"Take over my body?"
Hakai's eyes widened. He was feeling cold and numb throughout his body.
"It can't be..." He uttered, eyes shut and drenched in sweat.
"Hakai God, what a pity. By a low rank, too? How have you fallen o' mighty destroyer."
An unfamiliar and sinister voice mocked him.
"Why me?" Hakai said as darkness swallowed his mindscape, kneeling in pain.
"Ghee!" Hakai's physical body roared, drooling all over himself.
Inari got off her horse, worried and shocked to see such an occurrence.
"No way, is that not Hakai? His essence is entirely different as if there is another in him."
"Hakai! Are you okay?" Inari shouted as Mai rushed by her side, also worried.
"Huh?" Hakai's head tilted back towards the horde of horses. Then, staring at Inari, he vanished from his spot, kicking a cloud of dust.
"What?" Inari uttered, avoiding Hakai's dagger slash. She grabbed Mai and bounced back. Suddenly Hakai froze in his landing spot as if grasping reality. What seemed to be a high-rank soldier shouted an order to his subordinate.
"Take him down!" He pointed his long Nagamaki towards the suspended Hakai.
{FYI: A Nagamaki is a traditionally made Japanese sword with an extra-long handle.}
"Such tremendous powers!" The spirit willingly opened and closed Hakai's palm. "Although he has drained a ton of energy. Good for me because I win if I drain his physical energy completely."
"Raghhhh!" The entire force roared as spears, Nagamakis, and swords went up in a demonstration of aggression.
"Stop!" Inari ordered her force, halting everyone in their tracks, and silence befell them.
"Milady, we'll take care of him. You'll not need to worry yourself." The commander rode his horse beside her.
"You will not lay damage on him." Inari looked into the officer's visor, sending fear down his spine.
"Your wish is my will." He subjected.
"What caused him to attack us? What's wrong with him." Inari questioned herself, preparing to handle Hakai.
"Miss Mai, go ahead and ride atop the commander's horse." She helped her up.
"Keep her safe." She instructed him.
"Hmm." The officer grunted, riding backward.
"Incircle the threat!" He shouted as the entire platoon trapped Hakai, not allowing an escape route.
"I... am not Hakai..." A sinister, high-pitched voice announced into the open, followed by laughter. "KeekeeKee!"
"What!" Shock overtook Inari's face, finding out that a mere spirit could take over a God.
"How did you accomplish it?"
"A half of what I call the Merger Seed contains my cells, spiritual core, and energy amplified by half of the Growth Seed established on a hypnotizing spell that worked wonders to take control of a weak deity." He went on to explain his lifelong work. "With the help of my lord, I've ascended to Godhood."
"You've done well, my beloved disciple. Now bring back the prize." A voice spoke, but only the phantom could hear it.
Dun-Dun-Dun!
The sky split open as a dark figure floated above the crowd.
"I've now acquired Destruction, and the Heavens will surrender what's truthfully mine!" Shinigami's voice echoed down to Inari.
"Damnit, could it get worse?" She asked herself as her senses fluctuated. "What is happening..." She fell to her knee, trying to stop the throbbing against her head.
"This amount of Negativity and Positivity clashing?" She uttered, looking back to her commander's howl.
"Milady, are you okay!"
The entire thing overtook Mai; she looked up and knew she had felt such a presence. "What is this sinister energy?"
"Something's familiar."
"Haki-Kun!" Mai shouted at him while he looked over at the agonizing Inari.
"Ho?" He uttered, vanishing from his spot.
Shkeen!
He teleported behind the circle of soldiers.
"What? It is so hard to use this ability." The spirit said to itself that Hakai's abilities weren't easy.
Zeeooo!
Inari's senses whined down; everything cleared around her, and the only overtaking spiritual pressure signature was the one above her. "Shinigami? What tremendous power." She uttered to herself, standing up.
Thud!
Hakai fell on his back.
Watching as he fell on his back, she wanted to seize the opportunity. So, suddenly, Inari's raw speed made it seem like she had vanished and reappeared next to Hakai.
"Prayer of Extermination!" Inari shouted as a pink aura engulfed Hakai's body. While performing the spell, Shinigami appeared closer and closer.
"Ahh!" Hakai shouted in agony, or rather the spirit.
"O' failing crops, yield me a chance and disappear for the year. O' then bring upon us a great harvest and feed the inhabitants!" She finished her line as suddenly Shinigami's presence disappeared.
"This will cleanse his body from any impurities, and if my theory is correct, this will take care of the seed in all," Inari noted as the aura fluctuated and vanished with the washing wind. "But..."
Hakai jolted up and began walking away as if ordered.
"The spell is another thing."
Inari said to herself as chains sprouted from the ground.
"Binding Chains of Cattle!"
She called.
"Hakai, my disciple, holds no power against the Goddess of Aguritcutlre, and I accounted for it. Even my presence instilled no fear in her to enact."
"However, my spell is still at work. How'll you join us now, by force or submission?" Shinigami seemed to have calculated the possible outcome.
"I will destroy everything."
"No, I'll not."
"Yes, one day, this universe will be but dust."
"Shut up, and go away. Who are you anyway?" Hakai repeatedly spoke to himself as both parties.
"Hakai God, your spiritual energy is but a former spec of its glory days. Your former willpower and balance were to be feared!" Shinigami added.
"Hakai, stop!" Inari shouted at him. He just kept trying to free himself and walk in a specific direction.
"What am I doing?"
"What should I do?"
"What can I do?"
"I need something, someone, anything!" Hakai shouted to himself.
"A spellbinds me. I wish there were something or someone to cancel it!"
"Break the Spell!" Hakai shouted inside his mind as the former dark world became a clear blue sky lit by a star. Both Shinigami's and Inari's spells broke, freeing Hakai.
"What just happened?" He said, looking back at Inari.
"I find it impossible to understand. What did you do?" Inari was shocked.
"You didn't release me from the spell?" Hakai's breathing became heavy with each huff.
"No." Inari shook her head sideways.
"This Energtical signature, so ominous!" The Goddess Inari was baffled by the tremendous power emitted from Hakai as the spell broke.
Suddenly, a rumble and clatter of materials caught the attention of both gods.
"What is it?" Hakai looked over at the cloud of dust.
"The spirit, along with its clones," Inari said as the cloud cleared.
"I'll deal with it." She asserted.
"No, but my reward?"
"I'll give you one still."
"No thanks." Hakai fought back, wanting to earn his reward. "Sit back, and assign me a proper reward to pay me back for all of this." He vanished from his spot.
Shkeen!
"Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi" He appeared before the massive ten-foot clone, slicing its head off with his katana.
Dash!
He landed and swiftly zig-zagged through the smaller clones, decapitating most of them with one slash.
Boom!
He raced through the remaining, taking all their head with him.
His speed was but traced with wind and mere parts of his clothes.
Then, standing before the leading spirit, it was pissed and attacked by sprouting a massive tree that carried Hakai upwards thirteen feet.
Fwoosh!
He came down, taking the phantom's head with him; he landed on his knee and planted his foot behind him.
He held his blade by his outstretched foot, and with his mouth buried into the crease of his elbow, he spoke an incantation.
"Foul being whose negative and dark steps walk the earth and spread evil, I judge thee to death!" Then, Hakai performed a new expelling spell he had previously learned from Hachiman.
{Flashback.}
"Listen, in this body, you will not be able to perform it, but if you can and do come across a stronger foe, this is a way to expel them," Hachiman said, to a much younger-looking Hakai, perhaps in his younger teens.
Repeat this chant. "Foul being whose negative and dark steps walk the earth and spread evil, I judge thee to death!"
The thirteen-year-old Hakai looked impressed, even grateful for learning something new. Then, while seated on the grass, he rolled onto his back with a smile. "I will!"
{End of Flashback.}
"You used everything up and were too weak to fight anymore. However, this was a fun ride, merely an everyday thing now." He taunted the ashes of the phantom.
"Shinigami wants me, but for what? What happened between us back then for him to pursue me this much? Why did he run away as soon as the phantom couldn't control me?" He pondered to himself.
Hakai looked back with a stretched cover-up smile. Then, looking around for Mai, he spotted her and gave the crowd a huge thumbs up.
"Mission accomplished!" He shouted back, running towards the army as Inari took the lead, waiting for him.
"Nice, let us head back; we've got issues and things to go over..." She rode her horse as Hakai walked up to Mai and helped her off the horse. "Here, ride with Inari, and I will ride with him." He smiled, letting Mai and Inari deepen their friendship.
"O-okay." Mai was overtaken with excitement and curiosity while watching everything unfold.
She couldn't contain her smile as he helped her on top of Inari's horse. "Amazing!"
Hakai walked back and jumped atop the horse's back.
"Oh, sweet home!" He said while his katana vanished, staring back. Mai wanted to know how that happened.