A Battle Beyond Limits
Akiyama stood before Yusuko, who had fallen into the mountain crevice amidst flying flames due to the energy emanating from him. The pressure alone was enough to shake the split mountain, causing more rocks to fall.
While falling, Yusuko fired metal chains, anchoring them to both sides of the crevice. Akiyama was shocked and said with a smile, "It seems he has great determination."
After securing the chains across the crevice, Yusuko stood on them and regained his balance. Then he jumped and rushed toward Akiyama. During this, Yusuko thought about Akiyama's answer to him. "So it was real after all... my suspicion was right. From the beginning, it turns out the one in front of me isn't human, but why pretend to be?" Sweat began to pour from his body—the more I think about it, the more complicated it gets.
Calmly, Akiyama drew his katana from its sheath and took a battle stance with a slight smile. "Looks like this fight is going to be fun." He now wondered how someone with the power of a ruler could disguise himself as a human. Then he added to himself with a sly smile, "Simply put, I'm not a ruler. The dead don't need to know more than that."
Akiyama looked at Yusuko, who appeared to be flying through the air, raising his massive blade with both hands. Akiyama smiled and said in a loud voice, "Now, let's continue the fight."
Yusuko's massive blade collided violently with Akiyama's rusty sword. Each strike was enough to widen the mountain's cracks. Yusuko stepped back, then his aura exploded, forming a massive ice mass large enough to destroy an entire village or small town. He carried it like an ant carrying something larger than itself and hurled it toward Akiyama.
As it flew, the mass blocked out the sunlight, plunging the area into darkness. As it approached Akiyama, he swung his rusty metal sword and split it in two, scattering its fragments in every direction.
Yusuko charged at full speed to strike the left side with his massive blade. Akiyama realized the trick from the start. "His plan was to distract me with the ice split, then ambush me." Yusuko was close to hitting him with his blade aimed at Akiyama's left, but swiftly, Akiyama leaned to the right smartly and dodged the blow. However, the missed attack was so powerful that it tore through the remaining corpses behind him.
The fight became more enjoyable for Akiyama, making him get serious. Flames began to surround him again. Akiyama sheathed his sword, the ground shook once more, and he launched himself toward Yusuko. His terrifying aura exploded, and fire came from his hands strong enough to melt the ice covering the ground. Yusuko stood before Akiyama, not realizing his speed until Akiyama spoke in a majestic voice, "Playtime is over."
With a single strike, flames engulfed the area, the ice vanished as if it had never been, and the ground turned black, indicating that life had begun to fade from the mountain due to the battle. Yusuko drew his horn again, forming ice in an attempt to freeze the area once more, but with another fiery strike, a massive fiery explosion occurred, melting Yusuko's ice.
Yusuko began attacking with everything he had, punch after punch, trying to hit Akiyama, knowing that any mistake meant his end and his existence being wiped out.
Akiyama vanished from in front of Yusuko and appeared behind him at a speed that left Yusuko no time to think or react. Flames began to surround the area like a circle, the ice disappeared, and the mountain turned completely black. Due to Akiyama's terrifying fire, the residents of the Sorcerer Empire noticed the flames devouring the mountain. Because of Akiyama's incredible speed, the ground was destroyed—it seemed like the mountain would completely collapse.
Yusuko, nervous for the first time in twenty years, said to himself, "If I don't block that strike, I might really die."
He tried to block Akiyama's blow using his blade, planting it into the ground before Akiyama, but Akiyama didn't appear. Yusuko realized he had fallen into a trap. The flames got closer and closer until the circle narrowed, barely leaving a strand of hair's distance from Yusuko, then an explosion occurred that made him lose consciousness, and the mountain completely collapsed and shattered into six parts.
At the same time, as the mountain crumbled and Yusuko lost consciousness, memories began to flash before his eyes...
Memories from the Past
Sixty years ago, Yusuko was ten years old... the war between humans and yokai was at its peak. The empire was on the brink of destruction. Five cities had been annihilated, and twenty villages across the borders of other empires were destroyed without a trace.
In one of the towns on the border of the Kagutsuchi Empire, there was a child with white hair and many scars on his right arm. He wore a short-sleeved white silk kimono and a red headband. The white kimono was covered in dust. This child was Yusuko. Yusuko's father was a former samurai, so everyone treated him kindly out of respect for his father.
The child looked up at the sky and saw that the sun was setting. Yusuko thought to himself, "I need to return home; it's getting late. The yokai come out at night, so I must return before then."
The sound of someone moving... The child felt anxious and afraid—there was no one in this place, especially at such an hour. Yusuko shouted:
"Who are you?! Show yourself!"
An old man appeared, his body frail, wearing a rough brown cotton robe with visible patches on the elbows and knees. His right shoulder was bare and blood was scattered across his body. He had a severe chest wound, bleeding heavily, and with each step he bled more, leaving a trail of blood. He looked like he would die any moment.
The child Yusuko ran quickly to save him, holding him by the shoulders and trying to help him walk.
The old man smiled and said in a weak voice:
"You truly are a kind-hearted child, thank you. I thought you would leave me to die in fear."
Yusuko smiled, warmed by the old man's words, but he was worried—if he didn't hurry, the man might die at any moment.
Yusuko managed to reach the city with difficulty, which helped save the old man.
Yusuko went home, afraid because night had already fallen by the time he returned to the city. But when he entered, his father slapped him, and Yusuko fell to the ground. His elderly father, with wrinkles on his face, a large beard, and a frail neck, shouted with a weak voice:
"How could you return at this hour?! What if you were killed by a yokai?! Do you think this is a joke?! What if the city gate had closed?! And why are your clothes stained with blood?!"
Yusuko stood and bowed respectfully—an apology to his father. Yusuko understood that his father was frail and could collapse and die at any moment. Despite his youth, he was wise and said to explain:
"I'm sorry, Father. I encountered an old man who was about to die, so I tried to save him. I promise I won't repeat what I did."
Yusuko's father calmed down, placed his left hand on Yusuko's shoulder, coughed heavily, and then said:
"I just didn't want to lose you. Sometimes, we must sacrifice, but what if you had been late and the gate closed?! Do you know what would've happened?! Also, what if the old man was a yokai disguised as a human? Did you think about that?!"
Yusuko replied:
"No, I didn't think about that."
His father said:
"Then go to your room now."
One week later
Yusuko visited the old man regularly, telling him about all his activities and training. Yusuko had already grown attached to the old man, considering him like a grandfather. The old man told him about his adventures and said he was a former samurai like Yusuko's father.
After several days, Yusuko's father was worried his son was late, so he went out looking for him—but was shocked by what he saw. Yusuko was sitting with the old man and waved to greet his father. But then the old man's eyes turned black, his pupils disappeared, and he gave a wide smile. His human body began to vanish, his fingers grew, his hands enlarged, and his neck extended until it reached a meter in length.
His father's eyes widened in fear, and he shouted to his son, terrified:
"Get away before you die!"
Yusuko looked behind him, shocked to see the old man turning into a yokai! It turned out the old man was a yokai all along.
Horrific claws appeared from his hands, his teeth became sharp, and his body grew taller—tall as five men.
He wasn't just any yokai, but a strong one who took the form of the human he devoured.
He tried to attack Yusuko, who was frozen in fear, raised his massive hands toward the small child's body—but Yusuko's father leapt with all his strength, sacrificing himself to save his son.
His body was split in half by the yokai's strike.
The townspeople fled in panic. Yusuko was shocked. He tried to hide beneath the remains of collapsing houses, surrounded by rubble to hide from the terrifying yokai, hearing the screams of people.
He heard a child scream, another man being devoured, a woman trying to protect her children—but they too were eaten. In front of the debris, his father's mutilated body lay—the father he had admired, whose death he had caused.
He heard destruction, falling wood, the cries of others trying to escape, but there was no escape. A curse befell them all because they trusted something untrustworthy. The city was being destroyed by the yokai—what started as a single act turned into a horrific massacre. Humans were treated as a meal, and the witness to all of it was the child who had caused the downfall of his city.
Yusuko cried in fear, having seen his father die. He was the root cause of everything.
After a few minutes, the city was annihilated, everyone inside killed. The streets became seas of blood, windows splattered with it. The city was painted in a dark red dye—and the painter was the old man.
The yokai was about to leave, but heard movement—he saw a child jump in front of him, holding a sword, seemingly having awakened his powers, with ice emerging from him.
The yokai tried to kill him, but the sword pierced his skin and slowly cut through his body, making the yokai scream in pain, until he was torn apart and died.
That child was Yusuko.
After avenging his father by killing the yokai who murdered him, Yusuko saw a group of yokai and ran with all his strength, his left hand bleeding, his white kimono stained red with his father's blood. He fled the city that had turned overnight from a beautiful place into a sea of blood. The last thing he saw was the yokai laughing at the city gate.
He reached the capital after enduring immense suffering. He lost everything in a moment. He began training as a child, trying to control his powers—the last survivor of his city. There was nothing left to lose, no one to love or care for him anymore.
Ten Years Later
Yusuko became a young man and joined the samurai. He had many scars, especially on his face. He killed anyone in his way without mercy. He became known as the slayer of yokai and humans alike until he became one of the three generals in a war that lasted generations. Yusuko's generation was the last, as all yokai on the continent were exterminated.
But one day, while fighting yokai and monsters, a ruler appeared before him—a ruler who mastered lightning. His face was mysterious, and he had a terrifying aura. Just as Yusuko thought he came to help, the ruler attacked them.
Yusuko tried to fight him, but was defeated miserably. All his comrades were killed, and he was left with a burn on his chest. The ruler had only been toying with them.
Twenty Years Later
All yokai in the empire were killed, and Yusuko was one of the biggest contributors to that war, purging ten cities of yokai on his own.
But when he went to the emperor, asking to continue the war, the emperor refused.
Yusuko felt the empire had betrayed him after dedicating his life for it. So he left the samurai and chose to fight alone. Yusuko was the only one who realized that the rulers weren't saviors—they were the cause of the war. So he decided to prepare to fight them, never forgetting what happened when he fought one of the rulers.
But after ten years, he realized he was just killing endlessly. He understood what the emperor had realized—too much killing turns a person into a monster, breeding greed among all and reigniting wars as kingdoms rise again. That's why the emperor stopped. But Yusuko didn't. He had become a monster, killing without mercy, devoid of passion, waiting for a fight that would let him enjoy one last moment before leaving his miserable life.
Yusuko regains consciousness, finds the mountain destroyed, stands before Akiyama, a terrifying aura emanating from him, and says coldly:
"Now, I'm ready to fight you with everything I have."
The warrior had decided to fight one last time in his life.
End of Chapter