77 Chapter 77

The only reason he wasn't flinging fireballs out of desperation was because Igor's ki had spread throughout his body and paralysed his ability to draw upon the power of fire. Suou was angry about this and he wished to burn Igor right down to cinders.

But the next lines Igor delivered would make him regret his every action.

"Suou Himejima. Since you took Aunty Shuri from me, I will take everyone from you. And you will watch."

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|DxD|

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Dread. That was all Suou felt in that very moment as Igor uttered those words.

'I will take everyone from you.'

Those words echoed continuously in his head. It felt like an hour had past yet not even a second had went through. He could feel it, the boy was serious with his words and he would commit to them. There was not a single ounce of hesitation in his words, not a single tremble of his lip nor the briefest of stutters. For the first time in decades, Suou finally felt what fear was.

His clan had been abandoned. It was a simple fact. Too much time had past since Igor arrived and not a single god arrived to provide reinforcement. Not even one of the other clans had arrived to provide help. A part of him couldn't help but wonder if their clan was secretly hated this whole time. It would make sense given the situation. Their rules were always under scrutiny, their laws always deemed too harsh. Many had been dissatisfied yet did nothing because their clan was too important. But with the arrival of Igor who did not care about the Himejima's standing, Suou reached the conclusion that many would take the opportunity to turn a blind eye.

The potential fact that politics may result in the destruction of his clan made him both fearful and angry.

[D-damnit!]

The Himejima clan as it was, was in danger. Faced with this redhead who was willing to eradicate them, he couldn't help but regret. He could see it in Igor's eyes. The boy had the will and the capability to do so.

And all this happened because of one simple order he gave.

[If…if only I didn't.]

He loved his niece, Shuri and a part of him loved Akeno. But before being an uncle, he was the patriarch. As the patriarch, he had to follow the clan rules and show no favouritism. It was his duty and he was doing what he had to.

Yet a part of him couldn't help but think, couldn't help but fathom.

[Maybe if we had evolved, this boy could've been our ally.]

In the face of fear, his mind instinctually thought of the possibilities. But this wasn't the time to contemplate. Suou had a quick mind and he realised that there was method he had that could allow his clan to fight this great threat. So he had to prevent the destruction of his clan through other methods, through any means necessary.

He was approaching the realm of desperation. The great Himejima, one of the Five Principal Clans of Japan could not perish in his life. He could not allow thousands of years of history, a mountain of legacies, to crumble in front of his eyes.

As prideful and noble as he was, he was willing to lower his head.

"W-wait-"

But Igor did not wait.

"Watch closely."

He wanted to morph Suou's desperation into the very same despair he felt when Shuri's life slipped out of his grasp. He wanted to bury those eyes that held on to hope under the dark. He wanted to shatter ANY illusion, that his clan would see the next day.

Su!

As if to make sure Suou wouldn't miss a thing, Igor made sure he was just barely observable and with his aura blade, began cutting up the members of the Himejima clan. He was neither fast, yet slow. With thousands of members, he was not worried they would escape due to having sensed the barrier Shiva laid.

So whenever a red flash appeared, several bodies would drop either dead or crippled.

"""AAAAAH!"""

"MY ARM! MY ARM!!!"

"W-wai-*puchi!*"

"RUN!"

No one dared to fight back. All they had in their minds was to preserve their own lives. It was everyone for himself. Camaraderie and coordination became nonexistent in the face of absolute power. Whether it was fathers or brothers, they would use each others as shields just to survive a second longer. Igor's power had devolved nearly everyone to their baser human instincts.

The smell of blood, the sounds of pained groans, and the sight of death. One angry boy caused the Himejima clan to descend into complete chaos. Thousands of warriors existed, yet not a single one dared to take up arms.

Many tried to run yet escape remained impossible. Igor's slaughter was methodical yet chaotic. He appeared in the most random of places where he killed a few men being vanishing again. Whenever that red flash appeared, sworn brothers would climb over each other without hesitation just to survive. With a barrier to prevent escape, the situation appeared to be the same as shooting fish in a barrel.

Despite his ability to do so, Igor didn't pressure them to stand still. He wanted there to be panic, for there to be chaos. He wanted to mimic the very situation Shuri was in, the feeling of imminent death yet not knowing when it would come. Just like how Shuri had her limbs crushed, he would dismember theirs. He would put them through every single stage of panic until their eyes turned lifeless. He would cause so much suffering to them to the point that they would lose their minds. He would make it so that whenever he appeared, they would run towards him instead of away. He would become their greatest fear, and their greatest salvation.

This vengeance of his would be served…in the coldest way possible.

[Aunty had to run. So I will make them run. Aunty despaired, so I will make them despair. Aunty felt pain, so they shall know pain!]

Su! Su! Su! Su! Su!

All anyone could see was a red flash before they suddenly died or if they were unlucky, had to bleed out first. Igor's way of killing them was wild, yet very cold. He was not aiming just to kill them physically, but to torment them right down to their very souls.

He had picked up a lot of things in his time with Sun Wukong and Indra, especially Indra. The War God had shown him that there is more to fighting than just swords and spears. He had been taught how killing someone a certain way could make them become wandering spirits, and how torturing someone could make them become a malevolent spirit.

Igor never thought he would ever have use for this knowledge until today. As much as he was willing to kill people, he never wished to use such a method…until today. A life for lives was his philosophy and Shuri's life alone was worth more than the entire Himejima clan combined. Their entire population put together would barely be worth a single fingernail on her hand. But he would take what he could.

Just killing them wouldn't be enough. He wanted them to be hunted to just like how they hunted Shuri. If they turned into malevolent spirits, they would inevitably be purified. Just like how they wished to cleanse Akeno of their bloodline, he would cleanse them of this world. But Igor wasn't completely without heart.

For the common Himejima member, he crushed their hearts. He had no maliciousness towards them. They were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. He could feel it by their aura, the maliciousness within them. It was as if the world showed him who were his true targets, the ones who really had a hand in Shuri's death. The more involved they were, the darker their hearts appeared in his senses. So for those with minimal involvement, did his best to kill them instantly while leaving them a full corpse. It was the most respect he could offer them given the current situation.

Then for the ones who had dark wisps in their hearts, he severely injured them in ways that would make them bleed to death. As long as the aura he sensed from them was vile, he would not be lenient. He sliced off their limbs and left them to bleed out on the ground in pain. For the ones who appeared darker, he shoved his hand into their stomach and ripped out their entrails. As long as it was not an instant death, it was enough.

They would slowly bleed out and their last moments would be watching clan member after clan member die. Their psyche would be greatly affected and their souls greatly stimulated by the negativity in the atmosphere.

Not only was Igor killing them, he was going to turn this entire region into a ghost town, a place filled with so much yin energy that nothing would grow after. This was a mark, a mark for future generations to remember what happened when the noble Himejima clan touched someone who was important to him. This would be his warning to the supernatural world, to never touch anyone related to him.

Indeed, he was cold. To be so ruthless in his actions was something that impressed Shiva who was silently watching above. The God of Destruction would not interfere in this matter so long as the world itself would not be affected.

Of course, there was also some personal reasons for this. He had come to quite like the boy over the past few years. Although this was the first interaction he had with him, Shiva considered himself a great judge of character. Furthermore, Igor had fulfilled his requirement of reaching the realm of supreme class within a hundred years.

At the beginning, this requirement would only be enough for him to consider taking him in. This was because he did not want another Indra that would stagnate after reaching a certain level of strength. Yet throughout this three years, he had come to quite like Igor's character. He was always training constantly without rest. Unless it was sleeping or eating, it was training.

After having satisfied his requirements for character and strength, Shiva now considered Igor to be his somewhat nominal disciple. And that was very important because he was the only thing standing between him and the gods of the Shinto, Hindu, and Chinese Pantheons.

The boy had angered all these pantheons with his actions up until now. From blatantly releasing his senses to suddenly attacking a Principal Clan, all of this was more than enough reason for numerous gods to attack. Though Shiva found it quite funny that as soon as the blonde transformed, they turned timid.

He could still feel their gazes upon Igor, yet none of them stepping forward due to his presence and the redhead's power.

"Weaklings."

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AN

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To save some time, I'll write a quick explanation here. I know some of you will probably wonder why the truly powerful gods aren't interfering. Well, we can see from a few chapters back that…they don't really care. We saw from Amaterasu's words through Kurohime that she said, "Shiva-tan is being mean again.". My guess is all those truly powerful gods have lived for so disgustingly long that some brat running his senses or killing a clan isn't really enough to get them to act. That's my guess.

If you're interested in reading ahead, here's the link: patreon.com/HolyGambler