Yamata no Orochi had been unsealed, and it posed a threat even greater than that of Shuten Doji. Orochi was no ordinary demon; he was revered as the literal God of Snakes and was far more lethal than any other ultimate demon known. The gap between High Class and Ultimate Class Demons was already ridiculous, but the difference between Yamata No Orochi and most other Ultimate Class Demons was outright outrageous!
Mere proximity to Orochi had obliterated Ultimate Class Demons, leaving them scattered like dust or melted flesh. Even The Magician had to resort to unorthodox tricks to seal the monster.
Had Orochi broken through the bindings? Shouldn’t the Magician's spirit appear and re-seal it whenever it came close to fully manifesting? It was a one-time occurrence and a last resort a father had placed to keep his son safe. Subsequently, Agon was supposed to gain control of Orochi's power bit by bit. Being the only entity immune to Orochi's poison, he fought the Ultimate Class Demon countless times within his own mind, gradually absorbing its power.
But something had changed. Orochi was not supposed to find a way to break the seal. That was a significant alteration from the original story!
Agon turned toward me, and his serpentine eyes bore into mine. "Well, well, well. Look who we have here," he sneered. "Did you really think I would forget what you did?"
In that split second when Orochi's attention was on Kon, Kidomaru struck him on the back of the head with a bat, causing him to create a ravine as his body flew off like a ragdoll.
Kidomaru did not stop his attacks and lunged at me. Even with Perfect Me activated, I barely had enough time to react. The demon swung his spiked bat with ferocity, and I summoned a cushion of water to protect myself. But it was no use – the bat smashed through the water and struck me with a sickening thud. Pain erupted from my left eye, and my arms snapped in half.
Thanks to Perfect Me, I had sacrificed my arms to shield myself from Kidomaru's attack that would have killed me. The spikes on the bat had extended, and one punctured my eye, leaving me reeling in agony.
Kidomaru pushed harder on the bat, and I was sent hurtling through the air like a human cannonball. The figures of Sei and the others grew smaller and smaller until they were mere specks in the distance.
I tried to summon water to slow my descent, but it was useless. Perfect Me continued to accelerate my speed, and I was moving too fast to gather any water. It was a good thing too, since if I had stopped suddenly, my organs would have been destroyed.
As my broken arms started to move back into place, I felt a strange sensation as my cells split and regenerated rapidly. However, I grew more exhausted with each passing second. Healing wasn’t Perfect Me’s strong suit.
Water sprang from my wet clothes and formed a blob around me as I slammed against a mountaintop. Two of my ribs cracked and broke, and I slammed onto another mountain, finally stopping my descent. However, the explosion from my landing was loud enough for any demon in the vicinity to hear.
Perfect Me shut off, unable to complete its order. I sighed and activated it again, and it healed me before Carpy and I separated; that way he wouldn’t have any lingering injuries.
The harsh sun stung my eyes, and I used my arm to shield them. In the darkness, I took a breather, comforted by the fact that with Carpy around, I didn’t have to worry about sneak attacks.
The serene calmness that spread through me reminded me of something I didn’t want to think about. Bets was dead, and I could do nothing about it. Reality was cruel, and it only took a split second to take a longtime friend away. "Fuck…"
Yet, I didn’t have much time to think about it. All the healing had taken a toll on me, and fatigue settled over me. "Carpy, keep a lookout… move us if needed."
After that, my eyes shut, and I passed out instantly. A heaviness settled over my body as if I were at the bottom of an ocean bed. Perfect Me or not, I was only human, and there were only so many hits from an Ultimate Class demon I could withstand.
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Although it was surprising I had survived at all, Kidomaru must have been weakened by Yamata No Orochi’s poison. Even though the poison was incomparable to when it was at full power, it didn’t mean any old demon could get poisoned and walk away unscathed.
When Yamata No Orochi used his poison at full power, it could kill concepts themselves.
That was such plot armor bullshit cheating ability…
…
When I opened my eyes, I felt terrible. My lips were dry, my stomach was rumbling, and I found myself in a dingy cave.
Where was Carpy?
The darkness was all around me, and the only sound I could hear was the water dripping from jagged stalactites.
I tried to get my bearings, but I couldn't remember how I got there. It was strange that I wasn't panicking, but as long as there was no ultimate class demon around, the situation didn't seem so bad.
At least my clothes were still on, but my standards for what I considered 'safe' had dropped to rock bottom.
I wandered around the cave, but there was no sign of Carpy or any other living creature. Walking along felt like stumbling through an endless tunnel. Without Carpy around, I was on edge and jumpy around every corner.
From the condition of my body, I realized I hadn't eaten or drank anything in days. Thanks to my Ord, I wasn't as bad off as a normal person would be in these conditions.
But Carpy would never let me fall into such a state, which was worrying. I hadn't seen Carpy or received any messages from him.
Kidomaru had blasted us in a direction that should have led us deep into enemy territory, just behind their demon army's lines.
Suddenly, I heard the sound of a crackling fire and saw some light just around one of the corners. I approached the corner cautiously and peered over the edge.
To my surprise, it was just Agon roasting something that looked like the fusion between a rat and a crab.
"You're also here!" he exclaimed and turned toward me.
There were many people with shapeshifting abilities in this world, so I asked him a question only we would know. "Do you remember our first meeting?"
He nodded innocently and answered as if this was a normal question. "Of course, you punched me in the face so hard that I ended up slamming on the vending machine."
Technically, that wasn't our first meeting. The first time he met me was when the original Kon bullied him. But he seemed to have forgotten about that, and me punching him was something that only I and the real Kon could know.
"Where are we?" I asked.
"Do you want the short or the long version?" he replied.
"Short," I said, looking around for anything suspicious.
"Well, we're trapped," he said.
That was it? When I said short, I didn't mean that short!
Taking a deep breath, I calmed my nerves and prepared to face Agon. "Tell me the long version," I said.
Agon launched into a distracting and disjointed story, punctuated by unnecessary hand gestures and sound effects. "You went— baam! The snake was mad since he wanted to be the one to murder you, so he went to kill the demon after it escaped Sei's mirrors. When he started releasing more poison though, I quickly took back control of my body so he wouldn’t endanger everyone around us. But the demon guy used this chance to hit me with his spiked bat— though he didn't come out victorious because Sei managed to trap him in his mirrors for real. At least that's what I saw while flying off, but I feel like Sei and the others wouldn't die so easily!"
I barely understood what he meant by that. Also, I had so many questions, like how Kidomaru had escaped from Sei's mirrors? How could Agon control Yamata No Orochi but regain control when he saw that the ultimate class demon was doing something bad? But I knew that asking him any more questions would only lead to more confusion, and we had to get out of there.
"How did we end up here?" I inquired.
"Do you want the short version or the long-"
"I will split your head open with a rock," I interrupted him. "Explain in twenty words or less."
"Carpy acted as part of the demon army and imprisoned us to save us from other demons," Agon replied, counting the words on his fingers.
Despite my frustration with his lack of clarity, I knew the gist of the situation: we were in some kind of prison/hideout.
A black cat crawled out from the corner and meowed. "That's where you were, Blacky!" Agon exclaimed, scooping up the feline in a hug. The cat tried to push him away with her paws but couldn't escape his grasp.
As Agon held the cat, I noticed two things: one, it was female, and two, she had two tails.
Where the fuck did he find that?