So they are now in a tough fight.
The situation on the side of [Yatagarasu], the Heavenly Sun God, was even worse. The army couldn't save Him, and neither could Takemikazuchi. So Hayden's beast incarnation, [Fenrir], slammed Him hard to the ground, smashed Him against a rocky mountain, stepped on His chest, tore off One of His wings, and swallowed Him whole.
"Guwaa ...
The Yatagarasu was pinned down by the giant wolf, its divine power was devoured by the wolf, and it struggled even less. One of its wings was also torn off, leaving it only able to howl like a pig being slaughtered.
The power of the God of Capital is like their property; once used, it's consumed, unlike a mana bar in a game that automatically regenerates—money spent must be earned back. However, generally speaking, there are very few monsters in the world capable of directly stealing or devouring divine power.
Hayden's inner beast, Fenrir, is truly the embodiment of his hatred and anger towards the god of capital.
In this chaotic battlefield, only Takemikazuchi still has the potential to save Ame no Boshin.
However, Hayden himself stood in front of Takemikazuchi. He clearly did not intend to let the other side simply take the prisoner.
...Can Takemikazuchi save him?
Takemikazuchi's expression was solemn. He had already summoned his sword into his hand. Unlike the samurai swords of common imagination, it was a heavy and sturdy straight sword, about one and a half meters long, with a simple and ancient design without any curves. Although it was large, Takemikazuchi wielded it easily with one hand.
Hayden had already studied their mythological secrets before coming to Japan, so he knew that this sword was probably the legendary "Ame no Ohabari," one of the Yamato Sacred Treasures, the "Totsuka-no-Tsurugi" (yes, there really are many Totsuka-no-Tsurugi). The "Ame no Ohabari" in Takemikazuchi's hands was also a sword capable of slaying gods, and indeed, it had killed a god.
Therefore, Hayden actually had no desire to engage in close combat with Takemikazuchi. In terms of overall combat strength, Hayden was probably about the same as Takemikazuchi. In close combat, Hayden would probably be chopped into sashimi by [Ame no Ouhabara] within five moves.
...No, that's not right either. At this point, the problem isn't even that.
Hayden had realized the mistake he had just made.
What is he here in Japan for? Not to slaughter these new Japanese gods—although killing them wouldn't be unjust, but that's not the point! Angela's criticism of him was a warning to Hayden not to let his methods cloud his judgment!
Moreover, Hayden's actions just now may have ruined his goal.
At the same time, Takemikazuchi looked at the terrible situation and at Yatagarasu, who was being suppressed by Fenrir. After a moment's thought, he made up his mind.
“Mr. Hayden, you are indeed amazing. Among non-god magicians of this era, you are definitely the best in the world.”
He said in a calm tone,
"You have already won militarily this time. So I can only reverse the situation with my personal martial prowess. Let's settle this with the next move."
Hayden didn't want this turn of events! He didn't want it regardless of victory or defeat! He already knew he had messed up and didn't want to waste time fighting Takemikazuchi to the death for no reason!
"Wait, wait!" So he immediately said, "A reconciliation is possible—"
"Now that things have come to this? You must be joking!" So Takemikazuchi completely ignored Hayden and was about to unleash his ultimate attack.
If it weren't for another unusual situation that occurred next, one of them would definitely have been beaten to a pulp immediately.
Suddenly, all the gods, humans, and monsters present stopped fighting, even Takemikazuchi abruptly halting his movements. They all sensed a strange, and even more powerful force approaching, enveloping the area from all sides.
A few seconds later, everyone heard a strange sound.
"Clap clap clap"
It was the sound of clapping, a slow and steady clapping. Along with the sound, two figures appeared from afar. Hayden actually recognized both of them. Their arrival made Hayden's eyes widen involuntarily.
The first goddess was a noble, elegant, and somewhat voluptuous beauty. Her slender figure was clad in celestial robes, her eyelashes were long and delicate, her skin was as white as porcelain, and her face was endearing, even somewhat innocent. Her beauty shone brightly, radiating a divine aura. Yet, at the same time, it exuded a captivating, alluring charm.
The second god, whom Hayden had seen once before in the same room, was a tall, muscular man with purple hair. He wore an impeccable white business suit, exuding a powerful aura. His face conveyed the same impression—handsome and imposing, with piercing eyes.
The first god's name is: Dakini, Deputy Design Director of Mithra Information Group.
The second deity's name is: Dhritarashtra, Deputy Marketing Director of Mithra Information Group!
For Hayden, the first god was Red Leaf's former boss; the second god was Adam's former father-in-law.
However, to these two gods, Hayden had only one identity: their troublemaker, the enemy who had hindered their plans and caused them great losses—and also the target they had been plotting against for a long time, finally finding an opportunity to harm!
“Not bad, not bad. Hayden, I’ve long known that your magic is profound and your skills are extraordinary, that you might be trying to unleash that sealed great demon…”
A faint smile appeared on Dajini's lips.
"However, no one expected that in order to lure out the various deities of the Yamato God Clan to assassinate you, you would even kill and use the female demons under your command, and even summon the souls of feudal demons!"
This is literally a ritual to summon the spirit.
"We have witnessed all your crimes, and the evidence is irrefutable," said Dhritarashtra coldly. "This is a rebellion against the Mithra Group, a heinous crime against Heaven, humanity, and modern civilized society!"
The Heavenly King Dhritarashtra pointed a finger at Haiden in the distance and declared, "By order of the Chairman and CEO of Mithra! [Reincarnation Organization], [Five Hundred Arhats], heed my command! Immediately arrest this criminal and bring him to justice!"
As soon as he finished speaking, everyone felt a power stronger than the two "Heavens," even stronger than the "Great Gods," enveloping the area! This ominous premonition even made Hayden's hair stand on end!
In the next instant, under the pretexts of "rebellion," "devil's resurgence," and "arresting extremely dangerous criminals," the Mitra Group's latest super force—the "Five Hundred Arhats"—developed after the realization of the "Reincarnation" technology, descended upon this land!
Dakini and Dhritarashtra may not be very strong, and may not be able to defeat Hayden—but why would a true god of capital need to rely solely on his own strength to deal with an enemy?
Just by watching the Mithra Group's new anti-god combat unit make its dazzling debut, Hayden clearly realized:
Today, we are in grave danger!
387: Everything is like a monkey's body.
What a fine Dakini Deva, what a fine Dhritarashtra! These two gods from the Mithraic group, in just a few words, have accused Hayden of being anti-human and of reviving feudal evil.
In modern society, such a crime, such a despicable label, if truly pinned on one's head, would be extremely deadly... And they weren't even satisfied with that, they actually brought in a new fighting god race force of five hundred people to surround the place.
These five hundred people were all new things that Hayden had never seen before.
They—the so-called "Five Hundred Arhats"—did not appear as tall and imposing as the "Vajrapani" (the Vajrapani deity). Instead, they looked like ordinary people, even thinner than average, and were bald. They wore rough, tattered, light yellow robes and floated in mid-air in a meditative posture, their eyes closed as if in deep thought, exuding an indescribable, elegant aura.
This thing doesn't look like the latest Mitra combat force at all; it doesn't even seem aggressive at all.
...But Hayden's intuition was still beeping warnings in his mind.
The word "arhat" was something Hayden had never heard of before, nor did it exist in the Mithra Group's traditional culture. However, Hayden was a learned man and knew a little Sanskrit. Although he had never heard of the word "arhat," he believed that its literal meaning was "a person worthy of respect."
In other words, it means "venerable one".
It sounds scary, but it doesn't seem like it's that... combat-oriented?
While Hayden was still pondering, Dhritarashtra waved his hand and said, "[Five Hundred Arhats], quickly suppress and subdue this sinner, and bring him back to the Tusita Heaven for trial!"
So the five hundred Arhats immediately sprang into action. They kept their eyes closed and proclaimed in a tone as if reciting scripture:
"Countless years have passed in vain, without a single Buddha appearing."
"When sentient beings fall into evil paths, the eyes of the world are extinguished."
"The three evil realms will expand, and the paths to the heavens will be forever severed;"
"Today, the Buddha has appeared in the world, and the three evil paths have been eradicated."
"May the gates of nectar open, bringing prosperity to all beings;"
"May all beings be free from attachments and swiftly attain Nirvana."
In the blink of an eye, eighty-four thousand golden beams shot out from above the heads of the five hundred Arhats. They had originally appeared separately, forming a ring around the basin. Now, these eighty-four thousand golden beams intertwined, weaving a huge golden net that covered the sky above Hayden and his companions, spanning several kilometers in radius.
Sensing something was wrong, Hayden immediately aimed at the nearest Arhat and unleashed his [Words of Wit]: "Break!"
But an even more terrifying situation followed. Words with wings flew from Hayden's mouth, instantly traversing a thousand meters and striking an Arhat—but they had no effect whatsoever!
"We have relinquished all desires and attained the state of Nirvana. No attack can harm us in the slightest, and no words can break our meditation."
The Arhat, still with his eyes closed, proclaimed in a tone as if reciting scriptures,
"Good man Haiden, this humble monk can see that you have deep roots of goodness, but it is your anger that has led you astray to heretical paths. However, you no longer need to be angry, for Mithra Bodhisattva has already attained enlightenment and realized the supreme path. He will save all sentient beings, enabling them to attain enlightenment and salvation within the cycle of rebirth."
"Put down the sharp blade in your mouth, come with me, see through the cycle of reincarnation, and finally achieve liberation."
噫
Hayden paused for a moment, then asked the Arhat, "Uh, what's your name?"
Arhat bowed to Hai Deng with palms together, saying, "Venerable Mingzhao."
So he really is called the Venerable One.
In any case, during his conversation with this Arhat, Hayden realized two very bad things.
First of all, these Arhats are not gods, probably not even "gods," but that's not good news. Because their nature is more like Hayden's.
They are immortals. Or rather, something similar to immortals—Arhats and immortals are very similar; they are both "not gods, not in the divine system, but possessing supernatural powers, and having evolved from humans."
Although the individual strength of these Arhats is clearly inferior to Hayden's, perhaps only comparable to the weakest minor deity, but... five hundred of them?! Are you kidding me?!
Moreover, although Hayden didn't fully understand it yet, he at least grasped some of the logic: where did Mithra Bodhisattva suddenly conjure up these five hundred minor deity-level Arhats from? The reason immortals aren't popular in modern times is because their numbers are very low; generally, they must be cultivated individually, and they can't be mass-produced industrially. Yet Mithra has suddenly produced five hundred "immortals" from his hat.
The only explanation is reincarnation.
These five hundred Arhats are probably the "results" of Mithra Bodhisattva, who used the cycle of reincarnation to collect people's souls and then nurtured them in dreams using educational chips. Hayden, observing with his mind's eye, suspected that the souls of these Arhats were originally the souls of citizens who were collected during the New Asia Flame.
The combination of the educational chip and the education of reincarnation has, in just a few months, allowed these souls to dream of hundreds of lifetimes, enough to make them "become immortals" and attain the Arhatship in their dreams.
Although Hayden didn't fully understand it, he guessed that it was probably a system where "the soul is thrown into the cycle of reincarnation to dream, and if one achieves enlightenment, one can be released and become an Arhat to serve Mithra Bodhisattva; if one cannot achieve enlightenment, one will continue to endlessly reincarnate in the dream of reincarnation until enlightenment is achieved."
Mithra Bodhisattva, you are indeed very powerful!
“I refuse to accept this strange religious persuasion.” So Hayden shook his head. “Especially since I’m being forced to choose, I absolutely refuse.”
Venerable Mingzhao looked at Hayden with a kind gaze and sighed: "Then the only option is to take you back to the Tushita Palace and send you for reincarnation."
How can you talk about murder so lightly?
As soon as he finished speaking, the golden net of light began to shrink. But this shrinking immediately brought about a second problem—Takemikazuchi and his Yamato clan, including the Yokozuna warriors and the Oniwaban ninja, were also trapped in this golden net!
Now that things had come to this, Takemikazuchi finally had to speak: "Gentlemen of the Mitra Group, this is Japanese territory, and it belongs to our Susanoo Company. Is it appropriate for you to trample on our property and sovereignty like this?"
The Arhats completely ignored him.
Only Dakini Ten, who was watching the spectacle from the back, smiled with her radiant beauty and said to Takemikazuchi, "Hayden is an extremely heinous criminal who intends to help the devil regain his power, slaughtering civilians, courtesans, and even two Yamato gods in Kyoto. If we release the [Demon-Subduing Circle] now, I'm afraid he will escape. I can only ask you all to make do for now and catch them all in one net."
"That's not the point." Takemikazuchi's face darkened. "This is our territory. Are you all just going to bring your troops in and barge in like this?"
This remark, however, amused the two Mithraic deities. Dakini laughed and said, "You could appeal, or try crying to Guanyin Bodhisattva. Maybe she'll have time to come and save you?"
Takemikazuchi's expression darkened further. He looked as if he wanted to draw his sword, but held back. This action, however, threw the others within the [Demon-Subduing Circle] into genuine chaos. Everyone began to panic.
“Takemikazuchi.” Hayden cautiously approached amidst the chaos. “I admit to the murder, but I assure you I have no intention of restoring the devil.”
Takemikazuchi glanced at the 100,000 Old Gods and Youkai who had been resurrected by Hayden and were now in complete chaos: "Now you're talking about this?"
"I was out of my mind during the battle just now," Hayden said, wiping away cold sweat. "I just wanted to go into the [Reed Plains] to ask Asmodius some questions."
Takemikazuchi frowned: "Then you should have just written an application. Besides, why did you kill Komakusa Tayu, who was in charge of guiding the way, and then blow up the passage leading into the barrier yourself? That's not very convincing."
"So it's said that things got out of hand and something went wrong... wait a minute." Hayden suddenly felt something was off. "I didn't kill Komakusa Tayu. Wasn't it your god who did it?"
"Our initial information was that the Prosecutor's Office discovered through a tip-off that you were hiding in the brothel district and had even committed murder there, causing a commotion," Takemikazuchi said. "Why would we go and kill a courtesan?"
Ok?
No, no, no. The report was an accident involving Tanaka Sho, and Hayden already knows about it. But who exactly killed Komakusa Tayu?
...Hayden looked up and glanced suspiciously at the two Mitra Group members behind him.
“In any case, Takemikazuchi, we’re really in the same boat now,” he said softly. “Can’t we reconcile?”
388: Main areas of expertise
It must be admitted that Takemikazuchi hesitated quite a bit regarding Hayden's "plea for peace."
It's not that Hayden's words were particularly convincing. In fact, Hayden had just slapped them in the face, pinning their crown prince to the ground and stripping him of his wings. If Takemikazuchi really agreed without hesitation and even thought Hayden made sense, then he must have been out of his mind by Hayden; that's clearly impossible.
His hesitation stemmed solely from the fact that the Mitra Group's actions were clearly far more troublesome than Hayden's slap in the face. Deploying troops onto their territory was not only a violation of Japanese sovereignty and an infringement on Susanoo's property, but also a complete shattering of the facade of peace and respect maintained by both sides.
(—Yes, Susanoo Company and the entire country of Japan are indeed subordinate to the Mitra Group. No one can deny that. But at least we used to maintain some tacit understanding, some social contract... So now, is Mitra really invincible and going to wipe us out?)
Therefore, it's quite normal for Takemikazuchi to think this way, and even to want to draw his sword against him. Although he hasn't done so yet.
...But Hayden did not miss this sign.
The golden net of the Demon-Subduing Circle drew ever closer, as if it would trap everyone present, bind them together, and drag them away. Hayden, who desperately didn't want to die like that, quickly spoke to Takemikazuchi, "Takemikazuchi, I know I have severely insulted you just now, and I am very sorry. But I have a way to help you escape from this golden net. If you are willing to help."
Takemikazuchi glanced at Hayden: "Why do we need your help to escape? You are the only criminal. Once the Demon-Subduing Circle closes, we will all be caught in the net and dragged to the Tushita Heaven. Of course, only you will be dealt with, and we will be released."
The Tusita Heaven is a complex of bases built by Mithra on the moon, including his own palace. Adam punched it before, but of course, it has long since been repaired.
Hayden did not refute Takemikazuchi's words, but stared at him and then asked, "Do you even believe what you're saying?"
Takemikazuchi remained silent.
Two seconds later, he said, “Even so, the formation of these five hundred Arhats is too powerful. Your sword of words can cut through my lightning arrows, yet it cannot even penetrate the protective shield of an Arhat. Bodhisattva Mithra is indeed creating more and more incredible things. With our current strength, we have no way to break through this demon-subduing circle. It would be better to be patient for now, let them capture us, and wait for an opportunity.”
“How could a single immortal-level being possibly block my sword?” Hayden turned to look at the five hundred Arhats scattered in a circle, and the two Mithra gods flying outside the circle. “They are so strong because they have an array, because the power of the five hundred Arhats is linked and combined together by the array.”