Aberration

Chapter 26: Hallowed be thy Name

Raiyu lay quietly on the grass, asleep forevermore. Arash silently prayed, his hands together in front of his eyes. "You're still going to say a prayer for him knowing where he is?" His voice was weak and the flames still hadn't finished their work, but Yukimura could still speak. He strained to sit up even with Kimi assisting him, but from what the blue fire had done thus far, his face was the exact same as it was before he'd lost consciousness. Arash wasn't being hyperbolic when it came to Kimi's medical skill that worked miracles even plastic surgery couldn't recover. "He was still the head monk of my family's temples. I'm gonna bury him over there. Ami, could you give me a hand?" Ami had backed away in repulse, covering her nose from a pungent smell. "He smells the same as that stuff in the forest."
-"What stuff? Are you talking about those vials you found?"
-"I'm gonna be sick. Please just get him away from me." A large flock of the birds hiding in the pine trees took flight all at once. There was no sound, but their animalistic instincts could feel the bloodlust oozing throughout the forest. "Oh shit. Change of plans, we're ditching him. Kimi, Ami, keep up with me and I'll carry Yuki!"
-"Right."
-"Yes, Lord." Arash picked his friend up by his legs and carried him on his back now that his face was just the way Arash had remembered it. He was still sapped of stamina and needed some time to recover from such a drastic surgery. "Wait, Arash..." Yukimura could only roughly whisper in his ear. "I don't think it's wise to group everyone around Lady Kagami. That woman who cut Kagutsuchi down seemed to be incredibly strong. Even if we were weakened when she attacked us, she said that she was prepared to fight us at full strength. I have a gut feeling that she wasn't lying."
-"So we'll deal with her as a group. The more people are around, the harder it will be to pick us off, Yuki."
-"Didn't the monk say that she had a familiar? I... don't want to read too much into it, but he said his soul was eaten. I just don't think it's a good move to cluster together."
-"A soul-eating Aberration is one thing, but one that curses you with a heart attack under a certain condition and holds your soul under custody..."
-"Yeah. I think so too."
-"It isn't everyday you get to fight a Majin... but two in a year is too fortunate for me." The horde of red-eyed things had approached from every corner of the forest, their beady eyes lusting for the bloody meat that lay before them like a steak dinner. They drooled for the taste of meat more succenlent than any beef or pork, and had no hesitation in ravenously clawing their way through anything that tried to take a piece before them. "They're already here." Kimi whimpered, the only one among them who wasn't a fighter. "We can still run into the barrier. They can't get through."
-"Yeah... about that. Shiho already put the barrier down for the ritual. She always does it at 7:00 every full moon since that's when you wake up to help her."
-"It completely slipped my mind. That's right."
-"I'm not too worried about the beasties though." Arash removed himself from Raiyu's corpse, "It's actually smartest to let him get eaten. Once the scent is gone, the temple will be safe while the barrier is down."

This ritual was a mandatory maintenance on the barrier around the Kagami clan's estate. Once a month when the moon had filled, the priestess, the head priest, and their shrine maiden would enact a series of ritualistic dances to evoke all four nature spirits. In a religious manner of speaking, these dances were conducted in order to communicate with both the god Izanagi and the spirits of the world, becoming conduits who were blessed with unspeakable power for a short amount of time. In this case, that power would be directed into the barrier's walls to strengthen it. But on a technical, secular level these dances were similar to creating Mudras, but instead of using hand signs, the entire body was a sign. By the specific movements and symbols of the dance, it would change and manipulate the Ki in one's body, which somehow caused spirits to be attracted to this energy.

And almost like throwing tips at a musician, they would bestow them with their spiritual energy for a time. Not everyone was skilled enough to perform the ritualistic dances as it required an intense amount of focus, true meditation, and a soul strong enough to properly contain that much spiritual energy and natural energy. As the soul was almost like a water balloon, it could be filled until it was full but it could still tolerate stretching. But just like a water balloon, that stretching point had a limit until, well, it exploded. This is why only Sensors and Naturalists are the most apt for the task.