Chapter 2: The Fall of Impurity
The once pristine skies of the Lunar Capital were now being plagued with a locust swarm of Fairies. They pittered about with their tiny wings and irritating voices, treating the divine lands as little more than a playground to fool around in. The Lunarians were drawn to their presence with eyes as wide as dimes, and their plentiful little shadows left them trembling in their boots.
Hecatia watched on with her arms crossed against her chest and a tip-top smile across her face. Gently she reached her arms up at the chaotic swarm and remarked, "This totally reminds me of one of those plagues that happened in Egypt long, long ago."
Sagume's glare was clear as day even with the goddess' chin raised up high. Hecatia looked down with a demeanor bereft of malice and saw the divine amanojaku trembling at her kneecaps, "You don't look so good. Is it like, because of all the life that's in the air?"
Hecatia waved a finger past her and Sagume looked back. Many Lunarians looked as fit as fiddles and had scars to prove their survival in many furious battles...Yet they were collapsing onto the floor like wobbly dominos, their hands clasping around their arms and legs in a desperate attempt to scrape off this "infection" that dominated the air.
Sagume's heart beat faster, jumping two beats forward at once when Hecatia positioned her chin atop her shoulder and whispered in her ear, "So do you fear death, Sagume Kishin...Or do you fear me?"
Sagume spun around and whipped the goddess in the face with her wing, forcing her to make a hasty yet nonchalant retreat. She closed her eyes and weaved a wicked smile, then leaned her head back towards her silent companion and remarked, "Chang'e should be somewhere in the palace Junko. Go on, have some fun!"
"Ok Hecatia, I will." Junko said with a flaccid looking smile and hollow stare. As she slowly pivoted away and floated towards the palace, Sagume suddenly yelled, "After her!"
Two Lunarians, whose will stood stronger than iron, rose to their feet with spears in hand and rushed straight for Junko's back.
"SPLOTCH!"
The next second, their heads were turned to paste, with their blood and bone strewn atop Hecatia's planetary décor as she laid on her back and didn't pay her victims any heed. A drop of blood splashed against Sagume's face, shrinking her pupils into a downright pin-like shape.
"Hehehehehe!" Hecatia's devilish, playful laughter struck a nerve in the once docile amanojaku, who swung her right hand out and exclaimed, "Secure the portal behind her!"
Yet when faced with the blood that trickled between the plated crevices, the Lunarians' skin turned as pale as the surface they lived upon, and they tripped upon themselves fleeing for their very lives. Sagume was shocked, devastated almost, that her people would succumb so quickly to fear.
"Oh, what pain a sheltered un-life brings..." Hecatia said in a soothing voice as she shook the blood free from her shackled jewelry. Sagume threw over her shoulder a most wicked glare as the goddess yet taunted her more, "You like, really should've seen this coming. A monarchy built on xenophobia is basically like, the equivalent of asking the universe to point a gun at your head. Now's just when it decided it was time to fire!"
Hecatia pointed her thumb and pointer finger back and went "Pow!" as the thumb went down.
Sagume creased her eyes partway shut and brushed her wing aside, staring deep into the Goddess' jewel-like eyes as she stoically declared, "You won't get away with this."
"You sure you wanna say that?" Hecatia smiled and shrugged as she spun back upright and balanced her "planets" atop her palms, "Cause...there's no taking that back now."
Outside the Lunar Capital, Yorihime briefly discarded her focus on Alex to look back at her home. The maelstrom of Fairies caught her eye like the stars in the sky normally would. It was impossible to ignore, and just nearly as impossible to fathom.
"How could this have escaped my notice?" She wondered to herself, looking somewhat blankly towards the ground. She then swung her head back towards her foe and tried to ask, "What did you DO?"
Only to be met with his right palm slamming dead center into her face, which dragged her off the ground as the two went flying straight into the front gates. Alex broke through with a measly effort and started to descend for the ground while declaring, "I told you! This is the day your race dies, Lunarian!"
"Grrr!" Yorihime clung her sword tighter and yelled, "I call upon your strength, Lord Sarutahiko!"
Inches from the ground, Yorihime's arms and legs suddenly became surrounded in a golden veil, which she used post-haste to clock Alex in the gut with her foot. He blacked out for a moment and felt his stomach nearly collapse into paste, but she was far from done. She slammed her right palm into the ground for support and kicked Alex fifty feet into the air, then launched herself up behind him and spun around, delivering a resounding kick to his spine.
The sonicboom that erupted from the impact happened a second after Alex cratered the ground, throwing debris all across the wayside. Yorihime slashed her sword out so vigorously that it created a gale, then as she gently descended for the ground she proclaimed, "Mighty Honoikazuchi, char this intruder to ash!"
The light at the edge of the crater was swallowed up into a devilish hellfire that quickly transformed into a seven-headed dragon with lightning surrounding each of its necks. The beast opened its mouths and set the entire crater ablaze in an instant, turning it into a cauldron that'd make even the onis of Hell sweat in seconds.
But to Alex, this was but a summer's breeze, and after standing back up he raised his sword up past the flames. One azure flash later, and a highly compressed wave of water has cut right through the beast's heads. He knew the task was only so simple because the god's power wasn't fully manifested, but the look of surprise on Yorihime's face was still satisfying to behold.
She whipped her sword down to her hip and bolted the moment she touched the ground. Alex leapt out of the crater as she dove in after him, but she simply slashed her blade up in a flash when she landed. Managing to cut his chest a centimeter deep, Alex quickly hopped across the ground while cauterizing the wound.
His opponent was a relentless pursuer, her gaze as perfect as an hawk's. He knew speed wasn't going to cut it, she was simply leagues faster than him. He made his way towards the city and past the remaining trees, pitifuly throwing fire mines in the air to force her to waste time weaving around them.
She didn't pause to adjust herself even once. Her body was like a bolt of light bending around a black hole. It moved with such perfect curvature, and when she was through her target was but a foot away. Alex drew his sword and blocked two of her attacks in quick succession, then stabbed his sword down to smash the ground and force her back.
She swung her blade out from her hip and called upon the power of Ishikori-dome no Mikoto, using the goddess' divine mirror as a platform to vault over the gravelly debris and then stab forward with a spear of lightning forged through the power of Raijin.
Alex slapped the spear into the nearest building, where it exploded and took out a ten-foot wide chunk of metal. Alex then folded his arms back and began charging flames between his palms. Yorihime was ready to divert her focus into defending herself, and began the incantation to summon Mikoto anew.
Yet her voice was cut off, silenced by the forceful act of vines wrapping around her legs and slamming her face-first against the ground. Alex immediately thrust his hands out to send a beam of flame hurtling her way. Yorihime grabbed onto her sword and stabbed the ground, refusing to yield to his power.
The flames were suddenly stopped and erased down to the very atom merely a couple feet from her face. Alex had to squint in confusion for a moment in order to see what had happened. There was something resembling a gale where the flames had suddenly stopped, but it made no sound and it kicked up not even a scrap of dust. There was only one person who could be responsible for this interference...
"Are you having trouble, dear sister?" A soft, saintly voice spoke up behind Yorihime, and then a second later the vines that strangled her legs were cut asunder by a mesmerizing dance of tiny wind blades.
The person then strolled on by with a gentle smile and impeccable posture. Her hair could be described as a long flowing sea of golden sand, with her eyes glistening with a similar hue. She wears the same kind of dress as the one she calls "sister", only hers is dark blue with the strap covering only her left shoulder, and her belt extending from the right to left with a mirror acting as her buckle. Atop her head rests a white bonnet with a red ribbon, and all the while she fans herself with a plain, white-as-snow paper fan.
The second of the Watatsukis, and the elder of the two...Her princess-like naivete and calming aura should not be considered a sign to let your guard down, lest she sweep your impurity away with but a wave of her fan. Alex hunched over slightly and grinned from cheek-to-cheek. He wasn't expecting to have to fight both sisters at the same time, but the prospect was growing more exciting the longer he thought about it.
The Moon Princess Who Floats Between Sea and Mountains: Watatsuki no Toyohime
Yorihime climbed to her feet with blade in hand and remarked, "This isn't your fight sister. I can handle this Butcher on my own."
"Relax. You're overthinking things and making mistakes." Toyohime said while tilting her head back. Yorihime then leaned a fist up by her hip and gave her the stink eye, "How can you be so calm sister? The Lunar Capital is being polluted by a terrible blight!"
Toyohime looked up at the sight of Fairies and her grin shifted just slightly ajar, "While it is true they infect our lands with their sordid 'gift' of life...They are but bees flying aimlessly at the heed of their queen."
She folded her fan and thrust it heavily towards Alex's face, meeting his fiery fierce stare with a disarming smile as she rationalized, "As soon as we remove the perpetrators from the Capital, it shall be but a simple matter to lure the guideless Fairies away from our lands."
Her eyes creased a little more as she absolved any uncertainty her words may have birthed by saying, "And surely, whatever magic these intruders have used to seal us in will certainly be undone as well."
Yorihime closed her eyes and remarked, "You got a point. The Fairies only came after the Butcher reached into his right pocket. He must have a relic that controls space-time stashed away in there."
"Then its safe to say that my assertion is correct. Wouldn't you agree, dear sister?"
"I would've figured it out on my own, you know." Yorihime said, sneaking in a sigh of relief as her big sister giggled behind her fan.
"You're probably right. But this does expedite the process a lot, wouldn't you agree?"
"Ahem!" Alex roughly coughed to grab their attention, then started rubbing the back of his head like he was just casually chatting away with a pair of friends, "There's just one teeny tiny problem with your plan..."
He stuck his chin up and grinned, "You have to kill me first."
Toyohime unfolded her fan and said back to him, "Everyone dies someday."
Alex's cheeks puffed out and he swung over unable to contain his laughter. After going at it for a bit until he started to tear up, he wiped the left side of his face dry and said, "I-I'll be honest, I could've just turned tail and left you all to die to the Fairies...But man, would I have missed out on THAT zinger!"
After a little more chuckling, Alex suddenly felt an immense pressure coming from Toyohime and slid straight to the left before her fan atomized the ground he stood on. She laid it out before her chest and with a narrow glare remarked, "Your predecessor escaped unharmed...We won't be making that same mistake."
Alex swung his sword out and rushed straight for Toyohime, foolish though that may have seemed. She carefully stepped back and kept her fan up for now, preferring to attack with a series of beams coming out of rifts around her body.
Alex leapt over them and readied his sword behind his head, only to be blindsided by a couple beams hitting his wrists and forcing the sword loose. He then looked around and saw that he had suddenly become surrounded by a tight cage of mirror, which reflected the beams repeatedly through his body, battering him around for a few seconds.
Yorihime leapt up and cleaved her sword down across Alex's chest, knocking him towards the ground. Alex grounded himself hard and tore up the floor for many yards before stopping. He then lunged at Yorihime as she tried to follow through and punched her square in the chin.
Yet it was HIS knuckles that buckled down under pressure, for she had coated her chin in metal by channeling the power of Kanayama-hiko for a brief moment. Then she used the bottom of her sword to send Alex back down, where Toyohime swung her fan immediately towards him.
He clawed his right hand upward and raised the ground all the way between the two of them to slow the atomization power, but that merely bought him a second. Enough time to hop away, not enough to mount a defense against Yorihime.
She came right at him and cut the tendons from his left wrist, leaving the hand limping around by his hip. He swung his other arm up and recalled his sword, preventing her from doing the same twice. He then thrust his right leg up into her gut to blow her back, throwing a wave of fire in pursuit.
As she ended up knocked down temporarily, Alex set his sights back on Toyohime and ran straight for her, making a hard weave left when she attempted to wave her fan. He kicked his feet hard against the ground and bolted straight for her, keeping his sword steadied like a jousting lance.
Toyohime folded her fan and gracefully leapt over him, a plethora of pristine thin onyx rope flying out of her dress. The rope somehow grabbed both of arms by the wrists and pulled them back to his hips. Then, as Toyohime landed, she grabbed the end of the rope and gave it a tug. The rest that had been thrown about wildly in the air just so happened to then perfectly constrain around Alex's arms and midsection, making his sword drop onto the back of his right foot upon him falling to his knees.
She held tightly onto the end of the rope and grinned as Alex jerked his head back to glare. She patted her peach colored lips with the tip of her fan and said, "It'd be a waste of time to try and break free. This rope, woven from imperceptibly thin fibers, restricts the movements of the impure."
Alex's eyelids drooped and he slowly began to shake his head. Then he began to sigh, almost out of pity, "You're kidding me right? Its just rope."
He swings his right foot up faster than she can blink. He just manages to cut the rope free from her grasp, managing to earn her interest in the process. Her curiosity keeps her from acting as Alex turns around and positions himself in the way of the sword's descent.
Yorihime yells the name "Takemikazuchi!" and throws the Totsuka-no-Tsurugi towards Alex's heart. He takes a deep breath in and shifts his body to the right, the blade slipping harmlessly underneath his arm, but denying him his freedom.
"Oh to hell with this then!" He firms his muscles up and quickly expands the heat from his body into a fiery burst that turns his bindings to ash. He then secures his blade and slashes backwards, kicking up a gale of dirt and dust to cover Yorihime's body.
She retaliates with the howling storm channeled by Susano'o's power, which throws Alex off his feet. Though he's able to resist the tempered gale, the strength of his swing is lessened when Yorihime comes jumping after him. He manages to succed in the clash only by the skin of his teeth, and gives the assured swordswoman a taste of raw firepower to throw her back.
After that unwieldy explosion Alex is ambushed from behind by Toyohime, who comes out swinging her fan. His heart threatens to break free from his chest as he clocks her in the gut and then tries to grab the fan from her hand. Yorihime collapses the storm around him to drag him down, rapidly sucking out the oxygen from his lungs once he's been pinned.
His powers had a limit on how long they could sustain him, but he managed to cut right through the storm with one vigorous swing of his blade. Then he stood right back up and grinned, holding back his body's urge to hunch over in pain.
Toyohime landed behind him, Yorihime in front of him, and the two didn't appear any worse for the wear.
"I knew this was going to be tough, but I've barely gotten a scratch on either of them...Oh well, not like it matters much..." He kept up the tough act while slowly nudging his right fingers towards the triggers on his sword one at a time.
Toyohime boasted for a bit, as she had seemingly earned the right to do so, "You tried to exploit our weakness to 'life', so that we could die...But you are nowhere near as strong as the previous Butcher. Your plan was inevitably going to end in failure."
"The impure are born on Earth, and die on Earth. I do not say this to be cruel. It is simply the truth. But as you are here instead, I am the only one who can cleanse you without tainting the Capital with even more impurity. So hold still, as I-"
Alex was about to pull all seven triggers when Yorihime's eyes widened like a startled owl and she sprang into action, stabbing through the back of his right hand to force his sword out. Toyohime gawked for a moment as her sister swiped the blood off and remarked, "He was planning to do something with that sword...Something terrible, I could just feel it."
Alex noticed a lone sweat drop on the side of Yorihime's cheek and slowly raised his head to let out a sigh. It took a great deal of restraint not to say what was actually on his mind, "Yeah you're right...I'm probably not as strong as the old man was..."
He quickly glared back at Toyohime with a smirk and said, "But I'm a HELL of a lot slippier!"
The dirt below his feet swung up in a gritty cloud, making the two sisters cough as they worked together to blow it all away. But Alex had scurried off in the interval towards the city, leaving his sword behind on the ground. Yorihime laid her blade by her hip and prepared to speed after, when Toyohime quietly noted, "Would it be wise to leave his weapon behind, dear sister?"
Yorihime stabbed her blade down and used Lord Gion's power to bind the sword in place amongst a field of blades. Then with Raijin's power, she made her feet as fleet as lightning and hastened her pursuit of her foe. Toyohime tapped her chin with her fan and peeked down at the sword as she strolled by it.
Her face reflected off its amber surface, and seemed to speak with her, "Fascinating...So you are a sword forged by a god? Yet not one familiar to us..."
Meanwhile, Yorihime stopped amidst the desolate streets and looked around. Somehow, the boy had managed to run away. The buildings towered towards the heavens. He'd be anywhere, waiting to ambush her. But she was not about to let him get away with such a disgraceful act.
She closed her eyes and focused on her blade, wistfully calling upon the power of yet another god to aid her cause, "Yamato of spirit and soul, reveal to me the location of the intruder who runs afoul..."
Like a drop of water falling upon a gentle creek, the presence of Alex's soul appeared amidst a darkened field not too far to the right of her. Yet his soul was not alone. There were fifteen others gathered within his body, all as dormant as a hibernating bear.
"What kind of human are you..." She pondered but briefly, for soon the ground turned uneven beneath her feet from a brief tremor. She turned towards the building he hid behind, and its bottom had been punched clean off. The whole thing collapsed under its own weight straight towards her.
"Kanayama-hiko no Mikoto!" She firmly declared as she swung her blade towards the building, guiding the goddess' power to dissipitate a massive chunk of it away. The damage to the rest of the buildings behind her would have to go ignored for now, as she could Alex scurry away through the dust.
He turned back and grumbled at how hard it was to shake her, but more importantly, "Goddamn it, why isn't my sword responding?"
He concentrated on the area surrounding his blade and angrily grit his teeth at the presence of Lord Gion's power. He squeezed his fist tight, bending the blades away to free his own. Yet before his job was done, Toyohime was suddenly before him, jabbing him in the chest with the tip of her fan that she quickly unfurled.
"Crap!" He widened his eyes and kneed her in the wrist, budging it out of alignment. He then grabbed her wrist in both hands and threw him overhead. Doing this with some torn tendons...probably wasn't the wisest play in his book.
"Ow ow ow!" He bemoaned as pain scraped throughout his nerves. Yorihime caught Toyohime in both arms without dropping her sword, then gently put her back down.
Alex swung his sweaty right arm out and snapped the last shackle on his blade in order to call it back. He grabbed tightly onto all seven triggers and Yorihime, with a brief flash of shock on her face, hastily stabbed the ground and yelled, "No!"
"You're too late!" All seven triggers were pulled as Alex yelled triumphantly, his voice carried throughout the entire Lunar Capital. The blades that erupted around his feet shattered like glass via a shockwave of power. The windows in the surrounding buildings exploded off their panes, and every Fairy that fluttered, every Lunarian that ran, they all stopped to watch the pillar of golden flames that had erupted in the center of the city.
It would even be seen from the Earth's surface, given time. The Watatsuki's stood their ground, but Yorihime's eyes were wide and frozen stiff. As Alex's feathery wings emerged from the pillar's frame, Toyohime waved her fan with a gentle flick of the wrist.
Alex had already leapt halfway towards them before they could blink, diving down with his body burning bright and both his arms swung out. As they shifted their heads up to greet him, he grabbed onto both their faces and pile drived them so hard into the ground that their legs shot up and the resulting shockwave destroyed the support of the buildings in the immediate vicinity.
Yorihime reacted quick as a whip by going for Alex's neck with her sword. It met with a wispy green shield, and she sealed her lips and gasped. Alex grinned as he could almost smell the fear sweating out of her skin. He then finally planted his feet down and hurtled them forward like hockey pucks.
Toyohime planted a hand atop her hat and instantaneously moved behind Yorihime, using her toes as a stopper to help prop her up. Alex charged across the street in a second with his fist swung back, and Toyohime swung her fan with a cold gaze.
The atomizing winds blew turbulently through the streets. It held Alex five feet away from them, while his shield protected him from harm. He tightly grinned and swung his fired up arms down, then clapped them together to knock Toyohime through the building.
"Sister!" Yorihime stood and dragged her sword right up, blocking Alex's vicious slash. The fire from his blade then cut past her and scarred the building. He pounded down at her blade repeatedly, cracking down her support bit by bit.
"Five seconds..." She whispered. Alex's next sword slash lingered a bit, as he wanted to force her blade into her face.
"Ame-No-Uzume!" She yelled, summoning the bright, blinding light of dawn to overwhelm Alex's eyes and make him reel back. Yorihime tried to retreat to find her sister, but the moment she turned her back proved to be a fatal mistake.
"You're not going anywhere!" Alex yelled in a grizzly voice as he squeezed his eyes shut and grabbed the back of Yorihime's head, dragging her up through the side of the building.
"F-Fujin!" She grunted with incredible effort. A powerful gale capable of clearing a mountain bare assaulted Alex, dragging him dozens of feet away while a blue shield came to protect him.
He brushed his wings forward, commanding the gale to serve a new master. And as his first order, he had it funnel back upon its previous owner and force her through the building, where she went tumbling out onto the rooftop behind it.
She stood up and stabbed her sword into the ground to stop while her heels rubbed up against the railing. Alex barreled through the building on an unstoppable rampage, giving Yorihime precious seconds to respond.
"Susano'o!" She raised her sword towards the heavens and was struck by thunder from a swift, raging storm. Her sword turned into the legendary blade Kusanagi, which retained its peerless onyx sheen even after all these years, while her body became draped in a sleek samurai's chestplate, shoulder pads, and pants.
She cleaved the air with a mighty swing, clashing against Alex's blade without faltering in her stance. She kept up the offensive with two swings just as fast as before, moving forward little by little each time. She then leapt and swung her sword down in one-hand, going for Alex's head.
He blocked it with the bare side of his blade and then let go to lunge his hand out, effortlessly firing a beam of fire bigger than her body. It was instantly reflected back via the Yata no Kagami mirror she called unto her left arm, forcing his yellow shield out of hiding.
Alex slid across the air and kicked the mirror with both his feet and, upon failing to put a dent in it, rose up and then drove a punch clean into her skull. The railing snapped like a twig and she went hurtling through multiple buildings towards the ground. Her armor kept the flinching to a minimum, thankfully.
She clocked the sparse period of time she needed to wait down to the picosecond then swung her sword to fire a rending slice of condensed pressure towards Alex. He spun right over it and bolted straight towards Yorihime, attempting to punch her in the face.
She raised her mirror to block it, so Alex simply went around her by slamming her between the walls of the building they just barreled through. He then gripped his fingers around the makeshift cage and dove straight for the ground, moving so fast that everything around him ignited.
He crashed into the ground right as Yorihime cut her way loose, diving between the split of rocks and attacking Alex head-on with a swift downward slice. Alex backed away and shot a very, very compressed air bubble at her body knocking her outside of the crumbling building.
Yorihime guided her blade through the air in a blinding fast stroke, cutting through the debris in her line of sight and managing to hit Alex's sword with the blade's tip. Alex let go of his blade and spun it around rapidly to push her away with wind.
The hairs on the back of her head grew cold, and without even glancing back she hopped over a sheet of ice that summoned increasingly taller stalactites. She landed atop the tallest one on one foot and glided her sword around in a circle. Her arm's movement were copied as phantasms until the golden ring was complete, upon which her technique was prepared.
Alex rammed his fist into the center of the ring and a barrier filled in the space inside of it. Alex's face twisted unamusingly as Yorihime murmured, "Kokujin: Yukikaze"
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Deja vu then struck Alex harder than the slash Yorihime followed up with, which breached the shield and repositioned her on the ground twenty feet behind Alex in an instant. A white shield surrounded his body, but a lot of good that would do when he wound up ramming the ground at more than 1000 miles per hour. Even THAT disjointed his neck a little bit.
Yorihime slowly turned around and grit her teeth into a jaded scowl as she grumbled, "Even that didn't cut it..."
"There you are sister." Toyohime softly walked up behind her with fan waved before her face and her dress looking a bit roughed up.
"I heard all the commotion from the ground. How are you still having trouble with him?"
Yorihime squinted her eyes shut and had to try REALLY hard to fight the urge to say anything dismissive towards her sister as she opened them back up, "The Butcher's protected by a series of barriers. It doesn't seem like physical strength will be enough to break through."
"Hmmm, surely there must be a way, right? As much as it pains me to say it, not even the barrier I created for the Lunar Capital is unbreakable."
"Perhaps if I consulted Tenjin, I could discover a way, but..."
Toyohime lightly tapped her sister on the forehead and passed her by, "Say no more. I will keep the Butcher at bay while you learn what we need."
"Sister...!" Yorihime reached out, only to quickly withdraw. Alex started to pick himself up off the ground while rubbing the back of his neck.
"Gah...Son of a bitch I felt that!" His complaint was mild, like he had only bumped his knee. He turned around with a frumpy scowl, angering Yorihime a bit.
"Concentrate sister." Toyohime whispered before taking center stage.
Yorihime closed her eyes, dropped the hefty armor, and focused all her power into calling forth the god of knowledge, Tenjin. Toyohime tapped her chin a couple times then patted her fan down atop her palm, braving the harsh climate Alex projected until she was three feet away from him.
Her body sweated a little, a rare, curious yet exciting feeling to be sure. Then she delicately asked, "Can I bother you with a question, Elemental Overlord?"
He raised his brows and eased up a bit of the heat surrounding his body. He didn't feel any concern whatsoever as he scoffed "Go for it" and stood upright.
"What makes you think you can't be killed? You...are human, aren't you?" She gently closed her eyes and unfurled her fan before most of her face.
Alex leaned his head back and coughed up a dry laugh, "Human...Yeah. I 'look' human, I 'talk' human, I was 'born' human. So...that makes me a human, doesn't it?"
Toyohime's heart fluttered against her chest as Alex continued to slowly chuckle like he was on auto-pilot. He then grabbed the side of his head, pulling back the hair that was bothering his eyes so he could give the Lunarian a clear and concise glare, "You Lunarians took your existence for granted. Your masters spiked your kool-aid with so much propaganda about how tainted life and death is, that it has left you all irreversibly weak and paranoid whenever even the slightest trace of either comes crawling up your doorstep."
Toyohime's glare grew more cross, yet Alex continued regardless, "I won't bore you with my story...But if there's one thing, one THING I learned throughout my life..."
He closed his eyes and quietly brought his hand back down to his side, squeezing it until his nails drew blood from the skin, "Its that death is a blessing, not a curse."
Toyohime closed her eyes and remarked, "I suppose a human could become naturally inclined to think that way..."
"But a Lunarian wouldn't. Not even if their life depended on it. Your pride is too great for that," Alex shook his arms up by his shoulders and remarked, "And that's why you will never be able to kill me. Your sister has already figured out that much."
He flicked his hand out and Toyohime peered over shoulder. Yorihime's face was pale and she was having trouble standing upright. Her eyes were gazing blankly into a dark abyss of which there was no return, and it took a few attempts for her sister to reach.
"Yorihime!" She snapped rather bluntly, and Yorihime regained some semblance of normalty back.
"W-What...?" Spilled out of her lips sloppily.
"What did you learn?"
Yorihime looked down in silence and slowly shook her head. Toyohime's expression grew uneasy, the heat behind her rose, and then Alex cracked his knuckles and grit his teeth into a gnarled grin, "Alright...Break time's over."
He tried to sucker punch Toyohime in the spine but she gracefully flipped over him and attempted to bewilder him with her rope trick a second time. He burned it all to ash in an instant, but she was able to swing her fan to knock him down and spawn his brown shield.
Alex let himself fall and planted his palms down, shunting back to kick her square in the gut and launch her through the nearest building. Yorihime snapped to attention with a yell of "Sister!" and then angrily rushed Alex with her sword. She called upon the power of Lord Atago, consuming her blade in his divine flames as she attacked his back.
Alex twisted his legs back and snatched up her blade between his feet, then flung her whole body overhead after Toyohime. Toyohime landed safely upon the floor and caught her sister, whom immediately hopped off in spite of her worried inquiry, "Is everything ok?"
"Keep attacking! We'll break through eventually!" Yorihime wildly slashed the divine flames through the building down to where Alex stood. The ground turned into a carved up mess in seconds, and would have gotten worse had Toyohime not restrained her sister with a firm grip of the elbow.
"Calm yourself!" She raised her voice, looking her square in the eyes, "We're going to win this war sister. Everything will be ok."
Yorihime looked out the building and everything she saw left her unconvinced. To make matters worse, Alex blasted aside the divine flames with a casually summoned, turbulent wind, and immediately came after them. Toyohime swung her fan out to attack Alex head on, causing his icy-blue shield to form. She kept swinging to hold him back, annihilating the entire ground beneath him in the process.
This gave Yorihime a chance to recollect herself, and call upon the power of Izunome to heal them both. Alex forgoed fending off the winds and dove down and forward, punching through the underside of the building to cause it to collapse.
The sisters flipped out of there and Alex landed twenty feet away, attacking them wildly with flaming slashes as he slowly closed the distance. Yorihime drew on Kagutsuchi's power to turn the flames to nothing, then Lord Gion's power to dig into Alex's legs with the field of blades.
His red shield came to his aid, the last of this set. Alex shattered the blades by waving his hand out to release a burst of power, then sped straight for the sisters. They hopped aside to evade his air quaking punch, but he spun left and immediately threw another punch towards Toyohime.
His fist was inches from her chest when she swung her right arm up and released another rope hidden up her sleeve. She grabbed onto Alex's wrist and held them together with her rope, and this time there wasn't a shield to save him. Yorihime called the incantation for Lord Sarutahiko, this time focusing his power into her sister.
As Toyohime's arms and legs glowed with raw power, she leapt hundreds of feet into the air and dragged Alex along with her. She spun around and let go, hurtling him towards the ground faster than a comet's descent. She then swung her fan with zero intention of letting a speck of him land.
Alex reached into his right pocket and stopped time with the Gaia Temporis, using that break to speed up behind Toyohime and then surprise her with a kick to her back as time resumed. Toyohime spun towards the ground and was caught in mid-air by Yorihime, who channeled Lord Sarutahiko's power into herself.
The air enveloped their bodies as they hurtled towards the ground at an incredible velocity. Alex flew at them even faster, wrapping his body in fire. Yorihime swung her sword up and called upon Susano'o's power to simultaneously throw Alex into turmoil with a storm, and summon the god's armor for the aftermath.
Alex reached the edge of the storm and kicked it with all his might, launching it straight for its master. It was cut in half with a one-handed swing of Kusanagi, then brought back down to knock out Alex's sword when he came in to attack. He remained close in spite of the dangers and threw a right hook towards Yorihime's face.
She blocked it with the Yama mirror, exactly as HE planned it. He coated his left fingers in a sharp metal and scraped the area above her arm to slice the mirror off of it and claim it for himself. Yorihime's arm burned hot, and she started to become separated from her sister.
Alex grabbed the shield in both hands and slammed it down upon Yorihime's face, drawing blood from her nose and causing her to cough and choke on the rest. Toyohime fired curving lasers to attack Alex around the shield, pestering him so much that he ultimately just threw it aside and blasted her with a lightning bolt. Her body sizzled with smoke and plummeted faster downward thanks to the electricity dragging her like an anchor.
Yorihime quickly used Raijin's power to redirect the lightning far, far away, but had to drop the armor to do so. Alex grabbed onto her shoulders and forced them outward. The sharp snap of her bones breaking should have warranted a greater yell than it did. Perhaps the speed they fell simply deafened most of it.
"You know which God you need to beat me!" Alex yelled with a wide and excited grin, "If you don't throw away your pride, your entire race will perish!"
"I-Izanagi!" Was Yorihime's bitter response, and Alex simply shook his head even as Yorihime was granted the jeweled spear Amenonuhoko to penetrate him through the gut.
"Wrong choice..." He coldly shook off the bleeding pain and shoved Yorihime away to the ground.
She looked at her surroundings as the largely unfamiliar smell of smoke burned into her nostrils. The once proud and beautiful Lunar Capital was unrecognizable to her now. The pearl white buildings were black from the fire spread amongs them. The Fairies hadn't lost a single unit, and were gallavanting happily through the city like they owned the place which, considering the numerous Lunarian corpses on the streets, they may as well already have.
The Moon Palace was surrounding with the white flames of purification, no doubt Junko's fault, and the higher-ups' safety is left ominously unknown. Hecatia hovered in the exact same spot as before, surrounding in blood and corpses as she currently choked the life out of a weakened Sagume with her golden chains.
Her way of life was disappearing bit by bit. And she felt blameless towards the whole thing. How could she not, when the accursed, arrogant perpetrator hovered above her, all full of himself for "winning" this war. She grit her teeth hard to the point of her whole body trembling, and the anger swelled in her heart until it burst open, filling her hatred of this one, insignificant, human.
She swung her sword up before her body and planted two fingers against its dulled edge. Squeezing her eyes shut, she concentrated incredibly hard on a god beyond gods. A god of whom she never believed she'd have reason to call forth.
"O' sacred mistress of the divine sun, I call upon your power with all my rage! Burn! Scorch! Turn my enemy to ash with your unstoppable flames! And then drench his impure soul in hellfire!" Fire spiraled out from her body as her eyes were emblazoned with a fearsome crimson glow, upon which she stabbed the air and roared with all her might, "Great Goddess, answer my call! For I am your master, Amaterasu-O-Mi-Kami!"
The winds of turmoil drew silent. The flames, the Fairies, they all quieted down and turned towards the center of the Lunar Capital. All light dimmed to darkness, and a tiny ember awakened in the very center of it. A giant priestly robed woman whose beauty could only be described as heavenly descended upon the ember and held it in her hands. After slowly cradling it up to her chest, her heart opened up and filled the ember with love.
And in seconds, the embers grew to be a small but mighty sun, which returned light to the moon and began spreading solar flares across the sky. The goddess' pristine visage remained behind the sun, while Yorihime landed safely atop one of the buildings and sheathed the sword by her side. She was panting heavily during an intense smile, and was content with letting the goddess finish this battle for her.
Alex floated in the sky just a hundred feet away from the sun, watching as it whipped up a dangerous maelstrom of solar heat that was burning up everything surrounding it. He sweated from head-to-toe, not just from this heat, but from his rising excitement. A solar flare lashed against his body, spawning a second green shield to protect him.
"This is a little more like it, but..." He calmly swung his right arm up to call his sword. He grabbed the handle in both hands and twisted his grip around it, "Sorry, its just not enough."
His wings lifted up high and the flames around him grew brighter and brighter until their intensity matched the makeshift sun. The pressure from his power affected the ground, creating an earthqauke that could be felt for miles away from the Capital. Yorihime's footing swiftly grew understeady, and she was overcome by this rising sense of dread...
"I don't fear Death! I don't fear Lunarians!" Alex's grin stretched to the absolute limit as his boast echoed throughout the moon, "AND I DON"T FEAR GODS!"
He charged at the mighty sun and pierced through its center while cutting downward. Amaterasu lurched back, a burning hot gash forming across her body. Her power spilled forth into the split open sun, pushing it to bursting point. Yorihime's eyes were frozen in utter shock, and she collapsed onto her knees. Not that she'd be there for long, for the sun popped like an overstuffed balloon, spreading devastating flames across the whole Lunar Capital, and swallowing up even the concept of sound...
Next Time: The Last Summoning