Chapter 20

I didn't act immediately, first of all, I am not in such a hurry to ignore decorum or hurt innocents, but I made sure to focus all my will on him, to confirm Takae's suspicions.

Thanking Takae I put the feather back into my storage, and send a little wheat needle to his clothes. To track him in case I lose him.

"Tesshin, Hume, that boy has the feather," I whisper to them, pointing with my eyes.

"Hmm... Naoe Yamato." The old man mutters as he caresses his beard.

"He's on his way to see Momoyo, isn't he?" Hume asks Tesshin.

"They're good friends, probably more. We can confront him when he visits Momoyo. If she's awake she will help us." He says distractedly. "I will tell the doctor that she is only allowed to have one visitor if they all want to visit her go in turns." He mutters.

"Good, I'll set a perimeter to ward off people. Takae, come with me." I say as I start walking towards the entrance of the Temple.

"The Kuki Corporation is diverting all streets and highways away from here. Our military branch is setting a perimeter as well, and evacuating all civilians." He says as he pushes a button on his wrist.

"Good." With a nod, I and Takae leave towards the main gates of the Temple. A big tori gate that leads towards long stairs.

"On the other side," I say as I throw Takae a bag. "Follow my steps." I grin.

"Sure." She says as she checks the bag.

The reason Takae is so good at imitating is her speed and reaction, she can imitate instantly what others are doing with her lightning-fast reflex and her impressive focus, to an outsider it'll look like a work of coordination. But in truth, she's just as lost as them.

We kneel beside the pillars of the Tori door, a hand resting on the pillar. The other hand is inside the bag of anvil dust.

One finger, deep into the dust.

The iron flakes, the fine dust. Iron. Waste by the forge. Remnants of something purer, something raw. Something that changed and became something new, something impressive instead of a brick of metal. The blacksmith dirt or anvil dust represents change and impurities. Here, the impurities are the people.

I type an X with my finger on the Tori. Takae follows suit.

Here, the change meant the air. I press my hand on the floor, as does Takae.

"Every seven meters, circular pattern," I say towards Takae as she nods at my words.

And with that, we just rotate around the mountain painting Xs on the walls, trees, and floors every seven meters. We're fast, so we were done within ten minutes, enough to have all the preparations complete.

"One last step." I smile at Takae as we are on our starter position, just that I am on the pillar she was and she's on mine.

Closing the distance to the middle of the tori, Takae follows suit.

With the little bit of dust left, I dump it in the middle of the ground. I kneel on it, raising a hand to the heavens.

"Shine on me, will of change," I whisper to the wind.

"Shine on me, will of change," Takae repeats instantly.

Suddenly, our hands shine pale blue, and we lower it in a slap, to hit the little mountain of dust.

Suddenly, all the Xs start shining pale blue, and all the people that remained, get a vacant eye and start walking towards their home, animals leave for a while as well. The monks in meditation wake up and look around in confusion.

"Good, that'll do. Thanks, Takae!" I smile towards her.

"Hehe." She laughs demurely. "I don't know what I did or anything... But I can learn!" She's excited to try new things. Good.

"Let's go, that kid is probably with Momoyo right now," I say, as I reapply the lipstick.

"Are you sure you want to do this now? You barely rested, and the last fight was quite big." She looks at me in worry as I pass her the lipstick.

"Well, what a better opportunity? He's surrounded, trapped, and his biggest card out of commission." I mull it over for a few seconds.

"What I hope the most is that Ishmallah hasn't absorbed him completely. In any case, Takae. Take this." I say as I pass her a joker card.

"Mh?" She tilts her head in confusion. Ah! So cute, I'll eat her right now if I had time.

"A tool, to capture. Just pour your energy on it, and slap someone with the face towards them, if they're knocked out or they ran out of energy you'll be able to capture anyone. If they're in good shape they will resist it." I explain.

"I see, then why are you giving it to me? Are we going to capture anyone?" She asks as I touch her and her clothes disappear only for her armor to reappear.

"Yes and no, just insurance. I am sure you'll find it useful if we need it."

As we walk through the temple, we can hear shouts from the house.

"What do you mean we have to leave?!" The scream of a girl woke me up from my reveries.

"Hm? All civilians should have left..." I hum as we walk faster towards the sound.

"Ah," I say as I look at the scene. Momoyo's friends, except Yamato, were all arguing with Tesshin.

Tesshin looks at me and subtly raises one eyebrow. I nod and focus my will on the people here.

"Ah... You!" One of the looks and points at me.

"Takae, can you knock them all out in a flash?" Before I could even finish my question lightning tore the room and all of them were knocked out and safely placed on the ground.

"All of them have the aura of Ishmallah. That's how they resisted the ward. Put them somewhere safe Tesshin, that energy was new. Yamato is onto us and he's alone with Momoyo." I say as I sprint past him towards Momoyo's room.

I find Hyumu's body on the way, blood around him. "Takae! Bring him to the Kuki, have him drink this, and pour it on his wounds as well!" I throw her a bottle and keep running.

"On it!" I hear Takae's voice, as her form gets wrapped in lightning.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!" Fuck, that's Momoyo!

I kick down the door, only to find Naoe Yamato or his body. Holding Momoyo by the hair, kissing her roughly. She's bandaged and dazed.

From his mouth, a purple mist is traveling towards her. Without thinking it twice, I reinforce my body to the max and kick Yamato on the chest.

Like steel, his body bends but doesn't break. A bubbly laugh escapes his mouth.

"Buhuhuhahahahaha! You're too late, mortal!" The voice of Yamato echoes with the voice of Ishmallah.

"Hmpf," I grunt my sword flashing towards his head.

-clang- Claws, Momoyo's fingernails stop my sword.

"What?" I jump backward dodging an axe kick. Once the smoke disappears Momoyo appears in her new form.

Her skin is replaced by some kind of chitin, her purple chitin covers all her body, her hands and legs became claws with sharp nails.

A tail is swishing lazily behind her, the only thing left of hers is her hair and red blood eyes.

Yamato, however still looks normal, except for the purple aura that surrounds him.

"How? What did you do?" I demand as I prepare a gravity talisman in secret.

"Hahaha! Girl, I arrived here almost twenty years ago! These fools found me when they were children, and hid me under an acacia. A memory for the future, they said." He grumbles. "However I managed to influence this host, to dig me out afterward, so they didn't notice. I have been influencing him for over 15 years!"

"And yet, you're still so damn weak." I mock him.

"Indeed. He didn't want to become strong at all. Only to study and become president. Bah, I used his greed to control others." He explains.

"And you ar-" Before I finish my phrase I threw the talisman in front of him, a purple magnetic wave flashing towards him and Momoyo. Forcing him to his knees, and Momoyo to look at me with hatred.

With a flash, she appeared in front of me, a hand knife ready to skewer me. She's faster than before.

Parrying her stab with my sword my cheeks bulge and I spit one liter of holy water at her.

She ignores the water as if it was nothing and keeps stabbing at me. Fuck, she's not a demon then.

Bringing out my umbrella I open it and spin it, blocking every stab as I was sent flying through walls.

"Momoyo!?" Tesshin shouts as he flashes by us. "What's going on, Belatsunat?" He says as he watches our clash.

"Yamato did something to her! He blew his essence on her!" I reply ducking under a purple ray that melted everything it touched.

"She's" I flash beside Momoyo and stab her with a rapier clad in poison. "Not" she stopped the blade with two fingers, I will it to disappear and in my other hand, a trench knife appears. "Herself!" I saw as I slash towards her forearm.

Tesshin's form trembles as he suddenly appears in front of Momoyo. Unleashing seven hundred seventy-seven punches in 0.02 seconds.

His robes flutter as Momoyo's figure flashes and plunge into the mountain, her chitin broken.

He claps his hands and a huge buddha with one hundred forty-seven hands appear in lotus. Every single hand suddenly punches non-stop towards Momoyo.

"Go." He tells me as he nods towards Yamato. "I'll keep her busy, finish what you came here to do, and save my grandaughter." the Or else went unsaid.

"Alright." I am at a loss of words, this old man... Is way stronger than what I anticipated.

Takae's figure flashes before me. "What happened?" She says as she looks at the onslaught of Tesshin.

"Momoyo is being mind-controlled. Also, she's a monster right now. How is Hume?" I ask.

"He's okay, I didn't even know he could be knocked out. He's supposedly as strong as Tesshin." She mutters.

"That so?"... Perhaps I underestimated the people of this world too much. Fuck. I won't make that mistake again. We find Yamato trying to leave the temple, but the barrier prevents it.

"Barriers, seals, protection... It's always the same with you, human." He mutters, turning around and looking at me in the eye with hatred.

"Give up, Ishmallah. Just surrender peacefully and give me your feather. You won't suffer, I promise." I say calming towards him.

"Do you think me stupid?" He smirks at me. "We both know the feather is the nexus of my consciousness. I even felt the feather you have, void with nothing. You murdered one of me already, I am not gonna give you another." He opens the shirt of Yamato, revealing a big purple eye on his chest.

"I have tasted the pleasure of the flesh. Now I understand you, humans, always sinning. How could you not!? The feeling of overpowering others, ravaging them. It's intoxicating!" He shouts with grandeur.

A flash of lightning interrupts his speech, as Takae is beside him in an instant kicking his head. But with contempt, he stops the kick with his head and gravity.

I throw a gravity pearl to nullify his gravity allowing Takae to get free and flash beside me.

"But you are always meddling on my business, Chaos Bringer." He mutters and lowers his arms.

I clap, a tongue of fire surrounds my vicinity as it flashes towards him.

"We need to discover his weakness, Takae!" I shout as I travel with the fire with a greatsword, poised to slash.

"Gotcha!" She answers as she disappears with a flash.

"Hmpf." He scoffs as the fire vanishes with a wave of his hand, he sidesteps the greatsword but didn't expect my jump knee.

He doesn't flinch or seem to feel it. The eye in his chest closes for an instant before opening and blasting me with a huge laser.

My umbrella appears in front of me and I open it. I was sent flying but unharmed.

Takae appears behind him as he blasts me, and puts a talisman on his back, quickly disappearing again. I snap my fingers as my umbrella shields me from the blast. A ray of thunder hits him.

With a grunt, his eye twitches for an instant.

I reappear in front of him, with my twin sai, stabbing and slashing. Yamato just dodges every hit, weaves through my attacks. But he's busy with me, Takae appears for an instant placing another talisman on his back.

His mouth curves downward, he's getting frustrated. He ignores my attacks, as they leave marks on his body. And tries to grab me.

Jumping backward I snap my fingers again, the Talisman igniting on black flames.

"Argh!" He growls, this time a burn mark appears on him. However, he flexes his energy, trying to heal it. But the marks from my say absorb his energy and wounds suddenly open.

"What? Abyss?"

"You sound surprised, Ishmallah." I grin as I and Takae appear beside him, punching him two, five, seven times and retreating. Snaping my fingers more talismans explode.

"Fuck you! Fuck you! FUCK YOU!" He screams, his body broken and bloodied.

Black purple energy surrounds him, his body transforms into one looking a lot like Momoyo, but male. Suddenly, the explosions from Tesshin stopped, and his bloodied figure was sent flying and landed near us.

"Well... That's clearly not my granddaughter." He spits blood. "Any plans?" He focuses with open eyes towards Momoyo as I watch Yamato.

"We need to exhaust the energy of Momoyo and then drain his essence from her so she can be herself again. I don't think she's going to last much longer." I mutter. As Momoyo and Yamato circle around us, both with purple flames surrounding them.

"Fire!" A voice screams from the perimeter, suddenly, countless robots and butlers fire some kind of cannon towards Momoyo and Yamato. I slap my hands on the ground, forming a rudimentary barrier.

"Takae!" I scream as a few pills appear beside me.

"Got it!" She flashes, and the pills disappear along with her.

"Genocide Chainsaw!" Hyumu Shouts as he appears amidst the rays of the rifles, his leg clads in his chaotic energy, flashing before anyone, destroying anything. It's stronger than before, or perhaps they all just held back a lot to not destroy everything around? Man, people are weird as fuck in this world. And they made me underestimate them.

I am getting angry, I clap my hands and form symbols with them, my energy coalescing into a huge chain that suddenly flies and wraps around Momoyo.

However, she dodges the chain and flashes towards me.

Hume's kick lands on Yamato, but his energy pushes Hume away, both retreating.

Tesshin steps in front of me, waving his arms in circular motions, arresting Momoyo's momentum, enough that the chain bounced back and wrapped around her leg.

"Fuuin!" I shout as I slap her chest.

This energy is not hers, the real Momoyo is still inside, and her energy is strong.

Countless words made of ink suddenly surround Momoyo, her body writhing. The chain circled every single one of her limbs a few times before knotting itself behind her.

"Sui!" I shout, my cheeks suddenly bulge and I spit at her oil, made of grain from the Elysium.

Her chitin bubbles and she screams in pain.

"Dai!" I clap my hands, around Momoyo's face. "Open her mouth!" Tesshin quickly complies. And then I kiss Momoyo deeply.

Suctioning as hard as I can, I separate from her slowly, as purple smoke comes from her, her body trembling from pain.

The smoke travels from her mouth to mine, but I have a gourd in my mouth, who sucks the smoke before it could even touch me.

Momoyo's chitin slowly falls to the ground, and her purple flesh writhes and turns to her normal color, just a little paler than usual.

"We're done here!" I yell, a butler, an old man with grey-blue hair appears and takes Momoyo.

"I'll bring her to a safe zone while she recuperates." He nods toward Tesshin and leaves.

While we were doing this, Hume and Takae were tag-teaming Yamato.

She's bombarding him with all the talismans left while he's forcing Yamato to face him, not unlike what we did earlier.

It's just that it's not working. Takae's spiritual strength is not strong enough to make the talismans work against a being like him. And for all of Hume's strength he's not able to hurt him at all. But at least they stalled him.

Tesshin and I flash on the sides of Yamato and started stabbing the core nerves of his shoulders and back.

"Foolish, I am not using this body biologically right now. It's merely a puppet." He laughs, Yamato this time did not move his mouth.

Tesshin and I jump away, as two purple spikes rose from the ground.

Yamato's form is shrouded in his purple energy, but now purple lightning starts traveling through his arms, and his figure bulges.

Suddenly, Yamato is no more, instead, there's a huge figure of ten meters, muscles upon muscles, and with no head. Instead on his chest, there's Ishmallah eye.

Purple skin, four arms. Each of his fingers ends in a spike.

"Raaargh!" His roar shakes the sky, clouds appearing in the sky.

"Kawakami Style: Following Hound!" Tesshin screams, as his body transforms into hundreds of big wolfs.

"Hand of the Arab!" Hume rushes towards the Eye, faster than even Takae. His whole body was a spear of blood.

"Takae, here!" I shout towards her as I pass her my holy sword, coated in dark blood.

She nods and disappears on Yamato's ankles.

I kneel on the ground and close my eyes.

I spread my arms, like an eagle about to fly, drops of multicolor water falling from my me, forming wings.

"Fall into the black," I whisper. A little black dot appeared under me.

"Fall into the depths," I mutter. The little hole gets bigger, now it surrounds me.

A crash sounds near me, the sound of flesh getting torn and droplets of blood in the ground. I ignore the sounds of battle.

"Fall into the night," I say. The hole gets bigger, five meters in diameter.

"Fall into the void!" I scream. The hole, fifteen meters in diameter suddenly grows spikes all around the perimeter.

I open my eyes and stand up. Waving my wings I appear in front of Ishmallah, who's about to stomp Takae's legs.

Crossing my arms in front of him, the hole closes like a mouth, devouring everything I want inside it.

Takae uses the chance to flash away. My void mouth eats Ishmallah's energy, his body get's smaller and smaller.

"You! Always with your fucking shit! You aren't even that strong!" He screams in rage. His voice gets weaker and weaker as his body gets smaller.

Finally, my technique ends, and a Knocked out Naoe Yamato appears in the ground, a vertical scar in his chest, where his heart should be.

With a sigh, I wipe my sweat and look at Takae, she's bloodied, but not hurt. The lipstick worked. She's breathing heavy and the armor is torn.

We four walk towards Yamato, bastard, he's sleeping so peacefully.

"Don't kill him if you can," Tesshin morosely says.

"Alright." I crouch and stab my hand to his chest, however, before I could take the feather his hand grabs my arm.

He opens his eyes, and a familiar voice comes from him. Eyes filled with the darkness and stars of space. "I think I want this boy as a vessel, with the feather included." He smiles evilly.

-sigh- "Amatsu-Mikaboshi." I take one of the Abyss sai and slash towards him, but his body fades and appears at seven meters from us.

"Now, now, I have been observing you, who have a piece of the abyss. And I think I can deal with you." He smirks evilly, black smoke surrounds Yamato.

And his figure changes once more.

Completely covered in black from head to toe. Thin black tentacles and spikes on his body. Long claws. No pupils at all. Large fangs on his upper jaw, a smile way too wide for a human.

Amatsu-Mikaboshi, the evil god of stars.