A Wounded Land

Columns and waves of lava sprayed into the air as the entire demon army disappeared into the fiery torrent. It was a violent excess of power that dwarfed the army. Land far beyond that of the army disappeared. Everything ripped and tore away as the ground continued its maddening throws.

All of the soldiers on the wall dropped to the stone floor. The very blocks of stone that made up the wall rattled under the intense force. Heavy belches of lava from the earth made everything leap and quake. Many of the soldiers fled at the sight having just seen what hell looks like in their mind.

Even Yumi looked on with shock at what happened. “This is…” She turned her eyes over to Yuki seeing how he reacted to the results of their plan. Shocking her was one thing, but he planned it. So she knew that he had to have seen this coming. It was part of what he had in mind. However, she took a step back seeing a grim look carved into his face. ‘Yuki didn’t plan for this?’

“What the hell is this Yuki?” shouted Seiji, the first to the important question thrown. He turned and grabbed Yuki by the collar of his kimono demanding an explanation for the excessive destruction. “This isn’t what we had in mind at all! You completely destroyed the mountain!”

Yuki shook his head. “The plans I set didn’t have this level of destruction either! It wouldn’t be possible!”

“Well this shit is happening! You miscalculated and now everything is going up!”

“It shouldn’t be…” Then Yuki went silent as though a thought came to him. His pensive expression didn’t do any favors for giving Seiji an answer. It only made him more frustrated.

“What the hell did you do?!”

Yumi quickly covered the distance grabbing Seiji’s arm to stop him. “Calm down, Seiji. This isn’t his fault. It was just a mistake, we have to accept that.”

“This is more than just a shitty mistake!” He threw his hand out to the fiery horizon that vented lava without end, only becoming more dangerous by the second. “Half of Japan is going to be destroyed!”

“You’re blowing this out of proportion, Seiji,” corrected Saki, “Though this is definitely an unsettling turn of events. It seems like every one of the demons was killed by it too.”

“The power of you humans can surprise me even now,” Manekamaru remarked, still watching the sight completely entranced by the flames. He seemed to have an almost disconnected reaction to seeing his own kin dying.

Then Yuki snapped out of his internal turmoil. “That’s it!”

“You figure something out Yuki?” Saki asked, everyone gathering around him.

“It bugged me that the Hunters did nothing the entire time during the setup. We watched them closely the whole time, but they tricked us. They were following the instructions, but altered the strength of the talismans.”

“What the hell are you saying?” asked Seiji, still having trouble with what he was hearing from Yuki.

“Are you saying that they planned for this to happen?!”

Suddenly a new burst of lava erupted from the ground near the Capital. Cracks formed from the damage warping the earth. Chunks of the ground lifted up and raised the wall in a section. Within moments, the wall that had stood for a millennia crumbled with effortless ease. A hole was breached with the Capital threatened.

“Yes, I’m saying that’s exactly what they want,” Yuki declared to them all.

Chapter 440 – A Wounded Land

Seiji stared in horror at nature’s wrath being unleashed for daring to harness it for selfish reasons. The houses of the Capital crumbled quickly to the quakes ripping through the earth. It seemed that the violent awakening by Yuki’s trap had still not finished. The intensity of the power triggered deep within the veins of the earth only seemed to get stronger with each moment.

All of the citizens had been evacuated, but Seiji knew if it had not been for them many would have died. “They would go so far…” Anger boiled up inside him seeing what they were truly willing to do.

“This is the reality with them, Seiji.”

“Bastards!”

A new roar bellowed from the earth as the chunks of the earth thrown into the sky from the explosion of the mountain finally started to fall. Smashing the ground like meteors from space, massive craters blasted through the earth destroying everything not already touched by the upheaval.

It looked like bombs going off all over the horizon from the rending destruction of the mountain. Thick clouds of smoke kicked up into the air blanketing Japan for kilometers beyond even the sight of Yumi and her enhanced friends. Untold death and destruction laid out before them from the manipulating of the Hunters. Villages and towns all around were likely being assaulted or completely obliterated by the falling debris.

Even the Capital fell under the assault as explosions ripped through the business district and then the noble district. A massive chunk of road smashed into the area of the Council building wiping the entire place out and sending out shockwaves that tore up the wood construct of the buildings.

“The Council!” shouted Seiji.

“They remained behind with the soldiers and Hunters as a show of faith!” Yumi gasped to know they were instantly wiped out.

Yuki stared up at the falling debris threatening them. Much of the Capital was being destroyed without even the demons attacking. There would be nearly nothing left to protect thanks to the Hunters meddling. “We’ve got bigger issues right now!”

Yumi lifted her hand up and clenched it in a fist as the earth suddenly shrank to a small orb and fell short of the wall. “It’ll handle the defense,” she answered, floating up into the air. Multiple more incoming chunks disappeared as quickly. Out from her back white energy swords flew through the air towards further out earth chunks slicing through them.

As she made simple work of the indiscriminate attacks, Seiji stared up in useless frustration. “Dammit!” He pounded his fists together generating vibrating shockwaves that shook the already weakened wall that they stood on.

“Seiji! Leave it to Yumi and control yourself.”

“Yeah I know, Saki. I just have more anger than I know what to do with.” He clenched up his hands as veins along his arms surfaced along his skin. “I never thought I would have this feeling again. It’s…” Seiji struggled with the rage inside him. The roaring beast that wanted to be unleashed again. He already battled and won against it, yet it returned. Another round to fight it started up as he dealt with the emotions that filled him.

‘The reality of the Hunters is hitting him harder than I imagined. I knew he was always honor bound and fair play, but he might be the most innocent one among us…’ Saki didn’t imagine that she would be thinking such things in the company that they had. Yet it was something that tore at Seiji deeper than the others. ‘Everyone’s already had to face the darkness of the world, thought he had as well…’

While Seiji battled his personal demons, Yumi finished clearing the sky of any current threats against the Capital. She turned around to look down at the city below her. Smoke rose up from numerous craters around the city from impacts that she couldn’t prevent. “The only positive is that the city is evacuated. Rebuilding is going to be another thing entirely…”

More rumblings from the former mountain stole her attention. It seemed unwilling to stop. “I don’t know what they did to alter the talismans, but I have to stop it now!” Yumi flew over to the mountain with the massive pools of lava pouring through cracks and gaping holes. Barely any of the mountain remained. All life disappeared from the slopes that remained still intact blasted away by the force of the initial explosion.

Just seeing the vast devastation looked like a nuclear blast went off. The level of destruction was beyond anything that she wanted. It was far beyond her means, but it was out of control. “I need to stop this…” She stared around trying to figure out how she would calm the raging nature.

Suddenly, a new intense column of lava blasted out of the earth from a place far away from the mountain. It was a weakened part of the ground, but hadn’t looked at risk. The triggered blast set off a chain of destruction that ripped straight through the Capital. Yumi turned back, seeing the whole thing becoming engulfed in flames. “NO!”

Her vision then snapped back and everything was normal. Yumi shook her head at the vivid vision and then her eyes widened in realization. She pushed her speed darting like a streak through the air with her barrier up crushing the earth before her as she dug down into the ground.

“Yumi?!” shouted Saki as lava shot up from the hole that she created.

Yuki jumped forward leaning against the wall trying to see what happened. “What’s going on Saki?”

“She just dove into the ground!”

“Where the lava is?”

“Yes!”

“Yumi!” Lava shot high into the sky breaking through the clouds as the earth cratered and sank. A pool formed where the earth dropped. From the sky molten material rained down over the whole field. It looked like for a moment it would threaten the Capital, but it calmed down. The intensity of the pillar of lava eased back, but still sprayed out magma.

Despite lacking the sight of the others, he tried to look around for signs of Yumi, ignoring his binoculars. Thick black smoke and lava spewing into the air made it difficult to see much of anything. Though with his eyes, that far away wouldn’t have made much of a difference for him. “Yumi! Yumi!” He gave up trying to find her with his eyes, though calling to her made only a little bit of feel better.

“What the hell was she thinking?”

“I don’t know. We just have to hope her powers are enough to protect her from the lava…”

Yuki snapped his eyes back to Saki and Seiji. They knew nothing more than him. “Even with the barrier, the heat’ll get through. She won’t last!”

“I know that, Yuki, but there’s nothing we can do!”

He moved back to the wall grabbing the stone as he started to lift himself up. “Maybe not you, but the same isn't for me.” A ripple ran out from his feet as the Field he prepared activated.

Reacting immediately, Saki appeared next to him grabbing his wrist before he went off recklessly. “You don’t even know where to look for her! She could be anywhere down there! You just have to trust that Yumi knew what she was doing!”

Yuki pulled on his arm, still not ready to settle on waiting for Yumi like Saki. He understood what Saki was saying, but he wanted to look for her anyway. “I won’t be going in blind with my powers. I can find her!”

“You don’t have to find her,” reported Seiji pointing to the return of Yumi.

She hovered in the air covered in sweat and looked a little rough for wear from the exercise. Yumi dropped her barrier and wiped her face clean. “Much cooler…” The hole she punched in the ground started to calm down. It looked to be a while before it had finished relieving the pressure fully, but it no longer presented the same sort of danger.

Yumi looked back to the Capital to see it still standing. “I made it!” However, a gust from behind her suddenly kicked up alerting her to something changing. She tilted her head back towards the destroyed land worried that it still didn’t have enough destruction. The heavy smoke that filled the area around their trap blasted away from a strong force as the pit came into clear sight. “Impossible…” She barely managed a word in her shock to see that several demons rose up from the hole alive after all of the lethal treatment from nature.

The Capital battle hadn’t ended, only just started.