Chapter 45

After - somehow - defeating the S-Rank Yokai, the ice cube annoying me due to it enclosing my hand, as well as the one making my blade unavailable, slowly melts. I feel the cold water slowly dripping down my hand and look at it. I use my mantle to brush away the remaining water and thus dry my hand.

I also pick up my sword and look at it. Feeling it back in my hand makes me feel a lot safer even though I did manage pretty well just a few moments ago without it.

I slowly approach the door and try to open it: And indeed, it finally opened.

I find myself standing in yet another hallway with multiple doors. To be quite honest, I can’t even take a good guess at which door I want to open as none looks more right than another.

I quietly walk across the hallway, my hand enclosed around my blade. I stand in front of a random door, lay my ear against it and silently try to listen. On the other side, I cannot hear anything. The question is, however, if I were even able to hear something if there actually would be something on the other side. And, of course, whether or not it would be a good omen to hear something.

The question of whether or not I would be able to hear something gets solved for me pretty quickly. I can hear a loud thud coming from behind one of the other doors. I instinctively run there and open it… well, at least I try. It doesn’t open yet again. Either there is a yokai hiding in this very hallway again or it is the opposite: Maybe there is a yokai on the inside, fighting one of my peers. I just fought a S-Rank Yokai, one of the most dangerous yokai there are. I do not know whether or not my peers would be able to defeat one as well. Thus, I hammer against the door and try to barge my way in.

While I try to do that, Itoh and Nagano are inside of the room. Their mutual enemy is a giant bird with a very long beak, flapping its wings while being colored in multiple very strong colors. It has the tail of a snake. Their enemy is an Itsumade, yet another S-Rank Yokai.

The loud thud that I had just heard was actually Itoh crashing onto the ground. The Itsumade had picked him up by his hand with his beak and tried to devour him whole. Nagano shot a slash of pure energy directly at the Itsumade. This slash, shimmering in the dark colors it has, was not aimed at the Itsumade. After all, during the battle, he had realized that such a thing does barely damage it. The Itsumade was way more durable than one would expect, especially since it is a bird. Thus, Nagano aimed at Itoh’s very arm and tore it apart from the rest of his body via slashing right through it.

The slash keeps on flying through the air, then swiftly turns. Like a boomerang it tries to return to Nagano and directly hits the Itsumade. While his slashes try to return to him, they get way stronger than before. Thus, the Itsumade actually does take damage.

Itoh jumps back up. His arm is now missing and he is crying of pain, but he cannot give in. He was given yet another chance to live and he will most certainly not let it be in vain. Itoh stretches out his remaining arm and a yellow blade starts appearing behind him. He creates some kind of weapon, directly attached to the backside of his arm. He breathes heavily due to his loss of blood that also just doesn’t stop. They know that they’ll have to finish the battle quickly before Itoh loses too much blood.

As Itoh runs at the Itsumade once more, Nagano aims at it as well. Nagano fires yet another beam-slash at the beast whereas Itoh hits the ground beneath him with the blade. Thus he leaps into the air as the blade catapultes him up into the air. He flies directly at the Yokai.

The attack of Nagano hits part of the Itsumade and rips that very part out of the Itsumade’s very skin. The attack slowly wants to return after it, though it will not hit the Itsumade on its way back… at least, that’s what one would think.

With his blade, the air-bound Itoh attacks the energy-slash itself and hits it directly into the Itsumade’s mouth, thus making it spew blood. Itoh lands gracefully and looks at the Itsumade while it coughs blood. “Come on, let’s do that again!” Itoh is ready to do this yet again and actually kill the yokai.

The yokai loudly screams and flaps its wings. It begins quickly flying across the room, even though it is way too big for the room. Despite that, it does. And - through this - some parts of the wall actually get damaged. One of those parts is right above the door.

I see the little crack that can be seen above the door and try to pierce it with my sword over and over again. And, eventually… It opens. There is a hole inside of the wall. I jump up and look at the inside of the room.

I can see Nagano, lying on the ground. His stomach is ripped open and blood is lying around him everywhere. Itoh is - at this very moment - swallowed whole by the Itsumade. I try to say something, but before I can react Itoh vanishes from my sight.