Abe no Seimei once again formed a hand seal, and several spell talismans materialized in the air.

Any other onmyouji witnessing this would likely start questioning whether all the incantations and rituals they'd painstakingly learned were fake.

Such was the power of the great onmyouji Abe no Seimei—this level of spellcasting came as effortlessly to him as breathing.

From the talismans, all kinds of shikigami burst forth, lunging at Charles, while Seimei himself began preparing a new spell.

Charles thought back and realized that out of all the opponents he'd faced, not one had fought like a "proper mage" or "summoner." Despite all using magic, most were brutal brawlers in close quarters. Only Abe no Seimei had refused to join the fray with fists, which gave Charles a strange feeling of novelty.

Two canid shikigami—somewhere between fox and dog—leapt at him, biting down on both his wrists. Then a stag-like shikigami charged with antlers shaped like a seven-branch sword.

But when the stag struck Charles, it gave a mournful cry—its massive antlers snapped clean apart.

Charles brought his arms together, smashing the two canids against each other into powder. He then lunged at the stag shikigami and snapped its neck with a flick of his hand.

But just then, a massive white serpent coiled around him, locking him in place.

At the same time, Abe no Seimei completed his chant.

"Summon the Lightning of Yang! By the force of law—manifest!"

A bolt of lightning as thick as a water tank crashed down from the sky, engulfing both Charles and the white serpent.

Charles exhaled a puff of black smoke. That spell certainly packed a punch—credit where it was due, Seimei's lightning had even pierced the defenses of the Dragon King Body. Still, the actual damage was limited.

Flexing his body, Charles shattered the now-charred serpent.

The remaining shikigami continued their assault, but Charles had no intention of being delayed.

"Fire Dragon's Wing Strike!"

Flames extended from his arms, forming sweeping wings that lashed outward with his swing.

As the fire swept past, every shikigami caught in it ignited and burned to ash. With them gone, Charles charged directly at Seimei.

But Seimei was prepared. With a sweep of his hand, he summoned a mass of roots from the ground, each tipped with a spear-like point aimed at Charles.

The frontmost roots pierced through Charles—only to find they had stabbed a mere afterimage.

Seimei wasn't fooled by visual tricks and continued directing the roots into the area where Charles would logically appear—and sure enough, Charles emerged.

He caught two roots in his hands and snapped them, but more surged forward.

Charles ignited flames in his palms, fusing them into a small fireball.

"Fire Dragon's Blazing Flame!"

The fireball launched skyward, rapidly expanding as it flew. The advancing roots instantly carbonized in the heat and were obliterated when the fireball smashed through them.

The ball crashed into a wall of entwined roots and exploded into a sea of flames.

When the fire and roots vanished, the two adversaries once again stood facing each other.

Abe no Seimei frowned. He wasn't at full strength right now.

His original plan had been to awaken the true power of the Star-Breaking King within Rokuro Enmadou, then combine that with Benio Adashino's yang essence to perfect his resurrection.

But now, although he had devoured Ishikagami Yukito and absorbed the powers of the Twelve Heavenly Generals and the Basara within him, it still fell far short of the "perfect revival" he had envisioned.

And it was all because of the man standing before him. The thought alone kept his mind from staying calm.

White steam rose from Charles's body—a sign that his Dragon King Body had been pushed to its full capacity. At the same time, Seimei began drawing more talismans.

Five spell talismans formed a pentagram in front of him, with the power of the five elements circulating within.

Charles's eyes lit up with interest. This spell hadn't been mentioned in any of the Onmyou Bureau's records.

In truth, some spells had been lost through the generations due to changing environments or shifting enemies. Back in Seimei's time, most threats were demons and phantoms. Later, when the filth emerged, the nature of onmyouji combat—and thus their spells—had changed.

But Abe no Seimei was no ordinary practitioner. The breadth of his knowledge and spells went far beyond what had been recorded.

This was one such spell. Even Charles could sense its danger.

Seimei began chanting.

A fiery beam shot out from the pentagram. Charles instinctively moved to absorb it—but the flame suddenly transformed into ice.

He barely dodged the ice spike, but it then morphed into a vine that entangled him.

Next, the vine became a flurry of blades, which began slicing across his body, sending up sparks even from his toughened skin.

Charles grimaced. These weren't ordinary blades—they were wearing down his defenses. Had it not been for his dragon-based defense, a flame-based barrier would've likely been shredded.

"So it's the cycle of the five elements—generation and restraint, huh? Now this is getting interesting."

With that, Charles tore the blades off his body by brute force.

Seimei scoffed at such brute behavior and shifted his hand seal. The five elements converged at the center of the pentagram.

A pillar of multicolored light fired from it—an attack that Charles instantly recognized as capable of disintegrating anything it touched.

He didn't flinch.

Instead, he hunched down and faced Seimei head-on, a dazzling red magic circle unfurling before him.

"Fire Dragon's Roar!"

A column of flame erupted to meet the five-colored beam.

Charles's instincts had been correct. Seimei's attack could indeed disintegrate matter.

At first, it overwhelmed the flame. But Charles poured in more mana, forcing the two beams into a stalemate.

Seimei maintained a calm exterior, but inside he was stunned by the sheer depth of Charles's magical reserves. He began pushing more spell power into his attack.

Just as Seimei's beam began gaining ground again—

His body suddenly froze.

The pentagram and the spell talismans all shattered.

Charles, seemingly expecting this, didn't press the attack. Instead, he stopped and waited.

"My body… it won't move. What is this?" Seimei's voice betrayed a rare hint of panic.

"Yeah… What is this, I wonder?"

That voice wasn't Charles's. A new man strolled out from behind Abe no Seimei, his tone flippant and cheerful.

"Well now, ancestor dear… We meet again, don't we?"

"Tsuchimikado… Arima!"

That's right—the man who appeared was none other than Tsuchimikado Arima.

Though he truly had fallen into a deadly trap set by the Dark Ones, that too had been part of his plan. He used that moment to trigger a ritual.

Through it, Arima's soul had traveled through time and seen all of Seimei's plans laid bare.

When he returned to the present, he found the Twelve Heavenly Generals had already been ambushed by Yukito—but his keen insight told him that a far greater crisis loomed.

At that point, Arima had almost no spell power left.

But that wasn't important.

What mattered was the knowledge he now possessed—and the wisdom to use it.

Abe no Seimei's scheme had already been completely exposed. So Charles and Arima had decided to force Seimei's revival using Yukito's power.

That way, he would neither achieve his perfect rebirth, nor avoid using the Pillar of Heaven's power if drawn into battle.

And in that moment—that was when Arima would inject the disrupting curse into Seimei's body.

Everything had gone perfectly.

Abe no Seimei had walked right into the trap.

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Solomon in Marvel (Chapter 924)

Becoming the Wealthiest Tycoon on the Planet (Chapter 1284)

Surgical Fruit in the American Comics Universe (Chapter 1289)

American Detective: From TV Rookie to Seasoned Cop (Chapter 1316)

American TV Writer (Chapter 1402)

I Am Hades, The Supreme GOD of the Underworld! (Chapter 570)

Reborn as Humanity's Emperor Across the Multiverse (Chapter 660)

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