Nobody knows how to be a villain better than me.

As Illya recounts the legend of "Bloody Mary," she sees her friends listening intently and is suddenly seized by a mischievous impulse. She unexpectedly raises a candle, makes a face in the flickering candlelight, and sneers in a sinister voice.

...Like this!

"Ghost!"

Startled by this sudden outburst, the children instinctively shrank back and squeezed into a corner.

After a short while, the storm subsided, and the children inside, realizing they had been tricked, erupted into a chaotic mess of noise and play.

"Ilya! Well, you've gone bad too!"

"Haha, it itches, it itches! Stop scratching! I'm sorry, next...who's next?"

"That turtle!"

"How many stories is this again?"

"I don't know, it doesn't matter anyway. We already said we'd do our homework at a classmate's house tonight, and it's still early, let's keep playing!"

"I see. I'll tell you a Japanese urban legend, the tale of the Slit-Mouthed Woman..."

At this moment, Nana Kame Moriyama, who had just received the candle, opened her slightly narrowed eyes, mimicked the sinister expression, and began the next round of ghost story sharing. The group of girls, who were still very interested, sat down again, and a new cycle began.

However, no one noticed that in the thick darkness of the night, a bluish-green gecko climbed up the windowsill inch by inch again, and dense bluish-green phosphorescence gathered around it, like a series of lit lamps.

Delicious...fresh...!

Whispers, some greedy, some sinister, drifted faintly from the flickering, greenish-blue flames.

The turquoise gecko, its form gradually contorting into a ferocious grimace, extended its sharp claws toward the broken window that gaped open in the cold wind.

"Buzz!"

But just when this was

Just as the dark shadow lurking on the outer wall was about to dart into the window, the surrounding air trembled, and a red and black spatial vortex took shape. A slender, fair hand casually emerged from the crack that appeared out of nowhere and pinched the green gecko on the outer wall in its fingertip.

"Oh, I found you!"

A playful whisper echoed softly in the deep night, a pair of thin, delicate lips curving into a subtle arc.

At the same time, the five fingers that had been extended out suddenly closed and tightened.

"puff!"

In an instant, the bluish-green gecko that had been clutched in the palm of the hand turned into a pool of foul-smelling flesh, and the bluish-green phosphorescence that had gathered around it disintegrated and shattered.

"What are you..."

In the dense forest, Yoshiko looked at Samael, who seemed to have gone to great lengths to crush a gecko from a distance, with some surprise.

"The Blue Lantern Journey, recorded in the 'Hyakki Yagyōshō', is a ghost from hell that carries a blue lantern and goes around enticing people to participate in the Hyakki Yagyō game, using the power of human words to achieve its goal of opening the gates of hell."

Samael clapped his hands, smiled faintly, and then looked up at the ghostly mansion where candlelight flickered and laughter occasionally drifted out. He shook his head helplessly.

"It seems that these girls' little game has attracted some unclean things."

"Then let's quickly take them away!"

With her daughter's safety at stake, Yoshiko Sakuzuki's heart tightened, and she instinctively wanted to rush into the Ghost Mansion to urgently stop the children's "social practice".

However, before Sakuzuki Yoshiko could take a step, that fair arm was placed on her shoulder.

“It’s rare for Meiyou to take that first step. If she suffers a setback this time, it won’t be so easy for her to muster the courage to come out again next time.”

Samael patted Yoko Sakuzuki's shoulder and gave her a heartfelt reminder. Then, he blinked and a confident, radiant smile appeared on his handsome face.

"Besides, we, as parents, are heroes in the eyes of our children. How can we let these little guys down? Honey, it's just a game. I can afford it."

this person……

Looking at that warm smile, Sakuzuki Yoshiko's tense mood was inexplicably relieved, and she stared blankly at the person in front of her.

Although the cold wind howled all around and the night was fraught with danger, for some reason, my heart felt a peace I had never known before.

This was a feeling she had never experienced since she left her family with her daughter and raised her child alone for several years.

If Miyu's father were still alive...

"Madam? Madam!"

The call in her ear startled Sakuzuki Yoshiko, who had been lost in thought for a long time.

"Well, I..."

Immediately, the widowed woman looked at the concerned and handsome face before her, her cheeks flushed crimson, her skin felt hot and burning, and she felt extremely embarrassed and ashamed. She couldn't help but stammer and speak incoherently.

"Buzz!"

Just as Yoshiko was becoming increasingly desperate, the blood mist from the bursting blue-green gecko spread out with a buzzing sound.

At the same time, under the influence of the blood mist, dense blood-red light patterns appeared on the outer walls of the Ghost Mansion and the surrounding ground.

The surrounding air gradually became incredibly viscous. A purplish-black magic circle that had been suspended in mid-air descended to the ground. As it operated, it seemed to tear the earth apart, and a dense, cold, deathly aura surged wildly from the cracked abyss, reaching a height of several meters.

"careful!"

As the crisis loomed, Shuoyue Yangdaizi, feeling a chill run through her body, suddenly changed her expression and hurriedly warned Samael.

The ancient serpent patted the trembling shoulder of the woman to comfort her, then lowered its eyes to look at the red and black light mist spreading from the crack in the ground ahead, shaking its head and muttering to itself.

"It seems these girls have caused quite a bit of trouble."

At this moment, as far as the eye could see, a thick, blood-red mist spread out, and as the surrounding air twisted and writhed, the scenery before them suddenly changed.

Dark red water seeped from the dark cracks in the ground, gradually gathering into pools of varying sizes. On the crimson wasteland, where ghostly blue phosphorescent flames flickered, hundreds of pale skeletons rose from the soil, their empty eyes filled with a cold and tyrannical aura.

The massive bronze gate, bound by chains, hangs above the turbid current, a mixture of dark red and yellow. Its twisted and ferocious face boils and roars in the turbid current. In the river, strange, leafless, and bewitching red flowers grow upwards from their roots along the chains. Their pale white tentacles gradually pierce through the runic chains, and visible cracks spread rapidly.

"Bang! Bang!"

In an instant, countless tightly bound dark gold chains shattered inch by inch, and the bronze gate linked by purplish-black runes slowly opened. The chilling aura that froze souls, along with the foul-smelling yellow mud and countless twisted vengeful spirits mixed in, rushed out of the abyss and surged forth.

At the same time, the soil churned, and the pale skeletons of beasts, birds, and humans, whose biological characteristics were vaguely discernible, awoke from their slumber, carrying the stench of decay and death, seeking out and cursing the living things in the world.

The gates of the underworld have been opened!

Soon, pairs of phosphorescent eyes focused their sinister and frenzied gazes on a figure that was actively radiating immense life force, and then pounced on it in unison.

Samael stood up and stood in front of the trembling Sakuzuki Yotsuki, exhaling slightly from his chest. Facing the group of demons and monsters rushing towards him, he slowly raised his hand and chanted in a deep voice.

"You were dust, and to dust you shall return..."

The decree was issued immediately, accompanied by a sound like a long...

The compassion of the sages and the sighs of the wise, the soft, blazing white light patterns rippled outwards from Samael and the core.

"Puff puff!"

In an instant, wherever the light patterns passed, the howling vengeful spirits and resurrected corpses exploded, turning into specks of light dust that drifted away with the wind.

At the same time, the filthy mud on the ground was washed away, and the torn surface was stitched back together.

Everything is restored as before.

"Tsk, Fuyuki City is truly plagued by misfortunes. How long has it been since the Age of Gods returned? They've already breached the Gates of the Underworld?"

Samael casually finished the repairs, rubbed his forehead and shook his head, ignoring the dumbfounded wife beside him, and snapped his fingers at the ghostly mansion.

"Buzz!"

Instantly, an obscure and mysterious aura spread out. Runes, Ogan script, Hebrew script, cuneiform runes, and other ancient scripts shaped like tadpoles appeared and disappeared around the Ghost Mansion, forming a transparent magical barrier that concealed the entire dilapidated building in the void.

"boom!"

Just as Samael was busy meticulously weaving a "cradle" for the little girls holding a test of courage in the mansion, the soil on both sides was suddenly turned upside down, and the two cages covered with inward-sloping bone spikes suddenly closed!

"Got it! Hehe, got it!"

A sharp, sinister laugh, like fingernails scraping glass, echoed through the forest, utterly jarring.

"Head! The man's head is mine!"

"A woman! A beautiful woman!"

"Hair! Beautiful hair!"

Immediately, amidst the commotion, several clumps of green phosphorescent light flickered and drifted toward the closing bone cage, seemingly vying to snatch their desired spoils.

"boom!"

However, just as the clusters of phosphorescent flames approached, the closed bone prison suddenly exploded, and the shooting bone fragments transformed into sharp arrows, piercing and tearing apart all the floating phosphorescent flames.

"Ahhhh!"

In an instant, pitiful screams rose and fell, and blood, some green and some black, sprayed freely.

"What's all the noise about? It's not your turn yet..."

Within the shattered bone prison, a spotless figure slowly opened and closed its six wings, turned its head to look back at the dense forest where hundreds of phosphorescent lights floated, and grinned with a ferocious smile. Its serpentine vertical pupils opened and closed menacingly.

"Since you're in such a hurry to be reborn, then I'll grant your wish!"

How is this going?

Just as Sakuzuki Yoshiko, who was being held in one arm, looked at Samael, who was shouting at the phosphorescent flames from afar, completely bewildered, the ancient serpent raised one hand and curled its fingers to grasp.

"Crack!"

In an instant, accompanied by a crisp sound like shattering glass, the surrounding space twisted and broke apart, and the densely packed light-like crystals turned into specks of light dust, disintegrating and annihilating.

Suddenly, a thick white fog enveloped the dense forest under the moonlight, and hundreds of snake-like creatures slithered and swam within it.

Mirage! A type of yokai in "Hyakki Yagyōshō" that excels at weaving illusions. Although their combat strength is average, when hundreds or thousands of them gather, the bewilderment they create is simply terrifying!

But once their true nature is revealed, they pose little threat.

Puff puff puff!

As the ancient serpent clenched its five fingers, one after another mirage exploded with a roar. The mist that enveloped them gradually thinned, and nearly a hundred large and small light patterns, some hanging in the sky and some hidden on the ground, howled and drifted, staring menacingly at the living couple in the open space.

The woman, with a naked upper body and a bristly spider lower body, waved her two pairs of segmented legs, casting a sinister gaze and dripping saliva, clearly wishing she could devour the only man present.

Several ox-like demons, with bodies like tigers, limbs like oxen, and wings like bats, held human thigh bones and placed them in their mouths full of sharp teeth, chewing them up. The splattered flesh and blood and the spitting out of white bone fragments were enough to send chills down one's spine.

A giant wheel, with a large bald head in the middle, is a Wheel Nyūdō muttering seductive words like "Come and see your child," its eyes wide as it gazes at a married woman raising a child.

The ghosts, their faces either sorrowful or ferocious, concealed their hair, which extended into thick black strands, suspending one head after another, revealing a frenzy and longing for their new collection.

The long-haired, flying barbarian shook its neck, eager to suck the blood and essence of its prey.

The bluish-gray larks folded their wings and landed on the branches. They could lay eggs smaller than pores inside a human body, using human nutrients to nourish their offspring. Only after the offspring hatched and ate their internal organs could the host truly be freed.

……

This is no phosphorescent light; it is clearly a procession of a hundred ghosts gathering at night!

As Shuoyue Yangdaizi gazed at the dark, chaotic scene before her, where demons danced wildly, her pupils dilated in shock and her hands and feet turned icy cold.

...Legend has it that during the dark and chaotic Heian period, humans and demons lived together, and all kinds of demons ran rampant. Every night, at the feast for all the demons, the mournful songs of humankind would inevitably be played.

The journey of the Green Lamp is both the key to opening the gates of the underworld and pulling souls into the netherworld, and the medium to summon hundreds of ghosts to share in a bloody feast.

Clearly, the little girls of the Ghost Mansion, with their beautiful flesh and abundant vitality, are attracting all the evil spirits and demons of this land to swarm in through the gates opened by the Green Lantern Shop.

Even though the quantity is small, the quality is comparable to divine offerings.

As abundant as ever!

The monsters cheered excitedly, their eyes burning with fervor.

Having been banished from this world for a thousand years, their nature as the former rulers of this land is to eat indiscriminately and kill at will.

Finally, the Age of Gods has returned.

The human world, where they have thrived for thousands of years, is their long-coveted hunting ground.

"Kill...kill!"

"Eat...eat!"

"My hair, my hair...!"

Accompanied by screams that rose and fell, a horde of evil spirits and monsters rushed toward the central target, which radiated vibrant life force and shone as brightly as the sun.

"Shhhhhhh!"

However, a golden arrow pierced the heavens and earth, instantly multiplying into ten, then a hundred, then a thousand. The dense rain of arrows fell to the ground like meteors, and in the blink of an eye, eighty percent of the rampaging ghosts were pinned to the ground.