บท 50: And so it begins...
The festival of the Great Harae, the Great ritual of Hokkaido raged on with unbridled vigor and excitement. The common people and sorcerers alike danced along the streets, eating all sorts of sweets and traditional cuisine; some sorcerers opted to perform various performances, like the Song of Blaze conducting a great fire dance with a Phoenix bird made out of flames. Her melodious voice rang out amongst the crowd, almost reaching the people 100 meters off.
The Thousand Lights, Yamamoto Natsuhiko illuminated the night sky riddled with stars, with illuminat gleams of such number and ferocity that it almost became difficult to open one's eyes at night.
The Book of Kamuy, Enatsu Gabimaru sat in the Flame School Library amidst his precious books. The library was visited by many people and was overall very lively. Gabimaru, who would often scream at people and throw them out at the slightest increase in sound was, today, eerily silent and watched everyone with a smile.
The Enlightened Heart of Lightning, Takamekasuchi Homura sat at the balcony of the highest pagoda in the compound, overlooking the entire festival in contentment.
With a smile, he looked on at the tower effigy in the distance.
~~~
Shuichi, Edward and Arjun sat around with a couple of other sorcerer tinkerers, adopting a circular formation around an altar like erected structure.
They were in an enclosed room underground that extended from the tower, and it was where the cursed energy would be taken out to be utilized for tool making.
Shuichi's face held a constant smiling expression, his Records of Tenjin greedily analyzing the cursed energy coalition, and by extension, some shallow aspects of the Thousand Faced Tower.
The Tower, although proven to be too dangerous to sense by himself, was perfect to be studied on the surface, that too by the usage of his cursed tool.
And to further fortify his defences against the sacred treasure, he made a small barrier that enclosed just the necklace, imbibing it with the rule that his connection with the necklace would be turned off for 24 hours, however, in turn it would provide 300% more protection against the Tower's corruption and assimilation properties; effectively shielding himself from any danger.
However, it that still wasn't enough, he has taken out one of his meticulously crafted special grade tools, the Shogun's funeral Bell.
It was a small bronze bell, as large as a baby's head. On the surface, it was quite shiny and had a metallic luster, along with various Kanji letters that were etched onto it, describing meanings like 'Protection', 'Vibration', 'Droplet'.
The bell had a very simple function, it used the vibrations of the Universe to provide protection or attack. Mystical attacks like the ones exhibited by the Thousand Faced Tower, which target the soul or the mind, gey spread out like vibrations across the surface of a lake. All the attack power is spread out in the form of a ripple that travels across the fabric of space time, eventually being reduced to nihility. It was a concept that was taken from Gojo Satoru's infinity.
Along with that, it could also amplify vibrations, transforming it's bell sound into a sonic attack that can land devastating blows on the target.
Of course, there was a function limit to what it could actually protect against and on its attack potency as well. It wasn't an all encompassing defence tool, neither was it a great way to pin point an attack.
However, it did the job of protection.
It was bound to the belt of the Kimono that he was wearing.
Shuichi was unwilling to take even the slightest chance at having his soul ripped out and tortured for all eternity.
Shortly after they were all seated, the main priest of the tool making rituals handed then bands composed of several wooden beads; which would give them access to the reserves of the Thousand Faced Tower.
After that, they were taken to their respective rooms, each filled to the brim with materials that were blessed in the rituals, all sorts of mundane objects, weapons, and special marvels of craftsmanship that would not be found otherwise.
It was to ensure that every person got the necessary privacy for their work, along with providing an optimum environment for their work.
Shuichi, as he was locked in the room, looked around.
It was a standard japanese room with wooden walls and a sort of red hue in the ambience. The air smelled of Sakura petals and ritual smoke.
At the sides, fire bowls were burning with pyres of the ritual flame and various objects which had been blessed in the Great Harae were kept aside. Other supplies that could be needed like bamboo paper, blessed ink, etc were also in the room itself; and if need arose for something that wasn't present, the tinkerer could simply call forth a shrine priest or a shrine maiden to make that specific thing available.
Well, I can work with this. Shuichi thought with a smile and propped up the sleeves of his Kimono.
~~~
The base of the hills held a collection of multiple torii gates, numbering in the thousands. Each of them was merely an extension of the Blessed Torii Gate, functioning as a layer of barrier that came together in the form of an almost unpenetrable defensive force.
At that moment, a dark force lurked at the outskirts of the barrier complex.
Darkness and shadows writhed from the ground, as if called onto the earth from the netherworlds for an ensuing disaster of unreal proportions, jutting out from the ground as if it wanted to take the entire world under it.
The bulbous mass reached the limit of the barrier, and bleated in the same Goat like voice.
Bleeeeesrrrrrghhhh~
And with a single step from it's multitude of stumpy legs, it stepped on the first stair up the mountain, right into the range of the first barrier.
Whooosh~
Shaaaaa!
The Moonlight seemed to be clouded by an insurmountable mist and a sudden cold chill ran through the land. Everything seemed to come to a stand still, like mannequins standing around a warehouse.
The bulbous mass belated again and stepped further in, and then, something clicked.
Flutter~
Dun!
Dun!
Immediately, the ritual fires on both sides of the stairs went quiet and froze over, the pyres coiling down and disappearing from view, as if scared by a force beyond their reach.
The surroundings took on a deep crimson colour and a sharp alarm sound rang out in the distance.
The air began to heat up, the trees on both sides lit themselves on fire almost instantaneously and mechanically. The mass of darkness swayed and then, overtook by a sudden feeling of, say, rage and aggression, the legs suddenly turned into giant tentacles, propelling it over the stairs like a train.
Boom!
Duuuuuun!
The stairs and the torii gates were torn apart as the mass moved further in and stepped into the range of more barriers. The temperature around the beast began to rapidly heat up, a safety mechanism of the Flame School.
Rapidly and without stop, the mass travelled up almost a thousand stairs. The air around it, extending to about 10 meters reached a temperature of 4000 degrees Celsius. The pavement began to melt down and the air pressure gradient pushed the surrounding trees away like a natural disaster incarnated in flesh.
Boom!
Shaaaa!
Far in the distance, as the surroundings turned red and an alarm sound rang out, Takamekasuchi Homura yelled on the top of his lungs.
"Everyone! Head to the evacuation dome! An intruder is here!" He yelled. The alarm of the Blessed Torii Gate did not ring upon encountering any random being. It could only be triggered by a being of at least the top of first grade, anything lower did not have the right to do anything about it.
And since the alarm rang so violently, it told Homura a very disturbing piece of news.
Somewhere between the thousands of barriers, some of them were shattered by the other party.
With a heavy gaze, he yelled the command again and watched the populace rushing towards the evacuation dome, which was situated underground and the entrance of which was through the north side of the compound, along with a secondary entrance on the west.
"What's the matter?" He said, feeling someone appear behind him.
"A curse. It has possibly been lured here by the coalition. It broke through some of the barriers." Gabimaru spoke tersly.
Homura who stood before him nodded. And before him, a metaphysical piece of paper appeared.
"That is the status report. It's had already reached halfway up the mountain and speeding up. The temperature seems to faze it little. As of right now, it has already shattered 39 barriers." Gabimaru said.
"Gather the first grades. We will confront it at the entrance itself. We can't have it spread too much destruction." He said, and with a small effort, he leapt down the stairs where he saw Yamamoto Natsuhiko and Masakado Abenanka rapidly approaching.
Gabimaru followed behind him.
As they both landed on the ground, Natsuhiko and Abenanka stopped before them. Just like with Homura, a piece of paper appeared before them, holding on it the current status of the intruder.
"Let's go!" Said Homura.
And with a gust of wind, they all headed towards the entrance of the compound, from where the curse was climbing up.
~~~
Two thirds of the way up the stairs, the dark writing mass of flesh screamed, an amalgamation of hundreds or perhaps even thousands of voices echoing through the air.
Clouds covered up the sky and gigantic pyres rose up to meet them, dyeing the surroundings in a shade of crimson, redder than blood and a colour of orange, sheener than steel.
Boom!
The curse, nay, the god stomped the ground and a large explosion sounded. The stairs, which had already metled due to the temperature around the ball reaching 5000 degrees splashed around like magma. The trees all around burned and spread around, eneveloping the world into a sea of flames.
The tentacles around it transformed into various arm like appendages, madly pulling the curse forward.
A mouth formed on the front end, making sounds disgustingly similar to a man screaming in pain and torment. No, was it a woman? A child? One couldn't tell. The voice appeared to be made out of thousands of such, merging into one mosaic of sonorous madness.
Shatter!
Something broke, perhaps even more than once. The sound of breaking glass reverberated through the burning forest ahead.
Auuurrreaaghhhhhh!
A ghastly scream rang out as the monster ripped past the last torii gate.
And then, the burning stopped. Instead, the monster staggered a bit.
It's 'head' shook around, as if trying to break itself out of a forced hallucination or an induced state of sleep.
Just as it was stabilizing itself, light flashed.
Grrrrrrr!
Zoom!
Thunder boomed and light filled the ambience. The temperatures which had been cooling down at that point, suddenly reached 10,000 degrees Celsius on the curse's skin.
Aaaruuuhhhhh!
It roared in pain as four distinct figures appeared before it.
Homura stood at the top of a nearby building, lightning raging in his hand.
"We don't usually welcome visitors of your kind here." He said coldly.
~~~
A/N: Drop some stones.
Also, I've released another fanfiction, a tower of god fanfic with LOTM power system. The first chapter is out so maybe give it a try? The 2nd chapter will be out today itself.
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