Beneath the Sacred Tree, the shrine priests' hearts clenched at the sight. They were enemies, and the weaker an enemy was, the better.
But right then, they could only hope the monks and Mages were strong enough. They hoped the Mahavairocana they had summoned could kill the Evil God in a single blow.
"Aaah!"
A terrifyingly shrill sound suddenly rang out from the dust.
The shrine priests shuddered in unison. Madness surfaced in their brown eyes, and a strange song began playing in their minds.
Reiko raised her hand, and a longbow formed in her palm.
She lifted it, hooked the string with her fingers, drew it to its limit, and loosed an arrow trailing a long tail of Spiritual Power. It struck the grass before her.
"Purification!"
Holy Spiritual Power burst into dazzling light.
Wisps of black smoke rose from the shrine priests. The strange song in their minds vanished, and the madness faded from their eyes.
"Come under the Sacred Tree."
Reiko's expression was grave.
The Iga chief priest and the others nodded at once and sprinted toward the Sacred Tree.
At the sound, the eyes of the hundreds of seated monks bulged, and blood streamed from their eye corners.
Yet they did not move. They continued chanting sutras under their breath.
Light flashed across Mahavairocana's body, and arms began extending from behind him.
In the blink of an eye, countless densely packed arms had formed an incomplete disk behind him.
"Thousand-Armed Guanyin?"
"No, it's the Thousand-Armed Giant Buddha."
"What's it going to do?"
The Iga chief priest and the others cried out in alarm.
Standing beneath the Sacred Tree, Reiko seemed to realize something. She drew her bow and fired a Demon-Breaking Arrow. The arrow of condensed Spiritual Power landed in a distant patch of grass.
As