Chapter 85: Incarnation

Chapter 85: Incarnation.

Tomoe opened her eyes. Looking at the walls, she saw the place clearly. It was the castle of the king where the prince lived. She blinked once and looked at herself, covered in cloth around her back and arm.

She tried to stand, but soon she fell back. "Cough. Why am I here?"

She slowly crawled out of the room, which opened into a corridor. A few meters away she saw the prince coming out of his room while clenching his chest.

Suddenly, a baboon-robed man jumped out of a tree. He bowed down, sitting on one knee.

The prince’s gaze briefly shifted toward Tomoe’s room, then around the whole corridor. Though, for a second, it remained glued to her room as if he had already known someone was watching, or maybe he didn’t.

He slowly walked toward the baboon-robed man and spoke. "Any news?"

A grin settled behind the skull hoodie, hiding the man’s whole face, only exposing his lips. Then the man said in a low whisper. "I’ve been collecting them, and I got one yesterday."

The prince lifted his hand and threw a shard toward him. "That is another; keep the hunt going."

"Though, there are specific things I have to say." The baboon-robed figure looked around, his grin widening slightly. "There is a dark priestess who controlled the demon to attack; she was the reason for that spider demon and also the reason for the massacre that happened today in the Ukinori village. The demon slayers’ village."

The prince squinted his eyes. "Is that so? How are you so confident."

"She has few shards, which were used to control those demons, and alongside her, a man with a very peculiar-looking Glaive helps her. He had killed a few guards; I watched it with my eyes." He picked the shard from the ground, the black shard glowing in his fingers.

"That’s terrifying. How cruel! They killed the whole demon slayer’s family?" The prince said with surprise. "I suppose we shall take action."

"As you say, my lord." With that, the robed baboon man disappeared.

Tomoe, who heard all of that, backed off. "That can’t be... my family."

The demon slayer’s village, her village, her family... all of them were gone. She pressed her hand on her wound. "I should have stayed."

A few hours passed.

Just then she heard another voice. A servant bowed low and whispered to the prince. "Lord Yumikoto, the priestess and the man were seen walking toward the demon slayer’s village again."

Yumikoto gave a halfhearted smile. "Good, send word to the border guards."

The door creaked open with a loud sliding noise. Tomoe clenched the side door, breathing hard. "I will kill them."

The prince’s gaze shifted to her; with an almost invisible smile, he said, "You are wounded, can you?"

"I will, cough." She clenched the door tightly. "I will. Let me do this."

"I suppose as the last member of the village, you should take revenge then." Yumikoto nodded in acknowledgement, then turned and walked away. "You may."

Suddenly, he almost tripped and coughed. The maids and servants rushed and held him while taking him away.

He entered back into his room, then sat on a cushion. The servants gave him the soup filled with medical herbs while one of them spoke. "Lord, why did you kill the king?"

"He wasn’t my father; a demon had already killed him a while ago and took his place." Yumikoto answered and coughed, then leaned back slightly.

"Rest well, Lord Yumikoto."

With that, they left him. As they went outside, the maids chatted with each other. "Lord Yumikoto is a little nicer than before."

"Isn’t that a good thing? He must have gotten to know his responsibilities." Another answered while they left.

Tomoe, in her room, changed her clothes back to her slayer robe and took her weapon.

***

Mo Fei and Kiyori continued their journey, but as they got closer to the village, they saw the burnt debris of the huts. Another slaughtered village. "One more..." Kiyori muttered to herself as they went inside the village.

The view cleared up, even though there wasn’t any presence of the shard, yet this village was annihilated.

Mo Fei scanned the village. "There are no bodies..."

"Eaten by the demons, most likely." She said and noticed the weapon inventory, which was completely fine. "Why didn’t the demons destroy it?"

Mo Fei tapped his temple; the spirit threads surrounded the village, and between the threads of the nonliving things, he saw one crimson thread of fate. "Presence of an Authority..." He muttered and walked in the direction of weaponry.

Suddenly, the wind shifted. He stopped midway and stared at the weaponry. "Divine Serpent."

"Yes, Great Master."

"Check that place."

Silence surrounded his mind for a few moments before the Serpent’s voice echoed again. "An artifact, the Eternal Slumbering Eye of Peace."

"As expected, whose is it?"

"The Mother above the day and night, Empress of the Peaceland. That is the artifact created by Her tears." The Serpent’s voice gradually lowered as its voice slowly disappeared from his mind.

Kiyori, who was looking around, followed him as they entered the inventory. A small shrine was crafted inside; the air softened instantly as they got closer to the artifact. Inside the wooden shrine an object rested, an eye with a crescent moon and sun hanging by a pale iron chain.

As Kiyori’s gaze fell on the artifact, her expression changed slightly. "I’ve seen one of these in Tamayori shrine. My grandmother said there were two of these; one was stolen."

"You don’t know what this is then?"

"Of course I... I... maybe I don’t..." She inhaled a long breath.

Mo Fei turned; a silver thread was near them. He pulled her shoulder, backing her off; his Glaive came forward.

Clang!

The loud clatter echoed in the silent inventory. Mo Fei’s stare hardened at the person who had rushed to attack. "Who the hell do you think you are?"

A woman with long black hair, tied in a ponytail. She was young, around seventeen. She wore a black leather outfit like an assassin. Though her thread was alive, she was human.

She jumped back. "I knew you’d come back to steal the sacred object."

"Listen! I didn’t know what the fuck is that thing two minutes ago." Mo Fei said, irritated.

"Oh yes, yes, now you’ll say you didn’t kill my family." The woman clenched the haft of her spear while glaring at his eye.

"I didn’t, and we didn’t."

She surged forward, her spear piercing through the air precisely.

Mo Fei spun his Glaive, blocking the first hit with the first blade then when the other hit came, he twisted his Glaive and slashed down the wooden haft.

"What is your problem, seriously?"

Before he could process, she activated the hidden blade in her sleeve. It moved fast, reaching almost near his throat, but he quickly stepped back, then jumped forward, landing on the blade, then with a kick on her back, he crashed her on the wall.

Kiyori called out to Mo Fei. "Be nice; there must be a misunderstanding."

"Try saying that when that bitch cuts off your throat."

At his words, she smacked her bow on the back of his forehead. "You can’t say that casually."

Mo Fei rubbed the back of his head before Tomoe lunged at him again. She was relentless. Her blade moved with the certainty of someone who had nothing left to lose.

Mo Fei couldn’t dodge, he stepped back, and grabbed her wrist, and slammed her on the ground.

Tomoe whimpered on the ground as her back began to soak with blood; the hard hit opened her wound. Kiyori, who noticed it, quickly pulled Mo Fei away.

"She is wounded!"

Upon hearing that, Mo Fei took the ropes, and with a quick performance, he bound her on the nearest table.

Kiyori snapped her head outside, sensing the shard’s presence. She quickly pulled out her arrow and shot it outside, aiming where the shards were. The arrow launched forward, and within a blink of an eye, it reached near the baboon-robed man.

The arrow pierced through his shoulder, instantly exploding it outward.

The shard from his hand fell on the ground. The smirk on his lips faltered. "How did she... Her aim is ridiculously accurate."

The surrounding wasps flew forward and took the shards’ pouch. His pierced arm let out a purple Miasma, which instantly killed the tree behind him. The leaves fell one by one, turning dark black and dissolving in the ground.

A small chuckle echoed from behind the baboon skull. "That makes the thing more interesting. Maybe someday you’ll fail."

With that, he turned and walked away again. The flesh of his exploded hand twitched, slowly turning into a large orc with demonic horns.

One final voice echoed behind the orc’s mind. "Onigumaru, my first incarnation. Get them; don’t spare anyone. They must not know who I am."

Onigumaru turned toward the weapon inventory. A long, wide grin curled on its face. "I’m so hungry too."