That night, the darkness wasn't banished by the sun.
It was banished by fire.
The first to wake was the hunchbacked village elder who'd led them here.
He hadn't really been sleeping. His mind had been churning, thinking about those two outsiders lodging in the village especially the shrine maiden who called herself Kikyō. He'd heard that name before. She was the most powerful shrine maiden in the region.
Someone like that showing up… he'd both hoped for something and feared it.
And as he tossed and turned,
The night sky outside his window suddenly turned red.
Burning red. Glowing red. Red as if someone had tipped over a bowl of blood from the heavens.
"Fire?"
The old man threw on his tattered clothes and pushed open the door. In that instant, a wave of heat rolled in, thick with the stench of burning, singeing the edges of his white beard.
He raised his clouded old eyes and looked toward the heart of the village.
Toward the shrine.
That shrine the one that demanded human lives by day, the one that had sat high above them was now blazing like a massive torch.
In the firelight, there was no sacred stillness. Only the crackle and pop of burning fat, and the sounds of… a beast's death throes.
"Is that… the god?"
The village men stumbled out, still tying their pants. The women covered their children's eyes.
They saw it.
Silhouetted against the roaring flames, beyond the collapsed torii gate.
No deity in heavenly robes. No benevolent celestial being or Buddha.
Just a lump of flesh.
A massive toad, covered in oozing sores and warts, thrashing and roaring in the mud.
It rolled in the fire, crushing several side halls that had once held 'offerings.' Its revoltingly long tongues lashed about like burnt ropes, shattering the stone lanterns that villagers had once kowtowed to whenever they passed.
[Pic]
"That's… a toad?" a woman who'd recently lost her son murmured.
Her voice was soft, but it hit everyone like a thunderclap.
They had given up their last mouthful of grain every month.
They had sent living people inside.
They had knelt until their foreheads bled, begging it for good harvests.
All for this?
All to feed a filthy toad from the sewers?
"Fraud…" The elder's hands began to shake, his cane trembling with them.
He'd known it was a demon. But he'd thought it was a powerful one, an unbeatable 'god.'
But now, watching it writhe in the flames, it looked pathetic. Like a beaten dog.
It could feel pain.
It could scream.
It could bleed.
But then a thought struck the elder, and fear crept in.
Fear of what would happen now that this thing had been exposed.
What would become of the village?
"It ate my Goro!" someone in the crowd suddenly shouted.
The cry was raw, torn from the depths of a throat choked with blood and tears.
"It's a demon! It's not a god!"
"Kill it!"
The mountain of 'Fear' that had weighed on their hearts shattered in an instant at the sight of that ugly, true form.
In its place rose a nearly insane fury and humiliation at being deceived for three whole months.
Someone grabbed a hoe.
Someone picked up a stone.
Those villagers who usually wouldn't even dare raise their voices were now like dry kindling set ablaze. Their eyes were bloodshot, guttural, beast-like growls tearing from their throats as they surged toward the shrine like a tidal wave.
…
In front of the shrine.
The heat was oppressive.
Shinji stood on a rock that hadn't yet been corroded by the poison. Muramasa slanted toward the ground, a drop of murky demon blood sliding from its tip.
Across from him, the giant toad finally caught its breath after the sea of flames.
It reared up on its hind legs, its grotesque face covered in compound eyes twisted with murderous rage.
"Mortals… ants…" Its belly swelled, poison gas accumulating within. "You dare destroy this god's shrine!"
"I'll melt you into blood! Not even your bones will remain!"
Even now, at this point, the cloak of godhood still clung to it.
The momentum it had cultivated for three months.
The 'Fear.'
It was convinced the villagers still feared it. As long as that terror persisted, its demonic power would flow endlessly, and this poison-swamp was its absolute domain.
"Kikyō." Shinji ignored the toad's bluster and called out to his side.
Three paces away.
The shrine maiden stood still.
The flames licked the night sky, silhouetting her with stark clarity.
White robes, pure as snow. Red hakama swayed like a long skirt, not delicate, but brimming with tension from the drawn bow.
Her hair was tousled by the hot wind, a few strands clinging to her sweat-dampened neck. Radiant.
Her legs, beneath the red hakama, were planted like bedrock, the taut lines of fabric hinting at coiled, explosive power.
"I'm here." Her voice was steady, the arrow fixed on the string as if molded there.
"If it tries to run, shoot its legs."
"It won't escape."
Kikyō's voice was calm. Confident.
As she spoke,
The toad moved.
"Ribbit—!"
Its belly contracted violently, and it unleashed a torrent of venomous green liquid, sweeping across like a high-pressure hose. Everything it touched, even stone, began to smoke.
If that hit him, Shinji's demonic aura armor might hold, but he'd still take some damage.
But Shinji didn't dodge.
He smiled.
"Hear that?" he asked.
The toad froze.
The torrent of venom cut off mid-stream, like a hose suddenly pinched shut.
Its surging demonic power, in that instant, plummeted. Collapsed.
Why?
Its myriad compound eyes darted around wildly.
Then it heard.
"Kill!"
"Kill this beast!"
Human voices.
Not crying. Not begging.
War cries.
Illuminated by the flames, a dark mass of people surged up the steps below the shrine.
A woman who had lost both son and husband led the charge, swinging a rusted hatchet. Her face held none of its usual meekness only twisted, ferocious hatred.
"Give me back my Goro!"
A stone flew through the air.
Accurate and steady, it struck the toad square in its largest compound eye.
Splat.
Fluid sprayed.
It didn't hurt.
For a demon of this size, that wasn't even a tickle.
But the toad panicked.
It could feel it.
The 'Fear' that had sustained it, let it throw its weight around in this miserable village, it was gone.
Those people weren't afraid of it anymore.
They wanted its flesh. They wanted its blood.
"You… you pigs!" the toad shrieked, its voice trembling. "You want to die?! I am a god! I am your god!"
It tried to summon the poison swamp to engulf the villagers.
But the black mud, once so responsive, had hardened like dried cement. It wouldn't obey.
Without the 'Fear' empowering it, it was just a Fifth Change giant toad.
Nothing more.
"Looks like your divine reign is over."
Shinji pushed off the ground, launching himself into the air like a grey hawk.
[Demonic Blade Muramasa: Excited! It says this toad is ugly, but without that shell, the meat should be tender!]
"Then let's cut some off and find out!"
Midair.
A flash of steel.
The toad tried to dodge, its thick hind leg tensing to spring.
Twang.
The white light arrived first.
Kikyō's arrow was faster than Shinji's blade. More precise.
It didn't hit a vital spot. It struck the tendon behind the knee of its right leg.
The purifying power exploded.
The toad screamed, its entire right leg gone. Its massive body lurched, tilting to one side.
Kikyō had held back.
But it was enough. It exposed its throat.
The neck was thick as a water vat, covered in folds and pustules, enough to turn anyone's stomach.
But in Shinji's eyes,
It was the perfect opening.
"Cleave."
Downward and upward slash!
No fancy technique name. Just all his strength, all his demonic aura, all his ghostly energy poured into this single stroke.
Lift and chop!
Down and up.
Thud—
First, the sound of a blade slicing through rotten leather. Then the sharp crack of snapping bone.
Muramasa, this demonic blade, showed its quality in that moment. Even as a mass-produced blade, it surpassed ordinary weapons.
And with Shinji's constant 'nurturing,' even cutting through this thick hide felt like slicing tofu.
Black blood sprayed three yards high.
Like a black rain falling on the sea of flames.
That massive, multi-eyed toad head, wearing an expression of utter disbelief, tumbled into the fire.
The headless corpse twitched twice, then collapsed.
The impact shook the dried poison swamp.
Silence.
Dead silence.
Only the crackling of flames.
The charging villagers stopped. Hoes froze mid-swing.
They stared at the man standing atop the corpse.
Shinji flicked the blood from his blade.
Flames danced behind him, casting his shadow long, stretching past the torii gate.
He wore no demon mask.
His pale face was speckled with black blood. His crimson eyes burned unnaturally bright in the night.
That was a demon.
A demon far more savage than the toad.
But at this moment, in these villagers' eyes,
That grey figure was more of a god than the one they'd worshipped for three months.
The one who slays demons,
He is the true 'god.'
[Shikon Jewel · Pure Spirit: Affection +3]
[Current Affection: 44 (Trust)]
[It says: Well done.]