I became the Lord of the Eternal World in Tokyo.

Tamamo immediately took out a brand-new array plate from her pouch and dripped the blood that had been drawn from the syringe onto the very center of the array plate.

— Biting your fingertip to draw blood is such a painful and stupid thing, probably only prehistoric humans would do it.

In an instant, a faint light burst forth from the gap in the palm-sized array plate.

Uesugi Tetsu's pupils flickered slightly as he glimpsed an extremely faint Yin-Yang symbol emerging on the ground of the tunnel to his right.

This technique is incredibly complex, with layers upon layers, the kind that even ten Uesugi Tetsuya tied together couldn't fully understand.

So, how could an ordinary person like Tamamo possibly understand this?

It wasn't that he doubted Tamamo, but rather that the Yin-Yang Technique was something that was difficult to achieve anything with just theory and no real practice—the inability to sense the flow of spiritual energy was a major problem.

Tamamo, holding the array plate, coughed twice and stepped forward: "Brother Uesugi, I can handle this."

Uesugi Tetsu asked, "Don't you need me?"

The girl shook the array plate: "This thing is bound to me, so only I can set it up... and it will handle the rest."

"I understand."

Uesugi Tetsuya withdrew his gaze and narrowed his perception range, limiting it to a radius of thirty meters.

He gripped Kaga Kiyomitsu, ready to unleash the Three-Stage Thrust and the Mysterious Sword at any moment: "Don't worry about safety."

Tamamo squatted down in front of the Yin-Yang incantation and breathed a sigh of relief.

"I feel relieved to hear your words, brother."

Yagyu Chi stayed close behind her, serving as the last line of defense.

With a crisp sound as the array plate hit the ground, Tamamo began to silently chant some incantations.

A strange surge of spiritual energy erupted, causing the darkness deep within the tunnel to churn violently.

Uesugi Tetsu raised his eyes indifferently, and dozens of pale, rough bolts of lightning shot out from his body into the restless darkness.

A terrible scream erupted.

With just that one move, the surrounding commotion subsided considerably.

Uesugi Tetsuya, who had consumed nearly half of his spiritual power in an instant, quickly and silently activated his Spirit Control Technique, thinking that the effect was quite good.

If the demons on both sides of the tunnel really swarm in, it's hard to say whether he can block them all.

Time passes by.

Uesugi Tetsu could clearly feel that the strange spiritual energy fluctuations behind him began to subside.

It seems this tunnel trip is about to end peacefully...

"Brother Uesugi!"

Kaka!

Tamamo's exclamation and the stiff, stuck sound came almost simultaneously.

The girl, who had been knocked to the ground by the shock, didn't care about anything else. She first placed her hands back on the array plate, and then said in a very fast voice, "Brother Uesugi, come here!"

"Xiao Jia, expand the area."

Uesugi Tetsu released Kaga Kiyomitsu, leaving him suspended in place. He then took three steps at a time to reach the incantation emanating from Tamamo Kazusa, which was emitting pure white light.

Tamamo continued, "Big brother, could you use your spiritual power to connect to the array plate and help me clear out the demons on the other end of the spell? If I go, I'll probably just be a sitting duck."

The demon on the other side of the spell?

Uesugi Tetsu immediately realized—this technique could be considered a passage, an entrance, between the mortal world and the present world?

"it is good."

He immediately placed his fingers on the array plate, and his spiritual power surged out rapidly, flowing into the array plate and the spell through Tamamo's guidance.

Wow!

In an instant, Uesugi Tetsu found himself suddenly brightened up.

When he opened his eyes, he found that the dark tunnel, the array formation, and the calm-faced Tamamo had all disappeared.

Only pure white.

As far as the eye could see, an endless, solid, pure white passage stretched out without end.

Beyond the passage, the sound of surging waves echoed more clearly than ever before.

Uesugi Tetsu looked down and realized that he was there in a special state.

—He didn't bring any of his equipment with him, but he inherited all of his four-dimensional attributes, as well as his internal energy sea, qi, and spiritual power.

He didn't have time to think about the reasons or how the concept of "incredibly sturdy" came to his mind.

Before Uesugi Tetsuya's eyes appeared a bio-mech about one and a half times the height of a person, with its outer shell made entirely of brass and its interior filled with scarlet flesh, spewing out scalding steam.

It was lying on the half-closed spell, forcibly hindering Tamamo.

As expected, a notification popped up above the bio-mech's head.

——【Battle Sequence Prototype 072 (One Star)】.

Combat sequence?

Factory owner?

Katsumi's words flashed through Uesugi Tetsu's mind.

But he didn't think too much about it. He activated the "Lin" technique and raised his hand, sending a sword of ignorance landing inside the bio-mech.

—Given the stability and width of this passage, it could probably send at least several thousand demons into the mortal world in a single day.

So in this critical situation, we need to resolve this mech issue as quickly as possible, because who knows if the factory owner has any backup plans.

Boom!

Before the bio-mech could even react, the entire mech exploded into a bloody, molten mess, plummeting downwards.

Immediately, Uesugi Tetsu could feel the remaining half of the spell disappearing at a visible speed.

He let out a soft sigh: "Now..."

The idea has not yet been implemented.

Uesugi Tetsu felt a chilling coldness rise from the base of his spine and up to the top of his head.

terror!

Great horror!

Something is coming this way!

He immediately turned his head and looked into the distance, where he saw a bio-mechanical machine that was almost identical to the one he had seen before, far beyond the white passage.

But there was more than one.

One unit, ten units... hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands.

The endless array of bio-mechanical machines seemed to sense the impending closure of the passage, and were frantically marching towards it.

How many are there?

One hundred thousand?

Or more?

Even if these things are just the bottom-tier items among half-star and one-star, what would happen if they could launch some kind of ranged attack together?

Looking at the notification that filled the entire field of vision and could trigger trypophobia, Uesugi Tetsuya swallowed hard.

"Tamamo, hurry."

A faint voice came from the other end of the array: "Brother Uesugi, what did you say...?"

—The vast, ocean-like notification slowly disappeared.

Behind it, an eyeball was visible.

An eyeball, so large it blots out the sun, crystal clear, radiating a terrifying, godlike pressure.

It was indifferently casting its gaze downwards.

As if supervising the project.

"—I said, shut it down at full speed!"

Uesugi Tetsuya felt a chill run down his spine and raised his voice three octaves, startling Tamamo, who was operating the array plate, into screaming.

But immediately, the closing speed of the surgical channel increased by one, no, two steps!

Tamamo hissed, "Brother Uesugi, you have to come back! The passage is about to close!"

Uesugi Tetsuya was about to dive back in when, as his fingertips touched the entrance to the passage, he inexplicably turned his head back.

That eyeball didn't notice itself.

This is a golden opportunity.

Uesugi Tetsuya held his breath, thinking subconsciously.

This distance is achievable by using the invisible blade in hand as a base and employing flying sword techniques without regard to loss.

The worst-case scenario is that we lose the substitute doll and gain nothing.

But if successful, Hyakume-ki will be able to eat a portion of the eyeball of a demon god.

So, what should we do?

The technique behind him had closed down to only one-tenth of its original size, leaving no more time for Uesugi Tetsuya to think and make a choice.

The decision can only be made in this instant.

Uesugi Tetsuya's thoughts almost froze.

He plunged headlong into the final magical passage.

Then, when consciousness was swallowed up until only the head and hands remained.

Uesugi Tetsu clenched his fists with all his might.

They didn't even need to use their internal energy or flying sword techniques.

As his gaze fell and his mind became clear, the invisible blade that had been in his hand suddenly appeared directly near the eyeball, defying all logic.

Then, without the eye being on guard, the profound meaning of the Unknown Sword was revealed.

Click.

A sound like an illusion shattering rang out.

As if pierced by a tiny needle, the eyeball that had been suspended in the air above the pure white passage, gazing down, paused for a moment.

In the next instant, it locked onto Uesugi Tetsuya's position.

There was no anger, no murderous intent, and no warning whatsoever.

A red light, representing destruction and death, emerged from nothingness, annihilating all matter there into nothingness.

But by then the technique had been completely shut down.

……

The white light vanished, and deep darkness and a blinding beam of light once again enveloped Uesugi Tetsuya's consciousness.

"Brother Uesugi..."

Tamamo's face turned pale.

Almost.

It was just a hair's breadth away from unleashing something terrifying.

She gripped Uesugi Tetsu's shoulders tightly with both hands, her voice trembling as she asked, "What was inside the other end of the spell just now?"

"Hu-hu-"

Uesugi Tetsu was breathing heavily.

He stared at the tunnel before him, thick with demonic energy, yet strangely giving him a sense of security.

Successful.