The silence that followed the death of God of Storms was not peaceful.
It was a heavy silence. The air humid of Susanoo's attack being evaporated by the black flame. The barriers that had once defined the combat zone were gone, shattered by the final catastrophic collision of divine annihilation and all burning flame.
What had once been a luxurious, ancient mansion inside the Inner Sanctuary, a symbol of the Five Principle Clans millennia of prestige was now a scorched jagged giant crater.
The battlefield was full of destruction, patches of ground frozen into permafrost by Lavinia's magic lay adjacent to earth turned into molten glass by Jay's purple embers. Ancient trees inside the Inner Sanctuary that had stood for centuries were now nothing but splintered toothpicks.
In the center of this devastation, Jay stood alone. He watched the last of Susanoo's essence dissolve into the air like dying embers of light.
From the sky, the silver blade of Ame-no-Murakumo began to fall, its owner no longer having hands to hold it. With a sluggish flick of his fingers, Jay used a ripple of spatial magic to snatch the sword from the air, storing it away in his pocket dimension.
And with Ame-no-Murakumo, The Cloud Gathering sword in his pocket dimension and The Heaven-Severing sword of Ame-no-Habakiri in his hand. He now possessed two of the four Divine Swords of Japan.
He had stripped the Shinto pantheon of its greatest armaments.
As the adrenaline began to drain from his system, the reality of his condition came crashing down. A genuine agonizing heat and pain bloomed across his back. He tried to use Ame-no-Habakiri as a cane to keep himself upright, but his knees betrayed him. The world tilted.
Jay collapsed to his knees, his chest heaving as he coughed blood onto the scorched grounds. He hadn't meant to activate the Avatar Manifestation of the True Cross, at least not consciously.
In that final moment, he had simply reached for every scrap of power his soul could offer, and the Longinus had responded by manifesting a piece of the primordial execution. The strain of hosting such a manifestation, even for minutes had pushed his mortal shell to the brink of collapse.
Behind him, the survivors of the Five Principal Clans were paralyzed. To see a god die was a theological impossibility made manifest. Their eyes, from the elders to the heirs such as Suzaku's, Byakko's, even the proud Ouryuu's were fixed on Jay's scarred, smoking back. Their expressions were of a pure unadulterated hatred but also a bone-deep primal fear.
After all, he was a-
"Godslayer..."
The word was whispered by an elder, a low trembling voice that carried through the silence like a death knell.
"Illya-kun!"
Lavinia was the first to reach him. She dropped to her knees in the dirt, her hands glowing with a faint bluish-green light. "Don't move. Let me heal you."
As she moved to his side, her breath hitched. Jay's left hand was a gruesome sight, grazed and torn as if it had been put through a serrated grinder, exposing the raw pulsing muscle beneath. But as her gaze moved to his back, her face turned pale.
The strike from Susanoo's divine lightning had hit him directly. The wound had cauterized instantly, but it had left behind a branching dendritic Lichtenberg figure.
A lightning-shaped scar where the skin had been fused by heat that should have vaporized a normal human. The flesh around the scar was scorched black, and blood seeped from the edges of the jagged mark.
"Oh no... wait a minute..." Lavinia's voice was trembling
She channeled a faint bluish-green glow into his arm first. Slowly, the muscles began to knit together as the skin closed, leaving behind a jagged line of scar tissue that stretched from his shoulder to his wrist.
Jay looked at her, his hazel eyes clouded with fatigue. "Thank you, Lavi..."
"Shh. Don't speak. Don't move your body," she scolded gently, though her eyes were brimming with tears.
Azazel, Barakiel, and the teenagers approached slowly. Natsume had to look away, covering her mouth with her hand. Samejima stood silent, his usual bravado completely extinguished. Even Jin, the shadow dog, had reverted to a small, shivering puppy, whining at Jay's side.
"This is..." Azazel peered at the scar on Jay's back, his expression turning sour.
"Governor General, why is that wounds, how do you say it... different?" Tobio asked, his voice cracking.
Azazel sighed, crossing his arms. "That wounds... the physical damage can be healed, but that mark... A human body is not designed to endure divine energy embedded into it, so it usually cannot regenerate back to its original form, even with a strong healing magic. But aside from its appearance, there shouldn't be any problems."
Lavinia bit her lip, pressing her hands against the scorch marks on Jay's back.
Jay let out a jagged breath.
"Is it still hurts?" she asked.
"It's much better, thanks," Jay rasped.
But suddenly, a ripple of magic caught everyone's attention, including Jay, who turned toward its source. He felt it immediately, like his domain itself, the fabric of space, was being burned. Then, two figures appeared in the sky.
The first figure is a very beautiful mature woman with long white hair brushed with faint traces of gold, flowing freely down her back. Her eyes are a steady amber, calm and unwavering as he looked down everyone on the ground with divine judgment, her skin carries a soft natural radiance.
She wears layered white and crimson robes styled after a sacred miko, adorned with restrained solar motifs, while a polished mirror etched with ancient markings hovers quietly behind her like a ceremonial halo. Her presence is orderly and dignified, neither imposing nor gentle, as if light itself stands in human form.
Beside her stood a man in quiet contrast. He was slender and tall, cloaked in robes the color of an ink-wash painting that seemed to swallow the light. His eyes were silver and distant, holding the silence of a winter moon.
The Five Principal Clan members dropped to their knees instantly.
"Amaterasu-Omikami... Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto..." Azazel whispered. "Well, this just became a family reunion."
Amaterasu's amber eyes landed on Jay. Her voice was calm, yet there is some maliciousness behind it.
"Human child. Do you understand the consequences of your actions?"
Without warning, she flicked a finger. A ball of white-hot solar fire erupted in the air, hurtling toward Jay. Lavinia didn't hesitate; she threw her staff forward, a massive blizzard of ice erupting to meet the flame. The ice melted into steam almost instantly, but the momentum of the attack was halted as her ice froze the white ball of fire.
"Oh Lord, this is getting complicated," Azazel whispered, but this was exactly why he was the best diplomat Heaven had ever known, self-proclaimed.
He stepped forward, putting himself between the gods and everyone. "Now, now, Amaterasu-chan. It's been so long! You're looking as radiant as-"
A lash of white flame scorched the earth at Azazel, but he shielded it easily.
"Shut up, Azazel," Amaterasu said coldly. "I have no interest in your chatter." She turned her gaze back to Jay. "You killed my brother. Reckless and noisy as he was, he is still my brother. But he is gone now. Dead. Do you have anything to say to me before I erase you from existence?"
Jay struggled to his feet. Lavinia tried to hold him back, but he gently pushed her hand away, using his sheer will to stand tall. He looked up at the Sun Goddess with eyes that didn't waver.
"No," Jay said. One word. Flat and unapologetic.
Amaterasu's eyes flared. The mirror behind her began to glow with a blinding intensity.
"Then perish."
A dragon made of white solar fire roared into existence, diving toward the group.
Jay's hand snapped out, and a wave of concentrated purple flame erupted, meeting the white fire head-on. The two holy fires of two different origins, one of Shintoism and another of the Bible faction, clashed with a violent screeching sound.
The ground beneath them began to liquefy from the heat.
Azazel and Lavinia worked in tandem, one providing a barrier and the other a cooling mist, just to keep the bystanders from being cooked alive by the radiance.
The man beside Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi simply raised a hand as a barrier of dark energy protecting his sister from the backlash.
As the heat waves reduced, suddenly.
"Governor! The coordinates were a mess!" a voice shouted from behind.
A teleportation portal ripped open, and five powerful figures stepped through.
Shemhazai, Penemue, Sahariel, Tamiel, and Armaros. The cadre, some of the highest ranking Fallen Angels of Grigori had arrived.
"What? Wait, don't tell me you are calling us to fight Shinto phanteons!?" Tamiel, the blonde Fallen, yelped. Penemue promptly punched him in the shoulder.
"Shut up, Tamiel," she hissed, though her eyes remained fixed on the gods above.
Azazel turned back to Amaterasu, his playful tone replaced by something sharper.
"Well, Amaterasu-chan, let's look at the board. You want to risk the extinction of your faction by starting a war with the Grigori? We have three Longinus users here, one of whom just killed your brother as you probably know. Or let's settle this through negotiation and talk. You know me, we can discuss it one by one just like the old days, if you want." Azazel said.
"Negotiation? Are you taking me for a joke Azazel?", Amaterasu's finger pointed directly at Jay. "How about this. You hand over that human child, and your faction stays out of war. Are you really willing to let your people die just for a single human?"
Azazel couldn't answer. Handing Jay over would have been the logical choice. After all, the boy had nothing to do with him. They had only just met.
And yet, as a self-proclaimed genius, Azazel saw something else. He was investing in potential. He couldn't even remember the last time a human had killed a god. It must have been thousands of years ago.
The young man standing before him would shape the future of humanity, and perhaps the entire supernatural world as well.
But-
Jay broke the silence as he stepped forward.
"Your brother," Jay voice echoing through the crater, "...died because of his greed. He tried to kill a human boy for a sword. In his rage, he tried to drown this entire island. He not only betrayed his own people, but he also betrayed you."
Amaterasu's eyes widened. "Nonsense."
She raised her hand, and a massive magic circle appeared in the sky as a mini-sun, a meteor made of pure divine flame began to descend.
Jay didn't look at Azazel for help. He raised Ame-no-Habakiri. The black blade flared with an intense black flame. With a casual swing, Jay sent a slash of blazing black flame upward. The black flames entered the core of the white meteor, and everyone watched in shock as the divine meteor was simply... annihilated.
It didn't explode, it was consumed by the black flame.
'My Divine Flame!' Amaterasu thought, her composure finally cracking.
"That flame...," Tsukuyomi spoke for the first time, his voice a calm silver bell. "It has anti-divinity properties. It was a bad matchup for Susanoo from the start. And for us as well, Sister."
"How can a human possess such power?" Amaterasu whispered.
"I don't know," Tsukuyomi replied, looking at Jay with a mixture of curiosity and wariness. "But Azazel is right. We cannot afford a war right now. Not with the Fallens, and certainly not with a boy who carries such power. Not when out faction is not even united enough to survive such a clash."
"Are you implying I should waver because of some crows and a boy with a God's toy?" Amaterasu shot him a sharp glance.
"I am implying that now is not the right time to move," Tsukuyomi said firmly.
Amaterasu tensed, her amber eyes locked with Jay's hazel ones for a long, silent minute.
Finally, she let out a sharp "Tsk." A portal of fire opened behind her. She turned, her crimson robes fluttering, and vanished into the light. Tsukuyomi lingered for a moment, his silver eyes resting on the black flame still dancing on Jay's sword.
"Anomaly..." the Moon God murmured, before following his sister.
As the divine pressure vanished, the entire group exhaled simultaneously. Tamiel slumped. "We almost fought against god."
Barakiel looked at Azazel. "I thought Amaterasu and Susanoo had a strained relationship. Why would she come here to avenge him?"
"She is not avenging him," Azazel said, watching the spot where they had vanished. "She was embarrassed. A Major Shinto God was killed by a human. If she didn't show up to make a scene, it would look like the Shinto faction had lost their spine. I believe it was a political theater, well at least some of it."
Azazel knew Amaterasu well. She was never particularly fond of Susanoo, but if he were in her position, he would have taken the same stance. For beings like them, it was ultimately a matter of honor and pride.
Barakiel looked at Jay. "A Godslayer, huh? I've forgotten when the last time a human truly earned that title."
Jay, who had been holding himself upright through sheer determination, finally felt the world fade to black. He slipped Ame-no-Habakiri into his pocket dimension just before his eyes closed and his body began to tip forward.
Lavinia caught him before he hit the dirt, pulling his head into her chest.
"Is he okay?" Tobio asked, rushing over with Jin.
"He's fine," Lavinia said, her hand resting on Jay's forehead. "Mana exhaustion. Physical trauma. He just needs to rest."
Lavinia smiled as he looked at Jay unconscious in her embrace.
'It's finally over.'