Chapter 19: The Mercury Flood

The sunrise brings no warmth to the Hoshi household. The sky outside is a pale, sickly grey, as if the sun itself is afraid to show its face. Inside, the air is thick with the smell of old coffee and the static ozone scent coming from Kenuji's laptop.

We have not slept.

The adrenaline from the Titan Tower raid has faded, leaving us running on raw nerves and sheer determination. Muji is pacing the kitchen, eating slices of bread directly from the bag without even toasting them. He looks like a caged animal. Yoshi is sitting on the floor in the center of the room, meditating. He is surrounded by small floating pebbles that orbit his head like a miniature asteroid belt, clicking softly as they collide. Inoe is staring at the wall, her eyes unfocused, mentally patrolling the perimeter of the house, searching for any sign of intrusion.

"I have it", Kenuji says abruptly.

The silence shatters. We all converge on the dining table where Kenuji has set up his command center. The map on his screen is glowing with red lines.

"The Eclipse", Kenuji says, turning the laptop screen toward us. "It is not a celestial event. Kuro is not waiting for the moon to block the sun. He is manufacturing a spiritual eclipse".

"Translate that for the non-nerds", Yoshi says, leaning over the table, his pebbles dropping to the floor.

"He plans to block the flow of natural Chi in the Kanto region", Kenuji explains, pointing to a map of Tokyo's ley lines. "Think of the city's spiritual energy like a river. It flows from the mountains to the sea, keeping the balance between the human world and the spirit world. Kuro wants to build a dam".

"If he dams the flow...", Inoe whispers, her face paling.

"The spiritual pressure builds up until it bursts", Kenuji finishes grimly. "It will create a backflow of stagnant, corrupted energy. A void where the laws of physics weaken and the laws of magic take over. In that void, demons can manifest physically without needing vessels. He is trying to turn Tokyo into Hell".

"Where is the dam?" Muji asks, crushing a piece of bread in his fist. "We break the dam, we stop the flood".

"Here", Kenuji taps a location on the outskirts of the city, near Kasukabe. "The Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel. The G-Cans".

"The underground flood temple?" I ask. "I saw that on a documentary once. It is huge. It looks like a cathedral".

"It is a massive subterranean reservoir designed to redirect floodwater", Kenuji nods. "It is the perfect place to redirect spiritual energy. It connects to every major waterway in the region. If Kuro activates his ritual there, the corruption will spread through the water supply instantly. Every tap, every river, every drain will become a conduit for darkness".

"When?" Yoshi asks.

Kenuji looks at the clock on the wall. "According to the server data I stole, the ritual reaches critical mass at noon. That is in three hours".

"Then we move", Yoshi says, standing up. "We finish this today".

We leave a note for Naomi saying we went on a "cat bonding retreat" (a terrible lie, but she trusts us implicitly), and we head out.

The journey to Kasukabe is tense. We take the train, standing in silence while the unsuspecting humans around us read manga and check their phones. They laugh at videos, complain about their bosses, and plan their weekends. They have no idea that five teenagers in the corner are the only thing standing between them and a demonic apocalypse.

We reach the G-Cans facility. Above ground, it looks unassuming-just a small control building and a soccer field built on top of the underground complex. But we know what lies beneath.

"The main entrance will be guarded", Kenuji says, scanning the area with his mind. "I sense barriers. Traps".

"But there are ventilation shafts", Muji points to a large grate near the edge of the soccer field. "I am tired of shafts. Can we just kick the door down?"

"We need surprise", Inoe says. "If they know we are coming, they might accelerate the ritual".

Muji grumbles but walks over to the ventilation grate. He grips the metal bars. With a single tug, he rips the heavy grate off its hinges. We drop down into the darkness, sliding down a long, concrete chute that smells of damp earth and rust.

We land on a metal catwalk high above the main reservoir.

The sight takes my breath away. The G-Cans is often called the "Underground Temple", and now I see why. It is a cavernous space, filled with rows of colossal concrete pillars that stretch up into the gloom like the supports of a cathedral built for giants. The floor is wet, covered in a thin layer of silt and water.

But today, the water is not brown. It is purple.

The reservoir is glowing with a sickly, dark light. In the center of the vast chamber, surrounded by the pillars, is a complex array of machinery and glowing runes painted on the concrete. The water is churning, bubbling as if it is boiling.

And standing on top of the central pillar is a man.

He is tall and thin, wearing a silver bodysuit that looks like liquid metal. He has no hair. His skin shines under the purple light, reflecting the corruption around him.

"Another Lieutenant", Yoshi whispers. "Material type. Like Glass".

"He is guarding the ritual circle", Kenuji notes. "We have to take him out to get to the mechanism".

"I will handle him", Muji says, cracking his neck. "I owe Kuro a beating".

"We fight together", Yoshi corrects him. "On three. One. Two. Three!"

We leap from the catwalk. We fall fifty feet, landing in the shallow water with a splash that echoes like a gunshot in the vast chamber.

The man on the pillar turns. He does not look surprised. He looks delighted.

"Ah", he says. His voice sounds wet, like sludge moving through a pipe. "The Kittens have arrived. Kuro said you would come. He said you were persistent".

"Who are you?" I shout, summoning my Divine light to illuminate the gloom.

"I am Mercury", the man says. He spreads his arms. His hands lose their shape, melting into puddles of silver liquid that drip down to the floor. "And I am afraid you are going to drown here".

"Get him!" Muji roars.

Muji charges, splashing through the toxic water. He leaps up the side of the pillar, his claws digging into the concrete. He launches himself at Mercury, aiming for the head.

SPLAT.

Muji's claws pass straight through Mercury's neck. There is no blood. No bone. The head simply separates from the body, turning into a floating blob of silver liquid, and then reattaches itself a second later.

"Fluidity", Mercury laughs. "You cannot cut water".

Mercury swings his arm. It elongates, turning into a whip of heavy liquid metal. It smacks Muji in the chest, sending him flying back into the water with a massive splash.

"Muji!" I cry.

"I am okay!" Muji coughs, standing up. "It hits hard! It is heavy! Like getting hit with a sack of lead!"

"Yoshi! Freeze him!" Kenuji orders. "If he is liquid, make him solid! Drop the temperature!"

Yoshi runs forward. He slams his hands into the wet floor. "Geomancer Arts: Permafrost!"

Ice crystals shoot across the water, racing toward the pillar. They climb up the concrete, encasing Mercury's legs in a block of ice.

"Clever", Mercury sneers. "But mercury has a freezing point of minus thirty-nine degrees. Your ice is too warm".

He flexes his legs. The ice shatters instantly.

Mercury jumps down from the pillar. He lands on the water, but he does not sink. He merges with it. The purple water around him turns silver. The contamination spreads outward like an oil slick.

"He is taking control of the environment!" Inoe warns. "Get to high ground!"

We scramble up the sides of the pillars just as the water level rises. A wave of silver liquid crashes against the concrete, eating away at the stone.

"He is the floor now", Kenuji says, clinging to a ladder rung. "He can attack from anywhere".

Spikes of silver metal shoot up from the water, aiming at us. I dodge one, feeling the wind of it pass my cheek. Yoshi creates a stone platform on the side of his pillar to stand on.

"We have to evaporate him", I say. "Heat! We need extreme heat!"

"I don't have fire magic!" Yoshi yells, blocking a spike with a stone shield. "We are a bad matchup for this guy!"

"Inoe!" Kenuji shouts. "Can you hold him? Telekinesis?"

"He is too heavy!" Inoe strains, her eyes glowing pink. She tries to lift a glob of the mercury water, but it fights her. "It is like trying to lift the ocean! There is too much of him!"

"We need to separate him", Muji says. He is hanging from a pipe on the ceiling. "If we scatter his droplets, he cannot reform".

"I have an idea", Yoshi says. "But it is risky. Haruka, I need you to go full power. Nova level".

"If I do that, I will pass out", I say. "I won't be able to heal anyone. You will be on your own".

"You won't need to heal anyone", Yoshi says grimly. "Muji, get ready to spin. Inoe, contain the blast. Kenuji, coordinate us".

"What is the plan?" Kenuji asks.

"Centrifuge", Yoshi says. "I will create a bowl. Muji spins the water. Haruka boils it. We separate the mercury from the spiritual energy and vent him".

"Let's do it", Muji drops from the ceiling.

"Yoshi, now!"

Yoshi jumps into the water. He ignores the silver spikes tearing at his clothes. He slams both hands deep into the silt floor.

"Geomancer Arts: Grand Canyon Bowl!"

The entire floor of the reservoir shifts. The concrete rises up in a massive circle, forming a giant bowl shape, trapping the silver water and Mercury inside it.

"You trapped yourselves in here with me!" Mercury laughs. A giant face forms in the liquid. "Fools!"

"Muji! Spin!" Kenuji commands.

Muji runs along the rim of the bowl. He runs faster than he has ever run before. He becomes an orange blur. He generates a massive wind vortex. The water inside the bowl begins to spin. Faster. Faster. It becomes a whirlpool.

Mercury tries to form spikes, but the centrifugal force pulls him apart.

"What are you doing?!" Mercury screams.

"Cooking you!" I yell.

I jump into the center of the vortex, hovering with my spiritual energy.

"Sacred Art: Solar Flare - Max Output!"

I release everything. I become a second sun inside the dark cavern. The light is blinding. The heat is intense. The water in the bowl instantly flashes to steam.

HISSSSS.

The steam explodes upward, but Inoe is there. She creates a psychic lid over the bowl, trapping the heat and pressure inside. It is a pressure cooker.

Mercury screams. It is a sound of bubbling, boiling agony. The silver liquid separates from the purple water. The mercury becomes heavy, pushed to the outside of the vortex, while the corrupted water evaporates.

"It is working!" Kenuji yells, watching the readings on his glasses. "His cohesion is breaking down!"

"Hold it!" Yoshi roars, his arms shaking as he maintains the stone bowl against the massive pressure. "Just a little longer!"

"I... cannot...", Inoe gasps, blood trickling from her nose. "The pressure..."

"NOW!" I scream, releasing the last drop of my power.

The heat reaches critical mass.

Mercury vaporizes. The liquid metal turns into toxic gas.

"Inoe! Open the roof!" Kenuji shouts. "Vent it!"

Inoe drops the psychic lid. The pressure releases explosively upward. A column of silver steam shoots up the ventilation shaft, blasting out into the soccer field above.

We collapse.

The water is gone. The bowl is empty except for dry silt. Mercury is gone, vented into the atmosphere where he will dissipate harmlessly.

I fall from the air. Yoshi catches me before I hit the ground.

"We... did it", I whisper, my vision going black at the edges.

"Yeah", Yoshi pants, sitting down hard in the mud. "We cooked him".

Muji stops running. He stumbles and falls onto his back, laughing breathlessly. "Soup. We made bad guy soup".

"The ritual", Kenuji says, stumbling toward the central pillar. "Is it stopped?"

He looks at the machinery. The runes are dark. The purple light is gone.

"The flow is returning to normal", Kenuji confirms, slumping against the pillar. "We broke the dam".

"We won", Inoe whispers, wiping blood from her face.

But the silence that follows is not peaceful. It is eerie.

Slow clapping.

We all freeze.

From the shadows of the massive pillars, a figure walks out.

It is Kuro.

He is wearing a black suit this time. He looks pristine, untouched by the dust and heat.

"Magnificent", Kuro says, smiling. "Truly magnificent. Mercury was a difficult prototype to dispose of. You saved me the trouble of recycling him".

"You..." Muji tries to stand up, but his legs give out. "You were here the whole time?"

"Of course", Kuro says. He walks to the center of the dried-up bowl. "I had to ensure the energy was released correctly".

"We stopped the ritual", Kenuji says defiantly. "The dam is broken".

"Yes", Kuro nods. "You broke the dam. You released all that built-up spiritual pressure in a single, explosive event".

He points to the ceiling, to the ventilation shaft where we vented Mercury.

"You did not just vent the Lieutenant", Kuro says softly. "You vented the corruption. You pushed it out of the underground and into the sky".

We stare at him in horror.

"What?" I whisper.

"The Eclipse", Kuro spreads his arms. "It does not start in the ground. It starts in the sky. I needed a massive amount of corrupted spiritual energy to be injected into the atmosphere to block the sun. Mercury was the fuel. You were the engine".

He laughs. It is a cold, cruel sound.

"Look up".

We look up through the ventilation shaft.

The circle of sky visible through the grate is not grey anymore. It is purple. Dark, swirling purple clouds are spreading across the sky, blotting out the sun.

"No", Yoshi whispers. "We helped him. We did exactly what he wanted".

"The Eclipse has begun", Kuro announces. "The barrier between worlds is thinning. By sunset, Tokyo will be a playground for the old gods".

He turns to us.

"Thank you, Siblings. I couldn't have done it without you".

Kuro snaps his fingers.

The ground beneath us trembles. The shadows in the corners of the room begin to stretch, turning into claws.

"Now", Kuro says, his eyes glowing red. "Run. If you can".

"We have to go!" Kenuji screams. "He trapped us!"

Yoshi grabs me. Muji grabs Inoe. We sprint for the catwalk.

Shadow monsters erupt from the floor-thousands of them. The army we fought in the tunnels was nothing compared to this. The entire room is becoming a mouth.

We scramble up the ladder. Shadows nip at our heels. I fire weak bolts of light to keep them back, but I am drained.

We burst out of the ventilation shaft onto the soccer field.

The sky is a nightmare. The sun is a black hole ringed with purple fire. The clouds are swirling like a vortex over the city.

In the distance, we can see other pillars of dark energy rising from different points in Tokyo.

"He played us", Muji says, his voice breaking. "He played us like fiddles".

"We didn't stop it", I say, tears stinging my eyes. "We started it".

"We fix it", Yoshi says, staring at the darkened sun. His face is set in stone. "We broke it. We fix it. Even if we have to kill every demon in this city".

Kenuji looks at his laptop, which he dragged with him. "The readings... the spiritual pressure is rising off the charts. The veil is tearing".

"We need to get to Hajime and Naomi", Inoe says. "They are unprotected".

"Move!" Yoshi commands.

We run. We run under the purple sky, while the first screams of the city begin to echo in the distance. The Eclipse is here. And we are the only ones who know why.