The trio kept moving deeper into the sacred land of Vina. As they continued, Rumia could feel the immense aura of power grow. Every now and then she slowed down for just a moment, overwhelmed by the power, unlike anything she had felt before. Marisa seemed to slow even more often, not accustomed to Makai's energy in the first place. Even Yumeko was occasionally affected.
It became clear that the centre of Vina was not far away, when the hills gave way to what seemed to be a bowl-shaped hole, with scattered ruined pillars and ancient buildings.
At the very centre of the crater seemed to be an archway, entirely whole, with a purple glow inside the arch. In front of it, was an angelic figure, which there was no doubt in Rumia's mind was Sariel.
And there were four more figures. Three were clearly Seiga, Yoshika and Alice, while the fourth looked like a vampire, although she also held a wand, and seemed to be relying on magic rather than her speed and strength.
And most worryingly, she was fighting Seiga alone. Sariel seemed to be just watching.
Until her eyes locked with Rumia's. She said something, and took a step towards Seiga, while Elis broke away, and flew towards the group.
"Magan really has been slacking~" she said, stopping in front of the trio. The vampire looked even younger than Flandre, and has most distinguishing mark was a pink star-shaped mark on her cheek.
"She hasn't been slacking." Yumeko said. "Don't chastise her for losing three against one, especially when one of them was me."
The vampire shugged.
"Well, it doesn't look like she even touched you much. I'm a little worried for my chances, to be honest. Especially against you Yumeko, what, being a doll and lacking vital fluids. However, Sariel wants me to buy time while she deals with the other intruder."
"We're here to stop her as well!" Marisa said. "She's holding Alice hostage."
"Alice? Isn't that that person Shinki asked us to help get back a few years ago?" Elis asked, visibly shocked, before she looked annoyed. "Ugh, the orders are to not allow anyone, even Shinki herself here, but this sort of situation... we never saw this coming, where someone from another world would come here, pursued by ones who claim to aim to stop her..."
Then, Seiga flew past the group, along with Yoshika and Alice, blasted by a massive force away from the portal.
Sariel formed a projection of herself, not leaving the portal herself, which flew over.
"If you have any idea of how to free Alice from the control of the hermit, do so quickly. If she continues to attempt to enter the Realm of Magic; I shall have to take actions which will result in Alice's death due to the curse she placed." the projection of Sariel said. Her voice was soft, and something about it instilled calm.
Yumeko looked at Rumia, who looked at Marisa, who looked at Rumia again.
"Well, didn't Patchouli say that the bite of a Jiang Shi doesn't last that long?" Rumia asked. "If we can stall Seiga until Yoshika's bite wears off, and stop Yoshika biting Alice again, then we should be able to stop her, right?"
Seiga regained her balance in the air, and adjusted her hair back into position, before using magic to pull Yoshika and Alice back, who were still flying away due to Sariel's mighty blast.
"I wonder if the forbidden magics inside this Grimoire can create the opening I need..." Seiga mused, as she forced Alice to open her Grimoire and begin to read. Her incantations in the language of Makai sounding very different to how Alice usually sounded, almost as if she was attempting to resist, but couldn't.
From Alice's book, a massive torrent of blue fire roared towards Sariel.
Elis cursed. "Fine, if you're gonna help, help! Just get out of here when she's stopped and I won't attack you at least!"
Sariel's projection spoke again. "This is the best course of action. I will refrain from using attacks which would result in your deaths due to collateral damage."
"That's... nice." Rumia said, as she watched the real Sariel rip apart the torrent of fire blasted at her with a narrow beam of light, fired from one of her fingers.
"Miss Kaku, Alice's Grimoire is powerful, but it is no match for me." Sariel calmly said. Alice just kept fireing spells of various elements at Sariel, who effortlessly deflected them, as Elis, Yumeko, Rumia and Marisa flew at Seiga.
"Yumeko, you can't get bit by Yoshika, you're best suited to trying to keep her away!" Rumia shouted. The maid nodded, and diverted towards Yoshika, performing what amounted to a flying rugby-tackle to push Yoshika away from Seiga. Rumia heard Yoshika cry out "Be careful Nyang-Nyang!" as Yumeko forced her away.
Seiga looked at the remaining three, and smiled.
"I'll have Alice keep Sariel occupied with her barrage of magic. She may claim that the spells are no match for her, but the fact is she is still forced to defend herself. She is not invulnerable like Shinki is. Sariewl is not a God, however powerful she is. Alice's magic may not overwhelm or defeat Sariel, but it will restrain her. Such a useful hostage." Seiga said. She seemed as calm as Sariel.
Her body then jerked straight, and she looked worried for a moment. Rumia looked at Elis, who had her wand pointed at Seiga, glowing red.
"I think I will teach you what it means to be someone else's puppet, and I will pull the strings." Elis said. "My blood magic will do that."
"Blood Magic?" Seiga asked, with some difficulty. "That is not something I have seen in a few hundred years, and it must be pretty powerful to restrain me. I'm not sure what you aim to achi..."
Seiga's body went rigid, as Elis moved her wand.
"If it wasn't for your hostage, I would draw every drop of blood out from the pores of your body and drink it. Even if you would survive such a thing, the pain would drive you mad." Elis said, her voice showing no doubt that she would go through with her threat. "Even then, I can still restrain you without hurting you."
"Can all vampires do that sort of thing?" Rumia asked.
"Maybe, if they trained for as long as I did with their Red Magic." Elis said.
Seiga's body crackled with Dark Energy, and Elis' wand sparked with it as well, causing her to recoil as if she had received a static shock, releaseing Seiga just long enough for the hermit to throw two lances of dark energy at Elis, but Rumia redirected them by instinct.
Seiga looked impressed for a moment, before she chuckled.
"I guess I should have expected that attempting to use Dark Energy with you around would be pointless. I might have had a chance in Gensokyo, but in Makai, I must admit, there is no way I could win a fair fight against you, Rumia."
"I'm glad you realise that and acknowledge how much stronger I am in Makai. I was born from this chaotic world, and this chaotic energy is a lot better for me than Gensokyo's natural energy." Rumia said. "I mean, you're stronger too in Makai simply due to the amount of magic in the air, but this is my home turf."
Elis regained her control over Seiga, and this time, Ruima bound her with Dark Energy as a secondary form of sealing. Seiga attempted to surge herself again to shock Elis, but nothing happened.
The hermit sighed.
"You are more dangerous than I expected. I didn't want to have to resort to this so soon, but my time is running out. Alice will not be under the curse for much longer. Yoshika... I order you to consume." Seiga said.
Upon hearing that, Marisa shot towards where Yumeko and Yoshika were fighting. Yumeko was clearing winning, but Yoshika's strong, undead body was making Yumeko's attacks pointless. Marisa yelled to Yumeko to be careful, as she sliced Yoshika's head off, but even this did not stop the undead Jiang-Shi, who's head flew towards Yumeko's shoulder, mouth open to reveal... nothingness. Just darkness.
Yoshika's mouth touched Yumeko's shoulder, and passed right through. Everything Yoshika's mouth touched was erased, consumed by her. Yumeko's arm fell to the ground, and she looked stunned.
"She ate my shoulder like light pierces through darkness..." Yumeko said, as Yoshika's body flew over and caught her head, which re-attached.
A tear rolled down the Jiang-Shi's face.
"Yoshika doesn't like doing this." She said sadly, before Marisa got in range and fired a barrage of magic missiles at Yoshika.
Seiga laughed.
"Yoshika cannot lose when I order her to activate her powers of consumption, so close to me. Her injuries are healed almost instantly from whatever she consumes, and my own power. But Yoshika isn't who you have to worry about."
There was a swift movement, and Rumia and Elis suddenly gained three massive cuts across their bodies. Elis turned into bats and re-formed, while Rumia quickly regenerated from the darkness inherent to Makai.
A figure appeared in front of Seiga, wearing the same sort of tag Yoshika did. She was hulking, with an Amazonian-like figure that put even Yuugi to shame. Her hair was yellow, with black spots and stripes, almost like Shou's, but more wild. She wore what amounted to a tiger-skin loincloth, not mch more than was needed to keep her modest. Her hands were like cat paws, but the nails were massive, like knives. And, what made it clear what she was, were the two massive fangs which came from her upper jaw, like sabers.
"I knew I would need some brute force, but resurrecting this beast was more than I would normally be able to do." Seiga said. "But in Makai... the extra power I can draw on allowed me to succeed. This is the first youkai, the one who challenged even the Yamas, and almost wiped out humanity. It's amazing how powerful she is... I can hardly control her even in Makai. She lived in a time before names, but she told me one thing... she was her pack's Alpha female... so I named her Matriarch."
The ancient youkai growled, before she spoke. Her grasp of language was obviously poor, her words slow, as she turned to Marisa.
"Humanity... is still... alive?" she said. "I shall... drive humanity to... extinction..."
"Defeat the ones before me first!" Seiga ordered.
The Matriarch turned to face Rumia and Elis again, her piercing yellow eyes making Rumia feel fear by sheer instinct.
"You are human... but not human... did humanity... evolve?" the youkai said to Elis. "Or is it like the Neanderthal... and the Homo Sapian? A different breed."
Elis just smiled sweetly. "See for yourself." She said, before she dashed towards the youkai, keeping her wand pointed at Seiga. "No youkai can outdo a Vampire in physical combat!"
"Elis don't!" Rumia shouted, before the youkai effortlessly ripped Elis into two with a single swipe, causing her to change into a flock of bats and retreat, but also freeing Seiga as her wand moved, although the hermit was still restricted by Rumia.
"She's the first youkai. All youkai who came afterwards are a result of her power. She is greater in every way in physical combat than a vampire. I wouldn't be surprised if she had the powers of every youkai there ever was."
Seiga spoke again.
"Sadly, no. It turns out she is the exact opposite."
Elis re-formed, and then coughed up blood, before looking, and seeing she still had a massive wound.
"What... is this?" she said.
"It turns out, by containing the raw potential of every youkai to ever exist within her, she has the most curious power. She can negate the powers of all other youkai, since she is their ultimate source. Which is why that vampire is still injured from her blow. Her power cannot oppose it's origin."
Rumia looked at the youkai Smilodon.
"But by that admission, something that is not a youkai can still fight her." Rumia said, forming her wings for the first time in two years, the first time she had taken a fight seriously since Enkura. Her wings took a different form from then, the darkness in her mind no longer an issue, and Shinki's power flowing more freely. There were four, smaller wings, rather than two, large ones, and instead of being pitch black, crackling with unstable dark blue bolts, instead, they were black and more stable, with pulses of blue energy illuminating them, like they were a network of magical veins.
"And the thing is, I'm technically not a youkai. I'm a deamon." Rumia said. "So let's see if I can oppose the strongest youkai in history on my home turf."