Chapter 68

As my blade meets Phanes, it directly cuts through each and every defense he could potentially put up. He spews a bit of blood as two of his hearts get destroyed. He has a bunch of others though.

I crash onto the ground beneath him and die yet again.

My soul is sinking into the ground once more. However, before fully vanishing beneath the earth, Iwata and Okubo push it back up.

My soul resides inside of my body once more. I quickly jump up and back away from Phanes quickly. Exhausted, I stare at him.

Phanes is perplexed. Confused.

“What… is this?” He slowly raises his hand and picks up the blood he spew. He looks at it.

“Is… this mine?”

“Yes, it is!” I stare at him. The bones in my body have been broken over and over again. I breathe very heavily, but I breathe.

“I… can’t bleed. I am supposed to be God! The Primordial Creator!”

“Well, you aren’t anymore!”

Before I can begin to talk to him, he raises a finger. Shuten Doji flies up into space, turns around and falls down onto me with a speed that can never be matched. It pierces me and I die once more.

This time, Miss Cho, Miss Headmaster, Mister Kazuki and Mister Hideo push my soul back into my body.

“And even if you were: What would that change?! You aren’t the only being! This world doesn’t belong to you! Or to anyone! Each and every person should be able to live freely and enjoy life to the fullest.”

“Hah! Is that truly what you think? Well, of course it is: After all, you are merely a child. You have no idea what the real world is like. Men and Women, Yokai and Humans, Friends and Enemies, Life and Death, Past and Present and Future… There are too many components! This world is far too wide, far too complex! There will never be peace, there will only be war… That is, as far as this world is free.

I will set this free. I will decide each and everything happening in it. Only once each and every life is perfectly pre-destinied will it be really enjoyable and grand for each and every human. After all, free will is the very reason for sin and evil in this world. If there is no such thing as free will as each and everything will rest beneath my thumb, each and everything will be free of sin. And is such a world not what everyone desires?!”

“Shut up!”

The guy doesn’t let me talk yet again. This time two giant dragons appear behind him. They fly across the city and spew fire. This fire fixates onto one spot, forms itself into two giant swords and those two giant swords fly at me at the very same time. This time, I kill time itself… but the swords do not step. Phanes and his attacks are - just like me - able to move even when time itself is dead. Thus, I die once more.

This time Uyeno appears behind me and saves me.

As I regain my life I shout at him.

“You are nothing but a freak! You merely want to control each and everything! No idea why… Whether it's for noble reasons or just because you’re immature or vulnerable… I don’t give a single damn! I want to enjoy life! I want to live! And I can only truly live when I survive! I can only truly enjoy my life if those I love are alive!”

I fight. I fight for myself. I fight for a better future. I fight for my survival. I fight for those I love. So that they can live on. I fight so that those who perished can rest easily. I fight for all of those reasons.

I stand in front of him. He slaps me. Before his slap hits me though, my sword does meet his chest and thus makes him spew a bit of blood again.

His slap destroys my entire head and I crash into a building. This building tumbles down and I die once more.

Suddenly, the stones and parts of the building get lifted up by Kida, Muraoka and Ari. The three of them push my soul back and thus I lift the tomb I was given. I stare at him. My sword lies right next to him. I run at him, my bleeding body being almost completely red by now. Just when I reach him, Shuten-Doji pierces my body thousands of times. I crash down onto the ground once more.

As I lay by his feet and my soul once more wants to give up and drift away, Miss Hanebana slowly pushes me back. Just how many times will I die? Just how often will those dead have to help me out?

I grab my sword. Just as Shuten-Doji flies at me again, I raise the trusted blade against it.

The two weapons directly collide. And in the very next second they destroy each other.

Both Shuten-Doji and the blade I had taken from my family, filled with blood, have disappeared. Been annihilated. Been destroyed. Gone.

They are gone.

They have met their end.

They have truly died.