Nobody knows how to be a villain better than me.

Under high pressure and the professional interrogation of the devil, those who have not received special training and whose willpower is not strong will basically succumb completely after a few rounds.

Clearly, this timid and cowardly otaku princess in front of us is this type.

The interrogation is still ongoing.

"Besides you, how many other Heroic Spirits are there?"

"4……"

"Who are they?"

"Lancer Kiyohime, Rider Ushi no Gozen, Assassin Shuten-dōji, and finally Caster, I don't even know his name, I only remember he was a very strong sorcerer..."

Under Samael's tutelage, Princess Gyoubu's eyes gradually lost focus, and she became an emotionless question-answering machine, answering all the questions posed by the King of Hell without reservation.

"Is this all the remaining strength of Mount Tanba?"

"No, we still have the Goddess!"

Seemingly spurred on by these words, Princess Xingbu, who had been feeling dizzy just moments before, suddenly perked up and was full of confidence.

"Hmph, just wait and see. As long as the goddess makes a move, we might not necessarily lose!"

Goddess?

Samael frowned slightly upon hearing this somewhat unexpected answer.

"who is she?"

"..."

"boom!"

A cursed bullet grazed Princess Gyobu's scalp, blasting a fist-sized charred hole in the tree stump behind her.

But unexpectedly, the usually cowardly and timid princess clenched her fists, steeled her resolve, closed her eyes, and stood up straight with a slightly trembling body, looking like a dead pig unafraid of boiling water, which made her quite tough.

"Gu, just kill me! I absolutely will not tell!"

Samael stroked his chin, looked Gyoubu-hime up and down, and a slight smile appeared on his face.

To be honest, although Old Xing is a bit of a cripple, he still has some integrity.

"Since you don't want to talk about it, forget it."

The ancient serpent waved indifferently, its smile unchanged, and turned to look at the light gate at the end of the steps and the castle tower atop the mountain, a pleased smile playing on its lips.

Anyway, she'll tell me herself!

Immediately, Samael took a step forward, covering a hundred miles in an instant.

A fleeting figure, as ethereal as light or smoke, made its way towards the mountaintop.

In just a few breaths, the outline of the castle tower came into Samael's view.

But at the same time, a faint, cold light also appeared.

Samael squinted to the left, raised his left arm, and flicked his finger at a short blade with snake-like scales on the sword, the powerful force knocking the blade away.

Shuten-dōji, who appeared out of thin air, groaned and staggered back several steps, breaking seven or eight stone slabs in succession before finally stopping.

In the brief moment of barely stabilizing himself, the Demon King of Mount Ooe immediately raised the indigo wine jug in his other hand, tilted his head back and took a big gulp, then spat it forward, mixing it with demonic energy and blood.

A thick, purplish-red fog, catalyzed by the ether, spread out and enveloped Samael as he walked up to the mountaintop plaza.

In an instant, the surrounding stones engraved with defensive spells began to hiss and crack, disintegrating like tender tofu falling into boiling oil.

"Still not giving up? After trying so many times, you should understand that poison is useless against me, Shuten-dōji."

Samael, bathed in the toxic fumes, smiled coldly, remaining unmoved. Instead, he breathed deeply and freely within the fumes, as if savoring a gaseous beverage, enjoying the aroma of alcohol and fruit contained within the poisonous fog.

"As the strongest opponent I have ever encountered, you naturally deserve the highest level of hospitality."

Lazy whispers escaped from Shuten-dōji's rosy lips, carried from all directions under the cover of the poisonous fog, like a gentle stream flowing into the ear canal, stimulating the nerves of the brain.

The smell of alcohol in the air grew stronger.

Samael began to feel slightly tipsy after a few breaths, even feeling as if he were walking on cotton. His thoughts started to wander, and he began to picture those rosy lips that could turn fine wine into poisonous mist.

So, would you call this a virtual kiss?

Or, what would it feel like to personally snatch it from that soft "wine vessel"?

Sweet, so sweet, it's practically a condensation of sweetness.

It can cause death.

It is corrupting.

A trembling, burning sensation that melts and corrupts...

Samael swayed slightly, but then stood firm. His dazed gaze instantly cleared, and he looked up at the distance beyond the poisonous fog, his eyes flickering.

"I underestimated you. This actually incorporates the concepts of 'drunkenness' and 'poison.' Interesting..."

In the legend of this Oni King of Mount Ōe, young people and princesses in the capital city disappeared one after another. After Abe no Seimei performed divination, he discovered that these were all the work of Shuten-dōji.

Minamoto no Yorimitsu, having received orders to subdue the demons, led his Four Heavenly Kings, disguised as ascetic monks, to visit the castle where the demons resided.

During the banquet, Raikou and his companions poisoned Shuten-dōji's wine and launched a surprise attack while the demons were asleep, thus defeating them.

The severed head of Shuten-dōji attacked Raikou, but was blocked by the helmet bestowed by the gods.

After becoming an anti-hero, Shuten-dōji's Noble Phantasm, upgraded from this legend, not only possesses her innate [poisonous corrosiveness], but also the more easily overlooked [drunkenness effect].

However, due to the rapid corrosive effect of the toxins, targets immersed in the poisonous fog often turn into skeletons before the effects of intoxication can take hold.

With her near-maximum poison resistance, Samael easily withstood the poison's effects, naturally becoming one of the lucky few to enjoy the second Noble Phantasm's effect.

Because intoxication is difficult to define as harmless, neither the body nor automatic defense spells will subconsciously filter it out.

Once they have absorbed enough alcohol, they will unconsciously become drunk, just like the legendary Shuten-dōji, who quietly fell into a deep sleep and became a lamb to the slaughter.

However, unlike Shuten-dōji, who was too obsessed with drinking, Samael, although he liked to have a drink now and then, was far from being an alcoholic.

Moreover, to get him drunk, a Heroic Spirit-level concept of "drunkenness" is far from enough; at least a God-level would be needed!

The ancient serpent snorted coldly and stomped its foot hard. A violent torrent of ether swept outwards like a rolling giant wave, sweeping away the surrounding poison and alcohol fumes.

But unexpectedly, the castle tower, which should have been in sight, disappeared.

At this moment, a dark sun was suspended in the sky, covering the entire sky. Beneath his feet lay a desolate wasteland, littered with corpses, making Samael feel as if he were in a hellish inferno.

A formation, huh? I see...

The ancient serpent gazed at the ever-changing scenery around it, its eyes thoughtful.

This feeling is just like coming home?

The hellish scene near Samael made me smile, a sense of absurdity welling up inside me.

Oh, right, I think I'm the ruler of hell!

The ancient serpent narrowed its vertical pupils, a mocking sneer appearing on its face as it gazed at the black sun suspended in the sky.

—And the humanoid phantom hiding within it!

Chapter 72 Goddess Capture Successfully

The moment that gaze swept over him, the sorcerer with his long, black-and-white hair stood on end and his pupils contracted sharply.

“N, Y, H, ……”

Meanwhile, deep chants echoed in the desolate and silent dark world, and the runes drawn by Samael's fingertips, like burning torches, swept away the surrounding gloom.

In an instant, the shimmering runes shot out like a swarm of comets tearing through the sky, trailing long fiery tails, and savagely crashed into the black sun hanging above.

"Boom boom boom!"

Light and darkness intertwined and collided, the pitch-black sun flickered erratically, and the entire space shook violently, like a turbulent sea with visible ripples.

At this very moment, outside the stone platform of the castle tower, a sorcerer with long, black and white hair stared at the scene in the mirror that looked like a magnitude 12 earthquake. His eyelids twitched, and his back was soaked with cold sweat. He couldn't help but feel secretly relieved.

Fortunately, I was smart enough not to expose my true form to this guy's view directly.

Otherwise, the runes from the mass bombardment just now would have been enough to give him a hard time.

The sorcerer wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and quickly raised his hand to trace patterns on the ancient mirror.

Suddenly, the turbulent world gradually returned to calm.

Like throwing a stone into a lake, no matter how big the waves are, the lake will eventually return to its original state.

Formation?

Samael lowered his right hand, looked up at the black luminous object that had reassembled in the sky, and at the desolate landscape around him that was gradually returning to normal, and raised an eyebrow slightly.

Upon seeing his reflection in the mirror, the sorcerer stopped in his tracks, a confident and smug smile spreading across his face.

You are indeed very strong, being a foreign deity who can exorcise even the calamity-bringing Yamata no Orochi.

Unfortunately, even the gods, having mistakenly entered this humble monk's domain, might not be able to unravel the array that this humble monk has painstakingly researched...

"Boom!"

The sorcerer looked down at the pile of loose soil and pebbles that had risen several meters high at his feet, and the smile on his face froze instantly.

At this moment, in the ancient mirror, divine runes, each embodying the characteristics of a major civilization, appeared behind the trapped man, like a vast array of stars.

Furthermore, with the man's casual wave of his hand, the shimmering divine runes, carrying layers of sonic booms and terrifying waves of magical power, crashed into the earth and sky reflected in the mirror.

"Boom boom boom!"

The violent explosions were like muffled claps of thunder.

One by one, pentagram symbols engraved on the steps, beams, stone surfaces, pillars, and eaves of the castle tower burst open, causing wood chips to fly and creak as the majestic building, resembling a temple, exploded.

Looking at the crumbling castle tower behind him, the sorcerer's mouth gaped open, and cold sweat poured down his forehead.

The principle of formations, simply put, is to cleverly mobilize the power of heaven and earth, nature, and all things in the world for one's own use.

But whether it's a trapping formation, an illusion formation, or a killing formation, they all share a common premise.

—A fixed array base is required.

Strength does not come from nowhere, nor from nowhere.

Even if a formation can leverage 1 to influence 1000, 1 cannot be created out of thin air; it must be built on a foundation of reality to establish the basis for the formation's operation.

For example, right now, he has trapped that foreign god in a formation, using the power of the Tenshukaku temple and the entire Tanba Mountain ley line.

Logically speaking, people trapped in a formation would usually focus on figuring out how the formation works and finding a way out.

This guy, on the other hand, not only showed no respect for this exquisite art, but also blatantly and irrationally attacked the formation itself.

Even the most ingenious array cannot withstand this level of magical outburst and needs to work in conjunction with the base to transform the accumulated ether.

But whether they can handle it is another question.

"Bang bang bang bang!"

One after another, the ancient mirrors hanging outside the castle tower and buried in the earth's veins exploded, their fragments mixed with flying pebbles, splashing several meters high.

"Boom boom boom!"

One after another, divine runes, like shooting stars, crashed into the desolate wilderness and the dark sky, and the deafening explosions continued.

The sorcerer's face turned green as he looked at the cracked ground beneath his feet and the collapsing and disintegrating Mount Tanba.

It was true that their own formation had trapped this foreign deity.

But if this continues, before he can break the formation step by step, the castle tower that forms the foundation of the formation, as well as the entire Tanba Mountain, will be blown away by the monster inside.

"boom!"

As the last mirror buried in the earth's veins exploded, the sorcerer standing atop Mount Tanba had no choice but to grit his teeth and personally undo the formation he had painstakingly set up.

However, the sorcerer, who had extensive experience in fighting enemies, did not sit idly by and wait for death. He immediately used all the skills he had learned in his life during the last moment of the formation's operation.

Her long, slender hands moved in a graceful, ever-changing motion, like butterflies flitting among flowers, rapidly forming one hand seal after another.

Suddenly, bright spots gradually appeared in the dark sky, like stars adorning the night.

However, the scale of those [stars] is constantly expanding, and the distance between them and the ground is getting closer and closer.

Samael narrowed his eyes, his focused vertical pupils gazing at the shimmering sky.