A Journey Unwanted

[Realm: Álfheimr]

[Location: Heart Kingdom]

[Outskirts]

The surroundings could no longer honestly be called a forest. Whatever had once stood there had been reduced to the remnants of what it had been. For miles in every direction, the trees had been eviscerated, their trunks split apart or ripped from the earth entirely. Great craters scarred the ground between them, some shallow and wide, others deep enough that their bottoms were hidden beneath the earth and roots. Broken branches, splintered trunks, uprooted trees, and chunks of torn earth were scattered across the landscape with no recognizable pattern. It was difficult to tell where the forest ended and the battle began because, at this point, there was scarcely any forest left to distinguish.

But the destruction itself was not what stood out most.

The corpses did.

Deseruit Beast corpses covered the ground in grotesque heaps, their bodies reduced to varying degrees of mutilation. Some had been cleaved cleanly apart, enormous bodies separated by cuts that left their severed halves lying several feet from one another. Others had been torn open, their hides ripped apart and their flesh scattered across the ground. Some had been crushed beneath overwhelming force, their bodies flattened into the soil with broken bones and pools of blood. There were others whose remains were so thoroughly mangled that it was impossible to determine exactly what had killed them.

There was no consistency to the deaths.

Blood had soaked into the earth until the soil had taken on a wet color. Entrails and fragments of flesh were strewn between trees, while severed limbs and pieces of monstrous anatomy lay buried beneath debris. The smell of blood was overwhelming, mixed with the heavy stench of torn flesh and the putrid odor beginning to rise from the countless corpses.

Yet the two figures standing amidst it all seemed almost entirely unaffected.

Shuten-dōji stood with her odachi resting casually against her shoulder, the blade stained from the battle. Her expression remained the same, and there was still a small smile upon her lips as she regarded Echidna.

The Mother of Monsters stood several paces away.

Unlike the area surrounding the oni, the ground immediately beneath Echidna’s feet remained relatively clear. The corpses and debris seemed to stop short of her position, leaving her standing in one of the few untouched patches of earth.

Neither woman appeared particularly concerned by the carnage surrounding them.

Shuten-dōji’s red eyes traveled briefly across the area before settling upon Echidna again.

"I gather you could do much better than merely throwing your children at me," the oni mused, her tone conversational despite the countless corpses around them. "Unless, of course, this is genuinely the best you can manage in your current condition. In which case..." Her smile shifted slightly. "Perhaps you are far more weakened than I initially thought."

Echidna’s tongue clicked sharply against her teeth as her expression soured.

Her emerald eyes narrowed until her pupils became thin slits, and for a moment she said nothing.

("How annoying.")

Her gaze drifted over the destruction surrounding them. There was another corpse, another severed body, and another enormous beast reduced to little more than remains scattered across the ground.

Then her eyes returned to Shuten-dōji.

("She’s certainly not as strong as that human who put me into this state.") Echidna’s jaw tightened slightly at the memory. ("But she’s certainly a crafty wench.")

The distinction irritated her more than she wanted to admit. Raw strength was something she understood; power could be measured and compared. But Shuten-dōji was not overpowering everything through brute force. She was choosing how much strength to use while adapting and responding whenever Echidna changed her approach.

That was what made the oni so troublesome.

Echidna’s emerald eyes again moved over the remains of the Deseruit Beasts.

("And everything she’s shown me so far...") Her fingers flexed at her side. ("Those are merely parlor tricks.")

The thought was almost comforting, if they truly were nothing more than tricks, then Echidna had to ask herself why Shuten-dōji continued to hold back.

("Is she really restraining herself simply to match me?")

The possibility irritated the Mother of Monsters enough that her expression hardened further.

Shuten-dōji noticed.

"You seem annoyed," the oni remarked leisurely.

She shifted the odachi, allowing the dull edge of the blade to settle against her shoulder more comfortably. The movement was careless, but her eyes never left Echidna’s.

"But not sad." Her smile became curious. "I expected you to shed at least one tear after everything you’ve said about your children. You’ve spoken of them with such affection, after all. I thought watching them get slaughtered one after another might have hurt a little more."

Echidna’s expression did not soften; instead, she gave a low scoff.

"You think I’m some mewling babe?" Her voice carried irritation rather than grief. "A mother should not lament simply because her children have chosen paths she would not have chosen herself. They are their own beings. Their decisions belong to them, not me." Her gaze sharpened. "I support their decisions."

She spoke the words firmly, yet the fierce glare remaining in her eyes betrayed the emotion she refused to give a name.

Her children were dead, she knew that. She had watched them die; she had watched Shuten-dōji tear through them without hesitation, watched their bodies fall one after another, and watched the forest become increasingly littered with their remains.

And still she stood there; it was not because she felt nothing. Rather, she refused to allow that feeling to dictate her actions.

"Even so," Echidna continued, her voice dropping into something colder, "I will tear you apart all the same."

Shuten-dōji’s expression remained unchanged.

"You say that," she replied, "but surely you must understand that, in your current state, doing so is an impossibility."

It did not feel like the oni was boasting; to her, she was simply telling Echidna what she believed to be true.

"You cannot defeat me like this," Shuten-dōji continued calmly. "You may dislike hearing it, but disliking the truth does not make it less true."

Echidna’s eyes narrowed.

Shuten-dōji’s tone remained almost gentle.

"And yet I still do not understand why you are so desperate."

Echidna’s expression hardened.

"Desperate?" The word came out with disbelief. "I am bound to that." Her voice became more bitter. "Bound." She emphasized the word as though it carried the importance of everything she had endured. "And you question why I would want freedom?"

Her eyes fixed upon Shuten-dōji with an intensity that briefly cut through the otherwise controlled expression.

"Tell me, spirit—if you were the one imprisoned, stripped of what you once possessed, forced to exist beneath another’s will, would you simply accept it?"

"I suppose not," Shuten-dōji mused after a brief pause. Her voice had lost some of its earlier lightness. "But there are merely some things you have to accept. Whether you like them or not, there are truths that do not become any less real simply because you refuse to acknowledge them."

"Accept?" Echidna echoed, her brows drawing together. The word itself seemed to offend her. "Accept my chains? Accept this decrepit state I’ve been reduced to?" A hollow chuckle escaped her, devoid of genuine amusement. "You must be out of your mind, spirit. Do you truly believe someone should simply bow their head and accept being imprisoned because the circumstances are inconvenient to change?"

"I merely say what is true," Shuten-dōji replied lightly. She did not seem offended by Echidna’s hostility. "Both you and I are bound to fate in one way or another. Neither of us is entirely free of it. You may struggle against it, resent it, or spend whatever remains of your strength trying to break it, but that does not change the fact that it exists."

Her red eyes remained fixed upon Echidna.

"Do you believe fate is somehow beneath the absolute? That those who are powerful enough are simply exempt from being bound by it?" A small smile touched her lips. "Perhaps what has happened to you was never merely an end. Perhaps it was an opportunity for change, whether you wanted one or not."

"Change is worthless to things like me, spirit." Echidna scoffed again, though there was considerably less amusement in it this time. "Perhaps you think change is necessary. Perhaps you’ve convinced yourself that adapting is some great virtue." Her eyes narrowed. "But I believe a thing like you should know better."

Shuten-dōji gave only a hum in response.

For a moment, neither woman moved.

Then the violet light returned.

It gathered along the length of Shuten-dōji’s odachi; it got steadily brighter until the weapon was surrounded by a glow. Echidna’s eyes followed the phenomenon carefully, watching the energy crawl across the blade before the light abruptly disappeared.

The odachi was gone in the next instance.

Shuten-dōji looked down at her now-empty hand for the briefest moment before turning her attention back toward Echidna.

"My values are firmly set, Mother of Monsters," she stated. There was no uncertainty in her voice. "You needn’t concern yourself with changing my mind about them."

She turned away from Echidna.

The movement was casual enough to almost seem insulting, especially after everything that had transpired between them, but Shuten-dōji did not appear concerned about exposing her back.

"In a decrepit world like this," she continued, "the only choice left for those bound by fate is to change."

Her right hand rose.

Between two fingers rested another white talisman, its unfamiliar inscriptions stark on the paper.

Echidna immediately studied it; there was no shift in Shuten-dōji’s killing intent.

Whatever the talisman was meant to do, it was not an attack.

"Why alter oneself simply for the world?" Echidna questioned, her voice quieter. "Why should the world dictate what you become? If the world is the thing that is broken, why should the burden of changing fall upon the individual?"

Shuten-dōji glanced back over her shoulder.

"Because remaining oneself is never the best option in this world." Her words were simple, but she spoke them without hesitation. "Either change or be left behind. That is all there is to it. The world does not wait for anyone, and it certainly does not care whether you believe you have a good reason for refusing to move with it."

Echidna watched her in silence as the talisman began to glow.

A violet light spread from its surface, first gathering around Shuten-dōji’s fingers before crawling across her hand and arm. The light expanded gradually, enveloping her body without force. It was almost peaceful compared to the violence that had filled the forest only moments before.

Shuten-dōji’s smile returned.

"And don’t worry," she added, her tone becoming lighter again. "I will not inform Yuki of your little outburst."

The corner of her mouth lifted.

"You’re quite fun to have around."

The talisman flared, and light swallowed Shuten-dōji completely. For an instant, her silhouette remained visible within the glow. Then it faded as the radiance diminished.

And so did she.

Echidna remained standing amidst the blood-soaked area of the forest, surrounded by the mutilated corpses of the children she had created.

She stared at the empty space where the oni had been standing.

Her expression remained hard as her fingers slowly curled at her sides.

"Annoying spirit."

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