[Yoshitsune]

The mission was not one that was well considered.

I was feeling some sort of nostalgia in the tent city amongst the preparation of the army. The armor was different and the commanders were detestable creatures that made no efforts to hide their horrific natures, but it still filled me with feelings of longing towards the past. Despite how things had ended for me, I missed the simpler life of the samurai that I once lived.

I saw volunteering to save Herzblatt as an opportunity to regain a semblance of that feeling of fighting for a cause that I found righteous. As much respect that I felt towards Ishmael-san, I knew that he did not hold much in righteousness nor did he want me involved in his fight.

When we split up, nerves that I had not felt in a long time flowed through my body. My stomach and fingers felt light with anticipation and my mind was sharp with ideas.

None of that remained any longer.

This rhino that led us was inflexible in his strategy, reminding me of headstrong commanders that I once served with. Honor and combat was always in the direction that their swords pointed. Their victories and defeats were always devastating to the losing army.

The inner ring was expected to have gaps for us to slip through. However, we had broken through the initial defenses more quickly than we had expected. Conventional wisdom would suggest that the bulk of the forces that failed to reach the primary defenses would have settled around the next line of defense.

I could feel the energy in the rhino shift when he saw that there were troops clogging the streets in front of us. One simple deviation that was not expressly explained by Vendetta had already left him confused. Only seeing that we were clearly outnumbered by the enemy caused him to order us to tuck between the alleyways to report the situation to the orangutan and await any further orders.

We sat securely while new orders came in. I used the pause to take the moment to appraise the rest of the squad. From what I was led to believe, these were the elites of Vendetta’s group. But, to me, they seemed no stronger than the Supervisors in the slave army. In fact, I was, by far, the strongest person in the group.

“The Correspondent says that the battle on the main front is too intense to expect a response from Leader Vendetta,” the rhino reported.

“Then we are going to wait for these lines to shift to reinforce and move when they are weakened?” I asked.

“No,” the rhino denied, much to my confusion. “We will charge here and alleviate the pressure off of Leader Vendetta.”

“But the mission-“

“The mission will succeed if Vendetta kills Armaros,” the rhino asserted firmly. “Leader Vendetta only dispatched us over here to stroke the Slaver Emperor’s ego. Come on, everyone, it’s time to show that we are the forces that drove the Grigori mad for all these years!”

With a roar of agreement, the group rushed from their covered positions to assault the line of Grigori. Their feet smacked against the ground and their voices competed with the blaring of sirens.

I did not follow.

This was not my mission. I had not joined to be killed in the service of another lord. I kept low and near the walls and utilized the shadows to carry me as close to the fighting as possible without being detected.

The lines had already fallen into disarray as the rhino led his troops face-first into the enemy. Nobody noticed a single red portal appear behind the lines. Nobody noticed me disappear from the alley and float through my subspace. No eyes or senses turned towards me as I cleared their defenses with a single spell and slipped back into the darkness.

I quickly moved towards the location on my map. The plaza beyond the inner line of defense did not offer much in the way of cover. The sky was suffocated in the fight of flying demons and all it took was one mistimed glance to jeopardize my position.

The location was in an unassuming building on the side of the cathedral. It would have been more assuming if there were not a pair of Grigori standing in attention on either side of the doors.

They were recruits. It was not just because guard duty was a common job for young samurai in the armies I served under. Their bodies exuded a lack of experience. I could feel the nerves flow off of them. Their posture was rigid and I could feel their attention constantly shifted towards the sounds of the main battle. They were covered in openings that were waiting for my sword to bite into.

I reaffirmed in my mind that these were not youths pressed to battle. These were criminals that were sent down here for horrible acts; having a soft heart was inexcusable.

Lightning was too loud. I stepped into one of my portals and dropped myself right above the clueless heads of the guards. With a wide-arcing slash, my sword bit through the wrists of the unprepared demons and severed their weapons from their body. As a shriek of pain combatted the blaring siren, I flashed my sword across their bodies until they both lied dead upon the ground.

I hurried and reached for the doors. I only had a few minutes to locate Herzblatt before the pair revived and reported my infiltration.

They would not budge. A shimmer of magic revealed the lock in place. I took a deep breath. This was not something that was unexpected. Just as Vendetta had shown us during our escape, I pressed the tip of my blade to the surface of the spell and released a powerful blast of electricity that blew the doors down.

I hurried in like a field mouse and leapt down the stairs at great speed. Another set of doors awaited me at the bottom, but I didn't even bother trying them before I blasted them open again.

As expected, there were no Grigori down here; there were far too many more pressing posts to be assigned too.

I moved through the prisons unimpeded. A strong scent of blood and oil filled my nose. The sounds of pained groans deafened my footsteps. I could feel the presence of these unfortunate souls from the other side of the iron bars. I could feel them watching me with pleading eyes from their unnaturally twisted positions. They were begging me with broken mouths for me to go over and save them.

I wished so badly to fulfill their wish, but their foolish rescuer had taken all available hands and crushed them against the Grigori’s shields. I was but one person and had to choose my targets carefully.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

A waft of familiarity tickled my nose through the host of appalling odors and untwisted my pained heart. I snapped my head in the direction of the smell and inhaled sharply. Mixed in with the rest of the horrific scents, I found it again. The specific odor of dog fur that I stood in close proximity to for an entire Dungeon could not be mistaken.

Herzblatt was nearby.

I hunted down their presence. I had to blind and deafen myself to the overwhelming amount of suffering and harden my heart to the sickening feeling of turning my back to them. My head swept from side to side, from victim to victim, until I finally found the familiar aura.

A weak groan of recognition echoed from the other side of the cage. I smashed against the mana surrounding the cell, but found it stiffer than I anticipated. Instead of depleting myself in a power struggle to rip the magic asunder, I thought of a less demanding solution. I pressed my hands against the mana surface and sent Herzblatt a Party invitation.

“Herzblatt, accept the invitation.”

All I received in response was a whine of pain. It was alright, it was expected that something would likely interfere. Though I had not tried before, I opened my ability beneath Herzblatt and mentally allowed him access to the portal. The dog seamlessly slipped into my subspace and I quickly joined him from my side to assess his condition.

It was poor.

His body was strapped to a chair studded with sharp protrusions that dug into his flesh with every movement, much like the room I first arrived in when I was sentenced to this realm. His body was twisted and fastened in place to ensure maximum discomfort and a studded plug was rammed in his mouth.

I made quick work of the chair, dismantling it in a few strikes now that its connection to the room’s mana had been severed. I ripped the plug from his mouth and immediately shoved a couple potions in to keep him alive.

He sputtered with life and his form began to fill with relief. His breathing slowed and he managed to rise to his feet under his own power.

“Herzblatt, are you alright?”

A knife jabbed into my ribs as Herzblatt’s aura shifted into something malicious and unrecognizable. I leapt away as he rose to his feet and popped his joints to grow far taller than he had ever been. The scent faded away to be replaced by the sharp odors of death and pain and hopelessness.

“Never better, little rat,” the wicked voice that was not Herzblatt hissed.

I jumped through one out of my subspace and canceled my ability in the hopes that the demon would be trapped within the ether between dimensions. I held my sword and tensed my muscles to pounce. But, I was unable to sense the presence any longer.

“Sister.”

I spun around to slice down the original of the voice. Air was sucked through my teeth as I forced muscles to stop. My blade cut fell short at the aura that met me. An aura the shade of cherry blossoms rested against the edge of my blade. A summer’s breeze caressed my body as I was transported away from the battlefield and to the tree near our home. The blood of my clan’s hope ran down the length of my blade while tears squeezed through the fingers that suffocated my face.

Kinjirō.

“Brother. It is only upon meeting you that I realize just how long I’ve been down here in this place,” I said weakly, the realization became an armor so heavy that only the gods could wear it. “Look upon me, the wicked sister that sullied your brother’s name and died before you had grown. Learn from my mistakes. Place your humanity over that of your loyalty to your Daimyo. It is the only way that you will never make it down here.”

I knew that it wasn’t real, that I was opening myself up for more pain. But, I had to say something and selfishly feel that catharsis before dispelling the illusion from sight.

It was harder than I thought, thrusting the blade into the form of my brother. Thoughts of how he lived his life entered my head. Did the war end before he grew old enough to participate? Did he marry into a good clan to elevate our status? Did he live a life with honor and virtue and happiness?

Was he down here too?

I understood Ishmael-san better when he spoke of his wife. I understood his words of not wishing to see them again out of love.

I felt a wound rake across my body; my price for my self-indulgence. My health lowered greatly and icons brought illness to my blood. A swish of my blade ended my dream and removed my brother from sight for what I sincerely hoped was the last time.

Laughter echoed through the cages and off of the cold stone walls that existed behind the polish of this fake world. What sort of sickening creature was this that could steal the love from my mind and make it physical once again?

Emotion that verged on madness flowed through me. I futilely shot lightning in several different directions in the hopes that I damaged my foe. My power ripped across the fake landscape like a fire across a fine tapestry. Beautiful scenes were ripped away to show the cruel place that I still stood in underneath.

A tap on my arm formed a ball in my throat that threatened to choke me. Ryōichi, my poor cursed brother, held onto my elbow and looked at me with the same innocent eyes that he always had when the day was nice and he was able to spend time outside.

I could not hesitate this time. Someone so incapable of malice would never find themselves in this place. A soul like his would never collect soot on his feet as he took the steps towards bliss.

So I killed his memory without a second thought. My heart shattered into countless pieces while I kept my face stoic. I refused to allow the demon to feel any sort of joy from this suffering. As the form of my brother faded, I felt strands of my tormentor intermingled in the pure aura. I snapped my head in that direction and sprinted along the trail set out for me. I had to find them and kill them. Not even Uragoe made me feel so incensed.

“…”

Static filled my ears and caused me to stumble. I heard something familiar that I was not supposed to hear. The sound scrambled in my brain and made it impossible to decipher. The scent of autumnal oak filled my nose.

The aura that stood opposite was simultaneously strong and weak. They were my foundation as well as the person that filled me with anxious worry. But, I had already met him as I left the Bowels. I had already poured out my heart to him and created those seeds of doubt that got me betrayed and thrown in the tar. Last time, I could not face him properly. This time, I did not have that apprehension.

“Goodbye, Father,” I bade farewell as I destroyed his memory.

Auras grew around me and dread filled my heart. I was back in the village. The angry yelling of the officials filled my ears and the hands around my neck tightened with righteous fury. If joy wasn’t enough to bring me down, they were going to try shame.

If these were the real victims, I would have cut off my own arms and kneeled in surrender to their mercy. But, they weren’t and that judgment would never reach me. Instead, I allowed the hands to wring the air from my throat with each strike. The demon’s weapons ripped across my skin from a place that I could not see and the nausea from the poison made my stance wobbly. But, I gritted my teeth and I slashed and stabbed and killed until there was only one left.

Me.

It all fell away to reveal something equally as horrifying. The cages immediately around me were blown open, their magic shattered and the occupants dead. In one of those cages was the scent of Herzblatt.

“Maybe I really haven’t changed,” I muttered to myself.

With a defeated sigh, I rose to my feet and walked towards Herzblatt’s body. Their tortured faces were finally peaceful and free from pain. I would have to free him before he woke up again.

But, my hands did not reach for him in comfort. Instead, my tired face grimaced in rage and my sword plunged into his neck. The demon snapped awake as lightning coursed into their neck. They reached up to rip the sword out only for the blade to bite deep into their knuckles and sunder their fingers from their hands.

“Did you think I was going to fall for the same ruse twice?” I demanded as I endlessly coursed lightning into the demon’s body. Their skin bubbled and their eyes popped.

I abated my lightning for a moment before shooting it back into their limb body. I still didn’t trust it and started chopping at their body. Flesh and blood coated the ground like rainfall. But, the demon did not rise again and their disgusting scent seeped from the remains.

As I heaved from the exertion, I could finally sense Herzblatt in the next room. Without any caution, I smashed the mana barrier and rushed into the cage to remove the dog from the device that rendered so much pain upon them. This time, my potions were used on the right target.

“Ah, Yoshitsune, my blood-stained angel. I knew that I made the right decision taking God’s opportunity. Look how He’s given me another.”

“Don’t say pointless things,” I snapped. “We need to get out of here.”

The ceiling above us shook like an earthquake, sending dislodged rocks and debris down onto the floor. I could feel that something had changed above us. Something that made Herzblatt smile with a zealous faith that I could not comprehend. All it did was concern me.

“We should not turn away from these signs, my friend,” Herzblatt advised with a starving smile. “A new opportunity awaits us.”