13 years after the genma invasion on inabayama castle. Pharos kaede and ajisai did find quite a few records of the old genma war. The oni would have lost the war if not for the intervention of the shi clan. A race of armageddon knights that wield the very power of death. It was through learning his clan's name that the memories of pharo's past came back. Or rather his past life. Pharos shi. The youngest in a powerful noble family of the shi clan. He had an older brother named berkut. Who was arrogant and looked down on the commoners of the shi clan. He never understood what rinea aqua saw in him so much that she left the aqua clan to be with him. But when the day came for someone to wield the armageddon arm of the clan. Pharos was chosen. Much to his big brother's dismay. He's not sure what happened to either him or Rinea after that. They disappeared after the ceremony.
During his travels in the sanctuary. He found a warrior named toru kurayami. The clan of darkness. About to take his own life. He stopped him and heard his tale. That his party leader and childhood friend. Sain raito. The clan of light. Betrayed him. Alongside the rest of the party. The other two members. Nel chikyu. And sora arashi. They all kicked him out. But something about it was fishy to pharos…toru was close to both sora and nel. So it doesn't make sense that they would betray him so easily…something was clearly wrong there.
The group became three when the two single handedly saved a raito clan village from a hell-spider raid. That's when the two met marianne raito. The daughter of a powerful raito lord. She joined up with them to expand her horizons. Her and toru got pretty close with each other. Considering she also knew betrayal. Another raito family they trusted betrayed them and almost left them in ruin. If not for the help of a powerful kurayami clan. Marianne looks back at that painful memory and laughs. The raito clan and kurayami clan have been at each other's throats for years. But yet it was a kurayami family that saved them. That's also why she had no problem working with one. Romance can really blossom anywhere. Even on betrayal. Pharos was glad that toru found a lover. Someone to heal his wounded heart. But he wished that he could get a lover as well. Something that would take until dying and reincarnating to find.
Eventually this odd trio gained the honor of entering the arena. An honor only given to the best of the best of armageddon knight parties. After fighting through 8 rounds of hell and heaven beasts. Round 9 would be against another party that made it. And it seemed like fate was on pharos party side. Because not only would they receive a shit ton of money and become a legendary party. But toru would get his revenge on his old party of backstabbers. Because the party they were fighting was sain's party.
"So you found a new party toru…congratulations." sain said with a vile grin. While nel and sora looked that they wanted to apologize but for some reason they couldn't.
"Toru…you know these people?" marianne asked. Sain became consumed by lust after seeing a beautiful woman with a sexy bod like marianne. He wanted to make her his. When eye contact between them was made. Sain's eyes glew red and had a demonic look. However he soon recoiled in pain as his eyes began to bleed. Her rapier was soon at his throat. "What did you just do to me?" she ashed threateningly.
"Aahh…now i see why nel and sora betrayed toru…their being brainwashed!" pharos yelled.
"Brainwashed?...what do you mean?" toru asked.
"The demonic eye of seduction. It's a skill that brainwashes anyone of the opposite gender. However as you see it'll backfire horribly if it's used on someone who is more powerful. Honestly. I find it hard to believe that the title of hero was given to him! Last I checked. The title of hero wasn't meant for someone evil."
"What the fuck are you talking about!? You should think before you slander a hero!" sain yelled. Pharos sighed.
"You can't deny it. The fact that you know and use the demonic eye of seduction proves it. It's a very dark art that can only be used by those with a black heart. If what i'm spouting is bullshit…" pharos said. As he revealed his wings. An armageddon knights wings reveal their morality. Pharos wings were angelic wings with a blue glow. "Then show your wings." pharo said demandingly.
"W-why would i show my wings to a nobody like you!?" sain yelled.
"Nobody? Sain. this is pharos shi. Not only the son of powerful lord of the shi clan. But also the wielder of their armageddon arm. The harvester scythe." toru said. Sain's party was shocked by this news.
"What!? You're at a party with an armageddon arm wielder!?" sain yelled in shock.
"Yes he is…when i met him. He tried to take his own life…would you have cared? Or just be happy having the girls to yourself. Like the backstabbing dirty pig you are." pharos said. Sain gritted his teeth in anger.
"Fine you want to see my wings!? Here you go then you asshole!" sain yelled as he revealed his wings. The crowd gasped as they saw that the so-called hero's wings were demonic black giving off a red glow.
"Oh how shameful…the raito clan will no doubt have a lot of shame thrown at them due to having an evil hero. That'll just ruin their image." pharos said with a shit eating grin. While sain looked like he was going to have an aneurysm from anger. He charged at pharos sword drawn. He ducked and kicked him in the crotch before giving him a boot to the head.
"Hey battle music guy! Special request! Play wolf in sheep's clothing by set it off!" pharos yelled. The arena musician nodded and played the song. Sain gritted his teeth in pure rage as this song was no doubt directed to him. Sora and nel felt shame in the back of their minds. It felt like they were fighting in their minds. One part was telling them to trust sain and be mad that he's being insulted but another part felt shame and they truly felt like little backstabbing whores.
Because of this. And their lack of teamwork. And the fact that pharo's party was much stronger. The so-called hero's party was soon on the ground. Pharos grabbed sain by his hair and sliced out his eyes with the harvester scythe. Due to it being an armageddon arm. Sain wouldn't be able to regenerate. Combine that with the painful rotting that is the harvester's scythe. He rolled around screaming in agony. As well as nel and sora. The brainwashing was broken and it caused a painful effect on the mind. Once the pain faded. They became overwhelmed with guilt for what they did to toru. Especially after hearing of what their betrayal drove him to almost do. Toru went over to him with murder in his eyes. He lifted up his broadsword with the intention of decapitating the bastard.
"I won't stop you toru. But killing him…that would be merciful." pharos said. He turned around to his party leader.
"What do you mean?" toru asked.
"Look around…the folks here. Alongside those watching at home…now know that the hero of light. Is a backstabbing lying horny pig! And with that. His title will no doubt be taken alongside with the raito clan lords taking everything from him as payment for the damages that an evil hero caused to their image. The only thing waiting in his future. Is being a blind vagrant. Alone and in constant pain from the rotting that the harvester scythe inflicts…some fates are worse than death." pharos said. Toru put his sword back in it's sheath. And celebrated the victory of becoming a legendary party.
Sora and nel tried to leave. But was pulled aside by the pharos and toru. They might have beenwashed. But it still doesn't change of how guilty they feel…and how dirty. Considering sain had sex with both of them while under his control. It was obvious that they were planning on taking their own lives. Toru forced them into the party like pharos did for him when they first met.
Even though the guilt remained. Sora and nel joined with pharo's party with no regrets. The five would continue their adventure for a good long while that was until bokun appeared to kill pharos. The party was easily overwhelmed. Before bokun killed pharos he began a teleportation spell for his party.
"Toru…your the leader of the party now…goodbye my friend." pharos said with a teary goodbye. He warped them all away before the blade came down on his neck.
Pharos tachinowarui pov.
"Toru…marianne…nel…sora…i wonder how you guys are doing now…" i said remembering my old friends. I really do miss them.
"Is everything all right?" ajisai asked.
"Yeah…I just zoned out for a second." i said. After reading about the shi clan. I paid for the book and left the library that was in a derelict monastery. If any place had anything on the oni or armageddon knights. It would be place that was built during that time. I managed to dig up a lot of history on the past war. Even dug up on who marcellus was before that squid headed prick got his hands on his corpse. I only hope samanosuke doesn't end up dead. Guildenstern already made one oni warrior into a genma soldier. No doubt he can do it again on an even more powerful oni warrior like samanosuke. Speaking of that. We've had plenty of luck on finding stuff about oni genma armageddon knight and the world war. But we've had no luck finding another samurai with oni powers like samanosuke. But we do have a lead on a clan that has oni connections. The yagyu. So that was where we were going next. It was very well hidden. So finding it was difficult.
But we did find it…but it seems as though nobunaga found it first. Seeing as the village was utterly destroyed. Nothing but corpses and burnt buildings as far as we could see.
"How awful…" kaede said mourning the dead.
"Well looks like we were right…the only reason for these people to be slaughtered is if they had the power to oppose nobunaga." ajisai said. As we looked around hoping to find someone alive. I felt that comforting darkness that is associated with the oni.
"Ajisai. Kaede. Follow me." i said. They raised an eyebrow. But follow me anyway. On the path to that comforting darkness. We were attacked by samurai. They seemed normal. But the damage they could take was beyond something a normal human could take. As one head rolled to my feet. And i saw a demonic face with a long tongue. Yep…genma. More genma appeared along the forest path. These ones have their ugliness open for all to see. The first kind seem to be anthropomorphic lizards wearing samurai hats and wielding katanas. Guessing their meant to be an upgrade to those zombie warriors i faced back in inabayama castle. Along side them were big blue barbarian-like monsters wielding staffs. Despite this. We killed them easily. At the end of the day a pawn was still a pawn. And those blue barbarians were nowhere near as tough as those axe wielding genma. And we made our way through the bamboo forest. And found a cave. Going through it. We soon found a door at the end of it. It seemed to be like a entrance to a temple. Inside was room filled with water and mist. There seemed to be an above water house in here. Soon cherry blossoms flew in and formed a women with a snake tale…
"Welcome pharos." the woman said.
"Never thought i would meet an actually alive oni…if you know who i am…then you should know why i'm here." i said. The oni woman nodded.
"You wish to give kaede and ajisai the power to fight the genma as well…i would say they proved themselves worthy…" the oni woman said. I felt that repulsive light coming.
"We're going to have a wait a bit for that…a greater genma is coming." i said. An umbrella with an eyeball in it appeared and behind was an ugly fat woman who looked like she had a lot too many dangos and booze. Her mole covered skin and huge rat ears didn't help either.
"Hmm? Well isn't this is a nice surprise? Do you want to play with me?" the genma woman asked. Trying to be cute…it was not working.
"No thanks. I'm taken." i said pointing to ajisai who smiled. "And even if i wasn't. I am nowhere near desperate enough to "play" with a nasty fat rat!" I yelled
"How dare you! I'll show what nasty means!" the genma woman yelled. She screamed with rage. Despite being as fat as an alcoholic monk. She was pretty damn fast. Not only that. But she was capable of short distance warp. And could fire energy projectiles out of her umbrella. She also has a purse blade that has an orb in it. Must be important. It took a while but i finally managed to slice the umbrella in two. I cut off her hand sending her blade purse thing flying to the ground near the door. I then summoned raichoken and stabbed her in her big mouth with it. She choked on her blood until she fell to the ground dead. I dismissed raichoken. And put my scythe on my shoulders.
"Well that was annoying." i said. The oni woman came out with a box. Inside were two gauntlets. One was red and a orb similar to samanosuke's gauntlet. And the other was black with a purple orb.
"The red one will grant the power of the oni. The black will grant the power of the armageddon knight. You two choose what power you desire." the oni woman said. Their choice was already made. Kaede took the oni gauntlet. While ajisai took the armageddon knight gauntlet. Kaede gained a pair of sais with light magic. While ajisai got a western short sword with darkness magic.
"Thanks for this miss." i said. The oni woman giggles.
"Takajo. That's my name…would you mind doing me a favor?" takajo asked.
"My son jubei is on a quest to defeat nobunaga and avenge the villiage…if you would please lend him your strength." takajo said.
"Say no more. I'm in. i still hate warlords with a burning passion. Espically ones who sell their souls to the genma for power. So where would i find this jubei?" i asked. Takajo giggled.
"Here he comes now." takajo said. As a samurai wearing black armor with a katana that looked similar to samanosuke's raizan ran in. one things for sure…we finally found another warrior with the power of the oni.