Hayden said.
Hongye was taken aback and immediately shook her head: "Please don't say that. I am still the master's ninja."
"Then follow me."
So Hayden walked toward the direction of the Prosecutor's Office, as Hongye had told him.
Just then, Angela leisurely floated out of the brothel. Seeing her, Hongye quickly went up to her and asked, "Lady Angela! Is the master really alright?!"
"Do you mean 'wanting to kill all the evildoers out of righteous rage'?" Angela tilted her head and said thoughtfully, "Although I don't really like this attribute, the direction isn't wrong, is it? At least it can't be said to be wrong."
The red leaves remained silent. She had originally hoped that Angela could act as a decelerator.
“So if that’s all there is to it, there’s no problem.” Angela said, but then frowned. “It’s just that Master’s mental state isn’t very good right now. I hope nothing goes wrong.”
"What's gone wrong?" Hongye was now even more worried. "Could it be that Master will lose?"
Unexpectedly, Angela shook her head: "There's no need to worry about that."
The Yamato pantheon, specifically the Susanoo Company, has only one major deity; the others are merely minor gods. Furthermore, Momiji herself is a member of an ancient Japanese pantheon. Although she isn't a member of the Yamato pantheon, as her archenemy (and former corporate ninja), she is well aware that the Yamato pantheon is far from monolithic.
If Hayden relies solely on himself and no one else, what level of combat power would he have? Could he really tear off all pretenses and utterly destroy Susanoo Company on the other side's home turf?
Hongye really isn't sure! Maybe Hayden really can do it!
Soon, Hayden arrived at the headquarters of the Kyoto Prosecutor's Office for Illegal Activities. It was a complex of buildings with red-tiled roofs, clean white walls, and numerous searchlights displaying Chinese characters on the rooftops. As the headquarters of the National Security Police, it exuded an air of authority.
Hayden merely sneered at this display of authority, then strode straight towards the main entrance of the government building. He was going to go in to rescue people, then slaughter every damned thing in the entire building, floor by floor, and trample all this so-called authority under his feet!
378: Indeed, a formidable opponent.
In any case, the officials of the Kyoto Prosecution Bureau were not stupid. Before Hayden even blew the lieutenant's head off, the Prosecution Bureau had already received the news through the red lantern signal and the reactions of the other nine people who had died, and immediately went on high alert.
By the time Hayden reached the gates of the Prosecutor's Office, they had already made a series of preparations. The protective barrier had been activated, and two teams of approximately forty Prosecutors were lined up to block the entrance.
Are you all tired of living?
Hayden glared at the group of priests.
"Your own parents gave birth to you and raised you, and you've worked so hard to live to your twenties, thirties, thirties, or forties. Can you please not use your precious lives to serve the officials and smear your blood on my shoes?"
"Run now, and I might let you go."
The priests exchanged glances, then raised their weapons. This time, only half of them carried staffs, while about twenty held sacred swords—and in the blink of an eye, as they raised their swords, those twenty swords emitted a white light, forming solemn and majestic power armor for warriors.
Through the blessing of the formation, the latter twenty people began to bestow blessings upon the former twenty people, using a ritual that integrated forty people to elevate the former twenty people to a level roughly equivalent to that of a second-rate combat god race.
The Yamato gods do not have their own dedicated fighting gods... To be precise, four hundred years ago, the old Japanese gods, the land gods, were actually the more combat-oriented and wilder gods among the Japanese gods—until the land gods were betrayed by the Yamato gods.
Even though they are more skilled in combat, the land gods are often no match for the cunning of the human gods. Overall, the land gods are actually a bit dumber than the human gods... You can't say that to Kureha.
Getting back to the main point, since the land gods have been betrayed and can no longer be used, the Yamato gods naturally have to create their own new fighting gods. After all, Susanoo wouldn't dare use the Vajrapani, "kindly" provided by the Mithra Group, as his own fighting god.
On the other hand, independently developing their own fighting god race is no easy task—how to build it? Create Kamen Rider cyborgs? Putting aside whether they could even build them, Susanoo Corporation is not as wealthy as the top four super corporations.
Thus, a compromise was quickly devised: First, select skilled priests for combat through civil service examinations, transferring the basic training costs to the common people. Then, perform surgery to strengthen these outstanding priests who passed the exams. Finally, equip them with formations, back row blessing buffs, combat power armor, and divine swords, so that the enhanced physical abilities of the equipped individuals can leap forward and allow them to roam freely in the air.
This resulted in something resembling a monkey version of the Vajrapani – a blessed power armor warrior standing 2 meters tall, capable of defeating a hundred fully armed infantrymen single-handedly, with most of the production costs (mainly initial training costs) passed on to them.
Its combat power is slightly weaker than that of [Vajrapani] and [Valkyrie], but it still meets the standards of a Norse [Heroic Warrior]. The remaining shortcomings are compensated for by external buffs, the Divine Sword, and a handheld automatic cannon.
With twenty such armored warriors, supported by priests from the rear, and coordinated by formations, it's possible to defeat a non-combatant minor god.
As for Hayden, he was nothing more than someone who wasn't even a god. The nation estimated his fighting ability to be "roughly equivalent to a minor god, maybe." So, such a force should be enough to deal with him…
...At the very least, it should greatly reduce his magical power, making it easier for Shangguan to defeat him later.
"That's fine."
Hayden shook his head and stopped trying to persuade them, simply beckoning them on: "Come on, attack."
"Drink!"
The twenty armored warriors immediately made a tearing sound as they deployed the traditional attack formation, the "Wedge Formation," which is also recorded in the Kojiki, and charged towards Hayden's location!
The so-called "warp formation" is an attack formation arranged in a triangle like bowling pins, advancing forward with a concentrated attack on a single point. Since some of the weaker "Armored Warriors" have to challenge Hayden, who is roughly equivalent to a minor god in combat strength, this attack formation is indeed the best choice. They can cover a distance of thirty meters in a single step; the blades swung down by the charging "Armored Warriors" are more terrifying than a tank ramming into them at full speed.
But Hayden raised his staff and swung it three times in the air. The lead armored warrior immediately turned around with astonishing agility, swinging his katana to slash at the neck of his comrade behind him!
"Guwa!"
How could the first armored warrior in the second row have imagined that the captain would suddenly turn around and slash at him? Those protected by heavy armor have only weak points in the joints, which are difficult to cover. The most fatal point is the neck, with gaps that the armor cannot protect.
The captain of the [Armored Warrior] slashed fiercely into the gap between the helmet and shoulder armor with his divine sword, severing the second warrior's neck in a single blow. A weapon even simpler than a gun, it swiftly severed the helmeted head, sending it flying and rolling onto the main road! The headless warrior remained upright, leaning forward, blood spraying from his neck like a sprinkler!
How did things turn out like this? Why would the captain of this "Armored Warrior" suddenly turn around and kill his comrade? Was he bribed and betrayed by Hayden?
But Hayden swung his staff three more times, and this time six of the remaining eighteen armored warriors immediately turned and began hacking at their comrades. The formation was broken, and chaos erupted.
Hongye, who was following far behind, was also dumbfounded: "Mind control spell?"
Directly controlling minds with magic is inefficient. Defense against mind magic is much easier than offense. Especially if the target is highly resistant, it's even harder to force commands into their minds. Forcibly altering thought patterns or personality memories generally only works when there's a significant difference in level, and the more people affected simultaneously, the more prone to error.
For example, even Mitra Group's "educational chips" intervene through a gentle "dream brainwashing" method, rather than directly and forcibly controlling the mind. The latter is simply too difficult; even the invincible Mitra couldn't achieve it.
So Angela looked at the battle scene from afar and shook her head: "No, this is physical control."
...Physical control? Hongye focused her gaze and discovered that Hayden was using invisible magical threads to bind these armored warriors, like manipulating puppets. He waved his staff with his right hand and made a grasping motion with his left, disrupting the array of the inspectors and easily tormenting them to a miserable state. The warriors, like puppets, were manipulated, hacking and slashing at each other, constantly emitting pitiful howls. Some of the priests behind tried to run, but were caught up by the armored warriors and chopped down from behind.
Less than a minute into the battle, the 40-man formation had completely collapsed, turning into a bizarre battlefield where comrades were killing each other.
Even from afar, Hongye couldn't help but feel a chill run down her spine at the sight: "Lady Angela, how could the master fight like this?"
Angela sighed, a rare occurrence for her: "The pressure must be too much."
In truth, it wasn't that Hongye couldn't understand. After all, ever since South America… or even earlier, since the flames of New Asia, when everyone first saw [Reincarnation], Hayden had likely been accumulating ever-increasing pressure. Any decision he made would bring about enormous changes, affecting the lives of tens of thousands. Under his decisions, the mountain of corpses was piling up higher and higher—and if he failed, the entire world might perish.
The South American incident had just ended, and it was only the second day before Hayden rushed to Japan, only to "kill" a few more people there. Coupled with his overflowing rage, some parts of his brain might really be on the verge of snapping.
The end result was that Hayden began to brutally slaughter these despicable creatures.
"Lady Angela, this isn't quite right," Hongye whispered. "Won't Master really stray into some dark side or something...?"
“What’s so dark about this?” Angela shook her head. “Sacrifice is God, suffering is God, but judgment is also God, and victory is also God—to utterly destroy evil and pour out fiery wrath on the heads of the wicked, how can this not be the way of goodness? I’m only worried about what the master’s motives are, what his driving force is right now. That’s the more troublesome thing, the key to determining whether he can grow.”
Hongye was in despair, realizing that Angela had no intention of stopping the situation at all.
Hayden quickly slaughtered all forty priests, not even getting a speck of dust on himself, then walked through their corpses into the gates of the Prosecutor's Office. The large iron gate was, of course, closed, but Hayden blew it open with a wave of his hand. He entered the building, hoping someone would be waiting for him in the main hall, but the lobby of this national security office building seemed deserted; even the most diligently on-duty police officers were nowhere to be seen.
There should be security personnel here; perhaps they received the news and evacuated all non-military personnel in advance. This is a good thing for Hayden. He hasn't lost control to the point of actually wanting to kill indiscriminately.
But this still doesn't seem like a good sign.
He raised his staff again and shook it, probing the location of the captured Tanaka Sho—it turned out to be in the basement of the Prosecutor's Office. Unfortunately, before Hayden could find the stairs to go down, two new figures emerged from the depths of the hall.
The two oddballs who came out this time were quite interesting. One was a middle-aged man with a big belly, wearing an expensive blue Armani suit, a small mustache, and a friendly smile; the other man was wearing a samurai kimono, a simple black yuban with short sleeves, and a haori printed with a divine emblem.
"Hello, Mr. Hayden." The smiling middle-aged man greeted Hayden with his hands clasped together, "I am Ebisu."
"Hello, Mr. Hayden." Another man also gave Hayden a simple bow in greeting. "I am Futsu-mitsukami."
They casually introduced themselves to Hai Deng. This was not strange at all. Clearly, they were gods, minor deities of the Yamato race. Even opposing gods would greet each other before a battle; this was a traditional Japanese etiquette recorded in the Kojiki.
Hayden glanced at them, then turned to Hongye and said, "Hongye, go and rescue the driver in the basement."
Momiji didn't want to leave this scene at all—she was really worried that she would come back and find that Hayden had made things even worse. So all she could do now was weakly say, "Master, these two are the oldest of the Yamato gods, deities of the same generation as Susanoo... You can't do anything outrageous!"
But Hayden only said, "Go and save the driver first."
The red leaves were silent and could only hurry away.
Once he had settled this matter, Hayden turned to the two minor deities and asked, "What brings you here?"
“Mr. Hayden, although you have just committed extremely heinous acts, if you surrender now and let us hand you over to the Mitra Group, you can still save your life and some dignity.”
Ebisu said with a smile,
"Otherwise, our army will arrive soon, and you will only have a painful death."
"That's quite a boast!" But Hayden wasn't angry. He just glanced at them and said, "I killed a bunch of your priests, and you want to hand me over to the Mithra Group? Isn't that a bit ridiculous? Won't your slain officials complain?"
“Because the Mitra Group was the first to issue a warrant for your arrest.” Ebisu was still smiling. “As for whether the servants will complain about it, well, they forget things easily, they’ll be fine in a while.”
Hayden shook his head: "Mithra Bodhisattva is about to unify the world with [Reincarnation], and then you will all be discarded like used millstones. At this time, you are still currying favor with the Mithra Group and hindering my efforts to save the world. You really don't know what's good for you."
“You’re mistaken.” Ebisu grinned this time. “It’s precisely because the Mithra Group is about to unify the world that we should seize this last opportunity to curry favor with them, so that we can secure wealth and glory for ourselves in the new world. This is the last chance to transfer. As for what connection your causing trouble in Kyoto has with saving the world, I see absolutely no way.”
These words finally made Hayden laugh in anger: "Is this the kind of trash the Yamato Gods are? I might as well kill you all."
...Hmm? Thinking about it carefully, isn't this a bit strange? Are the Yamato gods really like this? Then why would they—
Suddenly, Hayden felt that something was amiss—his intuition caught his attention to something puzzling, a tiny, perplexing detail—
But he no longer had time to ponder it.
“You were making a huge scene just now, and you massacred the combat priest unit that I personally trained.”
The effigyed spirit Futsu-mitama, standing beside Ebisu-gami, uttered words devoid of emotion.
"However, simply taking down a few pieces of garbage that can be mass-produced at will is, in my opinion, completely meaningless."
He stretched out his hand into the void, and in the next instant, a stream of white light flowed through his right hand, concentrating in his palm and transforming into a sword. Japanese swords are usually curved, but the one he summoned was a straight sword, less than a meter long.
"A few years ago, the 'Sword of Words' you used during the 'World's Number One VTuber Tournament' was quite interesting. Now, I'll show you what a true swordsman is like. Prepare to die, Mr. Hayden!"
Futsu-mitama-no-Kami is Japan's foremost god of the sword.
379: But I still killed him!
Futsu-mitama-no-Kami is Japan's foremost god of the sword.
He is not a god of swordsmanship, nor a god of war, but a god of "sword".
So when Futsu-no-Mitama finished speaking and attacked Hayden first, Hayden saw the other party materialize a straight sword less than a meter long and then swing it in the air.
"Prepare to die, Mr. Hayden!"
In the next instant, countless sharp swords suddenly pierced out from the space above, below, left, and right, rushing towards Hayden!
Fortunately, Hayden's precognitive abilities were the least affected by this kind of thing. Like someone in an action game who can foresee the hitbox of an opponent's area-of-effect attack, he took a small step forward and leaped out. Hundreds of sharp blades grazed his hair, but missed!
Moreover, only a fraction of a second after dodging the blade, Hayden immediately reached out, pointed his finger at Futsu-no-Mitama, and uttered a curse: "Kitama-no-Mitama."
Pointing at someone and reciting their name backwards is the oldest and simplest form of curse. This trick usually has no effect on gods, but Hayden used it to curse even the gods. An invisible and colorless killing power surged from his mouth, and the words of curse were like winged knives, rushing straight towards Futsu-mitsuru-no-kami.
However, Futsu no Mikoto shouted "Haa!" and swung his sword into the void—severing the curse that Hayden had uttered, as well as the invisible words! The curse was cut off, dissipated, and nothing remained in the end.
This sight surprised Hayden: "Hey, I've never seen this move before."
In fact, the Peacock King also possessed such a technical system, but he figured his daughter and son-in-law wouldn't need it, so he didn't teach it to them. Indeed, Hayden and Karen weren't suited to this approach either. However, the fact that the Peacock King also used this technique shows that Futsu-no-Mitama's sword-slashing curse was indeed quite powerful.
Hayden unleashed his magic once more, attacking Futsu-no-Mitama. This time, he transformed his magic into a giant hand, slamming it down from the sky with the terrifying force of a mountain crashing down. If an ordinary minor deity were struck by it, their brains would splatter and they would die instantly.
However, Futsu no Mikoto raised his sword and swung it above his head. The sword flashed and shattered Hayden's magical hand.
Hayden finally frowned: "This isn't some kind of thing that 'severs all magic,' is it?"
"no."
Futsu-no-Mitama assumed a fighting stance with her one-handed sword.
There is nothing I cannot cut off.
This is obviously impossible; even the Peacock King couldn't be this outrageous.
"Fire Lizard Arrow, Earth Elf Fist, Narcissus Spear, Wind Spirit Sword,"
Hayden raised his staff, stirring the air and striking the ground, channeling his magic to summon earth, fire, water, and wind. A powerful, spine-chilling elemental force began to gather around him.
"Spirits of nature, tormented by the new god, sound the horn of vengeance and unleash the four great sanctions upon the arrogant ruler!"
In the blink of an eye, Hayden's call stirred up countless natural souls oppressed by the new god, unleashing an astonishingly terrifying power.
A rain of fiery arrows suddenly shot out from the air, sweeping across the land like a massive army unleashing a barrage of arrows; giant rock fists emerged from the ground, smashing towards the enemy god from all directions; clear springs gushed from the building's water pipes, tracing spiral trajectories as they shot towards the heart of Futsu-no-Mitama; and howling winds and sharp blades also slashed towards his neck.
This was the natural spirits responding to Hayden's words, launching a fierce attack on their enemies. The power of this attack was enough to wipe out a company of the enhanced human army, and most of the war gods would also be annihilated.
But Futsu-no-Mitama immediately began swinging his sword with astonishing speed, parrying and blocking with extraordinary precision and unbelievable angles. His sword slicing through the air in a circular trajectory. Every spark, every stone fist, every jet of water, every blade of wind, even the shockwave from the explosion, was completely deflected and neutralized by the blade, sliced apart in the blink of an eye!
One sword in his right hand wasn't enough, so a second identical sword immediately appeared in his left hand, slicing through the incoming water cannon barrage! How terrifying!
Two swords in his hands weren't enough, so in the next instant, two more identical swords emerged from Futsu-no-Mitama's waist, cleaving apart the firestorm Hayden unleashed! How terrifying!
Four swords weren't enough, so Futsu-no-Mitama conjured divine swords from his legs and various bones, and even more blades extended from the blade wind, cutting through the dozens of giant rocks that Hayden had thrown! How terrifying!