Chapter 160: The Divine Spirit Beast Egg Hatches, A Monstrous Abomination Emerges!

------

As he found himself surrounded by multiple Label clones, Ryujin saw Riven rapidly approaching him while carrying the demonic spear he had stolen earlier. Consumed by pure wrath, every remaining force under Ryujin’s control went after the young man without hesitation. At the same time his yokai castle was being rapidly dismantled by Kagehisa’s relentless ninjutsu attacks, no longer able to protect its master properly. Ryujin... was certain he was about to die. He clenched his teeth hard, truly believing this was the end.

And yet...

"GRAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!"

A high, keening wail erupted across the battlefield. It rattled the bones of everyone present. Their auras flickered and nearly disappeared, and even Ryujin felt as if his head was about to explode from the pressure.

"W-What the...?!" Riven muttered through gritted teeth.

"What was that?!" Label cried out in alarm. "Eh?!"

Ryujin’s expression shifted from despair into a twisted smile of disbelief. He laughed wildly while licking the blood that dripped from his empty eye socket.

"HAH! F-FINALLY!"

From the courtyard below, the giant egg pulsed violently with unnatural life.

BA-DUM.

BA-DUM.

BA-DUM!

Cracks raced rapidly across its surface. Something inside was no longer willing to wait. It had finally "grown" to the desired size and was about to hatch.

Its mere presence alone sent violent shivers down the spines of everyone nearby.

Ryujin’s triumphant grin twisted into something closer to panic. "Yes... YES! Hatch already, you worthless piece of shit! Come here and—!"

BOOOMMM!!!

"?!"

"!!!"

"...?"

However, to his complete shock, the egg detonated outward in a violent spray of black-red fluid and shattered shell. The acidic liquid immediately began melting the entire wooden frame of the castle.

RUMBLE!

As the castle collapsed into pieces around them, everyone fell downward. They managed to land safely on the ground by rolling and carefully avoiding the giant falling ceiling sections and the residual spiritual energy that assembled itself into deadly, furious ghosts.

While this chaos unfolded, Riven looked into the distance toward the open courtyard and the thing that had emerged from the egg.

"Was that... a Spiritual Beast Egg...?" he murmured silently to himself. "But this aura... don’t tell me...!"

Ryujin’s face twisted with a mixture of panic and lingering malice, yet he also began to sense that something was terribly wrong.

"W-Wait...!" he muttered in growing dread.

Something massive started moving toward them. Once its dark, enormous silhouette fully revealed itself, what emerged was nothing like the pure white fox spirit Ryujin had expected to command.

"GROOOOOOWL..."

It was a writhing mass of tentacles, multiple fox tails, and countless blinking eyes. The monster’s original divine yokai bloodline was barely visible beneath the corruption. Riven quickly recognized the other half of what composed its grotesque form.

"Genesis Cells!"

The monstrosity was riddled with dozens of jaws scattered across its body. It barely even tried to maintain the faint outline of a fox as it walked toward them with slow, deliberate steps.

As everyone stared at the creature in stunned silence...

"GRYAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

Every single one of the monster’s jaws opened at once and released a devastating psychic shriek that made the Noosphere itself ripple in agony.

RUMBLE!

Everyone present screamed in unbearable pain. Blood poured from their eyes, noses, and ears.

"Ugh?!" Label attempted to cover her ears, but the effort was completely futile.

"Aagghh!" Kagehisa fell to the ground, unable to resist the mental assault.

"Fuck!" Riven screamed while trying to endure it. Even his newly acquired Psionic Avatar staggered under the pressure and was constantly pushed backward.

Label, still on the ground, clutched her head tightly and gasped through the pain. "That thing... it’s calling to the Genesis cells inside me...! How did you...! He actually made something like Genesis-05?!"

Riven landed hard on one of the fortress’s remaining arms, his claws sinking deep into the wood. He looked down at the newborn monstrosity, then up at Ryujin while still fighting to resist the psychic agony. He used his own psionic power to shield his allies as best he could from the continuous scream.

"You fed it Genesis cells, you absolute idiot! What the hell do you think you’re doing, corrupting such a divine being with that filth?!"

Ryujin’s face drained of all color. "N-No... it was supposed to be pure... the mother was pure...! I just needed something powerful enough to kill you!" He was also being heavily affected, constantly bleeding from every orifice. "Nnnggh...!"

The abomination that had hatched from the Divine Guardian egg slowly turned its many eyes toward its "master" as it walked toward the ground with deliberate steps.

"D-Do you recognize your master?!" Ryujin demanded. A golden crest shaped like a fox appeared on the back of his hand. "Stop this at once! Don’t target me — target them!" he roared desperately.

The monstrosity glared at him in silence. Its fox-like face, completely devoid of white fur and covered instead in squirming fleshy tendrils, blinked momentarily with its many horrendous eyes while thick foam leaked from its jaws.

Then... it smiled with pure viciousness.

Crack, crack...!

CRASH!

The divine crest that supposedly made Ryujin the egg’s rightful master shattered in an instant. A black-red fog coiled tightly around his hand and began cursing him from within.

"Nngaaaaaaaaahhhh!" He screamed in agony as he realized the crest had completely backfired. "Impossible...! That crest was made by my father himself...!"

The corrupted fox had recognized him for only a single moment before smiling with pure evil intent and lunging forward like a vicious, starving beast.

Not at Riven.

At Ryujin.

"Eh?!"

RUMBLE!

What remained of the living castle fortress tried desperately to protect its lord, swinging its remaining wooden arms in an attempt to intercept the attack.

The ground shook as concentrated spiritual pressure rushed toward the abomination. However...

The Genesis-fox hybrid simply phased through the wooden limbs using raw psionic force. Everyone present was shocked as they realized the creature possessed the ability to shift freely between material and immaterial states at will.

"What do you think you’re do—"

Before Ryujin could even finish his sentence...

The beast sank its razor-sharp teeth deep into Ryujin’s left shoulder — the same place where he still bled from the self-inflicted wound caused by his own demonic spear under the influence of Noir’s ability.

"AAAAARGH—!!"

------