The black magatama's actions gave Rita a slight surprise, but only a slight one.
"Can you run away? Master of Frost!"
Extreme Cold Storm!
Without a second thought, the Silver Moon appeared behind Rita like a guardian spirit. Then... centered on Rita... the Frost Domain instantly formed, plunging the entire basement into a world of ice!
Having turned into light and attempted to flee, the black magatama was likewise frozen in midair!
Within the entire Ice Domain, even space itself seemed to have frozen. At that moment... time here appeared to have stopped, and only Rita remained unaffected.
Of course... so did the girl nearby. Thanks to the defensive barrier Rita had cast on her in advance, she was fine, or at least she would not die. After all, if anything happened to her... Rita's mission would fail, and all her efforts would have been for nothing.
Strolling through the Ice Domain, the Silver Moon behind Rita extended its unreal hand and grasped the black magatama frozen in midair.
The black magatama was sealed within an ice crystal the size of an egg. Holding it in her hand, Rita tried to analyze what it was.
"It really does seem to be a Tsukumogami?"
After fiddling with it for a while, Rita found that it was similar to the Tsukumogami she had encountered before. Or rather, it was simply a strange Tsukumogami.
Tsukumogami were a kind of Japanese yokai from legend. They referred to objects left unattended for a hundred years that absorbed the essence of heaven and earth, accumulated resentment or sensed Buddhist nature and spiritual power, gained souls, and transformed into yokai.
Tsukumogami were also known as Ninety-Nine Gods. Though called gods, they were actually spirit creatures and ghosts. There were countless varieties of Tsukumogami, and some were even