Chapter 112: Tokyo Hell (VIII) - The Moon's Hope

[Chang'e POV]

It was dark and cold, with only nothing but wearing thin clothing, the Moon Goddess could only hug herself right on the corner in despair.

It was already night time in where she was imprisoned at, the temperature of the moon was -173° C.

It was freezing for her, even if she's a God and has resistant to cold, she still could feel the coldness of the moon.

Ice we're forming already on her prison, you could see her breathe everytime she breathes; it was as thick as a fog, and her body was weak and trembling from the cold.

On the wall was a toll that Chang'e wrote, it appears that today is her 40000th year being imprisoned on the moon, and she was crying because she was afraid of what's gonna happen the next on the next day or the day before that. It was just her fourth day being imprisoned and she was already very weak.

"Please... Mymy hero... Save me..." She kept on saying that whenever it turned into midnight.

Ever since getting blamed by the other Chinese Gods and getting imprisoned on the moon, she has dreamed for a hero to save her in this eternal sadness.

Chang'e wanted to be the young maiden that was saved by a brave hero in any story book. There's no way she could escape this hell alone so she knew that there's got to be someone in this world; whether that person is mortal she didn't care, as long as she's saved from this cage then she's okay with it.

In exchanged from being saved by that person, Chang'e wanted to devote her entire life onto that person.

"Anyone... Please, save me..."

"Hmm... Just forty thousand years from getting imprisoned here and you're already in a pitiful shape... *Sigh* Are you reallly a God?"

"Who are... You..? Are... You... M-my... Hero..?" She asked softly, still in pain and couldn't speak properly, but the man who talked still heard what she said.

"Hero?" The man laughed upon hearing that. "Are you already getting delusional Chang'e? Well I guess you won't recognize me because I changed my voice, but I'll just say that I'm one of the Chinese Gods that you know."

"Please don't go near me!" Chang'e screamed in pain afer hearing the person was an old acquaintance, she hid herself on the corner hugging herself and was screaming for help.

She was trembling in fear, she knew that outside of the cage she is in is someone who brought her to this painful hell. "Please don't hurt me! I'll do anything! I don't want to die!" She screamed in agony.

"Don't worry, don't worry Chang'e. I won't kill you, because it's just a waste of potential, with you having the strength to destroy the nine suns and drinking the Elixir of Immortality, your strength would be on par with even Zeus or Odin themself."

Chang'e was confused of what the man said and it also pained her more because the man was not the hero she was looking for but instead he just wanted to use her power.

Due to her disappointment and anger she didn't reply to what the man said, Chang'e returned to her original spot and continued hugging herself to warm down.

"*Sigh* Don't worry Chang'e, I know that there's someone that'll save you, one day... Even if it takes years, decades, centuries, or even eons! Maybe humanity might die or even every living being on Earth dies, I know that there will be someone that'll save you."

"....." Even with the encouragement of the mysterious man, Chang'e isn't trusting everything tis man says.

She knew that haviing a hero save her is nothing but a mere fantasy. 'A hero saving a maiden encaged in eternity is nothing but a fairytale... No matter how much I wait, no matter how much I cry and scream, there will be no one that will save me and wipe down my never-ending tears.'

"I see... Chang'e..." The man sat beside the cage and looked at the Earth. "Did you know that the strongest thing in the world is not skills or weapons? Instead it's an emotion called hope?"

"Hope..?"

"Yes hope! Even if it's odd I agree that it is the strongest weapon in the Universe! I actually had a conversation with the Gods from other Myths, I was amazed y he stories they told about their heroes, you liked them right, heroes?"

"...."

"*Cough* Now where was I? Oh right, in Greek Myth there was a Hero named Heracles, he is the son of that bastard Zeus with his other woman, seriously why can't Hera cut that guy's cock so that he wouldn't cheat? Well anyway, Heracles suffered to many hardship because of Hera's jealousy but even so he didn't give up because you know why?"

"..."

"Because has hope on his side and remained strong, there was another hero on Norse Myth named Sigurd, he was just an ordinary man with a holy sword, but even if his word didn't power his body a lot, he still killed one of the strongest dragon in Norse Myth! You know how he killed that dragon despite being only a mortal human?"

"....."

"Again it was hope! Seriously, after hearing their boasting about how strong the Heroes on their Myths I was jealous! So I looked all over China searching for a good Hero, well the Emperors are strong human indeed but they're not like the weak to strong type of dudes tat trained they're entire life to become strong, so I searched for more and found a monk named Tang Sanzang! Well... He's in the Buddhist Myth but he's Chinese so I asked Buddha if he's okay with me taking Sanzang from him to become a Hero of China and he said that he was cool with it. Then I watched him fight that fat fish, dirty pig, and the annoying monkey and you know what helped him defeat those three?"

"...."

"It is-"

"Hope?"

The man smiled when he heard Chang'e answering his questipn. "Yes that's right! Hope gave him the will to remain strong, so Chang'e! As the Chinese Goddess of the Moon, remain strong and don't let despair fill in your heart, let hope fill it!"

"Let hope fill it..?" She looked at her chest and out her palm on her heart. 'Please fill it... Whoever you are please save me...' Chang'e went closer to the wall and looked at it straight with neither expression not emotions on her face. "Whoever you are, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure, I'll answer it as best and honest as I can."

"Who is my Hero?"

***

[Haruki Hotaru POV]

I was in awe of her Soul Bound, her beauty was just bewitching that I cannot stop laying my eyes into her.

It was scary again, seeing that a God used a powerful skill: Soul Bound is giving everyone a massive fright.

But even with the fear that I'm holding deep inside me, I still pity her. Her never-ending cries are the reason why I pity her painful self.

Everyone around me stopped and stared at her when they saw her transformed, it was a mixed feeling of fear and awe.

Zhao Yun who stopped fighting Lucas and Zephyrus smiled in joy. He raised his spear and shouted. "Everyone, keep on fighting and never surrender! This is the gift of the Gods to us, let's put it to good use and win this!"

Their soldiers shouted in pride as they kept on attacking ours, seeing that their allied God Chang'e has used Soul Bound raised their morale and our soldiers started to tremble in fear.

"Everyone! Don't let a single God get you!" Lucas shouted. "The Hero Bones of Hell has already defeated Chang'e once! Stay calm because we have four Gods on our side!" Lucas closed his eyes and clenches his fist. "Please help me... Asmodeus!"

Lucas' body shone and the enemies soldier seems to get slower, he pulled out his sword and one swipe from the air the surrounding enemy encircling him were all slashed by his sword.

Our soldiers saw what Lucas did and thier eyes shone with anger; they held their weapons and ran toward the enemy.

"Help me..."

"What?!"

"Save me..." That was what Chang'e said. "Save me..."

"Sure, I'll save yo-"

"Save me... Save me... Please save me... Save me... Save me... Please save me... Save me... Save me... Please save me... Save me... Save me... Please save me..."

He kept on repeating the word save me, everytime she says it my ear rings from what she is saying. It was making me dizzy, until now now my ear keeps on ringing and I was still hearing her repeating 'save me.'

"Please! Save me!' Her bow became as big as her body, a strong gust of wind was coming out of her compressing onto each other, a large arrow made out of light then appeared on the string of her bow.

"Haruki!" I was grabbed by Susanoo and he brought me to one of the buildings, beside us was Tsukuyomi with Zephyrus and Lucas; the two Gods were creating some sort of barrier to protect us.

"Don't try to escape!" Zhao Yun appeared in front of us with his spear pointing directly at us. "This is your lost, Japane-"

A sharp light was shot by Chang'e but it was blocked by the barrier Tsukuyomi and Susanoo created, but what surprised us was Zhao yun. On his stomach was an arrow, the same arrow that was made from light that Chang'e shot.

Zhao Yun fell on his knees and held the arrow,he pulled it out and used his healing skill to heal it. "What is this..? Why did Lord Chang'e shoot me..?" His face was in confusion of what happened, even us who are his enemis were speechless of what we saw.

Tsukuyomi used the shadow of the building and destroyed the wall for us to see what happened outside. Chang'e was still flying above still crying and what shocked us is that not only some of our soldiers are dead but also the enemies.

"Chang'e has gone berserk..." Tsukuyomi mumbled. "Haruki... Is that skill she's using what I think it is..?"

"Yes... She's using it, Soul Bound..." Seeing the power she's holding right now and how she even targeted her own allies, I remembered when Millie showed me how I first transformed into my Soul Bound.

During my transformation I had power that could rival nine Archangels alone but at that time I was also violent; mostly out of my mind. Looking at Chang'e now I could see how part of Soul Bound works.

"Chang'e's Soul Bound would make her powerful but since this is her first time using it, she has no control over it." My first experienced on Soul Bound was filled with rage because of my parents' death, but Chang'e's Soul Bound is different from mine. Instead of transforming because of wrath, she instead transformed because of her melancholy.

Can you get get Soul Bound because of those negative emotions? I don't know how my father and Lucifer got theirs, but with mine coming from wrath and Chang'e's coming from sorrow what I thought of might be right.

Also, talking about mine. When the

"I don't know if what I thought is right, but from the information I've gathered her powers might rival a powerful God like Zeus."

Everyone became surprised from what I said, but Lucas and Zephyrus who has seen the footage of my first transformation agreed to what I said.

"But it might have a limit though..." My fight with the nine Archangels ended when Michael used his weapon at me, so if we could just use a powerful weapon then we might defeat her. "If we could use any weapon that's powerful enough to easily defeat any ordinary God, then we might stop her-"

"I think I have something to use against her." Flying above us was a woman and with her was Azrael, Luna, and Dawn.

All of them went closer to us and the woman looked at me. "Pleasure to meet you Bones of Hell? Or would you prefer King of Hell? Whatever it is I don't care... *Cough* My name is Freyja, I'm the Norse Goddess of Beauty and War."

I was shaken when I heard who the woman was, Susanoo went closer to her and backed me up. "Just from seeing the look on your eyes I know what you're talking about."

Freyja smiled mischievously and replied. "Well it is possible that the power of Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi isn't enough I'll use my sword Odr."

Everyone except for me were surprised at what she said, I looked at Lucas on why they are surprised and he messaged me

(Odr is said to be the husband of Freyja in Norse Myth, but it looks like she doesn't have a husband but instead Odr is her weapon.)

Now I seem... It was just like the case with Chang'e.

"Then we'll call it truce then?"

"Right!" Freyja answered Susanoo happily. "Until we defeat Chang'e, let's postpone this war, do you all accept?"

"Of course, it's the only way to survive this battle." Susanoo looked at me mischievously and asked. "Hey Haruki, can I ask you for a favor? This is one of the ways to defeat Chang'e."

"Uhmm... Sure?" Oh no, this is gonna be bad isn't it?

"Then be our bait."

"What?!" I knew it, this is gonna be the day I die...