From across the battleground, Inari looked toward Amaterasu, blood running down his face. Rage and grief spiraled through his eyes. He knew the descension was complete.
“Destroy the pillar,” she said. “Do not wait for me.”
Hatred flared in his gaze and she suspected he wanted to kill her, to tear her spirit from the body of the girl he had so desperately wanted to save.
She whirled around and dashed onto the heavenly road. The celestial pathway was formed of light, as smooth as marble. From the ground, the roads appeared to twist and ripple in wild bends and loops like tangled boughs, but the path beneath her feet stretched straight and true, slanting upward. As the earthly realm faded into grayish nothingness, she caught a final glimpse of the four Kunitsukami encircling the pillar.
Within Amaterasu, Emi came awake again.
As Amaterasu ran, the suffocating pressure on Emi’s mind eased and her thoughts began to clear. Her strength returned with every passing moment, and her mind and soul revitalized as the crushing burden of the goddess’s power lifted. Amaterasu wasn’t weakening—her power still coursed like a river through their shared body—but rather, their minds were separating.
What’s happening? Emi asked anxiously. Is your descension failing?
We are no longer in the physical world, Amaterasu answered. This is a realm of spirits.
Emi didn’t have a chance to ask for clarification. Far ahead of them, a shape appeared on the road—Izanami jogging with heavy steps, one hand gripping her injured belly, the other carrying the spear. But the goddess no longer appeared mortal. Her skin glowed radiantly, her clothes translucent and ethereal as though her incorporeal soul had replaced her physical body. The spear in her hand was equally intangible and only the diamond head retained its solidity.
Amaterasu raced to close the gap as the grayish oblivion surrounding the road brightened. Without breaking stride, she extended her hands. Her skin shone eerily white, the phantom sleeves of her kimono fluttering like a ghost’s. A blade took form in her grip, but it was not a weapon made of wind. In this realm between worlds, there were no elements. Instead, it was a weapon formed purely of ki.
As Amaterasu closed in, Izanami stopped and spun, her face twisting. She shoved the spear out in front of her but Amaterasu’s ki blade sliced clean through the wooden haft. The weapon flew out of Izanami’s hands and tumbled off the road.
Izanami summoned a katana formed of her own ki, the weapon as radiant as Amaterasu’s. The two goddesses collided, their blades connecting with an unnerving crash that echoed through the nothingness.
“Amaterasu,” Izanami hissed. “Your persistence is infuriating.”
“I could say the same of you, cousin,” Amaterasu retorted, pressing harder on her blade.
“You are willfully blind.” Izanami’s voice rose with sudden emotion. “Why do you refuse to understand?”
Izanami flung her sword out and a blast of pure, formless power smashed into Amaterasu. As she hit the road, a strange sensation jarred through Emi. Without thinking, she lurched up.
And found herself crouched beside Amaterasu.
Amaterasu—her face identical to Emi’s yet touched by a divine beauty far beyond Emi’s mortal looks—stared back in shock. Emi could still feel the connection between them, the link of mind and soul, yet in this incorporeal world unbound by physical shapes, their spirits had separated.
They shared one brief, astonished glance before Amaterasu whirled forward again. Izanami fled up the road. Amaterasu charged after her, and Emi sprinted a step behind, her body strangely lightweight and her hands glowing with her own ki—much fainter than the two goddesses but just as shimmering white.
As they chased Izanami, the gap between them shrinking, the nothingness of the strange world lightened until it was almost as pale as the pathway beneath their feet. Ahead, the world turned blinding white and the road ended in an alabaster torii filled with incandescence—the gate to Takamahara.
In a wild leap, Emi lunged ahead of Amaterasu and caught the trailing end of Izanami’s kimono. As Emi landed on her stomach, she yanked on the ghostly fabric.
Izanami fell to her knees. Thrashing, she kicked back and her foot connected hard with Emi’s shoulder. Emi slid sideways on the smooth road, her legs careening over the edge.
Whipping her blade out, Amaterasu sliced Izanami’s back. Instead of blood, ki leaked from the wound like luminous white ink. As Emi scrambled to pull herself back onto the road, Izanami sprang up and slashed with her sword, scoring a deep cut across Amaterasu’s shoulder. Ki spilled down her arm.
“Stop this, Izanami,” Amaterasu panted. “We will find a better way to protect the earth.”
“There is no other way,” Izanami spat. “I told you—I told all of you! How many times did I beg the Amatsukami to help me? How many times did I appeal to the Kunitsukami to act?”
She pointed her blade at Amaterasu. “You believed from the beginning that I schemed only for my own gain, but I do not want this. I have never wanted this. You left me no choice. I cannot ignore my duty. I will sacrifice all I hold dear to save the land I am sworn to protect.”
She threw herself forward and slammed her blade down on Amaterasu’s. “Whether you understand—” She raised her sword and slammed it down again. “Whether the Kunitsukami understand—” She struck again, and all Amaterasu could do was brace against the impact.
“Whether anyone understands,” Izanami cried, silver tears standing in her eyes, “I will obey my duty!”
She brought her sword down once more, shattering Amaterasu’s blade, and sliced her from shoulder to naval. Amaterasu fell backward, ki gushing from the wound. Crouched on the edge of the heavenly road, Emi froze, paralyzed by horror.
Izanami stood over the fallen goddess, breathing hard. “Your conviction is not strong enough to stop me, Amaterasu.”
As Izanami lifted her sword one more time, Emi launched forward. Izanami spun around in alarm and Emi crashed into her, tackling the goddess around the waist.
Together, they hurtled off the road.
They fell through nothingness. The road disappeared and the pale oblivion around them darkened to gray and then to inky black. Engulfed in solid darkness broken only by the glow of their ethereal bodies, Emi didn’t even know if she was falling.
Another white spot appeared—a shining ivory road that stretched through the ebony nothingness of this realm. They plummeted toward it and slammed into the hard surface. Emi tumbled across it, scrambling for purchase before she slipped off. Somewhere far away, she could sense Amaterasu’s fear and dread, the link between them stretched thin but still intact.
Shaking her head in a daze, Izanami looked around at the surrounding blackness. “What have you done, foolish girl!”
As Emi labored to rise, Izanami rolled to her feet, her ki sword reforming in her hands.
A chill shivered through Emi. She went still, staring past Izanami. The road stretched into the darkness, then ended in the shape of a torii—a black torii.
Darkness writhed around the gateway, and red lights appeared. Two glowing spots weaved side to side, growing brighter.
From the rippling darkness within the gate, an immense, soot-stained skull with shining crimson eyes extended. Dull black flesh filled in the rest of its skull, and vertebrae lined its spine as though the skeleton had formed on the outside of its emaciated body. As its long neck stretched up, lipless bone jaws opened and a narrow black tongue darted out, tasting the air.
Seeing Emi’s unconcealed terror, Izanami looked over her shoulder. As a second gaunt head thrust out of the darkness, eyes glowing in their sunken sockets, the goddess gasped in horror.
“The guardians of Yomi,” she hissed. Turning back, she focused on Emi standing between her and her escape.
Izanami lunged, her blade flashing, and Emi could only throw herself sideways. The weapon caught her shoulder and she landed on her back, ki pouring from the wound. Izanami rushed past, not even glancing
down on her way by.
Framed by the black gate, the two beasts eagerly flicked their tongues. The first one placed a clawed foot on the road, the top of its leg covered by bone like grotesque armor. Beneath its foot, the pathway dimmed under a spreading black stain.
Emi rolled over and pushed to her feet, staggering sideways before catching her balance. The beasts in the gate crept out of the darkness, revealing narrow torsos with sunken bellies lined with exterior ribs, their skeletal bodies neither dragon nor wolf but a twisted mutation of both. Behind her, Izanami fled toward safety, already twenty paces away and sprinting fast.
Emi extended her hands, calling on her ki and shaping it to her will. She didn’t know how to wield a sword and didn’t have the skill to battle an immortal. But there was one weapon she knew how to use.
In her hands, her ki coalesced into the shape of a bow and a single arrow.
She raised the bow and nocked the arrow, the shapes familiar beneath her fingers. As she drew the string back to her cheek, she let her mind fill with the burning drive to protect. And in her heart, love was a strength unshaken by fear or pain.
“Izanami!” she cried.
The goddess stopped and turned. At the sight of Emi with her bow drawn, Izanami raised her sword. Emi filled her arrow with every last flicker of her ki, and then she loosed the bolt.
It sang through the air and struck Izanami’s sword. The blade broke in two, and the arrow hit its mark, sinking deep into the goddess’s chest. Izanami staggered back a step, then fell to her knees. The arrow blazed, and the goddess’s ki flickered wildly in response.
Icy breath brushed across Emi’s back. She spun around as a beast from the black gate reached for her. Its claws snapped around her middle, crushing her in its grip.
The second beast lurched past them. In three long bounds, it reached Izanami and its huge jaws engulfed her. She screamed as the fangs sank into her body, and an inky stain spread through her white ki.
The dark beast holding Emi lifted her off the ground and sat back on its bony haunches as it examined her with one glowing red eye. Ice spread through her body from its touch, sucking away her strength and chilling her very soul.
It cocked its head the other way and its black tongue darted out, scraping her cheek. The hellish cold seeped deep into her, and she couldn’t move, couldn’t even flinch in horror as it dragged its tongue over her wound, lapping up her exposed ki. The other beast turned back toward the gate, with Izanami writhing helplessly in its mouth.
The road trembled. The two beasts stiffened and snorted icy breaths. The pathway, smeared with their darkness, quaked and bucked, and the beasts shook their heads violently, snarling deep in their withered throats.
The beast with Izanami in its jaws sprang past its fellow and trotted for the gate. For a terrible instant, Emi and Izanami looked at each other, their terror mirrored, and stark understanding of their fate passed between them.
Emi gasped as the beast squeezed her in its grip. It turned on three limbs and stalked after its twin.
“Emi!”
Amaterasu’s cry pierced the icy silence. The beast snorted again and looked back.
Sprinting up the shuddering road, Amaterasu raised her ki blade and slashed at the beast’s back leg. Black blood sprayed and it shrieked, a horrific sound that cut through Emi’s soul like an arctic blade.
“Release her, guardian of darkness!” Amaterasu commanded. “You will not have them!”
The beast snarled and squeezed Emi tighter as it whirled to face Amaterasu, its immensity dwarfing the goddess. She drew herself up and her ethereal body blazed, radiance erupting from her. The beast cringed back.
Amaterasu lunged closer and raked her sword across the beast’s arm. Its claws opened and Emi fell to the road, limp and frozen, her ki stained sickeningly black with corruption. Amaterasu stepped over her and whipped her sword at the beast’s face. It reared back, jaws opening.
The road heaved, almost throwing all of them into the darkness. Recovering its balance, the beast turned away, joining its twin.
Amaterasu raced forward. “Izanami!”
“Amaterasu!” Izanami cried, struggling weakly against the creature’s fangs as her ki dripped onto the road, no longer white but sickly black. She reached for Amaterasu, but the two creatures bounded away. A few powerful leaps carried them to the torii and they vanished into the darkness. Izanami’s scream cut off with terrible finality.
Amaterasu staggered to a stop, her sword still in hand and shoulders bowed. Then, sword dissolving, she spun back to Emi.
“Come!” Amaterasu hauled Emi up. “Hurry!”
Gripping Emi’s hand, the goddess rushed away from the black torii. Stumbling and clutching each other for balance, ki leaking from their wounds, they ran hard as the road quaked and heaved. The nothingness around them lightened from black to gray. The road buckled, almost throwing her and Amaterasu into the air. They slid uncontrollably and ran on.
At some point, their steps fell into unison and their breathing synchronized. And without Emi even realizing it, she and Amaterasu were again one, sharing the same ethereal body.
Ahead in the gray void, a shape appeared—the immense pillar. Green, blue, and brown light raged over it in twisting bands and it trembled even more violently than the roads. At its base, Sarutahiko pressed his hands to the pillar, channeling his ki into it. Beside him, Uzume, her tawny wings arching from her back, also held her hands to the stone. And on her other side, Susano, his reptilian tail snapping behind him, threw the full force of his ki into the pillar’s destruction.
But Shiro stood with his back to the pillar, his gaze cast upward. Across the span of elevated road between them, Amaterasu and Emi, as one, met his eyes.
Only then did he turn, and with his nine phantom tails lashing, he slammed his hands into the pillar. Fiery crimson light tore up the stone column, blasting through the coiling ki of his fellow Kunitsukami. A huge fissure tore up the pillar’s side in the wake of his power.
With a deafening crack, the pillar ruptured. It exploded and stone debris hurtled in every direction, dissolving almost instantly into sparkling light. The eight roads quaked, and where the pillar no longer held them down, they lifted. Amaterasu, once again in full control, sprang off the road just before the ends flew into the void, leaving the earth behind. She plummeted, the plateau racing to meet her.
Jumping into her path, Shiro caught her. The feeling of his arms closing around her was the last thing Emi knew before Amaterasu’s power ripped her apart a final time.
Chapter 28
Amaterasu slumped in Inari’s arms, her fragile human body trembling, grief and triumph battling within her. Izanami’s final cry echoed in her head, her cousin’s terror like a twisting blade. Though the earthly realm was safe, Amaterasu could barely comprehend the loss of her fellow Amatsukami. Immortal they were, but not indestructible. If Izanami perished in Yomi, would her spirit return to Takamahara?
Above the plateau, the eight roads faded and darkness fell over the cavern, broken by bands of moonlight sweeping in from the veins of crystal in the ceiling. Smoke poured from the meadow where fire still danced among the blackened grass.
As Inari pulled her upright, she breathed deeply, adjusting to the weight of a mortal body, to the twinge of muscles and fragile flesh. The other Kunitsukami approached, no doubt to ask what had befallen Izanami. From across the plateau, Yumei, bleeding and exhausted, limped to join them.
Before they reached her, Inari spun her around to face him. “Is Emi still there?” he demanded hoarsely. “Is she?”
Amaterasu stiffened and pulled back from his rough grip. Within her, Emi’s presence was but a flickering flame, a whisper of the girl who had fought so hard and so bravely. The taint of the guardian’s touch was already fading, but little of Emi’s ki remained.
“She is still there,” Amaterasu murmured, “but not for long.”
A strange emotion she couldn’t name tightened his face and his j
aw clenched. She would never have expected such passion or pain from him over a human girl. For eons, he had been unshakeable, yet here he stood with unsteady hands and desperate eyes.
“Can she hear me?” he asked.
“Perhaps,” Amaterasu answered. “If you wish to speak to her, be quick.”
Anguish slashed across his face. Emi had loved him so dearly, yet she hadn’t truly understood how deeply her love had touched his heart. An immortal’s soul was as permanent as the earth, as the sky, as the mountains and oceans. When change afflicted them, it too was permanent. He would love Emi forever. He would never stop grieving for her.
Perhaps it was better that Emi hadn’t understood that. Could the brief love they had shared outweigh his endless sorrow?
His fingers caught Amaterasu’s chin, forcing her head back so he could stare into her eyes. She allowed his forceful touch and waited patiently as he searched for a glimpse of Emi, knowing the girl was too faint for him to see.
“Emi,” he whispered roughly. “You made your choice, but now I must make mine, and it is the only one I can bear. I’m sorry.”
Confusion flittered through Amaterasu, but before she could parse his words for their meaning, he pressed his mouth hard into hers. For an instant, she thought it was an emotional farewell kiss.
Then he inhaled.
Agony pierced deep into her core. Emi’s fading awareness sparked with panicked denial a second before Amaterasu realized what he was doing. She grabbed his face and tried to shove him away, but he already held her tight in his powerful grip.
“No!” she cried.
He inhaled again. Another wave of burning pain cut deep through Amaterasu as her ki was torn from the mortal flesh. Digging her fingers into his jaw, she struggled to pry him off her, to stop him from drawing in her power. With each determined inhalation, he pulled Amaterasu’s power and spirit into his body, emptying Emi’s flesh of the Amatsukami essence that was destroying the human girl.
Immortal Fire (The Red Winter Trilogy Book 3) Page 29
