Two women walked leisurely down the dusty road, taking in the surrounding views.

As the path descended, the travelers had a splendid opportunity to gaze upon the expanse below - an ocean of high trees, fields, and a little stream, playfully meandering through small rocks.

In addition, one could easily notice the overgrown ruins of a wooden fortress and the surrounding huts.

The village below had been destroyed long ago, at least a couple of years past, which allowed nature to claim this land.

Ubiquitous ivy entwined the charred beams and leaning posts, covering them with a green shroud. And if someone were to approach, they could easily see how one of the lush flowers had bloomed right through the eye socket of one of the skulls lying around.

In this small village, no one thought to clear the corpses, simply disregarding them.

Anyone who dared to spend the night in this quiet place risked hearing soft murmurs at the edge of their perception. The unburied villagers had not left their homes even after death.

But let's return to the two happily chatting women who, even to the most critical eye, appeared beautiful and involuntarily drew attention.

If the first, the older one, had a mysteriously cold charm, then the second captivated with her enthusiasm and joy for life, bubbling like a stream.

However, one should not think that these travelers were easy prey.

Just a day ago, they passed by a bandit camp. And if someone might think that the girls were attacked by the despicable murderers, then that someone clearly had not lived long enough in this "beautiful" world.

As soon as the bandits caught sight of the women's rich clothes through the sparse trees, noticing their fearlessness and remembering that the nearest town was a couple of days away, these cruel cutthroats, trying not to attract attention, very slowly and quietly crawled back into the thicket.

In the conditions of the raging world war, very few could afford to walk alone or in small groups. And for anyone capable of such a feat, a small crew of bandits was no more than an easy warm-up.

The mystical side of this world was no exception. A new yokai, born from the site where a group of refugees was slaughtered, was irrevocably insane and only yearned to bring death and destruction to all who stood in his path.

However, as soon as the red-skinned, horned brute felt the echoes of the power of the approaching pair, he thought it best to look for prey elsewhere. After all, if he died, how would he manage to kill anyone?

"Ketsumi, tell me, how did you and Minoru meet?" Kaede asked carelessly but then corrected herself: "Oh, sorry. You wanted to be called Katsuya, right?[1] I always get confused."

"Forget it," the spider woman sighed heavily, rolling her eyes. "You're incorrigible. As for your question... Why do you ask?"

"I just want to know more about you and my mentor," the Kuchisake-onna smiled in response to the suspicious look from the Kumo.

"Really? Hmm, why not," Katsuya pondered, remembering. "When you think about it, nothing unusual. We met almost immediately after the chaos invasion ended. The whole world was trying to lick its wounds. You couldn't enter a city, a village, or even just someone's home without seeing the brutal consequences of what seemed to be an unending nightmare."

The Kumo's eyes blankly stared into the distance.

"Chaos itself is terrifying, but what remains after it is no less frightening. Although the great spirits killed the archdemon, driving back his strongest minions, his cultists, mutants, and filth remained. Minoru and I did what we were best at – eradicating the remnants of this plague."

"And how was that?" Kaede inquired eagerly.

"How, you ask," the woman chuckled. "We burned and destroyed everything that could carry traces of chaos. In the end, its essence is to change and defile everything it touches, but it still requires time. If you act quickly and uncompromisingly, it won't have a chance to plant its foul sprouts in you."

"I see..."

"Yep. We wandered through the devastated, ravaged ruins of our world and killed everything that even slightly resembled the creatures of the ever-changing power. In such circumstances, it's hard to be alone, even if you're very strong. Minoru and I met first, then gradually other yokai joined us. We were all different, but we wanted the same thing – peace. And friends, probably. Hah, how naive we were back then."

"And why did you decide... Well, to start all this with the Deathbringers?" Kaede asked cautiously.

"The Deathbringers... Yes, I liked their past name much better," the Kumo chuckled sadly. "Originally, the idea was to give us all even more power to protect ourselves in the next chaos invasion. We all saw that endless nightmare and were determined to do everything possible to prevent it from happening again. Minoru led us all. She was willing to do much, even for what was forbidden, and we all agreed to take the risk."

"And the great ones didn't like that," the young yokai finished.

"Exactly. The threat of chaos was still very much alive in everyone's memory, and that's what they took our creation for. As soon as the surviving warmaster clans and samurai heard about another threat of 'chaos,' they immediately joined the punitive campaign."

Katsuya grimaced.

"We fought, even tried to explain that they were mistaken, but no one even listened to us. I understand them. Listening to chaos cultists is generally harmful. I know that very well. And when everything went utterly terrible, I ran away. It was cowardly, but I'm not a great warrior like Minoru. What could I do?" the yokai muttered fervently, as if justifying herself.

Kaede didn't interrupt.

"I hid as well as only I can. And indeed, they did not find me. Although, maybe they didn't really look. But everyone else paid the price. I hope Minoru will at least try to listen to me before attacking. She wasn't known for her patience..."

"Everything will be alright," Kaede tried to cheer up her companion. "I think..."

"Wait," the spider woman abruptly raised her hand, listening to something. Instantly, her figure began to radiate an almost visible aura of alertness. "I feel something. There are some screams coming from over there."

"Indeed." Both yokai looked ahead in unison.

"We need to be careful." The Kumo quickly turned around and spread her arms to the sides. In a heartbeat, between her fingers sparked thin threads, glowing with a faint whitish light. Obeying the deft movements of her fingers and hands, they began weaving into a glowing web.

Katsuya shook her hands, and a miniature energy construction remained in each palm, one of which she pressed into Kaede's chest.

In the same instant, the Kuchisake-onna began to flicker, becoming blurry and merging with the surrounding space. At the same time, her spiritual energy also dissipated like smoke.

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The Kumo applied the second web to herself.

"Follow me, but quietly," she commanded sharply, and the young yokai just nodded shortly in agreement. Now, she also felt the strange aftertaste of the local energy. And it worried her.

The time for jokes was over.

Kaede did not know what had so alarmed the usually restrained Kumo, but it was clearly something very serious.

Until that moment, she had only seen her in such a state when there was a threat to her beloved Kansei.

The thickets and bushes barely hindered the inhumanly agile girls, who, as barely visible shadows, approached the increasingly loud clamoring.

It became clear that a lot of people had gathered ahead.

Suddenly, instead of another tree, a void appeared before the travelers' eyes.

And in the next moment, an impressively grand spectacle unfolded before them.

This place had definitely been a village once. The clearings where houses once stood were still distinguishable from the rest of the land.

But now, all the wood, boards, ropes, and tiles had been used to construct a single building that rose many meters high.

One look at this structure was enough to cause nausea and aversion, yet one couldn't tear their eyes away from the captivatingly repulsive contours.

Despite its impressive size, the entire construction constantly swayed and creaked intolerably, as if threatening to collapse at any moment.

Yet, defying all logic, it stubbornly remained upright, disfiguring the very universe with its presence.

Each board, each piece of tile, or nail bore terrifying symbols and signs that caused headaches and clouded the mind.

At first glance, it was difficult to determine what this monstrosity was, but the painful realization eventually dispelled the blissful ignorance.

A huge, unholy tower rose above all, holding at its very top an ugly bell made of boards, ropes, and metal pieces.

Huge trays were smoking next to the twisted parody of a bell tower, sending up flares of flame. Only they were not burning with ordinary fire. A putrid green glow burst forth, carrying gusts of black-green smoke.

Around the cursed bell tower stood numerous carts, sacks, and other belongings of the peasants who had come to this place.

And besides the items themselves, there were their owners.

Dozens and hundreds of people. Women, men, and children, all of them, heads tilted back and breath held, looked up at the top of the bell tower. There, on a special platform, crowded those who were the cause of everything happening.

Spacious, dark cloaks hid their bodies, preventing anyone from seeing even an inch of skin, and deep hoods concealed their faces.

But then, a movement appeared among the grim figures. Several cloaked ones rushed to the ropes leading inside the grotesque bell.

At the same time, a tall and extremely gaunt man stepped forward. With a careless gesture, he threw back his hood, allowing all those gathered to see his bald, lumpy skull, as if inflated from within by some gases.

Kaede's inhuman eyes allowed her to see in the greatest detail the yellowish unhealthy skin, the eyes oozing with pus, and the extensive inflamed rash on his right cheek in the shape of a human hand.

Trickles of pus ran down the man's sunken cheeks, leaving two moist trails.

Following their leader, the others also shed their hoods, delighting the surrounding eyes with the most bizarre diseases and deformities.

Among them, one had a real horn growing in place of an eye, another boasted lips and cheeks bursting from inflammation, and yet another had lost his eyes altogether but clearly continued to see somehow.

And it didn't seem that the gathered peasants were in any way disturbed or scared by the spectacle presented before them.

BO-O-OM!

Kaede was distracted, so she didn't see how the bell ringers, having sped up, swung several clappers of the bell at once, causing the first strike, which was instantly spoiled by subsequent hits from the other clappers.

Since there was more than one, they kept colliding together, bringing unbearable confusion to the overall ringing.

But the bell ringers seemed unbothered by this, as the musical chaos unfolding before them was exactly what they sought.

From the unceasing peals of the plague bell, the entire surrounding world seemed to shudder.

The sound waves spreading through the air became almost visible, so intense was the pain they inflicted upon the world, a sensation acutely felt by the pair of yokai hidden nearby.

Following this tempo, the peasants below began singing along to the intensifying call.

Here, a previously calm, respectable family head wildly jumped up and struck the ground with his left foot in tune with one of the strikes. A little further away, another peasant stomped, but absolutely out of sync with the first. A third began to spin in place, raising his arms high and howling in ecstasy on a single note.

It didn't take long for the entire assembled crowd to frolic in absolute chaos under the incessant ringing of the bell and their own furious screams.

And as if that weren't enough, a greenish mist began to gather over the maddened crowd, growing as the unholy rite went on.

The leading cultist, who had been standing calmly until now, raised his arms and threw his head back, shouting out a single syllable that, ignoring any laws of reality, boomed like thunder.

"CHA!"

"OS!" the peasants finished for him.

"CHA-OS! CHA-OS! CHA-OS!" the words of the crowd flew in all directions, forcing them to contort in ecstasy from the energies piercing their bodies.

Women, children, and men all merged into this disorderly mass of flesh and pernicious energy.

Grass and bushes growing here and there instantly withered, slumping down, but immediately rose again, boasting black oily streams on their leaves and spongy form and filling.

In a couple of places, the ground began to boil and melt, turning into purple slime.

Having torn her gaze away from the unfolding madness with difficulty, Kaede turned to the strangely silent spider woman and involuntarily gasped.

Katsuya was deathly pale, her trembling hand clutching a piece of tree bark she had broken off involuntarily.

"Katsuya, what happened?" Kaede whispered, trying to draw her friend's attention. "Ketsumi!"

Startled, the Kumo slowly turned around, allowing the Kuchisake-onna to see her eyes widened with all-consuming animal terror.

"They're here..." the feeble words fell from the lips of the older yokai, barely audible over the din of the cursed bell. "They're back again! They have returned!"

"In the name of the great spirits, pull yourself together, Ketsumi," the girl whispered urgently. "What's wrong with you?! I'm the one who should be panicking here, not you."

"You don't understand," the Kumo's eyes now held much more coherence, although she was still shaking from the tension. "If chaos is here again, then the war will soon begin! Again!"

"The war is already going on, if you haven't noticed," Kaede grumbled. Yes, she, too, was impressed by the cultists' ritual, but she had not lost the ability to think. "The world war has been going on for almost a year."

"The war of mortals is just a pathetic shadow compared to what is coming," Katsuya spat out bitterly. But this flash of anger finally restored her ability to think clearly. "We need to get out of here and warn your mentor immediately."

"We're not going to kill them all?" Kaede asked in surprise, nodding towards the ongoing wicked ritual.

"Too risky," the Kumo shook her head in disapproval. "First, we must deliver the news to the humans and spirits about the coming of chaos into our world, and second, we don't know their strength. What you see may only be the tip of it."

"Just say you're scared," the Kuchisake-onna muttered, but immediately felt ashamed under her companion's disapproving gaze. "Sorry."

"With the forces of chaos, you can never be completely sure what they are up to," the Kumo lectured. "They have hundreds of false names and guises. And what you see is not necessarily what it seems. However..."

Katsuya looked closely at the disfigured faces of the frenzied cultists.

"However, as far as I know, plague bearers are not particularly known for this. Something similar, as I told you, happened a very long time ago, and according to legends, then no one really knew who was a friend and who was a hidden enemy. But enough talk. Show me the way to your mentor. We must hurry."

"Understood." Kaede nodded promptly, and the two yokai, quietly turning around, quickly left the disgusting place, delving deeper into the forest.

However, the particularly strong bell strikes continued to make them flinch, resonating in their very bones.

*****

Throughout the rest of the journey, the Kumo maintained a gloomy silence. Kaede did not disturb her, allowing her to indulge in somber thoughts.

Now, Katsuya had cast a whole array of concealing techniques on them, renewing them as necessary.

Remembering the Kumo's reaction, Kaede began to understand much better how dire the future awaited them.

The Kuchisake-onna tried to listen to the various plans of her chosen human. And although Shiro loved to be silent about his intentions until they were realized, and sometimes even after, Kaede often managed to wheedle explanations for his actions.

And, considering what Kaede knew, the future was far from cloudless.

Although the Sumada and Mizuno clans had made an unofficial non-aggression pact, they daily expected an attack from the formidable alliance of the southern clans, led by Rangiku and Tokitoru.

Other great clans – Avasaki and Hizoru – resolutely gripped each other's throats, unwilling to be distracted by anything else.

In this situation, the chaos could be staved off to some extent only by onmyoji and yokai.

But the problem was that they, too, were busy eliminating and catching "spirits of war" born over the past few months. That is, spirits whose minds were thoroughly scrambled by the surrounding death and grief.

Yes, such spirits were strong from birth, but they paid for it with their sanity.

In such a situation, there was practically no one to stand up against the spreading chaos.

Kaede very much wanted to talk to her mentor and find out what she thought about the whole situation, but as they approached Minoru's refuge, the Kumo halted still, as if caught in her own web.

"Katsuya, what happened?" the girl asked cautiously, touching the Kumo's elbow. Inside Kaede, everything froze with a bad premonition.

"I'm sorry, Kaede, but it seems that Minoru... has betrayed us."

[1] Translator's note: just to clarify, Ketsumi is the name known to Minoru from the past, which she mentioned to Kaede, while Katsuya is what the Kumo called herself when she met Kansei.