I Enslaved The Goddess Who Summoned Me

Shiina vanished.

The space where she had stood split apart beneath the force of her movement.

Nathan barely had time to raise Kyomei.

CLANG!

Her katana struck from above.

The impact drove him into the ground hard enough to crack the earth beneath his feet. Dark power burst around him as he blocked, but Shiina did not stop at one strike.

The blue blade in her left hand came immediately after.

Nathan twisted aside.

The shorter sword passed across his chest, cutting through the outer layer of his gray kimono and leaving a shallow line of blood beneath it.

Shiina was already behind him.

Nathan turned.

Her katana came for his neck.

He blocked.

BAAAADOOM!

A blast of black and blue energy tore through the field.

Nathan was launched backward, his feet carving long lines in the dry earth before he stopped. He did not have time to steady himself.

Shiina appeared again.

Her two-sword stance had changed everything.

Before, she had fought with controlled precision, using every movement to push Nathan into the next opening. Now she became impossible to predict. The katana in her right hand controlled the space before her, cutting powerful arcs that forced Nathan to block or move.

The blue short blade in her left hand attacked the moments in between.

It came from angles that should not have existed.

A low cut toward his knee.

A sudden thrust toward his throat.

A reverse strike toward his ribs as she turned away.

Nathan raised Kyomei again and again.

CLANG!

CLANG!

CLANG!

Each clash sent shockwaves through the empty field.

The grass was gone now.

The ground had been torn apart beneath their feet, reduced to shattered earth, frost, and deep black scars left by Nathan’s dark magic. Every time Shiina’s blade struck the ground, ice spread through the soil in thin blue lines. Every time Kyomei hit the earth, darkness split it open.

Nathan blocked another strike.

Shiina’s katana crashed against Kyomei.

The pressure behind it was greater than before.

Far greater.

Nathan pushed back with his own strength, but Shiina used the force against him. Her body spun to the side, and the blue short sword cut toward the inside of his arm.

Nathan pulled away.

Too slow.

The blade cut him.

Blood ran down his forearm.

Shiina landed behind him.

Nathan swung Kyomei toward her without turning fully.

She bent backward beneath the dark blade, her hair almost touching the ground. Then she sprang away, her katana already moving.

A sharp blue crescent rushed toward Nathan.

He raised one hand.

Dark magic exploded before him.

The blue attack collided with the darkness.

BOOOOM!

Nathan was thrown back again.

This time, he slammed into the side of a low hill.

The impact cracked stone behind him.

Dust covered his face and clothes.

He pushed himself away just as Shiina appeared above him.

Both swords came down.

Nathan crossed Kyomei before him.

The katana struck first.

The short blade followed a fraction of a second later.

BAAAADOOM!

The hill behind Nathan split apart.

A large crack raced through the stone, sending broken pieces crashing down around them. Nathan forced Shiina’s swords away and kicked toward her midsection.

Shiina twisted in the air.

His foot struck only her armor’s side, but the force still sent her flying across the field.

She landed cleanly.

Nathan emerged from the collapsing dust cloud.

Blood ran from several cuts now.

One across his side.

Another from his forearm.

A thin line near his shoulder where Shiina’s katana had almost reached deeper.

He could feel the poison inside his body reacting to the strain.

The old mark near his neck burned.

His breathing remained steady, but he knew the truth.

Shiina had become too fast.

Her magic made every movement sharper. Her blue energy enhanced her body, her swordsmanship, and the strength behind every attack. Miyamoto Musashi’s two-sword style was already difficult to face. In Shiina’s hands, supported by magic and a lifetime of training, it had become terrifying.

Nathan had fought enemies whose raw strength was greater than his.

But Shiina was not trying to overpower him.

She was dismantling him.

One movement at a time.

One opening at a time.

One cut at a time.

Nathan raised Kyomei.

Dark power gathered around the blade.

Then he swung.

Three black crescents tore through the air in rapid succession.

Shiina moved.

The first cut passed over her shoulder.

The second missed her by inches as she twisted aside.

The third came toward her from below.

Shiina crossed both weapons before her.

Blue power erupted around her swords.

BOOOOM!

The dark crescent shattered.

Shiina burst through the cloud of black energy, moving directly toward Nathan.

Nathan met her halfway.

Their blades collided.

Then their swords became a storm.

Kyomei struck from the right.

Shiina’s katana blocked it.

Her short blade cut toward Nathan’s wrist.

He turned Kyomei, catching the smaller weapon against the flat of his blade.

Shiina shifted her weight.

Her katana came down.

Nathan forced the short sword aside and ducked beneath the strike.

The katana passed through the air above his head, slicing through a distant boulder. The stone split in two and collapsed behind him.

Nathan attacked her exposed side.

Shiina spun away.

Her heel struck his chest.

The impact sent him back several steps.

She appeared before him again.

Nathan blocked one strike.

Then another.

Then another.

His arms began to feel heavy.

Not from exhaustion alone.

The poison was still inside him.

It had weakened since he first received it, but every time he released large amounts of magic, every time his blood rushed faster through his body, the remaining poison seemed to awaken.

A cold numbness crept through his left shoulder.

Shiina saw it.

Her eyes narrowed.

She did not speak.

She only attacked harder.

Nathan barely caught her next blow.

Kyomei shook in his hand.

Shiina’s katana pressed down on it while the shorter blue sword drove toward the gap between his ribs.

Nathan released a burst of darkness from his body.

The black energy threw Shiina back before her blade could pierce him.

She slid across the ground, then stopped.

Nathan stood alone in the center of a widening circle of darkness.

Black smoke curled from his shoulders.

His clothes were torn.

Blood marked his arm and side.

The mask still covered his face, but the force of Shiina’s attacks had cracked part of its edge.

Shiina stood opposite him, breathing heavier now, though she remained far less wounded.

Her armor carried a few cuts.

A thin line of blood ran down one cheek where Kyomei’s energy had grazed her.

But she was still in control.

Nathan understood something he did not want to admit.

If the battle continued like this, she could kill him.

Not because he lacked power.

Not because he had not fought enemies more dangerous than her.

But because he could not bring himself to use everything against Shiina.

He was still choosing his strikes.

Still avoiding attacks that would end her life.

Shiina had no such hesitation.

She had chosen her side.

And she was fighting as though she had already accepted that she might die for it.

Nathan’s eyes darkened behind the mask.

Dark magic was not enough.

It could protect him.

It could push Shiina back.

It could match the force of her attacks for a time.

But it could not overcome the gap created by her speed, her two-sword style, and the frightening clarity of her resolve.

He needed something else.

Something he did not want to use.

The wind changed.

Shiina noticed it first.

The darkness around Nathan began sinking closer to the ground.

It did not rise like smoke anymore.

It spread.

Thin black shadows flowed over the broken earth, moving away from him in slow, unnatural waves. The field became colder. Not with the clean cold of Shiina’s blue magic.

This cold carried dread.

Shiina’s expression shifted.

Nathan lowered Kyomei slightly.

Then the darkness behind him moved.

At first, it looked like smoke gathering into thicker shapes.

Then faces began emerging from it.

One face.

Then five.

Then dozens.

They rose around Nathan in twisting black forms, half visible and half swallowed by shadow. Their eyes were wide empty sockets, blacker than the darkness around them. Their mouths stood open in silent screams.

More faces appeared.

Some were stretched thin.

Some seemed to cry.

Some looked almost human before the shadows distorted them again.

They circled Nathan’s body.

Their open mouths moved.

And then the field filled with screams.

Not ordinary screams.

They sounded distant and close at once, like cries coming from beneath the earth, inside the wind, and directly behind Shiina’s ears. The sound did not carry words. It carried fear.

The Curse of Pandora had awakened.

Shiina flinched.

For the first time since she began using Niten Ichi, her stance broke.

Her blue swords lowered slightly.

Her eyes widened as the countless black faces turned toward her.

”That...” she whispered.

The screaming shapes twisted faster around Nathan.

Darkness rose over his shoulders and arms, wrapping around him like a living cloak.

Shiina’s fingers tightened around her weapons.

”That is what you used against Mitsuhide.”

Nathan said nothing.

The faces screamed again.

Shiina’s jaw tightened.

”It was terrifying even from far away,” she said, forcing herself to steady her breathing. ”But being on the other side of it...”

Her red eyes moved across the black forms surrounding him.

”It is worse than I imagined.”

Nathan’s voice came low from behind the damaged mask.

”It is not too late.”

The cursed faces shifted toward Shiina.

Their mouths opened wider.

”Give up,” Nathan said.

For a moment, Shiina did not move.

The field had become a place of nightmares.

The sunlight above them still shone, but it looked weak now. The darkness around Nathan seemed to consume its warmth. The air felt heavier. Every breath Shiina took came with the sound of distant screaming.

The Curse of Pandora pressed against her mind.

It whispered without words.

It showed her nothing clearly, but it made every fear inside her feel closer.

Fear of losing Norihiro.

Fear of Minami Kyoto falling.

Fear that Nathan was right.

Fear that she had already chosen a path with no end except death.

Shiina shut her eyes.

Her shoulders trembled once.

Nathan watched her.

He did not move.

He did not want the curse to break her.

He only wanted her to understand.

To see that this did not need to end with one of them dead.

But when Shiina opened her eyes again, the uncertainty had vanished.

Her red gaze became hard.

”No.”

Nathan’s grip tightened around Kyomei.

Shiina raised her katana.

The blue sword in her left hand brightened.

”You told me to give everything I have,” she said.

Her voice was quiet now.

No teasing.

No sadness.

Only resolve.

”Then do not ask me to stop when I finally do.”

The field shook.

Blue magic erupted from Shiina’s body.

It rose upward in a pillar of cold light, tearing through the dark pressure around her. Frost spread in every direction. The damaged earth froze. Rocks cracked beneath the sudden drop in temperature. The distant trees bent under a fierce wave of freezing wind.

The black faces screamed louder.

Shiina’s blue magic answered.

Her katana glowed like a strip of sky caught in her hand.

The short sword of blue energy grew longer, becoming more solid, more deadly. A second aura formed behind her, taking the faint shape of countless sword strokes layered over one another.

Nathan’s eyes narrowed.

Shiina had not merely released more power.

She had reached deeper.

The field around her changed.

The air filled with blue lines.

At first, Nathan thought they were cracks in the light.

Then he understood.

They were sword paths.

Magic shaped by technique.

Every possible motion of her blades seemed to exist around her before she made it. Hundreds of invisible cuts waited in the air, each one ready to become real the moment Shiina moved.

The legacy of Miyamoto Musashi had become something more than a style.

It had become an entire domain of blades.

Shiina stepped forward.

The frozen field exploded beneath her feet.

Nathan raised Kyomei.

The Curse of Pandora surged around him.

Countless black faces rushed outward.

Shiina disappeared into blue light.

And the empty field vanished beneath darkness, frost, and the first unstoppable clash of their full power.