Chapter 150: Demon King
"Dammit! Those two rascals went to a fun fight and they didn't invite me!" An old man's angry shout can be heard echoing throughout the dojo as I approach the source of the voice. It's a familiar voice so I didn't panic no matter how angry it sounded. I did felt panic and nervous when I first heard it though.
"Uughh…"
"Have mercy, Goro-sensei…"
"Goro-sensei… as merciless as usual…"
"I can't feel my legs!"
"You're exaggerating. He didn't even hit your legs or your spine."
"Yeah I did. Hee hee hee."
I slide open the door and see my bald headed martial arts master in the middle of the room, Goro-sensei. He is standing in the middle of the dojo with a shinai in his hand and is surrounded by defeated disciples. Goro-sensei sometimes abuses his disciples to vent frustrations but even when he does that, it was still good training for us so none of us backed down no matter how scary of painful the experience would be.
An angry Goro-sensei is so much more merciful than any monsters out there after all and his teachings allowed us to survive each encounter with the monsters.
"Ah! Mari-chan! Perfect timing! None of these brats could keep up with me! Come and spar with me!" He invites me in as I walk in, grabbing a shinai on the way.
"By all means, Goro-sensei." I stand in front of him and adopt my stance and he does the same. He sensed something different about me but didn't comment on it, letting our swords do the talking instead of our mouths.
"Ohhh! Mari-chan! Ganbatte!!"
"Beat that baldy-sensei to a pulp!"
"Mari-chan as cute as always!"
"Mari-chan please marry me!"
"No! Marry me!"
"Go go Mari-chan!"
The other disciples cheers for me but ignored them as I focus on the opponent before me.
"Head!" Goro-sensei shouts, announcing his target loudly as he goes to strike my head. I block it with my own shinai before going to strike his head in return, which he dodge easily by tilting his head, which was done by my previous opponent as well.
"Ribs!" He announce his target once again before striking and I dodge his strike before making use of his brief opening, though he dodges my strike again.
We exchange blows several more times, with me putting more and more pressure to my strikes, which didn't even faze Goro-sensei despite me having greater amount of magic than him as he skilfully blocks all my strikes. My constant failure to hit him makes me more and more desperate as I intensify my attacks.
"Alright. That's enough." He says as he put down his shinai.
"No! I can still fight!"
"No. You're distracted. That's not good. You were so full of opening back there." I put down my own shinai as well, recognizing the truth in his words.
I'm so desperate… I need more power!!!
"There's someone out there that you just have to beat, isn't it?" Goro-sensei is spot on once again.
"Yes… I have to… beat him…" I reply with my head down, gripping my shinai's handle so hard it breaks. The other disciples are somehow horrified when they see the broken shinai.
"Hmm… I get it. But you need to have a cool head. No matter how stronger you become, if you keep getting distracted like that, it's death sentence for you."
"How could I… cool my head…?"
"How do you think? Meditation of course!" He says with a cheerful tone. And here I thought he's angry.
"Alright."
"Is this the place?" I hear a familiar voice entering the dojo and turn towards the source.
"Akane-chan?"
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOI0rEB3duo&ab_channel=Grays83718
A battle rages in Kyoto, a battle between a group of spellcasters consisting of buddhist monks and Shinto priests with their army of shikigamis against costumed fighters wearing tight body suits led by 3 fighters wearing red, green and blue. As the battle continues, an elderly Shinto priest steps into Yasaka Pagoda, approaching the greatest enemy he has ever faced.
"So… you're Tamamo-no-Mae. The seal has indeed been broken then." The high priest Hakuro remarks as he entered the top floor of the Yasaka Pagoda after dispatching several monsters under Yukime's command.
"Welcome, interloper. I trust you have the skills to entertain me? Me and my master have been so bored recently because most enemies pose no challenge." Yukime greets the priest while sitting on the balcony's edge.
"I will try my best to meet your expectations then, beast." The priest says as he pulls several paper charms out of his sleeve and through them summons his human shaped shikigamis wielding swords and unleashes them upon her.
"Golems? But conjured through paper charms instead of being constructed from earth, stone or metal. Interesting magic." Yukime mutters as she quickly dispatched the shikigamis with a swipe of her fan.
"Hmm… this is gonna be harder than I thought it seems." Priest Hakuro mutters as he takes out more paper charms out of his sleeve and prepares to cast his spells. Despite his complaints though, he is grinning with anticipation for the coming battle with a mythical creature.
I wait for the invader, the Buddhist monk, in Honnō-ji temple, a historical site since the Sengoku period. I set fire on the temple ruins to make the scene even more dramatic. And it seems that my enemy likes it judging from his grin.
"So a new Demon King has risen… only to fall at the same place as the first." The Buddhist monk remarks.
"Hmph. Do not compare me to Oda Nobunaga. Despite his genius and his title as the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven, he is not a true villain. I'd appreciate it more if you'd at least compare me to Emperor Showa."
"Oh? Why is that?"
"Because like him, I have fanatical followers who will do my evil bidding." I remark, referencing the late emperor's soldiers who used the kamikaze tactics during World War 2.
"Heh. To think you'd compare yourself to the late emperor."
"He was a great villain. But his successors have been reduced to nothing but figureheads after his defeat. Disappointing."
"Do you really think so?"
"Hm? Your reaction seems to imply that is not the case. Heh heh heh. How interesting." So the current Emperor of Japan isn't a figurehead? Does he actually control things in the shadows? Perhaps the Prime Minister actually obeys him? Like a ruler…an Eminence in Shadow?
"Perhaps it is, perhaps it isn't. What's certain is that like the Demon King, you will fall here and now, monster!" The Buddhist monk exclaims as he stabs his shakujō staff on the ground and began chanting something while making Buddhist hand signs, which if I didn't know any better I would think he's a ninja thanks to a certain popular shonen manga about ninjas.
While he's doing that, I observe how magical energy from the air gathers around him and begin to manifest a spell following his will, with his shakujō staff acting as a catalyst, almost similar to how I did it, except I simplify the process so much and used my own magical energy instead of relying purely on the magic in the air, leading to a much more efficient casting method. Still… seeing an amateur practitioner like him using his own method is quite interesting and amusing.
"Buddhist Art! Flames of Naraka!" He shouts as he finishes his spell, causing the flames around the temple to gather and attack me.
"Heh. Child's play." I mutter as I erased the flames attacking me with a snap of my fingers. The monk tries to hide his surprise but it is clear as day that he is completely flabbergasted at how efficient my casting method is compared to his.
"Not yet!
Buddhist Art! Winds of Manusya!" He shouts his spell name again like he's in a shonen anime and few small tornadoes are launched on me. I can only cringe at how he must shout his technique's name as I erase it once again.
When I begin my second run as the Occult Killer in the other world, I sometimes have to shout my spell name too as a requirement to cast the spell. I've refined my art since then and thus I no longer need to do such an embarrassing thing… though launching huge spells like Armageddon and Apocalypse are exceptions to this rule. Those spells simply demands to be known. Shadow agrees with me with how he has to whisper his 'I Am Atomic' spell every time.
"Tch! How strong and refined your spellcasting is, demon." From a monster to a demon, eh? Now he knows I am not a simple murderer but a ruthless and sophisticated villain.
"In my eyes, your spellcasting is… too crude and amateurish… as expected of children who have only discovered magic recently."
"What are you talking about? The Buddhist art has existed for ages! As have many other practitioners of the occult!"
"But all those time they never made contact with real magic, only make believes, and thus have never truly accomplish anything. Only in recent times that magic start to flow into this world. And it's all thanks to me… and all those people who generously donated their souls for this divine purpose."
"And to do that, you have to destroy this world!?"
"A small price to pay for the advancement of MY powers."
"You truly are a heartless monster, aren't you?" Back to calling me a monster. Make up your mind, will you?
"Indeed I am. And let me show you the fruits of my labor." I declare as I cast fireballs from my fingertips. The monk jumps back and continuously dodges the fireballs before realizing how the fireballs stopped midair after he dodged them, surrounding him.
"Ahhh…. To think that your magic is this good... It seems that I've fallen into a trap!" The monk remarks without losing his grin.
I was reincarnated into a world full of Spellswords who have superhuman powers so of course I anticipated fighting against someone of Shadow's calibre, which would make ordinary spellcasting worthless, which is why I developed my trap spells, like this one, which is totally not a rip-off of Hellzone Grenade. Totally not.
I wave my hand, commanding the fireballs surrounding him to launch themselves at him simultaneously.
Now show me how you would survive this.
The fireballs hit the monk simultaneously, creating a huge explosion. But I know the monk is not dead. I can sense him using magic inside.
As the dust and smoke clears, I see the monk, shrouded and protected by an orb… a magic barrier.
"
Buddhist Art… Shell of Tiryag!" He mutters the spell name even though the spell is already completed, likely in an attempt to ensure the spell's true completion and maintain its stability because he had to cast it hastily to protect himself. I know that unfinished spells can implode on the caster because I experienced them myself when I develop new methods of spellcasting in order to shorten the casting time and cut several steps in order to simplify them.
"Not bad. But how much damage can it take?" I say as I launch laser beams from my eyes, which pierces his barrier easily as if it's made of paper. I intentionally didn't target his vitals, just letting the laser graze against his right cheek, giving it a little burn.
"Not much apparently." I conclude that his barrier isn't very strong as it couldn't withstand a weak piercing laser beam.
"How about this!?
Buddhist Art! Spirits of Preta!" He shouts again, conjuring several armoured fighters whose body, armor and weapons are made entirely of magic. I respond by summoning my undead minions by teleporting them from the Doomsday Cult headquarters.
"What manner of devilry… is this…!?" He says, stunned at the sight of the zombie cultists.
"Just as they have served me in life, shall they serve me in death." I reply.
"Tch! You monster! Attack!" He orders his phantom soldiers to attack, engaging my undead minions in combat.
"Oh?" I mutter as my undead minion's attacks phase through their bodies as if slicing through air, allowing them to escape unharmed while they counter attacks. The monk grins, fully believing his phantom soldiers to be invincible.
"Interesting. But that is not enough." I say as I cast buffing spells to my undead minions, coating their weapons with my magic, which allows them to destroy the phantom soldiers with a single attack.
"
Buddhist Art! Wrath of Asura!" Before his phantom soldiers are entirely dispatched, he casts another spell which creates an explosion that engulfs his phantoms and my undead minions.
The smoke from the explosion eventually clears, revealing several damaged undead minions while his remaining phantom soldiers are unharmed. It seems that even if it's caused by magic, explosions don't harm them. Only magic does.
"Amusing. But futile." I say as I cast Chain Lightning which sends a lightning bolt that strikes a phantom soldier before jumping to strike the others, dispatching all of them one by one.
The monk, even as his strongest spells are utterly destroyed by the simplest of mine, still maintain a determined face.
"Tch… It seems that I must bring my trump card." He says as he starts chanting.
"Do make it quick will you? Before I lose my patience and order my undead minions to kill you." I remark as I let my undead minions shamble slowly towards him.
"Oh you don't have to wait that long." He replied as he continues chanting, gathering magical energy around us.
"Now, bear witness to my ultimate spell!
Pinnacle Buddhist Art! Prison of Deva!" he shouts his spell name after he finished chanting, causing the magical energy gathering around us to surround me, creating a barrier which is meant to imprison me. Meant to.
"This prison is made to contain monsters as strong as an Apex Beast. I cannot kill you… and thus my best bet is to seal you in this god-forsaken temple. May you be reborn as a better person after you perish inside that seal, Occult Killer." The Buddhist monk remarks as he turns his back on me, fully convinced of his victory.
"I have died once… and I was reborn as an even worse person. And what makes you think this is enough to contain me?" My voice echoes in the air, completely startling him as he immediately turns back to see me breaking the prison by unleashing my magic power alone.
"What… in blazes…?" He is utterly shocked at how easily I broke his trump card, something which is apparently only enough to seal an Apex Beast, which is equivalent to at least only 10 Midgar Knights in power level. The strength of monsters that has infested this world are weaker than the ones summoned by Ragnarok back in Oriana, likely because they left their magic rich world and had to live in a world with low supply of magic for few years.
"How could you…. How did you break through my trump card so easily!?"
"You called that trump card? That was child's play. Let me show you what a true trump card looks like." I say as I lift both arms in the sky, forming a huge black orb filled to the brim with my magical energy. I turn away from him, targeting the battle between spellcasters vs ranger minions in the distance.
"No… Don't do it!!" He shouts… pleading me to stop. But it is too late.
"
Armageddon." I mutter my spell name for the first time since fighting him, letting the black orb to burst into a cone, unleashing a great wave of destruction upon both the spellcasters consisting of Buddhist monks and Shinto priests and the Putties-- ranger minions, annihilating them all.
The sound barrier is broken, a bright light envelops the whole city followed by enormous shockwave that shakes the entire city and beyond.
After the light and the shockwave fades away and the smoke clears, what remains from that attack is merely… destruction…. A huge cone shaped crater which enveloped half the city and the lands beyond is all that remains.
"What… such a thing…" The monk mutters in utter disbelief, his body trembling uncontrollably.
"That's what you call a trump card. If you had actual magic in your body instead of relying on magic in the air, you would've been able to accomplish something similar." I remark, commenting on how even though he was able to harness magic, he isn't an awakener like other magic wielding fighters I've encountered in this world.
"You...!" He turns towards me with a glare filled with both anger and fear.
"By the way, that was not my strongest trump card. I have others up my sleeve. Heh heh heh." He reacts to my remark with further shock. He just witnessed the greatest feat of magic in his lifetime and being told that wasn't the strongest? Insanity! But that is simply the truth.
"Tch!" He couldn't find the words to reply as he conjures a lump of yellow cloud with a paper charm and rides it away, flying like the way the monkey king Sun Wukong did. So he could wordlessly cast spells using paper charms as well. But I'm assuming the power output of spells cast by those papers are weaker than his regular spells, which is why he didn't use it against me… though perhaps the Shinto priests have better papers or their methods are simply better because I see them using paper charms to cast spells and the power level of their spells is about on par with his. Maybe paper charms are the specialty of the Shinto priests while the Buddhist monks' specialties are the chants and the hand signs. Interesting.
I let the monk fly away with his cloud so he could spread the word of my power. Will it bring the occultist factions despair? Or will they come up with something new to fight back against me? I shall wait for them with great anticipation. Heh heh heh.
"So the occultist faction actually responded to our call? That's rare. That would mean that there is something else that concerns them besides the Doomsday Cult. Isn't that right, Prime Minister Shibuki?" Says an elderly man sitting in a seiza position whose feature is concealed by a veil. Another noticeably younger man in a suit, whom he refers to as the prime minister, kneels before said figure in reverence.
"I believe they are concerned about the return of the Occult Killer, the one they claimed to be responsible for bringing this chaos to our world, your highness. Our scout's reports say that they and the Shinto faction sent teams to Kyoto and… after a huge explosion occurred… only one monk managed to return alive." The prime minister replies.
"It's the monk Aragaki, isn't it?"
"Indeed, your highness."
"How big was the explosion and what caused it?"
"Our scouts say that the explosion is at least nuclear level… and one of our awakener scouts say that he sensed an entity with enormous magic power… and that explosion came from said entity." The prime minister reports while sweat runs down his face, clearly nervous. A single entity wielding power on the level of nuclear bomb is a great concern for Japan, the only country on Earth to have experienced nuclear bomb not once but twice.
"Did we get any visuals?"
"Yes. Our scouts managed to capture some footage." The prime minister stood up and hands over his tabled, which plays the video of the incident. The figure within the veil's attention is drawn to a man wearing black robes and skull mask who fought the monk Aragaki.
"So that's the reason those religious occultists answered our call this time. They didn't seem to care about the Doomsday Faction before. To think such a monster exists… and that he divided not only Japan but the entire world into pieces… I never expected a second Sengoku period to happen in my lifetime… but that is how it is I suppose." The figure rants frustratingly as he puts down the tablet.
"Your majesty. This time… the grand alliance must succeed! Or else…"
"No… Not the alliance. A reunification of Japan!"
"Your majesty!?" The prime minister exclaims in surprise after hearing his master's ambition.
"The empire… long divided, must unite… long united, must divide. Thus it has ever been… To think I'd think about a Chinese quote at a time like this… But our empire must unite once again in order to face this great threat." The figure stood up and makes his declaration.
"I order you, Prime Minister Shibuki! Make sure that the grand alliance paves the way to the reunification of Japan!"
"As you command, your imperial majesty, Emperor Akuto." The prime minister accepts his orders, though in his heart, he cursed the emperor who thinks only of how to regain his political influence through this crisis instead of truly focusing on protecting the people, which is why not many of them rallied together under one banner when this whole crisis began.
Author's Note:
The emperor of Japan is an Eminence in Shadow! What a twist! Also, this ends the Homecoming arc and the Season3: Civil War as a whole, but the next arc will still take place in Japan. Don't worry, we'll return to Midgar soon.
Also, I watched the Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom movie back in September 20th and it got me into an Overlord mood so not only I drew an Overlord fanart, I also wrote a chapter for my Overlord Maker fanfic, which is why there was no update last week. No worries though. This fanfic remains my priority and I will only update Overlord Maker and Records of the Seven Wraiths once in awhile.
Emperor Showa refers to Emperor Hirohito, the emperor of Japan back during World War 2. Also, the prime minister Shibuki and emperor Akuto are fictional characters though. No relation to current prime minister and emperor of Japan besides the title. Akuto's name is a play though… with Aku meaning evil.
