Tokyo bombing incident Nth time

"Wow, you even have that skill?" Fire Pillar feigned surprise.

"What? You think this kind of consumption isn't worthwhile and you're ready to back down?" Yuri knew he was dreaming, but he couldn't help but retort after the pressure subsided.

"Then... you wouldn't have some misunderstanding, thinking that the two of you combined can defeat me, would you? Hmm?" As it spoke, the fiery whirlwind became even more violent.

Chapter Sixty-Eight: The Consequences of Chatting During Battle

This misunderstanding is of course unfounded. The wooden stake was merely preparing for a desperate gamble, even if it meant expending more energy on the enemies who had broken into their home and were now killing them. Yuri, on the other hand, was still stalling for time, waiting for Akemi to return and rescue them.

They should at least come back to save people; if they were trying to escape, they should have taken you with them.

Although it's unclear how the people were saved, if Yuri were to guess, it would probably involve pouring water onto the pillar of fire using a hose... but it's unclear whether that counts as rain.

This was the third time in a short period of time that Yuri had comforted himself with the same reason.

The layout of the room was similar to the previous cult hideout, and Yuri was currently in the living room. Apart from the large, immovable pieces of furniture, there were no small ornaments or household items on the surface.

This is how houses that have been uninhabited for a long time should be.

Yuri, the wooden stake, and the fire pillar—these three combatants are all in spirit form, so the furniture in the room doesn't pose much of an obstacle.

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be anything easy to use; if there were, the wooden stakes have probably already been used.

The next minute of attrition felt like an eternity to Yuri—the wooden stakes' reserves far exceeded his expectations, gradually replenishing him despite continuous depletion, while the opposing fire pillars far surpassed them.

Moreover, Yuri was still feeling nauseous, and the spiritual essence provided by the wooden stake was clearly not processed. But now was certainly not a good time to be picky.

In his desperation, Yuri even considered forcibly absorbing the spiritual essence from the pillar of fire, but it was no use; there was simply no way to absorb it. Furthermore, contact with the pillar of fire was extremely risky; the fire spirit that unleashed its fiery whirlwind wasn't completely immobile, just slower in its reactions. Perhaps it couldn't catch Yuri originally, and thus would have been even less able to catch him, but actively offering itself up was a different matter entirely.

Fortunately, the long-term training from using the repeater helped him to receive the spiritual essence actively sent out by the wooden stake relatively effectively.

Yuri resisted the urge to ask how much longer the wooden stake could hold out. It would be pointless, serving no purpose other than to reassure Yuri, and might even embolden the other side.

How much longer?

“I see—” the pillar of fire spoke again, “You need to concentrate on defense and can’t multitask, right?”

Yuri didn't speak, but the Fire Pillar was right. Yuri's ability usage was heavily dependent on mental concentration, at least for now. Perhaps in the future Yuri would be able to handle multiple tasks effortlessly, but to achieve maximum efficiency, he would likely still need to be fully focused on a single action. In the present context, this meant he needed to constantly monitor the protective barrier's condition and replenish it as needed.

"Let me tell you something—" As he spoke, the pillar of fire did not relax its control over the whirlwind of flames. Why could it be distracted?

"What do you want to say?" Yuri spat out his reply through gritted teeth. "Why are you allowed to speak in your own words?"

You can't expect the other party to reveal their weaknesses. They might not be very intelligent, but they're probably not that stupid either. — But even buying some time is good.

Yuri is currently acting like a dead pig that doesn't fear boiling water; he knows that losing would be a huge loss, but he can still escape.

In other words, losing means bankruptcy, but at worst, it's just bankruptcy—Yuri judged there was no reason not to place a few more bets.

The bet is that the impact of the opponent's distraction is greater than the impact of one's own distraction.

“My lifespan is not short at all… I came into this world hundreds, even thousands of seasons ago, when humans were still toiling away—how long have you lived? How can you compare your lifespan to mine?” The pillar of fire began to tell his story.

Yuri tried to maintain a state of listening attentively without becoming completely absorbed. What did it just say? Accumulation? Well, Yuri's accumulation was only two months from when he had memories, which was indeed incomparable.

"Have you been at odds with humanity for hundreds of years?" Yuri answered without much thought.

"My predecessor wasn't entirely hostile to humans—in the beginning, I was a protector of humans, but later, humans felt they no longer needed my protection, so they managed to banish me." Its voice carried a hint of nostalgia and barely suppressed resentment.

At the same time, the firepower was increased, but fortunately Yuri responded in time and the defenses were not breached.

“It sounds like humanity owes you something,” Yuri continued.

"Of course humans owe me! How many lives have I saved for them, how many enemies have I fought off for them? Didn't they swear to give me everything I demanded? A few fires, how many lives could they take, and they couldn't bear it, breaking their oath!" The pillar of fire grew increasingly agitated. "Humans are always so greedy!"

As the voice spoke, the intensity of the fiery whirlwind changed, and Yuri, unable to keep up with the fluctuations, had no choice but to maintain it at its highest level. On the bright side, this at least showed that the opponent was also distracted.

“You caused casualties, of course they’re unhappy—didn’t you even negotiate?” Yuri urged the other person to continue, preferably immersing himself in his own story.

"They tried to extinguish my flame with tears, tried to bind me with emotions, tried to show their weakness to break their vows—is there any logic in this world? If you can't pay the price, why make a promise in the first place?" The pillar of fire was truly furious.

"Weak? Didn't they banish you?" You've already been driven away, so how can you say your opponents are weak? Isn't that just making fun of yourself?

The fiery whirlwind was slowing down, easing Yuri's pressure. Perhaps letting his opponent vent his anger on the past would effectively influence them? Yuri carefully concealed this, trying to avoid being noticed... or at least trying to avoid being noticed.

Through the thinning rings of fire, Yuri could see the interior of the house. Even though Yuri had fought several rounds with the other side, or to put it bluntly, been beaten up for quite some time, there was still no sign of fire inside the house.

The opponent is a complete spirit and does not possess the ability like Yuri to freely switch between physical and spiritual forms, nor does its attack.

If that weren't the case, the house would have burned down long ago. But then, what exactly was set on fire?

The pillar of fire failed to notice Yuri's distraction and missed an opportunity; its response brought Yuri back to the battle at hand.

“They are only weak when they crave your sympathy, and incredibly strong when they plunder for their own benefit. If that’s the case, so be it; at most, we can just say that those who are not of our kind are bound to have different intentions…” The pillar of fire slowed its speech, and at the same time, it slowed its flames.

It was a trap, but Yuri had no choice but to step into it.

"What else?" On the other hand, Yuri was also eager to know more about the details.

"Some spirits have betrayed our cause, willingly turning to humans to become their dogs!" The pillar of fire's voice was filled with rage. "They think they coexist with humans, they think they belong to human society, they think they are part of humanity... What a joke! Humans only think about exploiting them!"

Yuri himself was not distracted, and the flames in front of him did not break through his defenses, but just when he thought he had survived another hurdle, the spiritual essence transmission on his shoulder suddenly fluctuated, and the transmitted energy began to become unstable.

"I was not exploited!" the wooden stake retorted angrily, completely unaware of its own change.

"You're hiding in this abandoned house, forgotten by everyone! Once you're remembered, humanity will try to squeeze every last bit of value out of you! I have evidence!"

Yuri sensed that the fluctuations were increasing further, and the stake's emotions were becoming very unstable.

Not only can he distract Yuri, but he can also throw the training dummies off balance? It really shows that with superior strength, you can do whatever you want.

"What evidence?" Yuri quickly took over the conversation, knowing he couldn't let the wooden stake talk to the other side alone anymore. If it got angry and charged out, things would be terrible.

"Those traitors who followed humanity in attacking me, didn't they deserve great credit for humanity? Shouldn't humanity have elevated them to godhood? Didn't humanity beg them for help? Now that I've returned after hundreds of years, where have they gone?"

Yes, where did they go... to the countryside? Akemi seemed to have mentioned that there were other spirits in the countryside. But more important to Yuri than that was the fact that the flames were getting weaker, which meant that the other party was very agitated.

Use echoing phrases to encourage the other person to continue speaking.

"They didn't go anywhere—they were abandoned by humanity, just as humanity abandoned me! Now, all I see are two kinds: the strong who dominate humanity, and the cowardly trembling trash hiding in the shadows. The relationship between humans and spirits is only one of domination and being dominated, a problem that even those with wolf blood can't solve!"

Werewolves? Yuri didn't know what the other person was talking about, but his first reaction was, werewolves?

“I will take my revenge. First, these worthless cowards who are clinging to life deserve to die, and then, those cowards who depend on humanity—though they should have been abandoned by humanity long ago.”

As the conversation veered towards practical matters, the fire was intensifying again. Yuri immediately spoke up, determined to stall for time regardless, "How do you know they aren't enjoying a safe, undisturbed life of being revered by thousands, but have been abandoned by humanity?"

Yuri knew nothing about werewolves, but he could still make up some conclusions about the previous topic.

"If they were still around, humans would have already asked them for help. I've been around for so long, how could humans be completely unaware of my situation?"

...Hmm...The first sentence makes a lot of sense...But have you considered the possibility that you really know nothing? After all, this is a modern society full of all kinds of information, not an ancient society where even a little bit of news could spread far and wide.

"Then why don't you blow up that place? The confluence of spiritual veins, a place with a huge flow of people? It's occupied by spirits that have a close relationship with humans, and it's very important to humans. Wouldn't attacking it directly be more advantageous for you?" He changed the subject.

"Those who occupy that place are the powerful ones who rule over humanity, completely different from you who serve as dogs for humanity." The other party was quite smug, and even further reduced the intensity of the flames.

It felt a bit strange, but Yuri didn't have time to think about it further; he had to continue the conversation immediately.

“There must be another reason—where is your anchor point?” Yuri pointed out a question that had puzzled him for a long time.

It is well known that spirits always need an anchor point to exist stably in the material world... Yuri may be an exception, but this one in front of us doesn't seem to fit the bill at all.

"Anchors... I'm not so strong that I don't need anchors, but just how narrow is your understanding of anchors?"

"Anchor points are hooks that maintain a spirit's presence in the material world. A spirit uses things related to itself as anchor points to anchor itself in the material world, preventing it from being driven back to its original place—is it spontaneous combustion?! Those spontaneous combustion phenomena are its—"

As they conversed, Yuri's mind was racing with thoughts. Then, a thought popped into the middle of his mind: Oh no.

"—Got you!"

The pillar of fire suddenly increased its output, instantly breaking through Yuri's defenses, which had been weakened multiple times and hadn't been replenished in time, as Yuri was distracted. Although Yuri quickly restored the protective barrier, the momentary breach had already caused considerable damage to both Yuri and the wooden stake.

Yuri estimated the damage caused by that instant, and that the time he could hold on for at least a minute was reduced—and after glancing at the condition of the wooden stake, it was probably reduced by about three minutes now.

In an instant, all the gains from the previous delays were returned, and there's probably even more to be made up for.

Yuri suffered a major defeat.

Yuri tried to convince himself to think positively. At least from the beginning, Yuri had been using the protective barrier to catch the bullets without personally testing what would happen if he were hit. If he had tried it himself, something bad would probably have happened long ago.

What's that called again? The strong can make mistakes repeatedly, but the weak can't even withstand one.

"Concentrate, focus!" the wooden stake cried out in pain. It was the one that was most seriously injured when Yuri made his mistake, since Yuri's source of trouble was not any form of fire.

"Understood!" Although the wooden stake had been distracted by anger before, now was definitely not the time to shirk responsibility.

"You two look quite interesting..." The Fire Spirit, having landed a successful blow, was in no hurry to expand its advantage. "Some sufficiently bored individuals might consider slowly using you for their amusement, but I don't think toying with enemies is a very interesting thing to do... I'll send you on your way as soon as possible."

No, you're already wasting your time making fun of us, Yuri thought. Of course, he wasn't stupid enough to point that out. This setback had severely damaged Yuri's delaying tactics, and if he showed it, making the other side feel it was very effective and increasing the pressure, the delaying tactics would completely fail.

It seems like it's something that has to be done, but it doesn't really have much of an impact.

"However, you guessed right, so I'll be merciful and tell you—the flames I've lit along the way can all serve as my temporary anchors—they go out quickly, and I haven't bothered to maintain them. They just need to last until I find the next fool to be a human's dog. Knowing this should be enough to make you satisfied when you set off, right?"

Chapter Sixty-Nine: Miracles Come from Great Strength

"What do you mean by dominating humans, and what do you mean by being a dog to humans? How exactly do you distinguish between these two things? You're not just convincing yourself that you're dominating humans because you can't beat them, so you can use it as an excuse to avoid getting humiliated, are you?" He immediately steered the conversation back to the previous topic, whether he could keep up or not was no longer his concern!

"The difference is as simple as it gets—taking from humans is dominating them, while being plundered by humans for various reasons without fighting back is being their dog."

Is there no room for cooperation?

"Cooperation? That's an intermediate state where the dominant position hasn't been determined yet. How can it last?"

After a few more words, Yuri noticed something moving behind him out of the corner of his eye.

There was no way to shift my attention to look closely; in short, it seemed like Akemi was dragging something along.

Whatever she brought, Yuri sincerely hoped it would work—it absolutely had to work.

Only a few minutes had passed since Akemi temporarily retreated to prepare something, but Yuri felt as if several days had gone by. Less than half a minute after rediscovering her, Akemi's familiar figure appeared outside the window, holding something strange in her hand... no, not strange at all, it was the same soft water pipe from before.

What she wants to do is quite obvious, the question is... will it work?

Yuri didn't have to wait long before the torrent gushed from the pipe, passed through the wooden stakes and Yuri, and rushed toward the pillar of fire.

Yuri stared intently at the scene before him, but the result was extremely disappointing.

The pillar of fire flinched, but then the water flowed through its body without having any effect.

It fears water, but not this kind of water—it might not even know whether it works or not.

What exactly is the difference between water and torrential rain? Is there any way to switch between them? Yuri urged his thinking organs, whether or not his brain, to quickly come up with a solution to the problem.

"You lot—" Fire Pillar seemed ashamed and indignant at his own cowardice, raising his voice to an angry rebuke.

Without waiting for it to finish speaking, or for Yuri to think, Akemi turned the water pipe around so that it was pointing towards the roof. The water jet hit the ceiling and splashed... splashed down, and then fell naturally under the influence of gravity.

Yuri could generally understand why Akemi did this; by directing the water towards the ceiling while pouring it outside the house, he was providing as much height as possible.

If it gets any higher, we'll have to drill a hole in the roof.

Whether this counts as "rain" or not, Yuri wasn't sure. Judging from Akemi's expression, she wasn't quite sure either, and probably just wanted to try it out first, no matter what.

Huozhu struggled to control his trembling and did not flinch again.

It won the gamble—to Yuri's disappointment, even the water falling from the roof didn't count as rain.

Damn it, isn't it said that it rains heavily outside and lightly inside? Doesn't rain falling inside count as rain? Does it have to fall from the clouds to count?

"I've said it before, how can human creations possibly withstand the might of nature?"

The triumphant voice of the fire spirit was almost the last straw that broke Yuri's sanity.

With his hopes dashed time and again, Yuri became enraged and nearly went mad. If it weren't for the last shred of reason holding him back, he would have almost rushed forward and smashed his head against the pillar of fire.

This is unfair! Why is it that only natural torrential rain can combat fires? Can't human firefighters do the same?! Who decided that this spirit fears one type of fire but not another?

Time seemed to slow down as Yuri stared intently at the pillar of fire before him, trying to glean some good result without even knowing what he was looking for.

The spirit of fire, of course, is closely related to fire—that's obvious. Its weakness might be related to fire itself, or to its own experiences—that's also obvious. The weakness of this one is torrential rain, a natural phenomenon that can extinguish flames—all of that is obvious.

Information flooded into Yuri's mind, and Yuri tried his best to discard all the nonsense.

Weaker fire spirits, if they possess similar weaknesses, will have more susceptibility; often, water, or even just a little rain, will suffice. However, as their power increases, higher-level spirits can better control their weaknesses and minimize them. This process, for most spirits, is completed unconsciously and subconsciously.

The spirit of the fire before us, in some way, consciously or unconsciously, compresses its fears from water to rain, ultimately shrinking them to the smaller scope of torrential rain.

In a sense, it is its own choice that has led to its own downfall, a weakness that it cannot completely conceal even after shrinking.

And now, this is a problem, a problem that stands in Yuri's way.

This problem must be corrected. It can continue to fear the power of nature, but it should also fear the methods of firefighting used by humans.

The spiritual essence was rapidly draining from his body, but Yuri, enraged to the point of madness, did not attempt to control it. Instead, he accelerated the infusion of this energy.

The spiritual force surged towards the fire spirit, which instinctively resisted with tremendous force. Yuri felt like a kitten caught in a shark's clutches, unable to gain a foothold. But he refused to let go. Whatever it was, his intuition told him that success would solve the immediate problem. Intuitively, the opponent's resistance was strong but unorganized, meaning it was purely instinctive… If he missed this opportunity, and the opponent were even slightly wary, Yuri's skills would be utterly incapable of success.