Flinch
"Mhmm?" - Itachi
"What is it?" - Harikami
"..."
"...The weather's changed..." - Itachi
"Not that it matters, apologies" - Itachi
Itachi then pulls out a book out from his robe, it was the grimoire that the thing took from Goto during the ritual back then. He opens it and starts vocalizing incantations from the book, spells that will fully awaken the ancient statue.
SWISH—THWACK
Out of nowhere a blade comes soaring through the air like a bullet aiming at Itachi, but he manages to evade and it misses.
Itachi stares at, recognizing his own blade in confusion, and then realizes, as he turns his head around towards the cliff...
"You truly are special...boy" - Itachi
Cuts to Zero possessed Ryu glancing down onto the yokais on a cliff. Lightning roaring above the clouds, his puplis slit like a cat, and his mark has changed, now shaped like a distorted thunder tattoo etched across his whole left face.
"How is this possible? You pierced his heart right, that should've killed him." - Nikubito
"No matter, we'll just have to kill him again" - Harikami as her hair starts levitating
"...I don't have time for this, end him quickly before I've finished the incantations." - Itachi
Zero jumps down onto the ground declaring his stand, and as the yokais prepare for a second round, they unleash their full capabilities, knowing there won't be a third round.
The clearing shook as Harikami's hooks lashed and Nikubito's flesh sucking tendrils struck, slamming Zero into walls of rock, driving him into the dirt with inhuman force. The environment quickly changes as they end up on different grounds of the area. Every strike landed heavy; every lash tore through the ground, dust and sparks bursting with each impact. For a time, it seemed the new vessel was no different from Ryu—overpowered, smothered by their experience, crushed beneath the sheer weight of their nature.
But Zero did not falter. He endured. His body writhed under their blows, yet his presence only grew heavier, darker. The yokais snarled, pouring everything into their barrages, their motions slowing as fatigue crept in, believing their prey isn't even putting up a challenge.
"This is getting repulsive, nothing makes me more furious than something believing it has a chance against a higher being." - Harikami
Zero rose from the rubble, eyes glowing with crackling arcs of lightning, he cracks his neck, the air split. Something's different now, the tides drastically turn, silence breaks the noise, and as he speaks for the first time...
"Turn me up" - Zero
In an instant, he vanished. The next moment Harikami reeled back, hooks severed mid-air by strikes too fast to follow. Nikubito's tendrils whipped desperately, but each was incinerated the moment it touched his storm. Zero blurred between them, a storm made flesh, every step exploding with thunder, every strike landing in merciless succession.
They could not keep up. Every counter was broken, every defense shredded. Harikami was battered against the earth, her screams drowned beneath the thunderclaps of his fists. Nikubito was torn apart piece by piece, each tendril burned away before it could reform. The yokais, once untouchable predators, were reduced to prey staggering under the weight of something, something far beyond them.
"What is going on!? He shouldn't be able to even touch them!? This isn't making any sense, how has he improved this much in a short span of time, this is utter-" - Itachi
Itachi gazes at Zero's eyes
"...You!! Why are you here!!? How!!? How are you alive in this era!!? How did you take the boy's body for your own!!? Curse you!!!" - Itachi's thoughts as he boils in fury
"The ritual, I have to finish the ritual, now! He might be the only one to have a chance against him. Forgive me, Harikami, Nikubito, but I have no other choice." - Itachi's thoughts
Zero raises his hand, lightning coiling into a blade of pure thunder. As he prepares to unleash his final blow, the yokais stand in fear and disarray, their vessels starting to deteriorate, pushing every ounce of their strength to keep up, but it is already too late, as if the gods have opened the sky for him...
"Ninpō: Raimei"
The sky answered. A blinding arc of lightning cleaved through the clearing, splitting the night. In one motion, Harikami and Nikubito were decapitated, their bodies falling lifeless to the scorched ground as thunder echoed long after their heads struck the earth.
And Zero stood amidst the ruin, lightning pulsing his body, his hair strands lifting in the air, and it turns to the scene, Harikami's hooked hair clenched in one hand and Nikubito's tendrils in the other, and Zero dangles their severed heads, displaying them as trophies for a god.
His attention turns to Itachi...