When life cradles a soul more than the rest, the others are bound to throw tantrums. Shuten Doji, a boy born to a human mother with his father, a great dragon, was treated no differently. His wit, his strength, his command of the mace, and that of his silver tongue, marked him in plenty of eyes as the greatest threat to themselves.
Yet the boy persevered and eventually commanded a legion of demons. However, much like any other monster in a story, a hero came through, a hero with a sword that hacked his head clean off his shoulder. Even so, Doji's severed head leap for one last bite of the human savior and left him crippled before being cast to the netherworld with the weight of Mount Oyama laying heavy on his shoulders.
The boy, now a man with a thousand children of his own, reigned over all hell with an insatiable hunger for destruction of the overworld. His ambitions would've come fruitful a long time ago, had it not been for his growing age and his care for his lineage. A single flap of his wings trying to reach the skies would bring the blades of countless exorcists flying in his direction. Alas, his care for those devils, caused his ambitions to wither into a man who would rather sink into his seat staring at a screen instead of wreaking havoc in all of the overworld.
As more time passed his selfishness grew, and even his care for his children turned mellowed down until there were none. And now, centuries later, he's set them on a path to take on each other so only the most ambitious may prosper.
'Demi-gods like Mikato, will chew out the other children and spit them like gum…' His eyes glaring at the screen with control in hand, Doji's mind raced as he tried to figure out a way to make himself more time to play multiplayer shooters. "Perhaps some demons may give them some challenge, but imp? Those squiggly half-human half-demon rats? They'll be nothing more than cannon fodder."
"My lord, again-"
"I know!" Cutting off Jubokko's words, Doji kept focusing on the game. "Just give me a damn minute, I'm almost done here!"
"I heard the very same line an hour ago," the bark-skinned demon scowled at his master.
"Yuuki, bring me another glass of that drink," ordering the female spirit of ice, Doji focused on his thoughts once more.
'Losing any of them would cause a lot of trouble in case we're ever at war again with some hero that would turn into folklore.' Worried for the lives of his race, but even more importantly, worried for himself, he wanted to make sure that the casualties in the selection of his heir were as minimal as possible. 'What to do, what to do?'
All of a sudden as his mind melded his thoughts together with his gameplay, he grew ecstatic with a sudden realization.
'A game…Companions, pets, allies." Running through it all in his mind, and the way he often sacrificed his own party to gain an advantage, he was finally ready to write down some commandments for a very dire game of hide and seek. 'After all, why not use these pesky humans as pawns to meet an end, when they're the entire reason we're trapped underneath a damned mountain?'
"My lord," bowing her head, Yukki brought Doji his drink.
"Forget that," throwing the controller away, for the first time in a decade, he abandoned a game to get to work. "Jubokko, come with me, we have a lot to fucking work on."
With a smile on his face, he was ready to surprise the blood-dripping bastard.
***
Following Hibiki down a dark alley, I could've sworn we'd been walking for days. The path was dark as moonless night as well, which neither breathed confidence nor helped with my anxiety. Eventually, however, we came to a stop. Right in front of us was a rusty door with not an inch of gap on either side of the walls. Barely squeezing through ourselves, we ventured inside.
"Don't talk to anyone you don't know, don't touch anyone or anything, keep your eyes focused in front, and just move along if you see any drama brewing anywhere," while still traveling through the dark, Hibiki hurled instructions after instructions at me.
After a while of descending down a long flight of stairs, I finally saw some light and the sound of bustling voices all around me. Holding my hand as if I was a kid, Mizuki kept me close to her while Ifrit did the same for Hibiki.
Both of them seemed on edge as if even the slightest misstep could be our end.
"Here goes," pushing the curtain in front of the sides, Mizuki revealed in front of us a bazaar filled with monsters stretched as far as the eye could see.
Lanterns, stalls, smells, the crowd, and even the hint of sweat, it was all too much to take in at once. As if I'd stepped into an entirely new city or perhaps even a country, the whole place was brimming with mangled faces and deformed bodies, some even clad in elegant clothes that made them appear like high society.
Feeling a tug on my hand, I began following behind Mizuki. The deeper we ventured into this underground space with ever-expanding ceiling, the more bizarre the whole thing felt. From food stalls run by demons selling human fingers and livers as delicacies to the most lascivious of women enticing young men and women with their skins for Malice.
I could taste it on my tongue, the horror, the angst, just one sight of some of the mangled monsters was enough to make my stomach churn up. Scanning about as I kept getting hauled forward, the sights only grew grizzlier as I noticed horrors of nature that should've never existed.
"Is that…" Stopping in my path, I couldn't help but stare at a demon with open ribs held high by a pair of infants before slowly lowering them into his ribs.
"Fuck…" I whispered as the monster devoured them as they kept on screaming.
Another abomination with eyes of skin joined him soon after with yet another bag full of cries and screams.
"I told you to fry em, you gonk!" The monster complained to the other. "They taste way better that way!"
"Akira, come on we need to keep moving!" Pulling me forward Mizuki got me far away from what I just saw.
'The Rathole?' Feeling disgusted took over me, I now realized just how appropriate that name was for these rats.
"Hibiki!" Calling out to the girl as we dashed through the crowd, I had one thing to say to her. "We're killing those bastards the next time we see them."
Without even turning around she nodded as if feeling the same rage as me.