Chapter 1533 The Last Hope
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"Oda Nobunaga, on his greed for power, most likely did the unthinkable and became his vessel…" Said Belle. "Right? You know more than me, so what else happened?"
"Well, we thought you would have already assumed it after hearing Yuki's soul is a fragment of our goddess' soul." The Phoenix said.
"Wait… Don't tell me your goddess…" Benladra gasped. "Is Amaterasu dead?!"
The two Divine Beast Spirits sighed, looking down. They remained in silence as they seemed to nod in approval. The very reason they escaped was when they lost all hope. The death of the Goddess of Zipangu, the one that created it.
"By the hands of Papiyas himself, born from the Fortune Gods that were her children." The Frost Phoenix wept. "Her soul was shattered into pieces and almost completely consumed, while her corpse was dropped into the depths of the Naraka, where billions of malicious spirits and devils possessed it, transforming her into a different being, Amatsu-Mikaboshi, an Evil Goddess of Corruption and Death…"
"It was a terrifying sight to see the corpse of our goddess being corrupted and transformed into a half-Evil God and half-Devil entity, who quickly surged from the Naraka and began to spread destruction, darkness, and death everywhere… That bastard of Papiyas planned this from the beginning!" The Tiger cried, tears streaming from his eyes.
"But… hope remains." The Frost Phoenix glanced at Yuki. "Although most of her soul was eaten by Papiyas, which allowed him to ascend into the title he now possesses as the Supreme Demon King of the Sixth Heaven, several of her soul shards flew away. Her last will probably remaining within them, as she teleported to another world. We've only found one of who we assume could be from three to a dozen shards. Yuki is the first."
"H-how could you even let that happen?!" Suddenly, the Fox Venerable grew mad. "Why did you let him eat her?! You fucking useless pieces of shit! Aren't you her guardians?! And what about her children? The other Gods?! Did Buddha even move a finger?!"
"We were overwhelmed…" The Tiger groaned. "Susanoo, the brother of Amaterasu born from a reflection of her own divinity betrayed her too, and he had grown incredibly strong after slaying Orochi, having absorbed his Devil Powers for himself… It was a very desperate fight, but Papiyas and Susanoo brought to the Heavens an endless army of Yokai, the Gods had all their hands full! W-We could only watch as she used her last powers to send us all away from there before she was beheaded by Susanoo's blade and then had her soul devoured by Papiyas…"
"And now whatever remains of her became an Undead God? Holy shit, you guys had it worse than us I think. Maybe…" I said. But then I recalled the whole Pandemonium thing, then whatever was Chaos and Oblivion, the Gods War of Ragnar?k, and well, Yggdrasil is just as chaotic. "No I think we're pretty even now, but yeah."
"Amaterasu-sama…" Suddenly, we saw a facet we never thought out of Belle, the Fox Venerable kneeled in the floor, beginning to weep. She had always been such a cold woman, I never thought she would cry for the dead of a goddess. "I remember her gentle voice when she blessed me, when she helped my village thrive with her blessings of harvest and sunlight… I've meet so many terrible people, so many two-faced bastards, but Amaterasu-sama was a purehearted goddess, someone that genuinely cared for everyone."
"…" Yuki remained in silence for a while, before she spoke again. "Then maybe she shouldn't had let those Fortune Gods become Papiyas to begin with?!"
"T-That's…" Belle muttered. "I'm sure that…!"
"She decided to let them be, knowing how dangerous it would be to retrieve them when they were already in Naraka." Said the Tiger. "She had to make a sacrifice for the greater good, deciding to seal him down there. Buddha went unpunished though, but it wasn't as if he intentionally enraged the Fortune Gods… It's, well, complicated."
"Tch! Okay, so what if he's super overpowered?! Drake's going to chomp him into pieces! Right?!" Yuki asked me.
"Well, I could always try. But for now, I will focus on helping my world, Yggdrasil first, Yuki." I said. "It is not realistic to ask me to go to another world and solve their problems, when I can't even do that here. Despite how strong we've grown. It always feels like its not enough. That there are always even more terrifyingly strong foes waiting for us."
"T-That's… Well, I wasn't asking you to do it now but…" Yuki gripped her fists. "If I gather all the fragments of Amaterasu and absorb them… Then, if I can open a portal by then! Will you help me out?!"
Her eyes shone with bright light, despite feeling unrelated to this, something deep down within her seemed to have awakened. A powerful aura, a will, even without her past life memories. She felt guilty, she felt like she had to do something. As if this was her responsibility to fix. But she also knew she couldn't do it alone. She was technically not dead, Amaterasu. She had simply transformed into another person, reborn as Yuki. For a moment, that powerful Aura she exuded, it made me feel like I was talking with such an entity.
"Yuki…" I felt surprised. "But if you don't have those memories, why do you feel indebted to them?" Asked Miranda.
"Even without the memories, these two saved my life I almost died back then, if it wasn't for their powers that restored my body, I would have surely died!" Yuki said. "I have to somehow repay that favor… I feel it is a bit of my responsibility now. I don't know why I'm even going along with it but, it feels like, for a while, I've been quite aimless. Now that I've finally been told there's something I can do, that I'm meant to do something… I can't just ignore it."
I gently patted her head, as I smiled and hugged her.
"E-Eh? D-Drake?!" Yuki blushed a bit. "What are you…?"
"You've grown a lot, Yuki." I sighed. "Of course, you're my family. I will help you."
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