Xúmat (Eschaton), Part II

No mages left. But there was still the matter of the barrier to be dealt with. A barrier which was now rife with vines, growing from the palms of Shunji Godoh, who was backed up to the wall.

“Nii-san!” called out Sachiko as she ran over to her brother. She pulled out a fuda slip from her jacket once again. “Let me help you!”

“It—It’s no use, Sachiko…” grunted Shunji. “This barrier’s…too strong… But…nothing can come in or out…what is he using it for?”

Niiro chuckled softly. “I told you, didn’t I? I will call forth the—”

CRNCH!

SPLAT!

CRACK!

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!

“…Chigadaira, will you stop desecrating the remains of my son?”

Noe let out an attentive grunt, cocked her head to Caspar’s father.

“Oh-hoh. If it isn’t the puppet-master himself.” She turned her whole body around now, leveled Byakko-maru of what she could see of Jotaro Niiro through the membrane. “I bet you regret making that onmyoji pull my spirit out of its wanderings, now, don’t you?”

“If you’re referring to you spilling the blood of my son,” countered Niiro, “then no. All mages must die. I prepared myself for this moment for a long time. My only regret…” He turned to face Noe. “…is that you did not possess the girl’s father like you were meant to.”

“Bah! What’s it matter who I possess?! You think it would’ve made it easier for—

“—What did you just say?”

“Ahh,” exclaimed Niiro, “welcome back, Noe Numasaki. Yes, I originally intended for Chigadaira’s spirit to possess your father, Patricio. I knew from the time I first met him that he was given to…conspiratorial thinking. The sort of thinking that can easily be redirected towards any sort of target. Chigadaira was meant to reprogram him, to enable him to take out one of many knots the Knights of the Monad have tangled about our society. But, well…accidents happen.”

Noe took a step in. And then another. And another.Now she was within striking range of Jotaro Niiro. Her breathing quickened, grew deeper. Her lips parted. Then—

HRAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Noe raised Byakko-maru above her head, of her own volition.

CLANG!

CLANG!

CLANG!

Over and over, Noe cascaded down swings upon the barrier. She tore apart Shunji’s vines, letting them fall to the floor in shreds. With each blow, with each time the blade glanced off that violet membrane, it sent shockwaves through the whole structure.

“Numasaki!” Shunji called out. “What are you doing?! My—”

“You can send a ghost after me,” began Noe, her voice low and interrupted by heavy, angry breaths, “You can take over my body. You can assault me personally. You can ruin my life for all I care. But if you ever mess with my family…

“YOU’RE!”

CLANG!

“GONNA!”

CLANG!!

“PAY!!!”

CLANG!!!

The whole barrier wavered with these last few blows, almost seemed like it was about to lose its shape. And though Noe had stopped her barrage for a moment, to catch her breath, the mage maintaining the barrier grew concerned.

“Master!” Shin’ichi called out. “The barrier—it can’t take much more of this!”

Niiro let out a deep sigh; as he exhaled, he looked up at the ceiling, out the skylight, or what he could see of it. Then, head still fixed up above, he crouched down and scooped something up with his hand.

“I see,” he said. “I didn’t want it to come to this, but…mages’ blood must be spilled.”

BANG!

One of the figures within the barrier slouched over. Blood spattered thick on the membrane.

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

“M—Master!” Shin’ichi cried. “What on earth do you think you’re—”

Clik.

Niiro pointed the barrel of his revolver at Shin’ichi’s head and pulled back the hammer.

“One more minute, Shin’ichi,” he strained. “Those who know the secrets of the heavens, must return those secrets to their keeper…”

Niiro smeared his free hand in the mages’ blood, cleared their bodies off of Don Francisco’s ossuary. Then, with one finger, he began to trace a circle on the smooth, spotless stone.

O spirit of secrets,

O angel of conflict and strife,

Chained beneath the earth for thine iniquities,

Arise once again and claim what is thine.

Another circle within, their centers aligned.

For at the beginning of time,

Thou didst dare to swear an oath

To leave thy position in the heavens

And spread thy seed over the earth.

Now he began to trace lines and patterns; loops, spirals, and little circlets. A push from Shunji and his vines; the barrier seemed to waver once again, but Shin’ichi resisted him.

And to thy spawn, and to the sons of man,

Thou didst teach those arts which sow the seeds of conflict:

Mining and smithing, writing and cosmetics,

Spells and potions, signs and portents.

“Noe!” Justo shouted, likely hoping she could lend her sword to help Shunji with the barrier. “You good?!”

But Noe was frozen in place, faced with a combination of weariness, a reaction from within herself against her outburst, and…the sight of a black aura forming within the barrier. It was not that it illuminated the other shapes therein, but rather blotted them out. Justo, taking heed of this, likewise froze.

And when the angels of the Lord descended upon the earth,

They did punish thee harshly;

The destruction of thy seed for one,

And confinement beneath the earth,

In the depths of the wilderness for the other.

BANG!

Niiro shot Shin’ichi in the chest. He reeled forward, grunted, let out labored breaths, but Niiro paid his agony no heed. Rather, he stuck his free hand in the mage’s wound and drew more blood.

Upon thee, proclaimed the Lord,

Should all sins be cast.

To thy name

Should all sin be ascribed.

And thy name is…

The barrier quivered, blinked in and out of existence, as Shin’ichi’s consciousness faded. Niiro took his finger one last time and wrote between the two circles.

A Z A Z E L

Aura burst forth, destroying both the barrier and Shunji’s vines, scattering the mages’ bodies about and splattering the walls of the crypt with blood. Not that any of the Knights witnessed any of this, as their visions became enveloped in black. The only sign they had left of Niiro’s presence was his voice, as he bellowed up to the heavens.

AZAZEL, ARISE!!!

* * *

Once Petro Shimura had confirmed that the Knights had gone down into the pit, he left that scene behind, keeping his deputy and two gunmen posted at the edge of the shaft. There were many more things to be dealt with here, after all: setting up barricades to keep civilians out, processing the two mages who had been apprehended by KCPD officers, and evaluating Teresa Mori, the hostage extracted from the catacombs, for any injuries. Only when he heard “shots fired” over the comms did he return to the pit, and even then his gunmen could not tell if anyone had actually been shot down there or not.

Only upon hearing the booming cry of Jotaro Niiro, echoing through the whole shaft and beyond, did Petro Shimura dare to look down for himself again. And what he saw was…nothing. It was absolute blackness, as if the shaft had, in the time he had not been watching it, suddenly opened up a portal into space. But just as he was about to turn to the gunman at his side—

WHSSHT!

—something shot up past him, producing a mighty blast of air which nearly knocked him to his feet. He looked up to the skies. Nothing. He turned to the gunman.

“What the hell was that?!” he shouted. “Felt like a hundred bats all flyin’ out the cave at once!”

“I dunno, Cap,” replied the gunman. “But it looked about as big as a—”

The area about them darkened. The two of them darkened in each other’s sight. The deputy-captain and the other gunman darkened in front of them. All four of them looked up once again.

THOOM!

Footsteps like thunder resounded throughout Mount Adachi, shaking the ground beneath their feet. And above the treeline—

SHREEEEAAAAAAAGH!

—the head of a goat, its hideous, bucked teeth exposed as it bleated aloud. It had dirt-brown skin, glowing red eyes, and rock-solid horns—actually, no, those were real stone. The whole creature, indeed, was made out of the earth; with clumps falling here and there off its body and back to the ground. Massive iron chains, each easily at least a ton, were wrapped about its arms, legs, and shoulders. It stood, in all, nearly fifty feet tall, walking upright; and at the very crown of its head was Jotaro Niiro, still shrouded in the black aura, with the only way he could be discerned being by a faint white silhouette about his body.

“Open fire,” murmured Shimura.

“Sorry, what?!” responded the gunman next to him.

“I SAID SHOOT!” Shimura hollered. “TAKE THAT DAMN THING DOWN LIKE YOUR LIVES DEPEND ON IT!”

“Y—Yes, sir.”

POP-POP-POP-POP-POP!

AR bullets, as one might expect, did not ruffle the creature one bit.

* * *

“Damn it!” exclaimed Shunji. “That aura… That was a majin he summoned!”

All of the Knights strained as they recovered from being blasted with Jotaro Niiro’s newfound curse energy. Noe had fallen flat on her back, and cradled her head as she sat up again.

“M—Majin?” she echoed, still panting heavily. “I hate to be the one to always ask, but what do you…”

“It’s most like what you would call a demon,” answered Shunji. “A malevolent spirit with godlike powers. Unlike onryo, which only manifest to those attuned to the spiritual, when a majin manifests, it manifests to all. Many of them even choose to take on physical forms…as that ‘Azazel’ has done.”

Shunji looked back up through the skylight.

“It’s making its way to the city now… We can get the police to evacuate everyone in the vicinity, and we might be able to call for backup from the Bureau, but…what damage will be done by the time they arrive…?”

“Nii-san,” called out Sachiko. Shunji perked up to his sister’s voice, and only a moment later Sachiko was on top of him, reaching for his neck. She tugged at a chain that had been covered up by his robes, and, following the links down, eventually unearthed a golden locket. She snapped this off.

“S—Sachiko, wait!” Shunji chided her. “Do you even know—?!”

“How to summon this? Yeah, they taught me years ago.” Sachiko went to work opening up the locket. “They just haven’t given me my own talisman yet, is all.”

“No, you—” countered Shunji. “This is our family’s guardian shiki! Do you understand what that entails?! Its life is bound to yours—if it’s destroyed, you’ll die!”

Sachiko shrugged. “Welp, if it’s the last thing I’m gonna do as an onmyoji, it might as well be something big. Besides, we need to counter a summon with a summon, right?”

“Last thing—?! Sachiko, what on earth are you talking about?!”

“Oh? Didn’t I tell you, Nii-san? I was thinking about quitting being an onmyoji after all this is done. And, well, it’d be nice to continue with my idol career, but I wouldn’t be totally bummed if that fell through, too.”

“What?! But why would you—”

“‘Cause,” Sachiko interrupted with a big grin and a finger on her brother’s lips, “it’s my life, and I haven’t liked all this onmyoji business for one second. So while I’ve still got to put up with it, you can at least let me do something flashy for once, can’t you?”

Shunji was taken aback for a moment, but finally, with a sigh, resigned himself to Sachiko’s cause.

“All right,” he said. “But I mean it. If it gets too risky, call off the summon immediately. …Hhhh. As much as I’d like to bring myself along, I know this will only be more dangerous with more people.”

“I’ll go,” cut in Noe’s voice.

“Wha—?!”

Noe strode over to Shunji and Sachiko, back straighter and face more poised than it ever had been these past couple weeks. And, though it was not visible to anyone else in the room, the two onmyoji could see clearly that Chigadaira’s aura, though it shone a deep, raging crimson, was moving as one with her, seeping even into her skin.

“I have a score to settle with Niiro,” she declared, eyes burning bright with resolve. “For myself, for my family, and for all of you.”

“W—Wait, Noe!” exclaimed Shunji. “This… This thing flies, you know?”

Noe’s expression remained unchanged.

“I’ll go, too,” declared Justo, putting a hand on Sachiko’s shoulder. “Gotta give my partner backup, right?”

“Ijyuin…” huffed Shunji. “You know that if you take anything from this summon, it will hurt Sachiko as well, don’t you?”

Sachiko sighed. “That’s a risk I’m willing to take, Nii-san.”

Shunji’s face contorted further. “Sa…chi…ko…”

“Well,” said Sachiko, leaving her brother aside, “I say we’ve got ourselves a plan.” Finally she got the lid to the locket open, dumping out a miniscule piece of paper with thin red lines scrawled all over it. Not even stopping to look at what this design might have signified, Sachiko picked the talisman up with her fingers, dropped it on her outstretched tongue, and swallowed.

She looked up at the skylight, at the stars, to where Niiro had escaped just moments ago. The first sign that the talisman was taking its effect manifested when everything in Sachiko’s vision was painted a light golden tint. Noe and Shunji looked on as drops of liquefied gold filled the space between her eyelids; overflowing, even, gold streaks running down her cheeks.

“Numasaki, Ijyuin,” she said, softly, “stand next to me.” Noe and Justo did as she said. The floor beneath the three of them began to swell; the stones broke and gave way to soil, growing into a mound taking them higher and higher, setting them well above all other persons in the chamber.

“KOHRYU BUNSHIN—KOTSU-OH!” Sachiko shouted. “AVATAR OF THE YELLOW DRAGON—KING OF BONES!”

The remains of men whose souls had slept for centuries suddenly stirred; rattling in their shelves, rolling and sweeping across the floor. The rest of the Knights, seeing the size to which this shiki was growing, sought escape from this chamber, but another wave of bones came sweeping in through the entryway; they were helplessly pinned against the walls.

The bones joined the ever-rising mound of earth, which slunk its way up through the shaft. Bone clung to bone and bone clung to dirt, forming a thick exoskeleton over the whole thing.

Where the two Knights and Noe stood, the bones continued to accumulate, protruding out even from the exoskeletal layer. Two conical spires took shape, one next to Noe and one next to Justo, branching off at every level and facet.

Before them a lump became a forehead, and from there grew a squared, chiseled snout which split in two, revealing rows upon rows of teeth formed out of piled shoulder blades. Pits were carved out for its eyes and nostrils. Long chains of bisected arms and legs made two whiskers, which bent and curled freely in the air.

And indeed, the whole creature moved freely in the air as one whole, the tip of its tail slowly rising off the ground as it drifted upwards, with its tailfins and its long legs to guide it.

Petro Shimura, after concluding that his unit’s firepower was insufficient to take down the massive goat-fiend marching through the foothills, had ordered the evacuation of all neighborhoods in the vicinity of Mount Adachi; thankfully most residents had at least been awoken by the violent tremors this monster’s footsteps had created.

As people streamed through the streets toward downtown Kokura, where additional emergency personnel were stationed, reinforcements appeared on the horizon, in the form of several helicopters.

“Get all hueys on that thing!” shouted Shimura into his comms. “We’ve got enough men on the ground handling evacs. Figuring out how to take that thing down’s top priority now! What’s the ETA on the Army getting here?!”

“I would advise against that, officer,” came a voice familiar to Shimura. The captain gave a side-eye.

“Well, well,” said Shimura. “If it isn’t the yogi. What wisdom do you have to confer on me this time?”

“Only that any helicopters would get in their way,” replied Shunji.

“Get in whose—BY GOD!”

A second beast rose above the treeline. Shimura at first thought it a dinosaur fossil that had somehow gotten airborne, but with antlers like a stag’s, droopy ears like an ox’s, a body like a serpent’s, front-facing eyes, and massive talons, it could only be categorized as some other creature entirely.

And, even without any wings, it flew freely through the air, curling, looping, and twisting, as if gravity and propulsion themselves were concepts unknown to this being. It moved quite slowly, compared to most things in the skies, but it had speed enough to outpace the goat-fiend on the ground.

“…Scratch that last order,” said Shimura, returning to his comms, “keep the hueys above the city ‘til further notice.”