Long-term salvation

"We have temporarily lost contact with the outside world."

Tiancang Mio pressed a few buttons on the data terminal on her arm and sighed helplessly:

"Again."

"...Okay, okay, keep it down. Everyone, turn the Ododek scanner to silent mode. I think I heard something." Saikawa Ayane's finger rested on the trigger guard. The space here was really not spacious, so she had to choose an MP5 submachine gun and a short knife as weapons before setting off.

"Jian, assess the surrounding environment and the strength of the evil spirits—using the Minamigami Village after the Great Retribution as a benchmark."

"It's just average, a couple of small fry and a small boss... But if we leave it alone and allow the pollution to continue to spread, it's hard to say for sure."

Tiancang Jian said boredly. She ran her hand through her hair and saw the boy crouching at the top of the stairs.

Toshio Saeki.

With a gentle and beautiful smile on his face, Tiancang Jian raised his submachine gun and pulled the trigger without hesitation.

"After all, the 'iron and fire' we hold are nothing compared to that lord's."

Chapter 482: Resentment and Hatred (3/4)

The darkness almost solidified at this moment.

A shrill cat cry escaped from the boy's mouth, and he retreated into the shadows with an angry cry, letting the bullet filled with pure murderous intent fly through the air and finally embed itself regretfully into the rotten wall of Saeki's house.

"He made evasive moves, but no effective damage was witnessed. It was more like an instinct," Tiancang Jian said softly. She took a half step back to return to her sister Tiancang Mio's side. "Huh... It's a bit uncomfortable to look directly at it, and I'm not good at this kind of work... Can't we find another strong psychic? The kind that can quickly get into the state and find the direction to move forward?"

"How can it be so easy to find?!"

Saikawa Ayane complained, and she reached out and patted Shiraishi Mizuki on the shoulder, letting the latter, who was holding a shield, walk in front and go upstairs - the wooden stairs made a strange creaking sound with every step, and even more creepy than this sound was the gurgling hiccups - no, it was not so much a hiccup, but rather the sound of a human struggling to breathe for the last time after his throat was cut.

The sound repeated countless times, like breathing.

The moment Shiraishi Mizuki stepped onto the second floor, the lights on the guns suddenly disappeared, and darkness filled the space between each armed priestess, making the breathing sounds and "breathing sounds" particularly obvious.

It’s like stepping into another world.

Saikawa Ayane tried to turn on the light fixture on her left shoulder, but just like before, there was no response. So, after a second of contemplation, she pulled out a lighter from the bag on her waist.

Friction creates fire, and flames illuminate the darkness.

In the dim flickering light, Saikawa Ayane saw a figure slowly approaching her companion, and in her ears, the shrill cat cry rang out - the girl twisted her body suddenly, the flames moved with it, and the face of the evil boy crouching on the stair railing was immediately illuminated.

The two sides stared at each other, and the evil boy slowly lowered his head, seeing the flames roasting his outstretched hand...

Without any hesitation, Saikawa Ayane flipped the button on the side of the lighter and stuffed it into the boy's evil spirit's arms:

The flames suddenly exploded, instantly engulfing the evil spirit boy's body. Then, a shrill scream filled with pain rang out. The power originating from humanity's earliest and most ancient power was mercilessly punishing the evil spirit. The napalm soaked in the Black Stone unleashed an unparalleled power. The evil spirit's body rolled in the flames, screaming, and burrowed into the darkness of the house, but this only caused the destruction to spread.

"Mizuki!"

The armed miko, whose name was called, thrust her shield forward, sending the chinless corpse flying. The illusory figure shattered against the wall into a foul, rancid pulp! The flesh tumbled, and from within it emerged the remains of former victims. They squirmed on the corridor floor, reorganizing themselves, rising to their feet, and slowly but persistently crawled towards the uninvited guests.

"Looks like this is the next deployment. Live ammunition isn't very effective. Everyone prepare for close combat."

Saikawa Ayane walked up to the second floor. She saw the flames gradually spreading below, and felt sad for the loss of the fire starter... It was not a cheap thing, but it was still not as good as the one in the shield in Shiraishi Mizuki's hand:

"Mizuki, activate the [Black Stone Resonance Field] so that people outside can react as well—activate!"

The front armor of the shield spread out in all directions, and inside it was a black stone only the size of a small fingernail. It was emitting a faint glow under the stimulation of the surrounding electric current. The light jumped between the cables, and the current around the [Black Stone Resonance Field] device on the heavy truck was crackling, merging into the increasingly loud Sanskrit chanting.

After witnessing all this, Saikawa Seiya, who was standing outside the house, felt a little relieved. He then shouted loudly:

"Put in clean salt!"

Two dump trucks backed up and dumped several tons of snow-white pure salt inside, almost burying half of the Saeki house!

Almost as soon as the pure salt touched the house, the snow-white was stained with an ominous black and red, like the dirty color of meat when it begins to rot.

We will win by quantity!

Such a huge amount immediately had an effect, causing the undead in the house to scream shrilly:

Inside the house, the armed witches put their thermal weapons back on their backs and attached them to their mechanical exoskeletons. Then, they drew out their melee weapons—the crackling sound of bright blue arcs rising from the blades, the crackling sound of the rotten furniture around them being burned by the flames—all of this was completely drowned out by the gurgling sound of the twisted woman crawling backwards!

"That face... is Saeki Kayomi! Be careful, her otherworldly energy readings are rising!"

Saikawa Ayane shouted loudly, quickly putting on a gas mask and then punching the victim, a ghost that was approaching her from the side. The latter seemed to be an ordinary high school girl, not much different in age from the armed shrine maidens.

Gritting her teeth, Saikawa Ayane felt more resentful.

"If you have a grudge or a grievance, go find your target. You're not going to stop after you've harmed someone, right?"

The girl exhaled slowly, and she saw Shiraishi Mizuki holding a shield facing the evil spirit Gayako head-on.

The moment the two sides came into contact, Shiraishi Ruixi was knocked away, and the evil spirit obviously did not gain any benefit. Instead, it swept its malicious eyes over, causing the entire house to tremble violently in anger and resentment - not only that, the huge resentment also began to be weakened by the flames and the internal and external attacks, bringing the evil spirit pain deep into its soul.

“Hehehe…” Kayako opened her eyes wide, with cruel hatred in them, “Hehehe…”

"Tsk, what a formidable opponent!" Saikawa Ayane tore off an incendiary grenade and threw it, quickly retreating from the blazing wall of flames. After chopping down a few twisted corpses and pulling Shiraishi Mizuki to her feet, she said to Tenkura Kanon:

"Cocoon, look for something valuable. The Ododek scanner's instructions are a bit confusing. If there's nothing, we'll just retreat and then completely blow this place up and burn it to the ground! If that doesn't work, just fill it with cement and throw it into the Japanese Trench!"

"Let me feel it carefully."

Tiancang Jian said so, and under the cover of her sister, she approached the wall, stretched out her hand and touched it gently.

In an instant, Tiancang Jian saw a grayish-white memory - after reading his wife's diary, Takeo Saeki, who knew that he had "oligospermia", discovered that she had already fallen in love with another man named "Kobayashi Shunsuke" and sneaked into his house after he was drunk... So, his wife Kayako, son Toshio, cat, and Kobayashi Shunsuke's pregnant wife and the child in her belly.

In the end, Takeo Saeki, who was throwing the body of his unborn baby girl on the street in a frenzy, received his own punishment.

"!!!"

After exiting this horrible memory, Tiancang Jian retched a few times, pointed to a room under his sister's concerned gaze, and said breathlessly:

"Diary, go find that diary!"

Chapter 483: Resentment and Hate (4/4)

"Eula!"

Almost by pushing the door open, Amakura Mio rushed into the house, and at a glance she saw the diary that entangled all these evil deeds - the diary was placed alone on the table, not dirty, nor swallowed by the darkness.

Without any hesitation, the girl picked up her melee weapon, a hammer flashing with arcs of electricity, and smashed it hard on the diary!

The electric arc swung, but the deep resentment bounced the hammer directly away, causing Amakura Mio to stagger backwards and collide with Saikawa Ayane who was walking in.

"what happened?!"

"That thing doesn't look like something we can destroy right now. We need to find a way to get the diary out of the house and keep the two separate."

Amakura Mio turned her wrist which was in pain. Although she did not have the powerful clairvoyance ability as her sister, she could still feel the weirdness and horror of the things in front of her. The hatred of being slaughtered and the already deep love for Kayako turned into the key to induce the energy of the other world at the moment of Kayako's death, opening the crack that hurt the curtain of reality. Kayako now, after all, is just a "creature of the other world" with her own memories!

Because of this, the diary is the "key", the "crack" between Kayako and the Saeki house.

"I know... Mizuki!"

Shouting her companion's name loudly, Saikawa Ayane then saw Shiraishi Mizuki rushing into the room. Apart from her unsightly posture as she was thrown in, she didn't seem to be injured.

"Damn evil spirit..."

Getting up from the ground, Shiraishi Ruixi held up the shield and said unhappily:

"The North American GOC branch can get help from angels and demons, so can't we have the help of Inari-no-Kami or Tamamonomae, a great monster?"

"You should ask Mr. Rhodes about this. Mio, Kanon, try to stop that grouchy woman! Mizuki, the two of us will try to suppress this diary with the black stone and then contain it."

After replying, Saikawa Ayane gripped the dagger tightly in her hand and carefully turned the pages of the diary. After turning off the discharge device, the thing did not seem to show any aggressiveness.

Putting away the short knife, the armed witch took a deep breath, took out a retractable clip from her bag, closed the diary, picked it up, and then gently placed it on the surface of the shield spread out on the floor.

The moment it touched the [Black Stone], the entire diary twitched a few times as if a corpse had not yet cooled down, and even the resentment that permeated it was mostly suppressed.

"It seems to work..."

Saikawa Ayane let out a long breath. Just as she was about to say something, she saw Shiraishi Mizuki opposite her suddenly pull out a sharp tactical dagger - the blade was steady and slashed towards the girl's white neck without hesitation - without dodging, Saikawa Ayane let Shiraishi Mizuki swing the dagger and cut off the long black hair hanging from the ceiling!

Just one second later, the hair would have hung the girl and strangled her to death!

The black hair fell to the ground and dissipated like mist.

"... Remember to hide next time," Shiraishi glared at him. She sheathed her dagger, then pulled two high-strength ropes from her bag and began tying up the diary on the shield. "If I'm controlled, you're dead."

"From the perspective of firm will, if even you can be controlled, I will be controlled before you," Saikawa Ayane said calmly. She stood up straight, gripping the short sword that was now glowing with electric arcs, and looked at Kayako, who was peeking her head out from the crack in the ceiling. "So, I'm going to say this to you - remember to hide next time, Shiraishi Mizuki."

"Tsk, troublesome woman."

Shiraishi Mizuki, who was driven out of the Self-Defense Forces, muttered something, and it was unclear whether she was talking about the armed shrine maiden in front of her or Kayako.

Taking a deep breath, Shiraishi Mizuki looked at Saikawa Ayane, who was standing in front of her and constantly wielding the short sword to cut off her long black hair, and asked:

"Now, what are your orders?"

"Overload [Black Stone Resonance Field]," Saikawa Ayane said. After she cut off a section of black hair, she continued, "Let's get out of this damn place."

"Then...as you wish."

Shiraishi Mizuki opened the lid, turned it, and pressed the button——

At the moment when the current reached its peak, the [Black Stone] burst out with an even brighter light, and its light almost instantly penetrated the obstruction of the diary, printing out the infinitely overlapping words soaked in love and hate - it was at this moment that Kayako's clones in the house roared at the same time, and they fell down together, twisting their bodies in pain, and drilled back into the walls and floors of the house like mist blown away by the wind, and drilled into every piece of furniture and debris!

The undead souls of the victims wailed and dissipated in front of the Tiancang sisters. They had become part of this resentment, and unless they were completely destroyed, this tragic pain would only be repeated countless times.

But at least now, everything is over for now.

The flames died, darkness returned, and the armed priestesses fell to the hard floor.

"...Ouch, I seem to be stuck by Lego bricks."

“Are all Lego sold here?!”

The light from the window reflected on the girls' faces, causing them to subconsciously block it with their hands. The next second, a man's voice rang out over the communication channel:

"Ayane, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Dad," Saikawa Ayane got up from the ground. She looked at the diary placed on the shield, which looked ordinary at the moment, and then said, "We have taken out the key items and are now preparing to contain them. Time is running out... We don't know if we can suppress this thing after the device overload ends - one last thing, don't come in."

"Okay, okay!"

Outside the house came the noise of a heavy truck starting up and the high-pitched chorus of Buddhist chants, which sounded really annoying. Fortunately, the neighbors around didn't have any objections.

Holding their shields carefully, the armed priestesses stepped on the spoiled salt and left the house where a lot of resentment still lingered.

As soon as she came outside, Saikawa Ayane saw her father standing with his hands in his folds in front of several exorcists who came to help. The abbots who were chanting the scriptures had already stopped, and they were replaced by several younger monks and a loudspeaker... It was just a pity for the dancing priests and priestesses, who could not rest until now.

"We have to try both new and old methods, don't we?"

Saikawa Makoto said with a smile. He looked at his daughter proudly, and after confirming that she was not injured or mentally upset, he quickly turned around and showed off to his old friends.

Shaking her head helplessly, Saikawa Ayane watched as the Amagura sisters carefully placed the shield and diary into the Black Stone containment station. As the heavy truck's exterior slowly closed, the otherworldly artifact responsible for the deaths of dozens would be sealed within the containment facility, awaiting future research and complete destruction.

After reaching out to take the high-calorie drink handed to her by the logistics staff, Saikawa Ayane saw Goto Kiichi in the crowd next to her, and the police officer was staring at the Saeki residence - this residence will be sealed and stored like the diary - in the next few days, the entire house and its foundation will be reinforced and then lifted away by four helicopters away from human habitation.

"Although you didn't suffer any injuries, I can imagine it must have been very dangerous in there," Goto Kiichi said. He reached out and touched his head, a smile still on his face. "It seems I still need to work harder to get the information to you before more casualties are caused."

"It would be too tiring for you to fight alone."

Saikawa Ayane replied with a smile. She accepted Goto Kiichi's implicit thanks and a sly smile appeared on the corner of her mouth:

"If you had more 'companions', you wouldn't have to do it so personally, right?"

Hearing this, Goto Kiichi shrugged and gave a confused expression as if he didn't understand.

Seeing this, the girl smiled and said nothing more. After saying goodbye politely, she walked towards her companions, thinking of what Tiancang Jian had said during the battle... With a sigh, Saikawa Ayane raised her head and muttered helplessly:

"Where can we find another powerful psychic?... And the M6S AS deployed from headquarters is about to arrive, and we need to allocate more personnel to train them... Damn it, why can't we just fish for a powerful psychic like we would an octopus from the sea?"

Chapter 484 Daily Life: Hawaiian Sea Breeze

"The GOC's Japanese branch is doing very well. Ayane and the others are growing rapidly... Also, what does this request for support from 'Inari God' and 'Amaterasu' mean?"

Rhode held the incident briefing and looked at the silver-haired girl sitting opposite him. Upon hearing his words, the latter raised her beautiful purple eyes and said nonchalantly:

"As you can see, they hope to get help from people like Mari and Mika. Of course, the [Mobile Task Force] can also help."

As the girl spoke, she stretched. The white one-piece swimsuit on her body stretched out along the texture of her muscles, tightly fitting her smooth skin, and finally completely tightened at her lower abdomen, just enough to expose everything to the Hawaiian sea breeze.

"Where are there so many [Mobile Task Forces] and suitable candidates these days?" Rhode helplessly threw the document onto the table, making the annoying object clatter against the wooden surface, scaring away a few seabirds outside the window. "But speaking of which... Noah, you actually came to Hawaii with them this time. Is there something going on?"

"My husband, with a heart of stone, hath commanded me to be imprisoned in this land" (from the Old English poem "The Wife's Lament").