Chapter 1240: Bloom of the Death God (1)
Chapter 1240: Bloom of the Death God (1)
Nipponese Underworld, Yomotsu Hirasaka, Amano-Iwato.
All of the great yokai aside from the ones overseeing troops on the front lines were gathered in a conference hall.
"The Coalition of Underworlds has agreed to deploy reinforcements to us!" Izanami declared with an elated smile. "The Golden Fleet and the Naga Fleet are approaching our nation as we speak, and the Russian Underworld has also opened up a passageway to the north, granting passage to all reinforcements!"
The response that she was greeted by was a wave of relieved sighs.
Facing the Cathayan Underworld was a prospect so daunting that just the mere thought of it was enough to strike despair into their hearts, and they had finally received the news they had been eagerly waiting for.
Izanami was situated on the main seat as she said, "All of you are to return to your own territory to supervise the Kunitsukami under your command. We can't lose any more territory before the troops of the Coalition of Underworlds arrive!"
With a dismissive wave of her hand, all of the great yokai promptly departed, but right as Susanoo-no-Mikoto was about to leave, Izanami suddenly said, "Susanoo-no-Mikoto, please stay behind."
Soon, Izanami and Susanoo-no-Mikoto were the only ones left in the hall. Izanami swept her gaze around the room, and all of the secretaries and assistants immediately departed as well.
The door was closed, and Susanoo-no-Mikoto's brows furrowed slightly as he asked, "Why did you..."
Before he had a chance to finish, he felt a hand grab onto his own. The hand belonged to Izanami.
At this moment, her composure had completely shattered. Her face was ashen in complexion, her lips were trembling slightly, and her hands were also trembling uncontrollably.
Immediately upon seeing this, a sense of despair welled up in Susanoo-no-Mikoto's heart, and he felt as if the entire world were collapsing around him. He slumped back against his chair, then asked in a trembling voice, "Did the Coalition of Underworlds refuse to send reinforcements?"
Was that a lie told with the sole purpose of boosting morale? Is this the end for the Nipponese Underworld?
Fear was quickly taking root before spreading like wildfire in his heart, but to his surprise, Izanami shook her head in response.
His hopes were immediately raised again, and he sat up straighter as an inquisitive look appeared on his face.
"Something's clearly not right here," Izanami said in a strained voice. "Only the Golden Fleet and the Naga Fleet are coming... What happened to their super long distance teleportation arrays? You may not have interacted with the four pillars much, but I'm sure that you know that all of the four pillars are trying to recruit as many allied nations as possible so they can set up super long distance teleportation arrays in those nations. For example, the Cathayan Underworld has super long distance teleportation arrays in the Hanyang Underworld all of its subsidiary nations. Our Nipponese Underworld also has those things! 1,000 Yin soldiers can be sent through the Aegyptian Underworld's super long distance teleportation array on Mount Fuji at a time, so why is that only two fleets are coming right now?"
As soon as her voice trailed off, she picked up a remote control to switch on an LED screen, which was displaying Erinys with a grim look on her face. "Mistress Izanami, the Golden Fleet was projected to arrive in Nagasaki in a day, but our fleet and the Naga Fleet have encountered resistance from the Kraken. Please do everything you can to hold on. Once we bypass the Kraken, we'll reinforce the Nipponese Underworld right away!"
With that, the screen turned black.
"Do you believe them when they say that they've been intercepted? Again, why aren't they using their super long distance teleportation arrays?" Izanami released Susanoo-no-Mikoto's hand before looking up at the ceiling with a glazed-over look in her eyes. "Also, the Russian Underworld told us that they're going to open up a passageway for reinforcements to the north. Have you thought about what's up there in the north? There are the Northern Europa nations, which are close allies with the Cathayan Underworld. As for the Icelandic Underworld, they don't even have an army of 10 million! How will they be able to help us?"
A look of despair returned to Susanoo-no-Mikoto's eyes upon hearing this. "Does this mean that the Coalition of Underworlds has abandoned us?"
Before Izanami had a chance to reply, he abruptly rose to his feet with tightly gritted teeth. "No! There's no way they would do that! This is an era of peace! There's no way that the Coalition of Underworlds would abandon an underworld with a history as long and illustrious as ours! If they do that, how will the other underworlds see them? There's no way that the three pillars would allow the Cathayan Underworld to conquer us! All of the nations in Southern Asia will be sure to reinforce us! There has to be hope!"
"Wasn't it also an era of peace leading up to World War 2 in the mortal realm?" Izanami mused in a hopeless voice.
Susanoo-no-Mikoto had no response to that.
He was trying to convince himself more than anyone else, but all it took was a slight reality check to burst his illusion of forced optimism like a bubble.
"Prepare Minakanushi," Izanami instructed as she closed her eyes. The situation couldn't get any worse than this, and with that in mind, she suddenly found herself to be quite calm and collected. "This is the final trump card that we have. If worse comes to worst, we can still activate Minakanushi. At the very least, we must retain control over Kansai and Chubu."
Susanoo-no-Mikoto pursed his lips tightly, and only after a long while did he heave a long sigh in response. "As you wish."
……………………………………
Once the juggernaut of war was set into motion, it was something that couldn't be stopped.
After six hours of silence, the Cathayan Underworld's forces in Kyushu, led by the Harken, conquered the prefecture of Yamaguchi, then split up into three parts to advance toward Shimane, Hiroshima, and Ehime.
Shuten-doji resisted with all his might in Shikoku, but in the face of the almighty Cathayan army, he was almost unable to even flee from the battle alive.
News of one defeat after another quickly made its way to Yomotsu Hirasaka, and five hours later, Shimane and Hiroshima also fell. After that, the Cathayan Underworld's army advanced toward the final two prefectures in Chugoku, Tottori and Okayama.
Meanwhile, the other branch of the Cathayan Underworld's army landed in Ehime, and the Kunitsukami of Shikoku were comprehensively crushed. After that, Kochi, Kagawa, and Tokushima fell in rapid succession. 13 hours later, Tottori and Okayama were also seized, and thus, the two branches of the Cathayan Underworld's army were separated by only the sea.
Following the fall of Chugoku and Shikoku, there was only one possible target next, and that was Kansai, the origin land of the Shinto religion and the home of Amano-Iwato!
The prefecture neighboring Tottori and Okayama was Hyogo, which was directly facing Osaka of Shikoku.
Beyond Hyogo and Osaka was Kyoto!
"Where are the reinforcements? Why have they still not arrived?"
"It's already been over 10 hours! Why are there still no reinforcements?!"
"Is the Coalition of Underworlds just going to allow this invasion to happen? What have we done to deserve this?!"
"Is the Cathayan Underworld really trying to take over our nation? Their forces have already reached Hyogo!"
Amano-Iwato was in a state of complete pandemonium. As the Cathayan Underworld's forces reached Nagasaki, they had thought that Hell would be content with conquering Nagasaki alone. After Nagasaki fell, they decided that Kyushu was also expendable. They had always thought that the Cathayan Underworld was only trying to teach the Nipponese Underworld a lesson, and never did they think that the Cathayan Underworld's aim was to conquer their entire nation!
Only after the fall of Kyushu did they begin to panic a little, and at the same time, news of the Cathayan Underworld's troops appearing in Hokkaido also arrived.
After that, the Cathayan Underworld's forces continued to advance, conquering Chugoku and Shikoku in less than a day!
Only now did they truly realize just how dire the situation was.
The Cathayan Underworld's forces were right on Amano-Iwato's doorstep!
A group of figures were rushing through a courtyard. Ahead of them was a huge imperial palace with guards stationed at the entrance, but at this moment, even the guards didn't have the spare capacity to pay any heed to the officials rushing into the palace.
"Your Excellency, it's time to make a decision!" Izanami was seated on a black throne with a wooden expression in the palace, and down below were all of the great yokai and high-ranking officials of the nation. All of the past emperors were also present, and even though they were split up into two clear factions, they were all united in their plea for Izanami to do something.
All of the underworld emissaries were wearing extremely official attire, perhaps because they wanted to treat this situation with the utmost seriousness, or perhaps they already knew, deep down, that there wouldn't be much time left for them to don this attire.
"The Cathayan Underworld's forces are already advancing toward Kyoto! We can't hesitate any longer!" Emperor Itoku yelled. "We vow to live and die with the Nipponese Underworld! We still have two million Kunitsukami left, as well as Minakanushi! All we need to do is hold on until the reinforcements from the Coalition of Underworlds arrive! So please..."
He took a deep breath, then spread his arms in an attempt to rally everyone around him as he continued, "Gather all of our forces in Osaka to face the Cathayan Underworld in a final showdown!"
"That's utter nonsense!" Emperor Kenzō immediately countered as he rushed forward before extending a respectful bow. "It's time to surrender, Your Excellency! This is the Cathayan Underworld we're talking about! Two of their Yama-Kings have already arrived on our soil! We have no chance at all against their amy!"
"How dare you!" Emperor Itoku turned toward him with a hateful expression. "You were once an emperor of Nippon! How could you say something like this?!"
Emperor Kenzō paid no heed to him and continued to stare intently at Izanami. Several dozen high-ranking officials emerged from behind him one after another, and their voices rang out in rapid succession.
"I concur!"
"I also concur!"
"As do I!"
There were concepts of patriotism in the mortal realm, but underworlds were only divine nations belonging to ruler death gods, so the sentiments of patriotism weren't as strong here.
"We can't surrender!" At the same time, several dozen more officials emerged to support Emperor Itoku. "So what if we're facing the Cathayan Underworld? We conquered half of Cathay back in the mortal realm! There's no need to fear them!"
"How foolish to you have to be to make such an idiotic comparison? The four pillars of the underworld are a completely different concept from Cathay of the mortal realm!"
"So you're just going to abandon your nation so you can bend over and lick the boots of the four pillars?"
"If our nation was as powerful as the Russian Underworld, perhaps we'd be able to put up some resistance, but we don't even have a single Yama-King! How are we supposed to contend with the Cathayan Underworld? If we continue to resist, the entire nation could be wiped out by force! The consequences are far too dire to handle!"
Each side was attacking the other, and a loud commotion quickly erupted within the palace.
Izanami looked on in silence, and never had she felt so much despair.
She didn't want to surrender.
This was her divine nation, so she wanted to preserve it more than anyone else.
She was still holding onto hope, even though the situation was objectively hopeless.
She could already tell that the Coalition of Underworlds had most likely already abandoned them, but what if they hadn't?
What if they really had sent out reinforcements?
What if the Golden Fleet and the Naga Fleet were just about to arrive?
Even if there were only the slightest glimmer of hope, she didn't want to give up.
As the heated debate continued to rage, a burst of Yin energy erupted forth violently, and Izanami rose to her feet with tightly gritted teeth. "Activate Minakanushi! We defend Osaka with our lives!"