On Astral Tides: From Humble Freelancer To Astral Emperor - Six Hundred And Thirty-Four

As the situation erupted into chaotic battle, I sharpened my focus, all the Split Thoughts except the one with Tsukiko narrowing down, boosting my reaction speed. I was gratified, but not surprised, to see everyone responding as they should, preparing to defend themselves and defeat our unwelcome enemies, and so I decided to deal with the Chosen in front of me, forcing him to shut down the attacks his Territory was throwing out.

As I leapt towards him, I was suddenly met by the chuckling form of the taller, more talkative man. The ground had cracked under his feet, so fast was his movement, and while I was still swifter, it was just barely, and that counted the significant strength I was drawing through Rose and our shared Lovers’ Link. I can accept that a Chosen focused on speed can match me in Alacrity and Precision, and all my efforts, but…

The shockwave from the impact shivered both the ground and the sky above. Silver lightning flashed, and it, along with the ruddy glow of the magma filling the volcanic crater behind us, illuminated the fact that the man’s fist had blocked my blow. His arm was trembling a little, being ever so slowly pushed back, a fact which barely seemed to bother him, judging by the manic grin on his ordinary, forgettable face, but… nearly in Might and Fortitude too… that seems implausible…

“You are quite strong, mighty, annoying!” the man chortled, his eyes widening, the usual brown, or in some cases almost black eyes of a Japanese man now seeming like inky holes into darkness. “You hold knowledge. Knowledge is good, knowledge is desirable. But Wisdom is knowing when knowledge must be…”

“Shut it!” I snapped, straining against him. Everyone else had responded too, and Daiyu had withdrawn the Dagger of Light she often borrowed, pouring aether and Qi into it. The blade glowed a vivid indigo, with streaks of white, and then a piercing beam shot out, but the man merely tilted his neck, avoiding it. Moments later, Shaeula’s torrent of wind blades and bolts of light slammed into him, but all it did was scratch his clothes and draw shallow furrows in his skin, the blood sluggish and slightly too dark.

All his stats have to be around three thousand. That’s madness. I know it appears this pair has monopolised the entirely of Hokkaido, but even so, it seems excessive. Perhaps… My mind churning rapidly, I remembered a way that could be achieved, though it sent a chill through my chest.

Mae surged forward, only to be blocked by the massive, raised paw of the mole-like Ape-nupuri-un-Kamuy… That’s a mouthful to say, Flame-bearing Mountain Kamuy is easier… and held in place. A shockwave rippled out, fluttering our clothes, and as the massive, taloned paw tightened on Mae’s seemingly dainty fist with a force strong enough to crush steel, Mae appeared unbothered, her tails behind her starting to grow and shimmer with energies one by one, and the pressure around us increased, and the skies began to churn and creak, as if it was overstressed metal.

“Frustrating. But I suppose this is what that foolish false Saint would call my Karma coming back to me…” Mae let out a bitter snort.

After failing to strike down the foe I was embroiled with using her Dagger of Light, Daiyu immediately drew her three Bells, Qi manipulating them, so it appeared as if she was a six-armed Asura… Though luckily she doesn’t have three heads, or I wouldn’t know where to look… and rang them all, Qi surging.

“Jade Yin and Yang Stance: Fire, Wind And Stone, Light Flowing Blossoms!” In a modification, no, a vast improvement of one of her Sect’s original Foundation teachings, Daiyu instantly incorporated the Bells, giving her access to additional elements, and while they were clashing and didn’t complement each other, using the duality of her own Yin, and Yang from the Dagger of Light, she harmonised them, an impressive feat. Blades of earth erupted from the ground, shimmering blue and indigo, while the sky was filled with petals of wind sharp as razors, also shining in cerulean hues, and the magma around us belched, fiery projectiles dragged out, seeming even hotter as they shaded towards a vivid blue.

“It seems I need to try harder to not be left behind…” Hana chuckled, her five tails raised upwards, pointing at the sky, the verdant energies of wind and the citrine of flame spinning together, being fed into the crackling, actinic sparks of electricity forming behind her. “I have a reputation for causing trouble and destroying things within the Parade, though it is incomparable to you two.”

Red and Blue merely laughed that off, charging into battle, heedless of being massively outnumbered, brawling with the undead Kamuy. I hope they remember what happened to Blue last time… no, they probably don’t, being a pair of battle junkies…

“It doooes not matter how many of you there are…” Hyacinth was also speaking, her tone low and cold, her eyes shining a brilliant violet, brighter than the magma churning within the volcano, flecks of faint silver visible within. “…ooonly true strength matters here. You may be corrupt, may want tooo feed, with your vile ooze, yet… Hyacinth’s hunger exceeds yooours!” She raised her hands, and spores cascaded out into the air in a virulent wave, though immediately they burst into flames, the heat too much for them, falling like a blizzard of dying fireflies, leaving Hyacinth momentarily frozen, her look of triumph souring.

Sekka and Bintara, both Yōkai very vulnerable in such a fiery environment, were moving backwards, away from the lines of battle, Bintara having cast a bubble of water, which Sekka was then freezing, preventing the worst of the heat from reaching them, as well as stopping the Emplacement projectiles and vomited blasts of mutated dust element that were surging towards them.

As everyone was reacting, the Chosen who might have been of Ainu descent raised his weird, hook-headed staff, and the ground trembled. His movements were slower than I anticipated, especially since the foe I was fighting was clearly abnormal, though he still surely had stats somewhere around fifteen hundred, give or take. A dreadful, almost despairing aura shone around him, and then he cried out some bitter words in Japanese. “Die, usurpers, slaughterers! Shrivel and die! Mummifying Dust Of Death!”

A great surge of dust element rolled out from him, a toxic cloud a dark match to the fiery motes of Hyacinth’s failed spore bombardment. At the same moment, Daiyu’s barrage of elemental attacks rained down all over the battlefield, ruthlessly targeting Defensive Emplacements, Barracks and other key Buildings. Lightning flashed from Hana, but it was swallowed up after burning a hole through the oncoming cloud.

Going full force from the start, are you? Not a fool then… my rapid thoughts seeming to slow down time, I saw several things happen at once. A few Defensive Emplacements were pierced through by rock and flame, detonating, and one distant Ether Spire was cut down by Daiyu’s wind blades like a felled tree, tumbling into the lava. I winced, as that seemed to be a Rank 4 Spire, and I knew myself how much investment those required.

Red had uprooted another sort of Building I didn’t recognise, again with an elongated, metallic and crystal structure, and swept it sideways, hammering a half dozen enemies away like he was playing baseball, plunging them into the fiery abyss of the volcano. Blue leapt, grabbing a flying owl Kamuy and tearing its wing off, before likewise kicking it away into the flames, though it crashed through a Spawning Spire first, shattering it. Ignoring the ooze seeping from the foes around her, she lowered her head, horns ripping through rotted fur and decaying bone alike.

Mae, her strength spiking, lifted the Flame-bearing Mountain Kamuy, bearing the surely colossal weight of its rocky body. Her emerald eyes narrowed, and she mouthed some words I didn’t expect. “I understand your hatred for me. Yet what will your death serve? If you have grievances, let us talk…”

Her words were cut off by the other paw sweeping in towards her, and her tails responded, four of them, five metres in length again, wreathed in multihued light, slamming into the onrushing claws. There was the sound of splintering bone, and one ruby talon went flying.

“Devooouring Myrcolaxriaths! Merge!” Hyacinth cried, and the next surge of her spores were glittering a ghostly pink, an icy chill filling the searing air around us. The undead Kamuy who were charging us and trying to surround the Oni were caught up in the cloud, and mushrooms and toadstools sprouted wildly, radiating a fierce frost, slowing them to a relative crawl.

“I shall not-not allow you to interfere, fool!” Shaeula switched target from the grinning foe I was fighting, glaring at the Chosen and his cascade of dust. Her strength spiked too, Mortal Fragarach in her hands, Pinwheels suddenly unleashed, and a massive tornado of jade and emerald winds swirled, countering the dust. “Emerald Jade Prison: Third Form! Eye-eye Of The Hurricane!”

Yeah, you ruined it a little with your speech quirk, but… Despite that cute slip-up, the effect was anything but, the dust sucked in as if by a massive vacuum. The pressure tugged at the hair and clothes of the Chosen, but he was too powerful to be dragged in. Despite Shaeula’s success, I noticed beads of sweat on her brow, as the dust was beginning to corrode her wind, even as it was being spent. Just as the fist from the smirking opponent I was fighting swung at me, I decided to step up my game.

“Tsurugi! I know you’re tired, but…” I swept her out of the scabbard, and with a flash of energies, even the three thousand points of Fortitude of my opponent were insufficient to prevent the arm being severed. Blood gouted out, yet once more it was black, sticky, and more like treacle, exuding a faint mist. Worse, the foe didn’t show any pain response, though that might have been his likewise astronomical Resilience at work…

“It’s life or death!” I yelled. “We’ll sort things out when it’s over…” Sorry, but I value all of your lives over these I’ve never met before, especially with what lies below the mountain.

A sleepy Tsurugi drew wind element from me, and discharged it as a verdant beam, following the line of my strike. A half-dozen undead Kamuy perished, and the fungi growing on them exploded into more spores, spreading. The heat was still oppressing the fungal bloom, but with the ice element they were radiating, their lifespan was measured in seconds, and if they could burrow into the enemies, it seemed they could then safely propagate. Ooze scattered, and Red cursed as he was burned by some of it. Then the beam of wind struck the tip of the crater, exploding it into falling boulders, carrying off several Buildings into the flames, including a second Ether Spire and what looked like A Boundary To Material Connection of at least Rank Four…

That’s better than mine! Where the hell did all the ether come from?

“You are quite frustrating. My anger is spiking!” the now armless man grinned. “I can see you do not appreciate the true magnitude of your folly!”

“Appreciate this!” Foehn poured from me, engulfing him, turning him into an incandescent torch, the fires greedily devouring his flesh, muscle and even bone, flames accelerating and strengthening as he burned. It was inhumane, and murder, but my Foresight was screaming at me, and something here was very wrong… I could still hear his laughter, even as Daiyu was switching to another stance, moving to aid Shaeula, who had finished dispersing the deadly dust.

“Allow me…” Hana attacked too, lightning flashing, orbs of foxfire exploding around the Chosen. He was strong and fast, yes, but not faster than lightning, and as he stumbled, blood blooming, the explosions drove shrapnel and ashes against him, though the damage was relatively minor. Still, it allowed Shaeula to dart in, her speed bolstered by the power of wind, and she landed a fierce kick to his stomach, doubling him up. Despite that, there was no sense of defeat in his face, and as beside us, Mae was wrestling with the Kamuy, the man raised his odd staff once more.

“Stop playing around. You promised me… rebirth for death, death for the life of those who killed those who should not have died, and a fertile second chance!”

Mad laughter cackled, and I saw the skeletal remains of the foe I had engulfed in Foehn clicking his teeth. I scanned his blazing body, looking for the reason, only for my vision to turn monochrome and blurry, my Eyes bleeding fiercely, as I spotted a black mass, not merely a burned bone, but… a rib, swirling with eyes of its own, eyes that shone with the crimson light of madness and chaos.

“Such pain, this fire is magnificent!” the skeleton cackled, as I flicked away the blood from my face with a little aether, able to see again, though my vision was still fuzzy, as though run through a filter. “A true destruction, a veritable annihilation, elimination, devouring! And you…” Before me, a surge of adherence engulfed the man, murky, black and somehow both pure and muddied. It’s pure in that it’s… restoration? Recovery? But muddy in that there’s a lot of mixed types, and something… wrong… in there.

“…you are reeking of Wisdom. Unpleasant…” The cackling voice, like grated, burning bone, was gone, replaced by the man’s original voice once more. “…the true path to salvation is through accepting that this multiverse has no Wisdom, no Purpose, no Absolutes!” He brushed his hand, more adherence discharged, and my Foehn was wiped off his now pristine body, flying towards me. I quickly grasped it and withdrew the flame energies from it, preventing myself from being consumed by my own fires, though in my haste I did some damage to my sacral Chakra and network, Ether Healing quickly repairing it.

“I’ll hold this one down!” I called, realising the situation had escalated. “Everyone else focus on securing our advantage!”

The man before me seemed unbothered by my order, his smirk growing. He was naked now, which was unpleasant, but again, he seemed to disregard any shame from that. He merely wiped ash off one shoulder and spoke quietly, his words enough to raise my hackles. “Perfection is the realm of the Divine, an incorruptible, immortal body, unageing, indestructible, perpetual. No wonder many of the fools who spread their futile seeds offer so many ways to restore oneself. It is childish, simple. Yet… effective.” He smirked at me knowingly, before turning his head, gazing at Daiyu. “She has one too. I shall take it and add it to…”

Tsurugi flashed, my strike, bearing all the efforts I’d put into Flexible Serpent Sword, the Tsumura Style I’d cobbled together, into a single ruthless motion. The head went flying, and I then spun, light element forged into a whip-like strike, the beam bending, as implausible as that was, cleaving through the bears rushing in on our flanks, slicing them clean into pieces.

“…my collection…” the now-severed head continued speaking, as if it was still attached. “…for I am the Truth you fear. And my… our… gifts are pure, as only the primordial, the beginning before the beginning, the Wisdom of Truth, can be…”

The head melted away to bloody, slimy black goop, while in a truly horrific fashion, a new one sprouted on the headless body of my enemy, and immediately his fists were coming towards me, his speed and strength now somehow exceeding mine, even with my boost from Rose. That can’t be… right… wait, it can!

Working out his trick, which was forcing his body past reasonable limits and relying on regeneration, my own blood started to boil, pushing my Statistics up still further, Boiling Blood roaring within me, elements cascading. I’ll worry about the damage later…

“It seems I must finish this.” Mae grimaced, and as her fists and tails were exchanging blows with the Kamuy, her fur suddenly began to shine in nine entwined shades of brilliance, and the pressure around us increased, the Boundary wavering, the sky cracking further, the lightning turning from silver to a rainbow of colours I couldn’t even describe.

“You are foolish. It is not as though I do not understand…” Elemental energies were gathering, particularly earth, fire and even some metal element, and Mae’s golden-blonde fur and hair now seemed to shine like true metal. “…if you survived to this day, your hatred must be truly immense. Yet…”

The Kamuy roared, spewing flame out of the mountain upon its back, which turned into flaming meteors the size of boulders, bombarding Mae. However, the expected explosion didn’t occur, and even as I clashed with my opponent, Tsurugi ripping bloody furrows in the enemy, crying out in disgust as she was soiled with the stinking, sluggish blood he shed, flicking it off with aether, I gasped as I saw the boulders held in transparent hands of aether, each at the ends of Mae’s tails. More tails, illusory yet tangible, had appeared, woven from aether and elements, and they waved like tentacles, drawing streaks in the hot, ash-filled air.

“…what good does it do, perishing here? I had thought you all extinct. Yet you lived… I shall not blame you for seeking vengeance, for the deaths below. I have no right… but… just as Guanyin supposedly had compassion for all, so too shall I. Join your kind in whatever afterlife you may.” Her tails began to strike, faster and faster, blurring into ten, twenty, fifty, a hundred, no, a thousand, like the arms of the Goddess of Compassion and Mercy. Though it’s Kannon I know her as, isn’t it?

The Flame-bearing Mountain Kamuy tried to resist, but it was outclassed. Flesh broke, stone shattered, bones sundered, and blood gouted, though Mae’s endless cascade of blows swept it away, even as the pressure from her tore at the very fabric of the Boundary around us. The flaming boulders she had constrained she tossed away, sending them through the enemy ranks like bowling balls, and the undead Kamuy were mere pins, crushed, shattered, or knocked aside into the crater. Buildings exploded too, Barracks, Spires, Silos and more shredded and crushed, and ether and elemental energies scattered. The Territory drank what it could, but with many of us drawing it in ourselves, we managed to extract a decent haul.

“Mind where ya be throwing that!” Blue griped, nearly struck down by an errant boulder, even as she was using a mace of solidified lava to batter her foes, her sanity fortunately retained this time. She was struggling, her strength not fully returned, but alongside Red, and coupled with the freezing mushrooms sprouting from many of the undead, they were reaping a brutal toll, and of course not forgetting to smash any Building they passed to pieces. The incoming fire from Emplacements was much reduced, Daiyu also not forgetting to swing her bells constantly, reshaping the earth to crush the hidden Buildings, revealing one weakness to such sneaky tactics.

“My apologies. I was… carried away.” As Red, Blue, and the retreating Sekka, all froze momentarily at her offered words of consolation, Mae continued to pound a lightning-fast flurry of attacks into the Kamuy, reminding me that no matter how strong I was, I certainly hadn’t reached the peak here in Earth. Though, it might be because of our Connection, because she is a Truesoul-bound Artefact, I can feel her internal damage accumulating. I was about to warn her, but all her blows combined into one final corkscrewing strike, driving the Kamuy into the bedrock, smashing through it, in fact, and a large portion of the crater collapsed, carrying yet more infrastructure into the flames, and exposing some honeycombed caverns beneath our feet.

“Now, if you still live, best stay down. We are not here to kill, so we can… negotiate… later, although…” She stared balefully at my opponent, who was growing faster and stronger, his body leaking foul black smog. “…that must be expunged. I know foulness when I see it.”

“When did you get so forgiving and philosophical, grandmother?” Hana declared with surprise, as she continued to assist Shaeula, Daiyu and Hyacinth in attacking the Chosen. Hyacinth was still pouring out her modified spores protected from the burning heat, while also using her wood element to tear out great vines from the rock below, or rather roots of some kind, black and charred. Daiyu specialised in rapid, elegant close combat Techniques, and while her overall stats were lacking, that was only because she was deliberately holding back her own growth so as to maximise her long-term foundation, and her prodigious talents more than made up for that.

Shaeula fought with her Pinwheels as an extension of herself, the wires darting in and cutting, shocking and burning the Chosen, who despite his advantages, was looking rather ragged and run down. A blast of fire-enhanced wind from her, followed by a rain of water bullets and beams of light, drove him back, only for Hana to spring up and prove she too was no pushover, as her five tails replicated a far inferior version of Mae’s massive attack, golden strikes, though merely of fire and earth, bolstered by aether, slamming into the back of the short man, staggering him, forcing him to spit blood, silencing his ranting about our evils.

“How simply annoying, frustrating, hateful!” My opponent kicked out at me, only to lose a leg to Tsurugi’s sharp edge. As he tried to recover it, I decided to stop hoarding more of my own trump cards. Prominence Dawn flared into life, a shining circle of light, wreathed in inky darkness, begging for fuel. Foehn poured into it, as it had hurt the bastard last time, revealing what lay beneath him, and it seemed my enemy had noticed the danger, as he froze for a moment.

“Eat this radiant flame that consumes everything!” I cried, and suddenly the volcano was eclipsed by a second sun, the light released carrying the growing power of Foehn.

“Ashes, dust… it burns…” Flesh evaporated, unable to even have a chance to regenerate. Inky blood boiled away to nothing, bones blackened and then shattered to powdered ash, which too disintegrated. The uncanny, repulsive black rib was a tougher target, though even that began to shrink and smoulder, crimson eyes bursting apart.

“This will not do, not at all, at all, at all, at all!” Just as victory seemed in our grasp, a cone of molten rock seeming like dragon’s breath extending past me towards the crater, dug by the brilliance I had unleashed, the Flame-bearing Mountain Kamuy spoke, despite it being reduced to a broken, mangled mess. It swelled up, like a grotesque balloon, expanding from the crater in which it had fallen, and before any of us could react, even Mae, as she was fatigued from her efforts and suffering internal injuries, the Kamuy simply burst…

A grotesque and disgusting sight, and a familiar one, leapt out, landing on solid ground. It was a hand, an oddly familiar, yet different one. Whereas the last one was white, this was black, the black of dust and rot. It was larger too, like a grotesque, five-metre spider, and it had seven fingers and a thumb, only reinforcing that allusion. The stump was weeping brackish blood which condensed into dark fog, and a watery liquid spurted from the ragged flesh. Within the hand, a giant mouth with too many tongues lolled, teeth like daggers, and a circle of eyes were rolling through the flesh as though it was clay.

“Stop playing around, lesser me.” The words from the hand resolved into comprehensible ones after several bouts of almost understood, sibilant whispers. Moments later, the disintegrating rib retorted, again, muted, hissing sounds scratching at the edge of consciousness and sanity eventually resolving into words I could understand, spoken with a wicked clarity.

“You insult me, I was merely seeing what he could do. His knowledge should be ours, to create a new, truer world this time!”

The voices made my bleeding eyes and distracted vision worse, but it was hitting everyone else hard too. Even Mae seemed sluggish, confused. Then, I was distracted by the sound of vomiting. Daiyu had struck her own head with one of her bells, the pink jade now stained with red and silver. That impact had temporarily shaken off the effect of the voices, and she raised her wrist. Talismans then appeared in a faint spray of violet sparks, ones I recognised, that we’d made for a boost in mental strength and protection, which had gone unused. She channelled her Qi, and the papers flew to us all, one sticking to her own forehead for a moment, before she cried out, her voice laden with more of her energies. “A perfect self requires a strong spirit! Resist!”

The papers flared into ash, and I felt a brief moment of clarity. All my companions were reasonably strong-willed, even the two Oni, despite Blue’s earlier fall, so they soon shrugged off the effect of the voices.

“We cannot lose this perfect specimen, this perfect place. The Great Lord Of Chaos scattered our Wisdom far and wide, to wait for the appointed time, and find those worthy, those who eschew what is known, and seek what is the purest Truth, seeds of a new beginning.”

“Indeed, such a sorrow, a grand grave of dreams and hopes, called us to this place. There we found him…”

I wasn’t alone in hurling out a tide of attacks. The giant spider-hand was bombarded, and Shaeula’s Pinwheels spun towards it. The monster didn’t seem to care though, and sparks were struck from its slashed skin, inky mist and clear, putrid liquid scattering instead of blood. It leapt to and crouched over the rib, and turned its numerous warped eyes to the Chosen the others were fighting.

“Now. Bearer of more than two thousand years of hatred, inheritor of grudges, revenge, wrath! Do it!”

“Yes, do it, do it, do it. The vengeful dead cry out, the truth is false, black is white, death becomes… rebirth!”

“Call forth! Our power, power wrung from the wicked…”

“…imbues you!”

The chorus from the two foul creatures, more fragments of Akoman, surely, cried out. The benefits of the Talismans Daiyu used were fading, the Qi burned away by their taunting voices, but I focused on my bonds, and tried to reassure everyone. Sorry Red, Blue, you’re on your own…

“Strike now!” Shaeula threw her Mortal Fragarach like a projectile, accelerating it with wind element, and she wasn’t alone.

“Jade Yang Stance: Crushing Palms!” Daiyu’s two hands shot out, slamming into the Chosen’s body, cracking bone, forcing Shaeula’s blade deeper, though she had made sure to miss his heart.

Hana’s blades of wind she unleashed also struck home, and numerous deep wounds were opening up now, exposing his cracked ribs. Hyacinth then reached out with her root-like tentacles, attempting to seize him and crush him to immobility. I didn’t want this, we’re the invader here, in some ways, repeating history, but…

Light flashed, ready to disable his limbs, and indeed, it seemed like I’d succeeded, burning through his knees and elbows. As the weird, hooked staff fell to the floor, I let out a sigh of relief, only to hear a trio of jingling chimes.

“The mud here is watered by blood and grief… life is but clay, moulded by the hands of others…”

“…and death is simply a cycle, a retreat, a relinquishing…”

A massive amount of soullight was being gathered, surging up from the volcano, and I regretted my clemency in not destroying the odd structures below. Though I’m not sure it would have stopped this, as… I think this is a reservoir of already gathered power…

I could feel it on the Material too, and as Tsukiko looked on, concerned, my Qi Perception was spiking, and the letters announcing I had reached Rank 2, and then Rank 3 quickly after, were welcome, even if they were rather blurred, as if it was projected through static.

“What is happening?” Tsukiko asked, concerned, as my head had turned away from the water supply we were following, to peer back at Mount Rishiri.

“Something troubling. But I think I have a better idea of the purpose of what’s happening here…” was my response. Back in the Boundary, the badly-wounded, impaled and now trapped Chosen was laughing, as the rib-like fragment of Akoman, now much reduced after being bathed in the light of Prominence Dawn, had regenerated part of its form, a half-torso, lumpy and malformed, and a single arm, holding the melted flail, the triangle atop it broken, the metallic weights ringing and jangling a discordant song as the creature shook it. Then, the Chosen suddenly collapsed, heart giving out in Hyacinth’s grasp.

So… anticlimactic… no, that’s not it at all…

The surge of soullight poured into the corpse, and the hands twitched. Seeing that, Hyacinth twisted her roots, and the body came apart in a welter of… wait, not blood, but… water? Seeing that, Shaeula frowned, casting out her hand, wind snatching her sword, somehow still clean, back to her hand.

“From bitter, blood-soaked mud comes a rebirth…”

“All are born anew, though… this life, a mockery, a warped, twisted, dead shell repeats. Gods may be immortal, perfect, whole… but Gods can also be slain, divided, truly steeped in Wisdom…”

“Through the Water of Chaos, and the hymns of anguish cried by the mourners, mould this clay anew!”

“To dust all go, and from dust all return!”

“Arise, arise, arise, arise, rise, rise, rise…”

Mae attacked the spider-hand, her blows rocking it, snapping bones, leaving several fingers limp, blowing out several eyes, but it merely flopped away, laughing madly, while its companion was chanting repetitively and ominously. The volcano roared, plumes of ash, lava and boiling mud shooting into the trembling skies, and the Boundary shuddered, suffering further harm…

The ooze that had spilled from the endless slain undead Kamuy boiled too, forming a sea, and it swept towards us. We all retreated, unwilling to be engulfed by it, and as it flowed over the corpse, and the two fragments of Akoman, they sunk in, mad laughter and cries of “Arise… rise…” filling the air. The soullight was drawing something different in, something distant, and incorporating it, and with a great rumbling, like a major earthquake, the mud erupted. First, out rose the restored Flame-bearing Mountain Kamuy, or rather, the shell being parasitised, followed by the renewed body of the opponent I’d defeated.

“That is quite-quite disheartening…” Shaeula muttered, speaking for us all. “…it seems we must-must do it all over again.”

“If we can dooo it once, we can do it twice. It is like sweeping the flooooors…” Hyacinth lightened the mood, as undead Kamuy poured from the filth, eager to kill us. And lastly…

“When the great bull came to me, I didn’t know what to think…” The Chosen we had killed rose up, whole again, his dark skin unmarked, his crooked staff held in one hand idly. “…but then it told me I was suitable to hold the power of a God. A God… The power of rebirth from death, forging anew from fertile river clay. I was a nobody. Just a lost soul. But then… I tasted it…” He glanced over at the two companions, as they prepared for battle again. “…my purpose, my birthright, my heritage! I would have been someone, but it was all taken from me. From us. Japan was ours! It was the birthplace of the Kamuy! They forged it! And you filthy Kitsune, Oni, Kami and worse, your ancestors who treated us like slaves, or chattel to be exterminated…” His eyes glared venomous hatred at me. “…all of you must repent with your lives! And only then… can death become rebirth! Oh Osiris!” He raised his shepherd’s crook, for surely it was that, judging by the myths I remembered, and the fragment of Akoman swung the three metallic heads of the flail he held. “We will rise anew until the waters and mud runs red with vile blood!”

“Indeed…” the fragment of Akoman smirked maliciously, his voice back to normal, that of his usurped shell. “…you see? No matter how many times you defeat them, they shall be reborn!” He waved the flail at the hordes. “Submit, surrender, fall before our great benefactor here…” His tone shifted, to one of barely hidden mirth. “…and perhaps those of you who are not guilty shall be spared. Else… you will fail, as flesh, blood and bone have limits, whereas mud, water and death are everlasting, inexhaustible, boundless!”

“The Buildings haven’t come back.” Daiyu whispered, and I nodded. That’s not all, is it? Inexhaustible, you say? That’s… not exactly true. Nothing can be, can it? Even the Gods have limits, Tan, Lin and Rose have told me that, the Norns too. Besides…

Hyacinth snickered, and I could see her withdrawing the root-like tentacles through the sickening, putrid mud which reeked of dust and death. My Eyes, still so fragile, were watering and leaking blood, but I could observe what covered the roots, a great mass of giant toadstools, and then a quick mental count of the Kamuy corpses and their states revealed… Of course, it’s like that. Nice. Still…

“Mae…” I exchanged a glance with her. “Take Bintara and Sekka, they’re not much use in these fiery conditions. Don’t worry, we’ll be fine. Besides…” I glanced to the north-west, and following my gaze, to what was on the near horizon, Mae nodded.

“Very well then. I would tell you not to fall here, but…” She raised one hand, a whirlpool of her energies surging. “…Mountain Breaker!” The orb of light exploded, shredding dozens of Kamuy apart.

As wind element shielded her from the debris thrown up by her devastating detonation, she brushed at her kimono idly, straightening the hem as though she was merely strolling through a park, not a battlefield. “…such arrogant nobodies such as these will not overcome you with their admittedly annoying tricks. Before strength, it matters not how many ants there are, a single stomp and… it is over.”

With that, she turned and grabbed Sekka and Bintara with her elongated tails, and despite their protests, she leapt away, down the volcano towards the coast.

“All right then. You heard her, little ants…” I taunted them, knowing that the fragments of Akoman seemed prideful and short-tempered, and the Chosen here wasn’t in his right mind, too blinded by hatred to respond with calm decision making. “…if you’re so confident we’re your prey…” I raised one hand, gesturing for them to come at us, while beside me, Hyacinth was acting subtly, spreading more roots and spores through the rock below us, the effort making her sweat and shake. “…I’ve heard the saying that enough ants can devour an elephant, but… that only works when the elephant can’t escape…”

At my words, the three of them were visibly enraged, as I’d have expected, considering the tremendous amount of damage we’d done to this Territory. The thought of letting us run away, largely unharmed would surely leave them seething. Seeing that, I clapped my hands, signalling the second stage of our battle, as the undead Kamuy rushed at us frantically, the few remaining Emplacements firing…