Chapter 4: The Fall of Judgment
It is nighttime in Gensokyo. And a quiet one at that. All things considered, it has been very peaceful recently. No incidents, minor or major, have occurred. The denizens of Gensokyo have been allowed to enjoy the scenic view of the night sky, whose ebony blanket is glistening with the light of the full moon and the many stars that surround it. Its so bright, the humans are having a hard time sleeping.
But in spite of this initial outlook of the land, something was wrong. The nocturnal Youkai of the forest were cowering in the shadows, keeping their heads to the ground and their eyes wide towards the sky. The moon was slowly turning a fiery shade of red, and it felt like it could fall at any moment.
Word of unrest quickly spread to the mountaintops, the sky, the lake, and even the underground. The voice of unease repeated the same general thing, "Something's coming...But what?"
They would do well to cherish the peaceful days they've been gifted. This will be a long, long night...
Over at the Garden of the Sun, a quiet wind stirs. It passes through the grass in a perfectly straight line, and lasts but an instant. It pushes aside the thick sunflower stalks like they were as weak as straws, and leaves ovular footprings in the dirt.
Yuuka, the only Youkai brave enough to remain in this cornucopia of beauty, sensed the wind's approach and swung her umbrella towards it. But it was already gone. She wouldn't forget it though. Not when it had carried such an intense presence. A couple seconds later, the wind left her garden completely...
It had passed on to the other side through the garden's invisible barrier. The curious flowery plains of the Sanzu River was the next thing it would pass on through on the way to its unknown, final destination. It edged closer and closer to the river, stalling itself when the Shinigami Komachi was found napping against a rock at the river's edge. She stretched her arms up high and let out a yawn so great it'd make a dragon tired too.
"That sure was a lot of souls...What the heck happened up there?" Unlike most times, her weariness was genuine. Her eyes could barely maintain focus, and her heart beat as soft as a kitten's.
"Haaaaaaaah...Oh well...That's Shiki's problem now..." When it seemed she'd completely succumbed to hibernational urges, the wind moved forward. When it caressed the edge of the river bank, it made a gentle splashing sound...
"SCHWING!"
And then Komachi had her scythe pointed right where the wind had gone to. She blinked twice and reeled it back in upon noticing a lack of blood. She murmured rather puzzledly, "I could've sworn I..."
Her mouth forced out another yawn and after smacking her lips she sunk back down into a state of relaxation and bemoaned, "Forget it...Naptime!"
She slept, and unknowingly because of that, allowed the wind to cross the Sanzu River with ease. Length wise, it was a ten-mile trip without Komachi's powers affecting it. For the wind, this only meant a second long journey before it had arrived, at last, to the Ministry of Right and Wrong.
And then the wind ended its march and vanished, with Alex Whiter suddenly appearing where it stopped. He pulls his hand out of his right pocket and gives it a couple pats. Then he looked up, and took in a deep breath.
"Haaaa..." His heartbeat was regular, so he walked forward and never glanced back. It didn't take long before he discovered that the Ministry's gates were rather...occupied.
There were thousands of these white, wispy clogging the way through. These must be souls, Alex determined, but didn't want to acknowledge whose they were as he pushed forward through the clot. The gate opened for one soul at a time, and never again would they return.
As he slowly waded through the crowd of malleable souls, he was pestered by their emotional states. Rage, confusion, sadness, but mostly rage, passed through his body like fine strands of hot metal. If they could speak, they'd yell at him to die, a fate he'd most certainly welcome...But instead, this "roast" of their simply came off as a pitiful last attempt at life.
Once he arrived at the gates, he waited for them to open for a soul, then bolted on through and mentally slammed them shut. The loud "Bang!" would serve as his greeting for the person waiting for him down the long, quiet hall.
He tucked his hands into his pockets and strolled on through. The distance was just a little shorter than he remembered it being last time. The podium of judgment started off as a speck in his eyes, but eventually grew to cover his entire range of vision. Stopping at that point, ten feet away from the podium's base, he slowly creaked his head back and listened as Shikieiki muttered, "Next..."
But upon looking over to see her next visitor, her voice grew heavily disgruntled, matching the raggedness under her eyes, "...You again."
Though highly dismissive of his presence, she tried to maintain her professionalism and leaned back, closed her eyes, and inquired in a more softer voice, "What do you want?"
"I'm back to continue our discussion from before." He responded right away.
Shikieiki patiently used the bottom of her rod of remorse like a gavel before stating in a firm voice, "I have already deliberated that matter with you. You responded by throwing a fireball in my face."
Alex closed his eyes and pinched the temples of his forehead as he grumbled, "I didn't have a choice. It was either that or fail Shina..."
"I'm not hearing an apology..."
Alex's forehead veins twitched as he felt a headache coming on. Thus he wound up forcing from his mouth a rather trite apology, "Fine. Fine...Things got a little heated on my end, and it shouldn't have. Ok?"
Shikieiki opened her eyes, halfway between amused and unamused, and gently laid her rod down, "Even if I held a grudge, I'd be too preoccupied to follow through on it."
"Now, please leave, I have work to do." Her request was made respectfully, but Alex was not to budge an inch.
"I. Said...We're continuing our discussion," He asserted through lightly gritted teeth, "I didn't just wade through thousands of dead Lunarians for nothing!"
Shikieiki hastily took notice and squinted at him, "How...do you know...?"
"Look at me again with the mirror," Alex bluntly imposed his demands upon her, "I have proof now."
Then he caught himself from getting angrier by taking in a very deep breath and letting out a sigh, "And once this is over with, I'll take my leave of this place. Forever."
The bags were starting to show under Shikieiki's eyes, thus motivating her to just acquiesce to his request and get it over with. She performed the summoning ritual for her mirror and held it up so Alex's reflection would fill its surface. The mirror turned black like before, but this time with the added bonus of Shikieiki widening her eyes and letting out a hoarse gasp, almost out of hestiation...
Alex's heartbeat raced and he madly grinned. Every word that the judge now spoke would be music to his ears.
"...You were telling the truth."
He gently nodded his head with an affirmative hum. Shikieiki leaned back and rubbed her forehead, which felt like it was on fire, "Yukari Yakumo is guilty of harming other worlds..."
He nodded faster and hummed louder to the point of rubbing it in. Shikieiki took some time to herself to regain focus. She paced her breaths slowly and sat perfectly upright, then cupped and laid her hands onto the podium.
"I am no stranger to being wrong...But it is an odd feeling to know that I have judged someone incorrectly." Alex was starting to sweat from being so eager, and Shikieiki hadn't even finished yet.
"When the time comes for her to be judged...I will know exactly where to send her. In the deepest, deepest level of Hell, where she will suffer even past the universe's end." That, was her final word on the matter.
"YES!" Alex swung his fists up triumphantly. But then the meaning of her words set in, and like a serenade being tainted by the singer deciding to go falsetto at the final chorus, his enthusiasm deflated. He was left staring up at her in abject confusion, "'When'? What do you mean...'When'?"
"There is still an order that must be followed. When she dies, she will be judged. Just wait. Her time will come." Shikieiki assuredly smiled at that. Sure, she may be good at judging others' sentences, but she was far, far from perfect when it came to judging the mood.
Alex murmured under his breath in a somewhat unhinged manner "Wait..." and slowly brought one hand down to the side of his face, grabbing onto it while snickering like a hyena and closing his eyes, "Wait...she says..."
His grip squeezed tighter, causing his pinky to slip down and force his eyelid open. His glare was that of fury...and scorn. Casting any semblance of patience and respect aside, he bluntly called out to the judge, "You WILL...put her away for good. Now."
Shikieiki leaned out and met his stare with an impatient frown, "I have granted your request. Now leave."
The gates started to creak open, only to be slammed back shut with a thought. Alex pulled his hands down and crunched them into fists, "I came back to Gensokyo to deliver justice to the wicked..."
He squeezed his fists until they were turning red, his attitude unamused, "I never thought you'd be one of them...Shikieiki Yamaxanadu."
"What on Earth are you-"
"Every life! Every bit of suffering! Everything Yukari has or WILL get away with from now on will be on YOUR head!" Alex raised his voice with a gravelliness in his throat. As fire raised around his body, his voice got even louder, "So what if they'll be punished in death?! As long as people like her live they'll keep killing! And hurting! Without a goddamn shred of remorse! The moment they take an innocent life on purpose, that's it! They've forfeited theirs! No exceptions!"
Shikieiki pounded her gavel twice and exclaimed, "The law doesn't work that way! There are rules and regulations that must be adhered to, lest humanity become no worse than animals! As the Elemental Overlord, it is your duty-"
"My duty is to stop evil in its tracks! If the law won't help, then the law must change!" As Alex spoke to her firmly with narrowed eyes, Shikieiki began to feel a chill crawl down her spine.
"Instead of reacting to threats, people like us need to be proactive in stopping them! Think of how many countless future lives have been spared because I helped end the Lunarians reign of terror?!"
"...So, it was you..." Shikieiki muttered in dull surprise.
Alex closed his eyes and quietly remarked with a hint of satisfaction, "Yes. It was me."
Shikieiki scoffed, "Then your 'justice'...Is nothing more than an excuse to commit murder."
"...I. Never. Said. You'd have to kill Yukari," Alex was starting to get annoyed, "Just lock her away. Throw away the key. Think of it as...eternal jail time. Then you'll have no blood on your hands, if that's what you're so goddamn afraid of!"
"...No. My position is unchanged." Shikieiki said with her head held high.
Alex squeezed his fists until they were taut and trembling, then let his fingers spread loosely and quietly drew his sword into his right hand. Sincerely, he stated, "I'm sorry you feel that way Shikieiki."
As she unamusingly looked on, Alex shook his head and sighed, "I figured this would be the hardest road to go down to stop Yukari...But I honestly thought that you'd do the right thing, regardless of your job."
"If you go through with this, then I will do the right thing by stopping you. Do you not understand that you will be condemned to her same fate?" Her final warning was issued with a hollow look in her eyes.
"...Ha...Haha. I learned I shouldn't even have existed only a month ago. So your 'Hell'?" Alex shrugged his shoulders, and his voice cracked with a squeak, "Sure as HELL doesn't scare ME!"
He pulls down on the all seven triggers with vigorous resolve. The golden flames from his transformation flood the vast, empty hall, and Shikieiki stands against its onslaught with her body unmoving like a statue. Once the boy had donned his Phoenix wings and fiery aura, she jabbed her rod of remorse upon him hard enough to project air.
"I fear for the safety of Gensokyo, nay, the universe, if you are allowed to roam free..." She positions the rod at the center of her chin and her tassels around her hat began to raise as a sublimely powerful glow surrounds her body, "It is with the full authority granted to me as the Yamaxanadu of Gensokyo that I shall subdue and cast you eternally into Hell!"
"You damn hypocrite!" Alex attacked fast with a fireball greater than the size of her podium. Shikieiki closed her eyes and called her mirror forth, making it grow in size to swallow the fireball whole and spit it right back out twice as fast.
Alex cut it down with one arm and narrowly squinted at her sturdious stance as she then used her mirror upon him. In the vein of her Spell Card from long ago, she perfectly copied his image not once, but twice, and set them upon him with a blunt thrust of the arm.
His copies could match him in speed, and were in his face before he even blinked. But as they brought their fists down upon his skull, he closed his eyes and held his ground. Much to his surprise however, their punches hit their mark and forced his chin down onto his chest, and the ground to break apart until the cracks reached the walls.
"Ghhhckk...!" The copies were so perfectly alike that his soul shields could not tell the difference. Alex forced their fists up with his head and growled, "...Fine then..."
He then grabbed onto their wrists and slammed them together before his body with a thunderous crack resounding from the splitting of their bones. He then hopped above them and smashed his clasped together fists into their skulls to down them.
They vanished a second later, but Shikieiki was already summoning more without missing a beat. Alex wiggled his left fingers behind his back whilst slashing his sword twice to send waves of fire her way. While her mirror wasted time absorbing and reflecting them back, vines formed and crawled up the sides of her podium. Like snakes they slithered along, waiting for their chance to pounce her arms.
Yet as their heads raised for the decisive strike, they were pinned down via the tips of multiple Rods of Remorse, Shikieiki not even batting an eye to their help. Alex scoffed and realized, "She must have an infinite supply of those damn things..."
Two more copies came barreling forward to attack Alex. One clone drew a blade and swiped at his chest, the other leapt over him and attempted to dive down to impale him through it. Alex slashed upward with all his might to rip the second's clone hand off, then lauded the judge for her folly, "These cheap mockeries may have my power...But they'll never have my spirit!"
He pulled back and then thrust his whole body forward in a single burst of speed, ramming the two clones together and throwing them into the podium. He then thrust his right hand up and impaled them through the chest with a steel javelin extending out of his palm.
The one in the front tried to pull free, and received a second javelin to the brain for good measure. After they vanished, Alex quickly attacked Shikieiki with a flurry of fireballs. Her mirror absorbed each and every one with ease. Though it was hardly Alex's plan to succeed anyways.
He clapped his hands together to summon a thundercloud above the judge, which deposited its ten million volt payload in a sky quaking thunderbolt. The mirror rushed above her faster than the bolt's descent and could handle even THAT overwhelming power without a single crack to its frame.
Shikieiki brought the mirror to her chest and laid her arms around its circular frame, peering down at the scoffing Alex with a judgmental glare, "The Yamaxanadu's judgment is absolute. Even the Elemental Overlord cannot hope to overturn it."
She threw out the lightning bolt first and waited for Alex to flee before sending the fireballs out in a blinding fast swarm. The hall was too constrained for him to maneuver around in quickly, so he just let the fireballs hit him and channeled his strength into something a little more subtle attack.
Up along the sides of the podium, a chilling sheet of ice began its advance. Shikieiki winced a little and her eyes shifted to the left and right, an act that went beneath Alex's notice as she summoned three copies to attack him this time.
One copy dove straight at Alex and slashed rapidly at his body. He deflected the attacks with his own sword, but didn't lose focus on the other two copies speeding past his sides. They grinded to a halt five feet behind him and swung their respective swords at his back with all their might.
He thrust his wings up and hardened them with a metallic amber similar to his blade's composition. The weight of his wings took a slight toll on his strength, and allowed the first clone the opening to cut up his body some. The brazen scars marring his body were barely thicker than a fingernail, but were pesky all the same.
Alex grabbed his blade in both hands and smashed the edge of the copies' to force him back a couple inches, then swiftly did a one-eighty to bash the two copies back as well. By the time they retaliated in unison, Alex had already shot up to the ceiling and positioned his bright, burning hands towards the ground.
He unleashed a massive pillar of fire that scorched the peerless shine off the floor while turning his copies to ash. But in doing so, he foiled himself by heating up the room and melting the ice that was about to reach Shikieiki. She couldn't help but smirk after that.
"That podium's helping her predict every move I make on her..." Alex knew then and there that he'd have to destroy it. Thus he drew his sword on back and it erupted with flames like a volcano.
Shikieiki stiffly raised her brows and summoned three more copies to her side. They formed a triangle in front of her and held their arms out, creating a multilayered barrier out of fire as Alex swung his sword. The flames unleashed in a whirlwind-like stream and cut a swathe through the wall as they headed on a one-way collision course with the barrier.
The barrier did its part and absorbed most of the flames before they'd come even close to their target. Then, the copies thrust their palms against the barrier and unleashed a white hot triangle across the room. Alex dove to the floor before the attack fired and found himself sweating and muttering "Shit!" at a rapid pace.
Hunched towards the ground, Alex grit his teeth and saw an opening between his soulless shams. He clenched his right fist until his knuckles dug into his skin and rocketed towards the center of the podium. His copies piled onto him, wrapping their arms around his mouth to still his breathing, then using the rest of their bodies to drive him to the ground.
Three against one, especially when those three were himself, meant Alex had no chance in hell of breaking free through brute strength alone. They were draining the oxygen from his lungs bit by bit to knock him out, and he could feel his eyes forcing themselves shut.
"Get...OFF OF ME!" He managed to scream before smashing his fists into the ground and riddling the copies' bodies with metal rods shooting up from the ground.
Once they were gone he stood right back up and hastily breathed in and out. His body was mad with sweat and his face a gentle shade of purple. He scowled at Shikieiki, who showed no emotion, not even remorse, and wound up yelling at her, "So you won't deal with Yukari, but you'll kill me?! Is that how it is?!"
"You will not be imprisoned willingly. Unsavory though it may be, you leave me no other choice but to resort to these methods."
"You bitch..." Alex spat in her face.
"Of course, you could just as easily run, like you did before." Shikieiki made a joke at the expense of the boy's character, and to her surprise, he briefly chuckled at it.
"Ha...! No..." He sternly stared her down, "I am not running away anymore. Yukari WILL pay for her crimes!"
Shikieiki silently tapped the Rod of Remorse onto the podium and used her mirror to call two more copies to her aid. They drew their swords and threw them straight at Alex. He hopped back to evade them, and they just started throwing more. They weren't bound to his rules, after all.
Alex hopped around a bit until a wall of stone rose up to stop him completely. Yet instead of being dismayed, Alex grinned and formulated a plan. He hopped UP the wall until he was at the very top, all the while bringing his blade right up against his left hip.
He narrowed his eyes and waited for his copies to throw their blades and, upon that very moment, he leapt straight off the wall and swung right at them. The blades impaled through the copies and punctured the sides of the podium. Shikieiki looked shocked, even more so when the whole thing began to shake.
Alex had fired a wave of pure power, invisible to the naked eye, that cut right through the spots the mock blades had breached. The puncture spots, combined with this cut, made the whole podium uneven. The weight shifted primarily to the right, and it wouldn't be long before the whole thing'd come crumbling down.
Shikieiki grabbed her Rod of Remorse and levitated away from the muddled site. Her eyes narrowed and a series of rods began to hover in a ring formed around the waist. She put one hand behind her back, and the other held the original Rod of Remorse before her chin.
Staring at Alex as he lingered ten feet in the air before her, she brandished the Rod of Remorse like a dueling rapier and murmured, "Accepting judgment and repenting for your crimes...That is a good deed you could do on your final day."
"...Are you done lecturing?" Alex stretched his hands out, and immediately the were pinned through the palms by a pair of rods. They forced him against the Yama's mirror, which grew to accommodate his size, and were able to keep him there regardless of his struggle.
"The rods judge you for your sins. There is no limit to the weight they can dole out to the guilty." Shikieiki was still able to use her mirror to create copies, and two pulled themselves partway free from behind Alex. They raised a blade each and impaled them into his chest, avoiding the vital organs.
Alex spit up blood, while the pain was scorching throughout his nerves. He raised his head and grinned a bloody grin, "You're enjoying this, aren't you?"
Shikieiki grimaced and hide her mouth behind her rod, then squinted her eyes and sent out two more rods to pin Alex's legs to the mirror. He continued to smile, almost like the pain made him happy. Tears were rolling down his eyes, and he was content to just giggle like a hyena.
"Hehehe! No wonder no one wants to die...This...This actually hurts quite a lot!" Shikieiki kept a watchful eye on every part of Alex's body, and noticed that the rods around his palms were starting to tremble.
He shifted his head up and steeled his grin into something truly unnerving as he declared, "But I've been hurt much worse than this."
He shot the rods out of his hands like they were wooden sticks. Shikieiki flinched as they passed her by, and then with a snap judgment she commanded the copies to burrow their blades in deeper. Alex exploded with fire and snatched their wrists into his vice grip, squeezing until they popped right off their arms. The copies retreated into the mirror, and their blades vanished.
Alex then ripped himself free from the mirror and threw himself at Shikieiki with blood oozing from his limbs, creating a hazy crimson smog in his wake. He lashed his right hand down towards her face, but was stopped by the mirror. He squeezed his fingers into a fist and pressed against the mirror. There were many barriers he could smash, many limits he could break, but the defensive might of the Yama's Mirror was one of the truly invincible forces in this entire universe.
...But that didn't make it impossible to overcome. And Alex had already figured that out, judging by the grin he bore. Shikieiki widened her eyes and started pacing back as Alex stretched his other arm over the top of the mirror, which tried to grow to prevent his advance.
Yet instead of backing down, he used his arm to press down on the mirror and stop IT from advancing further. Shikieiki commanded the mirror to produce a dozen copies to swarm and enveloped Alex in the ultimately vain hopes of dragging him away.
Alas, their strength was spread too thin to matter. He could still channel all of his power into a singular, fiery burst to cast them all aside, while still having enough energy to throw a fireball into Shikieiki's face. She reeled back and started shaking her head, the burning pain in her eyes serving as a grim reminder of before.
And while her mind was frizzled, her mirror would be unable to keep Alex at the gates. He charged on over them and dove straight for Shikieiki, grabbing her by the shoulders and bringing her down towards the bottom of the broken podium. He rammed the back of her head into it and her hat flew off as she let out a throaty gasp of pain.
Though her position did indeed grant Shikieiki a lot of power, the real muscle behind this whole afterlife operation was undoubtedly Komachi. The Yamaxanadu herself? When face with Alex's monsterous strength, her body held up as well as the average human's.
That is not to say she died instantly upon hitting the ground. Or that she was even under threat of dying at all. Her head throbbed, and blood was coughed up from her mouth as Alex let go and let her body slump flat onto the ground.
Alex kneeled next to her hips and hunched overhead. He stared her deep in the eyes as she appeared squirmish and even a little frightened, and then stabbed his sword down inches away from her neck. Her skin turned pale, and she pinched her lips together and looked as vulnerable as a child.
"..." Alex's eyes sank, and his racing heartbeat began to lessen its pace. The reflection of him in her eyes looked horrific, especially with the blood plastered across his body.
"...What the hell am I doing?" He closed his eyes and pulled his blade from the ground, then stood upright and swiftly turned his back to Shikieiki.
His Phoenix wings were shed off his back in a cloud of golden ashes as he stepped away, declaring in a cold tone, "You're done here Shikieiki Yamaxanadu. From now on, I shall be the one who judges the wicked in Gensokyo."
Shikieiki bitterly grit her teeth and pulled her head off the ground, stamping her palms back for support as she suddenly raised her voice, "Judge?! You're no judge...You're no jury. You're just a dirty, sinful, executioner."
Alex leaned his head down and remarked, "Its not a pleasant role, but someone has to step up to persecute the guilty. If you won't do it, I will."
"And you honestly believe that this will make you right? Or happy?! I SAW what you truly are...'Blank'."
Alex dug his feet into the ground and began to growl. Shikieiki then continued to yell like she was driven mad with rage, "Gensokyo is beautiful! It doesn't deserve having your corruption tainting its land! You're a posion! A tainted soul that crawls amongst the living!"
"Shut up..." He growled.
"You'll never know happiness! No one who knows what you are will EVER love you! You're just a thing, A TOOL!"
"Shut her up..." A subtle voice crawled through Alex's head and joined with her voice to make something in his brain snap. He widened his eyes and spun back with his right hand thrust out while screaming at the top of his lungs, "SHUT UP!"
"Schrrriiip!"
Alex was panting, his body fevered at an all-time high. With all the sweat swelling from his pores it took him a moment for him to calm down and see clearly again. And by the time he could, his heart completely stopped a moment after.
"No..." He whispered with his face turning pale.
All he had intended to do was throw a fireball to knock her out. That's all that was needed. But his rage, however brief, robbed him of all his senses. A fireball was indeed thrown, but...It was alongside his sword.
It wound up impaling into the bottom of the podium, but after a few seconds blood was oozing down the sides of it...Coming from the bottom of Shikieiki's decapitated head.
"No no NO!" Alex bit his teeth and hissed a raspy cry of panic as his skin grew cold and pale. He ran straight for her body and ripped the sword free, causing her head to roll off towards the ground. He grabbed and fumbled around with it for a bit, trying to straighten it back on top of her neck.
He positioned it there with his hands providing stable support on its sides. Blood continued to leak out, and both her eyes and face became flushed of color. Alex just stared into her eyes, his own trembling as he hung his head and continued to suspend the head in place until it had been drained of blood.
A rancid smell now filled this once pristine hall and would never leave it...Much like how what he'd just done could never be reversed.
"..." Alex raised his head and his eyes were hollow, devoid of thought or feeling.
"...There's no going back now..." He whispered as he slowly pulled Shikieiki's head up.
A moment later, the gates of the Ministry swung wide open and Komachi came strolling in with her arms tucked behind her head, "Hey Shiki! I heard the commotion from all the way down river! These souls giving you a lot of grief or some-"
She dropped her arms slowly and her scythe plummeted to the ground with a dull ring, "Thing...?"
She rushed straight for Shikieiki's beheaded corpse, using her powers to cover that distance in a nanosecond. She raised her body off the ground and gave it a couple shakes. Ironic, isn't it? That for this Shinigami, master of death, the one thing she feared the most was the death of another.
She cradled Shikieiki's body against her chest and began to cry, which led to her raising her head back and screaming at the top of her lungs, "WHHHYYY?!"
She'd never know the answer to that question, for with the Yamaxanadu's passing, the way to the Sanzu River would be sealed off forever. Alex escaped in the nick of time with the Gaia Temporis' help, keeping Shikieiki's head held under his arm while floating silently through the night...
Meanwhile, at the Hakurei Shrine...
Reimu sits upon her porch, wearing her usual red-and-white garb. She's got her eyes constantly on the moon, which looked very bright red at this point. Its unnatural glow drew her attention like fireflies, but she struggled to keep her eyes open.
"Oi! Reimu!" Luckily for her, her dear friend Marisa was there to keep those creaky eyes open. She rode on down atop her broomstick and hopped down beside Reimu with only a minor bit of stumbling. She then grabbed onto her broomstick and cracked a grin, "Couldn't sleep a wink either eh?"
"...There's an Incident going on, I can just feel it." Reimu said in a rather droll manner.
"Heh, so that's why you're all dressed up rarin' to go! Funny you say that, I was thinkin' the exact same thing! I mean did you see the moon? Its looks like its on fire! Not to mention there's a bunch of Youkai getting all rough and rowdy in the forest."
"Haaaa, don't tell me the vampire's causing a ruckus again..." Reimu propped her sagging face with her hands.
"I already went and checked! They're just as in the dark as we are."
"...When the moon burns red with flames..." Reimu began to whisper.
"Eh? Say that again?" Marisa inquired, her curiosity piqued.
"Didn't Yukari say something like that to us before?" Reimu poked her head up to take another look at the moon.
Marisa folded her arms behind her tilted head and said, "Oh yeah...I reckon she did. That was almost two-ish years ago though, right? What about it?"
"...Do you remember the second part?" Reimu's voice turned somewhat grim, but before Marisa could responding, a voice broadcasted itself across all of Gensokyo.
"Attention Gensokyo! I have arrived to deliver an ultimatum to you all."
"What the heck?" Marisa muttered while wandering off the side of the porch. She looked up at the sky and couldn't see anyone for miles.
"Right now you are harboring a monster that has lived in the shadows of your world since before the Hakurei Barrier was erected. She has fed off your fears and sorrows to sustain her appetite, and has manipulated the laws of your world mostly to her advantage."
"But this isn't just about what she's done to your world. This monster has sowed chaos and deceit across countless other worlds, and tormented both me and the person I love most."
"Hey hang on, ain't that voice belong to...?" As Marisa was starting to get the idea of who the voice belonged to, he announced it with a thunderous proclamation.
"My name is Alex Whiter! Some of you know me as the Elemental Overlord, others simply as a guy who passed on by your humble lands but a month ago...But now I am back to finish what I started, and put an end to the monster who has tormented me for so long. You can feign ignorance of who she is, but I doubt there's not a single Youkai in Gensokyo who hasn't at least heard whispers of the named 'Yukari Yakumo'."
"...I didn't come here looking for a fight. That's for all of you to decide. But know this. You are either against Yukari, or you are against me. And if you need any proof of what I am capable of..."
Marisa suddenly jumped back as Shikieiki's rotting head crashed and rolled along the ground towards her feet. After assessing and recognizing who she used to be by her distinct green hair, Marisa glanced up at the sky.
Alex floated miles above Gensokyo, nearing the roof of the barrier with his body caressed by the cold winds of night. He silently gazed upon the entire land with his eyes sagging and his arms looking limp as a ragdoll's, and brought an end to his ultimatum...
"Then go to the Hakurei Shrine. I have left them something for you all...You all have one hour to decide whose side you are on, and then I will start visiting your groups, your religions, and your societies one by one to see where you've drawn your line in the sand..."
Then, under his own breath, he whispered a request all to himself, "And I pray that it'll only be Yukari who meets her end tonight..."
Next Time: Kill the Unkillable