Clockwork Bride

Page 319

“If you can’t think of a solution,” Susanoo said rather kindly, “I advise you to hurry back to New Sprout City. Otherwise, it’s hard to say whether Bodhisattva Traya will send a Myōō over next.”

Hayden scratched his head: "I can run away, but what about you guys? You just chopped off Dajini's head. If a Ming King really comes with troops to investigate you, things will get really messed up."

"It is a well-known fact among us that the Mithra gods seem to look down on the intelligence of us Japanese gods." Susanoo smiled, his eyes still bright. "Since things have come to this, we are going to fight Mithra Bodhisattva to the death no matter what. We will fight Mithra Bodhisattva's forces and pray that your plan with Kannon Bodhisattva will succeed."

Hmm... If we only look at it from the perspective of power struggles, an ally like Susanoo is actually quite good. The only problem is, as Hayden mentioned before, he's worried that even if Kannon's plan succeeds, it will ultimately just be Kannon replacing Mithra, with everything remaining the same except for a different name on the throne.

Re-enlightening Hayden with this fact only intensified the pressure on him. It might sound narcissistic, but the fate of the world might truly be resting on his shoulders.

Besides him, who else can save the world now?

Thinking of this, Hayden couldn't help but ask, "Aren't you afraid that Guanyin's plan will succeed, and then she will become the next absolute ruler and continue to dominate you forever?"

“Even though we are exploited and oppressed by the bodhisattvas, at least we are now allowed to have our own culture and traditions.” Susanoo replied matter-of-factly, “If the cycle of rebirth of the bodhisattva Mithra were to engulf the world, our culture and heritage would be doomed. That is the most important thing for us.”

Hayden rubbed his temples, disagreeing with the assessment. He now understood even more why things were the way they were in Japan.

However, the most important thing right now isn't to get bogged down in this with our allies. There are priorities; at least Susanoo will fight Mithra Bodhisattva to the death, and that's enough for now.

“I can’t run away. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure that Guanyin Bodhisattva’s plan will succeed, so I have to try it myself.”

After Hayden finished speaking, he drew his staff and aimed it at the shimenawa rope and the stone circle.

"First, let's figure out what we don't understand yet. Someone entered [Ashihara Country] from here a few hours ago. I'm going to use time magic to peek into this space and see what happened in the past few hours!"

Susanoo wasn't surprised, but he frowned: "The spacetime here is chaotic, and the foundations of magic have been shattered by the scars of the great war four hundred years ago. Won't it cause problems if we rashly cast time magic?"

Hayden shrugged: "So I'll be careful."

Susanoo is clearly not at ease because of this.

“What if Asmodius is released from his seal as a result?” He looked very unhappy. “Even if it’s to deal with Mithra, cooperating with demons is still a big no-no, and I’m absolutely against it.”

Hayden shook his head: "It won't be released."

Then he unleashed his magic power at the stone formation.

Hayden has been using time magic quite a bit lately, and his skill in this area is getting better and better. Although there were no obvious sound or light effects, time around the stone circle had been rapidly reversed by him.

Susanoo shook his head and ordered his troops to step back and keep their distance, lest they get caught up in something.

But none of them expected what would happen next.

Hayden rewound the film, projecting scenes from past time periods until the figure of the last person who had come here appeared—and this person surprised Hayden greatly.

Because she was a captivating woman, a beautiful female demon with long, pinkish-purple hair. Hayden had seen her just a few hours earlier, in the brothel.

He saw Komakusa Tayu, who should have been dead, dressed in a white kimono, slowly walk to the front of the shimenawa and the stone circle, offer a sacred song to the stone circle, and then walk into the stone circle and disappear into the [Land of the Dead].

More than an hour later, Hayden and Red Leaf finally arrived.

"not dead!?"

Hayden was truly shocked.

"Komagusa Tayu isn't dead!? Then what was that corpse I saw at the door!?"

Unfortunately, no one could answer his question for the time being. As Hayden manipulated spacetime in this way, some strange and unpleasant effects began to appear. Suddenly, he felt the stone array in front of him shake, as if some dark, enormous creature hidden beneath the stone mountain had just awakened and was even shaking its body.

"Owner."

Angela, who had been deliberately silent and letting Hayden do things on his own, finally spoke up.

"I sensed a very dangerous energy reaction."

Hayden's heart sank, and he immediately pressed, "What was it approaching from where? Was it similar to the [Dead Sea Child] or the [Underworld Sun] incident?"

“No, not this time,” Angela replied thoughtfully. “This time it’s not that anything is going to spray out; rather, it’s the opposite.”

The words had barely left his lips when the event occurred, and it felt utterly unreal. Suddenly, the entire stone mountain began to rumble and tremble. The once solid ground warped and shook, and strange bubbles of light appeared and disappeared in mid-air, a sight so horrifying it was enough to drive anyone mad.

From those strange, colorful bubbles, a small dot emerged, and then slowly became a huge void.

A black hole that swallows everything.

395: A Myriad of Desires

An absolutely dark sphere, a large hole leading to a dark space, opened up within the stone circle surrounded by shimenawa ropes.

If it were just this kind of unusual phenomenon, there wouldn't be anything to be afraid of. However, at the same time, this huge hole also emits an extremely strong suction force, as if it wants to swallow everything around it!

Moreover, with the appearance of this strange phenomenon, the shimenawa ropes that were originally tied to the stone circle also began to loosen.

"Ah oh."

Hayden stared at the loosened shimenawa rope, his face ashen, then shouted towards the distant red leaves and the yokai, "Retreat! Get out of here quickly! Hurry!"

Whether it was this foreigner or the local gods and monsters, who didn't understand what it meant when the shimenawa (sacred rope) broke? The shimenawa was a seal, a dividing line representing the space between the two worlds. The breaking of the dividing line meant the seal had been broken.

This time, however, it wasn't the thing inside the seal trying to break free (Hayden had seen this several times before), but rather the thing inside the seal trying to suck in the thing outside. That was rather novel.

Moreover, as the black hole's suction grew stronger, Hayden also saw some strange phenomena appearing on the sulian ropes. They had all looked brand new before, but now they immediately decayed and crumbled into powder before Hayden's eyes, falling to the ground like a fast-forwarded film.

"It's time."

Bi Haiden has already understood it, and the more he understands it, the more he complains.

"This hole is absorbing time from outside!"

In this distorted spacetime, the air is as heavy as water. Moreover, whether human, god, or ordinary object, anything exposed to this black hole of time experiences years of erosion in an instant, both body and soul.

The monsters were the first to suffer. Most of them immediately began to experience tinnitus and headaches, and were involuntarily sucked towards the black hole.

What about the others? The Yokozuna and ninja of the New Gods weren't in much better shape either. They weren't pulled into the black hole like the monsters, but they were all dizzy and nauseous, and some even had blood gushing from their ears.

The gods, and even the red leaves, were not so significantly affected, but they too could not escape the pressures of time. At the very least, they would feel some pain.

Therefore, Susanoo immediately ordered: "The entire army must retreat! Do not stop until we are out of the influence of this force!"

Takemikazuchi was somewhat surprised by his words: "Great God, what if Asmodeus really escapes from the seal?"

“No, judging from these signs, it doesn’t seem like they’re trying to escape,” Susanoo said coldly. “Besides, Hayden’s side seems to be holding on.”

That's right. Only Angela and Hayden seemed completely unconcerned about these "-1s-1s" of time. Angela was understandable; she had never been affected by any force other than physical attacks. But Hayden was also unaffected by time; he himself didn't know where this resistance came from.

But as time passed, the sights within the dark void grew increasingly bizarre. An endless swarm of fluorescent, colorful butterflies danced and danced as they poured forth from the floating black hole. The sky above also changed color, transforming into eerie, yellowish-green fluorescent clouds.

By any measure, this looks like a scene from a monster or a demon king about to make its appearance.

“Mr. Hayden,” Susanoo called out from a distance, “While our primary objective is to expel the barbarians and resist Mithra Bodhisattva, releasing Asmodeus remains unacceptable. If anything goes wrong, please help suppress him.”

He had already drawn his troops far away, clearly intending to have Hayden hold the line if Asmodius actually managed to escape. After all, it had been mentioned before that the power of the Underworld was extremely poisonous to the Yamato gods. The filth of death was what they feared most, and naturally, they wanted to avoid it as much as possible.

Despite being allies, Susanoo was indeed sticking to the facts and didn't forget about Hayden killing their two gods and beating his son. In the end, their cooperation was just a means to an end.

This made sense, so Hayden didn't complain. He stared into the black hole, genuinely prepared to fight the fallen angel, the Old God-King—but what happened next surprised him again.

There is no Asmodeus emerging from a black hole; there is no such Asmodeus.

Instead, light appeared. A beam of light shone out of the black hole. It was a vertical beam of light emanating from the space within the stone array, and it slowly spread out to the left and right, like an invisible double door slowly opening.

What Hayden had just projected with magic—the image of Komakusa Tayu in the white kimono—was now appearing on the opposite side of that door. And that image was even smiling at this side of the door:

Oh dear, you guys look so disheveled.

Seeing this scene, what could Hayden not understand now?

"So you weren't dead at all; that corpse was fake!"

The body left by Komakusa Tayu at the brothel entrance was a shredded corpse. Hayden hadn't found any trace of life or soul during his initial examination, assuming it had been extracted. Now, thinking back, it would have been much easier to fake it that way.

[Don't talk nonsense. That corpse was created by killing agents from the Dakini Heaven faction, then transforming and swapping their bodies. Of course, it's a "real" corpse.]

Taifu Komagusa covered his mouth and smiled,

Besides, I'm really dead now. Look, aren't we separated in the underworld, now apart from each other?

Technically speaking, there might actually be some truth to it, but unfortunately Hayden didn't like being teased with wordplay. He laughed angrily and said, "Well said, then I'll go to the underworld right now and kill you outright!"

After saying that, Hayden actually walked towards the black hole!

Fortunately, although the monsters had already run far away, Hongye herself was reluctant to leave and stayed put. Now was just in time; she quickly grabbed Hayden from behind: "Master! You can't go in! That's the Land of the Dead! If you force your way in, you'll really die!"

Generally speaking, living people who enter the underworld will die. Although there are ways for living people to enter the underworld without dying, both in ancient and modern times and in different cultures, these methods all require specific "rules".

Now that Hayden has completely distorted these "rules," how can he possibly get in using the proper methods? Forcing his way in would be like bungee jumping without a rope, diving into the deep sea without equipment, or climbing Mount Everest without oxygen—at best, it's a matter of life and death.

"Tao Komagusa!"

Then Hongye turned to the black hole and the image leading to the underworld.

“I know you have many grievances against me, but how could you arrange such a conspiracy to fake your death for that…”

But before she could finish speaking, she saw Komakusa Tayu across from her sigh and give her an expression as if she were looking at an idiot.

"Little princess, don't flatter yourself. Our plan has absolutely nothing to do with you."

This time, Hongye had made a huge fool of herself. Fortunately, she wasn't too bothered by her embarrassment; instead, she was even more puzzled: "So what was your purpose in faking your death and running into the [Land of the Underworld] ahead of time...? Could it be that you wanted to release the sealed Star God of the Heavenly Vault, regain power, and rebuild the old god race's royal authority!?"

The Heavenly Vault Star God is the old name of the great demon Asmodius in Japan.

[You guys are all so unoriginal. Little princess, you are too, and Susanoo over there too, your minds are full of silly, outdated ideas.]

Komakusa Tayu raised his head in the shadows and sneered.

[Is there even a need to ask? Don't you guys have any imagination at all? Do you really think we would want or care about those insignificant things like power and wealth?]

Momiji was taken aback. So she stared intently at Komakusa Tayu, at her white kimono and the triangular white cloth tied around her forehead... Indeed, this was traditional Japanese mourning attire, a sacred and solemn garment that only a corpse placed in a coffin could wear, or the attire of someone determined to die.

Silly kids, we only have one wish.

Having lived for over a thousand years, fallen from her divine throne to a demon due to war and turmoil, descended from a noblewoman to a prostitute, the courtesan who has swallowed all the filth and suffering of the human world—proudly declares,

That means destroying the world, giving everyone fairness, and annihilating all life! And I'll be the first to die!

[Hayden, Hayden, you said you were meant to save the world? His Majesty the Star King did indeed tell us that. As long as you don't cause trouble, this world will be destroyed. An inevitable, fair march towards annihilation.]

Dressed in mourning clothes, Komakusa Tayu's eyes burned with a light of shattered longing.

[Since that's the case, we will absolutely prevent you from entering this Netherworld Kingdom, and prevent you from causing trouble for His Majesty Wengxing.]

destroy!

Let this entire world of suffering be destroyed! Let all living beings perish!

396: Dark Expectations

The thoughts and desires of everyone in the world are fundamentally different.

This may sound like a truism, but in real life, people often forget this and subconsciously lump people together, assuming that people of the same type want the same things.

Hayden learned his lesson from the Japanese gods today, realizing that in reality, everyone, and even every god, has different ideas, and there is no such thing as "all gods in the same pantheon having the same ideas."

So now, when he heard Komaku Tayu's words, Hayden was not too surprised. Instead, he felt a sense of "I knew it" and was filled with mixed emotions.

Susanoo, along with the old-fashioned Yamato gods, longed for their country and culture to prosper forever.

However, within the same Yamato pantheon, there are also some gods who don't care about this culture or tradition at all. Instead, they hope that Mithra Bodhisattva will unify the world.

Looking within the Mitra Group, there is also a faction led by Guanyin Bodhisattva that rejects the "Reincarnation" plan.

Leaving aside who is right and who is wrong among these ideas—in fact, there may not be a right or wrong—if a small group of new gods can have so many ideas, then what about the remnants of the old gods and mortals?

They were more numerous than the new gods, suffered more pain and resentment, and endured far too long of oppression and exploitation. It's quite normal that some commoners and the old gods would yearn for the destruction of the world.

The world is unequal, society is unequal, bloodlines are unequal, wealth is unequal, and these days even death is unequal.

But at least, in the face of the destruction of the world, everyone is equal.

...Although so much has been said, it is conceivable that a god like Susanoo would not approve of such a wish, nor would he understand it in the slightest.

“I never expected that among the ancient gods who underwent vetting, there would be such antisocial individuals hidden away.” Susanoo’s face darkened. “This is indeed our mistake.”

"But now that things have come to this, the passage to the Underworld has been cut off. You can't get in from the outside, and you can't get out from the inside. The world won't be destroyed. We will defeat Mithra Bodhisattva and end the cycle of reincarnation. You will be trapped in the Underworld forever, watching how the world continues as it is now."

Clearly, Susanoo was completely unaware of the world's destruction and didn't believe it would ever happen. He probably thought Komakusa Tayu's "end of the world" referred to Mithra Bodhisattva's unification project. After all, once reincarnation engulfs the world, the current "world" and social structure would indeed be destroyed. To call it "the destruction of the world" might not be entirely wrong.

However, Hayden knew the secrets of Asmodeus and the Outer Gods. Now that he learned of Komakusa Tayu's connection to Asmodeus, he was even more certain that Komakusa Tayu was serious.

【Say what you will, Susanoo.】

Therefore, even if Susanoo didn't take her seriously, Komakusa Tayu didn't care at all.

We don't actually hate you. If we could, we'd like to end this peacefully and quietly. You can just wait to die, confused and happy.