Chapter 136: The Kneeling God
The morning sun finally broke free of the horizon, spilling its golden light across the vast plains of Musashi Province and bathing the distant, rolling mountains in a clear, crisp radiance.
In that burgeoning light, Uesugi Kenshin spoke.
There was no panic in her voice, no fear of a looming death. Instead, her words were laced with an incomparable calm—a stillness so deep it was chilling, so absolute that a disquieting terror began to creep into the hearts of the five hundred personal guards arrayed behind her.
Hikaru and Kikyo remained vigilant, their senses sharp. Though their adversary's situation seemed inescapable, with no room left to maneuver, she was still an existence tied to gods and Buddhas—a so-called divine incarnation descended upon the mortal world.
No amount of preparation could be considered an overreaction.
To Kenshin's unspoken question, Hikaru offered no reply. But his silence was, in itself, an answer.
He had no stake in her life or death. His only objective was to make this self-proclaimed 'god' pay the price for her hubris. Otherwise, anyone with a sliver of power would feel they could coerce them, could bully them with impunity. They would never know a moment of peace again.
In the next second, Kenshin's focus narrowed, her gaze locking onto Hikaru with an unnerving intensity.
She spoke, her voice clear and steady.
"This time, you have won, Mortal Oni."
"However, my 'Heavenly Mandate' has not yet ended."
"The 'me' who follows will be better."
"She will find you. And she, like me, will take a liking to you... and claim you as my vessel."
A low hum vibrated through the air. Golden light erupted, coalescing into the phantoms of eight weapons: a tachi, a hooked kama, and six other armaments. They were the Eight Heavenly Treasures from the myths of Bishamonten, a manifestation of the divine power belonging to the god of fortune who also guarded the gates of heaven.
The sheer density of the divine power radiating from them made the very air tremble, forcing Hikaru and Kikyo to brace themselves for an attack. The raw energy alone was comparable to that of a demon who had undergone eight or even nine transformations, and it was completely unhindered by spiritual power.
But the display lasted only for a second.
As Kenshin's words faded, the divine constructs fractured into dust, and the immense power dissipated. Simultaneously, her own body ignited, not with mortal flame, but with a light that burned like karmic fire.
Her posture, combined with her cryptic words, was so natural, so certain, that it made Hikaru's expression falter.
This time.
The next one.
The words collided in Hikaru's mind, triggering a cascade of fragmented memories from his past life. He suddenly recalled a specific detail from a work titled Noragami—the concept of 'succession' for gods and Buddhas.
In that story, gods were not eternal; they changed. But this change was not true death, not erasure.
It was succession.
The old god perishes, and a new god is born. This new incarnation inherits the previous generation's name, their duties, and the faith of their followers, but their personality, appearance, and memories are all reset.
Like a river that continues to flow, but in a newly carved bed. The water is the same, but its path is forever altered.
Uesugi Kenshin, the incarnation of Bishamonten, wasn't saying she was going to die.
She was saying she was going to be succeeded.
This generation of Uesugi Kenshin would perish here. But the faith in Bishamonten would not vanish. The people of Echigo would continue to pray and make offerings. That collective faith would re-condense, give birth to a new vessel, and produce a new 'Uesugi Kenshin.'
A different individual. A different personality. A different appearance.
But still the incarnation of Bishamonten. Still wielding the power of a Divine Artifact. Still capable of ruling Echigo Province.
"I am powerless to escape this predicament," Kenshin stated, her voice echoing with an unshakable, almost arrogant confidence. "But the next 'Bishamonten' will descend directly within the borders of Echigo, dissipating this crisis without a trace."
As long as 'Uesugi Kenshin' could appear in Echigo, the province's crisis would be resolved in an instant. The morale her very presence inspired would be more than enough to repel the invaders from the Imagawa clan.
It mattered not whether that Uesugi Kenshin was her or not.
The golden light surging around her body was no longer directed outward. It turned inward, consuming her. It was a perfect imitation of the Nirvana recorded in ancient Buddhist scriptures.
Or perhaps, it wasn't an imitation at all. It was Nirvana.
A sudden uproar broke the silence. The five hundred personal guards, whose once-unbreakable faith had begun to show faint cracks, fell to their knees in solemn, fanatical worship. They lowered their heads, seemingly abandoning the immediate crisis, abandoning all thought of life and death.
"For gods to interfere in the mortal world... what an unreasonable state of affairs," Hikaru sighed. He took a sudden step forward. "But if it's not the true god, just an incarnation... can it still be replaced?"
Kenshin looked at him, and a faint light flickered anew in eyes that should have been extinguishing.
"As expected of an existence capable of suppressing this body with thought alone... To think you even know of this." She smiled, and for a fleeting moment, that smile held the genuine warmth of a human. "Yes, it can be replaced."
"I am the incarnation of Bishamonten, one who descended bearing the Mandate of Heaven. As long as the mandate remains, Uesugi Kenshin will continue to exist."
'The Mandate of Heaven?'Hikaru's mind raced.'Is that... 'history'?'
He wasn't certain, but he felt that if it wasn't history itself, it was something very close. The name Uesugi Kenshin was indeed a significant chapter in the annals of this country. She was one of the few who had come closest to the pinnacle of power. The Dragon and the Tiger. Uesugi and Takeda.
From a historical perspective, she truly shouldn't die here. And from the perspective of a god descending to the world, her birth must have been tied to some grand mission—a mission that certainly did not involve being slain by a transmigrated oni like himself.
She would not truly die. No wonder she could remain so confident, so arrogant.
Even if the version of her after the succession would no longer be her.
A hint of subtle regret tinged her tone. It was not regret for her own impending demise, but for not being able to witness the future she had envisioned.
"What a pity," she said softly. "An existence capable of conversing with me as an equal... you truly possess the qualifications to become my Divine Artifact, my Blessed Vessel. Or even... a guide."
As her words fell, Kenshin's body grew brighter. This was not the golden light of a Divine Artifact's power, but a soft, white luminescence seeping out from within, like the wick of a lamp slowly burning to its end.
This was the self-dissolution of a divine incarnation—a process of sealing away all the experiences, all the confusion, and all the unresolved questions of one generation to be passed on to the next.
Then, dissipation.
The faith accumulated over decades from the thousands of people in Echigo was being drawn from her body, converging into a visible beam of white light that shot into the sky, piercing the clouds. The heavens for miles around were illuminated, as if the noon sun had appeared in the morning firmament.
Nirvana. A true Nirvana.
Kenshin's body grew transparent within the white light. Her long, silver-white hair dissolved into strands of light and drifted away. The hem of her white monk's robe evaporated like morning mist.
Only her face remained.
Upon that exquisite and heroic face, the smile had not yet faded. Her lips moved, forming the final few words—
"Next time, I will definitely—"
But it was at this exact moment—at the very instant her body was about to dissolve completely into white light—that Hikaru moved.
He was so fast that even Kikyo didn't have time to react.
[Transformation: Spirit-Chasing Archer].
Soul Summoning.
Soul-Locking: Inevitable Hit.
A dark green phosphorescence erupted from the palm of his right hand, spreading along his arm to his fingertips. It condensed into a line of light so thin it was almost invisible to the naked eye.
This line of light was not aimed at Kenshin's dissipating body.
It was aimed at her soul.
Faced with Kenshin's sudden self-destruction, this 'golden cicada shedding its shell,' Hikaru had watched the entire process. It wasn't that he was content to sit by, nor that he was powerless to stop it. He was observing, searching.
Since it was self-destruction, Nirvana, and succession, it naturally had to involve the soul.
And when it came to the soul, Hikaru was no longer the novice he once was.
He could sense it. He could capture it.
In that instant, he 'saw' it clearly. The essence of this so-called Nirvana was the soul leaving its old shell, entering the torrent of faith to be washed and reshaped, and then being reborn into a new vessel.
The moment the soul left the body, it belonged to neither the old shell nor the new. It hovered between the two, like a fish leaping from one pond to another.
And he had found it.
He had found the opportunity to reach out and snatch that fish the moment it leaped from the water.
Facts proved that a divine incarnation was, in the end, not a true god. Having been reincarnated into a mortal form, she was fundamentally human. And a human soul, no matter how powerful, had its limits.
Thus, here and now, the power of the Spirit-Chasing Archer was fully unleashed.
The dark green phosphorescence entangled Kenshin's soul. There was no attack, just a simple... anchoring. He used the Soul-Locking power to seize the detaching soul and hold it firmly in place.
And then—
He pushed it back.
He pressed it back into the shell that had not yet completely dissipated, like stuffing a wisp of smoke back into a bottle.
The white light suddenly contracted. The beam shooting into the sky collapsed in on itself, as if an invisible hand had forcefully dragged it back to the ground.
Nirvana... was interrupted.
Even if only for a moment. Even if a god's succession, once begun, could not be truly stopped.
At this moment, Hikaru had done it.
Kenshin's body solidified. Her silver-white hair cascaded back onto her shoulders, the white monk's robe clung to her torso once more, and the smile on her exquisite, heroic face—froze.
Her eyes snapped open.
Within those pupils, once as placid as an ancient well, an emotion appeared that had never been seen since the moment of her birth.
Confusion.
Thorough, complete, uncontrollable confusion.
A moment ago, she had begun to dissipate. She had felt the pull of the torrent of faith, the liberating sensation of her old shell shattering. In the next second, she should have entered a new cycle, a new vessel, a new beginning—reappearing with a brand-new form, unrelated to this moment, to cross all obstacles and return to Echigo. To continue the Heavenly Mandate of the existence named Uesugi Kenshin.
But in this instant—
A hand had forcefully dragged her back.
She felt like someone who had already stood at the edge of a cliff, arms spread wide and ready for flight, only to be grabbed by the collar and hauled back from the brink.
Her voice carried a rare tremor. "What did you do?"
Hikaru did not answer. His right hand remained extended, the dark green phosphorescence forming an invisible chain from his fingertips to Kenshin's chest, anchoring her soul within its old shell.
Then, he spoke.
Just one word.
"Kneel."
Kenshin's expression changed violently. That face, which since birth had never shown fear, never shown humiliation, never shown any negative human emotion—cracked.
It was not the shattering of an outer shell. It was something deeper—a crack in her very 'divinity.'
Because, to her horror, she discovered that her own soul... was no longer listening to her.
Lock onto the target's soul, and strike without fail.
Combined with the power of Soul Summoning, the effect was no longer just a 'hit.'It was'control.'
A brief, limited, soul-level control.
For beings superior to Hikaru, or for true gods and Buddhas, such control would be trivial. But unfortunately for Kenshin, Hikaru had already confirmed she was neither. She was merely an avatar., the interrupted Nirvana had loosened the connection between her soul and her physical body.
At this moment, her soul was as vulnerable as a kite with a snapped string.
And Hikaru's soul-snatching power was the hand that had just tied it back on.
Uesugi Kenshin's knees buckled.
Guided by that dark green chain, her soul pulled her body, involuntarily—
Down.
Both knees struck the earth.
A dull thud echoed across the blood-soaked field. Her long, silver-white hair spilled onto the ground, like flowing moonlight shattering against the soil. The hem of her white monk's robe spread out, stained with dust.
Those eyes, once as calm as an ancient well, widened in shock. Reflected in them was no longer the dawn light.
It was the crimson glare of an Oni mask.
The high and mighty avatar of Bishamonten, who had never bowed her head to any existence, knelt before an Oni Samurai.
The five hundred personal guards were petrified. It was a mental paralysis, but more than that, it was the fracturing of their faith.
They were witnessing an impossible scene.
Their god... was kneeling.
Before a demon.
Kneeling.
To truly defeat a god was never about destroying their physical shell. It was about shattering their hypocritical idol and forcing them to their knees.
Even if it was only for a moment, it was enough.
Enough to let the world see.
Your so-called god... is nothing more than this.
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