Chapter Seventeen

Together, Izaumi and Izanagi lived in a beautiful wooden home that Izanagi built with his two hands. It stands two stories high, with a huge kitchen and serving area with a stunning bedroom on the second floor. Their home stood in the middle of a garden filled with Kiku, Kosum Osu, Kinmokusei, Yuri, and Ajisai blooming all year long. On the ponds Hasu blooms. On their big door painted a deep red. Izanumi decorated by caring Hana Shobu into the surface.

“Izanagi, where are you going?” the voice belonged to a beautiful woman laying down in the garden. She prompted herself to her elbows and smiled brightly at her other half.

“Izanumi,” Izanagi whispered her name with such love and devotion Izanumi couldn’t help but feel weak in her knees. She blushed as he approached her, helping her to her feet. He stood over her and she could feel his body heat radiating onto her’s. She wanted nothing more than to be ravished by this man-this part of her soul that only he would know or be exposed too.

“Izanagi, do you really need to leave?” Izanumi couldn’t help but notice Red Blade strapped to Izanagi’s side. She closed her eyes as he reached out to touch her shoulders gently with the palms of his fingertips.

“Ame-no-minakanushi summoned me. I cannot ignore them,” Izanagi couldn’t help but keep his hands on Izanumi. Seeing her upset left him a helpless baby. He cursed himself from ever not being able to gaze adoringly on her.

Izanumi pouted in a teasing way-but it hurt all the same. Her voice was one of soothing melody. Izanagi could write down every word whispered, muttered, screamed, and moaned. Her words are magic. Her touch, celestial. “Then do better not keep them waiting.” The words choked her but she knew she had to stand strong so that her Warrior King can be summoned with strength and justice.

“I will love you beyond old age, beyond the demand of The Fates. I will defy all Laws and Domains to be at your side again.” Izanagi held both Izaumi’s hands in his and brought her finger tips to his lips as he whispered, “I will return. If need be, I will find you and you will never feel alone again.”

Izanumi reached up on her tip toes and gently kissed Izanagi. The brush of her lips soothed his soul but the moment she pulled away, his heart lurched after her. He brushed his fingers against her back and stroked her long smooth hair. “Too late my love for I already am alone the moment you no longer gaze upon me,” Izaumi winked as she turned on her toes. She left knowing in her heart that if she stayed any longer, Izanagi would be late to his meeting and it would take him that much longer to return into her arms.

As she approached the decorated door, Izanumi rubbed her palms against the carvings and summoned the intense love she holds for Izanagi. Her soft hands go down to her belly. Soon to be swollen as she could feel a swell of love for their child yet to be born. Their second child conceived of love and passion. Kisshoten, their eldest, still a small beautiful child.

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The moon was high and Izanagi couldn’t stop tossing and turning. Kisshoten sat at the bedside, forcing her mother to continue to drink water and stay hydrated as sweat beaded down both of their faces and bodies. Izanumi’s body burned to the touch. Concerned for her baby, Izanagi sent Kisshoten into the village for the doctor.

Once alone, Izanumi was paralyzed. She looked up from the bed she shared with Izanagi and saw what looked like a small tear in space. She could feel her insides be set on fire as a voice creeped from the hold.

“Born of flames. Born of pain. Only one will survive with scattered remains.”

Izanumi tried to ask who was speaking such a horrid line, but all that could escape her mouth were the screams of pain. Her screams awakened the village from down below. It scared flowers back to buds, shook mountains and caused avalanches.

As Kisshoten was in the village, her throat and mouth burning from the rising heat, any villager able to move still was forced to run away while heaps of bodies littered the streets and homes of villagers fainting and dying from heat stroke and dehydration. Their only salvation arising when the pain Izanumi was experiencing knocked her out.

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Moons passed and the contractions quickly worsened as the birth approaches. By the time Izanagi returned, everyone in the village was nothing more than crispy bones that crunched into black ash at the slightest vibration. Heat still scorching the lands leaving no water anywhere and a cloud of dust from the dried Earth to hesitate over the homes of a once peaceful village.

Izanagi ran to his home, seeing flames from down the hill. His trustest Katana in his hand, kicking down the door that took him many moons to carve. Kisshoten was out cold on the floor, her once perfect skin burned and charred. Her black hair sprawled all around her body. Grabbing her arm, Izanagi pulled her unconscious body out of the home and into the dead moss. He slapped her beautiful face in hopes that it would awaken her, but only grew more panicked as she continued to remain lifeless. Looking back into the building, Izanagi felt for Izanumi. He could tell she was in immense pain. Even before the screams escaped the flaming vortex.

Running back into the building, Izanagi screamed for Izanumi. His lungs filled with black smoke, but he kept fighting for the sight of his love.

His feet stopped moving forward when he finally came into view of the center of the fire. A woman. Engulfed in blood red flames. She looked like she was nothing more than the burning coals of a fire.

Izanagi ran towards her. Unable to feel his own skin and clothes catching flame, Izanagi pulled Izanumi into his arms. Squinting in the bright lights, Izanagi could make out something Izanumi was cradling in her arms. Removing the baby from her grip and throwing it to the ground, Izaumi’s body began to shake uncontrollably. Burning flesh pierced his senses as Izanagi looked around desperately to find something to help Izanumi.

Screaming, Izanagi looked at the baby he just tossed. It’s body nothing but flames, and yet he could hear the whimpering of a newborn. Grabbing the hilt of his sword, Izanagi plunged his Red Blade into the body of the baby. Stabbing the flesh over and over again until only small piles of flames surrounded Izanagi.

Izanagi no longer cared if he lived or if he died. Crawling back over to Izanumi’s body, Izanagi ignored the flames licking at his skin as he held her close. Their blood intertwining with one another as her body continued to shimmer with flames. Izanagi saw from the corner of his eyes a rip. At least, it looked like a rip. A sliver of nothing. Just blackness appearing before him.

Roaring in pain, Izanagi grabbed his sword and thrashed the rip into multiple pieces. He spend the next few moments just crying out, tearing at everything with the blade of his sword.

Izanagi… You have a destiny. A destiny of greatness.

“Who is that? Who, who can speak while my love withers in pain?”

She is but a small part in your Journey here. You are to come to the Underworld now. You have yet to Awaken. Become the Overseer of Self.

Izanagi screamed. His hands bloody. His breathing shuddered. Filled with rage. A rage so intense Izanagi did not care for his actions or words. All he wanted was Izanumi back.

It is your destiny.

“NO!” Izanagi roared, “SHE is my destiny and you took her away! You took me away! I will never forgive you. I will never bend to your will!” His eyes shone of a man whose soul has rotten beyond repair.

You cannot deny your purpose. You must–

“AHHH!” Izanagi screamed. With an effortless swift, Izanagi shoved the Crimson Blade into the Void itself.

Not even the echo of Izanagi’s scream bounced off the walls of his home. With The Void no longer leaving an ominous eerie presence around him, Izanagi finally collapsed his warrior stance into the ashes of his beloved. He could no longer cry as all the water within miles had evaporated from the intense heat of Kagutsuchi.

You need to be an Overseer.

“Didn’t I kill you?” Izanagi’s hands hovered over the ashes of his beloved. His voice hollow and lifeless.

There is no life to take.

“You took her. You allowed this to happen. You are everywhere…everything. You allowed me to create something that took her away. You… I failed…,” Izanagi’s voice slowed into something just above a calm whisper. “I need her back.”

That is not—-

“No.” Izanagi grabbed a dagger from his belt and brought it to his throat. “You want me to be an Overseer or whatever? Give her back to me.” Izanagi sat up as a soft breeze came through the ruins of his family home. It lifted Izanumi all around and off into the universe. Izanagi tried to not think about the last time he touched her.

A scorching heat formed flames around the remains of Kagutsuchi. Out of them, arose 3 entirely new powerful deities. Kagutsuchi’s power hungered for more. It’s gluttonous appetite lurched for Izanagi. He opened his arms–covered in sores and burns from their last battle. Defenseless, alone. Izanagi’s pain choked all hope. All light. All darkness. Leaving absolutely nothing in it’s shadow.