[V1/C18] CRYING ECHOES

Her seventh sense activated, and the black-like mercury fluid took shape into a flowing black scythe.

The flow was going upwards as if the gravity was in reverse.

As her two eyes are still closed, an eye appears in the middle of her forehead. A black veil has also emerged out of nowhere, hiding her face.

An eye of crimson stared at the growling beast.

*SWOOSH*

Izanami held the scythe with her left hand and swiftly swung it to her side.

Her swing created a sonic wave that cut through the barrier which was newly erected.

Though her swing had cut through it, the barrier slowly regenerated by itself. Leaving a huge mark in the forest. Feeling the huge shock, the birds were frightened and flew from all directions. In the future, the locals will call this strike from the earth "God's Wrath."

The regenerative power of the barrier is deeply connected to the immense amount of energy coming from the beast.

One could say that the mark the general etched onto the beast has the effect of sealing its movements and draining its demonic energy supplying the erected barrier.

"Be prepared, to find your salvation."

As she opened her two eyes, her cornea became pitch black; her iris sharpened, becoming dark crimson red.

Bright red lines appeared from the side of her eyes, like flowing roots at the temple of her head.

"GROAAAR!"

Once again the beast roared in frustration. Frustrated by the invisible chains that are binding it, which didn't allow it to grasp its freedom of movement.

Once both of her eyes were opened, she started to speak with a cool-headed voice as if she were chanting.

"Kindan no manyuaru, Marunomi gōmon"

"ARISE. Ten Thousand Purgatory."

Thick black fog loomed behind her as she finished speaking.

From within the fog, a hand of bone emerges. Right after the first hand, several hundred, no, thousands, followed suit. Their cries for repentance echoed throughout the skies.

"Help..."

"Save me..."

"Forgive me..."

These words kept repeating, over and over again, as they continued to squirm through outside the black fog.

The fog was stretching out far and wide and was continuing to widen its range.

She then stared coldly at the Beast, like a predator eyeing her prey.

By using a forbidden manual, there was one downside. A God who is using a forbidden manual will have one side effect depending on the God's persona.

In Izanami's case, a Goddess who is patient, kind, and loving. Her downside after using a forbidden manual is having lost her emotions to feel anything.

Through the use of such a forbidden manual, she's now like a cold-blooded killer who wouldn't even bat an eye if she were to kill her allies out of a small and trivial dispute.

The Goddess of the Underworld raised her left hand and pointed at the demonic beast using her scythe.

"Devour." Her gaze and her words are like those who deem the other party as filth in her eyes.

*AAAAAAHH!*

Hearing the Goddess' command, the hands of bones who were reaching out to the outside world have been released. Their screams are of horror and terror. Some of the skeletons still have a bit of flesh left hanging from some parts of their bodies.

Their bodies kept quivering in a monotonous sound as they flooded through the mortal realm.

Finally, because of the seal, the beast stopped moving entirely and was close to that of a statue.

The skeletons have started swarming in towards the imprisoned beast. Endlessly, the skeletons kept flooding in behind Izanami, coming from the thick black fog.

For half a minute, a wave of 10,000 skeletons kept pouring out of the fog, and all of them were fixated on the demonic beast in front of them.

*CHOMP*

*CRUNCH*

"GROAAAR!!"

Just as the Goddess of the Underworld commanded, the skeletons have continuously kept on devouring the beast's skin and flesh, up to the point where its entire body has been covered by black skeletons. The scenery can be depicted as moths swarming into a flame, but with a flame that can hurt nobody at all, there is no flame but a bulb.

With the infestation of the skeletons, Izanami threaded on thin air and walked towards the beast with just a few meters of distance.

*STEP*

Her steps were light as if she were walking on feathery clouds. Her posture is elegant and captivating. As she walked step by step towards the beast, the Goddess blinked once. Upon blinking, she immediately sensed a demonic aura right behind her.

As she turned her head to her side and caught a glimpse of her enemy at her back with its claws out in the open, ready to slash her, she immediately rotated her scythe acrobatically, doing a back-dive roll with a twist.

While she was suspended in mid-air, facing the black cloudy sky, she turned around her body towards the small demonic beast. Black chains appeared from the end of the scythe shaft, and immediately, she threw her scythe to the small beast.

The blade of the scythe pierced through the creature with features similar to the huge demonic beast upfront. The Goddess of the Underworld held the chains tightly, swinging them in mid-air.

With Izanami as the center, the beast kept spinning around in circles, smashing through the black skeletons flooding in around them.

While swinging the beast around like a plaything, it disappeared right in the middle and a new one appeared right in front of her like a jump scare.

Izanami remained a cool-headed expression with no change of stance. As the beast bared its fangs at her, the veil flowed out, exposing the eye on her forehead glaring at the Beast.

The beast immediately turned into stone and was crushed by a hand stabbed by the Goddess.

The body of the small demonic beast immediately turned into black dust like the other one earlier.

Izanami then immediately retracted her scythe back to her. As soon as she retracted it, she looked at the disabled beast and saw some things kept popping out of the huge beast's back, similar to the size of the creatures which attacked her.

She just calmly stared at the sight of its offspring popping out like frogs.'So you chose this method. If being deadlocked due to a restriction is a problem, you choose to separate your body into smaller mini-size chunks to let at least one part of it escape.'

As she looked ahead of her, she sensed that she'd now been surrounded by the miniature-sized doppelgangers.

*SWING*

*SLICE*

This method of swinging and slicing is repeated throughout the process of eradication. With the skeletons solely focusing on the source. Izanami is now eradicating the overflowing remnants.

'This trick must be your last resolve.'

She averted her attention towards the supposedly where the eyes of the creature were located, and there she saw it slowly opening.

'So the time is almost up. It's been around 5 minutes since earlier.'

Gradually, the seal on its forehead has continuously weakened to the point that it can now exert a little bit of movement.

As the creature slowly but surely regains its senses. The air kept vibrating along with the roaring sound of thunder.

Strong gusts of wind kept flowing out of the beast's body.

With the strong gust of wind, Izanami's vision was momentarily hindered. She then covered her filled of vision with her right arm, and moments later, the skeletons who were continuously eating the beast fell off one by one.

At that moment, she took a quick look at the beast's eyes and there she saw it staring right at her. Though even after all that intimidation, Izanami wasn't even fazed.

The bitten-off flesh from the beast has now been plagued with dark, eerie smoke which continuously burns through the flesh and skin of the demonic creature.