Chapter 235: Chapter 234: The Horobi-Star

“Truly incredible. You not even an elder god, yet able to stand against the laws that created them.”

For the first time, Amaterasu felt despair.

Her life had afforded her the opportunity to meet countless individuals and entities the power to snuff out at the time, but they had always been allied beings, so as afraid as she might have been, she always knew that she was safe.

This was the first time she had met something or someone she couldn’t stand against, nor did she have an ally at her side that could. She was totally unable to do anything to oppose the end that stood before her.

To make matters worse, it didn’t even need to move, it consumed the space between them in a ravenous charge which pulled her into its gaping, hungry jaws.

Tears began to stream over her cheeks as they flowed, then as she got within an instant of death, Carl cancelled the form and the blinding light of his soul-form emerged. The sudden blinding light sent her into sensory-overload and she could do nothing as she felt his physical form grab her by the face as a searing heat spread throughout her entire being.

Her agony was void of sound, standing catatonic as the system was burned from her and when he was finished she embraced the unconsciousness that followed happily.

As she finally fell, Carl caught her and created a bed that she could be laid upon. “Seriously Aunt amaterasu, you really are scary.”

Carl returned to where the others were waiting, but as they went to hug him, he pointed to Tenko and asked what happened to him.

Blood poured from his eyes, ears and nose, the others too focused on Carl to have noticed.

Carl knelt down and looked Tenko in his eyes, told him that she was fine and just resting, then asked Kyubi to heal him.

After a few moments, Carl grabbed either side of his face and burned away his system as well, then asked Kyubi to let him rush to Amaterasu’s side. It was obvious how concerned he was, remaining conscious through the system removal was no small feat and the fact he did was telling about the sincerity of his love for her.

The moment he reached her side, he held her hand with the care and tenderness one would hold only their greatest treasure.

“Kyubi, it’s been far too long, seems you proved yourself more worthy of being the peak of our species.”

“No offence Tenko, but a rabid fox would have been a better leader than you. Not that I actually remember much, just that first time we met.”

“So you lost your memories then? Was it the trauma of Tsukuyomi dying, beca-”

“No. It was burying every member of our species but you and I.” The moment she spoke, Tenko’s heart sank, having not yet acknowledged the memory of the event without the disconnect of the system.

Tenko’s tears fell onto Amaterasu’s hand, the three of them watched the scene for a few minutes until Amaterasu finally awoke and raised her hand to Tenko’s cheek, before remembering what had happened and shooting upright.

The moment her eyes landed on Carl and the others, the light almost faded from them again, but she resisted and approached. Coming to a stop about ten feet from them, she fell to her knees and placed her forehead to the ground.

“I can’t believe you actually did as I asked…” As the words left her mouth she heard the door open and Carl state they were leaving, she wasn’t surprised, she felt the weight of her crimes and accepted it.

Then she heard an exasperated tone telling her to stand up and follow. The last thing she expected as Tenko helped her up and they travelled down the path, was to see her daughter, retainer and lover’s protege sipping tea at a small table with two lycans and a fox spirit child.

“I’m sorry Amaterasu, we killed as few as we could, but I wasn’t going to put my friends and family at risk going easy on them.” Carl said as what was left of the Oni and Tengu kneeled and the commanders at the table turned and did the same.

Amaterasu mourned the losses, but couldn’t find fault with his actions and was about to tell him not to worry when Kitsunoko interrupted. “Dad, if you lot want tea too, then you’re gonna need to make a bigger table, I only had this one in my storage bracelet.”

Carl groaned at his ever-demanding daughter and gestured the others to the sides as he made a table that rested on the uneven mountain path without a single unsteady point, then continued to create cushions, cups and a full list of things that Kitsunoko started rattling off.

“…Why do you even need this stuff?”

“Honestly when you made the table without saying anything, I wanted to see what I could get away with.” As Carl groaned into his hands and the others started chuckling, Kitsunoko finally noticed Amaterasu and Tenko.

She ran over, excited to inspect her dad’s auntie and uncle, circling them on her own before creating more and more physical doubles to inspect them from all angles at once.

“Kyubi, how is she making illusions that real already?” Tenko asked as he tried to discern the genuine article.

“Illusions is the wrong word. Since they’re solid, clones is more accurate, but to answer your question I can only imagine it was to punish her parents’ sins. She is a handful on her own and as you can see, we now have more Ki-ko’s than hands.”

Amaterasu and Tenko were both looking at the girl and doing mental math, then Kyubi put them out of their misery as she grabbed the Kitsunoko that was closest and explained the particulars of her birth.

The story left them in shock as much as the way all the duplicates disappeared leaving only the one in Kyubi’s grip.

When they asked how she knew which was the original, Kyubi simply explained she grabbed the one that looked the most smug, before telling the girl to choose between playing waitress or curious child.

The last thing Carl was expecting was Tenko to bow and thank him for restoring their species, but he told them to just chill out and that he would prefer to relax with them before moving on to the next battle that would surely be more brutal.

“Which one are you targeting next? Mobius, or maybe that one now that you can face him?”

Carl laughed before answering. “That one isn’t an issue, turns out that he’s our son from the future here on some personal journey. No, next up is Gilgamesh and the humans.” The casual way he said it was astounding, but Amaterasu put the pieces together pretty quickly.

“Right, his greatest weapon was the indefensible mesopotamian curses, which as Ishtar’s child you can resist.”

Carl clicked his tongue and caught them off-guard. “That’s the second time you’ve said that. She told me I wasn’t her son when I met her in the realm of dead immortals and I preferred it that way, but what’s the truth?”

The sun goddess hesitated, then decided that she owed him too great a debt to lie. “She carried you as a mother would, for the better part of five-hundred years…”

The story was touching on the surface, but it was clear that Carl was taking the information in vastly different light to the others and eventually Amaterasu stopped and asked him to be open.

He apologised for the bad mood and explained that it was a soft spot, then gave his thoughts, which no one could argue made sense.

He had heard people talk about the unconditional love she showed to her creations, how she adored those that did the same and the same for those who treasured what they held dear.

All of which he described him, but she still looked him in the eyes and told him he wasn’t her son, even treated him with contempt. It was a description that even Amaterasu couldn’t describe as anything other than hypocritical.

Tenko had remained silent until then, but suddenly became vocal. “Carl, can I run a perspective past you in the name of playing Samael’s advocate?…” The phrasing made him chuckle, but Carl wouldn’t have denied him either way. “…For one who treasures the bond between mother and child, as well as creator and creation, might being ordered to create something be somewhat violating?”

The word “violating” was calculated and purposely visceral, chosen for the purpose of forcing him to consider it with a sense of severity.

“You know what? Thanks for that, I can’t afford to dwell on it right now, but thanks for that. When I don’t have a battle to fight it will be something for me to think about.” As Tenko and Amaterasu both looked impressed by his focus, Gillian couldn’t help but bring up the time he was so eager to expand their dominion he forgot to even check what abilities he had at his disposal.

It made both of them, as well as the three commanders, laugh. Though that ended abruptly when Tenko spoke again as his laughter died. “…Sounds like you’ve grown a lot since you started, how long have you guys been at this? I can only imagine all the things that must have happened.”

“Tell me about it, it feels like it’s been years…” Carl listed all the highlights since the day Margo appeared during the gathering exam. “…I still can’t believe it’s been less than half a year.”

As Carl finished, he and the others started laughing, but they soon realised that everyone else’s mirth had died completely.

Amaterasu leaned over and hugged him, it was a gesture he wasn’t expecting and he asked if she was alright, but then she started weeping softly. “Am I alright? I thought you had been at this for decades or centuries with all that has happened, to have so much happen in such a short time, for you all to suffer so greatly with the fate of everything resting on the shoulders of beings not two decades old.”

Carl couldn’t help but get a bit teary-eyed. “I appreciate the thought, Auntie Amaterasu. But the truth is that if it hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t have Kyubi or Ki-ko or the other kids, it’s been hard but they make it worth it and I’d do it all again.”

Amaterasu recomposed herself, making a mental note that he was probably holding himself with nothing but a forced sense of duty and the momentum they had built up, but to put herself at their disposal when they were done.

Finally, Kyubi broached the subject that they had been waiting for. “As I said my memories are mostly lost to me, I remember next to nothing before the massacre of our race. Most of what I do is what was stirred upon seeing certain parts of the sanctuary and after reconnecting with Faylorna and Lillim.

I remember most of the time since then well enough, but even that is warped by a perspective of grief and madness. Now we are all together, I want you to tell me everything you know of me.”

They looked between themselves, wondering how prepared she was to learn what they knew to be an incredibly harrowing tale. “Kyubi, you need to be sure. Honestly, your life was horrific, it was cases like yours that made it so easy for me to turn my back on Tsukuyomi and our kind.”

“It’s fine, I know bits thanks to reuniting with Illerion and like Carl said, it all led me to my family so I’d do it again.”

They were clearly hoping to avoid it, their disappointment apparent by their expressions, but honoured the request.

Surprisingly, Kyubi took it all the best and was having to console Klaire as the story made her cry. Meanwhile Carl was holding Ki-ko by the waist and collar as she snarled at the two of them for not intervening,

When they finished, Kyubi asked how she didn’t already know given her new hobby of reading minds and having been around Illerion. “Mum, I don’t want to catch that woman’s crazy, it was bad enough learning what my older-little brother knew!”

Her outbursts were an emotional reset for Klaire, who managed to start laughing, but then Amaterasu changed gears and asked why they challenged her before Gilgamesh.

Carl decided to answer with a demonstration of his powers of creation whilst he gave a verbal one. “I needed your divinity for a new creation that will be the bedrock of our fight against the human variants.”

“You mean because of the one who bears powers similar to mine?”

Carl nodded then got to work, coming to another realisation as he did so. Thanks to his new understanding of imprinting information onto energy, he had the ability to imprint all of Bakunawa’s memories onto his new form.

It brought a smile to his face which made the others smile even if they didn’t fully understand.

He stood and walked to the far end of the table then turned back so they could all watch the demonstration, which comically left Kitsunoko free to give both Amaterasu and Tenko one of her increasingly famous ineffectual punches.

When Kyubi had wrangled the unruly fox child, Carl got started.

The process started with a sinister looking black orb that grew to about two metres in diameter, but after a few seconds, an undulating bubble of pure white began to grow in the middle.

When the bubble reached about half a metre in diameter, it burst and filled the black sphere with what looked like stars filling the night sky which danced around before reforming into two more spheres.

One was small silver, with the dull grey texture of rock, which suddenly started took on an ethereal silver glow as the second formed into a miniature sun that filled the orb with a pure, brilliant light.

After dancing around one another for a few rotations, they merged into a bitch black orb with a halo of brilliant white that made the larger orb look like a sinister black eye with a white iris.

When the white turned to a fiery orange, the large black orb shifted to white, making it look like a beautifully decorated egg.

When it remained unchanged for a while, they wondered if Carl was done and would need to hatch it, but then the silhouette of a monster moved across the surface and after swallowing the eclipse burst out of the edges.

“I am reborn!”

Carl burst into laughter, asking if Tiamutael had popped in and showed him some of his kid-vids while Carl was running the length of his body. “…Seriously though, I’m happy to see you again.”

“As am I, my friend and creator. I didn’t think I would remember anything, so the fact I do is a joyous thing indeed!”

Carl patted him on the back, saying he could thank Amaterasu for that, which made him turn to face them.

It was tense for a while, but then Bakunawa bowed. “Lady Amaterasu, I am the creature known as Bakunawa no more. My new name is Sol-eater and I am my creator’s loyal retainer, might I ask you to consider who and what I was dead?”

“I never held a grudge against you. I was well aware of my brother’s flaws and since I killed him in the end, I have no right to bear a grudge against his enemies. I only ask that you serve him faithfully to the best of your abilities.”

“Do not fear, I will devour the false moon and avenge my mistress’ kin, then the false sun that took advantage of your condition.”

Carl chopped him on the head playfully and told him to chill out a bit. “…Buddy, you are going to have plenty of time to enjoy that stuff. Just make sure you chew thoroughly, I want to make sure the ones who don’t repent die.”

The sudden brutality of his tone caught Amaterasu and Tenko unexpectedly. “Gilgamesh aside, what did the others do to earn that hatred?”

As Carl filled them in on what they had missed, the stakes became increasingly clear. “Carl, let us help. I against the false sun and Tenko against the false moon.”

“Sure, I won’t turn away allies. I won’t underestimate them and I’ll insist you don’t either. They ruled humanity from the shadows for as long as anyone can remember, they might be human, but they didn’t achieve that by being weak or stupid.”

Tenko and Amaterasu nodded, then the latter smiled. “On another note, that last form you used in our battle, you said it was the pinnacle of my power. Ordinarily, it would be your right to name it, but I have a suggestion if you don’t mind.”

Carl quickly did mental math, wondering what would be more painful to listen to the teasing about acting out kid-vids, or dealing with Tiamutael’s disappointment. In the end he asked Tiamutael for forgiveness, forgetting that his son could see and hear pretty much everything and jumping when his request was denied.

“…I think Horobi-Star. In the ancient culture of the east my family governed, it meant something akin to apocalypse. I can’t think of anything more befitting the name than what I gazed into at that moment.”

“Dad, I take it back, that is a cool name. Get her to name all your skills from now on.” His words arrived as he did, with Illerion in tow.

“Wow, you actually burned the sun, didn’t you?” Illerion cackled. “Now, when do we go to battle against the variants?”

Upon seeing her, Tenko and Amaterasu bowed, which left her unusually uncertain of what to do or say. When they eventually clarified that they wished to apologise for not airing their own disquiet for Tsukuyomi and the other fox-sprits’ abuse toward Kyubi however, the mood shifted immediately.

“…I’ll make it clear. If you ever allow such harm to come to one I care so dearly for, I’ll make your suffering redefine the word and brand into the innate understanding of every creature in existence. As long as you don’t, consider us friends, or on the same side at least.

Seriously though, if you’re done here, let’s get planning the war ahead. Sorry Carl, the elves are insisting that every elven warrior assists our species lifeline to repay the debt, Lillim and I attempted to dissuade them but Luthwynne appeared.”

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