Maru ran towards the village center, with his boots muddied, he showed no fear on his face.
He ran and ran until the villagers no longer screamed. Only the crackling of fire can be heard, as the burning houses illuminated the dark night. The once peaceful village had now turned into that of a hellscape.
The sight depressed Maru, but he pushed on, determined to foil Jisei's plans.
The surrounding foliage of the village burned to the ground.
...
Confrontation
...
As Maru ran through the street, huge, thin sheets of blood spilled everywhere,
The dark night being illuminated by the burning houses.
It was too late, the bastards were quick with their job, and almost all of the villagers were killed mercilessly, women, children, and old people were all killed by Jisei's underlings.
Houses were ransacked, with tons of things sprawled outside each one. The bastards spared no one, though maybe a few escaped.
The bodies of every villager were stacked in the center, their bodies forming a huge mound of mangled bodies of every villager, their eyes no longer holding the life they once had.
The sight enraged Maru.
"Jisei... You bastard..."
He muttered.
His already burning eyes became brighter and more furious.
...
Maru hurried, and finally, he was greeted by a man who rivaled his presence, Jisei.
He is clad in armor that mirrors the fury of the elements, forged from obsidian and steel, streaked with azure and silver. His chest plate is adorned with swirling motifs of thunder and waves, while his gauntlets crackle with the energy of a raging storm. A billowing, tattered cloak of deep blue flows behind him, like a stormy sea in motion. Susanoo embodies the raw power and unpredictability of nature itself.
Maru muttered.
"Brother."
Jisei grinned with satisfaction, his face clearly amused by Maru's anger. Maru's face immediately turned into that of disgust, he gritted his teeth.
"Long ago, we both promised to take over Japan, so why did you betray me?" Jisei asked with a serious tone, his face became stoic as he remembered the past.
Maru shook his head and sighed, and said in a serious tone.
"You seriously don't know why, you bastard?"
Jisei laughed.
"Kibo..."
Maru's face turns into a grieving one.
After the mention of the person named "Kibo," Jisei became furious as if that offended him greatly.
"It was his fault! If only he didn't do that, then we would've been..."
Jisei's face was clearly sad, but then his mind twisted.
"No..."
Jisei's voice became more and more aggressive.
"It was his fault! Not mine! All three of us would've been kings! We would've been rich! We could've had it all! If only... Kibo was a coward-"
His words were cut short, as Maru screamed at the top of his lungs, his voice cracking with intense wrath.
"Kibo didn't do anything wrong! He was the best out of the three of us! You were too greedy, too violent, you were someone we had to stop! You killed innocent people along the way! Kibo simply had enough of it..."
Jisei snapped, he didn't think he did anything wrong, his mind was too blurry from all the things he had done, he simply thought of the people as statistics to his plan.
Jisei has gone too far since then.
"No... I had to do it, it was something that had to be done."
Maru's face was filled with anger and scorn.
"Kibo did nothing wrong, you lunatic."
Jisei broke, he grinned and laughed like a maniac. He looks at the sky, laughing and laughing like there's no tomorrow. His face was... amused by all of this. He then looked at Maru with a twisted expression.
"Hahaha! Kibo was simply weak."
Jisei laughed and laughed, a stark contrast to Maru's furious face.
"You two are a bunch of cowards... Yeah... That's the reason why..."
Maru, unable to take more slander towards Kibo, points the tip of his blade to Jisei's head.
"I'll end this now, once and for all."
Jisei grinned, and replied, "Shame... Well, once I kill you, I just have to find your stone again."
Maru's eyebrows furrowed and he replied in a somewhat confident tone,
"We'll find out if that's the case."
...
Then, in the blink of an eye, their blades clashed.
And the ground shook.
...
After nearly 2 hours, Saiko could no longer hear the tremors and shaking of the ground. She thought that the soldiers must've left by now.
"Ryu, let's run, now."
Ryu nodded.
Even when they were both extremely scared, they braved through it and climbed up the ladder. Saiko opened the hatch and saw that their house was gone, rubbles of stone and wood were everywhere.
"Our home..."
Saiko said with a heavy heart. But still, she still has to escape with Ryu. To her in that moment, the most important thing was Ryu's safety. She briefly patted Ryu's head, then she climbed out the hatch.
She pulled Ryu up and then they both ran in the direction of the heart of the forest, where a river was located.
Ryu gripped the small bag that was given to him by his father, though he still had no idea what was in it.
...
After a while, Saiko and Ryu ran, and finally, they could see the river, but then-
"BOOM!!!"
An explosion occurred right behind the two of them, and they both fell to the ground.
"Ah!" Ryu yelped.
Then, when the dust settled, there was a man, no... Far from that, it looked more like a demon.
The creature laughed and said.
"My master will be happy..."
The demon approached Ryu, staring at the small bag in the child's hands.
"I can sense it... A God Fragment... Hehehe..."
The demon grinned.
"Well, nothing personal, kid."
The demon raised his clawed hands that aimed at Ryu, and struck down.
Ryu closed his eyes... This is it... His... End...?
Saiko took the hit, and blood splattered everywhere...
Ryu's face was painted by the blood of his own mother.
"Mama...?" He muttered.
...
With a weak voice, Saiko whispered.
"Run..."
Fear took over Ryu's mind, and he ran.
The demon growled, but then, he had an idea...
"That kid... Well, I can easily find him anyways, for now..."
The demon looked at Saiko and grinned fiendishly
"It won't hurt to have a bit of fun~"
The demon laughed.
...
Ryu ran and ran for a long time, his eyes were flowing with tears.
He was scared.
He was still a kid.
Ryu reached the river, but then, the adrenaline died down, and he could feel a sharp pain in his belly...
The demon managed to damage him greatly.
Ryu, weak and tired, fell to the ground.
He desperately tried to reach the river, crawling and leaving a short trail of blood on the dirt.
His vision was fading, his hope was slowly disappearing...
As his vision slowly darkened, he noticed the silhouette of a man, as it ran towards him.
Ryu no longer had the time to wonder who the man was, or if they're a bad guy, as his consciousness dies...
...
Ryu woke up on a bed and was surrounded by an unfamiliar room.
The sunlight pierced through the room.
It looked like a very, very small wooden house.
"Ah!" he yelled as he realized the small bag he had been holding onto disappeared from his eyes.
He then remembered the night, that hellish night he lost his own mother.
"Mama..."
Ryu sobbed, realizing that both his mom and dad, the only people he ever knew in his life, was gone...
Ryu wiped his tears away, steeled himself, to uphold the promise he made to his parents, to survive.
Ryu sat up and went off the bed.
He went outside, he was alone in the middle of the woods.
Then, he heard a voice.
"You already awake?"
The voice sounded very, very alien to him. He hasn't heard a voice like that in his whole life.
He faced the source of the voice, to see an old man in his 70's.
The man looked weird, as in, he didn't look Japanese... The man looked Scandinavian, though of course, Ryu didn't know what a Scandinavian looked like.
Ryu nodded sheepishly.
The old man smiled.
"My name is Sven... Sven Larsen."
Ryu nodded and tried to say it himself.
"S-sven..."
Sven smiled and patted his shoulder.
"I prepared food, let's eat."
Ryu noticed a chicken being cooked in the fire, nodded nervously, and followed Sven.
...