"Hey! Why are you two just standing there?"
"And who the hell is that guy?"
Inuyasha skidded to a halt beside Sesshomaru and Akame, his eyes darting between the two stoic figures and the pale, motionless man standing near the massive, pulsating black cocoon. The chamber was thick with a miasma so dense it felt like walking through waist-deep sludge.
"Are you blind, Inuyasha?"
Sesshomaru didn't even turn his head, his voice a cold blade in the silence. He acknowledged the arrival of Kagome and Moroha with a subtle shift in his aura, but his eyes never left the "egg."
"You—!!"
"That Servant... he's already empty. The life is gone from him," Akame interrupted, her voice soft but certain. She was looking at the man in the modern suit—Muzan's abandoned shell.
"Wait, really? He's dead?"
Moroha tilted her head, her hands resting behind her neck. "Then what's with all the creepy heartbeat sounds?"
"Is that Naraku's Servant?" Kagome asked, her brow furrowed as she scanned the room. "But the malevolence in here... it's not fading. It's intensifying."
*THUMP-THUMP.*
A rhythmic, subterranean vibration shook the floor, loud enough to be felt in their teeth. Inuyasha looked up at the massive, fleshy cocoon that filled the back of the hall. It was an obscenity of organic matter, a violation of the natural order.
"Tch. I don't care what it is. If it's in our way, I'll just break it!"
"Wind Scar!!" [Kaze no Kizu]
Inuyasha drew the `[Tessaiga]` and swung it with all his might. The golden energy wave roared through the chamber, slamming into the cocoon with the force of a landslide.
*BOOM!!*
The debris settled, and the group stared in silence. Muzan's old shell had been vaporized by the blast, but the cocoon itself didn't have so much as a scratch. The energy of the Wind Scar had simply... vanished upon impact.
"Unscathed?" Kagome whispered, her hand tightening on her bow.
*...*
Akame looked at the hilt of her blade, but made no move to draw it. She had already tested the surface of the "egg" before Inuyasha arrived; its durability was far beyond anything `[Murasame]` could breach.
"What about a sacred arrow?"
Kagome stepped forward, pulling a string tight. The arrow glowed with a brilliant, purifying light as she released it.
*SHIIIING!*
*CLANG!*
The arrow struck the center of the cocoon, a pulse of spiritual energy momentarily washing over the darkness. But the arrow didn't pierce the flesh; it bounced off as if it had struck a wall of solid diamond.
"It... it did something, but not enough," Moroha observed, her expression shifting from curiosity to a sharp, predatory focus.
"Hmph. Did you really think creatures like you could break it?"
A cold, mocking voice echoed through the chamber as a man covered in Dragon-Man scales and messy black veins stepped out from the shadows behind the cocoon.
"This is a masterpiece forged from the blood and bone of ten thousand youkai."
"The King of Demons... the God of the new era! He is about to be born!"
Toshu the Smith stood before them, his eyes wide with a fanatic's zeal. He gripped his scaled blade, `[Dakki]`, with a proprietary pride. To him, this cocoon was the ultimate expression of his craft.
"I don't know who you are, but you're clearly out of your mind," Inuyasha snarled, his eyes fixed on the man's weapon.
"Dragon scales..."
That weapon was designed to siphon the very life-force of his kind. It was a specialist's tool, one that made standard youkai combat a nightmare.
*K-CHAK!*
Before Inuyasha could move, a streak of silver flashed. Akame was already in the smith's face.
"Hmph. You aren't a youkai, little girl. My scales won't help me drain you."
"But unfortunately for you... as long as I wear this `[Oni-Ryu-KAI]`—a hide stronger than even the `[Meio-ju]`—your toothpick of a sword is useless!"
Toshu didn't even try to parry. He let `[Murasame]` strike him squarely in the neck, the blade sparking against the reinforced scales.
*CLANG!*
"The blade won't go in?" Moroha asked, her eyes widening.
"Exactly! Unlike those pathetic twins, my armor covers every inch of my body!"
Toshu prepared to counter-swing, but a sudden, violent lash of yellow light caught him by the wrist.
*SNAP!*
Sesshomaru's energy whip constricted around the smith's arm like a python. With a contemptuous flick of his hand, the Lord of the Western Lands slammed Toshu directly into the face of the pulsating cocoon.
"Ugh!"
"Lord Muzan...!"
The group watched in gruesome silence as the cocoon's flesh rippled and opened, swallowing Toshu whole. There was no scream, only the sound of wet, tearing meat as the smith was absorbed into the mass.
"Ugh... how disgusting," Kagome said, taking a step back.
"Tch. He even eats his own people," Inuyasha spat, his grip on his sword tightening.
"It seems we're looking at something far worse than a standard youkai," Moroha remarked, her voice dropping an octave as she watched the cocoon begin to split.
"But if we can't break it from the outside..."
Kagome looked at Sesshomaru and Akame, realizing the two most powerful combatants here had been effectively neutralized by the "egg's" resilience.
"Let me try the [Adamant Barrage]!"
Inuyasha shifted the `[Tessaiga]` into its crystalline form, launching a volley of jagged diamonds at the target.
*CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!!*
The projectiles struck the surface and shattered into dust, leaving the dark flesh unmarked.
"It's too hard... I can't pierce it!"
"What is this thing made of? It's tougher than Naraku's best barriers!"
Inuyasha was starting to panic. If they couldn't even reach the enemy, they were sitting ducks.
"Move over. Let me take a crack at it."
Moroha stepped to the front, a wild, confident grin on her face.
"Moroha, stay back! You don't know—"
"Don't stop me now. I'm actually a lot stronger than I look!"
The girl ignored her father's protest. She reached into her robe and pulled out a small, ornate container. With a practiced motion, she applied a smear of crimson rouge to her lips.
'That aura...'
Sesshomaru's brow furrowed. He'd ignored the girl until now, but the sudden eruption of energy coming from her was... familiar. It was the raw, untamed power of his own bloodline, refined through a human soul.
`[Beni-yasha]`! (Crimson Rogue!)
A massive pillar of spiritual and demonic energy exploded from the girl, the force of it tearing through the roof of the chamber.
"Hebe! Let's give this guy a proper welcome!"
***
"Wait... who are you?"
Rikuo stood in the center of a wide, silent hall, staring at the translucent figure of a priestess who was watching him with a mixture of caution and recognition.
'Rikuo... if you ever meet Kikyo... wait, let me rephrase that. If you meet a priestess who smells like the grave... don't pick a fight with her.'
'Is she a Master?'
'Yeah. And more importantly, she's... complicated. Inuyasha and Kagome wouldn't want to see you two at each other's throats.'
He remembered the conversation he'd had with Inuyasha after they'd rescued Kagura. The half-demon had been uncharacteristically serious.
"Wait! I'm Kagome's Servant!"
Rikuo held up his hands as he saw the priestess begin to draw her bow. He had no intention of being the victim of a holy arrow by mistake.
"Kagome's...?"
Kikyo's eyes narrowed as she studied him. The boy was undoubtedly a youkai, but his aura lacked the oily, self-serving taint of Naraku's brood. She slowly lowered her bow, her suspicion fading into a weary curiosity.
*BOOM!!*
A massive explosion from the inner sanctum shook the mountain, drawing both of their gazes.
*COUGH-COUGH!*
Several figures tumbled out of the smoke-filled corridor, skidding across the floor as a wave of superheated dust followed them.
"Kikyo! Rikuo!"
Inuyasha, carrying both Kagome and Moroha, skidded to a halt beside them. Sesshomaru and Akame landed a heartbeat later, their expressions grim.
"It looks like the 'child' succeeded where we failed," Kikyo said, her eyes fixed on the clearing smoke. She could sense the shift in the balance of power.
"Hehe! I told you! I'm the best!" Moroha bragged, though she was still wiping dust from her eyes.
She had unleashed the full might of her heritage, and the resulting strike had been enough to shatter the cocoon's impregnable shell. Unlike Inuyasha, who relied on the `[Tessaiga]` for his power, Moroha had used the pure, unfiltered `[Osore]` and `[Reiryoku]` of the Great Dog Demon's blood.
But the laughter died in her throat as a voice, cold and dripping with absolute malice, drifted from the ruins of the "egg."
"Archer... Assassin... and a Rider."
"Three of you."
"How... how dare you impede my ascension!"
A figure emerged from the settling dust. He appeared as a youth, perhaps no older than seventeen, with skin the color of ash and eyes that burned with a cold, predatory light. His presence was so overwhelming it felt like the very air was being squeezed from the room.
"You will all pay for this with your souls!!"
Muzan Kibutsuji, the King of Demons, had finally taken his seat on the throne.
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]