Nightmares plagued Goji's sleep. He tossed and turned fitfully in his tent. Something was wrong. Someone was trying to reach out to him. But he couldn't hear them. He couldn't find them. He couldn't…
He couldn't believe his eyes. The blade of Satori's glaive was inches away from his nose.
Goji wanted to utter a vulgar string of words. If only such a vocabulary were at his disposal. Alas, Master Jitsuno forbade such language at his monastery home.
Instead, Goji yelped and scurried backwards away from Satori's weapon. His response was met with mirthful laughter from his Amazonian tormentor.
Goji shot out of his tent ready for a fight. He was startled to see Satori talking with Kyou passively. How dare she act as if she hadn't just awakened him with her blade in is face.
"What is wrong with you?!" He groused.
"Whatever are you talking about?" Kyou's response took the wind out of his sails.
"Twitchy little fella, isn't he?" Satori remarked. Kyou nodded in agreement.
Goji's head was still spinning with the sudden changes all around him. He had won the tournament,. Then he got kidnapped by one of the judges and their wacky sidekick. The sore-loser of a runner-up shot down and rammed their ship. They both crash-landed on this sparsely populated planet.
And to top it all off, the woman who has vowed to kill him is now his only companion through the woods. Boy, does he miss the times when his life made sense.
Now they're heading to a small village to gather supplies while two baker's dozens of Muffin Golems help their crazy child creator repair her crashed ship.
His opportunities for escape were becoming fewer, especially with Satori keeping a watchful eye on his every move. Even so, all he wants is to return home away from this madness. Goji's legs ached from walking so far. Normally, a few dozen miles of walking was simple endurance training, but with his injuries, it was torture.
Satori guided them through the forest, first heading due east from Kyou's crash site until finding a river, then following it downstream to a local village.
But something was amiss.
The common hustle and bustle of a farming town in midday was completely absent. It wasn't a ghost town; there were signs that people had lived there recently, but no one was around. Satori pulled out a small two-way communication device and spoke into it.
Meanwhile, in the wreckage of the ship, Kyou's injuries were being healed by Mineshi. Suddenly, Satori's voice came over a speaker in the medical room. "We've made it to the village, but…"
"But what?" Kyou asked.
"There's no one here. Today isn't a Hogaran sabbath, is it? I'm not well-versed in their customs." Satori's voice continued through the speaker.
Goji and Satori listened closely to Kyou's voice as it came through the communicator. "No, today is not a traditional day of worship for the people of Hogar. However, there have been reports of a new religious cult gaining traction after the death of Kamoshami. It has been difficult to get intelligence on this cult's doctrine and practices; they're very secretive."
Satori thanked Kyou for the information, and they continued to investigate the town. Goji saw the face of a young child peeking through a second-story window, only to watch them duck away when he turned to get a better look. Goji was about to let Satori know what he saw when he was interrupted by the sound of fast approaching hooves.
Four horsemen in dark indigo cloaks with black trim galloped into town and surrounded Goji and Satori. "You two," one of the men shouted with a threatening tone. "What are you doing here? All citizens are to attend The Cleansing on pain of death."
Goji's mouth involuntarily opened and closed when he thought of the child in the window. His natural impulse to glance in the direction of the house was hard to suppress, but he did it.
"We are not citizens," Satori explained. "We are travelers seeking aid. Please, forgive us our ignorance and trespass against your traditions, and let us join you for the Cleansing." She feigned humility so expertly that it caught Goji off guard.
This seemed to please the riders, and they obliged. They didn't notice Satori turning on her communicator and muting her end. Kyou would love to hear about this, she thought to herself.
Mineshi had just about finished healing Kyou's injuries when the speaker came to life. They were both surprised to hear the speaker emitting muffled voices. Kyou shouted for Mai to clean up the transmission so they could hear it more clearly.
Mai stopped what she was doing, directing the Muffin Men's repairs, and ran to boost the signal.
"This isn't right," Kyou muttered to Mineshi while listening to the riders' utterances. "Hogar's undergone severe religious turmoil after the death of Kamoshami, so cults and splinter groups are to be expected. But even so, apostate groups almost always abandon authority. I've never seen one wholly abandon the doctrine before."
"There's something in their voices." Mineshi observes, scrutinizing the sounds, "I need to get closer. I need to hear it in person."
"Let's go," Kyou said. "Mai, are you tracking that transmission? Where are they headed?"
A holographic screen appeared in mid-air right in front of Kyou, with Mai responding. "All healed up, boss?"
"You bet." Kyou stood up. Mineshi leapt up and draped himself across Kyou's shoulders.
"They seem to be going straight for the Tree," Mai said, punching some keys to bring up a mini-map in the view-screen with a trail of Goji and Satori's communicator. "There's a large gathering a few miles north of them."
"Halfway?" Kyou turned to Mineshi, who grinned mischievously, then closed his eyes and opened a portal there. "Be back soon," Kyou told Mai, who waved happily at her departing boss.
Kyou's aptitude for camouflage was unparalleled, and among the tops of trees, she was the most adept at spying. The four cloaked horsemen escorting Goji and Satori were completely oblivious to the fact that they were being watched. Mineshi perched across Kyou's shoulders and watched the riders intently. He opened his owlish eyes as wide as they could go. Within his pupils, Kyou could see the workings of divine magics; wheels of green, filled with intricate, asymmetrical patterns, shifted and rotated like a puzzle wheel. Kyou closed her eyes and muttered a little prayer, then she, too, could see through his eyes.
Satori was wrapped in layers of runes, all glowing a brilliant violet. As a high templar of the God of War, it was expected that she would appear as such. But near the core of her soul, there was a snag, like a thread on a sweater that could unravel it all if pulled. Kyou knew she brought this on herself by stopping her from killing Goji. Her honor was intact, for now, but that could change.
Mineshi's gaze fell on Goji, and Kyou could see nothing. Where Goji stood was an emptiness that was difficult for the eyes to focus on. At the tournament, this emptiness was masked behind a golden mantel, indicative of a High Templar of Shinjin. But here, away from Sumitsu, Shinjin's Avatar, she could no longer create that illusion. Kyou knew she had rescued the right one, that Naroki had been a decoy, but to see for herself what Heaven's Eyes saw when looking at Goji, she wondered if she should have separated him from Sumitsu.
While she pondered her choices, Mineshi scanned the four horsemen. The riders are human. They have all the biological markers of living beings. But where a human has their core, which binds their soul to their body, these people's souls were shredded and caged. The mark of stewardship, which for the people of Hogar is an indigo mandala with the symbol of Kamoshami, appeared lacerated as though by a bear claw.
"What could do that?" Kyou asked herself. Never had she heard of something capable of such an abomination. It was as inconceivable as the rays of light coming from the sun smelling of rot. Perhaps among the manifold unanticipated consequences brought about by the death of Kamoshami was the weakening of these marks of stewardship. This would have to be investigated.
While Kyou tried to process these disturbing truths, she hadn't noticed that the riders had stopped and were looking right at her. Something inside them could tell they were being watched and from where. Kyou examined them a little longer and noticed a noxious sludge being passed between them, floating in the air from person to person. Where once there was a small amount shared among them, a bulk of it passed into one person. Without a word, that person stayed behind while the other three continued to lead Satori and Goji on.
"I've seen this power before," Mineshi whispered, his tone gravely serious. "That is a fraction of the God Killer's energy."
"Incapacitate, capture, and deliver to Tokimi. Hopefully, she can fix what's wrong with him," Kyou prepared to jump from the tree.
"Go, with my blessing," Mineshi said as he floated off Kyou's shoulders and continued observing. Kyou's body surged with green energy, then she descended from the trees and walked out of the forest towards the lone rider.
"You are far from home, elf," the rider sneered at Kyou. "Your kind has no business here."
"Your words are empty, creature. Release the human you now possess and surrender."
The rider's voice changed completely from a human with an uncanny rasp to a fully demonic voice. "Your death will be slow and painful. And when you die, I will rip your soul to shreds and your gods will never find the pieces."
Kyou's valiant demeanor faltered for a moment. Was this the God Killer? Could he make good on his threat?
The robed rider stretched his right hand out to his side, and from it the sludge oozed from his palm and took the form of a mangled sword. Then he galloped his horse towards the elf to strike her.
Goji was completely clueless as to why they had suddenly stopped, and subsequently why they started up again with one less escort. He shrugged it off as yet another thing he would probably never get an explanation for.
Satori was far more observant. Her keen senses didn't even spot Kyou until the riders had. What supernatural prowess did these men possess? Satori had previously decided to bide her time until they had revealed their true intentions, but Kyou had forced her to change her mind. She had sensed a diminishing of the rider's collective power when one of their own stayed behind, so she knew it would be no matter for her to decapitate the three of them with a single stroke. And within five paces of making that decision, she acted on it.
In the blink of an eye, she formed a violet mandala in mid-air, eight inches in diameter, from which she summoned her glaive. She gripped the tail end of it and spun it about herself with surgical precision. By the time the riders were aware of what was happening, their heads fell from their shoulders onto the ground, followed shortly thereafter by the rest of their bodies.
Satori mounted one of the now vacant horses and instructed Goji to do the same. The untrained boy attempted to mount a horse from the wrong side, and it ran away from him.
"You really don't know anything about horses, do you?" Satori's patience was thinning, although it was never really there for Goji.
"Shut up!" He glowered, trying to mask his embarrassment with rage.
"Approach from their left side." She said.
"Left," Goji muttered to himself, then approached the remaining horse correctly. He hoisted himself up onto the saddle.
"Follow me," Satori commanded and didn't wait before taking off to aid Kyou.
Goji nearly obeyed, then remembered he was kidnapped, attacked, and this woman had sworn an unbreakable oath to end his life. He guided the horse to run the opposite way without her noticing. He didn't have a plan to get home, but he figured the first step was to get as far away from those women as possible.
It wasn't until after both Goji and Satori had ridden off that the decapitated heads opened their eyes, looked about, and then sprouted spider legs from their necks. The headless bodies also began mutating and rising up from the ground.
Satori galloped atop her stolen horse to come upon a scene she did not expect. Kyou stood several yards away from her attacker, her enchanted bow drawn. 3 glowing green arrows pierced her attacker, dozens more littered the ground around him. Satori was charging close to decapitate this other opponent, but Kyou fired a warning shot into the ground in Satori's path, forcing her horse to buck up and whinny in panic.
"What?" Satori shouted incredulously.
"I need it alive," Kyou yelled back. She quickly drew back her bowstring, and another glowing green arrow magically filled the space where an arrow goes.
"What is it with you?"
"I have my reasons."
Satori dismounted and rushed to flank the hooded figure. She could immediately sense the increased power in this one. With blinding speed, the man pivoted and lunged at Satori. She expertly deflected his thrust and slashes while Kyou put arrow after arrow through the backs of both his knees until he collapsed into the dirt road.
Just as he was about to snarl a vitriolic response, Satori whipped her glaive about and clocked the top of his head, knocking him out cold. The sword he held returned to a sludge-like mass and then evaporated away, against the wind and towards the Great Tree, before Kyou could think of a way to capture it.
"He's alive. Now what?" Satori asked, slightly breathless and a little annoyed.
"Now we'll take him." Okomikeruko stepped through an open portal, accompanied by a woman whose beauty defied description. Kyou and Satori reflexively bowed to the deity.
"Rise, Kyou of Chie and Satori of Yukito. You have done well to subdue the creature that poisoned my child." She smiled as she addressed the two. An indigo aura surrounds her very being. With a gentle wave of her hand, all of the green arrows Kyou had fired vanished, and the physical wounds on the man's body were healed. She bent low and picked up the man and held him in her arms.
As they were about to leave, Tokimi noticed something. She sensed a void. A sphere of nothingness where a henge used to be. Unsettled by this new blindspot, she chose to assume it was a sign that more of her powers were dwindling.
"Come, Messenger," she addressed Okomikeruko, "take us to the halls of healing."
And with that, the portal closed and the heavenly beings disappeared. Kyou and Satori rose to their feet. "Care to clue me in on what just happened?"
"Care to tell me where Goji went?"
Satori looked around and, for the first time, realized the boy had disobeyed her and had run off on horseback. She muttered a curse. "If I wasn't already going to kill him…"
"I'll explain everything, but first we have to find him." Kyou and Satori mounted their horses and went riding towards the Great Tree in search of Goji.