A/N: I'm sorry, did I say the near future? I meant two days after. Welcome back everyone! And this time I got a whopping +15k chapter like I promised. Question, which do you guys prefer? The regular line breaks, or the X bars? Also, can I say how awesome you guys are for reviewing? It always sends my body jittering with goosebumps every time a review pops up. I get so excited my hands wouldn't sit still for me to work. It really does motivate me a lot that you guys are enjoying this as much as I am. Plus, this chapter is one of the most anticipated ones I wanted to pull out.

For Review Responses:

WilliamZO: Finally! The Prologue is truly over! Or is it? Back to answering, the little sisters are going to play some necessary roles in progressing Touma's first night in Gensokyo, leading up to a really spectacular scenario, so look forward to that *wink* *wink*. The way you mentioned the Yama gave me an awesome idea that can really fit into the spectacular moment I spoke about, and let me say, she's going to have the scare of her LIFE. Kasen's unique situation... I'm not planning anything to drastically until her manga gets updated. The dragons will have their powers and personality characterized along the way. Nazrin...I'm thinking about another plotline that's going to follow involving her, but I haven't completely decided yet. You must understand though, Kamijou Touma is a normal high school boy you can find anywhere (TM). Rinnosuke might get something similar real close by. For the Oni's reaction to the Moon, that was mostly coincidental and more how Suika loves battles and Kasen knowing something everybody else doesn't. As for Touma learning of the fate of the Moon...I won't be shirking away when that moment arrives is what I'll say.

Disclaimer: To Aru Majutsu No Index belongs to Kazuma Kamachi and Touhou Project belongs to ZUN. I don't own either of these properties.

SS: Amatsukami on the Moon, Rupture and Overturn - Heaven

"Tsukuyomi-sama."

A divine woman breathed hastily as she kneels down, supporting her body on one knee before the face of the sage of the moon on the screen in front of her. Her head tilted downwards on the tatami floor.

Sagume Kishin, a Lunarian and classified as a goddess who has short light grey hair with a braid on the back, red eyes, and a single white wing on her back. She wears a purple dress, the bottom of which is cut into an arrow pattern, with a red microphone bowtie, a tan jacket with the same arrow pattern design on the bottom edges and strange markings on the shoulder, topping it all is brown shoes. Today she has heard of troubling news that could shake the Lunar capital at its core.

"Sagume, on what conditions have moved you enough to call me that you would even move your mouth?"

Tsukuyomi, a sage of the moon, his face being covered by a black veil questioned the Goddess before him with a composed face and regal tone.

Sagume had a difficult face. She expected such a response considering the reputation of her powers. "…My powers," She gulped, "have appeared to be failing as of recently now."

"...Illuminate me." Tsukuyomi had to pause briefly, checking whether or not he heard that correctly.

"There is someone interfering with the world itself." Sagume had to shake her head to ward of the nervousness threatening to slip from her voice. "No matter how much I slip my words, they cannot reach it."

"...! To be able to interfere with your powers is possible…but to have absolutely no effect?! His solemnness deepened from such an impossibility. "Not unless something exists that even fate has no power over!"

"My Lord, the one responsible is an unnamed dragon. The Watatsuki sisters are on standby and are bearing witness to a figure across the Sea of Tranquility above. They have reported the figure to be washed in pure white robes. Its length is approximately ten kilometers or so." She detailed the current events tentatively.

"A dragon? That is most unusual. It's been thousands of years since a dragon of such size was last seen." The sage mused.

"They heard from their rabbit soldiers Ringo and Seiren from the earth when they saw it heading towards the moon. This was confirmed by their pet Rei'sen when she witnessed the dragon across the Sea of Tranquility until it presumably vanished and reappeared again closer to the shores. We presume it to be flickering between the scientific and fantastic versions of the moon maintained by our barrier. Right now, it has not reacted to anything and decided to stay stationary in the sky."

"Dealing with one of them might be of concern, but how it did bypass our sensors even if it is a dragon? They should have been warned far sooner before it even reached the moon!"

Tsukuyomi had to narrow his eyes at that point. A dragon though it may be, the Lunar society's citizens have no need to worry over one divine god with the power they wield behind thousands. And two of the most promising defense captains to watch over the area where the moon and earth are most connected is a massive ease of concern. But for their advanced technology to be rendered useless against it?

"They have been unable to detect any information using their sensors on hand. Only with their eyes and ears were they able to identify the dragon. Communications with it are impossible as it hasn't bothered to recognize their words or presence, its attention appears to be towards our Lunar capital. They are stationed before the dragon on standby to respond to any aggression from it." Sagume reported with the added measure of sending the data acquired or lack of data from the dragon to Tsukuyomi.

"Why did they send you as a messenger instead of contacting me themselves?" Why did this goddess appear before him instead of the two captains?

"They did not order me to, I came here by my own volition. As for the princesses, they were confident in their roles as the captains of the Lunarian Defense corps. They did not see fit to trouble you on trivial matters they can handle. A notion that I agreed with…until recently as I appear before you. We have lost contact recently with them and no method of communication beyond familiars are working properly. Thus, I decided to report to you personally and have sent Doremy Sweet, the Baku to look over and return for information." Sagume bowed her head to hide her face completely.

Tsukuyomi swiped his fingers for a holographic control screen to appear before him. He receives the data with prudence and decides to contact the princesses directly. As to confirm Sagume's words, the princesses have not responded to his call. He then decides to reach the Observatory tower of the capital to scan the dragon from afar with their superior and recently up to date sensors compared to what the sisters have on hand to identify any and all information on the dragon from here.

"Who right now is still susceptible to your powers?"

"…no matter how much my tongue slips, the dragon's fate could not be touched or for those intertwined with it...it's as if the dragon doesn't even exist."

Sagume finished with anxiety gripping her.

"Its reach has covered the entire moon, sir. I can no longer influence anybody here…"

A 10-kilometer long Branch horned dragon with its pure white webbing scales along its spine giving the image of it wearing a robe with its black carapace underbelly is fixed in the sky of the moon and a long distance away from the tips of sand on the beach. The position of its body had its head and neck straitened upwards with its pitch-black eyes and golden iris facing straight. The rest of its serpentine body made curves behind it.

Standing guard on the edge of the shores are two sisters radiating regal auras. One in a guarded stance while the other is acting like it's any other evening.

The older of the two is Watatsuki no Toyohime. 166cm tall, long, flowing, sandy blonde hair and golden eyes. She is wearing a dark blue dress with a strap on the left over a white long-sleeved blouse together with a loose belt that has a gold mirror-shaped buckle, and a white bonnet with a red ribbon on it. Hands loose and sticking between her palms is a closed fan. On her face is a carefree smile as she takes in the view of the creature above the sea.

The other, younger sibling, Watatsuki no Yorihime. The same height as her sister having light purple hair tied into a ponytail with a yellow ribbon and brown eyes. She wears a dark red dress with a strap on the right over a white short-sleeved blouse, and a loose belt with a gold sword-shaped buckle. Her sword and sheath are stabbed into the sand with her palms on its hilt. A steeled expression on her face with calculating eyes as she tries to decide which god is most appropriate to deal with the anomaly.

The older one attempted to approach the dragon in a casual, but professional manner.

"Now then, I would like to extend our greetings once more dragon-sama. I am Watatsuki no Yorihime, and this over here is my sister, Watatsuki no Yorihime."

"Why haven't you given up on making pleasantries with it?" Yorihime could only sigh at her sister in exasperation. "Look at it, it has no intention of acknowledging us. The dragon, while beautiful and having the body structure of the glorious dragon, it lacks the divine nature of one that we're familiar with. It's probably a subspecies that mimics its superior family."

They were being cautious towards the invader and allowing it to make its move first. No aggressive actions have been needed yet as they did not learn anything from it even with all their advanced sensors. The sensors could not detect any thermal response, radio waves or even electromagnetic waves from the creature. Without any hold of Intel, they could not create a sufficient strategy to apprehend it without sustaining any possible damages. The sensors couldn't even register it on its monitors and made it seem like the dragon was invisible from reality, only to be perceptible by the eyes and ears.

"Well, it couldn't hurt to allow for it to speak for itself. It's not hostile now and it seems to be in appreciation of our capital. I can't blame it for its action. There is no need for concern, so why not be lenient towards it? We are Lunarians and we must greet our guests with proper etiquette and a warm welcome. Besides, with such a regal figure it possesses it must be of divine royalty." Her eyes then lit up upon an idea. "My, I have a splendid idea! I propose we invite it to our capital for a tour!"

Still wearing the carefree smile, Yorihime clapped her palms together right next to her cheek in sudden realization for a wonderful idea.

"How ridiculous." She denied her idea in annoyance. "We shouldn't be hasty to cast such early judgments. It could be another invader being stupid by attacking the moon head on. We should just send it back on the fifth that is the earth where it came from. We don't want to commit another mistake like Uranoshimako. It might bring in filth upon the moon the more it stays here. A dragon whose divinity is unrecognizable or if it even has one is highly suspicious." Yorihime said with a haughty tone. Her arrogant demeanor out in the open.

"Oh my, just how worked up are you? Perhaps after this, we make a trip to the hot springs to cool yourself." Toyohime covered her lips with a hand in concern.

"Never mind that, we can't afford yet another invader on the moon to humiliate us. We will show our true abilities in defending the moon the moment it turns hostile." Yorihime spatted out in a scowl from remembering of a time when two humans in foreign suits invaded them and planted a flag on their home.

"…Why yes dear sister, we mustn't fail here knowing that the invasions will not stop here." Toyohime nodded. "If what you say becomes true then it would be a good chance for the rabbits to gain real battle experience and a good workout for us."

Finally, after a long time staring at the dragon, it has reacted. Currents of wind are coiling around its body that starts from its tail and ends towards the front of its face, wearing the wind like a membrane. Face still staring forward and its line of sight somewhere in the Lunar Capital, its eyes turned hostile with a glint and ready for battle as its mouth breathed out air in a vortex.

"My, my, what a shame that it turned out to be like this…we most certainly can't allow this to continue. Allow me to extend our proper greetings towards Invaders. Yorihime, take the lead." Toyohime with her smile still in place addressed her sister. Her eyes turned frigid in disappointment from the lizard's actions.

Yorihime simply nodded in response. "Rabbits! Keep the sensors running. Aim with precision, just like how you've always done for practice and fire your bayonets towards the enemy! We are to detain this beast and prepare a fitting seal for capture. Do not stop with the ammunition!"

"Y-yes ma'am! Snipers entering combat, set to rapid fire! The sensors are in position! W-Wha!? The sensors! Just what are these numbers!?" A rabbit soldier responded to her orders with meekness and shock.

For the first time since the new rabbit soldiers have been trained, they are entering the battlefield.

The beach was lit up in thousands of lights as bullets have been fired against the dragon in the sky. They expected them to slow down from the aura of wind surrounding it. However, the attacks instead soared through the cloak of wind without losing speed.

Their surprise didn't end there for it wasn't the most mysterious phenomena to occur. The bullets they fired reached the body and phased right through it like it was flowing water. Ripples from where their bullets had landed surfaced all over the body of scales.

(What? The bullets phased through its body? I half expected the wind to reflect or slow down those bullets with its brazen actions of leaving its guard down. But the wind had no effect on the bullets, so it isn't a means of defense?)

"Switch to your EMP rounds! Do not stop until they are at cooldown!"

Yorihime ordered the rabbits to start firing their next line of firearms. The ammunition for the next firing attempt is replaced with electric rounds.

She had theorized that physical attacks to be noneffective against this dragon and must be susceptible to forms of energy instead. And with its wind being for show it wasn't going to affect their speed and get in the way.

They aimed their rifles over their shoulders and fired again in the hopes of doing some damage to the enemy. When the bullets left their barrels, they burst into the air, leaving behind a streak of electricity.

Useless.

The EMP rounds passing through the air cloak with no resistance was met with a new phenomenon. They changed direction near the tip of its scales, some curved away from the dragon and around the outline of its body.

(What happened for the bullets to curve? Is that the purpose of those wind?)

Yorihime pondered in bewilderment. Trying to formulate an idea of what the dragon is capable of and its bizarre defense system.

"What do the sensors say now?" Not having to turn back, she called for the new intel to be received.

"There's no change on the monitors…no …wait, is that a singularity on the monitors?!"

"What?! That couldn't be! There is none in front of us nor could there ever be a naturally occurring one here!" Exclaims Yorihime with understandable shock. An extraordinary phenomenon appearing over this solar system? It was completely impossible.

"There is no change on the monitors, the external monitor signals have been on loop from one minute ago! This…This is unexplainable!"

"What did the sensors say about our weaponry?"

"They say the trajectory of the EMP rounds stayed straight!"

"Ridiculous! How could our sensors be incapable of detecting our bullets' change in trajectory!?"

Yorihime, while operating under the distress of the rabbits is still far from panicking with confidence that there is a proper explanation for the bizarreness in the air.

"Everything had been normal moments before, the calculation circuits are sending out codes I've never seen before! I can't control any of this!"

"Could it be hacking into our machinery? Maybe those winds are creating illusions without the use of magic?"

Toyohime came up with two hypotheses that the circulating winds around the dragon are the source of the defective information being scanned by the sensors.

Leaving them no time to contemplate the nature of its defense, the aura of wind around the dragon spiked up and expanded away from its serpentine body.

The formation of an atmosphere is evident. The makeup of the air, however, were unidentifiable.

With this new foreign air contaminating the moon, the rabbits had faces full of fear if that were to spread. The two captains in comparison remained steadfast under the potential lethality of this new atmosphere.

Anything that remotely held the concepts of life and death in it was an impurity toxic to the purity of everything on the moon. A new atmosphere carrying carbon and other components of life cannot be allowed to exist on the moon.

"Soldiers! Take this time to put on your suits!" Yorihime shouted out the commands.

Wasting no time, they put on the suits on hand modeled after the astronaut suits from those two Americans who invaded them in the past.

"The unidentified singularity's gravitational field is expanding, even though it doesn't exist! No…the gravitational field is changing its borders!"

"Hurry up and give me more precise reports soldier!" Yorihime shouted out with a scowl. The mood around the rabbits continuing to become more and more chaotic.

"We are in need of a proper analysis in order to effectively combat the enemy right now." Toyohime remained professional, maintaining the duty of observing the dragon.

"All sensors, thermal responses, radio waves, radiation…and timestamps are all over the place! The analysis program that's running has almost all its systems running errors!" The rabbits in charge of the sensors are shaking violently, more than they usually do. Their skins have turned paler and their eyes wider.

The dragon then arched its head back, signaling its movements for a roar, sucking in the air with so much force that vacuums were visible.

The surface of the sea left its serenity in the wake of the leviathan above. Rings of waves were attracted to the center right below the dragon from the air suction.

"All soldiers! Cease your firing and retreat from here!" Yorihime swiftly ordered the rabbits in response to the ineffective use of their current armed weapons. "We will handle everything from this point on! Rei'sen! You are to remain here and take over the sensors."

"Yo-Yorihime-sama?!"

The unfortunate pet rabbit had the shortest stick of the group as her eyes shivered and her legs ready to cave in. Unenthusiastically, she staggered forward to grab a sensor Yorihime handed to her.

Far too glad to escape the current madness of the battle, the rest rushed away from the beaches and hid behind the trees and bushes. Others ran even further behind into open fields of rock.

"Hmph."

Yorihime continued to watch the dragon in anticipation and haughtiness. She has already chosen a god to react from its predictable action.

"HHHRrRvvVEHEeEEHHHhHEeEHHHHEEEEEEE!"

The air exploded.

Sound waves rocked out being carried by the wind and the vibrations maddened in zeal.

The heavens responded to the dragon's order. They immediately closed themselves as black clouds swarmed the sea and beach, rejecting all light from entering. Water burst from being in close proximity. The sea became a chaotic battlefield as the winds shifted and turned so suddenly that spillways were forming on the former flat surface of the sea. The calm wind turned violent as pockets of miniature cyclones have formed on the surface of the sea.

The aura of wind acting as the dragon's second skin had expanded even further and accelerated that hints of what is to be sparks of electricity is running all over its body.

The atmosphere of the moon has transformed. The sky above the sea is now its territory. Its expansion stopped at the surface area of 4,000 kilometers.

Then, the shockwave continued to flow out in every direction. The distance it traveled would soon reach the Watatsukis and rabbits.

The rabbits instinctively covered their faces with their arms. Bodies turned paler while quivering from the assailing winds. What surprised them was that their positions hadn't budged at all from contacting the wind. When eyes began to open, the winds unable to break the sound barrier, yet possessed speed surpassing them had flowed all over their bodies without pressure behind them.

The wind carried by the dragon was enough to crush their bodies to paint the ground, yet they felt no pain at all.

Why was its roar so harmless?

How come the shockwave didn't blow them away?

And why did the change in atmosphere stop expanding with the air stopped in place and not spread out everywhere? It was like the air followed its command like an ant colony.

Even the sand did not fly away, or the trees outrooted from the force.

"rruurruu…"

A growl was the only noise in the air.

"hawawawa…"

...minus the frightened rabbit who shouldn't even be here.

"…"

"As expected of sister. With your power to call upon the gods and its proven effectiveness to the enemy then the battle is already over before it began. Though I suppose the incoming drizzle will be a nuisance." Toyohime declared as if the matter had already concluded from this. Expecting that Yorihime had been the one who prevented any damage inflicted by the dragon. She frowned with her hand grabbing her hat for adjustments.

"…My power did not work…no when I called upon Isetsuhiko-no-Mikoto [1] to manipulate the wind and created a fortress…the wind shaped by that dragon's roar, Isetsuhiko had no influence over it. As if the element was transformedinto something else and passed through the fortress…" Her face hardened from the revelation that one of the gods she called upon to be completely useless against this foe.

Had that shockwave been lethal, she would've taken severe damage to her body and lungs. But for the wind to be harmless was almost as if the dragon was mocking her.

She felt humiliated. A misjudgment that could've costed her life. Anger burned in her heart with narrowed eyes. She wanted to hack the scales off the dragon.

"Oh my, one of the god's domain had been violated?"

Toyohime looked surprised for the first time since the battle started.

"…Sister, I'm making my move now. Don't interfere."

Bending her knees, Yorihime leaped towards the dragon and soared in inhumane speeds.

"…Rei'sen, what do the sensors have to say now?"

"E-every system has been running errors, the d-data is all over the place! T-they say there's b-been no change even if I expanded the s-search area!" In a mass of stuttering from the poor soul, she answered to the best of her abilities.

Expecting such a response, Toyohime returned her gaze back to the dragon with Yorihime's back in the center of her view. While still having confidence in her sister, she felt a hint of doubt in her heart and readied herself to interfere at any moment.

Reaching a well-rounded distance, Yorihime began her attack upon her vantage point in the air away from the new atmosphere.

"Now that you have revealed your hand, you face me now dragon!" Yorihime shouted out in rage. Her body was a distance away from the dragon's territory with her sword in her right hand, unsheathed and pointed towards the dragon. "I call upon Raijin!" [2]

Electricity sparked all around Yorihime in the sky. The dark clouds aided her as she became a lightning rod for them to channel and gift her more power than normal. This power had easily surpassed the Level 5 known as the Railgun back on Earth.

After confirming that she can control the thunder within the clouds, Yorihime relaxed her heart.

So far, the dragon has shown to be able to manipulate the wind. Physical and electrical attacks have no effect.

But what about divine thunder with the purpose to strike down evil from reaching the heavens?

"It wasn't wise to summon such a dense storm like this." Commented Yorihime. "I can call the gods to my body and borrow their power. No matter what field, difference in power, speed, or intelligence I can counter and gain an advantage in any situation."

Boasting the power she wielded, Yorihime, flourishing her sword created thunder from every cloud in the sky to strike the dragon. They covered the sky with narrow passages, impossible for the dragon to avoid.

Magic circles constructed to her sides, revolving around her body facing straight. They rapid fired orbs powered by her mana in a flash.

Some magic circles concentrated mana within them and fired railguns. They flew straight and solid, sizzling the air.

With both hands, she finished her combo by making sixteen swings of her sword in different directions with finesse at lightning speeds. And each slash generated a beautiful arc of thunder fired form her sword that danced towards the dragon.

Using divine thunder to attack the dragon at every direction as a method to find a hole in its phasing, the slashes were fired specifically at the horns, eyes, nose, fangs, neck, and sections of its bodies to net any different results.

The numerous thunders from the clouds and Yorihime's attacks bypassed the territory of the dragon and its armor of wind.

Everything was the same.

Not even attacks imbued with heavens divine might were able to brush its scales. Even when faced with omnidirectional attacks, the dragon was unharmed.

Several occurrences happened to the railguns. Some curved when getting close to the body and one curved towards the sea, blasting water in its path and creating tidal waves. Others stretched and phased through the body.

Her mind raced as she switched to other gods for an attack — each one synergizing with the magic circles around her to heighten their powers extraordinarily.

Divine fire said to burn anything.

Purify the dragon with blinding light.

Fire energy blasts that ignored distance.

Turn the water below into serpents that raced towards it.

Sealing it using barriers and compressing it.

Change the gravity to force it down.

Dozens of gods were used, and none was successful in harming the dragon. They either passed through or were deflected away from the dragon. Each method that was used by Yorihime were met with the same result.

Yorihime wore a dumbfounded face full of disbelief.

She deduced that natural and magical phenomena had no effect on the dragon. This wasn't simply the ability to phase through objects. It was almost as if it didn't have a physical body.

(Could it have something similar to that Miko's ability to float from reality? But what are the conditions for when the projectiles curve or phase through it?)

"qinUSELESSere, porAEONminOFtdISISlop."

Her eyes snapped open with such ferocity they might have made actual, audible sounds. A voice(?) entered her ears from nowhere.

Its gender was unclassifiable.

Its age was neither ancient nor youthful.

Its volume barely a whisper yet could be heard and perceived easily.

Its tone held no seriousness, but there was no casualness in it as well.

Extreme static rung from some of its words.

"tfCAN'TvpHEARgoMEzoSOkqWELL?"

Did it come from the dragon...No, it never turned its head to her, but she didn't feel like doubting that now. From what words she could barely perceive, it told her she was doing it wrong, wasting away energy fruitlessly. Not having many options to use, she needed a god who can attack beings that belonged outside of reality.

'Invoke me! That damn reptile! Showing its dreadful face in front of me yet again! Hurry up! Or else the Moon will be destroyed!'

Yorihime was stunned by the hateful voice from the god, cursing towards the leviathan. Could this dragon hold such power to trample the entire Capital under its tail? Not having enough time to ask questions, she called upon him to her body.

"Amatsu Mikaboshi! Dissolve to chaos!"

Black stars formed in Yorihime's magic circles and flashed towards the dragon. The sky was covered in black light. A beautiful star stream flew in lightspeed. The results were most welcoming as they made contact with the dragon. Smoke had arisen and covered the entirety of the dragon's body.

"Now that I have your attention answer me dragon, what your purpose is for coming to the moon."

Yorihime composed herself with bravado since she didn't believe for a second it was over yet. An opportunity for answers since she felt it ideal now then it was earlier with the dragon disabling most of her gods. With the recent god of evil and stars being knowledgeable and ready to fight it, she no longer felt apprehensive towards the dragon. Using a façade to try and make it take her words for consideration.

The smoke was cleared off, and Branch Horn was revealed to be unharmed, shocking Yorihime into a daze.

Finally, it turned its attention towards Yorihime, acknowledging her as a target. This reaction from the dragon had sent a cold tremble throughout Yorihime's spine, and her heartbeat hastened. Feeling it's gaze all over her body disabled her body systems slowly. Power poured from those narrowed slits. She gauged its power to be enough to split the moon in half. She had no proof of how accurate this assessment was, but their intensity promised doom upon her.

"lkYOU'VEqpGROWNvdSOMEmnBALLSxi, reFAILEDtyMAGIComGOD!"

An enraged roar engulfed her body. It was like a stream of jackhammers being rained upon her body. The gusts assailing her didn't force her out of position, but it left her wide awake as her ponytail flew crazily.

"trSMUGasLITTLEgrSHITSljLIKEvyYOUpoDON'TfgHAVEsxTHEqlRIGHTreTOdsBAREthTHEIRnmFANGSyuTOWARDSwlME!"

Ignoring her words, the dragon retaliated, its eyes giving away its intentions.

On reflex, Yorihime quickly switched to Uzume no Mikoto who specialized in agility.

Its movements became a blur. The dragon retaliated by moving its tail above Yorihime and out of its territory, an overhead tail whip. Yorihime's heartbeat accelerated even further from the speed of its movements which surpassed whatever power gifted to her by her current god.

"Kuh! *SMACK* Kyaaah!"

Despite her boost, the speed of the tail didn't leave Yorihime enough room to avoid it, so she blocked it with her sword. Barely timing her sword to block the tail before it reached her, she switched to a god meant for defense, bracing for the impact and was sent flying down with a cry. She righted herself in the air just in time before she made a crater on the beach.

"Sister!" Toyohime called out to her, worry evident in her voice. She flew right towards her and picked her up for stabilizing.

"I'm fine!" She growled out lowly at her sister. Blood trickled down her forehead. She didn't bother to turn her head back as the dragon could resume its attacks at any moment. Her body ached in pain traveling down her toes. "This is nothing! The battle hasn't even begun, and I haven't tried everything yet! Damage like this can be recovered!"

Telling herself that she can still fight even after being met with its gaze and roar head-on, whether it was pride or stupidity it was difficult to say.

"…Alright, but you be extra careful this time. Don't let yourself get carried away and be more vigilant. It hasn't revealed its true power." Toyohime advised. "Luckily, it doesn't seem to want to continue its attack. Rei'sen! What did the sensors have to say for all that?"

"B-by sequence, the thunder was detected, and the numbers don't contradict what was seen! H-However, the railguns don't indicate any signs of curving; they were straight lines! Everything else after continued to move from their initial trajectory and right through the dragon!

Yorihime and Toyohime were stumped.

Had they heard what Rei'sen said to be wrong? How can so much misinformation be recorded from their advanced lunar technology?

"A-and the black stars which were divine in nature was detected by the sensors, s-so when the lights landed on the dragon the monitors should have shown the lights stopping in place to outline the dragon's body here!"

"Should?"

"Should?"

Yorihime and Toyohime questioned at the same time in puzzlement. If the black lights made contact, then the sensors would obviously record them stopping in place and reveal the dragon's body.

"T-they said the stars moved in a straight line too! They passed through the dragon the whole time! There are no indications either to say that the stars were hitting something solid!"

"What!?" Yorihime retorted in stupefaction. "I've seen with my own eyes up close that my attack did touch the dragon!"

"But for now, what we do know is that the dragon isn't invincible." Toyohime interjected in order to prevent Yorihime from losing her temper.

"*Sigh* Yes that's true...and the battle will be easier from here on." Yorihime said, finally calming down with renewed confidence.

"Ah. It's because of Mikaboshi-sama's power correct? He was always so reliable at times like these. Well? What was the spell he provided this time?"

Time and time again, Amatsu Mikaboshi had always had a way with magic that he could put most magic-based gods on the moon to shame at times.

"The moment Amatsu Mikaboshi's attack landed, its ability to phase through everything had ended. The stars had a brand effect on them so our attacks can finally reach the damn lizard. Look. Its tail having touched my sword has allowed Lord Gion's power to seal its movements." Just as she said, swords were protruded from the scales of its tail; its body movements showed traces of slowed movements.

"How splendid! That means that you don't need to only use a god to bypass its defense, but now you can use one that counters it!" Toyohime was ecstatic. The battle was on even grounds now.

"That's right, that means all attacks are fair game. As long as I find the right god, the dragon will be of little concern from then on." Yorihime had returned to her confident demeanor. Positive that there exists a god that is a natural counter to the dragon. 'The two of you watch over the battle and continue to find any more details about the dragon."

"Oh, but before you go off, we need to make an appropriate name for it at least. It feels a bit inadequate to refer to it as dragon-sama." Toyohime returned to her previous playful tone to try to lighten the tension.

Yorihime scoffed at her. "Why would that be important? We don't need to get any more familiar with someone from earth, especially an enemy. If that's all the quibbling you want, then I'm going now." Yorihime flew towards the heavenly figure and into the battle once more.

A feeling sprouted in her heart, one she couldn't identify as she neared the dragon. But it was overshadowed by the burning hatred she felt. So before reaching within a reasonable distance, she switched to a god to calm her heart from its intense beating.

Taking the time to measure the distance between her and the newly formed atmosphere, she confronts the dragon once more.

Just to play safe, Yorihime repeated the same attack with Amatsu Mikaboshi.

'Fucking piece of shit! I'll kill youuuuuuuuuuuuuu!'

The attacks landed successfully, only because the dragon didn't bother to avoid them. With each hit, the more its body will be susceptible to her attacks.

Deciding to switch to close quarter combat since long-distance attacks left no damage at all, she flew head on towards the dragon in neck-breaking speed.

She pressed a switch on a bracelet she wore, and a suit covered her body. Entering its territory without protection would be foolish.

(Hah? What joke is this? Even behind this helmet… I can tell the air is non-poisonous to my body. There's nothing impure about it. This bastard's disgusting territory of air on the purity of the moon's atmosphere has no pressure behind it. And the aura of wind acting its armor…I feel no force behind it either.)

Thinking back, the gust from its roar should have carried air from its territory, yet it wasn't lethal, and the purity of the moon was unaffected.

Just what was it planning with all this air?

Suspecting this to be a trap, she took her time to examine the atmosphere around her. Staying vigilant, she switched to a god that automatically purifies her. Sending the suit back to her bracelet she resumed her actions of approaching the dragon's head.

Their eyes crossed one another. Staring at each other's faces with such proximity her heart which should have reached maximum velocity ascended to a new height.

'Calm down! It's just another serpent I can kill! It's nothing different from Orochi so hurry up and call me!'

Susano-no-Mikoto yelled in her head. Her mind jolted, and her eyes regained their clarity when an immense power coursed throughout her body. Yes, with Susano's power channeled inside her that has slain the Orochi, this dragon will perish beneath her blade.

Immense power coursed all over her body flaring in a blue aura. The blessing was even more effective under this storm. She was now the natural enemy of dragons.

Dragonslayer.

Her sword glowed and a light blue construct of the blade extended out in length and thickness. Watery tendrils surrounded it like a dragon spiral to the tip.

She burst into motion and left shockwaves behind. Yorihime's fears a moment ago vanished when she edged closer and closer to its head.

"Haaaaah!"

With a roar, she slashed her sword at its forehead. The giant blade raised above to split the dragon's skull in half. Its brilliance was blinding.

*SHING-*

Not feeling that motivated, Branch Horn didn't bother to dodge it.

*BONK! *

The collision was anticlimactic.

The sound was dull, like a metal bat hitting cement.

The force behind the sword had enough power to rival an asteroid.

To make matters worse, it failed to leave any marks on the dragon's head or cut through its scales.

She and the god residing in her were shocked with Susano's mouth agape. Gagging sounds could be heard in her head.

Branch Horn whipped its head at her way to fling her off of it like she was a pebble that landed on its snout — shaking its body like a dog to get rid of water in its fur.

Jumping back a little further from where she was thrown off, the fear returned to her eyes. They were shaking rapidly from side to side. She devised a new battle strategy as she tried to calm down by breathing in a measured manner.

(Fine, so overwhelming it with power is worthless. Time to resort to that while it's careless!)

Taking off again, she flew in a different direction to go behind its head. She darted her eyes away from its face and continued passing behind its head with the dragon's eyes following her. She felt fidgety and could tell that there were goosebumps all over her skin.

The dragon made no effort to move its body, not because the sword restraints prevented all its movement; it just decided not to for some reason again.

Maybe it was boredom. Perhaps it was confidence. Who knows.

Sending out a roar again, she stabbed her sword at its neck and failed to pierce the scales. Expecting this, she flew and dragged her sword all the way around its body to its tail. Now swords were protruding everywhere around the dragon's body.

Not finished yet, she called for a god to summon thick amounts of Shimenawa ropes to tie all over its body. Yes, to immobilize all its body movements, she can capture it and end the invasion.

"I may not be able to kill you, but I most definitely can seal you! Yorihime shouted out in triumph and flew back in front of its face.

The dragon, however, felt no apprehension in being wrapped. Its eyes glowed an eerie light that Yorihime's heart stopped. The dragon was utterly relaxed, and there was not a single hint of desperation on its body.

The impossible simply occurred. With the most minimal amounts of effort on its part, the ropes and swords were ripped apart from winding its body a little.

Yorihime's eye shrank to their utmost ability. She backed away in the face of the disaster being freed from all of its restraints. She had lost all her previous bravado at this moment, and doubts plagued her mind. She was thoroughly convinced that she lacked any means on her part to contest with the dragon.

The dragon made its move again. Yorihime recalling what happened last time created more distance between her and the dragon. Flying away backward, she stared and observed the dragon once again.

The already chaotic field had turned up the tempo. Rain began to fall in high-speed torrents everywhere, whirlpools the size of baseball fields emerged, the sky had darkened even further, and thunder crackled in the clouds with noise so unbearable enough to destroy a normal person's eardrums in seconds.

The tempestuous atmosphere now became a real hell zone.

Yorihime struggled under the heavy drizzle in wet clothes and switched to a god that made water avoid her body. Despite her new resistance, none of the rain made themselves avoid her, crashing into her body with full force, tiring her body away and draining her stamina, leaving her to limp on the spot.

Another of the god's domain had been violated, and she felt powerless for the first time in her life.

Was the rain somehow different? Just what was its makeup to ignore the domain of a god?

The dragon coiled its body into a spiral facing towards the heavens. Wind and water followed suit as they flowed around the dragon, creating a hurricane that shrouded the dragon's body.

Yorihime had switched to dozens of gods to get a hold of either the water molecules, wind, or the thunder to prevent and disable the dragon's windup attack. Yet each god failed her, and she learned that the thunder and water she controlled earlier wouldn't respond to her command anymore.

She tried switching to gods that used fire, purification, gravity, stone and many other gods. Each one still responded properly, and she fired bullets and blasts at the dragon. The bullets and energy blasts failed to bypass the hurricane being ripped apart by it. They interfered with the wind and water, but only slightly like a human trying to lift a continent. The force of the wind was so strong that they canceled out her gravity fields. The distance defying attack worked but failed to even to scratch a single scale from the dragon.

With nothing at her disposal to turn the situation around, she took the time to review what she learned so far about the dragon. The dragon's powers so far are to manipulate water, wind, thunder and possibly the weather hypothetically. She wasn't sure it being outside of reality was an ability or an inherent trait. It most likely exists in a different dimension, and so are its physical attacks. Nothing of physical or magical phenomena could touch it, and it can touch anything like how it smacked her with its tail, a contradiction.

The wind rotations had no indication of stopping in speed. The atom vibrations in the air following chaos theory had produced plasma mixed into the hurricane. Seawater was being swallowed up that there was a hole in the ocean with the moon's surface being visible. And sand from the beaches was sucked in, melting and turning into glass.

The air was deadly with glass cutting into everything, shredding past clothes and skin in absurd speeds. The height and danger level of the storm rising.

The rabbits from the distance were stabbing their guns into the ground and clutching them to dear life.

The range of the suction force expanded so much, the area beyond the sea had the ground terraformed. Cracks spread throughout, and trees and stone started to float in the air. Some rabbits were unlucky to be dragged along as well. They put up shields and barriers to minimize damage from the flying glass.

Yorihime tried to stay straight in the air in desperation. She augmented her surrounding gravity to be repellent from the hurricane and rain so that she doesn't get pulled in. She still felt the pulling force since it was directed almost everywhere and overpowered her control of gravity.

She could use Ishikori-dome no Mikoto [3] to summon the Yata Mirror and reflect everything. But that would leave everything besides her front defenseless.

"Nrgh! Gyaah!" Yorihime grunted from the pressure piling on her body. She was stuck in place with no escape. The wind slowly pulling her into the hurricane.

"Sister!" Toyohime cried and rushed towards her. A worried face laced with nervousness all over her with how the incident escalated to this point under their supervision.

She left behind Rei'sen and ordered for her retreat and rescue of the other rabbits.

Toyohime used her powers to manipulate the boundary between the scientific and fantastic versions of the moon to send the wind, rain, and glass around her to the airless scientific side. Some had returned over to their side without explanation though.

"There's nothing I can do to prevent its storm from being completed…" Yorihime spoke to her sister listlessly in a pale face. The dragon had inflicted fear onto her body.

"At times like this, you can always rely on your big sister…I'll take control now." Toyohime reassured her sister in a gentle tone.

"Sister…"

"You can't call upon more than one god at the same time. And your attacks do not have enough power behind them to harm the dragon or stop it. But I do" Toyohime clapped her fan onto her palm with steel in her body.

(How dare you humiliate my sister to this extent. Unforgivable.)

Toyohime snapped her eyes at the dragon within the hurricane. There was none of the initial warmth and reverence on her face. Rage in its place for bullying her sister and a foreboding emotion crept into her for destroying the moon to this degree.

(Focusing on the hurricane won't do much. Getting rid of it will mean the dragon can resummon it again with ease. Therefore, eliminating the dragon comes first, and the hurricane will follow its demise. With my power, I'll link a path ignoring everything between me and the dragon. Then it will face the full brunt of my fan.)

Hatching a plan with the crucial steps in such a short timeframe befitted her the family name of Watatsuki.

Her power allowed her to link "the sea and mountain." It sounded specific, but it allows her to travel anywhere. For example, with the Moon being the "sea" and Gensokyo being the "mountain," she can throw a rock from the moon to the earth, and travel to Gensokyo instantly.

(The Moon is the "sea," and the dragon is the "mountain!")

Linking the two together was successful. But what she didn't account for was what was happening in the eye of the hurricane. The centripetal force was so great that in the eye of the hurricane, gravity was being distorted. Space and time itself were being bent and grinded down, ready to burst at any moment. With the very Moon being connected to the dragon now, the Moon was shaking, experiencing earthquakes at random. The force of space and time being grinded hasn't reached its maximum velocity, so the earthquakes were mild. And seawater from a distance which was unaffected by the influence of the hurricane until now was flying towards it.

Horror painted the sister's faces instantly upon witnessing the Moon shaking everywhere they look.

Toyohime wasted no time while the link was present. She raised her fan above her head.

"Perish, dragon!" Toyohime roared as she swiped her fan downwards at the dragon.

A blinding light came forth from the fan purifying everything on the atomic level in its way. It banished all darkness, burning away the existence of shadows. The light streaked across the link and covered the dragon's body. The eyes of the Watatsuki sisters held hope that the attack would erase the dragon or at least make it stop the hurricane.

When the light died down, they were scared out of their wits. Fear and confusion settled into their eyes on their pale faces.

The dragon did not show any outward reaction to her attack. The power behind it was negligible and not a scratch was present on its pristine body.

"Wha…but how…is there truly nothing we could do to end all this chaos…" Toyohime stammered with visible tremble on her lips. Her arm carrying the fan dropped dead without spirit.

She quickly ended the link between the moon and the dragon to stop any further chaos. Now they could only wait for the inevitable.

"Sister…stand behind me with the Yata mirror…use your powers to send everything around us to the scientific side of the moon…I'll make sure we survive this…" Yorihime strained to speak in a slow fashion as she looked towards the living disaster in front of her in despair.

The winds continued to rotate. The hurricane expanded in width by one thousand miles now. A turbulent storm has completely invaded the moon.

Rei'sen caught up with the other rabbit soldiers about three minutes in their retreat and rescue of the rabbits in the air. They didn't dare to fly in fear that the winds would catch them. So, they used ropes which the rabbits in the air would tie around themselves and the rabbits on land would group up and pull them down. They all experienced an earthquake where some lost control of their legs from the sudden tremor and had to be carried. They continued in their march back to their military camps.

Many were moved to the medical camps and were looked after by the able-bodied. Everybody was distributing food and water in stock.

(What should I do? Who do I speak to for assistance?)

Confirming the safety of her fellow rabbits in the military base and communicating with them using ESP waves which still worked albeit poorly the more distance there was between them. Rei'sen questioned to herself as a leading soldier of the frontlines on what her duty must be at this moment.

(I need to stay here so that when everybody is treated, I can assist in carrying them to the capital. It would also be in duty to find someone and report all of this too. Maybe I can get in reach with Sagume-sama…)

But what of the Watatsuki sisters? She had witnessed one of them to be utterly outclassed by the dragon no matter what god she housed. The other had decided to join the other to fight, and she wasn't around to see it. Since the storm outside is still persisting, then the dragon is still alive.

Are they still alive?

Are they dead?

Are they still fighting?

Do they need to be rescued when things get worse?

Rei'sen could not decide what to do. To stay on duty and be loyal by continuing to retreat with everybody back to the capital. Or disobey her orders from Toyohime and return to the field to forfeit her life.

(Yorihime-sama and Toyohime-sama were the ones to take me in after I committed the crime of retreating to the Earth…but my fellow rabbits accepted me immediately, even after knowing my story…)

Moving on to the command center she and the rest tried contacting Lord Sagume for assistance and waited with bated breath. Static transmitted all over the giant screen. It would take an unknown amount of time for a connection when she learned that communication using the technology in the base weren't working properly. There was no telling how long it would take for communications to grab hold.

The mood of the room was palpable. Depression and despair were easy to find their way among the hopelessness of the situation. Going to the capital while shouldering the wounded under the storm was unpredictable. The geography must have been changed, so the path leading them will be unrecognizable. Nobody from the Capital will take the effort to come and save them either.

Everybody back at the capitals held high expectations of the defense corps. For the Watatsuki sisters to lead them, they were the symbol of security. They couldn't imagine the two to ever be defeated. But reality told the rabbits otherwise. They witnessed from far away that Yorihime was powerless. And since the storm continued to exist, Toyohime couldn't finish it off either.

There was also the concern of whether or not the guards will accept them into the capital, knowing that they were retreating from an invasion. They could easily pass them off as traitors for leaving a rampaging invader unsupervised without the words of their captains. They were rabbits, after all, having the lowest ranking in the capital. They were also the type to be more susceptible to impurity since they can die easily relative to the gods on the moon.

To go back means to fight the dragon with their captains. To return to the capital just meant to be turned away and banished. Both meant death one way or another.

They were trapped. Their last fortress of defense was actually their grave.

None wished to be left behind in a fortress in the middle of nowhere to die a dog's death with no one to remember them.

They cried and scampered all over the base. Their screams and cries resounding and echoing under the base.

Every rabbit inside sent out stress signals using EMP waves in synchronization.

"Screw the moon I'm moving to earth…"

"Yorihime-chan" Toyohime addressed her sister in desperation. "I took Rei'san's sensor before she took off. If there is even a possibility for the monitor to show anything different, there might be a way to avert our current predicament."

"Well…go ahead and…check!" Yorihime groaned while she struggled to keep her strength and housing Ishikori in her body to wield the Yata mirror in front of them. Her arms outstretched with one palm wide open behind the blade in front with the other holding the sword.

"Let's see…none of this makes sense…" Toyohime simply stated with misery dripping her voice. Feeling hopeless once more, she read it in haste everywhere on the screen to detect any anomaly beside the lack of a dragon on-screen.

"Well? What does it say now!?" Yorihime demanded, bracing herself to hear the dreadful news to come.

"There's still no response. Everything is still invisible on the monitors. When I pointed the camera on the dragon, its shadow isn't seen behind the hurricane." Toyohime spoke the information in a professional fashion even when being surrounded by certain destruction. But the response came off mechanically and non-spirited.

"Then…all this wind, rain, thunder, the glass, and dragon are still not showing on the sensors…"

"There is still nothing shown…all we can see is its abnormal gravitational field expanding." Toyohime bit her lips, reluctant to accept this.

"Everything could be easily explained as an illusion…but we suffered from the wind, rain, and glass…our attacks worked …"

"The rabbits have suffered together with us…he is real, and his power is tangible." Toyohime tried her best to convince her sister of the impossible in front of them, betraying her desire to reject it as well.

The rifts in the hurricane were being compressed now. The flying glass, wind, water, and plasma compressed and fused around the center of the circumference made of the dragon's body. Its underbelly flat horizontally and positioned in a spiral.

"Ah ha ha ha…how is this possible…what does this mean?" Toyohime's voice suddenly became subdued with mania, and eyes turned listless. A half-smile on her face from learning of something frightful.

"S-sister! Talk to me! What is the matter?" Yorihime tried to console her sister. Being alert to her change in tone, her sharp awareness returned to her.

"How did I did ignore this…our life signs…they aren't there anymore…" The light from her eyes died out. The foreign feeling of fear for her life taking over her heart.

"...! S-So…we're…dead? H-Hey now Sister! All of this is just a horrible dream we're having! R-Right!? Once that Baku has stopped slacking, we can go back to the capital for peach picking for lunch! Just like how we've always done!" Yorihime in deliriousness couldn't rationally accept this, lest it shatters her mind.

(How can our life signs be blank? We are Lunarians, we are immortals on the moon. Is it true that death's embrace has reached us?)

While their minds were full of questions, the time for the hurricane to detonate has arrived.

The first change was complete silence everywhere.

The motion of everything had stopped in place.

Then the clouds and hurricane were warped and sucked into the center of the eye, perfecting itself into the shape of an hourglass.

The two halves of the hurricane gained the appearances of tunnels belonging to a wormhole. They completely converged themselves into the eye, a bubble of darkness with a visible nebula.

Slowly the sphere shrank, shrank, shrank, shrank, shrank, shrank, shrank, shrank, shrank, shrank, shrank, shrank, shrank, shrank, shrank, shrank, shrank, shrank, shrank until it was no longer visible.

The dragon flew around it in a circular motion by the shape of the sphere.

Detonation.

The sound was subtle, a single bang from a common firecracker.

A soft wind flowed from every direction. The gentle breeze traveled around the moon five times over.

Blades of wind together with pressurized streams of water traveled outwards from the bubble as it burst. A spherical field rotated in a clockwise and counterclockwise fashion. Reality was sliced and diced with space creating a picture of the sky reflected in broken glass

Growing in range and magnitude, the earth was blotted out from view.

The sisters didn't need to understand the mechanics behind the field. They only needed to know that it was laced with death. Slowly, the blades were approaching and them having limited movement already determined the outcome.

"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Yorihime and Toyohime screamed out together as the blades and water reached them. They were not shredded apart by the blades but received white cracks all over their bodies instead. Not even Ishikori was spared as her mirror was ineffective for the first time in its existence. The legendary mirror believed to able to reflect anything was useless. Terror-stricken, they felt extreme pain as blood spurted out from the cracks.

Their cracked-filled bodies were blown away as Ishikori vanished and the two sisters were separated, flying in different directions. No sound was transmitted to their ears. The field of white which had the speed to surpass the sound barrier broke no barriers. The laws of the void enveloping them had warmth despite the unbearable pain wrecking their bodies. They edged closer to the unconscious as they floated within the absolute whiteness of the new world.

"AHA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!" Maniacal laughter roared out in the once airless space of the moon. Or more precisely, the Near Side of the moon the Earth views every day. "Are you experiencing this Chang'e!? A calamity has befallen your beloved Capital!

"*Whistle* I knew some crazy shit was gonna happen either from Gensokyo or be the cause of one, but I never imagined THIS." A grin adorned itself on the beautiful face of a blonde beside the laughing maniac.

The laughter and arms outstretched in front belonged to a mature woman with long, orange hair reaching her waist, and red eyes. The dress of the mature woman is a Chinese outfit of red and yellow tabard with a red sash over a wide-sleeved black dress. On top of her head is a black Phoenix crown denoting her former status of royalty. This women's identity is simply Junko, a divine spirit whose pure soul exceeds that of a lunarian or youkai.

Her blonde friend with red eyes next to her is Hecatia Lapislazuli, a goddess of hell. She is quite modern-looking as she sports a short, three-colored, plaid skirt, a black t-shirt worn off her shoulders with the message "Welcome Hell" with a heart in the center of the two words complete with a pair of boots. She also wears a collar with chains attached, each one leading to an orb of a celestial body. The two on her hands represent the Earth and Moon, and the third crimson orb sitting on her head represents the Otherworlds.

The duo was viewing the destruction of the lunar capital in the Far Side of the moon from their vantage point. The distance would've been impossible for them to see the capital, but such a trivial detail meant nothing to a goddess of magic as well. All Hecatia had to do was enhance their eyesight, and the prime destruction was available to them.

At the Capital, disaster lay sieged from all over its perimeter. From around the capital was a tempestuous flood everywhere they saw.

Mesmerizing seawater surrounded the capital at heights of five kilometers. Waiting for the opportune moment to engulf and swallow it whole. The only measure that separated the two was a barrier, a last resort defense system.

Panic reverberated all over as the inhabitants scrambled all over the pavements. They never expected a day like this would come where a tsunami from all fronts would crush their city. Black-outs occurred everywhere simultaneously. Only a few sources of light survived. Numerous gods activated their own sources of light by utilizing magic and technology.

It was somewhat ironic, their advanced city with perhaps the greatest defense in comparison to the Earth now became their prison.

Anything entering and leaving the barrier was impossible except for a few who possessed special privileges. Those few still wouldn't escape without knowing any adverse effects the water would have on them. Some had thrown a few scraps and machinery into the sea, and nothing dangerous occurred, but this didn't mean it would be the same for organic beings. The brave and courageous who volunteered and dived into the flood was forced back into their cage, knocking them out from the force.

Nobody had ever expected this. It was unimaginable for a perfect strike of this magnitude to occur at the same time they were defenseless. Now, they can only wait as the sea traps them with no outside help being possible. Not that there was anybody from the outside who would be willing to help them from the start.

A dome free of water was closing itself the more the surface of the sea rise. It was inevitable that the capital will become a temple at the bottom of the sea. There was no direct source for where all this water came from, not when using their sensors. Above the dome and surface of the sea, a rampaging storm crashed everywhere under a tremendous amount of sinister clouds.

"Oho~? From the sound and familiarity in your voice, are you aware of the one who has done this magnificent display?" Junko took her eyes off the capital for a moment to address her friend. Her jubilant tone never losing its liveliness.

"I wish. I never met him personally, but rumor is that he's the senior of Ryūjin, or more precisely his idol and source from which he was born." Hecatia was simply giddy with the brazen and dominant actions of the Branch Horn dragon. Clapping the entire time when she watched its battle with the Watatsuki.

Their conversation was cut short as they snapped their eyes back to the capital when a pitch-black singularity appeared and expanded itself on top of the dome. The sheer size of it was dominating the barrier. The latter, however, stood its ground as it endured the abnormal gravitational field of the singularity.

"Why don't we start some funeral rites for the poor souls encaged in their city? Though I doubt their bodies will be preserved. They'll have to be fortunate enough for their corpses to remain floating under the sea. The least we can do is throw some 'Charon's Obol' on their way to the River Styx~" Hecatia snickered in anticipation. Her eyes were full of spirit and stimulation as she licked her lips sensually with a finger to the tip.

"Why...why has this disaster befallen us!?" A voice deep in anguish and tears looked over the capital from his vantage point on top of a skyscraper. "Aaaaaaah! Why!? Where do we go from this!?" His cries unanswered.

It was Tsukuyomi howling out his pain for his beautiful city he and his family worked hard to build. His tears ran down his pale skin and threatened to drench his black haori and white hakama in royal ornaments of gold and purple with a glass mirror shaped like the crescent moon behind his back inside a sphere wooden casing and tied with a rope to around his body. His dazzling long, black, moonlight hair fluttered in the wind, encapturing his otherworld beauty. From an earthling's perspective, he looked like he was in his teens with his pretty boy face.

"Tsukuyomi-sama!" Sagume flew up above the skyscraper and landed in a kneeling position to address the sage. In her hands is a sensor she acquired at the Observatory which she presented to him. "The men at work have developed an update to the system, with this we finally discern everything about the water around us and the darkness up above."

"Well don't start dallying, get to it!" Tsukuyomi bellowed his order with rage, sorrow, and resentment. Sagume fumbled the device in her hand from his voice and shakingly started it up.

"From above there's an abnormal gravity wave, and space-time is breaking!" From the startup and beeping of the device, it scanned in real time and made to bear witness of their executioner. "The monitor signals are looping for the past five minutes despite it starting its life up a few moments ago!"

"I-it can't be! None of this is explainable! Impossible! It's impossible!" Tsukuyomi clutched his head and scratched it in lunacy. His eyes were bloodshot.

"I-I'm receiving a distress signal! It's coming from Yorihime!" Sweating under the pressure, a signal was received, and she called out to Tsukuyomi.

"Hurry and pick it up!" Lifting his head and leveling it with Sagume, he ordered her to respond immediately.

"We got contact with the princess on the monitor! Y-Yorihime-sama!? Why are you covered in blood!? Where are you!? How are you in the waters!?" When she saw Yorihime on the screen, she was lying on the ground and holding her monitor on the sand with blood everywhere.

"I-I'm on the seabed of the Sea of Tranquility...I don't know what you mean by that last part, but the water here is non-lethal... L-listen, Get Tsukuyomi-sama out of the capital by any means necessary! Forget about me, understood!? There's a carrier at the location I'm sending you; it has the functionality to swim inside any sea level!" Her voice transmitted to them was coarse, needing an immense amount of effort to utter them.

An eerie sound reverberated everywhere on the moon, like lightning being used as a back-scratcher. From the border of the singularity, a serpentine figure slithered out and its head traveling towards the top of the barrier. It was the Brach Horn dragon, and its jaw was unleashed. The two on top of the skyscraper watched in horror from its encroachment. Tsukuyomi gaped with his mouth wide open while Sagume audaciously grabbed him and flew away from their spot to save him and escape the inevitable destruction of the capital.

Blades of air and jet streams of water converged themselves in front of the dragon's open jaws. As if it was in concentration, the mass of elements saturated with intensity. The completely dark eyes of the dragon were absorbed into its gold slits, revealing a whiteness under all that darkness. The supercharged mass of elements transformed into a giant, supersonic spear that was launched and aimed at the very top of the dome.

*CRASH*

The force was extraordinary as the barrier trembled. The area of impact had aftershock force dispersing all over the dome. It traveled outwards into the surface of the sea, pushing waves apart and away. As the spear dissipated, the image of the barrier was crystallized. The texture and appearance were reminiscent of turquoise ice. Innumerable colors painted on its surface from reflecting light.

From a normal view, the barrier had survived the blast. In truth, the barrier was destroyed and in its place was a crystallized replacement shaped by the former barrier. The cage was now a snow globe.

Casually, the dragon stuck its jaw to the surface of the dome and crushed it — an opened rip in the sky within the views of the Lunarians. The sky beyond the canopy was an abyss where stars were devoured, and light failed to escape.

The sea rebounded from the force of the spear earlier and flew downwards into the capital. A mixture of intense gusts and torrential downpours crashed into the capital and its inhabitants.

The reaction was immediate. The Lunarians responded by launching hundreds of millions of blasts aimed at the visible dragon above and centered in the abyss. Now that they recognized the source of the calamity, they fired without mercy.

Giant magic circles, Thick Bullets, Divine Punishment, Demonic sigils, Hand Constructs, Weapons, Dolls, Elements, all sorts of legendary attacks were used in coordination. Myriad colors blitzed through the rip in the sky. Overwhelming firepower and brilliant tactics were utilized in conjunction with the onslaught of power well-deserving of god-like. Some even flew up above the canopy to attack directly.

"DIE!"

"PERISH!"

"OVERGROWN REPTILE! BEGONE!"

"BY MY LAW I ORDER YOU TO SCREW OFF!"

Everything soared like a meteor shower. Fireworks and beams complimented the flying stream.

And all failed to touch the dragon above them all. Not a single one grazed its magnificent scales.

The fools who got too close had earned the tendrils of water from the cliffs reaction and whipped them down, back into the cage where they got knocked out in the process.

There was something incompatible about the dragon with them all. A mistranslation, an equation that was inherently unequal from every method of calculation. It was the same as being asked if you could imagine a color you can't think of. And then you had to do that ten times.

Even if they couldn't understand the intricacies in to "how" the dragon works they tested to see if a method simply "works." And no matter how many years of advanced calculations and observations they used, whether millions, billions, or even until the death of the universe, none of it will ever get some sort of reaction.

The eruption of power didn't just phase through the dragon; some were devoured and sucked into its jaws. As if the hundreds of millions of powers having a will of their own simply accepted their demise.

Bodhisattvas compiled together into a giant Buddha head. It launched itself with its mouth wide open at speeds of a missile. Its intentions were to seal and crush the dragon in its mouth.

The dragon didn't budge from its position.

If one had a legendary trained eye, they might've noticed the traces of amusement in its facial expression.

The Buddha's head reached from where the dragon was outside the dome and enclosed it right inside its mouth. Immediately its pair of teeth closed themselves as the air blew away, aimed at the dragon's neck to bite off its head.

*CRUNCH*

Physical contact! A new development occurred.

But not in favor of the Lunarians.

The Buddha's head cried out in agony as its face contorted in pain. The teeth landing on the scales of the dragon shattered like brittle coal. The lips were ripped from the bouncing force as the tear traveled across until it stopped at its forehead.

Denying the Buddha head from having the chance to recuperate from the pain, the dragon slithered in speeds that the giant head couldn't react to. It traveled inside its mouth and destroyed a path to the top.

The dragon head burst out from the right eye of the Buddha's head and reentered its left eye. Finishing it off, the dragon next burst out from the bottom of its neck.

No response came afterword's from the giant head. It glowed for a few moments until it exploded in a fantastic and bright fashion. Bodhisattvas blew away and fell in disgrace back inside the crystal dome below.

"H-huh…!?"

"Wh…!?"

"I-impossible…!"

"No way…"

Befuddlement, bafflement, rejection, disbelief.

All Lunarians without exception experienced fear for the unknown. Fear embraced them, as it bloated from the incomprehensible madness in the sky. Their minds halted for a moment, failing to process the necessary information to accept the absurdity before them.

The Branch Horn roared. Its shockwaves destroyed every magic circle, every laser, and blast in the air, sending every airborne Lunarian to the ground in prostrating positions unwillingly.

Everyone gave out heartrending cries, and the dragon merely watched.

There was no rage covered in madness, nor did it smile with scorn, nor did it feel any guilt.

There was no sympathy for their plight — no compassion to be felt from its gaze. A person wouldn't exert the most minimalist of effort to judge an insect on the ground.

Junko trembled slightly from her spot as she bore witness to the rapid pace of events. She felt fear and reverence towards the dragon. Gratitude and unparalleled joy laid within the bottom of her heart. Unaware that beneath even further were feelings of pity and emptiness from the prospect that her vengeance will end here by the hands of another instead of her own.

"Whew~, just what exactly did they do to piss him off? I've only heard of the rumors of his power, but I didn't expect this." Hecatia observed with her grin perfectly in place. The entertainment in front of her was simply fantastic. "This bullying-I mean, entertainment is fascinating, but we gotta make sure we don't get in the crossfires."

"Hey~o, over here! I got the food and drinks for the party!" A new voice joined the group

Stepping away into the distance, they found a new safe spot to view the ongoing chaos. Complete with popcorn, pizza, and coke delivered by Hecatia's blue-haired body from Earth. She joined in on the fun where they sat down on a coach, kick back, and leaning into it with their eyes focused on the continuation of the movie.

Sagume and Tsukuyomi had moved away from the sight with the former delivering him to the carrier inside a warehouse with the carrier large enough to house 20 people inside. After the call between Yorihime had ended, they noticed the transmission they got a hold of started 20 minutes into the future, dropping an ice-cold chill down their spines with their bodies drenched from the rain and sweat.

During the time they took escaping, the rest of the Lunarians banded together in a last-ditch effort. On their last legs, they resorted to their final trump card. Those with considerable willpower positioned themselves with a clear purpose. They carried and flew with their fellow Lunarians like schools of fishes to their designated roles.

A giant summoning circle.

It was utterly ridiculous to even attempt such a move so late and one considerable time-consuming. The only reason they could do so was the nonchalant attitude the Branch Horn carried itself. Observing them all like it was raising a goldfish inside a fishbowl.

Branch Horn knew they had a trump card such as this. It also knew exactly what they were trying to summon, anticipating for his arrival.

Enough time was allowed for the completion of the circle reinforced by hundreds of thousands of smaller circles that built it. The sound of chanting in rapid tongues subsequently echoed all around the inside of the dome.

A pale blue holographic shape materialized. It was reptilian and in equal size to the Branch Horn.

Uwawatatsumi, the upper sea, and head of a dragon

Two white whiskers to command the ocean. A white beard befitting a sage. A ferocious face that chills rampaging onis. Yellow eyes that churn the stomachs of tigers with abyssal black pupils. Fangs to crush mountains. And golden horns to summon thunder.

Nakawatatsumi, the middle sea, and body of a dragon

The crimson carapace of the pleura. A deep, ocean-scaled body to sweep the sea. Flying pectoral wings creating hurricanes with the slightest movement. And ashen lava coating the wings to quell volcanoes.

Sokowatatsumi, the bottom sea, and rear of the dragon

A tail that encompasses the heavens. Shimmering webbings that perfectly reflect the colors of the rainbow. And a golden tail fin that parts the atmosphere.

Ōwatatsumi no kami.

The tutelary of the sea according to the Kojiki, also known as Watatsumi. And the reigning dragon of the Dragon King's Palace in the lunar capital.

Dragon vs. Dragon.

Bubbling forth into reality, Watatsumi roared to banish away the sea covering the capital.

It did not listen.

Confused, Watatsumi raised his head and peered into the abyss. In his eyes reflected the evil smile of the Branch Horn.

From the horror of that smile, almost every person inside the capital passed out.

For Watatsumi who was frozen in sheer surprised, he backed away violently shaking his head to the side in recognition. An old trauma resurfaced in his mind. He whimpered and pleaded with his eyes.

Having enough waiting, Branch Horn divebombed at Watatsumi. He clasped his jaw right onto Watatsumi's neck, and the two burrowed into the ground, creating a crater while the rest of the Lunarians soared elsewhere in order to avoid the clash of titans.

Watatsumi's tail waved in a sense of discombobulation and smashed consecutive towers ranging around 1,000 meters tall, splitting them from the middle inside the interior. The top, burning halves tilted downwards and dropped down onto their bodies.

Branch Horn lifted Watatsumi by the jaws and threw him into a crystal wall. By the loud bang, cracks stretched on the crystal surface like a spider web, water leaking from them. With the sudden impulse from the momentum of the throw, the senses of Watatsumi fell to disarray.

The white one raced against the planted blue one to extend his playtime. Watatsumi woke up from the daze and dropped his jaws to fire a hydro pump. It engulfed Branch Horn's erect body, and he disappeared inside it. Out came Branch Horn right on top of the hydro pump, poking his head out in front of Watatsumi and wrapping the jaws shut with his tail beneath the shaft of water.

The next Watatsumi knew was the air. He was whipped overhead and flat onto the ground, creating a perfect crater in his shape as the ground beneath him was torn apart. He lied there smooth and straight like a tuna on the chopping board. The tail wrapped to his jaws were released, and he knew, none of this was over.

The last Lunarians standing floated around the two and sent their final attacks against Branch Horn. He paid them no heed as nothing changed. It was all useless. Branch Horn traced his tail on the ground, sending out warnings for them to cease their foolishness unless they want to be on the receiving end of his tail.

Taking this opening from his attention dropping, Watatsumi got up from the spot and burst out of the ground, sending boulders and rubble flying. He rammed his full body right onto Branch Horn, creating a crater that flowed from one the city to the other side.

The two of them coiled together in order for them to choke the other. They dug everywhere in the capital, from the underground to skyscrapers. It was like two tornadoes had fused into a drill as nothing in the capital was left unblemished. They soared across the sky, leaving trails of rivers falling down into the streets. The tornado was released with Watatsumi being the one flying away and losing the clash.

The durability of Watatsumi was commendable. He picked himself up having gained gashes all over his body and neck.

He called forth water out of thin air and molded them in correspondence to his shape. His wings lengthened out to the horizon, covering 30km. Streamers of water attached to his wings, whiskers, and tail in order for heightened mobility and as propellers. And his body mass bulked up, his scales creating a mesmerizing tidal wave in motion around his body.

Out of the three sockets among the Watatsumi's tailfin came three orbs.

The three orbs were the Kanjus (Ebbing Jewels) used to control and stabilize the three seas, Uwawatatsumi, Nakawatatsumi, and Sokowatatsumi. Pouring out of them came those very three seas to fill the capital right across the center of the globe, covering three kilometers in height and separating the capital below into one kilometer.

The two resumed in battling it out within the three seas summoned by Watatsumi. They slithered and pounded their heads against each other several times, forcing the water around them to explode outwardly away from the sight.

Watatsumi roared loudly, the seas surrounding them created thousands of juvenile sea dragons who ganged up on Branch Horn and gnawed on the body.

Blowing them away came a giant air bubble coating Branch Horn. The gusts accelerated, and eight wings of cyclones swung around to bat away the thousand sea dragons. Their bodies ripped and shredded to pieces as they returned to their natural forms of the three seas.

The two dragons roared out inside the three seas. More cyclones sprouted from Branch Horn's back, the edges tipped in plasma. From Watatsumi's side were the three seas constructing into giant versions of his head, mustering their full might for the final clash.

A loud explosion rocked the capital and breaking the last of the glass panels on every tower. The first thing the last of the conscious Lunarians witnessed as the three giant dragon heads being assimilated back into the three orbs was Watatsumi floating in the air, huffing and visibly tired with his half-opened eyes. His streamers and long wingspan were gone when the three Kanjus returned to the sockets on his tailfin. The other was Branch Horn. He was up in the air above Watatsumi and looking down upon him.

Branch Horn decided it had enough. Letting itself get carried away to find anything to pique his interest. Left thoroughly satisfied by the last attempt of Watatsumi, there was no more joy to be had in taking him seriously any longer.

Brach Horn raised his head above and gave one last roar for the sea to finally drown the capital, manipulating it to rise and tower the crystal globe. High pressured water from this height of five kilometers was sent down crashing everything. Drop after drop, the city towers and skyscrapers were broken and destroyed.

Watatsumi tried to escape by flying out of the dome together with the remaining Lunarians following him. Limping each time a multitude of giant droplets crashed on his body.

The sea bellowed as it completely swallowed down, slamming the crystal globe into pieces. The lunar capital was no more as it was engulfed down into the bottom of the new-formed sea.

…

…

…

…

…

Silence. There was a calm in the flat sea now. No movement to be seen, no life to look for. Colored ripples like those of the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction accumulated to paint the sea all over in Azure. The clouds departed to nowhere as the night sky glittered with stars that were visible again. It almost felt like ages had passed since the stars returned.

"So…it's all over now…" A melancholy voice escaped Junko's mouth unintentionally.

"Yuuup." Hecatia made a smacking noise at the end. Despite her casual remark, it was the most solemn Junko ever heard from her. "Come on. We're leaving. There's nothing of value here anymore."

The group of four (a red-haired Hecatia popped up at some point) got up from their seats and took in on the sight far away.

Turning back from the direction of the once existent capital, Hecatia created a warped gate leading into the Dream World. The four made their way off the moon with nothing of value left to consider, their interests in it have all faded.

"Even if they were our enemies, I had to admit, they were quite admirable in their last stand. Even if it was futile." Junko stopped in consideration, her spirits dull.

"Nah, those stuck-up bunch wouldn't be able to tell real danger on that scale." The bluenette shook her head.

"Is a maggot brave for leaping towards the giant of a human? The blond one brought up with a finger.

"No, it's instincts will fail to reach an appropriate response as it clings onto the skin. That Branch Horn's existence is magnitudes away for their instincts to tell of its true horrors." And the red-hair answered her own question.

"Just what exactly is that dragon?"

"Beats me. The last I heard of it was that it was up to something in Romania back on Earth during the fourteen hundredths. Or was that someone else?" The trio put a hand to their chin, trying to remember something important, someone distinctively different from the Branch Horn. "Hey, wasn't there a really obscure guy the Inuit made rumors about that fits this one?"

"Now that their gone, I'm free from all my grudges...and my purpose." Junko gloomily voiced out with a sense of sluggishness and lethargy. She sagged her head and hung it limply, choosing to stare at the ground.

"Aww, don't get yourself in such a rut so soon, Junko. Here, you want to go see Reisen-chan~? Will seeing Reisen-chan cheer you up~?" Hecatia asked with a cutesy tone, all three of her bodies synchronizing and approaching Junko slowly like they were mothers consoling a crying baby. They kneeled down with their heads leveled to Junko's. Junko nodded noncommittally in response. "Okay...We'll get you Reisen-chan right away~" A pinch to the cheeks, a pat on the back, and a head pat by the three of them ended on that note.

Abruptly, an explosion sounded out, and the quartet snapped their heads back towards from where the former capital lied.

A familiar shadow was below the surface.

Watatsumi jumped out of the water, creating a giant tsunami from the force. He ascended into the sky in retreat. Noticeably panicking in desperation as it swam in the air.

Following him was the Branch Horn dragon who burst out of the sea creating a second tsunami. It snapped its jaws onto the tail of Watatsumi, biting down into the base with enough force to crush the Crust of the Earth. Successfully catching its prey, the superior one slammed him underneath into the depths of the sea.

The fight wasn't finished even with the reserves of Watatsumi burned out.

"Wow~" Junko had a hand to her mouth with a giggle.

Hecatia howled in laughter as she tried to cover her sides, floating in the air and kicking with tears.

Bursting out of the waters, Branch Horn coiled Watatsumi tightly with his tail and slammed him down on the sea surface like a drumstick, the formation of tsunamis expanding the range of the sea outwards, kicking up thick walls of water. Branch Horn never let up his onslaught upon the poor dragon who was called upon the moon, only to be rag-dolled by this degree. Watatsumi gave out muffled cries each time he splashed against the sea for mercy.

"GO, GO, GO BRANCH HORN, HE'S OUR CHAMPION! HE'S OUR GUY! SMASH, SMASH, SMASH!" The trio of goddesses pulled out cheerleader pom poms from nowhere and struck a few poses with a cheer.

Exchanging the grip from the tail to the mouth, the body leveled with the sea. Rotating, twisting, and playing with Watatsumi roughly like an iguana on the attack, the formation of a whirlwind around surrounding them. The sea expanded and contrasted, losing its smoothness entirely. Tidal waves kicked up everywhere as the two rotated from one spot to the other.

"SHOW THAT FAKER WHOSE BOSS!"

After it was done, Watatsumi was pulled down under the sea. A giant whirlpool formed from where they retreated. After that came a giant beam of pressurized jets of water from the whirlpool. The quartet saw within that shaft of water with the thickness of Mount Fuji the Lunarians inside. Soaring out of the sea, curving and closing in at the Earth. At its tip was Watatsumi being dragged along the ride.

"BRANCH HORN! BRANCH HORN! BRANCH HORN YES QUEEN!"

The beam traveled out into space without resistance; it stayed perfectly straight as it touched the atmosphere of the Earth. The trip had no sense of being hazardous to them all. Branch Horn carefully controlled it to become a miniature atmosphere with a field of gravity to send them flying into Outer Space without the dangers of death.

It was a fantastical spectacle, the shafts of water falling onto the Earth like a waterfall, bridging them like the Stairs of Heaven. The Earth and Moon became connected at that moment.

Hitting the Pacific Ocean and continuing to the bottom, Watatsumi and the Lunarians were banished from the Moon and grounded into the bottom of the ocean.

But not from the real Earth. It was trapped in another time axis of another Earth.

Their day of irony hadn't stopped just yet. For all their life and accomplishments, they lived comfortably within a world that time didn't matter. But that wouldn't last long, and it was all temporary in the end. The moon was no true Pure Lands, no matter how much you artificially craft it, it will never be the real deal.

But now things will be different. Now they can live their lives inside a real Pure Lands. Only... if they didn't mind sharing with the rest of the occupants already inside. God bless them.

DLC had just arrived, coming in complete with a package of new NPCs for Multiplayer Mode! Please look forward to the new expansion available to you now! Refund not available.

"Interesting. What does China want with the Far Side of the Moon?"

It was Branch Horn dissecting a Chinese Moon Lander carrying cotton and potato seeds, sneaking itself inside the capital. If it had to assume, this could only have bypassed the detectors of the city by a revolutionary group inside the moon.

"Could it be that they wanted to invade the capital too? It would seem that the country is getting a bit restless."

The voice belonging to it was no longer distorted. No, it became undistorted way before arriving on the Moon. It was the residents that couldn't fathom those foreign words.

Everywhere the white dragon swam the colors of the sea changed into a single azure hue. Uniting all into a singular constant on the moon.

"I've gotten myself a present for Shizuri. I wonder if he'll like it?" Dropping the rover down to the seabed, the next was an intricate and ornate designed mirror to be picked up by the tail. "I feel kinda bad for Ookuninushi; I didn't bother to invite him for this. Not that I had the time to do so."

The waters around bubbled and the darkness surrounding the ghost city, now temple under the sea had swept the streets and buildings, filling them to the brim. Noticing a submarine that also functioned as a spaceship leaving the premise, it didn't bother with it, having done his job enough already.

"More importantly, did you enjoyed that? Youkai hidden in the boundaries?" Branch Horn addressed to no one and faced no one in the empty space of the sea. But it knew exactly from where his occupant lied. "Feeling relieved?"

"Yes, I'm feeling absolutely DIVINE right now. Like I'm on cloud nine. It's a bit crude for a lady like me to say... but how do I put it...? It turned me on."

There was a woman's voice; it was sultry and had shrewdness written on its owner. She wasn't on the Moon for sure.

"Oh? You can comprehend my words so perfectly. The world really has gained back some of the truth." Branch voiced out-loud without movement from the mouth. A link opened between the two of them for their communication to be possible.

"I don't know. The Spearheaded one I couldn't hear so well."

"Pay no heed to Nidhogg [4], he does it to sound cool."

They transmitted each other's voices by a mysterious method. One had the power to manipulate boundaries and the other to interfere with them.

"So you really did return..." She muttered quietly.

"I'm speaking to you right as we talk." Came the reply to reassure her that it is here.

"Before we move on to official business, what should I call you by? Is 'Ryūjin' acceptable?" The dragon saw her perfectly, sitting within a void amongst thousands of eyes with her chin resting on her wrist.

"Ryūjin…? Now that's a name people haven't called me in centuries. Even though I'm the one who inspired that name, the reason why you're using it has to do with something else. Do you really think I'm on the level of being his maeriMAJESTY'Ssbroio substitute? Why would you think of me as some bigshot amongst my kind?" Expressionlessly, a glance was all it took to assess her body language.

"Because you're the more friendly of them all and have something resembling an ego." The woman had a response prepared, feeling confident with her judgment of the dragon.

"You say that after I trashed those boring gods?" Doubtful and amused by her evaluation of itself, it was enough to drop the stone face and adopt a jolly attitude.

"My my, so you didn't do that for me?" Her voice sounded genuinely hurt alongside her face. It had to give credit on her acting for sure.

"Do not misunderstand, I never did it out of consideration for you nor have I ever. It's because of the moon while boring, lifeless, and being the home of the immature is something I've never wished to set foot on, it has a certain amount of value to us. As for me, I'm only one scSCALEle out of the rainbeiMASTER'Srekamge tredecillion. An expandable if you will." Casually, a very unbelievable and absurd revelation was revealed.

"T-that number is an exaggeration, RIGHT?" She stuttered from the revelation in nervousness, putting more emphasis on her last word.

"Of course, that was a joke." (That was the number I stopped counting at millions of years ago. Now I don't want to go back doing it again.)

"Good grief..." She sighed in exasperation under closed eyes. Her face having felt actual fear for a long time. "It's not good to scare a lady you know? But what name should I use? It's a hassle to call you Branch Horn every time."

"Let's see...there were others like Watatsumi, Pa'ri Yook, and others before him, but none of them belong to me. Those were stories and legends people forged around me until those fantasies transformed into another reality and gave birth to those dragons. In the end, I have no true name... but if I must have a preference like the rest," It took a pause in deep thought, "call me...Tenryuu [5]."

"Then Tenryuu-sama-"

"-Please, call me however you like, no need to act so stiff around me, ha ha ha ha ha ha." Tenryuu chuckled lightly from how polite she became, finally moving that mouth of its. They preferred people to act naturally without formality.

"Then it is my pleasure to finally make your acquaintance, Tenryuu. My name is Yakumo Yukari." She introduced herself in a smile with the closing of her fan, lifting her head from rest.

"The pleasure is my mine. We can finally sit down and talk, unlike...last time." Tenryuu remarked in amusement, likely remembering a funny joke.

"Oh that...I would prefer we cover that up, under the bridge please." Yukari politely requested with a twitch of her eye.

"I can tell! I remember Nidhogg turning you into a pincushion that time! BA HA HA HA HA HA HA!" Now, the dragon blew into full-on laughter as the surrounding waters churned in response.

"A-hem," She coughed into her fist, moving the subject to save face, "moving on. Now that you mentioned Watatsumi, where did you send him and his entourage? He's no longer anywhere on Earth now that I've checked." She was right, she had the eyes around her revealing numerous locations around the world. Most of which showed the oceans of the world and they cumulated around her.

"A place they've always wanted. Well... if they can put up with some rowdy roommates. If they want to escape, then the key is to learn humility. If Watatsumi calls himself a dragon then escaping will be easy." Smirking with dark humor, the enjoyment earlier for itself was a little too much.

"I take it back, you're a very cruel dragon, oh you~" Her words might have been to chastise him, but they were meant to praise him by their tone. "But what about those Watatsuki sisters? Why didn't you throw them alongside the rest?" She furrowed her eyebrows with her pout like a girl complaining to her dad why he wouldn't let her go to prom.

"I am strictly commanded to not kill. Call it the last impression he imprinted on me. That and I'm sure you want to torment them yourself." If there were eyebrows to be had, it'd wriggle them.

"Oh my, I thought you never do things under my consideration?" She played along with as much amusement as her conversational partner did.

"I did now." And with the coolest voice came a perfect reply.

"Kyah~, if you were a man, you'd be a complete heartthrob!" She placed her hands to her cheek and shook her head around with a light dusting of pink on her cheeks. Dropping herself back in a professional manner, she addressed Tenryuu. "Speaking of him, so Kamijou-chan really is your current host. No wonder I couldn't find any of you again, you've been hiding in Academy City!" She pointed at him accusatorially.

"Feeling a bit peeved, are we? Well, I can't blame you, it's not a good idea to get noticed by Aiwass. Let me guess, he called you boring, didn't he?"

"Hmph!" And a pout to the side was what he received.

"Dead center huh..." If its face didn't show it, the flat voice did.

"Since you're so knowledgeable, anything interesting happened inside?" Yukari opened her fan to wave it at herself.

"Too many to name, but there was an interesting Raijin we ate, one of us had the nerve to leave and wander the city on his own afterward." The white dragon thought up the most relevant thing to it. There were others to count, but she didn't need to know about them.

"One of your kind is running amok in the city?" Her eyes widen in surprise as her hand covered her mouth like a cultured lady.

"That's right. But it's all well, that one isn't that far away in actuality."

"?" She tilted her head in confusion. That wasn't right, she knew it before that only nine dragons, including him, ran off around Gensokyo minus Dragon God. So where was this extra dragon? "Back to Kamijou, do you think your host is going to be all right in Gensokyo?" She narrowed her eyes and covered her face with the fan. Her voice lost its playfulness and questioned with heaviness.

"Will he be alright you ask? It depends, from the way he operates I can see things getting swallowed whole." That was the assessment given to her.

"Then wouldn't it be more proactive for him to be placed under protection?"

She didn't understand why they were this lax in security for their host now that they're free.

"He needs protection? You misunderstand, I'm saying that Gensokyo will be swallowed whole by him." Tenryuu corrected her idle thoughts.

"...That doesn't sound so bad."

Yukari's face was entirely covered by her fan with her eyes poking out and looking to the side. It wasn't enough though as he could see her face being bright red.

"...You...no... never mind. For him its par for the course on the matter of Gensokyo. Why do you think that city was deliberately designed around him in the first place?"

"That's a lot of confidence you have in him."

"Hmph." Tenryuu snorted derisively, but not because it was offended. "Youkai, beings who eat humans? Do you think that meager darkness beneath Gensokyo is enough to break him? You have far too much to learn and very little imagination." Tenryuu didn't mince its words.

"Then teach me."

This request was not light, she honestly did want to learn anything about this boy. Her resolute eyes and firm voice conveyed her pure desire perfectly without any falsehood beneath it.

"You can see the boundaries between phases. You're a big girl figure it out."

"And I still don't know what happened between him and the war goddess!" There it was, the root of her frustration.

"...You. You're not jealous of the fact that she's his understander are you?" Tenryuu had hit the bullet at its mark a little to home then the white dragon would've preferred.

"What kind of conclusion did you make that one up!?" Yukari vehemently tried to redirect the topic to the dragon instead.

"So it is true..."

"Hmph!" She pouted again to the side again with her arms crossed.

"I don't recommend earning that war goddess's ire. Stealing another's understander is pretty deplorable, even if she is the one who covered your world under phases."

"Oh no, it's nothing like that. I actually feel grateful that she did so. Otherwise, I wouldn't be in this world." Her smile had returned to her face, her aggravations with the war goddess wasn't that overblown. "Be that as it may, why did the Four Eyes seek the shopkeeper?" She returned the subject back to the security of Touma still feeling unconvinced.

"Shopkeeper? Is that his current occupation? As for Kuzuryu [6], he's always a worrywart, so I told him to find my previous host using an imprint I left."

"Is that so?"

"Tell me more about what Shizuri is up to these days. I bet he isn't aware that he's been enshrined and worshipped as Takehazuchi [7] at the Shitori shrine as a patron kami in this world." A chuckle to the lip. If he were to hear about this, he would definitely be having a headache.

"His name is Rinnosuke Morichika now."

"Helper of the long rain heh...he really wanted to keep that bond between us..." Tenryuu smiled to in reminiscence of old days where they were bright enjoyable.

"He runs an antique store between the Human Village and the Forest of Magic and its name-"

"-Wait, let me guess, its Kourindou, isn't it? That's too obvious! But an antique store that attends to both humans and yokai? More like a convenient hotspot to be left alone. How's he holding up his role of purveyor for the Hakurei Shrine?" Tenryuu stroked its chin with its tail.

"He could be a little more gung-ho about it like he used to...he has no talent in being a merchant, and now he doesn't bother to keep the current Hakurei Maiden up to date with her goddess's name anymore." Yakumo sighed and shrugged, feeling a bit fed up with the state of being.

"Hold up, the Hakurei Shrine maiden doesn't know the name of her goddess? Either she's really good, or he's lazy."

That was unexpected. Tenryuu's previous host always kept to himself and avoided conflicts, yes, but he was always dutiful whenever he was needed. As for why he never told the current Hakurei maiden the name of her god…he must have been through a lot to ignore something this important.

"Speaking of phases earlier, something recently had happened, a dispersion of magic so large they blanketed the planet. Those were magic gods, weren't they? What did they want?" She crossed her legs and lowered her chin to her palm for support.

"The descent of True Gremlin you mean? They wanted Kamijou-kun as their scorer." That got to Yukari. Her body language didn't show itself, but she was very nervous. "Be at ease, they're not of this world anymore, at least for now. It would seem two had resurfaced and are wondering the surface of the world. That war goddess... I wonder how long she plans on playing pretend. And that one who's pretending to be dead... that worries me."

"A magic god playing dead?"

"Well, at least it's not the Forgotten God. I don't want that guy to be birthing anymore elder gods like that waste of space Nyarlathotep. The last time got really out of hand when that new-born cosmology was acting like hot shit, so Alien had to step up and genocide them." Tenryuu waved off the concern it just had a moment ago. Not bothering to give it much thought any further.

"Alien? Is that another dragon in your group?"

"Yeah. He wanders the vastness of outer space, and he can't really touch the Earth, unfortunately." Tenryuu snickered with a shake of its head.

"Now...for the real thing, I wanted to ask." Her relaxed and playful demeanor died off with her eyes turning to steel. Her body turned rigid with her face stone-faced. "What is Dragon God's agenda?"

"...That I may not disclose."

"Can't you entertain a lady? I don't see what he wants with Gensokyo anymore, he didn't even come here willingly!" She raised her voice lightly, her demands clear.

"Your position isn't enough to warrant being in the know."

"And it is because of my position in the first place to be aware of threats to Gensokyo. It is the role given to me by Dragon God." Yukari retorted back, willing to argue for her right to know what they are planning.

"This is what YOU chose. You were desperate and sought the aid of Ryūjin, but instead met us. Your luck was abysmal if you founded us instead of any other group of dragons." Tenryuu coldly denied her, his chummy mood declining from her forcefulness.

"On the contrary, I'd say our false meeting was destiny. What else can I call it but striking gold with the finding of the originals which inspired the chaoskampf [8]? Our meeting didn't have to turn out the way it did. That bastard Nidhogg poked holes into my clothes!"

"Nidhogg had the sense to hold back and avoided your skin. From that respect, he's a real gentleman."

"Can't you at least touch upon that massive shadow that manifested?" Realizing she wasn't going to learn the intricacies of their plan, she dropped it and asked for something else.

"That is simply a mass of pure energy."

"Just energy? Even when the rain flowed down its body?"

"When you get as bizarre as that thing enough to overload the filters of the world, you can fool the world."

"One last question," Yukari's face and voice suddenly became somber with her eyelids half covering her eyes and mouth curling into a sad smile, "...all of my work...my tears and sweat...they weren't wasted, were they? My ideals... aren't foolish... right?"

Tenryuu didn't take her question lightly. The surrounding water became silent and still. The eyes around Yukari stopped every motion on them. It was all quiet now, and the only thing in the world right now was them. She waited in anticipation, readying herself for the pain to arrive, and Tenryuu, deep inside thought as to what will be it's response. After a moment of silence between them, it honestly, and earnestly told her the truth about this world.

"...Anything in this world is possible."

"...I see. I see...my work did measure up to something."

Yukari let out a deep sigh of relief she was holding in. She leaned back and covered her eyes with her arms. She brushed her eyes to clear away small traces of wetness at the corners.

"..." Tenryuu made no sound to allow the time for her to regain her composure.

"Thank you." Yukari brushed away the last of her tears. She faced him eye to eye, feeling a lot better than before with a genuine smile on her face. "I've taken most of your time now. Please excuse me."

"No problem. It was me who contacted you in the first place." Tenryuu's jovialness resumed as its smile returned.

Yukari bowed her head and turned around half-way until she stopped in a reminder of something important. She looked at Tenryuu from the side and bashfully asked one more question. "Say, about the Lunarian technology..."

"Oh, that? Just give me some time for me to package and deliver it to you. The technology of the moon doesn't concern me one bit. I'm actually grateful for you to lift these off my... tail." Tenryuu shook its head with clear amusement. Too obvious was the thought.

"Ufufufu, reminds me of the Ryūjin shinkō."

"Ah yes, the faith and religious practice between humans and sea kami. The belief that metal nullified the magical powers of the serpent, developing the idea that it was taboo to drop metal in the ocean to avoid incurring the wrath of the serpent. It was also this belief where wealth and treasure are brought from the other side of the ocean." Tenryuu gave her one last look to impart one more thing. "Come see me again if you have questions. You'll be having a lot and you'll going to need my help desperately."

"I will. I look forward to having talks with you again." She promised to visit when she needs him again. With a wave, she turned around and ripped open a tear in space.

As Tenryuu watched her do so, something sparked within. As if there was something really, REALLY important that needs to be addressed. It was as if this something was the key between salvation and disaster. Its body shook for it to realize, and the mind roared for it to remember. A momentary realization crossed its mind in an instant.

"Hold it." Called the dragon to her before she took a step into the tear. With a U-turn, her head was facing Tenryuu's humorless face. "What's the male to female ratio in Gensokyo?"

A knowing smile curled her lips. With a cute tilt to the side and hand placed on her cheek, she answered in a chirp. "Two to eight."

Tenryuu's eyes became blank with its body slacked. "... Gensokyo will naturally fall into anarchy on its own before he makes it to the moon..."

"Oh don't worry yourself too much on that minor detail, I'll...devise a few measures. Maybe remove a few of them along the way." Yukari's eyes darkened together with her wicked voice. Her smile expressed nothing but deviousness and a craving to eliminate all obstacles.

"...So you ARE interested."

"Now I won't say something extreme like that war goddess like he's mine or anything...BUT..."

'But' she said. That alone sent warnings all over.

"...He will be. That war goddess had her fun, but now it's my turn. Ufufufu."

And with that, she turned away and disappeared into her gap.

Tenryuu, all alone on the spot could only think of two words that encapsulated everything that needed to be expressed. It was the only thing that could be said.

"...He's fucked."

[1] Isetsuhiko-no-Mikoto: An obscure Japanese god of wind. One story has him surrender his land to Amenohiwake-no-mikoto in the name of Emperor Jinmu. Another story, long ago, he built a fortress of stone that was completely impenetrable.

[2] Raijin: A really famous Japanese and Shinto god of thunder, lightning, and storms.

[3] Ishikori-dome no Mikoto: A kami of mirrors who crafted the Yata-no-Kagami mirror, one of the three Sacred Treasures. It was used to lure the sun goddess Amaterasu out of her cave to return light into the world.

[4] Nidhogg: 'Malice Striker', 'Curse Striker', or even 'He Who Strikes with Malice.' Its name carved a social stigma implying the loss of honor and the status of a villain. Its role as a monster who devours the corpses of the inhabitants in a level within Hel of Norse Mythology (Náströnd): those guilty of murder, adultery, oath-breaking, and among others that are seen the worst in Norse society. It also has the role of gnawing at the roots of Yggdrasil, returning everything to chaos during Ragnarök.

[5] Tenryuu: A heavenly dragon in Touhou who has no official appearances besides from the words of Kasen in Wild and Horned. Although it's called the "King of Constellations" and is identified with the Big Dipper, unlike other constellations Tenryuu is considered to be an actual living dragon that soars through the heavens. This dragon is allegedly on its way to devour the North Star, and it is said that when that happens something that makes both Heaven and Earth to tremble will occur. According to Kasen Ibaraki, "dragons will become rulers of everything under Heaven as the Heaven-born dragon dances through the sky".

[6] Kuzuryu: Kuzuryū (九頭龍 nine-headed dragon), or Kuzuryūshin (九頭龍神 nine-headed dragon god). It's a deity in folklore and legends in various parts of Japan, who is mainly associated with water. His legend began in Lake Ashi of Hakone where he demanded sacrifices that vary to the daughters of the houses. The village chose the sacrifice by shooting a white-feathered arrow and see where it lands. A priest named Mankan cursed the dragon and chained him in an underwater rock formation. The expression from this legend of "send-up a white-feathered arrow" has adapted to "choose by lot." The legend doesn't stop there as Mankan saw the dragon reform from its evil ways and became a Dragon King. After this, the dragon changed his demands from human sacrifices to steamed rice with red beans. The origins of Kuzuryu can be traced back by the Buddhist deities Vasuki and Sesha.

[7] Takehazuchi: An obscure Shinto god in the Nihongi. His other name can be Shidori no kami, Takehazuchi no mikoto, and Shizuri. According to the Nihongi, this kami pacified the 'central land of reed plains' by subduing the final rebellious kami, the 'star kami' Kakaseo (Another name for Amatsu Mikaboshi) and prepared the way of descent for the Heavenly Grandchild (tenson kōrin). Because Shizuri is the name of a weaver clan, the Kogo shūi identifies the kami with Amenohatsuchio, distant ancestor of the Shizuri and who, led by Futodama, wove "coarse cloth" (shizu) at the time Amaterasu hid away in the rock cave of heaven.

[8] Chaoskampf: 'Struggle against Chaos,' a global myth and legend depicting a culture hero-deity battling against a monster of chaos, usually a serpent or dragon. Some include Thor-Jormungandr, Indra-Vritra, Oraetaona-Azi Dahaka, Zeus-Typhon, Marduk-Tiamat, Yahweh-Leviathan, Susanoo-Yamato-no-Orochi, and many, many other unnamed ones.

Author's note:

This was actually the first chapter I spent writing for this fic. And boy am I glad I wrote this beforehand. The entire prologue has been leading up to one these events I wanted to happen. When I brainstormed ideas, this chapter stood out and I wanted to happen eventually. The chapter was actually split in two, one with the battle with the Watatsuki, and the other was the Lunar Capital. I decided to just fuse them together in a single SS in the end. During the second half, there was a plot point where Tenryuu converses with Yorihime, scaring the shit out of her and making exposition. I scrapped that one away because too much exposition is a bad idea.

I took in inspiration from Amatsumagatsuchi from the Monster Hunter series and transferred elements of him into Branch Horn.

So now a lot of setups for future plotlines have been introduced in this SS, and the names of a few dragons have been revealed. Can you point out all that appears to be setups?

Please point out any grammar issues and review, and they are very much appreciated.