Capítulo 83: Chapter 83
"For the last time, I'm going to ask you. Is there anyone of you who want to go back home? If you do, I will bear you no blame or ill will." the cloaked man addressed others as they gathered some distance away from their ultimate destination. "The lot of you have followed me faithfully, all the way to this point, and I have owed you all a debt I can never repay."
The cloaked men were all looking like better days had passed them by: tattered cloaks, dented armor, dark stains on their outfit that was either their blood or the enemy's…
…but even then, they all stood steadfast, strength in their stance and savagery in their eyes.
"Thank you," one of them said. "But our home is with you, now. There is nowhere else for us to go."
"You've asked that question one too many times already, boss," another one said with mock annoyance, and a small gust of laughter filled the edge of the forest. "We've stuck with you then, and we're sticking with you now, even until the end."
"You couldn't make us leave if you tried, boss. We're with you until the last."
"If we're doing this, we're doing this now."
Their voices were full of resolve and determination, and the thought of even leaving at the last moment was inconceivable.
"All right," the vice-master of Evergreen replied, a brief smile gracing his lips as he laughed with what remained of his troops. "All right. I wouldn't have made it here without you guys."
The sensation of smiling was bitter to him.
"Enough talk, boss. If it weren't for you, we'd be walking on eggshells around other awakeners for the rest of our lives. You're the one who led us here."
"Stop talking as if this is our end. We'll slaughter all of them, make a bonfire of their corpses, and once we do, we're going home."
Unlike before, when Evergreen was a mere small division content with watching the rest of the divisions go about their business, their stances and bodies were filled with resolve and hidden strength now.
What had been going on over the past few days that had changed them to this degree?
What has been going on over the past days has changed people to this much?
"That's the plan," Song declared. "Everyone ready?"
Fifteen awakeners raised their weapons in silent assent.
"Great. We have business to take care of, so let's finish it quickly."
He unsheathed his own weapon, turned on his heel and started walking towards their destination, fifteen awakeners in step behind him.
"Let's go," Song gritted out, swinging his eyes to where they were walking: the headquarters of the Musashi division.
***
Song didn't believe in surprise attacks.
That was why he and his remaining group of awakeners took slow, confident strides towards the headquarters of Musashi in the morning, when the sun was just about to head into the middle of the sky.
"What the – it's Song!"
"He's here, he's really! That crazy bastard is really here!"
Some awakeners who heard rumors about Song's planned attack on Musashi stayed in inns and towns close to their headquarters, and sure enough, their waiting paid off, as they saw a man in a battered coat walking in the morning sun towards that place, flanked by awakeners whose armor were likewise worn out by constant battle.
"Look at him – he's no awakener. He's gone completely off the reservation. That's the look of a mass murderer right there."
"I heard he left a trail of hundreds of corpses on the way here."
"Remind me again why Musashi decided to leave Song alone?"
"They were trying to show mercy. But Song apparently didn't give a crap."
Thanks to Musashi's information network, Song's reputation among other awakeners was destroyed: they left Song alone and used their network to spread horrible rumors about Song and erased the trace of their collaboration with Froad and their attack on Evergreen Castle.
Only Song and his men were the only ones on Nohas who knew what had happened that weren't affiliated with Musashi.
It was due to this that Song carved a trail of death to Musashi, even though he knew that he had a shot in the dark to win and reclaim his and his division's reputation.
They had crossed the town and were now in front of Musashi's headquarters.
"I'm Song, the vice master of Evergreen. I am here to make you pay for the Evergreen blood that you have spilled. Stop hiding and come out!" Song shouted.
The structure that housed the Musashi division was designed to resemble a castle from the Edo period.
A magnificent fortress, it made the awakeners arrayed in front of it look like ants due to its sheer size.
"No response, huh?" one of Song's lieutenants asked. "Let's just break the door down, go in, and start making ourselves at home."
The men behind Song shared a brief gust of laughter before Song turned to him.
"I like your style," Song said. "So, should we go ahead and make ourselves known more forcefully?"
The situation had gotten so bad that the remnants of a small division named Evergreen had stepped up to the gates of Musashi – and were now talking about breaking it down.
The sight would have been called comical if it wasn't for the murderous intent that wafted from Song and his peers in waves that would have made a lesser awakener sick.
The awakeners behind Song simply raised their weapons.
Song smirked before he gave his answer.
"All right, let's crash their little party."
***
In a flash, a large boom reverberated around Musashi's fortress as the sign with its name collapsed in front of the gate, cut to many pieces thanks to Song's blade.
"No turning back at this point."
"This is going to be bloody – I think we should leave now."
The onlookers saw the gesture, and finally realized that this wasn't a stunt meant to draw attention. Song was out for blood, and he would have it by any means he could.
That was why he cut down a symbol of their division.
Sure enough, someone appeared on the stone wall.
"We've tried to show you mercy, but you lot keep rushing in all the time," the samurai declared.
Thankfully, Song and his awakeners were able to understand the language being spoken, and realized who it was.
"Hey, isn't that Takahashi, one of the disciples of Musashi's 'Three Swords'?"
The spectators, likewise, instantly recognized who the samurai was: Takahashi Tsutomu, the awakener representing Musashi's next generation.
Ten years older than Song, he had gained considerable popularity by several displays of power during past skirmishes and raids.
"Look at him standing there like he's the shit," Song said, grinning savagely while not giving a crap about the man's bearing. "Guys?"
"Yes."
"Bring him down a peg or three. I don't like the way he looks down on us from over there," he ordered his awakeners casually.
At first glance, ordering an awakener from Evergreen to take down Musashi's next-generation awakener was impossible or unreasonable, but as soon as Song snapped his finger, the men immediately responded to the order.
One moment, Song had fifteen awakeners flanking him.
In a snap, there were only eleven.
Four of them were immediately leaping towards Takahashi, clearing the stone wall like it was only five inches high.
They swung their swords wordlessly, and Takahashi had to do something unexpected: he backed off.
"CRAP!" Takahashi cried out.
"Don't let your guard down. I don't want to cut down a guy like that."
"Think about how we got here."
The awakeners who jumped onto the wall were casually chatting as they were giving the samurai cautious stares.
He swallowed a lump in his throat that hadn't been there before.
They jumped onto the wall and looked at Takahashi and talked.
'Such bloodlust… how did Evergreen get to this point?'
The spectators gathered in the outskirts of Musashi's fortress also thought the same thing.
"Are these guys really from Evergreen?"
"What's with that swordsmanship?"
All of them were awestruck at the display, as they were still thinking that Evergreen was a division similar to Froad.
Just then, an older awakener shared his thoughts.
"I heard that if they weren't eating or sleeping, they were fighting… it seems that living like that can temper an awakener, much like how fire can temper a sword…"
As it turned out, his comparison was correct.
***
Musashi is not a division with a large membership: about two thousand awakeners make up their ranks.
Compared to the Middle Kingdom, it is quite small.
However, two thousand is still a significant number, as they still outnumber a significant amount of other divisions.
Someone led fifteen men currently rushing to the heart of said division.
And they stormed the fortress of Musashi with indomitable spirit, smashing the gates down, walking in, and cutting down any awakener who was foolish enough to stand in their way.
The nonstop battles they were in up to this point taught them how to distill their style into something austere but just as effective and lethal.
No excess movements, no wasted energy. Just find a weak point, strike it, do a killing strike, and then move on.
If Song's lieutenants fought with a minimalistic genius, Song himself was wielding his blade with a simplicity bordering on minimalistic art: each time his implacable sword moved, one life was extinguished.
"Show yourself! If you have honor, step forward and face me, leader to leader! I will turn your fortress into a mountain of corpses if you continue to waste my time with these weaklings!"
"Stop him!"
"Surround him!"
Unlike before, the samurai that poured out of every entrance in Musashi's fortress were now sporting armor: Song and his men were continuing to kill everyone that met them with frightening efficiency, but the sheer numbers Musashi brought to bear slowly halted their advance.
Sixteen men against hundreds was a sight rarely seen in Nohas.
"Didn't I say I would make you pay for every drop of Evergreen blood you spilled?" Song roared as his sword continued to be a red bolt of lightning, striking awakeners dead left and right, even as he was surrounded by thousands of hostile enemies.
That was when something stopped his sword for the first time.
"You've gone far enough," the heavily armored man blocking his attack declared. "I, the Shogun of this division, shall stop you."
Shogun: one of Musashi's Seven Swords had finally made his appearance.
Song's Japanese was limited to a few insults at most, but he could understand the gist of what the large man was saying.
The bandage rolled around the handle of his daito's hilt was a symbol of his power.
'About time you got here.'
Compared to Takahashi, the Shogun was on a different level of power.
"Great. Now I don't have to kill all of your weak men to get you to show up," Song said, as if he was glad to finally see Shogun – or any one of Musashi's Seven Swords.
So far, he had run through countless of Musashi's awakeners, but none of them were his match.
"We never expected you to advance this far. My apologies for looking down upon you -- however! Now that I'm here, your story is over."
"What are you jabbering about? Shut up and fight," Song said as he backed up, dodged the retaliatory strike, and rushed towards the Shogun once more.
Thus, did the battle begin: the new generation of Nohas pitted against the awakener that had long been dominating the place.
The awakeners with Song moved, striking forward and marking a rough circle within the fortress' main square so that the duel between Song and the Shogun would be uninterrupted.
"Nobody interferes," they said – they know better than anyone about Song's grudge against Musashi.
"Do we look like a bunch of jokes to you?"
"Kill them all!"
"Come on!"
The awakeners of Musashi reacted with fury, and rushed towards the fifteen awakeners holding the circle around their leader and the Shogun.
The fierce battle, both in and outside the circle, started.
The Shogun's swordplay resembled Kinjo Toshihiro's: two swords wielded without aura in the style of the Niten Ichiryu.
Song's opponent took it up a notch, however, using his own footwork to craft the timing needed to attack.
'He's compounded the dual wield with his own footwork. If Musashi wasn't my enemy, I might have admired this skill; however,' Song thought, 'you're not the only one with a fancy sword trick anymore.'
"Got you!"
Thanks to the constant battle against Musashi, Song had picked up a new skill of his own.
The Apex Sacred Blade Art was borne out of Song's need for simple cuts and thrusts to be imbued with overwhelming force.
Channeling energy through the sword, it is possible to slay enemies with both speed and power.
'Looks like the skill I learned is a good counter to the Niten Ichiryu,' Song thought, as the Niten Ichiryu used a barrage of attacks to break an opponent's guard: meet the barrage head-on with the power of the Apex Sacred Blade Art, and the barrage will fail. 'I still need to finish quickly. There is no time. My men are already beginning to feel the strain.'
He sensed his men beginning to falter from the mob of swordsmen attacking them.
'This isn't a mission I'm going to come back from alive, anyway.'
Song had already planned the attack on Musashi as a suicide mission.
He never cared about returning: all he wanted was payback, and if his life would be snuffed out while he paid Musashi for each of his killed awakeners with ten or twenty of their own, then it would have been a fair exchange.
'Taking out the Seven Swords would be enough of an honor to ensure my all my fallen men pass through to the next world with their heads held high.'
Stronger awakeners would have been good, but it would be difficult, with the power Song had now.
Yet, even then, he still went to Musashi knowing this, because to him, Musashi had gone beyond the pale.
This wasn't about justice any more – it was about vengeance.
The Shogun found his strong attack rebuffed by Song's sheer anger, and he found himself on the defensive.
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