Pilgrim 3, p.45
Pilgrim 3, page 45
“We’re just getting started here…”
“Tengir Gantulga will not like that you are here, Nomtoi,” Shodren said as she stepped forward, defiance in her eyes.
“Your whore mother dares speak to me?” Nomtoi laughed bitterly. “I’m going to enjoy killing you the most, the creator of my brother, the bane of my existence.” He returned his focus to Danzen. “It has come to my attention that you have been sending people to Diyu at a rapid pace with the hope that they will join together and kill me. If you’re wondering why I’m here, that is the reason I decided to pay you a visit. You think you’re clever, don’t you? Sending people to kill me…”
“What?” Jelmay asked. “We’re not sending people to kill you.”
Nomtoi swept his hand in Jelmay’s direction, sending the bakeneko flying fifty feet back. After glancing between Danzen and Jelmay, Kudzu quickly rushed to the bakeneko to make sure he was okay.
Nomtoi continued: “Not only are you trying to grow stronger so our father will see that you are capable of taking the throne, but you have started killing people with the hopes that they will bring me down in Diyu. I should have recognized this back in the Outer Region, all those assassins. Yes, it all makes sense,” Nomtoi said, the tone of his voice telling Danzen that he truly believed the nonsense spilling out of his mouth, that his half-brother was obsessed to the point that he had started to mythologize Danzen and his intentions.
So Danzen went with it. He found himself asking what Jelmay would do, the bakeneko always looking to trick someone if possible, especially an enemy. He channeled this as he spoke; there was no sense in trying to reason with his demonic half-brother.
“That’s right,” Danzen slowly said, “you’ve figured it out. I didn’t think you would, but here we are. Now, how about we settle this once and for all?”
“I knew it…” Nomtoi cracked his knuckles. “I knew it! I will cherish killing you here, brother, and killing you over and over again in Diyu.”
.Chapter Four.
Nomtoi began to morph. Danzen had seen him do something similar before, and knew he took on a demonic wolf-like form with a long snout with eyes running up it, his muscles bulging to the point that it looked like he wouldn’t be able to keep himself standing upright, which he didn’t, Nomtoi dropping onto his fists and transferring to all fours, his robes tearing away as his final form was complete.
Danzen shot forward, hoping to lure Nomtoi away from those he cared about and his monastery. He didn’t know how this would end, but if it ended with him miraculously beating his half-brother, he didn’t want to have to repair his monastery as well. Better to get him away from the old structure.
Danzen’s opening attack saw him wielding both of his swords, Astra in his right hand, Nomin’s replica blade in his left. He recalled that his brother’s skin was nearly impenetrable, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t another option, and if he was able to keep Nomtoi on his toes…
Danzen hopped back just as his brother came forward and attempted to take a bite out of him, saliva spraying out of his mouth. The last time Nomtoi had attempted something like this, Danzen had somehow managed to send his blade through the side of his brother’s cheek. He wasn’t so lucky this time, Nomtoi more prepared for Danzen’s calculated attacks as he backpedaled, avoiding his next strike and Danzen’s follow-up, the former assassin coming in from the side with Nomin’s replica blade.
It was all-out war as the two siblings clashed, both acting as if they were each other’s shadows, neither letting up. Backing onto his hind legs, Nomtoi came forward to crush Danzen, only to eat dirt as Danzen slipped away.
In their previous battle, Danzen had been overwhelmed by the battle and the surrounding demons. He wasn’t going to be able to overpower his brother, but there had to be a solution, and as he backed away once again, Nomtoi leaving a crater in the ground as he nearly trampled on top of Danzen, he settled on the only option he could come up with: tire Nomtoi out.
To do so would require Danzen to constantly be moving backward, maintaining a distance between the two of them rather than shadowing him, and keeping his brother always on the advance. While Nomtoi had some long-range capabilities through the ripple attack he’d used before, he’d yet to strike him in this way, which led Danzen to believe that a distance of about ten or fifteen feet was the sweet spot.
Maintaining his composure, Danzen continued to avoid his brother’s charges. Making it even harder was the fact that Danzen was fighting him on a hillside, the angle of the land disrupting his equilibrium, especially as he kept changing directions to repel his brother’s strikes. Yet something seemed to be working, Nomtoi breathing just a bit more heavily than he had been at the start of the fight.
A sudden flash of white had Danzen’s heart in his throat for a moment as he feared that Kudzu had involved herself in the fight. Instead it was Nomin, the blind assassin light on her feet as she intuited what Danzen was doing, as she prepared to add to the distractions in effort to exhaust Nomtoi.
Danzen wanted to call out to her, to tell her to save herself, but he knew it would be no use on Nomin, nor would it be any use on Yato, who was doing the same now, albeit from a further distance back, speeding forward, slashing, and disappearing.
“Hey, you useless idiot!” Everyone turned at the same time to see that Jelmay had taken the form of Danzen’s father and had replicated his purple armor, his striking physique, and his handsome features partially covered by a thick beard. Jelmay pointed at Nomtoi, speaking in Tengir Gantulga’s voice once again: “I would rather have a demented yamachichi as a son than you.”
“Stop… mocking… me!” Nomtoi roared, his temper flaring.
Seething, veins pulsing on his neck, Nomtoi took off toward Jelmay, only to be blindsided by Danzen, who shouldered into his half-brother and sent the towering monster of a man tumbling to the side. The blind assassin rushed toward him as well, and rather than use her swords, Nomin sent both legs forward and kicked off Nomtoi’s shoulder, doing a flip that saw her landing on her feet and skipping away before he could swipe at her.
Regrouping, and realizing he was being played, Nomtoi quickly changed strategies. A wave of energy came spiraling in Danzen’s direction and he barely managed to dodge it. He took Yato with him, the female assassin withdrawing her gauntleted blades just as Danzen reached her, the two tumbling, the blast radius of Nomtoi’s attack growing.
Nomtoi spun, and tore up more of the soil with his next attack. Just to get him to stop, Danzen hurled Astra at his half-brother, the boomerang sword hitting its mark but not doing any damage before twisting in the air and returning.
The urge to protect Yato was hard to suppress, Danzen naturally finding himself moving in front of her, even though she was clearly capable, especially with her enhanced speed, of avoiding most of his brother’s attacks.
But not all.
Nomtoi’s next energy strike cut a sharp dip into the hillside that caused both of them to trip, Yato landing on a knee but managing to get out of the way as Danzen nearly plowed into her. Nomtoi rushed toward the two of them, only to be blocked by Nomin, who gave the demon a spin kick that seemed to echo across the valley.
Jelmay continued to taunt Nomtoi along the perimeter of the fight, and while the beast of a man was growing accustomed to ignoring the bakeneko, occasionally he would turn and begin charging in his direction, only to be taken off guard by either Danzen or Nomin.
Danzen couldn’t help but shake this feeling that his brother was much stronger than he was letting on, but that by agitating him, they had prevented a deadlier attack. They just needed to keep the pressure up, to keep him from realizing how easy it would be to do some serious damage to Danzen’s associates. It was ironic to think that his brother, as delusional as he was, was fighting them because he not only thought Danzen wanted their father’s throne, but that he actually believed Danzen had been killing people as of late with the intention of sending them to Diyu to do something to Nomtoi.
Could he really be this delusional? There was nobody that Danzen could send that would be able to take his demonic half-brother if Nomtoi simply focused his power. Danzen had seen him do serious damage, yet here he was, bewildered, intoxicated by his own delusions, paranoid.
Astra went singing through the air just as Nomtoi reached Nomin, the blind assassin gritting her teeth as she prepared to parry his attack. Shifting focus, Nomtoi batted Astra away and swiveled back to Danzen, his entire body trembling with rancor. Something flashed across his eyes and Nomtoi stopped fighting. He pushed onto his back legs, a hulking demon if there ever was one, and turned to Danzen’s mother.
As he did so, Nomtoi sent bursts of energy in both directions, disrupting Danzen and Yato on his right, and Nomin on his left as he charged up the hill, clumps of dirt flying into the air behind him.
“No!” Danzen shouted.
Even as the ground exploded all around him, Danzen flung himself toward his half-brother, the power of Sunyata surging through him as he tried to catch Nomtoi.
What he saw next nearly caused Danzen to miss his trajectory and tumble down the hill, Shodren hovering at the entrance to his monastery, enormous energy wings behind her, a light-purple glow all around her head like that of a halo.
Nomtoi lunged for her, and when he was within inches of reaching Shodren, he was hurled backward, easily two hundred feet into the air, his eventual impact like that of a comet.
It was time, Danzen recognized it immediately.
This was their chance to bring Nomtoi down for good.
****
Fueled by a mania he could barely contain, Nomtoi pulled himself back to his feet and charged up the hill, kicking up rocks and soil with his claws he bolted toward Shodren. He launched himself up, and began floating from there, moving toward Danzen’s mother as if he were climbing a visible staircase.
Hoping to stop his brother before he reached her, Danzen exploded into the air like a spinning firecracker aimed at his demonic half-brother. He collided with him, throwing Nomtoi off his trajectory. As soon as Nomtoi hit the ground, he was attacked by Yama and Nama, the stone lion dogs giving him a pummeling before he could right himself and toss them away, which was just about the point that Nomin entered the equation.
Fearless as ever, the blind assassin swiftly scaled Nomtoi’s back, straddling his shoulders as he tried to buck her off, where she succeeded in stabbing several of his eyes. It became evident that they were the only soft spot on his body at the moment, the hulking monster eventually able to force Nomin off. She landed on her feet and slipped out of the way just in time to avoid his next swat, a zigzag pattern of blood now traced across his face and snout, drops of ichor flinging into the air as he gave up on the blind assassin mid-attack and turned back toward Shodren.
Nomtoi was struck again by a searing blast of purple energy from Danzen’s mother, one that sent him rolling down the hill again. Chasing after him, Danzen catapulted himself toward his demonic half-brother, both hands on Astra’s grip now, his plan being to drive the tip of his blade through the crown of Nomtoi’s skull.
Danzen felt for a moment that everything was moving in slow motion, combat timing one that seemed to exist on a different plane of reality, every millisecond counting, the battle slowing down to the point that he could make out individual ripples in Yato’s robes as she also prepared to strike Nomtoi.
He was going to hit his mark, and he didn’t know what would happen next, if Nomtoi could even die for that matter, but he would deliver the death blow regardless.
Danzen started to come down, his aim pure, his target gradually starting to press himself back up. But in those few moments of reality before he landed his blow, several of Nomtoi’s eyes locked on him, narrowed, and the impact that followed tossed Danzen off to the left, and also brought forth an enormous slash mark across his shoulder and chest.
Hellspawns incoming.
The portals began to open up, their mist at odds with the pale morning sun. He pushed himself out of the dirt, Danzen focused on the twenty or so demons that were preparing to join the battle. He would command them; they would offer more distractions while he continued to attempt the impossible, to kill his half-brother.
He could do this; they were his creations.
“Attack him!” Danzen bellowed just as several of his demons looked in his direction.
They all turned to Nomtoi, who was standing on his back legs now, hunched over, his eyes bleeding, his smile shifting sinister.
Danzen’s demons glanced back at him, and they took off, choosing their side. It was something he had feared, that like the hainu, an alpha would be in charge, and clearly that alpha was Nomtoi.
He saw a flicker of white out of the corner of his eye as Kudzu struck one of his demons, Jelmay coming to her aid. Nomin and Yato also joined the battle against his hellspawns, the two twirling and slicing their way through his creations, preventing them from leaving the area. Danzen loosed Astra, his boomerang sword cutting through the closest demon and actually tearing out the creature’s back before returning to his grip, covered in blackened blood. His focus fell onto Nomtoi again, who had begun charging up the hill, once again aimed at Danzen’s mother, his two lion dogs standing guard before her.
Nomtoi reached her, and as he did, Danzen saw his mother float a foot higher into the air, her eyes a blazing purple-white, hands down at her sides with her fingers wide, sheer power oscillating around her entire body to the point that it was visible. Rather than fling him away, she struck Nomtoi with a concentrated burst of Sunyatic energy which stopped him dead in his tracks. He tried as he gritted teeth to advance on her, but soon Danzen’s demonic half-brother began sliding back down the hill; Shodren chased after him, continuing to fry him with her power, the look on her face one of concentrated malice.
A flash of gold and Danzen saw his father suddenly floating behind her, Shodren oblivious to his appearance, an indecipherable expression on his face.
As if it were a blade, Tengir Gantulga sent his fist through Shodren’s lower back, his hand tearing out of the front of her robes, the fight suddenly coming to a stop. Danzen’s hellspawns that were still standing fell to the ground and crumbled into ash, and even the wind that had started to whip up around the monastery ceased to exist.
Everything was on standby.
Turning toward Tengir Gantulga, Nomin moved into an attack position, Yato following suit as she brought both gauntleted blades up, her shoulders shaking, the young assassin swallowing her dread.
Nomtoi wasn’t so audacious.
As soon as he saw Tengir Gantulga, he began to morph back into his human form, Danzen noticing now that one of his eyes was missing, his cheek puffy and splattered with blood. Nomtoi took a knee before their father, his whitened robes twisting around his body and repairing themselves.
Danzen’s response was instinctual. With a cry of anger the likes of which he rarely released, he threw all of his power into sending Astra forward, his father merely turning at the very last second possible, using Shodren’s body as a shield.
Danzen’s sword struck his mother, the impact breaking through her breastplate, Shodren gasping as she leaned forward. She was quickly pulled backward by Tengir Gantulga’s hand, which was still sticking out of the front of her body.
“Nomtoi, you fool,” his father said, his voice unlike anything Danzen had ever heard before. It existed all around him, even though he was a good fifty feet away, and it seemed to echo down the hill.
“Father…!”
A portal opened up beneath Nomtoi, and he cried out as he was dragged back to Diyu by an invisible force.
Shaking his head, Tengir Gantulga removed Astra from Shodren’s chest using his free hand. He tossed the weapon to the ground, Astra immediately whipping backward and landing in Danzen’s grip, drenched in his mother’s blood.
“I’ll kill you… I’ll kill you…” Danzen said, so overcome with emotion that there were tears in his eyes.
“Finally, we can be together again.” Tengir Gantulga yanked his bloodied fist out of Shodren’s torso. Rather than let her drop to the ground, he cradled Shodren in his arms, the woman’s life extinguished, Danzen’s mother dead. Lifting her face toward his, Tengir Gantulga passionately kissed Shodren on the lips, a smile forming as he did so.
Danzen reached his father, once again attempting the impossible. While Tengir Gantulga continued to kiss Danzen’s dead mother, he lifted a single finger into the air and stopped the trajectory of his son’s blade, Danzen frozen for a moment before he was thrust backward.
He hit the hill and rolled, finally coming to a halt once he reached Nomin and Yato. Back on his feet, Danzen brought his sword up again, hunched over, ready to do whatever it took to end this, the insanity, the depravity.
His father needed to die, deserved to die.
Tengir Gantulga finally stopped kissing Shodren. He looked down at Danzen and his companions, Jelmay and Kudzu joining them as well. “It appears as if things have gotten out of hand,” he said, a dark fondness in his eyes. His facial expression changed as he squinted at something in the distance. “It… it can’t be.”
Whoosh!
Tengir Gantulga was struck by a pillar of purple energy.
He lost Shodren as he hit the ground, the energy that struck his father now with visible wavelengths spiraling around it, Danzen making out something dark at its center. A pained expression on his face, Tengir Gantulga lifted a hand into the air, his fingers morphing into a claw.
He vanished, and as he did so, a sudden explosion caused Danzen and his companions to all look away, covering their faces. Jelmay was the first to gasp when the smoke started to clear, the bakeneko standing stiff as a board as something approached them.
“Yatagarasu…” said Kudzu, the white fox taking a step back.
The three-legged raven landed on the ground before them, a bit of purple still in his eyes as he observed Danzen and his companions.
