That day, the headquarters of Izanagi, known as a pillar of the nation, came under attack.
And it was an attack that came directly through the front gate.
"Boom————!"
With an explosive blast, the gate of Izanagi was blown away, unleashing waves of scorching heat and filling the air with thick black smoke.
"Enemy attack!"
"Enemy attack!"
The onmyoji of Izanagi were both shocked and enraged. They came rushing from all directions, scattering a variety of talismans and tools that served as substitutes, gathering miasma and transforming into shikigami.
In an instant, all sorts of shikigami appeared.
There were jet-black monkeys.
Giant and ferocious spiders.
Butterflies fluttering their wings.
Ghostly shadows resembling spirits of the dead.
These various shikigami were summoned by one onmyoji after another, cloaked in thick miasma, surrounding the front gate.
In no time, the entire area around the front gate was packed with shikigami, sealing off the scene completely.
Unfortunately, before they could even get close, they were struck with a devastating blow.
"Whoosh————!"
A gust of icy mist, laced with frost, blew in from outside the gate like a blizzard, instantly covering the surroundings.
The ground began to freeze, the air solidified, and even the shikigami were struck by the frost—some were covered in ice, others were blown away.
The area turned into a frozen plain.
"W-What immense power...!"
"Ordinary shikigami can't match that at all!"
"Fall back!"
"Don't get too close!"
The senior and more experienced onmyoji quickly shouted commands, urging their comrades to pull back their shikigami and avoid the heart of the blizzard.
The heat and smoke from the explosion were completely swept away by the snowstorm, revealing a lone figure standing at the now-ruined gate.
"Who is it!? Who dares attack the Izanagi...!?"
Someone shouted, and the other Izanagi onmyoji began to seethe with rage.
As members of the noble clan and pillars of the nation, never had Izanagi been so openly assaulted at their very base.
It was a disgrace.
A disgrace that must be erased.
That's what everyone was thinking.
However—
"I'm simply returning the favor. Hardly unexpected, wouldn't you agree?"
With those words, a young man clad in a jet-black coat slowly walked out from the blizzard and into full view.
The surrounding onmyoji widened their eyes.
They couldn't help it.
"He's... so young?"
Indeed.
No one had expected that the one brazen enough to attack the Izanagi stronghold would be such a young man.
But it was clear he was no ordinary person.
Could he be?
"Send someone who can actually speak for Izanagi."
Rozen scanned the surroundings, looking at the familiar environment with eyes devoid of emotion.
The sudden assailant was none other than Rozen.
While the academy was still scrambling to recover from the Order of the Rose's assault—counting losses, tending to the wounded, cleaning up—Rozen had long since disappeared, leaving Setsugetsuka at the academy and traveling alone across the sea, returning to this country.
The snowstorm magic that froze the area was the power of Irori's Himokagami.
By now, Rozen had not only mastered Kongouriki, but also analyzed Himokagami and Yaegasumi completely, able to use them on his own.
And so, alone, Rozen stormed the headquarters of Izanagi—this place he had once visited in the past.
No one here recognized him.
After all, Rozen had come here as a child of just a few years old. Now he was a youth, changed so much that no one could identify him.
Though they didn't recognize Rozen, that didn't stop what was coming.
"Who are you!?"
"You dare trespass into Izanagi!?"
"Are you seeking your own death!?"
The onmyoji shouted harshly, though their voices betrayed their anxiety.
Rozen ignored them all, his expression calm as he continued walking deeper into Izanagi territory.
His arrogant disregard enraged everyone.
"Go! Masurao!"
"Seize him! Tsuchigumo!"
"Don't let him get away! Gokuracho!"
One by one, the onmyoji unleashed their shikigami to attack Rozen.
Among them were monkey-like shikigami, giant spider women the size of elephants, and even the Gokuracho that Rozen had seen in Izanagi's forbidden zone—all kinds of shikigami swarmed toward him.
The display of power was undeniably overwhelming.
Almost every Izanagi onmyoji was a warrior capable of taking on a thousand. Even the weakest could summon dozens of shikigami. With so many onmyoji gathered here, each unleashing an army of shikigami, the scene looked no different than a thousand-strong horde of magical beasts on the march.
And this was with many powerful onmyoji still absent or observing, not yet intervening.
It was precisely because Izanagi onmyoji could each hold the strength of hundreds or thousands that they were considered the nation's foundation and defenders.
No wonder they were so furious and incredulous that someone would dare storm their base head-on.
But they didn't know—what they called "a warrior worth a thousand" meant little in the eyes of this youth.
Because Rozen already possessed strategic capabilities many times beyond that.
Of course, Rozen had no intention of showing his full strength just yet.
"————————"
As he walked forward, surrounded by an army of enemies, Rozen calmly chanted the incantation of the Fire Realm Incantation.
"Boom!"
A surge of fiery energy erupted from Rozen's body, transforming into a sea of flames that swept outward.
Before the shikigami could reach him, they were engulfed by the incoming blaze, caught in an inferno.
The next moment, shrieks and howls of agony rang out as the shikigami were burned away one after another.
"What...!?"
The Izanagi onmyoji were all shocked.
But the raging flames didn't stop. With Rozen's every step forward, they spread outward.
Countless shikigami were consumed by fire before they could even resist, burning to ash.
The entire battlefield turned into a sea of flames.
The firelight illuminated everything.