A surge of offended anger, mixed with an unspeakable embarrassment, welled up in Renjō's heart. He was the head of the Renjō family, one of the Five Go-ke! In this island nation, he was a nobleman whose status was second only to the three great elders. His chest heaved, and he subconsciously wanted to take another step forward to argue. However, the moment the tip of his foot touched the ground, Seiya's icy words fell like the blade of a guillotine.
"Then kneel and die here."
The command was not directed at him alone, but was like an invisible edict, instantly branded deep into the souls of every onmyoji on this street who had defied the "God-slaying Rakshasa." Renjō's pupils contracted violently, his mind a complete blank. He couldn't understand how such a short, such a brutal incantation could exist in this world. It didn't resemble any mortal magic; it was more like a final judgment directly issued to insignificant humans by a priest acting as the will of heaven in an ancient era!
The Authority of Love. This was the first time Seiya had unconsciously wielded this power, yet it held the authority to dominate all things.
A pure, soul-deep fear exploded in their hearts, chilling them to the bone. However, their bodies submitted before their minds did. A series of dull thuds echoed as their kneecaps slammed into the hard ground. Their throats felt as if they were clamped shut by invisible iron tongs, unable to squeeze out even a whimper of a plea for mercy. They could only maintain their stiff, kneeling posture, their bodies more obedient to Seiya's command than their own wills.
Only Stella—the goddess of love who had just become the Saint's subordinate deity—keenly sensed that something was abnormal about Seiya's state. It wasn't simple anger or a command; his mental state seemed... not right.
"Pegasus? Seiya?" she called out tentatively, a hint of imperceptible worry in her voice.
Seiya still didn't speak. Just now, an explosive will had detonated like thunder in his spiritual world. It was fear, it was hope, it was the cries of millions... A black curtain was blown by the wind. The sunlight passed through without a word, spilling onto the beasts that had been tamed by the god.
[Time for vulnerability has come. Let us pray together.]
The golden wheel symbolizing love and connection—the Wheel of Friendship—began to turn slowly and solemnly behind him, emitting a soft yet unignorable golden glow. He had not summoned it, yet the Pegasus Cloth appeared upon his body.
Before the dawn of this day, the events that had once occurred in Chiyoda were now being reenacted in various places throughout the country.
—The Hime-Miko of Matsuyama Shrine in Nagoya were fleeing in panic. But in the next instant, the ranks of the Kyoto Soul-Calming Spear squad orderly threw forth their muskets. The fiery spears were like brief daylight fireworks, and when they fell, they engulfed the fleeing miko.
—In the Ryukyu Islands, the cast-iron window lattices of the Ryūgū Shrine melted in the high heat. The curtains transformed into writhing fire dragons. The shrine officials of Ryūgū collectively raised their arms to deploy a barrier. Following closely behind the Onryō Warrior Group were kasha and ushioni. These massive shikigami flattened all obstacles before them with brute force.
—On the island of Shikoku, at Mitake Shrine, all the sorcerers wanted to flee in terror. The footsteps of a death god echoed behind them. It was the Yomi Army, belonging to the Shinto religion. These warriors who had crawled out of hell revealed their faces, which were terrifying visages covered in maggots.
Some screamed, some resisted in anger, and some prayed to the gods.
However, these desperate, angry, and pleading voices of prayer did not dissipate into nothingness. They were like invisible threads, passing through space, first converging on Stella—the goddess of love who had once ruled Japan, the former owner of the Wheel of Friendship—and then, through her subtle connection with the divine artifact, they surged into the slowly turning Wheel of Friendship. Finally, these voices, filled with the suffering of the mortal world, were captured and heard by the "Strong Wind" Authority contained within the Pegasus Cloth on Seiya's body.
Stella looked at the Wheel of Friendship slowly glowing behind the Pegasus. She suddenly understood. After her defeat, the ownership of this island nation had fallen into the hands of the man before her.
"So this was your real plan all along, Pegasus!" Stella's eyes widened in astonishment, looking in disbelief at the man shrouded in the light of the Cloth. The memory of his innocent smile, like that of the King of Litang, now seemed incomparably deep, incomparably unfathomable in her eyes. "Wow! To think you were such a cunningly deep man!"
You must know, just three days ago, she, Stella, had encroached upon Japan and controlled seventy percent of the mystical forces of this land! The Onmyo Agency at that time was the true uncrowned king of this land! And now, in the blink of an eye, through the subordinate relationship established by the Wheel of Friendship, her former authority had completely flowed into Seiya's hands!
Now Susanoo, that ancient Old Gentleman, was left with only two choices: either defeat this Saint head-on and take back the rights he was owed, or try to manage the tens of thousands and keep the out-of-control mystical side within a safe range.
Seiya paid no mind to this shrieking spring breeze elf goddess. The Strong Wind had brought the suffering to him. The Saint softly recited an incantation.
"May benevolence and friendship guide you all. Humanity needs justice, humanity needs order, humanity needs me. Praise my name, for I am victory, and he who crushes all who do evil!"
An instant before, countless streams of radiance had emanated from the Saint's body.
—The Spirit World, the Eternal Pavilion.
At this moment, Susanoo was watching as the fallen land of Japan returned to his grasp.
Besides his most trusted Hachiman Vanguard, the Oni Musha, the Yomi Army, the Yami-harai-tai, and the Katatagae-shi were advancing steadily. Against a Heretic God, these troops were like a praying mantis trying to stop a chariot, but for exterminating these traitorous miko and sorcerers, they were more than suitable.
"Humans are like weeds. After you purge one wave, new weeds will grow in my garden. Every spring, new shoots will sprout." Perhaps because he was in a good mood, the Old Gentleman, for the first time in a long while, picked up his yellowed, patinated wine gourd and gulped down the coal-flavored sake.
In the seventh century AD, the ancient Korean kingdom of Baekje had frequent contact with the Western Continent (west of Japan) and became a bridge for the transmission of Western Continent culture to Japan. Thus, the technique of brewing with a "yeast starter" was spread by the people of Baekje to Japan, leading to great progress and development in Japan's brewing industry. By the fourteenth century, Japan's brewing technology had matured, and people used the traditional sake brewing method to produce high-quality products. This was the famous monk's sake.
Although monk's sake later fell into disuse and the center of brewing shifted, and there was the sake of the chaotic era after the Meiji Restoration, the sake of peacetime, and the influx of beer and spirits into the market, to this day, the most fitting drink for Susanoo was still this gourd of monk's sake. The stronger the drink, the higher his spirits soared.
Whether it was that monkey from five hundred years ago, or the Martial Empress Luo Hao from two hundred years ago, or the deity from the southern seas, none of them could completely shake his rule over Japan. This land, and the people on this land, ultimately belonged to him, to Susanoo. No one could change that!
Conflict was not the fundamental solution. As long as he could achieve his goal, Susanoo didn't mind being a coward for a short while.
But at this very moment, tens of thousands of streams of light descended from the sky in the form of winged pegasi, appearing before every person in need of help.
_____
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