"I am surprised that you would come visit me, Yama." Yukari said with a smile as she poured two cups of tea and used a gap to quickly pass the cup to Shikieiki.
Eiki took the cup with a small nod, sipping from it before placing it on the table and looking to Yukari with a gaze that caused her to shiver, though she did not show it. "There was much to discuss in the afterlife this past week. The information we spoke of in that other world gave us many questions and things to look forward too. I can however give you the underworlds answer to your idea."
" . . . And that is?" Yukari asked as she sipped from her own cup, awaiting the answer.
"This other world that you want to move Gensokyo to. While the act itself worries many of us in the underworld, we have come to realize that this other world does not have an underworld, and its souls just dissipate off. So we are on board with your idea, if only to serve our own needs."
"The reason does not concern me. That the underworld supports my proposition is all that matters. Now we only need – ," Yukari suddenly stopped and glanced toward the door to her left. "What is it, Ran?"
Responding to Yukari's words the door opened to show Ran kneeling before them just past the doorway. "Yukari-Sama, you have a visitor." Ran stated simply.
Yukari raised a brow and smiled. "It would be too soon for Louise, so is it perhaps the young Moriya?" Yukari asked.
Ran sighed inwardly realizing that Yukari didn't want to be just told who was here to see her, she wanted to guess. "No. It is not."
"Then please send them in." Yukari said with a smile, waving Ran off as she looked back to Eiki. "As I was saying, now we only need the answers from the celestials and Old Hell."
Eiki nodded and then glanced to the doorway. "Perhaps one less.
Before Yukari could say anything Tenshi Hinnanai walked into the doorway, her expression saying she was there for more than just a duel of words, or swords like in the past. "Well, I did not expect you to be the one to have come to visit, Tenshi!" Yukari said, the corner of her lip twitching slightly. The two of them could talk and be in the same room unlike in the past, but they still did not get along well.
"Yes, well I don't like it any more than you do. That proposition you made has caused quite a stir in heaven."
"I suppose that is why you are here then? Why not come in and take a seat?" Yukari asked, forcing the words out of her mouth as she stared daggers at Tenshi.
"I am fine here. I am here on business, not for a causal talk."
"Then come in and sit, Daughter of Heaven. I am here for such a thing as well." Eiki said clearly, forcing Tenshi to enter the room and sit down between Yukari and her.
"Thank you, Yama. Now, Daughter of Heaven, what business do you have with me then?" Yukari asked as calmly as she could.
"It has to do with your proposition actually. Heaven believes it is an acceptable one, but does not believe that a majority of Gensokyo's Youkai populace has to be exterminated to do so." Tenshi explained clearly, the hate and anger missing from her voice as she spoke.
"Is that your belief, or heavens?" Eiki asked calmly, sipping her tea.
"It is the direct belief of the elders of heaven. As the daughter of heavens ruler I am both the messenger and emissary of Heaven. It does not stop me from feeling the same though."
"Too many of Gensokyo's youkai are too violent for this new world. They would not change to their new expanded horizons." Yukari replied calmly, her eyelids twitching with annoyance.
"Heaven believes you are lying. There is simply no way that that world does not have angers of its own, at least comparable to Gensokyo's youkai! . . . . . Heaven wants me to investigate and prove this fact." Tenshi finally said, causing both Yukari and Eiki to both raise their brows.
"You . . . . want to go to that world to find its dangers on your own?" Yukari asked, quickly piecing together what Tenshi was saying.
Tenshi nodded. "Yes. I'd like you to allow me to go to that world on my own to gauge the dangers it has on its own. Otherwise heaven will not be making a decision one way or another." Tenshi declared her voice filled with both pride, and disgust.
"And that is Heavens current standing then?" Eiki asked calmly, tucking the knowledge in the back of her mind for future reference.
Tenshi only nodded in her reply.
The room was quiet for many moments as Yukari thought over what the situation had become. Tenshi was her father's own daughter, but was also a plaything to the Elders of the celestials. She also was completely understanding of the situation. If such a thing had gone on in years past she would have been used without knowing it, but now she was completely knowledgeable of it, and was using it to her own advantage as well. It both angered her and impressed her; the problem was that with what heaven and Tenshi had decided, Yukari had few options, but could still use the situation to her advantage. She just needed to do so correctly.
"Very well." Yukari said after a few more moments, surprising Eiki enough that her expression actually changed. "However, if I send you there and provide you with a means to return when you wish to, you must do something for me as well."
Tenshi scowled but did not say anything and only nodded, silently telling Yukari to continue.
"Good. A person of interest to me is likely to be in danger. I want you to save him, and to kill the creature that is endangering him."
"I need to know more than that. Tell me exactly what is going on." Tenshi said stoically.
"Very well. One of Alus's brethren has been found by a group from one of that worlds countries. But they have sent someone to deal with him who will be unable to. If that boy survives, it will go to great lengths to prepare that world for our coming, and preparing it for the future of its mana. That is why I want you to make sure the boy does not die, and to kill one of Alus's brethren yourself!"
Tenshi was quite for many moments until she nodded slowly. "So I am to kill a god then. What is the boy's name?"
"The boy is one, Julio Chesaré!"
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Julio Chesaré sighed as he looked over the sword in his hands. For almost a week now he and the other officers from Romalia had been attempting to find the creature that had been plaguing the pope, but it was hiding in a large cave system, an d every time they went in, they were set upon by crazed golems of rock and earth. If it had been before he had lost his familiar mark, he would have just commanded them to back down or command another such creature to fight them, but he couldn't, and over the past few days they had lost four good men, and were now down to six, himself included.
It had been decided that this time, instead of sending small groups into the cave, everyone would go in together to end the creature. But Julio wasn't sure it could be done anymore. A creature that could cause earthquakes and move the earth to block them so easily was undoubtedly a sort of spirit, and a spirit that could also send its voice to a void mage and cause them such pain, it would be a troubling opponent to combat with only a sword.
"Hey, boy! We're moving into the caves, get moving already!" a soldier suddenly called out in gruff anger. It was what made clear the fact that Julio didn't belong here without being a familiar.
"Yes, I'm sorry. I'm coming!" Julio called as he sheathed his sword and ran after the soldiers as they headed toward the caves entrance.
"Then get moving. Brimir damned kid!"
Julio could not say anything in response. He barely had been able to fend off one of the golems a day before, and had caused one of the soldiers to get injured, it was clear they did not trust him, but something seemed off. Even on the first day of the mission before they had entered the cave Julio had felt a disparity between them. It seemed likely they had been given orders to watch and test him, to prove if he was worthy of becoming the pope's familiar again.
Entering the cave Julio felt his hair stand on end, just like each time before, is was if they were being watched from all sides. The cave itself was very spacious, and the ceiling and walls had masses of glowing magical moss on them, illuminating the cave so that it was not hard to see.
Going into the cave the walls seemed different from before and the path did not seem the same as, as if the cave had shifted or changed; and before anyone could say anything about it, it happened. The walls seemed to slit open as earth and moss formed large hulking headless masses, and much quicker than their mass belied, they move toward the soldiers and Julio.
"The golems attack, destroy them!" A soldier called out as all the soldiers moved toward the golems, prepared to fight back.
Julio moved to help them, but quickly found there was a golem approaching him as well; he had to fight on his own, with only his sword at his side and nothing else. Just the thought of it caused him to falter slightly and the golem raised its club like arm to the ceiling, ready to strike it down onto Julio. Just as the golem swung its arm, a blue blur passed behind it and before Julio realized it, the golem attempting to strike him had been broken into a pile of rubble.
"What, who?" Julio asked himself as he glanced around, only to find that every golem had had the same thing done to it. And every soldier seemed to be just as confused at Julio. "What just happened?"
You dare!?
Julio and every soldier gripped their skulls as a pounding voice echoed within them, as if the earth itself had roared into their minds. "What is that voice? Is it the same that assaulted our Lord the pope?"
You dare come after me! You do not know your places! Where once you worshiped me, you now worship an aging old man with delusions of grandeur!
Julio pulled his hands away from his head forcibly and looked around, his eyes watering from the pain, and his vision darkening from the pounding that resounded in his head. "Where, where are you, demon!"
I am all around you, and you are within me. That is why you cannot be victorious against my might!
"Shut up you damn monster and show yourself you- gaaah!" A soldier began to say, just before a spike of stone ruptured from the ground beneath him, impaling him in an instant.
"Brimir damn you, you are just afraid of us!" Julio called out, and in that instant, the pounding in his and the soldier's heads ceased.
"You believe that I am afraid of you?" The voice called, this time devoid of its echolike tone and the pain that had come with it before.
"Yes, you are afraid. Why else would you use a cave to trap us without showing yourself! You are just weak and afraid of us!" Julio called causing the soldiers around to become anxious. "Show yourself to us if you're not afraid!"
For many moments nothing could be heard and it was as if all sound had disappeared from the cave. Then the ground rose up, undulating into the humanoid form of a massive golem wielding a hammer of granite. "You wish to face my true might then; very well, I shall crush you under the mass of the earth by my power!"
Before anyone could truly react to the massive golem, it brought down its hammer on the closest soldier, sending out a wave of red pulp that spattered the cave walls, and the other soldiers and Julio.
"What- no way!" Julio gasped in terror at how easily the soldier had been killed. He had been reduced to nothing but stains on the walls and hammer with as little as a single blow. He neither had time to attack or dodge, and his armour had been utterly destroyed, only fragments of it remained, stuck on the hammers face.
"Do you not see your foolishness?" The golem roared as a soldier ran towers him with his sword ready, only to be smashed aside into a cave wall by the golem's free arm.
"Shut up, you demon!" A soldier cried as he fired an arrow at the golem, the arrows head sticking into its body while giving it no pain, or even a reaction to its existence. In reply, the golem simply raised its hammer above the soldier, and simply dropped it, crushing him instantly.
One, two, three. The soldier's numbers had been cut down from five to two so simply. The golem had barely even acted, it only moved its arms, and three men were dead so quickly. Something so powerful could not be killed by mere blades, so why would the pope send him and only a handful of soldiers against such a creature?
Julio was suddenly shocked out of his thoughts as the golem took a step forward shaking the entire cave. "Give up you foolish humans, no blade can harm me!" The golem cried as it took another step forward and raised it's hammer to the ceiling.
Julio stepped back as the soldier near him kept firing arrows blindly into the golem. Swords didn't reach it, and arrows did not harm it. They needed magic to kill this golem. "Only magic can kill it, I can't kill it, I can't return to my lord's side, I – I can't return to-,"
"And why do you need to return to some old man's side when he uses you like a pack animal?" Suddenly came the soft, yet arrogant and disgusted voice of a woman.
Before anyone could respond, Julio watched as a woman, clad in blue and white soared through the air towards the golem, with speed rivaling that of a griffon, she cleaved at the golems arm with an unseen object, and flipped away as its arm, and the hammer it held, fell to the ground with a crash.
A second later the woman dropped in front of Julio, and he finally could see what she looked like. The woman wore an outfit that looked like it was a cross between a dress and a sort of travel jacket of white material with blue and black edging. The girl's hair was as surprising as her strange clothing, long and simmering blue, like an ocean the sun's rays had just crossed upon. The woman turned her head to Julio, glaring at him with eyes as red as a ruby that caused him to shudder as she spoke. "Again, why would you want to serve someone who does not care about you and uses you like a tool?"
"What, are you talking about? My lord is not one who would-."
"And yet you were sent here against an ancient god without anyone who could truly hurt him?" the blue haired woman asked as she pulled a golden edged sword out from somewhere Julio could not see and swung it to her side.
"That . . I'm sure it's just-,"
"A mistake? Is that it?" the woman asked as she turned her gaze back to the golem as it reformed it's arm and picked the hammer off the ground. "Just stay there for a moment and think about the situation while I deal with this god!" The woman said as she began slowly walking towards the golem.
"You who can cut me, who are you?" The golem demanded to know as it raised its hammer into the air.
"I am Tenshi Hinnanai, the Daughter of Bhava Agra, A Celestial of Heaven. Now, state your own identity before those behind me, God!" Tenshi declared as she pointed the tip of her sword to the golem.
" . . . I am Romus, Ancient God and protector of this land, God of the earth!" the golem roared as it swung its hammer down toward Tenshi.
Tenshi lowered her sword, and as the hammer approached her, she raised her free hand, catching the hammers face with no difficulty, and severely surprising Julio. "Good, now that your identity has been given, I can be sure of who you are. You are the one I need to kill!"
Reacting instantly Tenshi lunged forward and dodged the golem Romus's first swing, thrusting the end of her sword in to his body, and twisted it. In that instant entire sections of his body exploded out, and Romus roared in pain and anger as he swung his hammer down, forcing Tenshi to jump back.
"You! What is that flimsy looking blade?" Romus roared.
Tenshi smiled and flicked her blade to the side, a strange red aura appearing around it. "The sword of Hisou. No one can hold out against it. Show me your true form, so that I may end you completely!"
"I refuse!"
"Then I'll just blow you apart until you do!" Tenshi roared as she threw her sword in front of her. The instant her fingers let go of it, it hovered before her, and began spinning in the air, the red aura becoming a disk of vibrant, frightful red energy. "Scarlet weather rhapsody, of all Humankind!"
Julio was instantly knocked to the ground and struggled to look forward, his sight nearly blinded by what was happening. From the spinning blade a massive beam of red light burned forth and collided with the golem. And it was as if the light was tearing the earth, both of the golem, and behind it, into nothingness. In seconds it was over, and the entire golem had been blasted out of existence, not even its hammer remaining.
Slowly Tenshi turned her head to Julio and shook it. "This is not over yet, stay there!" She said a she walked forward to where the golem had stood, and suddenly stabbed her blade into the ground. Suddenly a pained cry echoed in the cavern, and a mist like substance seeped out of the ground around her blade, floating up around it and tugging away from it, as if pinned to that place.
"You, you damn creature, you are not human!" the mist roared out in anger and pain as it formed an almost humanoid shape.
"I expected more you know, are you unable to take a corporeal form? Are you unable to fight without using your magic?" Tenshi asked calmly as she began walking around the sword, and the spirit held in place by it.
"You dare!?" the spirit demanded as it swiped out its hand at Tenshi, only for it to pass by her harmlessly.
"I do dare. But if you can't provide me with anything more than this, I'll end it now!"
"You cannot! I may be without my power, but you cannot touch me without removing that disgusting blade that holds me here! As soon as you remove it to strike me, I shall rejoin the earth again and destroy you again and again, you cannot win!"
Tenshi looked at Romas and smirked touching the hilt of her blade. "I figured I'd let you go a few times to make you realize your position. But no one gets away with badmouthing Hisou!" Tenshi declared as she tightly griped the blades pommel, and the ground around her suddenly began to crack and buckle. Red mist began boiling up around her, in moments the edges of the spirit began to rip and tear away from it, and the earth buckled even more, entire sections of it, breaking up and disintegrating in the air.
"Aaaaaaahhh, what power is this!"
Tenshi smiled even wider as the red mist began breaking apart the walls, allowing even more red mist to pour out! "This is the power of the Celestials, of Heaven, of Hisou! This is the power of real magic, and real power! Now vanish and be torn asunder by it, you failed excuse for a God!"
Julio shielded his eyes as the light before him became blinding and denied him seeing anything, until the last remaining soldier grabbed his shoulder and spun him around. "Get moving boy, this place could come down, we need to move!"
"R-right!" Julio replied as he quickly followed the soldier back out of het cave, the light behind them not dimming in its intensity even when they reached the caves mouth. After catching his breath Julio dropped down onto his knees, finding his legs had no strength, and that his heart was pounding harder than he ever remembered. "What, what jus happen-?"Julio began to say, until he turned his head to find the soldier pointing a readied arrow at his head, with the bowstring fully pulled back.
"Sorry kid, but I have orders. We all did!"
"What do you mean?" Julio asked as the soldier took a step back so that he could not have his bow knocked away.
"I mean, you are to die. So just stay there and-"
The soldier stopped talking as Tenshi walked up beside him holding her sword, and in one motion cut into the man's bow, slicing its string instantly. Before he could react she then swung her blade back up, dropping the man's head to the ground without his body. His body fell backwards only a second later when Tenshi sheathed her blade and looked at Julio, her expression showing how little she cared about what she just did. "You need to be more careful, I have it on good authority that this entire mission was to get you killed. Your lord does not care for you much."
"And what do you know of my lord? Who are you anyway?" Julio asked, his tone sure as he somehow felt this person, while responsible for saving his life, was trouble.
"I already stated who I am when I killed the god just now. I don't need to say it again, and I suggest you get going and be prepared for the worst."
"What are you talking about?" Julio demanded to know as he stood up and glared at the woman. He suddenly had a suspicion that she was a heretic, and if she was, he'd have to deal with her. But could he when she had so easily destroyed that creature she called a god?
"I'm talking about your master, that pope, or whatever he's called. He has no respect for you, and he intended for you to die here, so be careful when you return to him." Tenshi explained her tone devoid of actual care. She sounded bored just by speaking to him.
Julio looked at Tenshi and shook his head. "This is obviously a misunderstanding, but you speak with little respect for our great pope. You should speak with more respect when talking about our pope!" Julio declared.
Tenshi held a hand up to her mouth to quiet a rather obvious giggle. "Yeah, I don't think so. Your pope has no real strength, just like nearly every person in this land. None of you know a damn thing about what power is, but whatever, I've done what I was asked to. So I'll be going now!" Tenshi declared as she turned and began walking away.
"Wait! Why did you intervene? This mission was top secret, there is no way you should have known about it. Are you some sort of heretic spy?" Julio demanded to know as he pulled his sword out and pointed it toward Tenshi.
Tenshi stopped and turned her head to Julio, looking at him with just the barest sliver of her eye. "Don't push your luck, kid. I didn't save you because I give a damn about you or this country. I did it because I needed to be able to pursue my own objectives. I'm leaving. If you value your life, don't look for me!" Tenshi said just before she suddenly blasted into the sky and shot off into the distance without any sort of mount or magical creature.
Authors note: okay first chapter after Nanowrimo! It went better than in the past too so that went well. On another note, I've officially put messiah on Hiatus so I can focus on this. It kind of was anyway, but now it's official. Either way we're back to it!
