Before the God-Slaying / Troublesome Resistance ...

"Yes. I'm planning to deal with that monster today."

"Even if it costs you your life?"

"Even if it costs me my life. But I have a reason I must do this. I've delayed for too long."

The man said this as he removed his top hat, his expression still one of dejection.

"The person who should have died was me."

"So you want to die this meaningless death, Rom?"

An aged voice came from behind the three of them. Takeda Mie, her face hidden beneath a hood, raised her head and looked at Rom with a complicated expression.

"You really know how to cause trouble for people."

"Even though you say that, you still hurried over in the end, didn't you?"

Rom shrugged, put on his hat, and glanced at her clothes.

"What a nostalgic outfit."

Takeda Mie said nothing more. She merely looked at the two people nearby.

"You intend to drag both of them into this?"

"No, no, I don't. Miss Yotsuya simply wants to get involved herself."

Rom waved his hands, pushing the responsibility of dissuading Miko onto Takeda Mie. The latter unceremoniously began lecturing the two of them.

"This isn't something you can get involved in. Leave at once."

Miko said nothing. She simply took her iron box from her shoulder bag and opened it.

The expressions of the two people changed almost immediately, especially when she took out a Talisman Iron Pellet and threw it at a Ghost in the distance. The Ghost visibly dispersed at once.

"Now, is it all right?"

Before Killing the God

If you asked how many Talisman Iron Pellets Miko had refined in total, the answer would probably be several hundred, or even over a thousand.

The sight of so many tiny steel pellets piled together was spectacular, especially since those little steel balls had another name.

"S-S-S-Silver... Pellets?!"

The first person to be stunned by the astonishing number of Talisman Iron Pellets was Yuria. The girl naturally wouldn't pass up anything involving urban legends, and she was particularly interested in the legend of the Guardian of Silver Pellets. Thus, when she saw that box of "Silver Pellets," she was as shocked as someone who had pulled ten SSRs in a single ten-pull. She almost wanted to take a screenshot and post it to her social media immediately, just to share in everyone's astonishment.

Soon, she turned her gaze toward Yotsuya Miko, who was holding the box, as if confirming her guess. Miko slowly nodded.

"I refined them all myself."

"Those Silver Pellets from the rumors?"

"I was the one who distributed them. But their effects aren't as exaggerated as advertised. They can only kill ghosts."

Miko clarified the exaggerated rumors as she closed the iron box and put it back into her shoulder bag, lest passersby see it.

"The charm I gave you is much more useful than these iron pellets."

Still unable to recover from her shock, Yuria nodded blankly. She then looked at the Amanita Muscaria Charm she had always worn and clutched it tightly. Honestly, even if Miko told her that she was actually a reincarnated deity, she wouldn't be surprised at all. This girl's actions were simply too outrageous.

"Silver Pellets?"

Rom and Takeda Mie no longer knew what to say. They looked at each other before turning their gazes toward Miko in unison. Rom had never expected Miko to be this powerful. Takeda Mie was just as surprised, and she finally recognized the Yotsuya Miko before her. Her earlier thoughts now felt awkward. So that was why the Ghost had suddenly disappeared—it had been eliminated by this girl.

But why had she specifically gone to her fortune-telling shop?

The question lingered in their minds only briefly before both of them felt reassured. It was like having a legendary investigator with heavy weapons in a Cthulhu tabletop game, or like a character in a horror game suddenly obtaining a gun. In short, the heavy atmosphere instantly became awkward.

"So... Miss Yotsuya plans to eliminate that monster?"

Rom touched the stone in his pocket and suddenly realized something. It seemed he had misunderstood the strength of this psychic named Yotsuya Miko from the very beginning. He had subconsciously assumed that she was roughly as strong as himself, perhaps only slightly better, and had smugly tried to persuade her to give up.

Takeda Mie's thoughts were much simpler. After recovering from her surprise, she solemnly made a request to Yotsuya Miko.

"Though it may be inappropriate to say this now... I'd like to ask you to purge that monster. Please."

As she spoke, she bowed slightly to Miko.

Regarding what had happened on the mountain, she felt the same as Rom—burdened, yet powerless. That was precisely why she had agreed to come and help Rom, even though the final outcome for both of them would likely be far from pleasant.

"Mm."

Miko nodded and looked at the old woman before her.

"Before that, I'd like to know exactly what happened on this mountain. Is that all right?"

That was what she needed to understand now, so she could learn more about the monster. Unlike the two of them, she wasn't confident in her own strength. She understood one thing very clearly: the psychics of this world weren't very powerful.

Even the two people standing before her merely possessed a few more methods than Yuria. They would have a hard time dealing with powerful Ghosts, let alone the existence deep in the mountain that resembled a "Mountain God."

"Is that so?"

Takeda Mie nodded. She glanced at the fortune-telling shop and walked over.

"Then I'll tell you."

As she spoke, she looked back at Rom.

"About that tragedy that has already happened."

Rom merely smiled bitterly before closing his eyes in pain, acknowledging her words.

"Yes. The tragedy was caused by my mistake."

Mountain God might be an appropriate name for it. It truly resided inside a shrine and had its own attendants.

The shrine did not appear within the mountain forest. Only a very small number of people could see it and receive an audience with the Mountain God. Rom was one of them. He heard some voices and followed them into the shrine. Then the disaster occurred.

Because it was no benevolent god.

The cries for help Rom heard came from the main hall. After the voice led him into the shrine, the enormous "Mountain God" stared at him and bewitched him into taking the bell from an arm extending out of its mouth. It was a curse. The instant someone picked up the bell, they became enslaved by the Mountain God and turned into one of its attendants, cut off from the human world forever.

Rom naturally didn't take it, because someone else bore the tragic price of his trespass into the shrine. Takeda Mie hurriedly led him away, along with the substitute's clothing, and never returned to the shrine again.

"Who was that substitute?"

"My master, Okamotozuko."

Takeda Mie answered as she unconsciously tugged at her clothes. This oversized robe had become the only remaining memory in the human world of the psychic named Okamotozuko.

"She took the bell, and then disappeared. That monster wasn't something an ordinary psychic could resist. Quite a few psychics had already died because of it."

As she spoke, she stared deeply at Miko, placing all her hopes in this powerful psychic.

"No one can defeat it. But Miss Miko, you're the only truly powerful psychic I've ever seen. If you go deal with that monster, I believe you can defeat it. So please."

"I see... Then, are you two still going?"

Miko stared at the two of them. Rom still wore a dejected expression.

"Of course I am. How could I not go? We already agreed."

As he spoke, he glanced at Takeda Mie and smiled.

"Granny Saegusa, you're already this old. You shouldn't be running around because of this, should you?"

"...When you asked me to come, you didn't say that, Rom."

Takeda Mie looked toward Miko.

"Our strength is nothing compared to yours, but the two of us can still deal with some weaker ghosts."

"All right."

Miko said no more. She thought that after resolving this matter, she would reconcile with Hana. Even though she was still afraid of encountering powerful Ghosts and dreaded death, she would gradually adapt, just as Mr. Cave Bear had said—by changing her state of mind.

"What about me?"

"Go home, Yuria."

A Troublesome Resistance

"The monster can be called the Mountain God. It lures humans who can see into its shrine and turns them into its attendants. These attendants obey its orders and act on its behalf in the outside world. However, its true body can only remain within the shrine's domain. Therefore, I suspect that if the shrine's barrier is broken, the Mountain God's strength will be greatly weakened."

Rom said this as he looked at the desolate land before him.

"Miss Yotsuya, Granny Saegusa and I can break the monster's barrier from outside. The monster and its servants inside will be up to you."

He and Takeda Mie knew their own limits. That powerful monster was not something he or the elderly Takeda Mie could deal with. Even his earlier plan had merely been to use himself as bait, allowing Takeda Mie to take the opportunity to break the barrier, then use the monster's weakened state to retrieve the remains in the shrine's main hall. As for killing the monster, they had never even considered it.

But now, Rom could at least entertain the thought.

"Mm. Leave it to me."

Yotsuya Miko silently set down her shoulder bag and took out the iron box inside, removing the Talisman Iron Pellets one by one.

"I can indeed sense a different aura. It seems there's a barrier before us, though it isn't very strong. I can break it. But before that, use these... Silver Pellets. What we're about to face won't be just a few monsters."

As she spoke, her Spiritual Sense continuously examined the surroundings. A strange force in the desolate land before her obstructed the probing of her Spiritual Sense. Around them, Ghosts were gradually gathering, but the talisman ornaments on her body stopped them from approaching. However, Miko wasn't certain whether the shrine would isolate the power of the talismans. She extended her hand and passed dozens of Talisman Iron Pellets to the two of them, explaining how to use them.

"Just throw them at the ghosts. These Silver Pellets will destroy approaching ghosts like bombs."

She paused, then gripped several iron pellets engraved with other talismans in her right hand and threw them forward.

"Like this."

Yin Thunder Talisman.

Gray-black lightning suddenly erupted from the iron pellets and struck the empty space ahead, producing a sharp crack. The lightning seemed to strike something solid, splitting the transparent space before them with several black cracks. In the blink of an eye, the cracks could no longer withstand the explosive lightning and shattered, revealing the scene concealed within.

When the thunder faded, only moss-covered steps, a torii gate with blackened vermilion paint, and an old shrine remained before the three of them.

"Let's move."

Sensing the entirely different aura coming from ahead, Miko's expression gradually turned solemn. She spoke in a low voice and began walking up the steps.

The aura of Ghosts was mixed with the aura of something unknown, yet it was abnormally powerful—far stronger than the Kimono Ghost they had encountered earlier. Moreover, beside this incomparably powerful monster were two other auras that could not be ignored, though they were nowhere near as powerful as it was.

This is getting troublesome.

Thinking this, Miko used spiritual energy to draw the Talisman Iron Pellets from the iron box and gathered them one by one into her sleeve, fastening them around her wrist. She then smelted the iron box into a heavy iron block and put it into her pocket. Rom and Takeda Mie did not hesitate either. They moved around the shrine and began using their own methods.

After passing through the torii gate, the Mountain God's appearance finally came into view.

It was an enormous beast with a pair of long horns set into its head. The horns were engraved with talismans and hung with decorations. Its mouth was split into four sections, each covered in sharp teeth. Its narrow eyes had no visible pupils. It stood on four legs, its forelegs slightly smaller and wrapped in red cloth. Its enormous paws pressed against the ground, and the claws at their joints were equally massive. Its hind legs supported its crouching body, while its enormous tail gently swept across the ground.

Standing beside the giant beast were two Ghosts dressed in kimono—or rather, attendants whose auras were mixed with something else. They had small bodies and fox ears like foxes. When they saw her, their faces twisted ferociously and they hissed threateningly.

Naturally, Miko had no intention of being polite. She rolled several Talisman Iron Pellets between her fingers and flung them at the two creatures.

Yin Thunder Talisman.

Lightning appeared once more and struck the two fox-eared monsters with such speed that they had no time to dodge. They could also be called Divine Attendants. In an instant, the lightning blasted both Divine Attendants into pieces. Yet the Mountain God, struck by even more Yin Thunder Talismans, endured the lightning head-on. Beneath its golden energy hide, it suffered not the slightest injury.

"Did it have no effect? Or... is it immune to lightning?"

Yotsuya Miko pondered this. The operation of her Spiritual Sense revealed an even worse result. Her expression darkened as she successively cast several spells.

Keen Eyes, Light Body, Boundless Strength, Resilient Body.

Several black lights flashed. She sensed the Divine Attendant attacking her from behind before it struck and dodged sideways. Then she bent her body and avoided another invisible attack released from afar by the other Divine Attendant.

What about this, then?

She once again drew Talisman Iron Pellets from her sleeve with spiritual energy. Dozens of them scattered from her palm.

You should be Ghosts too. In that case, Soul Scattering Talismans should work.

The Talisman Iron Pellets landed on the ground, seemingly broken and completely ineffective. However, just as the two Divine Attendants prepared to attack Yotsuya Miko again, the pellets suddenly fired dozens of black rays. The Divine Attendants had no time to dodge before the rays struck their bodies and began corroding their forms.

These Soul Scattering Talisman pellets were the type of Talisman Iron Pellet Miko had made the most of. Their purpose was simple and brutal: to completely annihilate a Ghost's Soul Body. These Soul Scattering Talisman pellets were the true source of the Silver Pellet legend, later distorted into rumors about an all-purpose stone.

Now, with dozens of Soul Scattering Talismans striking the Divine Attendants, they finally let out agonized howls. Their golden shells continuously dispersed, temporarily robbing them of all ability to move.

Yes, temporarily. Through her Spiritual Sense, Miko could tell that the golden substance on their surfaces was still forcing back the corrosion of the Soul Scattering Talismans, preventing it from penetrating deeper. This astonishing regenerative ability gave Miko a rare feeling of dread. She silently turned her gaze toward the Mountain God before her. The monster had remained motionless while its Divine Attendants attacked her, but that inaction made Miko realize something.

It seemed to be far stronger than she was.

"If dozens of Soul Scattering Talismans only barely worked on them, then dealing with you... will be troublesome."

She took a deep breath, switched the Talisman Iron Pellets she was using, and prayed that the two people outside would break the shrine's barrier as soon as possible and weaken the monster.

Victory?