Chapter 33 - Kusanagi No Tsurugi

Basil merely glanced at the retreating back of Jester. He was shaking his head inwardly.

'Fake.'

He despised fake people like Jester. Jester was using that amicable facade to hide his hideous real self. Therefore, he cared so much about his image. However, at the crucial time, people like him would often show their true self.

There was nothing more disgusting than people like them. Basil shook his head to clear the useless thoughts. He tapped his feet twice on the ground, and chair like structure emerged from the ground.

Earth Manipulation!

Although the structure wasn't detailed enough, anyone could see that it was a chair. Basil calmly sat himself on the earthen chair, while Deacon laid his body beside the chair.

Basil crossed his feet and pulled out a slab of Magical Ram meat before giving it to Deacon. Everyone who was looking at this scene had only one thought.

Overbearing!

Basil had just come and almost caused a fight. He won the argument, and declared he had no need of other people's help implicitly. Then, he acted like he was in his own house, chilling while everyone was a nervous wreck. No words more suitable to describe him aside from overbearing.

The person who became the center of attention, Basil, wasn't aware of what the people was thinking. He merely ate his steak calmly in his seat with his eyes closed. He was pondering over the route he should taken upon climbing the mountain.

He had visited Lone Mountain in his past life, however it had been only twice. Since it had also been a very long time ago, his memory about the route was a little bit blurry.

Right after finishing his steak, he stood up from his earthen chair while cleaning the grease on his fingers using water he had conjured. He tapped his foot once again and the earthen chair returned to the ground.

Deacon had also finished his meal as he also got on his feet. Basil mounted him and they took off to the mountain by themselves. They didn't look back, they didn't ask anyone to follow them.

Just like how they came, they went by themselves. Jester, who was looking at that, clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction.

"Arrogant prick. He doesn't even know what is ahead."

"Well.. at least, he has the confidence."

"That's just plain stupidity."

Jester shook his head, acting as if he was pitying Basil. In truth, he couldn't be more elated at the fact that Basil was going to meet his doom very soon.

'Let's see who has the last laugh.'

...

Up to this point, Kusanagi had only been wielded by two people. The first one was the original owner of Kusanagi, the God of Sea, Susanoo from the East, and a legendary figure from the East, Yamato Takeru.

Although the might of Kusanagi was well-known, the wielder of Kusanagi rarely used it. At most, it had been only a few times. At least, that was the case for Takeru. Basil could never tell how many times Susanoo had used Kusanagi.

Higher beings like Gods weren't properly explained even up till now. There were churches that devoted themselves to the Gods, however none of them worshipped the Gods who were described in the historical records.

It was believed human and gods had ever coexisted at some point, however it could be refuted easily as people had suffered from The Age of Chaos. Even the current Gods those churches worshipped made the existence of Gods even more confusing.

To show that they were really worshipping Gods, they could perform miracle. They put offerings on the altar, then power surged within them. They could also heal people suffering from illness and injuries alike.

However, in the end, it was nothing more than Magic. Healing Magic was a mystery among Mages. They couldn't come up with the way to replicate [Recovery], the healing Magic developed by Priests.

However! That was only because they were too stupid to notice that almost every Knights could heal themselves with just the Qi they had. Basil didn't mean to look down on religious people, however he thought that anything related to Gods were full of bullcrap.

They could learn Magic! Why would they pray for miracle to be bestowed upon them? It was ridiculous!

"Stop here, Buddy."

Deacon stopped at Basil's instruction. They had ventured for a quite some time. Although Basil had chosen the safest route he knew, the higher he climbed, the heavier the pressure he got.

He got down from Deacon and motioned him to shrink himself. Right after shrinking, Deacon jumped on Basil's shoulder and sat there quietly.

"Huuh..." Basil ended up taking a deep breath and released it slowly. "Let's go. We will hunt every Beast we could find in this mountain," muttered Basil under his breath.

He naturally had no intention to face Yamata no Orochi head on. It would be suicide! Yamata no Orochi was said to have been killed by Susanoo. However, it was nothing more than a rumour. It wasn't dead yet!

Susanoo merely cut four of its heads and four of its tails. By the time he had found Kusanagi in the fourth tail of Yamata no Orochi, he just left the big snake and took Kusanagi with him. It successfully escaped, and biding its time to retrieve Kusanagi back.

It managed to do that in the end! Yamato Takeru died in the war, leaving his wife that was entrusted of the sword alone, thus making her a tender prey for it.

Yamata no Orochi was by no means weak. If he had to rate it, it would be as strong as an Eighth-Circled Mage. The reason he could charge into its living place was because he knew it had been injured heavily.

Rustle! Rustle! Rustle!

Basil heard a sound when he was running through the mountain. He looked at his back and found out there were a couple of Long-Legged Lemurs chasing his back. They looked really hideous with those long feet of them.

His Spatial Bracelet flashed, Jaden Daggers were quickly settled on his hands. He turned his back, and charged suddenly at those hideous lemurs.

Slash! Slash! Slash!

Everytime he swung his daggers, trails of red light could be seen clearly in the air. Along with that, the death cries of the lemurs were also heard.

He had tried to kill them as quiet as he could, however those things couldn't keep their mouths shut, even in the moment of their deaths.

He ran with his fastest speed, leaving the place where the slaughter had ensued. He could sense the hundreds of lemurs moving toward him.

Long-Legged Lemur was weak individually. However, together they were strong. Their amount was simply mind-boggling! If one fought a pack of them, one would think they were endless.

Surely, Basil didn't shy away from this. He had been aiming for this since the start. That was the reason why he released a scent that attracted the lemurs to the air. He would slaughter them as many as he could to confuse the big snake's sense of smell.

Yamata no Orochi had a great nose. It was relying on its nose since its eyesight wasn't that good. Therefore, to take Kusanagi from it, he had to ruin its sense of smell. He would do it by overflowing the air with the scent of Long-Legged Lemur's blood.

Whenever he was ganged up, Basil had always separated his enemies first before slaughtering them one by one. He was doing the same thing toward the lemurs chasing him.

Stab!

Screech!

Slash!

Everytime his daggers moved, more than two lemurs would be killed. However, their bellow before dying attracted another lemurs more than necessary. Basil kept running here and there while killing them ceaselessly.

The Long-Legged Lemurs became even more invigorated to chase his smell. He was covered by a thick scent of their brethren after all. It was all intentional. Basil did it for a reason.

His white clothes weren't even dirty, however the scent of blood was all over him as he purposefully entrapped the scent around him. The unique thing about the scent of Long-Legged Lemur's blood was, it could repel any other Beasts from chasing him.

The other Beasts seemed aware they couldn't meddle into any Long-Legged Lemur's matters. Therefore, they chose to distance themselves whenever they smelled the scent of Long-Legged Lemur's blood.

Basil was using this advantage to the utmost. He ran here and there, inching closer to his destination while killing the lemurs chasing him together with Deacon.

That night, Lone Mountain was filled with the cries of the Long-Legged Lemurs.

...

"Darn! Is Lone Mountain usually this creepy?!"

A young man wearing a thick blanket looked at his surrounding questioningly. He had been hearing a not so pleasant sounds to hear from his surrounding. As he was cold, he inched himself closer to the campfire to warmth himself.

"Well, I don't know about that. The last time I was here, it was daylight. I didn't even venture deep enough."

"Huuh.. seriously, dude? Why would we even do this?"

"To get money?"

"Crap! Can you feel it? The air turned colder!"

The surrounding six people became uncomfortable as they also hugged their body upon feeling the sudden coldness.

Howl!

!!!

They took out their weapons upon hearing the howl just now. They tensed instantly. The howl wasn't normal, as it was filled with killing intent. They could feel the impending doom that was about to befall upon them.

Gulp.

They gulped while looking at the direction where the howl had resounded.

"What are you doing?"

"!!!"

They jumped to their feet upon hearing the voice behind them. They were about to attack the source of the voice, before realizing it belonged to their friend.

"For Arthur's sake, Albert! Can you notify us before you greet us?!"

"How could I notify you before greeting you? My greeting is how I notify you."

The man named Albert looked at his friend weirdly. He had just been gone for ten minutes and his friends had already became a scaredy cat. He was already laughing inwardly.

"Shame on you, Carl. You are a Knight, but you act like a kid."

"Huh! You would be the same if you had heard what we had heard! Isn't that right?"

Carl was asking for confirmation from the people around him. Luckily, all of them nodded in unison. Albert merely glanced at them and noticed one of them had even wrapped themselves completely from head to toe in fear.

"Okay, okay.. relax. I am just joking."

"What were you doing anyway?"

"I was-"

"We were doing things that normal adults do."

Instead of Albert, there was someone else answered Carl's question. The woman was later revealed when she appeared beside Albert. She was quite well endowed, and a perfect definition of a seducer.

Carl was gaping silently as he looked at the woman. She was none other than one of their party members, Albert's girlfriend.

"You.. you..."

"Chill out, dude. You could have fun with your girlfriend later once we got down from this mountain."

Albert waved his hand as if finding his reaction funny. He didn't think that the act of satisfying his biological need was something to be envied.

"You are... Carla..."

"Yes, I am. What the heck, Carl?"

The woman, Carla looked strangely at Carl. She was about to chide him for being annoying when Carl opened his mouth again.

"Then..." He gulped nervously, and said, "Who is the person wrapping their body from head to toe in blanket...?" Cold sweat poured down on his forehead. His back had been already drenched since long ago.

"Albert...?"

Carla looked to her side, at Albert, and only met his fear stricken face. His mouth was gaping while his hands were trembling ceaselessly. Carla instantly became nervous as she very slowly turned her head over.

"What the hell is that..?!"

She couldn't move her body and her head. She was frozen like a statue. She could only see the abomination in front of her in fear.

Long feet and equally long hands. It had a scrawny body and a hunched back. Its head was a little bigger than an adult's head, and it had only a wide mouth showing countless of sharp teeth.

Doppelganger. A Magical Beast that could impersonate into someone it had seen. It only appeared at night, as it was nocturnal. Once someone unfamiliar with Doppelganger encountered it, the probability of survival was zero.

Then, as if finally getting their attention, the Doppelganger moved its hands.. The silence ended, and the night filled with bloodcurdling screams.