Here we were, the scarred battleground where I first fought Mitsuri.
But today is different, today I fight a powerful opponent, one where my life is at risk.
Well. With the almighty, my life has never truly been in danger. Except... Odin.
That was the one time my life truly felt threatened.
It may be arrogant to say this, but I feel invincible.
Odin has runes, runes of which are extremely versatile and is the leader of a pantheon which spawned the most famous dragon slayer in the history of mankind.
To say he countered me, was understating it. Not only that, he quite easily made the Almighty useless.
I was over-reliant.
Not anymore. Sparring in life or death really does help. Practising kaido in my spare time was also a good idea, especially with what will happen today.
I wasn't looking forward to it.
Regardless, a deal is a deal.
"I dearly thank you. Truly. With you on my side, I think we can win this war." Sunny continued to paint, face ever-changing as the image of Walter become more and more coherent.
"Hmm, it never seems right. I don't know how to describe it, but it never seems to encapsulate everything." Melascula observed at her words, quickly snapping her fingers.
"It's lacking the lingering yet well hidden sadness in his eyes. Walter is perpetually sad and pessimistic. You need to capture that in his eyes. That's why they never look accurate." Melascula could only comment at her beliefs, but as someone who had gotten quite close to him, the snake demon believed her words.
"I don't have time for another painting. So, let us proceed with strategising." Carmilla sighed with relief that the strange conversation was over, quickly placing a map of Romania onto her desk.
"Split right down the middle, but lately my bastard of an ex-husband has been taking more and more land from my faction. Specifically, in the south parts." Sunny started marking down city's with black blotches, noticing one right on the border of tepes territory.
"Hmm. This city will be the first. And a message, if we want to retake the territory and your husbands territory, we need to be careful with what we show. We don't know who's watching. For now, Melascula. Wait... carmilla. Do you have an elite force?" Carmilla sighed, clearly not expecting this.
"I do. Why?" It was the first time Carmilla's tone had been openly hostile to the sternritter duo. Sunny could understand the implications, deploying her royal guards would show she's getting desperate.
"Are they day walkers?" Carmilla nodded silently, seemingly contemplating on whether to let them use her guards.
"Then I intend to strike as soon as daytime rises. That'd be right when they hop into their coffins. So, we kill all of them before they can even wake up."
"Alright. Now what about the details?"
"Alright. Are you ready, Yachiru?" I asked the berserker as I grasped my gauntleted left hand. I needed to do something with my left hand after all, those who fight with only one hand tend to be arrogant and lose.
"I am!" Leaping towards me, Yachiru raised her blade high, both hands steadily gripped on either side of the handle.
No problem.
Raising my gauntleted hand, Minazuki struck against the forearm of the gauntlet. It was a strange thing. Typically, no reishi made gauntlet could hold up against a Zanpkauto.
But things weren't that simple.
This gauntlet was made of liquid creation mixed with my own blood that was heavily saturated with reishi.
To call it a simple gauntlet now, that would just be inadequate.
The purple reishi veins running along the gold colour lit up as the blade struck.
"You should know. This gauntlet can utilise Blut Vene." I knocked her blade aside with my physical strength, quite easily creating a opening.
Striking without my right eye, even if with my left hand, will always feel so very strange to me.
However, strike I did, hitting the woman square in the chin.
Ah... how I've changed.
Back then... I'd never hit a woman.
"Times change... and we must change with them..." couldn't help but mutter that out after I sent Yachiru flying.
I'm a hypocrite.
Yachiru started trying to get up, that simply won't do, I promised not to hold back. Quickly dashing forwards, I aimed straight for the sternum as I struck with the trident in my right hand.
Barely in time, Yachiru rolled out of the way to the side and pushed off the ground to stand herself back up.
"Wonderful. Definitely aiming for the kill this time. Just as I wanted." Yachiru was healing herself with kaidō. Sometimes... sometimes I hate how much pain she tolerates just to keep fighting.
"Hado No. 88 Hiryu Gekizoku Shinten Raihou!" How wonderful, a beam of lightning made entirely of spiritual pressure.
"Hah... Blut vene Anhaben!" A bubble of pure reishi formed around me as it drained the reishi from my surroundings to sustain itself. Considering this place is my domain, there isn't anything to prune. Just to borrow.
As the lightning disappeared, the bubble similarly evaporated and I summoned my bow while planting my trident in the floor.
Shooting a bow comes natural to a Quincy. Though, I never chose to neglect it, my dear long bow.
Pulling back the string, i let off an arrow, forcing her to dodge, but the next had already been fired. And the next, and the next, and the next...
After using the almighty so much, you learn to predict a persons movements. And Yachiru... she requests fights a lot.
And just as the last arrow was about to hit...
"Bankai. Minazuki." Yachiru slit her hand along the blade, splattering on my reishi and dissolving it to nothing.
I hate when things like these happen.
Well, time to end it.
Her face was smeared with blood at the corners of her mouth, the insanity visible in her eyes. No time for this.
'Are you ready?' The Hushed voice of my third zanpakuto responded to me, with confirmation.
'O-of course. N-now, as one...' of course, I remember the phrase. I readied my trident in a throwing stance.
'Time... has drowned.' Both our voices overlapped and the trident shifted to a bident, a silver bident with a black smooth handle and straight blades, a blue gem residing on the pommel.
After the shift was over, I braced my left hand, muscles bulging and veins thrumming as i swapped to blut arterie.
"Brace yourself." And with the booming of the air, the bident flew, in but a moment, the bident planted itself firmly into her chest. As if it had teleported.
I sighed as I walked over to her corpse, planting my hand around the Bidents shaft, bracing my foot on her stomach, i tore it cleanly out of her. Honestly, after all these fights, I'd seen her body so many times that I was numb to it.
Besides...
She's still got all three of her death rewrites.
Seconds after the bidents removal, her wounds quickly fixed themselves as her eyes returned to life.
"I thought I dodged?" I... laughed. I couldn't help it. She died, life tore from her body, and what does she say when she gets back?
I thought I dodged.
So... so stupid.
"You couldn't." Laying down those simple words, I lent out a hand to her. And with a grin on her face, grabbed my hand, easily pulling herself up and grabbing my cheek with her other hand.
"I would like to try new things, Walter."
Yachiru stood there in silence. Bated breath as she waited to hear his response.
"I... am not sure what you mean." Damn him, making me say it straight to his face.
"How about a date? Nothing serious, or Romantic. Just a date, just getting to know each other." Oh... I... already knew what was going to happen.
"I... I'm sorry, but I can't." Damn you. Damn you Walter.
You and that pitiful look.
You still hold hope. Hope that she may once awaken again.
Its difficult to even be mad at this fragile man.
"Then... I shall wait. See what Sternritter B herself says, go, you fool. Use that newly obtained divinty to visit her dreams, speak with her there." I pulled the taller man into a hug, his head easily hovering above my shoulder, my chest pressing against his own.
"Go, speak with her."
Here I sat, in the house of Amaterasu.
What a surreal experience.
"I must say, this is quite a nice home." I couldn't help but comment as she poured tea for the three of us.
"Make your business clear, outsider." Susanoo sat against the wall, rubbing his gut after feeling it being punched through, yet no injury was left.
"My business... my business. I don't know." The godly duo gawked at him, he hadn't even intended to intrude on their lands? On one hand, Amaterasu felt slightly ashamed that she jumped to conclusions.
On the other hand, Susanoo was pissed. He had invaded their lands on what grounds? A whim? A joke? An accident? No matter how hard thought about it, it was an insult.
"However. There is a man i wish to meet. He shares many facial traits with me. Same hair colour too. He... is my father. Yet the circumstances of my birth are foggy. I recall a pink haired woman, her hair tied in a ponytail, with him. The girl splattered me with ink before my father through me threw dimensions. I suppose the girl is my mother by assumption. All I want to know, is why?" Amaterasu hugged the young man from behind.
"I... am dearly sorry for our poor meeting. I was-"
"Unaware, I am aware." The boy chuckled at his own joke. "But that is my story. I wish to know more of my father and mother." Susanoo could tell the boys words were true.
But there was more he refused to tell, that was what his instincts told him.
"I recall a purple haired individual appearing around 300 years ago. The mans name is Walter Newgate. But most factions other than the norse and three factions have been too scared to approach him. Allegedly, he fought and beat Odin." Everyone in the room could understand.
A man that powerful, willingly chooses to help others? No. No one would believe that. Even if he is charging his employers, there's no set price, it all depends on what he wants.
There's no such thing as charity in the supernatural world.
"I see. By chance, could you hire my father? I'm willing to do anything necessary as recompense." The siblings shared a wordless glance before Susanoo nodded to his sister.
"Then... we need you to...
The path of a martyr is one that many have walked.
A good example being Jeanne D'arc. A noble woman who fought for God in the hundred years war...
Yet was burnt at the stake by the British and declared as a witch.
The path of a martyr is a painful one.
A martyr must give up everything for the sake of their goal. Their body, their mind, their friends, their relationships.
The path of a martyr is a miserable one.
The martyr will despair.
The martyr will cry.
The martyr will scream.
The martyr will question.
But he will never receive an answer nor happiness.
All he receives is pain, misery and torment for the sake of his goal.
For the sake of others... he must give up everything he has so that they need not loose anything.
He must bear the weight of the world, knowing full well it won't be long before that same weight crushes him.
The path of a martyr...
Is not one that is walked by many.
Even said martyr's...
Sometimes end up demonised, their legacies spat upon due to fear and superstition.
A martyr's life... is no life at all.