The Village Disciples

Tanjo felt his feet land on a solid walkway, and his gaze settled on man-made structures. He had just battled Regashi Ketsueki in a forest, where his old friends lay lifeless. Now he was forced to stand in the center of a village he recognized—the long gravel walkways, tiny shops, concession stands, residences, and people. Regashi returned Tanjo to Buraun with a single clap.

'No…!' Tanjo thought silently, his blue eyes widening. 

The civilians of Buraun swiftly steered their heads toward Tanjo's sudden appearance, gasping in shock and fear. Their stares were drawn to the Aura Amalgamation encompassing the teenager's hands, along with the Disruption of Reality circling his frame. To them, the Successor of Lucifer had returned with a vengeance; however, to Tanjo, he knew that relentless slaughter was inevitable.

The red night sky added an extra layer of suspense, filling the area with dread. Although the villagers were weak and ultimately powerless, Tanjo was the one who harbored the most fear. The only benefit Tanjo could reap from the current moment was that no kids were out at such a late time. 

'He wants me to be here… He wants me to watch as he kills more people!' Tanjo realized, inhaling. 

He needed to get out of Buraun and redirect the course of the battle. It was immensely one-sided and there was more collateral damage than actual combat. Regashi was a catalyst for abomination. The brown-haired Ketsueki puppeteered the world and all of its history: starting the Detrimental War with the Kokken no Sosei, returning Reiwa Takuetsu to the present day, and now purposely leading Tanjo down a path of pure torture that can only be surmised to pluck facets of the teenager's sanity away as slowly as possible. 

*SPLAT!*

Tanjo shifted his body to the right, watching as blood rained down onto the ground. A civilian had a hole punched through his chest, only to then be held by the neck and torn apart gruesomely. Regashi Ketsueki had arrived, and he was grinning from ear to ear. 

"Glad to be back home, Brother?" Regashi inquired with a sickeningly sweet tone, his eyes glowing green. 

"Why can't we just fight, damnit!?" Tanjo howled, warping the Disruption of Reality around him to prepare for combat. 

Regashi took a step closer to the teenager, causing a group of villagers to spontaneously explode. The invisible pressure radiating off of the man was incomprehensible. His Furusato Unit cloak swayed in the wind, his teeth grinding against each other playfully. 

"And spoil our brotherly bonding? You should be elated! I'm giving you a taste of the life that the gods wanted to give you!" Regashi boasted, smiling widely. 

*KRSHH!*

"Disperse!" 

Through Tanjo's command, the Disruption of Reality propelled itself in every direction and snatched all of the innocent bystanders in the area, causing them to be transported elsewhere. Hopefully putting them beyond the village walls would be enough to save them. 

A low hum of disappointment escaped Regashi's throat. 

"You and me, Regashi. Just you and me!" Tanjo asserted, gritting his teeth. 

The man chuckled. "That's all it's ever been, Tanjo. Since your birth to now, it's only ever been you and me."

Initially, Tanjo was dubious of the statement, but as he reflected on his entire life, Regashi could not have been more factual. His world was manipulated by Regashi from the beginning to now. Regashi's planning and foresight were flawless. Everything about Regashi from an external point of view was flawless, painfully so. 

*SWISH!*

With a valiant leap, Tanjo charged toward Regashi with his right fist reeled back. Red, blue, yellow, and purple Aura Sense fueled his hand, exponentially increasing the teenager's strength and power. In response, the brown-haired man flickered in and out of existence, reappearing behind Tanjo and grabbing him by his right ankle—*CRASH!*—and throwing him through numerous homes across the village. 

Tanjo's body ceased in the middle of the village's military barracks, landing outside a set of homes designed for warriors. He briefly glanced at the homes with hesitation, a particular memory resurfacing. 

"I knew that I had not yet put you through enough. There's a reason I left you alive, Brother." Regashi's voice echoed throughout the barracks as he marched toward the teenager, stepping through the gate that leads to the military homes. 

*KRSHH!*

Tanjo flexed his left hand, lobbing a bolt of blue rifts at Regashi. Effortlessly, the man dodged it by continuously walking. Tanjo knew his aim was good enough to hit him, so how did Regashi evade it without moving in a different direction? The absurdity of his uncanny abilities never failed to throw the boy for a loop. 

Regashi slowly encroached on Tanjo, his hand slipping out of his right sleeve, exposing his claw-like nails. The teenager proceeded to ceaselessly throw clusters of the Disruption of Reality at Regashi, but each toss proved to be fruitless as the older Ketsueki remained unscathed every time. 

"You're destroying you're own home more than me, Brother. Very hypocritical!" Regashi taunted the teenager with a grin, suddenly stopping.

A familiar voice rang through Tanjo's ears. 

"Mister?" 

Throwing his head back, Tanjo locked eyes with the definition of innocence. Mizuki, the child he saved from Furusato. The brown-haired boy looked at Tanjo with unbridled curiosity, tilting his head. He was standing on the lawn of a military home, and his two siblings—Sona and Toshiro—were peeking outside from behind the front door, which was slightly cracked open out of apprehensive wonder. 

"No!" Tanjo yelled, feeling the veins in his head burst. "Disperse!" 

*KRSHHHH*

Similar to before, Tanjo expelled a stream of blue rifts toward the children, hoping to transport them elsewhere to keep them safe from Regashi. Unfortunately, the rifts never reached the children as Regashi appeared in front of Mizuki and held his right hand out, halting the force of the Disruption of Reality. 

"You're bringing this onto yourself, Brother! Think about what life does to those you hold close!" Regashi talked over the sound of the blue rifts, grinning wickedly. 

Tanjo bit the inside of his cheek, applying pressure to his blue rifts. He had to break through Regashi's invisible abilities to even come close to winning—Regashi was nigh untouchable, so Tanjo had to shift the concept of intangible to tangible. 

Surprisingly, the Disruption of Reality grew closer to Regashi's hand, piercing through the man's invisible barrier that he had ostensibly posted around his body to impede the rifts. 

Regashi grinned at the discovery.

In an instant, Regashi vanished, taking Mizuki and the other two kids with him. Stopping the Disruption of Reality from shooting outward, Tanjo's eyes flitted throughout the barracks with the hope of spotting where they had all gone. Upon turning around, Tanjo could see Regashi standing tall with his hand wrapped around Mizuki's neck. Sona and Toshiro, on the other hand, were floating above the ground, frozen in place. 

"Put them down! They're just kids!" Tanjo demanded, his eyes bulging. 

Regashi tilted his head, his brown hair swaying. "Are you saying that reality does not end the life of children? I'm willing to put that to the test—just give me the word."

"You're not reality! You don't get to make these decisions!" The teenager rebutted, hesitant to step forward. 

The man hummed, his eyes glinting. "You are right, Brother. I'm not reality. Though, it does need a master."

Tanjo briefly gulped, clenching his jaw. His eyes raced up and down Regashi and the three children, surveying the situation to the best of his ability while his mind ran faster than light. So many ideas were conjured, but an equal amount of failures followed. 

"Since you banished me from your mind, Tanjo, I want you to audibly tell me something." Regashi spoke cryptically, sending shivers down the teenager's spine. 

Not a word escaped Tanjo's lips, but all of his attention was focused on Regashi.

Regashi lifted Mizuki higher, his clutch on the kid's throat not faltering.

"If you had to choose which of these kids live, who would you pick: Mizuki, the one you care about the most and put the most effort into keeping alive…" Regashi spoke slowly, his eyes shimmering. "...Or his siblings, who currently have more in quantity, potential for the future, but overall less personal favoritism?"

With clenched fists, Tanjo was forced to stand and watch as three children who were no older than ten were threatened with the prospect of death. His blue eyes pierced through the red night, glowering at the brown-haired man before him. How was Tanjo supposed to respond? No matter what he said, a young life would be permanently lost. 

"To fight me is to fight the logic of your world, Brother. Everything I do and have done is purely representative of what the world offers its subjects." Regashi declared, finally revealing a hint of a motive behind his actions. 

Despite Tanjo's empathic connection with Mizuki throughout the child's captivity, the small boy received no more favor than his siblings. Regashi was not to be trifled with—if he stated he would end a child's life, he would do it without hesitation. The elder Ketsueki was a man without morals, an individual who cared nothing about the severity of his deeds, and a monster who had perpetrated numerous atrocities for the sake of satisfaction.

A man who has committed every crime on earth.

"You will pick one of the two options I've presented to you, or I will decide on my own." Regashi asserted, tilting his head downward. 

*KRSH!*

The Disruption of Reality cackled around Tanjo's frame, swirling around his right hand, which was subtly hidden behind his back. With Tanjo maintaining a barrier between Regashi and his brain, making it so his thoughts could no longer be read, the teenager had a chance to make more intellectual decisions without the fear of being persecuted immediately. The only problem at hand was Regashi's power outside of his mental prowess. 

Tanjo inhaled and said, "I've made my decision."

Regashi noticed the brief gaze that Tanjo would cast in Sona and Toshiro's direction, grinning. 

"So, you went with quantity and quality, eh—!"

*KRSHH!*

*CRUNCH!*

As blue rifts ripped through the rear of Regashi's skull, tearing through his brain and out the front, the three children immediately shielded their faces. Blood sprayed in all directions as his head split up, plunging to the ground horribly.

"Erase Regashi Ketsueki from existence!" Tanjo shouted at the top of his lungs, his eyes sharper than ever. 

Tanjo had never executed such a move before. Still, he had successfully spawned the Disruption of Reality away from his body and behind Regashi, proceeding to order it to rip through the man's head while commanding it to purge him from existence. 

*KRSHHH!*

The blue rifts continued to swallow Regashi's body, traversing down his limbs and freezing him where he stood. During this process, Mizuki, Sona, and Toshiro were relinquished from the man's clutches, causing them to sprint toward Tanjo fearfully. 

"Mister!" Mizuki cried out, latching onto Tanjo's gray cloak. 

The tears and snot of the three kids went unnoticed as Tanjo refused to tear his gaze away from Regashi's headless body while the Disruption of Reality worked on deconstructing him. Regashi had to die from this attack. 

'Why is it taking forever!?' Tanjo queried rhetorically, watching as Regashi's body remained intact. 

Eventually, the blue rifts that encircled Regashi's body dissipated, letting the man's physique lean forward and fall to his knees. His head was still missing, but that did not expel the terror out of Tanjo's heart. Regashi was unpredictable and overwhelmingly powerful—Tanjo was unsure what he could not do more than what he could. 

'...Maybe it erased his conscience.' Tanjo thought to himself dubiously. 

Gradually, Regashi's headless body started to rise, hunched over with both of his arms hanging loosely toward the ground. Regashi's fingers twitched sporadically as his knees bent slightly. 

'What the hell…? I erased him! I erased Regashi Ketsueki!' Tanjo panicked, his eyes wide. 

Regashi lifted his right hand, wagging his index finger back and forth. His body, albeit headless, was as menacing as ever. 

"Disperse!" Tanjo yelled, prompting the Disruption of Reality to reach the three kids and transport them elsewhere. 

Once Mizuki, Sona, and Toshiro were removed from the vicinity, Regashi lifted his left hand to where his head used to be. By touching his wound, his head started to rapidly grow back, with every bone, vein, muscle, and tissue visible throughout the process. The last feature to return was his emerald green eyes, which yielded a staggering amount of excitement. 

"You actually had me questioning what would happen next, Brother!" Regashi revealed joyously, a grisly smile spreading across his face. 

With those words, Tanjo's mind ran rampant. That meant that the Disruption of Reality was potent enough to induce a change in Regashi's existence, even if it was immensely faint. Was it the strength of the rifts that failed to capture Regashi, or was it another reason? The rifts managed to restrain the man after splitting his head open, but something about Regashi's existence triumphed in the battle against the Disruption of Reality. 

"Your command was inaccurate! And because of that, I now know what to look out for!" Regashi cackled, throwing his head back in laughter. 

Tanjo shuffled his feet nervously, grinding his teeth together. What could he do? What was Regashi weakened by? Was victory possible? As these thoughts raced through the teenager's brain, one question presided over them all: where was Yuso?

XXX

Thanks for reading! We're so close to the end of this novel! For the reader's sake, I want to preface that Regashi is SUPPOSED to be perplexing. If you do not understand how he works as a character, then I've done at least a decent job on him. Either that or I don't know how to depict characters through words. ANYWAYS, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, and stay tuned for more!

Have a Great Day!

Peace - Cr1ticalz_