Gore warning: If you can't handle Gore, please do not read this. 18+
Heracles swung his club at Tetsuya, who barely managed to roll out of the way before blood continued to drip down his face.
"Such disregard for human life... tell me... Heracles... what's so amusing about this? Tell me... tell me why did you kill my wife and kids that day?!" Heracles stayed silent before swinging his club at Tetsuya again.
Before Tetsuya could even breathe, the loss of blood suddenly made his arm twitch. The club came swinging at him before it hit him right in the ribs, crushing it while sending him rolling into a wall. Tetsuya coughed up blood before blood kept rolling down his head.
"Ah... so this is it... sorry... Ai... I failed you again..." Tetsuya closed his eyes before sinking into the ground with Heracles' club ready to swing down on him.
Flashback, Sengoku Era, 1467, Japan.
"This world... is very beautiful in every single way... I believe that being born into this world is a blessing in itself. My mother was a very religious woman; she prayed to the sun god... to shine warmly on my seemingly deaf ears. She even made me earrings as charms. My brother was a very nice person. He was always worried about me. Even after the day our father beat him and told him to forget about me, he made me a flute and gave it to me. "Play the flute when you need help. Nii-San will definitely come to save you right away." Tetsuya's brother smiled at him, even with his bruised face.
"Then he smiled with his bruised face and said, "That's why you don't need to worry about a thing." I was an unwanted child. So after my mother died from an illness, I immediately left the house. I wanted to run as much as I could and see how far the beautiful sky reached." Tetsuya smiled.
"It was... freedom, even though I ran for an entire day and night... my feet never wanted to stop." Tetsuya just smiled and opened his arms with a smile, while a look of enlightenment was plastered onto his face.
"By the time I had realised it... I had arrived at an abandoned house... someone was sitting there all alone. It was a girl around my age. The girl was sitting at her mother's rotting corpse and just didn't move. Eventually, I asked her what she was doing." The girl slowly turned to Tetsuya, with her dark star pupils staring at the floor, while her blue-purplish hair fell to the floor as they reached her legs.
"My entire family, besides me, died from a widespread disease... the last words that my mother said to me were "she didn't need me" and "she hates me"." The girl started to curse under her breath, and Tetsuya just stared at her as she cried and cursed at Tetsuya's feet.
"You don't want to leave here? There's really nothing for you to do here, you know." Tetsuya blankly said before the girl slammed her hands into the wooden floor.
"YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!! DON'T TRY AND TALK TO ME LIKE-" The girl yelled at Tetsuya, whose eyes just stared at her blankly.
"If you don't have anywhere else to go and I can't understand you... Then... come with me. I'll go home with you." Tetsuya held out his hand to the girl, whose eyes turned from a dark star pattern to a bright and pink one.
"Her eyes were like stars, so pretty and starry that I could practically get lost in them. The girl's name was Ai Hoshino. And that's how Ai and I started to live together. Ai was quite a bubbly girl sometimes. She's just your average type of girl, but... There was something unique about her, the charisma that drew me to her that day. Thanks to Ai, I learned that people see things differently from me. She said she never heard of anyone who could see through a living creature's body. That moment was the first time I learned about the vague reason behind my alienation." Ai held out her hand while smiling at Tetsuya. Slowly but gently, Tetsuya held onto her hand before gripping it tightly.
"Ai... despite saying herself that she could never feel love... would always hold my hand as if it were a kite whose string was cut loose. She always made sure to grip it tightly. Ten years later, we became husband and wife. When Ai was in her last month of pregnancy, a demon... appeared in our doorway." The moment Tetsuya saw the one-horned demon appear in his doorway, he grabbed a katana from his wall before slashing the demon apart.
"When morning came, a swordsman who had been chasing the demon appeared at our doorstep, saw the completely cut-up demon, and asked me to become a demon hunter. I became a demon hunter right afterwards. The master at that time promised me that I could bring Ai and my twin babies, as he knew that they were more important to me than my own life. Apparently, these people had been chasing demons since antiquity. The swordsmen called Pillars were already excellent, and once they used breaths on top of their sword forms, their powers rapidly increased. The demon hunters began defeating demons with amazing force... even my brother joined the demon hunters and helped us after his subordinates were killed. Then not long after... after 4 years had passed... I came after the progenitor of demons." The man with cat-like eyes slowly grinned at Tetsuya as the woman who accompanied him just stared at the floor.
"And the moment I met that bastard... I immediately understood the reason why I couldn't have a peaceful life... and that I was born into this world... to obliterate that man completely." Tetsuya unsheathed his blade before glaring at the man.
"He was overflowing with violent intent. He strongly resembled magma from a volcano. "I am no longer interested in a swordsman who can use breathing." Upon saying that, he lashed out." The man sent out whips towards Tetsuya, which he dodged with ease before blocking them with his blade.
"He possessed a fearsome speed and a long reach... I sensed that even a single scratch could kill me... he had seven hearts and five brains. And in that moment... I completed my sword forms." Tetsuya slashed the man apart as the man tried to support his falling head, which wasn't regenerating. Tetsuya just stood in front of the man with a glare.
"What is the value of life to you?" Tetsuya stared at the man coldly before the man's teeth started to grind.
"The man didn't answer me. He merely looked at me, but... perhaps due to his anger, his face turned dark red. I thought my words had not reached him. When I took a step towards him... the man's body burst open with incredible force. Of the 1800 scattered pieces of flesh... I cut a little more than 1500 of them. However, the remaining pieces were too small. I suspected that enough escaped to recombine into a lump the size of a human's head. The girl let out a cry of weeping... and I heard her collapse." Tetsuya knelt down beside the girl before multiple people rushed towards Tetsuya and gripped his collar.
"Shortly afterwards, I heard from comrades who rushed towards me... telling me that my older brother had become a demon. I... had failed to defeat the demon king... and my brother had become a demon, so they banished me from demon slaying... of course, Ai and my two children were also banished from the Demon Slaying community." Tetsuya slowly trudged himself out of the demon slaying corps before Ai held onto his sleeve.
"It's not your fault, Tetsu-" Ai started before Tetsuya stared at the ground while gripping his blade.
"I think... I was born with special powers... for the purpose of defeating Kibutsuji Muzan... but I was lacking; in the end, I failed. Because of that, many people will die from now on... and that pains me..." Tetsuya slowly dragged his foot along before a light started to shine down from the sky where he was. A masculine figure, with a tattoo across his right side while holding a club, appeared.
"You... Tetsuya Akio... you have committed the greatest sin of humanity, allowing your bloodline to be tainted by that of a demon's. The gods have sentenced you... to execution. My name is Heracles, and I am your executioner." The man named Heracles stabbed his club into the floor with a voice full of Authority. Ai quickly stood in front of Heracles before shielding Tetsuya from him.
"It wasn't his fault that his older brother-" Ai started before Heracles cut her off.
"There's no need to worry, because all of you here... are sentenced to death for your blood is tainted, we cannot allow your family to live," Heracles stated. Tetsuya's eyes widened while Ai could only lower her arms in despair before multiple henchmen from the skies appeared and pinned down Ai and the two children Tetsuya had.
"My dream... was to live a quiet life with my family. A small home was fine. I wanted to sleep with our futons side-by-side... a distance where I could see my loved ones. A distance close enough to immediately reach for their hands if I reached out... that would've been enough for me... but even that... cannot come true. Because.. gods are... unfair..." Tetsuya widened his eyes before taking out his sword and slashing at Heracles, just for the blade to shatter against Heracles' skin.
"Mortal weapons... have no effect against a god's skin," Heracles stated as Tetsuya heard his two children crying in the background while Heracles raised his club.
"Tetsuya... don't be afraid... I wasn't a good wife... but I'm so glad that I've met you. What else...? Oh... I have to say this... Ruby... Aqua... Tetsuya... I love you. Oh... I've finally said it... I'm sorry that it took me so long. Oh, thank goodness. Those words were a hundred percent... not a lie..." Heracles raised his club and smashed it down on Ai's neck, killing her instantly as the head rolled towards Tetsuya. Tetsuya stared at the head as the head showed Ai's final smile before her eyes and pupils turned empty, her eyes, that was usually full of stars, slowly faded away in Tetsuya's hands.
"Ai...? Ai...? Ai...?" Tetsuya repeated those words before two voices rang up behind him.
"PAPA, SAVE US!!!" Tetsuya swiftly turned his head around to see Heracles raising his club at Aqua and Ruby before he reached out a hand. But the moment he tried, Heracles smashed the two with his club, blood splattered onto Tetsuya's face before he gently touched it, his hand now stained with blood. Heracles slowly stomped towards Tetsuya before raising his club again.
"God... is so unfair..." Tetsuya thought before everything went black, and the final thing he could see was Heracles' club swinging down on him.
Back at the arena.
Heracles' club was ready to swing on Tetsuya before his eyes shot wide open as he tried to block it with his sword. Heracles' club clashed with Tetsuya's sword; eventually, the force of Heracles' strength was so much that Tetsuya's sword shattered into a thousand pieces. Tetsuya quickly rolled out of the way as Heracles smashed his club into the ground.
"Life... is precious to us... What's so amusing about this? The world itself is beautiful... but unfair gods like you all... ruin it... I'll make you realise... how precious... life is. I'll make you... remember fear." Tetsuya gently adjusted the gloves that he was wearing before Heracles grinned.
"Sorry, but even if I do die... I won't fear. The only thing I fear... is injustice!!!" Heracles rushed towards Tetsuya again before Tetsuya quickly jumped into the air and chopped down a piece of wood before he took out a piece that was as sharp as a blade.
"With Tetsuya's blade gone, Heracles is now at a massive advantage!!! All Tetsuya could do was retreat!" The announcer yelled into the microphone before Tetsuya was backed up against a wall.
"I'm sorry, brother..." Tetsuay solemnly said into the piece of wood in his hands before Heracles walked towards him.
"Your apology... will be appreciated by your brother." Heracles swung down at Tetsuya before Tetsuya's eyes glowed and swung out his piece of wood. "It's useless, a mortal's weapon cannot harm a god!!" Heracles yelled out, but Tetsuya ignored him.
"Don't lose, TETSUYA!!!" Both Ai and Tetsuya's brother's voices rang out from the spectators' stands, as Moons appeared out of Tetsuya's blade.
"Moon Breathing, First Form: Dark Moon Evening Palace." Tetsuya performed a singular horizontal slash following a crescent shape, creating numerous chaotic crescent blades along its path, which slashed off Heracles' arm.
"Indeed... you've told me many times... so... how does that feel? Garbage god?" Tetsuya sheathed the piece of wood in his scabbard, making everyone in the stands widen their eyes.
"Now... time for the finale." Blood dripped down Tetsuya's head as he had a demonic smile plastered on his face.