Chapter 108: Tokyo Hell (IV) - Questions for Despair

[Haruki Hotaru POV]

Right now, Bishamonten and I were standing on top of one of the buildings here in Tokyo, behind us are is a group of shikigamis.

Shikigami's are undead Gods, but they're not beings as powerful as the Gods I know of, they're just lower-Gods that are even lower than Demigods. They're actually closely related to spirits more than Gods.

"Are you ready Haruki..? Remember, this is a war that you have a high chance to die in."

I clenched my hand slowly after hearing that and closed my eyes. I remembered what I told Amaterasu, which is why I'm prepared. "Yes, for the sake of my people, for the sake of my friends, and for the sake of this world... I'm prepared."

Bishamonten smiled from my answer. "Then... Let's show them true hell!"

We both jumped off the building and flew toward the Tokyo Tower; the shikigamis followed us from behind. I looked below to see soldiers wearing samurai suits and leading them was Susanoo, from our left was Luna and Dawn leading a group of skeletons that Luna created, Lucas and Zephyrus are on our right with a group of tengu, and sneaking their way on the shadow of the buildings is Tsukuyomi and Azrael.

A tengu are basically like shinigamis, but instead of undead they're basically just harpies or humans with bird-like features.

Also there's no more human walking or sleeping inside the buildings, to keep them safe the barrier that Amaterasu and

Looking at in front of us we saw the tower shining with light unlike before, and... Guarding it was a group of angels flying and gazing at us. And behind them is a group of female knights riding horses with wings; in fact they're riding pegasuses.

Which meant that these women must be the famous Valkyries on Norse Mythology. And below them on the streets are seems to be a group of monks holding their staff and praying.

We stopped moving, for a few seconds we stared at our enemies and they replied with be same, it felt like like we've been staring at them for an eternity.

On the ground with the monks, a warrior wearing a dragon-like golden armor flew and stared at me. "Greetings King of Hell, or should I say Bones of Hell today? I am your fellow Hero, I'm the Draconic General of the Tigers, Zhao Yun. It's a pleasure to meet you Hotaru Haruki."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Zhao Yun..." I was afraid when I saw him for real.

When I first heard of Zhao Yun in the meeting I didn't mind him, because I thought he might be weaker than the Archangels since he's just a human.

But... Seeing him right now I could only feel fear, since China and Japan has a lot of history together, I got to know a lot about him from listening to the story of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and I could instantly see how he became one of the strongest warriors of Liu Bei and a respected Hero of China.

With a smile on his face, Bishamonten asked me. "I ask you this again Haruki... Are you ready to fight in a war were you have a high chance to die in?

While gritting my teeth and clenching my hand, I looked at Zhao Yun and let out a smirk. "Of course, just as I said... This is the sake for not only me, but also my friends and the entire world."

"That's the answer I needed! Hyaah!" In an instant he finished his sentence, Bishamonten threw his spear at Zhao Yun.

Zhao Yun barely dodged Bishamonten's spear, the moment he looked at us again he pointed his spear and shouted. "Attack!"

The monks, valkyries, and angels ran at us at the same time and our troops did the same.

Bishamonten came closer beside me to look above and when he inspected our soldiers as they kept running, his eyes became wide. "Take cover!" He shouted.

All at the same time our troops created some sort of shield above them, and I looked at the direction theat the shield is pointing at and that's when I saw her.

It was a beautiful petite woman standind on the air and ws blocking the big bright moon with her body, she was pointing a bow at our soldiers and the arrow was shining brightly.

Tsukuyomi came out of the shadows of the building and instantly flew toward the woman, but when he came close the said. "10th of the 10 suns Tàiyáng, execute..." She released her arrow at the soldiers and when Tsukuyomi got close the arrow hit him.

He instantly blocked the arrow with his sword and when we looked at why there was an arrow that was shot at him, and we saw the arrow she fired split into many arrows; it's not a hundred or a thouusand, but the arrows split itself into the same amount of it's target.

"Sh*t!" Susanoo said. He tried to create a more powerful shield to defend all of us here along with the soldier, but...

"Take this!" When Susanoo was about to release the shield he was aking when Sun Wukong threw his golden staff at him.

Susanoo got distacted from the hit he got from Sun's weapon, and because of it he accidentally released a small shield enough to guard us and a few soldiers.

And when I looked in front to see our soldiers fighting the enemies, I saw many arrows that Chang'e shot hitting a lot of soldiers. The shield that the soldiers created above them weren't effective at Chang'e's arrow, it easily penetrated the shields it felt like Chang'e shot her arrow at a bunch of papers.

All at once, I saw many of our soldiers die right in front of my eyes, even if I saw some of my people die back at our battle in Hell, seeing the death of my allies in front was a different matter...

Their bodies fell on the ground slowly in my view and their bloods came together on the road like a puddle.

Seeing their corpses on the ground made me tremble, this fear that I'm feeling right now was like before. That time I saw my father transform into his Soul Bound when he faced against the Seraphh Metatron, it was that same feeling I'm facing right now...

Just by thinking about those poor souls that my father has tormented without mercy. I feel dizzy, I feel nauseous, my body hurts, my body feels cold, I just feel sick right now. "*Blargh*!" Without noticing it I threw up.

Bishamonten looked at me and patted me on the back. "I guess from your story and how you acted right now, this is the first time you've encountered the death of your allies."

I wiped my face with my arm in disappointment. "I guess you're disappointed in me right now? Because I'm getting weak right when I haven't started fighting yet..."

"Nope, actually I'm glad that you'll see what death is in the country you were born in."

"Thanks Master..."

Bishamonten smiled and looked at Sun who was fighting Susanoo on the ground. "I guess it's time to do my part now!" He flew toward Sun Wukong and crashed him onto the nearby building.

I looked at Luna and Dawn and they nodded to finally start what we arre tasked for, I flew toward them and we went inside one of the buildings to keep ourselves hidden from our enemies.

While running, Dawn looked at me and asked. "What's with that sulking face? Seriously, the moment you man up you threw up at the same time, how disappointing... *Sigh*"

"Well sorry! It's not my fault that I threw up!"

"Haruki's right Dawn, it's normal his fault that this the first time he saw someone die..."

'*Sigh* Ganging up on me when us three are alone, seriously... I can't understand love at all...' Dawn thought to herself. "But Haruki, can you do it though? Kill someone?"

I only looked down when Dawn asked me that, I know her question was right, if I can't kill someone in a war especially as massive as this then we can't succeed, but taking someone's life is just wrong for me...

Luna could only looked at me in pity while Dawn has no reaction to what I did, more like she expected that this is what I would answer her, so it didn't bother her when I coudn't answer her question. "*Sigh* Sorry for the question Haruki, come one let's just hurry and finish what we are tasked for..."

I could hear the slight disappointment on Dawn's voice, unlike the other girls I'm friend with Dawn is strict and tough when it comes to things like death and war, after all as a vampire taking down someone's life so that she would survive is normal for her, which is why when she kills someone she neither feel mercy nor remorse at her victim.

And by asking me that question she was making me someone who won't get overtaken by his emotions when it comes to war, after all, if I get caught up to my feelings and emotions I can't be with them anymore. My friends has removed all of their feelings when they got affected by the war and that the same with the citizens of Hell, which is why they've survived for a long time and if I can't do the same thing as them I will die.

Dawn just wantd the best for me, which is why she was strict toward me at y training on Mt. Levi, and right now I could see her strict self on her today.

So even if I can't do what she asked me for right now, I want to at least try inn the future. It's for the best for not only me, but my friends and people too, also even Master Bishamonten and Master Susanoo would be proud, even if I hate to admit it I'll be super happy if Master Ifrit was the same.

Not only that, but I can be like them if I can at least do it. All of my friends are already used in taking someone's life,, so if I can kill someone too then I'll be on equal footing as them.

We kept running toward building to building, and we finally got to our designation. Just outside of this building we're inside right now is Tokyo Tower.

Our goal is to overtake the tower and destroy the portal that would transport their second army. Just by seeing what's happening outside from the window, despite our massive lost of our soldiers we are overtaking them because of Lucas and Zephyrus.

While we were runnning we got a messagwe from Susanoo. (Some plans have changed. It looks like Freyja isn't here, the Archangels are inside the tower, which is why I'm enganging against Chang'e alongside Tsukuyomi right now. Lucas and Zephyrus will fight Zhao Yun on the frontline so that we can maintain the number of our troops, and Azrael would be teaming up with Haruki's group to overtake the tower.)

"Let's go now-"

"Get down!" Before I said my order to finally go inside the tower, Azrael came out of the shadows and ran toward us three, he immediately grabbed us and created a shield to block the window.

Bang! An explosion destroyed the shield but it still defended us from it's impact.

"What happened?" I asked Azrael.

"Despite the two fighting her, it looks like they still failed to stop Chang'e's arrow..."

Hearing that, us three looked outside to check on Susanoo and Tsukuyomi above the sky, we saw the two severly injured while the Goddess Chang'e doesn't even have a single scratch on her body and clothes. "How..?" I askd in despair.

From what the Japanese Gods told me Chang'e is just a minor God of China, but when Tsukuyomi battled her, he was shocked to see hoow strong she was but that battle wasn't at night at all, but now that the moon is closer to the Chinese Goddess of the Moon we got to see her real strength.

"Even if Tsukuyomi is also a God of the Moon, it looks like Chang'e was still powerful even if Susanoo is with him." Azrael snickered. "Not only that but, half of our soldiers are dead because of her?"

"What..?" I said in disbelief, I looked below the ground to check on our soldiers and saw dead bodies that were alive before Chang'e fired her second arrow. "This is just impossible..."

Even if you look at it this scene was impossible at all, even the Archangel of DEath Azrael was agreeing with me.

Just who is she? That's not a Goddess at all she's just. "A monster..."