A Tale of Forgotten Gods

Chapter 123: The Weather Duo

The lightning struck the tree.

The wind violently picked up around the giant cedar tree. The pink blossoms were suddenly ripped from the grass as the sky became chaotic. Her gaze laid on two large swirling storm clouds rapidly descending toward the clearing. Hidden within the gale, the sinister laughter of the Weather Duo demons echoed through the valleys.

Kikyo leaped to his feet, his fox tail bristling in absolute terror. ”They are coming!”

Kiyori dropped her stick, her fingers adjusting the shard pouch at her waist. Her spiritual eyes locked onto the dark mountain peaks where she sensed the presence of Shikon shards.

The bruised purple sky roared as the lightning illuminated the mountain. The air grew heavy with the burning scent of the wood as it transformed to charcoal. From the swirling vortex of the black storm clouds, two figures slowly materialized, floating effortlessly above the swaying canopy of the cedar forest.

The Weather Duo. One of these two demons, Raijin, possessed a yellow skin, with stone drums floating in a ring behind his back. The second demon behind him, Fujin, was slender and pale, his long hair whipping like wild tendrils around a massive leather windbag draped over his shoulders. But what made them dangerous tonight was the unnatural, pulsing silver light glowing directly beneath the flesh of their chests.

They had embedded fragments of the Shikon Jewel into their bodies. The pure demonic energy coming out of them had multiplied, causing the surrounding grass to wither and turn to black ash instantly.

”Look what we found, brother.” Raijin boomed, then struck two of his drums together, sending a shower of sparks down toward the clearing. ”The little brat has been hiding there with that priestess!”

Fujin laughed a whistling sound that made the tree trunks split open. ”Let me blow her bones away first!”

Down by the ancient cedar tree, Kikyo whimpered, burying his head against Kiyori’s shoulder. His small fox tail was shaking uncontrollably. ”Their power is too big! The shards are making them crazy!”

Kiyori stood up slowly, brushing the dry grass off her traditional white and red shrine maiden robes. Her piercing stare hardened at the two demons flying in the sky. Her gaze lay on the animals running away; some of them ran while being injured, like the sika deer, badgers, serows, wolves, etc.

But as she looked up at the arrogant, sneering faces of the demons, her expression shifted into anger.

She watched the animals run as another thunder prepared to strike them, but before it could hit the land, its direction shifted by an unbreakable spiritual barrier.

”How pathetic of you to hurt the weak.” Kiyori pulled out her bow, her eyes narrowing as she stepped in front of Kikyo. Her terrifying spiritual pressure instantly surrounded the whole forest.

She reached her hand behind her and pulled out a long, fletched arrow and notched it against the bowstring.

”What the hell!” Fujin shrieked.

Raijin stepped back a few steps in the air. ”That immense pressure...”

She untied the heavy knot of her leather windbag, aiming the massive nozzle directly at the clearing.

FWOOOOOOM!

An immensely strong tornado made out of spiritual power erupted from the sacred arrow and launched toward them. The arrow split into two, reaching toward them within a blink.

Both of them threw their hands forward. Using the thunderstorm, they tried to block the arrow, but the power of the shard did nothing to stop them even for a millisecond.

Both of their bodies scattered instantly, falling down on the ground and landing on the ground with a thud.

Kiyori’s clothes fluttered in the strong wind caused by the weather duo as she watched them fall coldly.

Both of their bodies rearranged as the shard increased their regeneration.

They combined their powers and created a strong gust as the gale-force wind tore the ancient cedar tree right out of the soil, ripping giant boulders from the earth and launching a massive wall of debris straight toward Kiyori. The pressure was immense, threatening to flatten her before the rocks could even touch her.

Kiyori took a deep breath. As the boulders approached her, she raised her bow, and they collided with her barrier before pushing them backward toward the demons, and without wasting a second, she pulled out another arrow, drawing the bowstring back until it touched her cheek.

She locked her eyes entirely on the glowing black shard inside Fujin’s chest.

Innate purification energy, sparkling, pristine, and blindingly white, poured from her fingertips and coated the entire length of the arrow. The sacred light flared so brightly that it pierced right through the oncoming darkness. ”Go!” Kiyori shouted, releasing the string.

SWIF!

The arrow shot forward, creating a line of spiritual power, and the moment the sacred arrow collided with the roaring tornado, a spectacular reaction occurred. The purification energy expanded violently outward, then shifted the wind coming toward here and cleansed its malicious demonic weight. The arrow collapsed into a gentle breeze that scattered soft pink petals across the grass. ℯℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Some of the injured animals behind her slowed down near a stone behind.

Yet, the arrow didn’t stop there only; it zipped right through the collapsing gale, heading straight for Fujin’s heart.

”What?!” Fujin’s eyes widened in sheer panic and moved back to try to dodge, but the sacred light was too fast.

THWACK!

The arrow pierced his shoulder. Instantly, a massive burst of blinding white flames erupted from the wound, then the Shikon shard embedded in Fujin’s shoulder and clicked against the ground, then dropped near Raijin who watched her effortlessly defeating him. With only two arrows, Kiyori had lowered his will to escape.

Fujin screamed as blood came out of his arm, then another screech when the purification light began to melt his demonic flesh entirely, turning his arm into ash. Without the high regeneration of the shard, he couldn’t recover from that purification.

”Brother!” Raijin shouted at Fujin. Seeing his sibling mutilated in a single shot, he struck all his stone drums simultaneously.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The sky turned pitch black as many blindingly blue lightning bolts rained down from the sky, targeting the clearing in a coordinated strike. The raw power of the Shikon shard turned the lightning into a localized apocalypse.

Kiyori quickly moved, her hands grabbed Kikyo first, and then she avoided the thunder with a swift movement. Her spiritual pressure instantly subverted the thunder’s strike.

She pulled out a few talismans and threw them toward the animals as they clung to the ground, creating a barrier that stopped the thunder from reaching them.

”Purification.” She screamed, slamming her palm against the earth as she avoided a lightning bolt with a flip.

A vast light of her spiritual power erupted from her palm and reached for the demonic lightning, then crashed against them as a purifying dragon of her spiritual power stopped the strikes, creating giant craters around the perimeter.

The earth shook violently, and cracks formed on the surface as she jumped back.

Raijin lunged at the two shards on the ground and stabbed them in his chest. The black shards enhanced his powers even further.

Her arms trembled under the crushing weight of Raijin’s fury, as she was still a human who only used spiritual power to enhance her physical capabilities.

Kiyori grunted and pulled out another arrow and pointed it toward the furious Raijin. ”I’m not done yet.”

With that, she launched her arrow toward him.

Using the shard, he moved fast and avoided the arrow, which was impossibly fast already and appeared behind her.

...

Which soon became his biggest mistake.

Raijin’s body got instantly crushed under her spiritual pressure; even with the shard, he couldn’t handle it and rushed outside.

Coming out of her spiritual pressure, he regenerated his broken bones and grunted, almost feeling the weight of the whole mountain being slammed onto him.

Using that distraction, Kiyori threw a few talismans, sealing the demon behind the barrier, and pulled out another arrow and let it go from her grip.

The arrow pierced through the air, disappeared, and appeared right in front of him, becoming five of the arrows. All of them stabbed through different parts of his body and pushed the shards out, then burnt his entire body into ashes.

She heaved a long sigh of relief and ran toward the shard, just then, suddenly, a large flame occurred in the whole area around the shard.

A man walked inside the flames and grabbed the shard as he glanced at her. He was wearing a flame-symbol robe with orange hair and red eyes like flames. The man scoffed before turning away and walked away.

Watching the man walk away with the shards, Kiyori’s expression faltered. He was inside the flames and had already walked away with them.

”No!”

She pulled out another arrow, but her hand caught out empty air. There were no arrows anymore, but she remembered she had more.

Her eyes widened as she remembered how the weight shifted when she was climbing, and now she could only watch him leave with five shards as the flame died slowly behind.

”Tch.”