The Unyielding Great Sage (Continued)
However, the frail girl was nearly pulled to the ground by this tug. Her face, which should have been confident and resolute, was now only pale and weak, showing the loss of what she had been supporting.
"I... I... I don't know..." the girl murmured, clutching an empty scabbard in her arms. "Grandpa suddenly drained all the Curse Power residing within me a few minutes ago. He also took the Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi..."
Her response sent a chill down the spines of the witches. And a greater fear erupted from the depths of their hearts.
"Could it be that my husband is already..." a young shrine maiden murmured to herself.
The other priestesses were about to glare angrily at this jinxed fellow when, in the next instant, a shadow suddenly appeared above them, robbing them of all their reason.
The pillar supporting the sky, facing us head-on, collapsed!
'Boom--!!!'
The Great Ape's first attack after appearing in the world reduced the entire city of Tokyo to wasteland. A massive rift stretching for hundreds of miles cleaved the colossal city in two broken pieces. The bay outside Tokyo was also severed along with it.
The seawater parted to both sides.
Then, a compensatory tsunami surged toward the ruins of the abandoned city.
Beneath Honshu Island, the continental plates are violently shifting. Perhaps in just a few tens of minutes, the land supporting the ruins of Tokyo will sink into the sea.
Only then did the Great Ape lift the iron pillar.
"Long confined in a cage, now freed... After so many years of imprisonment, Old Sun, have learned to recite poetry." Its gaze swept over the palace hovering over Tokyo Bay. And the next moment, flames erupted around it!
It wasn't the fire it started when it was about to act, but the fire that Laevateinn spread out. Miss Surtr was blocked in the Netherworld, also broke through the barrier between space and time, and the moment she appeared, a fiery slash several kilometers long suddenly slashed towards the Great Ape's waist and abdomen!
This was an unavoidable sword strike, because a mountain of flesh and blood over thirty kilometers high should not have been able to dodge such a swift attack.
However...
The idea that massive creatures must move slowly is merely a self-delusional misconception held by mortals.
He sidestepped, dodging. At a speed unimaginable to ordinary people, the Great Ape retaliated with its Ruyi Jingu Bang. With a single sweep, the resulting storm lifted up clods of earth equivalent to a mountain.
Mountain.
The mountain that was lifted up is Mount Fuji.
The tip of the Ruyi Jingu Bang grazed the ridge of the active volcano, tearing the mountain Ley Line. The upright volcano became an inverted one. And Miss Surtr's toes landed lightly on the ridge the instant the mountain was lifted into the air.
Going with the wind is not difficult.
Hōten Shōchi is extremely difficult.
"As far as I know, in the entire Journey to the Journey to the West, Sun Wukong never touched a single grain of meat... and that's why you turned against him?" Miss Surtr's voice echoed throughout the entire Honshu Island. She could sense the boundless fear permeating the atmosphere, and the seven emotions and six desires of this mortal world gave her a small boost when she needed it.
The Lord of Fiends's palace was shrouded in Athena's night.
The layers of her life were slightly revealed by the fighting spirit surging in her heart.
The pinnacle of human immortality. The intent of the fist has taken form.
The tangible essence of the fist permeated the land of Mount Fuji, which was lifted into the sky.
The mountain and the ground are a whole.
The land of Mount Fuji and Mount Fuji lava beneath it are also a unified whole.
The Great Ape retaliated, and the next attack followed immediately. Mount Fuji, which had been thrown into the air, was blasted into shreds of dust. And from within the flying clouds of dust, a giant lava hand rose suddenly from the depths of the torn Ley Line!
Using lava and earth, flesh and blood are constructed...
Only a colossal being of equal size can fight against the fully formed, holistic body of the Hōten Shōchi!
Another attack came, and he parried. A giant sword of lava, iron, and fire rose from the ground. And when Miss Surtr descended from the top of the sky and stood on the missing head of the giant, she and the defiant Sun Wukong began to fight on equal terms for the first time.
"This little girl has quite a few tricks up Old Sun sleeve. It seems I underestimated you earlier." The Great Ape's form suddenly pressed closer, and with just a slight exertion, at least a hundred new small volcanoes were born on the Honshu Island. Crimson fountains stained the shallow near-sky, and their response rose with the storm.
"But Old Sun, won't answer you... Maybe yes, maybe no. Perhaps once Old Sun 've eaten my fill, I'll obediently return to the mythology!"
Sword and staff clashed at an altitude of approximately 30,000 meters. From this extremely high vantage point, the entire land appeared narrow and insignificant in the girl's eyes.
At the point of impact, the structure of space became noticeably unstable. Perhaps with just this one strike, the feats of Hiroshima and Nagasaki would be perfectly reenacted.
Nebula M78 756365104
There's no need to describe the intensity of the light and heat; what is certain is that this attack, equivalent to a high-altitude nuclear explosion, caused all electrical appliances, or rather, electrified Magic Engineering devices, on the four main islands of Japan to malfunction instantly.
—It is inducing.
—It's testing my purpose.
The girl thought to herself, as the towering lava giant solidified further with each breath. Because battles of this scale had been fought many times in the dream world, she controlled this giant's body as easily as she controlled her own limbs!
So, let's fight.
Set aside all inhibitions and fight with the sole purpose of annihilating the enemy.
The line between life and death is not always clear in this world. Therefore, as long as one does not die, all those who perished in this battle have a chance to live a second time.
Fight, keep fighting.
From Tokyo to Kyoto.
From Kyoto to Hiroshima.
The Ley Line trembled; the already unstable crust of Honshu Island shook violently with every step of the battle. If measured in terms of simple earthquakes, then the entire Honshu Island had been experiencing powerful earthquakes of magnitude 9 or higher since the start of the war. The surface had long since cracked like a spider web, and then continued to crack, while tsunamis with peaks exceeding ten meters high rose up one after another, easily shattering the protective barriers that occasionally rose on the other islands of Japan and scavenging nearly a hundred kilometers of the mainland along the coast.
But the battle continues.
The rift valley burst open, spewing forth lava or ocean currents. Mountains rose continuously, only to crumble in an instant.
Martial arts skills are unimportant; the mere clash of sword and staff is enough to destroy and overturn all known fighting techniques in the world. A protective barrier was erected along China's coast, and Luo Hao, restrained by his own pride, stood atop Mount Lu with a complex expression—to fight a strong enemy with the weak is a heroic act. However, the knight who charged at the windmills was destined to be remembered only as a symbol of foolishness on this land.
"That monster..." she murmured to herself, yet a silent fighting spirit burned within her. And the same thing was happening simultaneously on the other side of the ocean and on the other side of the earth.
They are fools, and they are about to take action. Perhaps they will become moths drawn to a flame, or perhaps they will not even become moths and will simply turn to dust.
But Miss Surtr had no intention of paying them any attention.
Because the Great Ape's weaknesses had already become apparent to her during the battle.
Amidst the clashes of weapons as imposing as mountains, and countless exchanges, she seized a crucial moment and gained the upper hand.
The colossal club, like a pillar of heaven, shattered half of the giant's body. But the giant's molten blade pierced through the chest of the Hōten Shōchi Ape.