me—every last one, every single—!"
"Slaughter, annihilate, erase, massacre, butcher, destroy…"
Just as Kippei had foreseen, Abe no Seimei had long since become twisted.
Now, his hunger for destruction outweighed his desire for a perfect world.
His gaze, once set on a world in harmony, free of pain, now burned only for total annihilation—including Douman, Rikuo, and every living thing.
"How pitiful, how laughable… this beast crawling in the mire of malice is the Seimei I always wanted to see… Just as I once was."
!!!
Panic, terror, shock—
A second voice, not his own, rang out in Seimei's mind.
It was a voice he knew intimately. The one who'd just ruined his plan, dragged his dream through the dirt.
"Ashiya Douman?!"
Seimei roared like a trapped animal, "Why are you here?!"
But then, realization dawned, and he sneered.
"Fine! I don't care how you got in… This is the heart of my Fantasy Tree—my domain! My divine kingdom! If you've followed me in, you die here!"
Channeling his connection to the Fantasy Tree, Seimei summoned its remaining power, determined to erase Douman's presence from within.
"Hmhm… Hehehe… HAHAHAHAHAHA!!"
Laughter echoed from all directions, swirling around Seimei.
"My apologies, my apologies… hmm, I lost my composure for a moment. Your pitiful, clueless state, Seimei—it's just too funny!"
A strange, growing unease crept into Seimei's heart.
"But that's not right… This isn't how I should treat such a benefactor. I should reflect…"
"I really must thank you, Abe no Seimei—thank you from the bottom of my heart…"
In the darkness, a flower watered by malice bloomed as Douman's voice rose again. "Thanks to your naivete, your foolishness, my Fantasy Tree—Jigoku Mandara—has finally bloomed and borne fruit!"
Like thunder exploding overhead.
Even without a body, Seimei's scalp tingled with dread.
"You said… your Fantasy Tree?"
"Yes! My Fantasy Tree—Jigoku Mandara. The vessel for my divinity, crafted by my own hand, so a god may descend and reign."
Like a victor giving his speech, Douman spoke calmly. "After all, I failed once before, so I wanted someone else to try it for me… and I picked you, my greatest rival—Abe no Seimei. I knew you'd bring the Fantasy Tree to maturity. And you did not disappoint."
Seimei could only hear Douman's voice, couldn't even tell where it was coming from, but could vividly picture that sinister, mocking smile.
"I haven't done anything villainous in years—these days I'm reformed, a paragon of virtue! Doing bad things brings divine punishment, and one smiting is enough for a lifetime."
"You thought you defeated my true body before, didn't you? Wrong! Every Douman out there was only a shikigami. Ever since the Fantasy Tree was born, my true self has been inside it. You found it so easy to control the tree not because of some special affinity, but because I let you!"
With these words, Seimei felt the connection to the Fantasy Tree suddenly snap.
There was no denying it—
From beginning to end, he had been nothing more than a piece on Douman's board.
The onmyōji he had always looked down upon had become something monstrous over a thousand years—his cunning, his strength, his will, his malice… All filled Seimei with a despair beyond words.
In the end, all Seimei saw was a hand reaching down toward him.
"In gratitude for all your sacrifices to my Fantasy Tree, for your brilliant performance on my stage, I'll reveal the script to you before the curtain falls. Now—give me everything. Fall, with the truth I bestow upon you, into eternal despair."
And with that, Seimei's consciousness was cast down into an even deeper, darker abyss—becoming nothing but nourishment for the Fantasy Tree.
Inside that space, a single figure stood quietly.
Eyes like polished obsidian, a faint smile on lips, the whole body wrapped in a sinister black court robe.
It was Ashiya Douman… but somehow, not the Douman seen by anyone outside.
Exquisitely androgynous features, a slender, almost delicate build, not even a meter and a half tall.
"Hmhm… Good, good—at least Seimei didn't see me like this. No matter how different he is from the Seimei I knew, I just can't get used to it."
Douman frowned, troubled by how unthreatening this appearance was… Staying inside the Fantasy Tree, sending only shikigami outside, was partly because of this.
And as for why he ended up like this…
When he first descended to this world—
"Hm… Hmhmhmhm! This time, my Spirit Origin fused with Master's? What an honor! What joy!"
Fènghuáng rejoiced, happy to finally be a man… even if, in the records, the gender was marked as "unknown."
Ashiya Douman rejoiced, happy for a chance to share a world with Master, without Chaldea's interference. No matter what mischief he tried, nobody could stop him.
Such a rare opportunity… I should just dye Master completely black! Turn them the same color as me, like a black sun mocking the world! And then let all the Servants of Chaldea admire my masterpiece—what kind of faces would they make, seeing Master tainted by me? Hmhmhm… Hmhmhmhm! I'm so excited!
But just as Ashiya Douman was plotting his various depravities—
A sudden light appeared within his body.
"Hm? Hmhmhmhm?! This… this is… Kiichi Hōgen-sama's spell? When did he inscribe this on Master's soul? Wait… this is bad, this is really bad! Aaooooo——!!"
Milky white light engulfed Douman, and as it did, his scream shifted from rough and deep to… unexpectedly soft and sweet.
---
T/N: LMAOOOOO