Epic Of Caterpillar

Chapter 2423: Haunted Mansion

"Ah, there she is! Harumi! How are you doing?"

Matsuo called for Harumi, as he and Frank noticed she was standing right in front of the abandoned house that had been reported to have an unusually large quantity of Negative Energy.

Negative Energy was a phenomenon happened frequently on Earth, the negative emotions of people in large cities such as Tokyo would fester and release a large mass of darkness.

This darkness in small quantities wouldn't be harmful, but once it gathers enough and merges with the ambient Mana, they can bring forth the materialization of people's darkest desires, fears, and even hatred, monsters.

Monsters appear all over Earth but are usually never seen by the normal person because of the Planet's contingency plan, the creation of Domains.

Within Domains, monsters are contained and are kept away from harming normal people that have no supernatural abilities.

However, were these Domains eventually overflow with them, the monsters might end up breaking out and attacking people.

The reason why there are so many tales of mythical monsters, legendary creatures, and evil gods across Earth's history and mythology was because of these rare events that occurred a lot more back in ancient times.

However, as time progressed and large organizations were formed all over the world, humanity started fending off the monsters that came from the Domains, being rapidly eliminated and without letting them to ever break out like before.

The Tokyo Shrine of the Rising Sun, which is among the first ever Shrines ever created in Japan that became an organization of sorcerers and monks that battled Yokai, the "monsters" of Japan, took upon the responsibility to slay them and keep the people of Tokyo safe.

From what Frank had once learned from Matsuo when he was being introduced to their shrine, their family had been working on protecting Tokyo for hundreds of years, perhaps since Tokyo was born.

However, there were also many other shrines across Japan that protects each of these sectors, although many of these groups had joined Tokyo as the amount of Domains within this enormous city, where most of Japan's population is located are much larger than in the rest of the country.

"Matsuo... Frank."

Harumi looked at the two guys with a very bored-looking expression, she seemed a bit angry they took so long to get here.

"Why did you take so long?" she wondered, crossing her arms. "I've been waiting for way over ten minutes..."

"Only ten minutes? Come on give us a break..." Frank sighed. "Anyways, we're all ready? I have prepared a stash of useful things in my Inventory."

"Yeah. yeah, we're ready," Matsuo nodded. "Right?"

"I don't need any special preparation," said Harumi. "I could do it on my own if you let me..."

"Wow, feeling asocial as ever, don't you Harumi?" Matsuo said. "Ignore her Frank."

"Hm..." Frank nodded.

The trio quickly walked towards the old, wooden house that was overflowing with dark energies. Its design resembled an old, run-down Japanese house that has been probably there for almost a century.

"This is probably one of the oldest houses of Tokyo..." said Matsuo. "Actually, we have to clean it up because they're demolishing it soon, and if that happens the Domain that the house is holding might break and the Yokai will get out."

"Oh so that's it," nodded Frank. "Aside from seeing her using Paralysis Eyes, what other abilities does Harumi have though? I think it would be better if we know each other's abilities so we can coordinate better."

"...I don't really need to tell you what my abilities are," Harumi said. "And coordination? That's hardly something we need as well... Just watch, you won't even need to lift a finger, Frank, Matsuo."

Harumi was full of herself, despite her usually silent and calm demeanor, she had a very prideful and cocky attitude hidden behind an angelic face.

The Dhampir girl opened the door forcefully, making Matsuo facepalm.

Crack, crack...!

CRASH!

As she broke the door open, everyone walked inside of the old house, there were no Yokai or anything, this was simply the "mortal plane" as they had yet to escape the Domain.

However, sometimes, little Yokai might sometimes escape, which is what has created so many tales in ancient Japan about Yokai that stole children, sandals, food, and so on.

"Gyeheheh!"

And well, it just happened that one of them was wandering around, a floating sandal-shaped Yokai, no bigger than an actual straw sandal.

It had a long tongue and a big crimson eye on top of its sandal-shaped body, an extremely weak Rank o Yokai.

"Ooh! That's a Bakezōri! This is the first time I see one!"

"Gyeeh?!"

The Bakezōri noticed the intruders and instantly crawled away with its little straw legs. "Hey! Where are you going?!" Matsuo gave chase.

However.

TRUUM!

Suddenly, a golden and crimson curse reached the sandal as it dropped paralyzed into the ground.

Harumi walked towards it and lifted her foot; she was wearing big black boots that goth girls always wear to look cool.

"Hmph."

CRASH!

And she mercilessly crushed the little guy, who cried, and then exploded into black smoke, leaving behind... nothing, Ranko monsters didn't even left behind mana crystals.

"Aw man! Did you had to kill the little guy, Harumi? I wanted to pet it!" Matsuo said. "I keep a journal where I write down every Yokai I find, there are just so many everywhere! I wish I could have taken a picture at least."

"Even if you tried it wouldn't appear in the photo..." Harumi facepalmed. "Anyways, are we going in?"

"To the Domain? Sure! Let's do it!" said Matsuo.

"Together then, one two, three...!" Frank said.

TRUUUM!

Suddenly, the world around them began to distort. The house started shaking and expanding

several more corridors, becoming dozens of times as large, and confusing.

Stairs appeared in the ceiling and windows in the floor, paper doors were everywhere,

dividing even the living room where they were standing into many sections.

"Oh wow this domain's huge!" Matsuo said.

"It's a bit different than usual, it has taken a larger form..." Harumi said. "Hm, it probably has become the Domain of a Great Yokai."

"Great Yokai?" Frank wondered. "A stronger Yokai that creates personalized Domains,

right?"

"Indeed," nodded Harumi. "Looks like you aren't completely clueless." She smiled.

"Let's go then!" Matsuo said, running into a paper door and breaking it.

CRASH!

"Aaaaahhh! Help!"

However, the moment Matsuo passed through the paper door, he fell through a hole.

"MATSUO?!"

Both Frank and Harumi didn't expect that...

"This guy's fooling around at this point!" Harumi sighed, rushing down. "Matsuo! Grab my

hand!"

She spread out a pair of huge bat-like wings made out of her crimson aura, rushing down through the hole which had spears down below.

"Harumiii!"

Matsuo screamed in horror as he was about to grab her, but the speed in which he fell

surpassed the speed in which she could fly down.

"No! Matsuo! Dammit!"

Harumi screamed as she was unable to grab him, Matsuo was a millisecond from being

impaled by sharp wooden spears below.

Yet...

"{Gravity Sphere}!"

Frank combined his Domain Creation Skill with his Gray Magic, increasing the amount of

gravity within his hand by condensing dozens of layers of a miniature Domain and generating

a huge gray sphere of pure mana.

FLUOSH!

And somehow, Matsuo stopped falling, being dragged by the gravity generated by the sphere!