Campione 07

by Great Sage Equaling Heaven

  Whenever the Great Sage Equaling Heaven approached and tried to attack with his Ruyi Staff, Godou released lightning at him.

  The Great Sage was struck by lightning many times and blown away backwards, but clearly did not suffer any injuries. Bodies of steel were truly destestable.

  "Damn it! This is neverending — may the heavens shake and the earth tremble in fear, hurry hurry!"

  The 160cm tall divine monkey roughly doubled in height. Naturally, his other dimensions were increased proportionately.

  Enduring Godou's lightning, he spread his legs and forcefully stood his ground.

  The expanded body could now withstand the impact of the lightning without being sent flying. The Great Sage smiled with his monkey face as he charged forward. Who could have expected him to use body expansion to resist the impact of lightning!?

  "Damn it! In that case—"

  Godou gathered electrical energy into spheres and created balls of thunder.

  Roughly the size of basketballs, these small spheres continuously emitted electricity. Then Godou threw them at the Great Sage Equaling Heaven. Not one, but five at the same time!

  "Hmm ooooooh, what clever little tricks!"

  The five thunder balls released electrical current as they violently crashed into the Great Sage Equaling Heaven. This was the strategy of overcoming giant enemies with numbers. Suddenly, the divine monkey returned to his original size and jumped away sideways.

  At the same time, he repeatedly used the spell of creating clones—

  Multiplying to over twenty of himself, the Great Sages jumped at Godou all at the same time.

  "Evil people can never hit me!"

  Godou summoned lightning which descended from the thundercloud, surrounding himself in 360 degrees with lightning for protection.

  The stench of ionized air stifled his nostrils, while the attacking Great Sages were all swept away by the lightning — no, just as he was thinking that, the divine monkey with peerless agility descended from above.

  Using his clones as distractions, the real one had jumped into the air.

  The Ruyi Staff was swung down hard, and Godou evaded by rolling on the ground.

  Returning to his original position, Kusanagi Godou faced off against the Great Sage Equaling Heaven once again.

  His enemy's attacks came with far too much variety. What kind of surprise tactics could be used to defeat him? Just as Godou felt troubled, his right arm began to hurt.

  It was telling Godou to rely on it. Time to display a man's dignity.

  Godou snorted in response.

  "Like the time in the Netherworld, what a meddlesome fellow... But anyway, I will accept this battle plan!"

  Godou extended his right arm at the Great Sage Equaling Heaven.

  "Tsk... You retard, are you firing noisy lightning again?"

  "Nope, this time is a little different. Lightning doesn't have much of an effect on your steel body... I'm going to show you something more amazing!"

  The Great Sage grumbled in disappointment. But if this move worked, victory definitely belonged to Kusanagi Godou! What would be the end result?

  "As the one who holds all victory in my hands, I am the strongest. All enemies shall meet defeat by my hand!"

  Composing the spell words, the sacred warlord's authority and the divine sword's power began to amplify each other.

  No mistake about it, this was the divine blade Ama no Murakumo no Tsurugi's power!

  —The sword that assimilated the qualities of rebellious barbarians to bolster its own power. It was now Kusanagi Godou's personal sword, able to absorb divine power that damaged its master, converting it into its own energy. In the battle against Luo Cuilian, it had absorbed the [Dragon's Roar and Tiger's Howl] and provided the final decisive strike.

  Furthermore, there was another interesting use for this sword.

  "As the embodiment of victory, all enemies shall tremble before me!"

  Lightning was summoned from the thundercloud, descending onto his right arm which contained the Ama no Murakumo no Tsurugi. Another use of this sword was to absorb Kusanagi Godou's authority, creating new powers!

  "I shall smash through all enemies in my way! Man and devil — all enemies, all who harbor enmity will be vanquished!"

  The dormant divine sword in his arm absorbed the lightning, converting it into another power — releasing magnetism.

  In ancient Japan, blacksmithing began with the step of melting ironsand followed by forging the resulting steel sword. Anyway, the point was that ancient Japanese swords were made from ironsand — the ore of a ferromagnetic metal.

  When ferromagnetic ores were struck by lightning in nature, magnetism was occasionally induced.

  Godou and Ama no Murakumo no Tsurugi were recreating this phenomenon, using massive electric and magnetic fields, together with the already present steel —

  Thus a miracle could be performed — !

  "Go forth, Great Sage Equaling Heaven! Fly away to the ends of the universe!"

  "Woah... W-What is this power!?"

  This effect was created using the magnetic fields given off by a massive flow of electrical current, Ama no Murakumo no Tsurugi's mystic techniques, and ferromagnetic iron.

  The properties of magnets meant two possible outcomes, will they mutually attract or repel? The resulting magnetic field used the latter to make a bullet — the Great Sage Equaling Heaven was sent flying away.

  The divine monkey with the indestructible body of steel was trapped by the magnetic field released from Godou's right arm, and kept flying up in the air.

  Like a rocket taking off to outer space, he flew with horrific speed towards the skies.

  Railguns used electromagnetism to accelerate an object and fire it at super high speeds. Using this principle to create a mass driver to fire off massive objects into space, Kusanagi Godou's authority from Verethragna combined with Ama no Murakumo no Tsurugi to create a makeshift mass driver to send the divine monkey of steel into the heavens!

  The earth's atmosphere is composed of the layers of the troposphere, the stratosphere, the mesosphere and the thermosphere.

  Beyond the thermosphere is the exosphere and then space. If this continued, the Great Sage Equaling Heaven would be exiled from earth. Furthermore, objects flying at high speed will get heated by friction with the atmosphere, resulting in extremely high temperatures. The last region of the atmosphere — the thermosphere was a super high temperature realm that reached two thousand degrees.

  Now that all the necessary conditions for defeating this formidable enemy had been gathered, what would be the final outcome...!?

  Part 4

  Rising through the air, the Great Sage Equaling Heaven had become a burning bullet.

  Though he was well accustomed to god speed movement, this was the first time he experienced this method of acceleration.

  In reality, so-called god speed was not really the power of 'rapid movement' but an ability to shorten travel duration. Rather than 'moving from Point A to Point B at the speed of several hundred kilometres per hour,' it was the ability of 'moving from Point A to Point B in zero point something seconds.' Instead of physical acceleration, it was the power of distorting the traveling time required.

  Which is why the Great Sage had yet another first experience, that of the friction of air resistance at supersonic speeds and the heat from plowing through the atmosphere.

  "So hot hot hot hot hot hot! This is unbearable! What a godslayer, this is too reckless!"

  It was imperative to return to the surface before incinerating completely. He activated his divine power and tried to counteract the electromagnetic forces.

  Also calling for his golden cloud, he had to hurry back to ground level by any means possible. The many phenomena sustaining the planet, such as gravity and the earth's own magnetic field, could also be used to return him to the surface.

  "Middle Bro and Lil' Bro! Combine your powers, you two! Summon me back to earth!"

&n
bsp; Even separated by tens of thousands of miles, the sworn brothers could still communicate telepathically.

  However, beyond the Great Sage's expectations, the sworn younger brothers had both been driven into crises of their own.

  "When Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva was practicing the profound prajna paramita, he illuminated the five skandhas and saw that they are all empty, and he crossed beyond all suffering and difficulty. Shariputra, form does not differ from emptiness; emptiness does not differ from form. Form itself is emptiness; emptiness itself is form!"[92]

  Luo Cuilian began to recite the Heart Sutra.

  Combined with the melodious voice of the maiden who attained nirvana, the authority of the [Dragon's Roar and Tiger's Howl] generated shockwaves of magical wind.

  Magical power was originally something with neither shape, color, odor nor form, but Luo Cuilian's authority conferred various properties upon it.

  "So, too, are feeling, cognition, formation, and consciousness. Shariputra, all dharmas are empty of characteristics. They are not produced. Not destroyed, not defiled, not pure, and they neither increase nor diminish!"

  The air currents continued to expand as the power of the wind increased once again.

  "Tsk! A mere woman doing such infuriating things!"

  As Luo Cuilian concentrated in some kind of terrifying undertaking, Zhu Ganglie brandished his five weapons.

  Firing arrows and attacking continuously with the halberd, sword, axe and club, he tried to resist the impacts of the magical wind.

  The three-headed six-armed giant god was helpless against the magical wind blowing in the cult leader's surroundings. This was the wind that could have swept away all of creation, and the Divine Marshal's weapons were powerless in their efforts to breach the gaseous defensive wall that barred all attacks. There was simply no way to disrupt the transcendent beauty as she composed a song of death and destruction.

  "Make haste, by the mighty decree of the North Emperor, obey!"

  Zhu Ganglie chanted spell words to bolster his bodily strength and was finally able to budge his weapons gradually, inching with great sluggishness towards Luo Cuilian's body. However, the demonic cult leader's mystic arts finally completed at this time.

  Infusing light into the magical wind, Luo Cuilian's body shone with golden light that melded with the wind.

  This was also an avatar manifested from the [Divine Might of Vajrapani] but not one of the golden Benevolent Kings. The brightness gathered and took form between Luo Cuilian and Zhu Ganglie, finally becoming a massive palm!

  My heart is as the void, but my palm is like a deadly hurricane —

  "Mmmmmmmmmaaaaaaah!"

  "Strength exerted from bones, force applied from tendons! Yes, a palm that precedes all creation!"

  The golden palm was the same size as Zhu Ganglie's massive body. This giant palm performed the subsequent attack.

  Like an explosion — the three-headed six-armed giant deity suffered a frontal assault, devastating his face, body and legs, giving his brain a concussion, the impacts penetrating his internal organs and shattering his bones.

  The giant golden palm even grabbed Zhu Ganglie and held tight with great force.

  "My sworn little brother seems to have exiled the Great Sage Equaling Heaven. As his elder sister, I think it would be interesting to imitate him and follow suit. Vulgar war god, disappear into the sky! Your presence is an affront to my eyes!"

  Despite engaging in battle along the front lines, she did not neglect awareness of the entire battlefield.

  This was the rare talent displayed by the clairvoyant Daoist priestess.

  As she struck her palm towards the heavens, the mighty golden palm kept Zhu Ganglie in its tight grasp and sent him up towards the sky.

  "Woaaaaaaah!"

  As Zhu Ganglie screamed pitifully as he ascended, his hollow cries resounded across the sky.

  "...Amazing, it's hard to believe that the monstrous strength of Her Eminence was capable of such a thing."

  The golden palm and Zhu Ganglie were rocketing up into the sky.

  Witnessing this surreal scene, Godou felt deeply impressed. What had taken a makeshift railgun created by him and Ama no Murakumo no Tsurugi, the same effect was achieved by the demonic cult leader through brute strength and martial arts alone.

  Godou made his way over to where Luo Hao had been fighting.

  Making his way torturously over the shaking ground, the destination lying before him had become a wasteland. Standing in the center was the beautiful demonic cult leader, who had apparently used her magical wind authority to render this entire area into ruins.

  "Little brother, you have arrived. Just as you witnessed, your elder sister has just exiled the vulgar Marshal Canopy. I was watching as you defeated the Great Sage Equaling Heaven. Very well done."

  She was praising me. Looks like she used some sort of vision enhancing magic.

  Though he was being praised, Godou found Luo Cuilian's gaze to be very severe.

  "However I seemed to have heard you muttering to yourself... Calling me something like 'Her Eminence,' using such an impersonal form of address like entertaining a guest... I wondered if I heard wrongly..."

  Stared at like being interrogated, Godou could not help trembling. Could she actually have heard his exclamation from when he saw Zhu Ganglie rise to the heavens? What was with this supernatural hearing?!

  "Just to make sure, I will remind you once more. Little brother, call me 'Onee-sama'."

  "O-o-o... o... Nee... sama..."

  Urged by her, Godou had no choice but to do as told, but still the great elder sister shook her head.

  "This is no good at all. The elder sister beyond the equal of mere mortals, filled with incomparable mercy and benevolence... Basks you in her light like the sun that warms the world. Your manner of address just now did not carry the slightest hint of respectful admiration. You should be calling me 'Onee-sama' with worship and adoration. You have to work harder on this."

  The level of those requirements are too high... The subject needs to be changed, quick!

  "B-By the way, O... Nee-san looked like the battle wasn't too tough."

  "Of course, although that Zhu Ganglie is the True Lord Marshal Canopy, he is merely manifesting in the manner of a subordinate god."

  Godou's failure in addressing her in the prescribed manner made the elder sister frown.

  However, she forgave him for now. Being called 'Nee-san' was enough to provide her with slight satisfaction.

  "Remember this well. What decides the strength of [Heretic Gods], is neither how great or powerful they were in the original myths, nor how widespread is their fame. The key to their strength lies in their unshakable ego."

  Unshakable ego. In other words, the characteristic of steadfast narcissism?

  "Relying on no one's opinions but their own, going forward to do what one wishes no matter what — the willpower to destroy the human race even if it means changing the heavens and the earth. This determines a god's strength. Nevertheless, subordinate gods cannot sustain their existence if the main deity is gone."

  Godou recalled what happened with Verethragna, Athena and the Great Sage Equaling Heaven.

  Once the amnesiac sacred warlord retrieved his true ego, his power greatly increased; the Greek virgin goddess Athena became the powerful ancient earth mother deity once she retrieved the Gorgoneion; having lost his name and mettle, the divine monkey monarch descended upon the earth as the great hero once the seal was released.

  This explains everything, I see now... Godou could not help but nod as he accepted the facts.

  "So by this time, Vaisravana who is fighting Smith should also..."

  "If I'm not mistaken, he has the current advantage, however..."

  Luo Cuilian looked up into the sky with a sharp gaze.

  "Subordinate gods receive protection from the master while the master in turn obtains support from the subordinates. They will become even more powerful and formidable. It
would not be wrong to say the battle truly begins now, my little brother, you must not lose your guard by any means."

  Come to think of it, the reason why I defeated with such ease the Ama no Murakumo no Tsurugi, which now lies dormant in my right hand, was because its master Susanoo lived in the Netherworld and did not show any concern for the battle. Without such auspicious circumstances, what would have been the outcome?

  "As expected for gods who suffer from a lack of distinct ego, even if they are able to make full use of their powers, they are missing the kind of tenacious power that overcomes stalemates and losing situations. Dare I say, this is exactly as I imagined it?"

  "Gah... How could this be! Clearly I was able to block these arrows just now—!"

  Riding upon the wind in the form of the demonic bird was John Pluto Smith.

  He circled leisurely in the sky as he looked down upon Vaisravana whose chest had been penetrated by a blue-white magic bullet. Had it been a normal human, it would have pierced the heart.

  "If you were an actual independent deity, surely you would have evaded the returning Artemis' Arrow. Anyway, thank you for proving my suspicions correct."

  The two bullets deflected by the ice dragons a while ago had been flying towards the depths of the universe high above the world. But along the way, they made a U-turn and returned to earth. The ice dragons gathered together, overlapping to form a shield, intending to deflect the bullets again and managed to block one of them. However, the remaining shot could not be stopped and Vaisravana was pierced directly...

  These were the magic bullets of the moon deity, limited to only six shots per lunar cycle. This was the reason why every shot had such horrific power. It was rumored that if all the bullets were shot at once, the resulting fire would devour the entirety of California and burn for seven days without extinguishing. After the incineration, it would become such a complete wasteland that even weeds would not grow.

  Against such a powerful weapon, mere deflection was not going to neutralize its attacks. Vaisravana's defeat had already been sealed by the fact that he was unable to destroy the bullets directly like the Great Sage Equaling Heaven.