Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi

[Meanwhile, in Yamata-no-Orochi's mountain, Shimane prefecture]

The famous serpent sword of Orochi, Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi, worthy of its moniker, the Heavenly Sword of Gathering Clouds, levitated above them, absorbing the poisonous miasma like a vacuum, drawing the gas away from the Mishakuji into its glowing long blade.

Hakura looked around. Most of his fellow Mishakuji were writhing on the ground in agony, while the others, like Shamoji, clutched their heads tightly from the effects of the miasma.

Instead of fighting, the two beast kings evaded them by releasing a flood of greenish miasma into the area. Had he not drew Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi quickly in time, more casualties would have resulted.

Murakumo-Orochi, the eighth serpent clone of Orochi and the wielder of the infamous Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi sword, sat down on a frost covered boulder. A faint line of an aura-link seen attached to the levitating sword.

Hakura knew him as not much of a talker but a quick thinker in fights.

"Your ruse failed." Murakumo-Orochi stated the obvious as Hakura rolled his eyes.

"Who also thought that the beast kings will mistake me as the human?"

"That's my primary. I am just the eighth clone."

"Fuck that crap."

"The seventh will screw anything that walks on two legs," Murakumo-Orochi replied in nonchalance. "That's the one which made Susanoo's companion moan so loudly Susanoo himself heard."

Hakura slapped his forehead in dismay at how Murakumo-Orochi declared the actions of the other with prideful aplomb, like an accomplishment achieved.

To Hakura, each of Orochi's seven clones could easily embody the seven deadly sins humans spoke of; envy, gluttony, greed or avarice, lust, pride, sloth, and wrath.

Or rather, the seven sins took rotating shifts with the other clones while the seventh clone of Orochi permanently stuck at lust.

Little wonder some factions told the humans that snakes were the symbol of devils, Hakura thought.

They must have met Orochi. He is far more ancient and wiser than them, useful to the Mishakuji for the vast accumulation of knowledge.

And Orochi knew when to flee.

The primary Orochi took the other two away from the mountain, judging by the telepathic rants Ōmononushi sent through the Mishakuji telepathic network.

Orochi never took a losing position, contrary to what they all thought. He used Takamagahara's imprisonment as a farce to keep under their radar.

Cunning, Hakura mused as he sat down on the rock to think as he watched the rotating sword levitating above them, vacuuming the thick fog into its blade, glowing with an aura of power.

Murakumo-Orochi stretched his arms and twist his waist, as though warming up for an exercise.

"Say, how can Orochi just split into… um… you?" Hakura asked while waiting for the other backup Mishakuji to arrive with soul stones for the others to recover.

Usually, a serpent with two or more heads formed a soul but can only duplicate a clone possessing a weaker aura, from being the energy form being divided.

Yet, Murakumo-Orochi held an equal aura strength to the primary Orochi. And only he, not the primary Orochi, always held the Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi, even in battle.

"Soul energy accumulation, instead of your group who recruit the snake souls which undergone the evolution," came his reply.

That explains Orochi's gluttony at consuming primeval beings, but Hakura tilted his head, wondering how he could accumulate without the consequences of imploding.

As though reading his thoughts, Murakumo-Orochi added, "only those of the House of Oyau hold the ability."

The House of Oyau was the one of the infamous imperial serpentine houses, known for being immune to most, if not all, forms of poisons. Unfortunately. when the black hole swallowed their home-world system, it wiped out life, including those from the House of Oyau there. Orochi is the only known survivor through sheer luck of undergoing the final evolution a few centuries before the cosmic event.

That happened even before Hakura was born into the mortal life.

"What if anything dire happens to the primary Orochi?"

"Regenerate." Murakumo-Orochi shrugged while glancing at Hakura, who blinked a few times in confusion at his words.

"Susanoo did a lot of damage, but that idiot split me from the core when he took me to Takamagahara," Murakumo-Orochi changed the topic.

Hakura turned to look at the sword and then Murakumo-Orochi, who pointed at the sword. "That's my tail. By taking my tail, you take me."

"How did you escape?"

"Easy, see the miasma it is absorbing?"

"Uh, huh?"

"Miasma accumulation. Given how long Orochi lived, do you think Takamagahara can tolerate the release, oh say a tenth of those mixed gases?"

Murakumo gave him a sly grin and added, "this miasma isn't even a fraction of what lays in Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi, which had gathered clouds of miasma over at least several millennia."

"They could have sheared you!"

"And get a full release?" Murakumo-Orochi pressed a hand against his chest, with fingers splayed wide in feigned astonishment.

"Ok. But you could do us Jomon a favour."

"I am considered Jomon too. Same reason they can't deal with Arahabaki."

"He would tear them down if he could," Hakura said.

"Those momunofu of his are in millions. Just one detonating is enough to tear up that enormous garden in Takamagahara. If they tried shearing him, he can send that lot to detonate that floaty island of theirs."

"I wonder why both of you never did that."

"Faction killer. I imagine that reputation will do wonders in the hidden dimension," Murakumo replied.

Hakura sighed. Most primeval beings do not tolerate their overpowered counterparts, especially Takamagahara.

Even the Mishakuji themselves had to hide most of their capabilities in the past to avoid persecution, until Takamagahara realised that destroying them was not in their best interests when the land fell to ruin for the living creatures.

Murakumo-Orochi raised his clear forearm at Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi, which flew into it, forming a tattoo of the serpent sword. "The area is clear now… but…"

His eyes glowed and then he glanced at Hakura momentarily with a frown. From the tattoo of the serpent sword, blackish veins begun crawling out of it slowly.

"What is THAT?" Hakura pointed at his forearm.

"Poison within a poison. Rare. That beast is Togōtsu, or his Xitian name, Taowu. I heard of him and that unique miasma, but never seen how it works until now."

"Are you fine? Do we need to get the primary Orochi here?" Hakura noticed the grimace on Murakumo-Orochi face.

Not a good sign. Has Murakumo-Orochi bitten off more than he could chew?

With his hand outstretched to Hakura, Murakumo-Orochi asked, "do you have soul stones?"

Hakura opened his palm to reveal three large pieces. "Enough?"

Murakumo-Orochi nodded as he took the soul stones, only to have an unseen force slap it out of his hands.

"WHO IS THERE?" Hakura shouted, troubled because he didn't detect another presence near.

"That's poison, Orochi," a familiar voice spoke up with the sound of flapping wings overhead shadowing them with no movement in the air, unlike the birds.

They looked up to see the large humanoid figure of Yatagarasu hovering over them with wings shadowing them.

"Yatagarasu!" Hakura exclaimed. "W-what are you doing here?"

"Those two beast kings," Yatagarasu replied. "That or you rather Susanoo come and investigate to find all of you snakes here."

Murakumo-Orochi rolled his eyes at the mention of Susanoo's name. Susanoo would kick up a big fuss. Then again, if Yatagarasu knew, it meant most of the primeval beings in Takamagahara knew.

"All of you should have sent a message to Takamagahara and they would have sent help. That's two foreign entities in our territory."

"Right, and have my peace of mind destroyed," Murakumo-Orochi grumbled.

"Better than Susanoo wondering where your chains went if I didn't spot the problem first."

"You also knew what Orochi did?"

"I am a celestial crow. What do you think?" Yatagarasu shot Hakura a piercing look briefly, making the hapless Mishakuji take a step back for the great crow to land, before turning his attention to Murakumo-Orochi.

"If I can't counteract the poison, who among the Takamagahara beings, other than you, can?" Murakumo-Orochi asked. "Facing off with Taowu is suicidal for them."

"Kagatsuchi. He's tracking them now. They are not on the mountain," Yatagarasu replied.

"Him? All hot air?"

"That hot air is fire. And the strength of his elemental fire can burn up any miasma before it reaches him," Yatagarasu said.

Tapping on his forearm, Murakumo-Orochi asked, "what about this? If it isn't a purge to get rid of the poison, then what?"

Nine silver needles appeared in Yatagarasu's hand and he held the gleaming needles in the moonlight. "An old method from the main continent. You are lucky I kept them around. The House of Oyau is only immune to most miasma unless it is from the Realm of Mo."

Murakumo-Orochi winced at the look of those sharp needles. The thought of those pointy items entering his energy channels and swimming around his soul core caused a lot of trepidation.

His mood worsened with Yatagarasu giving him a very smug smile, as though Yatagarasu enjoyed giving him pain.

"The Akuma realm?" Hakura gasped, ignoring Murakumo-Orochi's reaction. "But isn't it sealed?"

Last Hakura heard, over ten millennia ago, Xitian placed a seal on the Realm of Mo, or the Akuma realm as Takamagahara called it, to seal scourges of their kind within, after a war broke out during the great deluge.

In the aftermath, some factions threw a few of their primeval beings, like Kanghui, into the Void.

"Apparently not. And those scourge beast kings are the elite of their kind. They can take human form and mask their aura now. That makes them deadlier."

"Didn't Kanghui have a contract with them? That means the seal isn't working," Hakura said.

"Or Kanghui is like our dear Orochi here. Two real snakes who don't tell anyone what they can truly do," Yatagarasu smirked. "Too many secrets lead to more problems."

"They are after the human soul," Hakura spoke up quickly, causing Yatagarasu to scowl.

"Shit!"