Prologue
A child and his mother walk through the forest north of Erith city. The child, Katsumi, grasped onto his mother's hand tightly as they gray clouds grew thicker.
"Mama?"
"Yes dear?"
"Will it rain today?" Katsumi questioned his mother worriedly.
"Yes but no need to worry I'll find us some cover." She lightly rubbed his hand with her thumb.
His mother, Akemi, lead the child through the brush as the clouds quickly swirled together and the winds began to roar. Katsumi's short black hair flowed straight back and flapped in the wind. The rain soon began to fall causing Katsumi's mother to lose her bearings and she began to wander aimlessly. The storm grew fiercer by the minute and when Katsumi's mother began to worry, she saw a small cave and rushed Katsumi inside. They both sat down next to the cave wall trying to catch their breath.
"Whew" Akemi sighed with relief as she saw Katsumi 's radiant smile. His deep crimson eyes shone brightly even in the darkness of the cave giving his smile an innocent and even more beautiful charm. But even with Katsumi's radiant smile she knew that the forest was dangerous, and this cave was no exception. They went through the forest on their way back from praying at a nearby shrine to a god of calamity, Yato, to avoid a group of bandits that was causing trouble in the area. They prayed for the war between the Ophealum and Acrahan kingdoms to end, so that Katsumi's father Takeru who was fighting for the Ophealum kingdom could come back home to Erith. Regardless of how they got there, Akemi knew what she had to do for both to survive. First, she took off most of her tattered and wet clothes to avoid sickness and did the same for Katsumi.
"Katsumi we are going to stay put and wait out the storm" she added a smile that said everything was going to be alright.
"As long as I'm with you I'm sure we will be fine" Katsumi replied with a wide grin.
Akemi felt like she was the one being reassured by him but the storm outside seemed to grow fiercer by the minute. They were only in the cave about 3 meters to avoid getting wet, but they also couldn't go in any further because it was covered in darkness. As the storm grew, they just sat there and rested, the boy soon felt tired and slept on the warmth of his mother's soft chest.
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Gods to humans tended to just be figures used by humans for reasons that ranged from giving purpose to trying to rationalize their own existence. But in truth the humans needed the gods and coincidentally the gods needed the humans. Without the wishes of humans, the gods would be forgotten, and they would cease to exist. When a god was killed, they wouldn't die if people still remembered them, if so, they would be reincarnated as the same god. But that isn't to say that the gods didn't have goals of their own other than just answering the prayers and wishes sent to them. They maintained the world and kept it safe from disruption of balance.
Just like how there are people who wish to hurt others there are gods that are the same. Gods so nefarious or malicious that their names are enough to spook the hell out of people. One such god was Izanami the queen of the Underworld. She would take lives long before they were due for her own enjoyment. She saw the human world as a chess game that she played against the other gods that aligned themselves with the heavens.
During this century she took on the appearance of a human woman with straight black hair and a face that radiated with an evil aura. She wore a yukata someone would wear on a special occasion to remind herself of how important each day she lived was because it could be snuffed out at any moment. Just the same as how she has killed countless humans as well as gods before and no god had fought Izanami seriously and lived. Until one bright clear day, the war god Takemikazuchi was ordered by Amaterasu herself to kill and force Izanami to reincarnate or be forgotten.
Takemikazuchi lured Izanami out of the Underworld by having a group of bandits grow violent near Erith city. The chance at fresh lives was something Izanami hastily took. She rose into the world through a vent she could freely open and close. She looked around until she saw someone, she recognized floating in the sky above her which made her blood boil.
"What are you here for thunder god Takemikazuchi?!" She questioned with disdain and hatred in her voice.
"I'm just taking a stroll, on such a beautiful day how could I resist. In truth I should be asking you that, Izanami queen of the Underworld!" his voice calm and sarcastic with a forceful tone.
"You dare mock me you damned blind follower of the heavens! You ignorant fool if you had as much brain power as you did strength you would be able to see through your great leader of the heavens Amaterasu's true and distorted motives." She screamed with hate emanating from her whole body.
"Silence with your blasphemy, while I may jest what you claim is no joke and is certainly something I cannot forgive. Besides you murder people for the enjoyment as if it were the same as hunting animals." Disdain filled his voice, but he didn't break composure.
"I'm just enjoying my time before she plunges the whole world to the Underworld and it's too damned crowded. You damn cowards blindly follow orders to fulfill either your own selfish goals or hers, so what makes you so different from me." She had lost any composure she had and was screaming at him.
"Enough I grow tired of hearing your voice" He drew his sword and descended to the ground and assumed a stance with his sword leveled at his hip and pointed backwards. He took one step forward and waited.
"Good cause I have grown tired of hearing your arrogant voice." She lunged at him knowing full well that while he may be stronger in pure brute strength and powers, she had the advantage of knowing his techniques while he knew nothing about hers. She pulled a dagger from beneath her yukata sleeve and thrused towards his chest.
He raised his sword with a swift movement and deflected her dagger and without missing a beat he stepped forward and pushed her back with the butt of the hilt on his sword.
"Is that really all you have, I figured the almighty Izanami would be stronger than this if she has killed so many, but I guess they were just weaklings after all. No different from you." He was taunting her and was provoking her to attack so he could study her movements. It was so obvious that she should have seen through it, but she was already so angry she couldn't think straight.
"Shut up you damn fool!" She lunged and continued to assault him with her dagger stabbing rapidly at a speed faster than the eye can see. Had this been any human or weak god they would have been 6ft under by now. But Takemikazuchi was a war god an assault like this was something he could dodge without taking a single scratch.
When he saw an opening between attacks, he kicked her knee in and shattered her leg causing her to crumble to the floor. He looked down on her like a hunter gauging the worth of his kill.
"Almost a minute, I'm disappointed." He raised his sword readying himself to behead her. She was lying on the ground with her face towards his feet. He began to swing when he saw her with the most sadistic and evil grin on her face, it was so menacing he froze stiff. A black aura surrounded her body and she began to rise to her feat. Takemikazuchi leapt back at least 5 meters but even that wasn't enough because with a blinding speed and a trail of darkness before he realized it her dagger stabbed into his left shoulder.
She quickly backed away pulling the dagger out and kicking off his body. He fell to the ground and blood poured from the wound. The pain wasn't something he hadn't dealt with before, but it was so unexpected it caught him off guard. But now he understood the true strength behind her. The demonic powers she has allow her to get massively stronger in an instant. But he knew that there was more to it he could tell, not only did it increase her speed and strength, but it healed her broken leg in an instant.
A storm quickly grew as this was the power of two gods. The continued their fight getting ever stronger. Half of the storm had real lightning while the other half was Takemikazuchi's attacks. Their battle raged on for hours their battle raged on attack after attack, and blow after blow, both unwavering in their constant assault.
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After hours of rest Katsumi woke up to the familiar warm smile of his mother and the unpleasant roar of thunder outside of the cave.
"Mama will the loud bangs stop?" He asked timidly.
She caressed his head and softly said, "soon enough my dear."
Katsumi nuzzled up close to his mother and laid there feeling safe and warm. Hours passed and the storm began to quell.
"Katsumi let's try and make it back to the village ok sweetie." She said with soft but firm tone.
He nodded without saying a word and stood up to prepare himself. After waiting 5 more minutes the storm began to slow down so they both ran as fast as they could out of the cave and back towards Erith.
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Their blades clashed and both gods pushed back off each other and ended up 10 meters apart. They were no longer fighting on the ground they were easily 30 meters above the ground. Both panting trying to catch their breath from the long battle.
In between breaths Takemikazuchi still found the time to converse somehow, "your much stronger than u appear, but I have grown tired of this and I will finish it with one final blow!"
"That's a bold statement for someone who looks half-dead." Izanami hissed nastily.
"Well I guess with how I look it's not that farfetched, but this technique is the strongest power I possess and is strong enough to split the heavens." He thought this silently to himself as he prepared himself.
Takemikazuchi raised his sword above his head and began to emanate and electric aura shocking the air around him. He summoned a bolt of lightning down onto the tip of his sword imbuing his sword with and electric pulse.
Takemikazuchi readied his stance and then lunged towards Izanami. But it wasn't just his sword that was different his whole body was pulsing with electricity and he moved at a blinding speed even to Izanami. Before she had the chance to react, he was less than a meter away as he raised his sword up high.
"NOW DIE! RAIKIRI!" Takemikazuchi yelled at the top of his lungs and instead of swinging downward towards his head he summoned another bolt of lightning onto his sword and the momentum forced it down straight on to Izanami.
She was barely able to move her head out of the way and she was struck on her left shoulder and her left arm was entirely obliterated as she was sent flying to the ground causing a massive crater to form around her. The dirt and dust kicked up making it impossible for Takemikazuchi to see her, so he waited.
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"AHHH" both Katsumi his mother screamed as a massive crater blew up right next to them and sent them flying.
Katsumi coughed but couldn't see a thing. The dust and dirt were everywhere and all in his eyes.
"Mother!" He called out to his mother searching and scared. He got no response as his eyes teared up when the dust began to clear.
"Mother! Mother!" He ignored his bleeding and broken bones and ran as fast as he could to his mother lying on the ground. She was unconscious and blood was everywhere. He screamed and called out to his mother hoping for a response.
"It's ok, just live, do what you have to do and live. if not for yourself than do it for me as my last request for you. So, run my beloved son" She was talking at a whisper, but it was all she could manage.
He heard her voice, but he couldn't accept what she was saying, "No mother you're going to be ok don't give up. Alright?" He was hysterical and didn't realize but he was talking to a corpse now.
He was screaming and trying to pick up her lifeless body when his body went limp and he fell unconscious. His body convulsed on the ground next to his mother. He rose to his feet and ran, as fast as he could towards Erith village.
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"I can't feel the left side of my body, but I have to move or else I'm finished." Izanami thought this as she staggered to her feet and used what little power she had to walk.
"MOTHER! MOTHER!" She heard a young boy screaming as he ran towards the bloodied body of a woman further away.
"Now, this is my chance I will possess the boy's body and run. It's my only chance to survive no matter how dangerous it is to use that when I'm this low on power." She tumbled towards the boy as he screamed for his mother. She was right behind him as he pulled the bloody corpse up and then she did it. She forced herself within his body. They fell to the ground their body c ok convulsed in pain. "I did it I'm in control, now I have to use what little strength me and this body have to escape before the dust settles and he realizes." She ran using his body as a vessel to escape leaving her bloody corpse lifeless next to the boy's mother.
The dust settled and Takemikazuchi saw the two corpses down below. "I'm so sorry miss, I hope you will be satisfied in the heavens, but this was something I had to do so please forgive me." He bowed his head as he justified himself and asked for forgiveness. He then beheaded the dead Izanami to make sure the job was done than he picked up the innocent woman's body and brought her to his shrine in the Acrahan kingdom where he previously split the heavens and earth.
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The ground was still wet from the storm, but it was no longer day. As Katsumi laid asleep underneath a large oak tree. He was covered in blood and injuries. He regained consciousness and slowly looked up. As he tried to stand up his whole body hurt, and he soon realized that his nightmare was real.
"Mother…" he whispered to himself trying to console himself. He began to cry and plead for the warmth of his mother that he would never see again. After hours of crying into the night he worked up the strength to walk back to Erith city.
Katsumi heard many noises along the way, but he just kept walking because there was nothing else, he could do. Even if he could he didn't want to, he had completely lost his will. The only reason he was still walking was because it was his mother's final request. The final words she spoke would always ring in his head and he would never forget them.
After half an hour of walking he reached Erith city. As he walked towards the gate the guards stopped him.
"Who are yo-" the first guard cut himself off as he realized the boy was covered in blood. He put his hand on the hilt of his sword but quickly released it as the boy collapsed and he caught the boy instead.
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3 days later the t woke up in a bed. He sat up and looked around.
"Well look who awake." The soft voice of a young girl surprised Katsumi as he was lifting the covers a looking himself up over. There were countless bandages covering practically his entire body. He could barely move is left arm. It was broken.
"Who are you" Katsumi questioned the young girl with a puzzled and scared look on his face. He looked up and saw a girl that looked about the same age as him. He had seen her before in the city, she was tall and had long golden blonde hair that curled at the ends. She had large light green eyes that gave off a calm but mature aura. He honestly that she could have been a princess she was so beautiful. She wore a white shirt with a white dress that was so clean it looked like it had just been made.
"My name is Misaki. Nice to meet you Katsumi." The way she said his name made him blush, but Katsumi was still confused.
"What happened to me?" He asked her as he searched his memory for some possible conclusion.
"I was hoping to ask you that, the guards rushed you here early in the morning Saturday. You were covered in blood and your arm was broken. It's been 3 days since then and you just now woke up." The more she talked the more he began to remember. And then suddenly, he was hit with a huge wave of sadness and he felt a huge pain in his chest. He looked down as tears fell down his face and onto the sheets.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, what's wrong!" She ran over to him and grabbed his hand and bowed her head.
"It's… not your… fault." He whispered in between sobs.
"My… mother, she was…. killed as we tried to… make it … out…. of the forest." As Katsumi sobbed in between words Misaki lost her breath and felt the only a small amount of the pain that Katsumi was feeling. Misaki hugged Katsumi and for a moment the pain wasn't as bad, the warmth Misaki gave Katsumi reminded him of his mother and while it hurt it was reassuring. She hugged him as he sobbed in her arms till, he couldn't cry anymore.
