Chapter 234: Chapter 233: The First Sun Of A New Era

When Carl had done all he could to heal the land they had turned into a hellscape of molten rock, he returned to where he had left Suzaku trapped in a barrier.

“Well, that’s that, now are you going to come back up to the mountain top peacefully?”

Suzaku studied him, then her bloodied fists and the barrier she was held in. “It is clear I am not able to do anything myself, I have shamed my mother by bringing defeat to our house.”

“Stop being so dramatic, cousin. Trust me, when she’s back to her senses she’ll be glad you failed…” As he spoke he realised something and trailed off as he debated it in his own mind.

He had been wondering how exactly he was going to achieve that particular goal, but had admittedly been working on the hope that simply meeting him would jog something in her, the conversation opened his eyes however.

“…I’m sorry, but I really don’t know how to ask for permission, so I’m just going to do what I need to do and ask for forgiveness afterwards.” The look of indignation she had worn, faded from Suzaku’s face, before being replace by one of surprise, rage and self-loathing as Carl reached into her makeshift prison and grabbed her head with both hands.

The touch burned and she began to flail wildly, when she managed to escape his grip, he expanded the platform and dragged her out of the prison and onto it as he continued.

As her screams echoed up from the valley below, Kyubi, Gillian and Scylla’s ears twitched and they began to wonder what was happening.

Hebihime had ordered their troops to stay back once it was clear they had no chance of doing anything but throwing their lives away, but the Tengus’ hearing was as keen as that of lycans or the fox-spirits.

One of them ran over to the only commander that still seemed able to give orders and informed her. She was mired in confusion, unable to comprehend why one would be piecing her brother back together piece by piece whilst another had seemingly started torturing their lady’s daughter.

She had to make a call and her life threatened to be forfeit regardless. She couldn’t hope to defeat either the fox-spirit, the one tending her brother and certainly not the one able to toy with Suzaku, but neither would her lady tolerate surrender.

’When did that become the way things were? Was my lady always so intolerant of failure? Should I sacrifice the lives of all our forces, just so I’m not killed? No, I refuse to betray either of them.’

In one shocking instant, She ordered the surviving Tengu and Oni to scatter with all the haste they could muster, then charged at the most vulnerable individuals on the field. She moved too fast for any of the three to have noticed, her claws ready to tear out the throats of Kitsunoko and Scylla.

The arm reaching for the former simply ceased to be there as Kyubi gripped the one aimed for Scylla.

A second was a long time for an immortal, enough to make a point, break a foe or simply reflect upon a choice.

That instant saw all that and more between the two of them. What Hebihime saw as her arm disappeared wasn’t the beautiful fox once known as the moon’s treasure, but a rabid force of bloodthirsty savagery and before the second hand of any clock could tick again, it told her to be grateful she only lost the arm aimed for her daughter and the mountain exploded around her.

The first and only one brave or dense enough to speak after watching the snake princess get thrown into the mountain with enough force to make her erupt in from the top in bloody tatters, was that force of savagery’s own daughter.

“Mama, you’re really scary when you get like that, it’s not very lady-like…”

The last thing Carl expected to see five minutes later when he returned to the top of the mountain was Kyubi spanking their daughter as Gillian and Scylla fearfully stifled their laughter and Klaire putting one of them through something resembling a howling.

“Why does everything we do end up becoming a ridiculous spectacle?”

“Because our daughter inherited her father’s cheek! Now why don’t you explain why she was screaming like that?”

As Kyubi released Kitsunoko to rub her behind and get teased by those who had barely managed to contain themselves, Carl filled them in on what they had missed and Kyubi returned the favour.

Around the time Carl had gotten to the part he created his new forms, Suzaku regained consciousness but chose to keep up the act and listen to the stories, but Kyubi couldn’t resist teasing her a bit at the end of hers.

“…Anyway, how long are you going to carry your cousin around in such a state of undress?”

Suzaku suddenly started flailing in a wild panic, as she inspected her still very much intact clothing and Kyubi chuckled an apology.

Carl then left the two to bicker as he went to check on Hebihime, who he had no doubt was in dire condition after being launch through a mountain like it were made of jelly.

Her missing arm was definitely the worst of her injuries and the Kyubi’s wrath was evident in the way it had been roughly sealed to make regeneration a difficult chore. Aside from that, she was covered head to toe in deep lacerations, her upper fangs had pierced through and torn her lower lip and unlike Suzaku her clothes were tatters.

Carl withdrew a blanket from his inventory and threw it over her, then pressed a knee into her gut that made her gasp with pain as he gripped her head and did as he had for Suzaku.

It might have been a bit cruel to do so while she was still injured, but he wasn’t about to let her anywhere near the others until she was no longer twisted into a villain and he wasn’t enough of a saint to forgive the attempt on his daughter.

A few minutes later, he finished and carried her down to the others, arriving as Klaire fell backwards onto the floor upon finishing her work.

“Kyubi, can you come give me a hug, I worked extra hard.” Kyubi stopped her playful bickering with Suzaku and chuckled as she told Klaire she didn’t need an excuse to ask for a hug before fulfilling the request.

As Carl placed Hebihime down on the floor, Suzaku ran over and began healing her injuries, glaring at an unbothered Kyubi as she noted the state of her missing arm.

“She posed no threat to you, you didn’t need to go that far…”

“She tried to kill my daughter, be thankful her neck isn’t the irreparable stump…” As the two of them decided they had more important things to do than continue bickering, Kyubi returned her attention to coddling Klaire and Suzaku turned hers to the task of healing Hebihime.

When she had healed enough to do so, Hebihime reached out to Suzaku. “Lady Suzaku, my head feels clearer. How is my brother?”

“The lout is fine, it seems his opponent knows the meaning of restraint.” The words made Gillian and Carl both choke on the water they were drinking to try and beat the heat, then Suzaku explained that Carl had burned both the system and its influence out of them and that he was about to do the same to her brother so she shouldn’t worry when he starts screaming.

Considering that his que to get it over and done with, Carl tried to dig his knee into gut of now far more human looking Shuten-Dōji, surprised to find that even without the curse he still possessed more physical strength than Carl could restrain.

“You know, Klaire, knowing I can’t compete with his strength like this and you treated him like a toy is pretty emasculating.” Carl chuckled as he took on his demon-form and began the process.

To Gillian’s surprise, she didn’t react aggressively, far from the Klaire that he had grown up with on SATS and when she started laughing instead of getting angry, it made him happy to see how much his friends had grown.

“Anyway guys, glad everyone we’re all friends, but don’t we have another job to do?”

Gillian’s words came as Shuten-Dōji’s screaming came to an end and brought an end to their respite.

“Yeah, time for me to do as she asked…” Suzaku tensed at his words and as she finished doing what she could for Hebihime, she walked over to Carl to finally hear that story.

“Okay, I need an explanation on this. Amaterasu is the one that birthed me, but Ishtar gave her the power to do so and helped through the birth. What is your story and why do you insist on calling me cousin?”

Carl laughed and threw up a sound-proofing barrier, aware that their troops would still dive into action when they heard the word “hero”. It didn’t stop the shock from hitting Suzaku like a train though.

In the end, she fell to her knees as they went weak. “So that’s what you meant by cousin, and these two are your lovers, this is one of your daughters and that one of all people is your son who came back through time…”

Carl laughed and agreed it was a lot to take in, then got annoyed and said he’d wished Ishtar had thought to tell him about the fact her daughter burned hotter than the sun.

“…I won’t be able to help you against her, my mother is still vastly more powerful. What I can do, is keep any troops from interfering and keep your friend and child safe.”

She didn’t expect Carl to thank her for saving him the trouble of asking, just as she didn’t like the implication that he was going to ask her to babysit when they’d just met, or understand why they were so adamant they weren’t to give her any treats, or even how something so petty was on their minds before going to face down her mother.

Suzaku had met many different races, been to many different realms and met with many different pantheons, but the group she found herself depending on was the strangest by far, the one she apparently had the strongest ties to and the only one she wouldn’t call insane for so casually marching off to face her mother.

As they reached the peak of the mountain, they came to a set of massive doors. Seemingly carved directly into the mountain, they shouldn’t have been able to open, let alone have any kind of dwelling inside.

As the doors swung inward however, they opened into a massive space, one that seemed to reside in the centre of a sun and was furnished by nothing but a bed where a woman and a fox lay sleeping together.

Carl erected a sensory blocking barrier, then the three of them stepped inside and closed the door.

“At Least you’re more polite than the last uninvited guest I had.” The voice was a woman’s and one Carl remembered clearly.

“Well, you listen here little one, if I ever scare you playing the villain, you come and tell me okay… Do those words sound familiar, Aunt Amaterasu?” She didn’t need to answer, the smell of burning as her bed burst into flames was her answer.

“So the creation yet lives, welcome Hero, I’m honoured to be the first you face.”

Carl was confused by her words, he had already faced Dracula who was a villain and Tiamutael had seen him a couple of times, so why was she claiming to be the first?

The answer was both obvious and showed a couple of glaring weaknesses in the system’s operation that made Carl burst into laughter. That laughter left Amaterasu infuriated however and she raised an open hand and clenched it into a fist.

A few seconds passed and Carl, Kyubi and Klaire looked around, more than a little confused by what was supposed to happen.

“It seems they’ve put up a barrier that blocks both senses and divinity both ways, my dear. Let’s just get our hands dirty and go back to sleep…” The man who slept through the bed igniting and only awoke when she started trembling with rage sat up. “…Oh, if it isn’t Tsukuyomi’s toy-”

“Shut up, Tenko. I’m Tsukuyomi’s nothing these days…” Kyubi was just retorting, but to her and everyone’s surprise, he found himself compelled to obey. She had far from realised the power of a ten-star, but it seemed that the fundamental rule that ten-stars are the apex of their kind and all must obey was innate.

“…Well, that certainly makes things easier. I’ll be honest, dealing with him was going to be a problem otherwise. Tenko, come sit by this door like a good fox and watch without interfering, this is a family matter between Amaterasu and Carl.”

Tenko stood and walked over to them as Amaterasu grew more and more enraged, her body changing to that of sun in human form.

She was dazzling, the heat burning the air between them, whilst the pure light she emitted was blinding to even closed eyes.

Jonah transformed into his firebird form, and wasted no time at all swooping in as the others protected their eyes. The clash that ensued made Carl thankful for the one with Suzaku, releasing shockwaves that felt more akin to supernovas and if he hadn’t been prepared it would have rendered him unconscious immediately.

The scale of conflict though was on an entirely different level to any he had been in before, It was an incomprehensible display of apocalyptic might.

Amaterasu cycled through colours and with each one she seemed to change the way physics behaved in her presence, from gravitational force to generating and releasing radiation, whilst generating elements with every clash.

In what was mere seconds, they had clashed hundreds of times, littering Amaterasu’s inner sanctum with stellar debris that had completely covered the space inside and covered the barriers completely.

Amaterasu stopped, making Carl back off to both catch his breath and prepare for whatever she was planning, but then she returned to a more human form. Her face was flushed, nostrils flared and bearing her teeth as she shouted furiously.

“That witch! What kind of monster did she make!” Carl used the impromptu break to analyse her divinity, one so complicated he would have had no hopes of success before analysing both Tsukuyomi’s and Ishtar’s.

To call her the goddess of the sun was an almost unforgivable understatement, but to list all the things she was the matron of would be like naming every planet in existence. More than that, he realised something truly terrible about his relationship to her.

Matter creation, free-flowing divinity, ambient control of energy, energy-information imprinting, inter-spacial tunneling, gravitational generation and manipulation, matter synthesis… They were the fundamental traits of his own development and the structures of those elements within her divinity, were exactly the same as they were in his.

The system Ishtar had made for him was a cheat, one designed to grant him autonomous access to her abilities at a fully realised state she herself had not reached. He could see the thinking, having foreseen her own death and the potential failure of her plan, if he couldn’t compete with them at their fully realised best he’d have stood no chance of achieving victory.

In that same line of thinking, it made no sense for her to build those divinity structures from scratch when she had a perfect working example. He was a twisted reflection of her, a mockery to her natural talents and it wouldn’t be a surprise to him if he learned that Suzaku only existed so she had an excuse to analyse Amaterasu’s divinity.

“I’m sorry. I really am, but she didn’t make a damn thing. All she did was piece together all the things that make others incredible. So to make amends, let me show you the true extent of your own power before I burn that damn system out of you and fulfill that request you’ve been waiting a thousand years for.”

“You arrogant whelp! You presume to lecture me!? You certainly inherited your mother’s arrogance!”

The word “mother” stuck with him, though Ishtar herself had denied it, he knew better than to take anything she said at face value. Regardless, having her referred to as such, left him feeling far less conflicted about the conflict.

He took on the form he had stolen from Amaterasu, an act that she saw as the gravest of insults, though that sentiment died when he demonstrated the truth of his words.

Whilst he typically needed time to adapt and get used to different forms and remained largely ignorant of his other forms, Amaterasu’s was simply a different iteration of the powers he had been using and studying since the start.

He had felt what it meant to experience all the elements of her abilities in their purest forms, in other words, he had been mastering her form since the very beginning.

“I admire you Amaterasu, even warped into a villain of Margo’s game, you embody the light. A force that continues to create and give to back as much as it destroys, but suns are more than that…”

He had been cycling through the various kinds of solar-bodies that Amaterasu had already demonstrated, but as he trailed off his form changed from a blinding origin point of light and elements, to one of insatiable hunger that feasted on all their fight up to then had created, as well as the light, air, radiation and even the time.

More than that, it absorbed the divinity and even the influence of the laws woven into the fabric of existence and non-existence alike.

A solar body devoid of law.

A symbol eschaton.

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