Void/Eternity

Shiroyama

I slid Kure-sama into the middle of the man's face. He had a look of shock before the life faded from him. He fell onto his knees and the little god in red screamed.

“Eien!” Her voice was ragged and she tried to run forward but the onmyōji held her back. I felt the bond snap and separate between the two and the little god slumped into the onmyōji’s arms.

I made to withdraw Kure-sama but stopped. The man's face began to crumble in on itself, like it was being sucked into his head. My eyes widened as I began to feel the pull on Kure-sama.

Shiroyama! Back away!

I jumped back immediately and held him at the ready. The man, no, this thing, stood up and ‘looked’ at me. Where his face had been was now a gaping hole that vanished into the void. An eternity of a black and blue expanse that looked like the night sky on a clear night. With nebulas shining in the background and stars burning bright.

I now understood the tether that had bound this thing to the little red god. She had been binding it, holding back the divinity to make it look like a normal man. No doubt there had been some backlash from being bound to an earth god like that.

We’re not prepared for this and even if you were, I don’t think we could kill him.

“What?”

He’s literally standing on the brink of ascending into the heavens. The only thing holding him here is sheer force of will.

“That’s impossible, if he was that far along, there’s no way that he could remain upon the earth.

That god of his did something to help restrain him to the world. We need to retreat.

The man settled into a fighting stance, his broken katana leading.

“No, we will defeat him now. This abomination cannot be allowed to exist.” I readied myself. “Lend me your full strength Kure-sama.” This thing hadn’t been a man for a long time now and needed to be destroyed before it could ascend to the heavens. Humans with their petty thoughts did not belong up there.

Fine, no holding back. End it in one strike if you can.

I sheathed Kure-sama and held still with my hand hovering over his handle. We moved at the same time in an explosion of air. I forced aside his weapons in a powerful strike. They were only normal weapons.

Kure-sama bit into his chest but I felt the pulling sensation again. Pulling upon Kure-sama’s power I reversed my momentum and tore myself away from the budding god. The god threw its broken katana at me and I sliced it in two and he leapt forward faster than I could react. It swung its jitte and I took the blow in the stomach. I leapt back as fast as I could to minimize the blow but it still winded me. Was likely to have a bruise later if not internal bleeding.

I pulled upon Kure-sama’s power to hasten my healing and to reorientate myself. That jitte wasn’t a normal weapon, it had to be a tsukumogami like Kure-sama. But it wasn’t enhancing him in any way. It probably wasn’t awake yet.

The god stepped forward and the space around us rippled. He stepped forward again and the ship disappeared. We stood on a vast empty flat expanse with stars twinkling below the now invisible floor we stood on. He stepped forward again and the blue sky above us changed. It was now like the night sky but a giant blue sun hung over us, with a multitude of other stars behind it.

He’s bringing the heavens to us?

“Do you know what he is?” I dashed forward and swung Kure-sama faster than the eye could track all over the gods body. He didn’t bother to block or dodge until one of my strikes went close to his waist. He reversed the jitte and caught Kure-sama between the tine and the rod. He twisted, locking me into place unless I wanted to let go of Kure-sama.

I pulled one hand back from Kure-sama’s handle and threw a punch towards the spot on his waist that he had guarded. The god responded instantly. He kicked me back and our weapons disengaged and at the same time he pulled out his gun and aimed it at me.

He pulled the trigger in an explosion of sound and I brought Kure-sama up to slice through the bullet. I sliced through one and five more hit me in my chest and left arm. Somehow, he had shot all six bullets at nearly the same time.

It’s time to escape to fight another day. I can only keep you going for so long.

Kure-sama was right, I was beaten. I could only keep going for so long with wounds like this, even with his help. I was only human. I began to look for a way out of this plane of existence. There wasn’t an obvious way out but there seemed to be a weak point on the gods abdomen.

“Kure-sama, with all our strength,” I murmured as I sheathed him. I gathered my spirit to strengthen myself for a last ditch effort. For every moment of my increased strength, I would be spending years of my life. I tightened my legs and prepared to leap forward as Kure-sama poured his power into his blade. This would be a strike that would cut through anything.

The god opened the gun, and spent casings fell across the invisible floor. The blue sun above us began to shrink and condense. The burning ball separated into streams and flowed into the chambers of his gun. In a few moments it was gone and he flicked the gun closed.

I flashed forward as he shot his weapon. I slid Kure-sama out of his sheath and cut through all six bullets at supernatural speed. The fibers of my muscles and tendons strained with the pressure of moving so fast even with Kure-sama’s support.

The god tossed aside his now melted gun as I pointed Kure-sama towards his abdomen. He brought the jitte to bear and managed to deflect Kure-sama to the side, but it wasn’t enough. With the speed I had been going I had managed to plunge him into the gods abdomen. I felt something crack and the world shattered. We stood on the deck of the ship again, now flying over water.

The god reached out with his free hand and I threw myself away from it. There wasn’t much chance of surviving a fall at this height but it would be better than staying on this ship. I hurled myself off the ship and sheathed Kure-sama as I plummeted into the ocean below.