Chapter 382: Ashiya Douman Cut Down
"Is that so? I suppose I should say, 'As expected of Shinmen Musashi.' Before this Castle of Onie Jodo is truly activated, I cannot allow you to pass through here." The moment Ashiya Douman's words fell, row after row of red lights emerged from the darkness behind him; it was the eyes of swarms of demonic beasts.
Musashi held the Myoujin Giri in one hand and her own original sidearm in the other, continuously cutting down the monsters. However, she was currently the only combat asset available. Facing dozens of demonic beasts, even if she slaughtered every single one of them, that sinister Ashiya Douman hiding to the side would simply unleash another summoning array to call forth a fresh wave of monsters.
With only Musashi alone, she was truly stranded without support.
Right then, another monster lunged forward recklessly, foul-smelling breath spewing from its maw.
Driven to exasperation, Musashi clove it in two, shouting loudly, "Shirou, haven't you rushed over yet? I'm about to drop from the pressure here!"
"Shirou-senpai! Help! Save us!" Gudako also shouted loudly as she watched the demonic beasts continuously converging upon them.
Unfortunately, at this moment, Shirou's side was also locked in a bitter struggle.
Although the red oni had already been defeated and lay collapsed upon the ground, the pressure from other vectors remained unabated.
The eight-headed serpent monster bared its fangs and brandished its claws as it lunged at him. Shirou swung his blade to deliver a slash, but he had only just severed the sixth serpent head. The large and small eyes blinking with red light all around glared roundly, all of them looking ready to spring forward to devour Shirou, this delectable morsel.
On the other side, Musashi shielded Gudako, her blade hacking toward the surrounding monsters!
"Dammit!"
"Musashi, capture Caster first!" Gudako prompted.
Right at this moment, more than ten additional demonic beasts were summoned forth by Onmyoudo.
"Haha-hehehehe, you cannot even manage to approach me, yet you still delusionally think you can defeat me?" Ashiya Douman spread his hands with their long, sharp nails, laughing shrilly as he spoke.
Ashiya Douman spoke with a laugh: "Hideous! Hideous! Truly hideous! Even if you possess a demonic blade capable of slashing Heroic Spirits, how utterly powerless you are before this Castle of Onie Jodo, which has received the protection of Lord Satan!"
A swarm of demonic beasts was just about to encircle Musashi and Gudako, putting them in imminent peril.
In that very split second—
One black and one red silhouette instantly dove down from a high vantage point, cutting several demonic beasts down to the ground.
It was precisely Katou Danzou and Fuuma Kotarou. The two who had been traveling together had, by this time, established a new bond of affection.
"Are you intending to betray me? Katou Danzou?" Ashiya Douman said as he looked at the black-haired ninja girl.
"You wish to destroy the world and wantonly slaughter innocent people. Even if that is for the sake of revenge, I believe it is wrong. Even in a chaotic era like the Warring States, the ultimate goal of every war was to achieve a better life. Turning this world into a hell—you must be stopped!" Katou Danzou shouted.
"Hmph, I have already been waiting for a long time. Go, my puppet. Although you are already broken, now, for my sake, exert your full strength. Disregard the cost, even if you must self-detonate, go and kill everyone here." Ashiya Douman activated a crimson spell formula, shouting with a ferocious smile.
Katou Danzou had been reactivated by him. He had deliberately destroyed Katou Danzou's memory apparatus and then implanted the Heroic Spirit spell formula that slaughtered all things. A puppet was a puppet after all; how could she possibly break free from his control?
Katou Danzou, who was just about to launch an attack, seemed to experience a system pause, completely losing all motive force. Her vision went dark, and her head drooped down exactly like a machine cut off from power.
Ashiya Douman turned, looking toward Musashi as his hands traced out a pentagram.
"And you! You haven't rested for a single moment since the very beginning; your mental state has already deteriorated to a certain degree, hasn't it, Musashi! Come! Accept it! The blood-colored pentagram bestowed by my master Satan that devours all things!!! Haha!!!"
A blood-colored pentagram descended upon Musashi. She merely felt her entire body go numb, actually losing control over her own body for a time.
"Ugh, waaah!!! My body won't move..." Startled, Musashi cried out, a look of agony surfacing on her face.
"Haha, Shinmen Musashi, you have already been placed under my curse of total slaughter; your soul has already been seen through by me. Your inner heart is struggling, but all of this is meaningless and unavoidable. Allow me to help replace and reconstruct you! Farewell, Shinmen Musashi! The new Swordmaster Heroic Spirit will use your body to slaughter every single person by your side!" Ashiya Douman shouted with a loud laugh.
"Don't look down on Chaldea!" Right at this moment, Gudako charged forward! Utilizing the Mystic Code granted by the Atlas Academy, she shouted, "Rain of Isis!!!"
This was a skill manufactured by the Atlas Academy, the strongest group of alchemists in human history, capable of cleansing any abnormal status.
The blood-red light on Musashi's body was instantly washed clean and pure. Feeling her body grow light, she surged forward in an instant, delivering a slash right across Ashiya Douman's chest.
"How is this possible! You... you actually dispelled my sorcery? A human! Fooling the protection granted to me by Satan! And this blade..." Ashiya Douman retained that look of utter disbelief, stumbling backward repeatedly.
"Although my swordsmanship is not yet mature, it has indeed entered the realm of emptiness. Because it is void and thoughtless, naturally there is nothing it cannot cut," Musashi said softly to the Onmyouji.
Ashiya Douman revealed a ferocious visage, beginning to recite something: "Dammit, utterly detestable! It's not over yet! In the name of Satan and Lucifer of hell, come forth! Come forth! Ugh, aaah..."
Multiple heads, multiple arms—a giant skeleton of dark vengeful spirits formed from the accumulation of countless grudges manifested as a phantom behind him.
Just as Ashiya Douman was chanting his spell, Katou Danzou and Fuuma Kotarou, who had remained silent all this while, swung their weapons simultaneously from the left and right, carving Ashiya Douman into four pieces.
"Fool. Although I am not well-versed in human spell formulas, what difficulty is there in destroying a redundant technique? Humans are, as expected, as conceited and ignorant as always." Observing from a distance, the Yamata no Orochi let out a cold snort and spoke. She was exceptionally broad-minded toward her own retainers. Therefore, under the circumstances where Kotarou held special feelings toward Katou Danzou, she had stepped in to help Kotarou restore the mechanisms inside Danzou's body to their pristine condition.
The ninjas had bided their time, delivering a fatal counter-strike to Ashiya Douman.
"Honestly, I didn't expect such an accident to occur. Even for a puppet, there are indeed times when malfunctions happen, eh? To play with a serpent only to be bitten by the serpent—this is roughly what that means, I suppose. It really is quite vexing." Ashiya Douman spoke with a helpless smile. Although he claimed to be very vexed, he still maintained that eerie smile.
Amidst that strangeness, Ashiya Douman vanished from this place.
"Great job! Kotarou? And this person is?" Gudako looked at the two ninjas in confusion. One of them was precisely the Assassin Fuuma Kotarou whom she knew; he gave her a feeling of possessing a slight connection. Although it was already minuscule, he was undoubtedly a Servant of Chaldea.
"Let's go, Lord Kotarou." The black-haired woman formed a ninja hand-seal, using a teleportation art to vanish from the spot.
"Once everything in this world has concluded, I shall tender my apologies to you, Master." The red-haired youth bowed slightly toward Gudako, then followed the black-haired woman away from this location.
"Wait..." Gudako failed to call Kotarou back. The speed of the two ninjas was simply too fast, their tracks completely lost within seconds.
"Hey, are you alright!" At this time, Shirou also rushed over.
Beep, beep, beep~!
Beside Gudako, the sound of receiving a signal suddenly rang out. A translucent blue light-screen manifested, and a short-haired young girl wearing glasses appeared there.
"Oh, Mashu~!" Gudako waved her hand toward the side of the screen in pleasant surprise.
"Senior! Finally! We finally connected!" Mashu cried out in excitement. She hurriedly turned her head to shout toward the other side, "Da Vinci-chan! Communication with Senior Gudako has been restored! Shirou-senpai is together with her too!"
On the other side, a mature black-haired woman walked over, speaking with a light chuckle: "Alright, alright, this is also thanks to my genius and hard work, eh? It didn't waste my working through the night for several days in a row. Thank you for your hard work, Gudako. And Shirou? What on earth is going on with you being there?"
"It's a long story, let's recount it later."
Right then over at Chaldea, a black-haired man holding a pipe walked over.
"Yo, long time no see." Shirou quickly recognized this man. After all, compared to his unkempt, willful, and drug-using slovenly image in novels, the man himself looked more like a clean gentleman. However, this was also due to his being summoned as a Heroic Spirit in his golden age. He was indeed a mortal enemy to a certain amnesiac old guy in Shinjuku.
"Mr. Holmes!" Seeing another acquaintance, Gudako shouted happily. Since being transmitted into this world and losing connection with Chaldea, she felt as though a very long time had passed.
"Hello there, Shirou-kun. Gudako, I am also very glad to see you in such high spirits, but now is not an appropriate time to catch up on old times. Allow me to state my deduction first. The
communication failure was likely due to some issue with your body; Gudako, your current state is similar to Rayshifting yet belongs to a different state. Because of the abnormal transmission, your consciousness obtained an active physical body in that world. But that is ultimately not your true physical flesh, because your main body is still slumbering back at Chaldea."
"If your luck is bad and there is a mismatch between your consciousness and physical vessel, it is highly probable that you cannot even use your Magic Circuits. Our loss of contact this time was very likely due to this relationship; although the communication device you use utilizes modern craftsmanship, it is also a type of Mystic Code."
Sinking into contemplation, Gudako said, "If you put it that way... I indeed can't even use summoning properly. So that means... my Magic Circuits were adjusted and adapted by someone else..."
At this moment, the image of that young girl of the oni clan who had turned into a Heroic Spirit surfaced in Gudako's mind—specifically the words she had spoken about how she had "put up a struggle."
Shuten-douji... could it be that she possesses memories of Chaldea? Gudako speculated.
"That can only be asked of her after you return. However, the situation right now is extremely severe, as you already understand, Gudako. Although your flesh is still back at Chaldea, if you die here, you will die just the same. Therefore, you must absolutely be careful and return to Chaldea completely whole!" Da Vinci said.
"Yes! I understand!" Gudako agreed with a bright smile.
"Alright, Mashu, what have you been muttering about over on the side all this time? If you have something to say, come over and say it," Da Vinci asked.
Mashu walked over to retort a few words, then looked intently at Gudako and said, "I wasn't muttering. It's just that if the call ends without me saying anything, I... I would feel very lonely..."
"Rest assured, Mashu. Once I resolve the anomaly in this world, I'll return to Chaldea right away," Gudako comforted her junior with a smile.
Nodding heavily, Mashu looked at Gudako with great earnestness and said, "Yes! I shall wait for you! Please absolutely return to Chaldea safe and sound!"
Concluding the call with Chaldea, Gudako looked toward Shirou, who had just caught up, and asked, "Shirou-senpai, with you coming along over here, is there no one left to counter the demonic beasts outside?"
"No, I've left them to a reliable helper now," Shirou said.
Outside, more than ten serpent monsters unleashed hissing cries, using their long bodies to tightly constrict the rampaging oni and devouring those demonic beasts. Meanwhile, the fox dancing girl to the side was leading the humans to evacuate toward the outside.
The black-haired female ninja opened her golden vertical pupils, looking at the surrounding scenes with considerable interest.
"Serpents? They've become on our side now?" Musashi asked with a face full of alarm and suspicion.
"Shirou-senpai, what exactly is going on here?" Gudako looked toward Shirou in confusion.
"No, it's a long story." Shirou spread his hands helplessly. "In any case, let me assist you in overcoming this difficult hurdle first!"
Upon the attic floor inside the Castle of Onie Jodo, the Sorcerer observed everything occurring on the ground.
"Shinmen Musashi has already arrived here; go and kill her. You exist precisely for this purpose. Even if that woman holds a famous blade like the Demonic Sword Muramasa, she is ultimately still human and has not reached the pinnacle of swordsmanship." The Sorcerer Amakusa Shirou paused for a moment, looking toward the blue-haired man holding a long, precious blade as he continued:
"However, you... are different. Even for someone like me who is formed from an accumulation of hatred and resentment, seeing the posture of your sword-swings makes me unable to help but feel a shred of respect. There is no demonic sword in existence that surpasses your swordsmanship. Even Miyamoto Musashi is nothing to fear."
The blue-haired swordsman on the opposite side complied placidly: "Perhaps. If things could go that smoothly, it would be for the best. As the saying goes, even a single night's lodging and a single meal of kindness should be repaid with a gushing spring; I shall do my utmost. However, that sword demon with the astonishing sword-qi is still downstairs. If even he is defeated, I will find a way to detain Miyamoto Musashi."
"That's grand!" The Sorcerer Amakusa Tokisada revealed a ferocious smile and said: "Haha-hahaha!!! My revenge is right on the verge of success! Look! The demon castle that shouldn't possibly appear in this world has descended; this Castle of Onie Jodo will be drawn toward Chaldea, and the other worlds will perish because of it. Since my homeland was slaughtered down to the last person, it shall absolutely not be permitted! Absolutely not forgiven! No one across all worlds shall ever taste happiness again! All worlds shall be dragged down to be buried along with us! Hmph, haha-hahahaha!!! Perish!"
Read ahead (60 chapters) by supporting me on buymeacoffee com/varietl or ko-fi edwriting