21 Pilgrimage
ARC 2: Game of the Gods
Chapter 21: Pilgrimage
It had been days since the battle with the fallens and Kento had a pretty relaxed few days thus far.
Running a few student council errands, training with Koneko and Kiba a little, spending some time with Aika and helping his mom.
That was all that he had been doing.
Even now, he was out on an errand on behalf of his mother.
"Don't worry, mom. I am already here." Kento said. "I am at the torii gates."
``Make sure to keep your mind at peace and only think about your dreams and goals when you reach the shrine.``
Kento assured his mother that he would keep her words in mind. "Will do."
From the other side of the phone, his mother sighed. ``When your father was alive, we used to visit the Inari Shrine, Yasaka Shrine and the Kiyomizu Temple together.``
It was a yearly tradition for them to visit the three sacred places with the family.
``Sadly I fell sick and could not accompany you, Kento.`` She sounded sad. ``I am sorry, son.``
"Why are you sorry about it?" He asked. "No god asks their devotees to sacrifice their health for them. And besides, I am here on behalf of us both."
His mother falling sick made him visit the places alone, not that it bothered him but he knew that his mother wanted to come with him.
Kento decided to visit the Inari shrine first as the hike from the gates to the mountain summit was at least two hours long.
There was the option of taking the Keihan line to Fushimi Inari Station, but their tradition was to walk.
Respecting that, he kept his promise and walked.
The hike to the shrine was beautiful. Thousands of bright orange gates formed a path that led to the shrine.
The pathway was well-maintained and clean and Kento could not deny that the place had quite a zen feeling to it.
He chose to visit the place very early and given it was a busy day, the place was almost empty.
'There is just something about ancient places and constructs that feels so marvelous.'
Kento was of the belief that no matter how much technology evolved and how many new constructs were made using those technologies, nothing could compare to the feel… The ambience of those old places.
Kento took a deep breath, the air was clean and he felt relaxed, albeit a bit cold.
This made him use one of the items he received.
[Self Adjusting Coat (D)]
<<Self Adjusting Coat (D): A coat made of unknown material that allows it to change its appearance and warmth according to the host's needs.>>
As he equipped the coat, he imagined it to be white and as the description said –it changed from gray to white while also increasing the amount of warmth it provided.
Happy with the result, he continued walking towards the Inari shrine.
'Inari Ōkami is the Japanese kami of foxes, fertility, rice, tea and sake, agriculture and industry, general prosperity and worldly success.' He remembered his mother telling him about the god.
Inari was married to Uke Mochi who was the goddess of food, clothing and housing.
"Her story was quite interesting."
Uke Mochi invited Amaterasu for a feast but she could not attend the feast and instead sent her brother Tsukuyomi to represent her.
When Tsukuyomi went there, he found Uke Mochi producing the food items for him.
But to his surprise, he found her producing them through the holes of her body –mouth, ears, nose, rectum.
This disgusted Tsukuyomi and made him kill her. But he learnt that the food she created could not be destroyed and hence he threw them towards earth. When those items landed on earth, they became the food plants we the people consume.
Even after her death, her corpse continued to produce food –her head produced horses and oxen, from her eyebrows came silkworms, from her forehead came millet, from her belly came rice, and from her genitals came wheat and beans.
Kento shook his head. "This killing led to Amaterasu banishing Tsukuyomi which caused the separation of day and night. But that is a whole nother story."
Realizing that he had been walking for almost an hour, Kento knew that he was halfway through.
'If Angels, Devils, fallens exist… I guess even the other gods and goddesses must exist.'
He remembered Sona telling him that other supernatural beings also existed, so he guessed that Japanese gods might just be as real as them.
'Something is a little off though.'
He had a weird feeling, an intuition that something wasn't right.
'I came early but it still shouldn't be enough of a reason for this place to be so empty.'
The place was far too deserted to be one of the most prayed to shrines in Japan.
As he continued to walk, the uneasy feeling grew.
This was a feeling that he had experienced in the past and so he was not too happy about going through it again.
It brought back bad memories.
He paused and took a deep breath.
"I know you are following me." He said, certain that he was being followed. "Come out."
It brought back memories of the day he died. But he promised himself not to go through such pain again.
Despite him asking them to come out, he got no reply.
'Hide and seek, huh?'
Realizing that they were not going to show themselves, he decided to force them to come out.
He slowly released his power, the pressure that he subconsciously exuded was now something he learnt to control.
This was enough for him to feel their presence coming closer.
And before he knew it –he was attacked.
"*Swish*"
Before he knew it, he was attack by a slash of energy that aimed directly for his head.
But unlike before, where he could do nothing about his attackers.
He was now more than capable of taking care of his enemies.
Jumping away from the attack, he saw three shadow figures manifesting before him.
The light gray hooded figures manifested as Kento created distance between them.
"Who are you?" Kento frowned, unsure of who or what they were.
But the shadowy figures said nothing, and continued to attack him –manifesting scythes on their way.
<<Opponent has racial advantage over host!>>
<<Herculean Strength Activated!>>
<<Hermes' Celerity Activated!>>
<<Atlas' Will Activated!>>
<<Athena's Insight Activated!>>
<<Coeus' Perspicacity Activated!>>
Kento frowned at their action. He could not see their faces as they had weird-looking masks on their face, but as he dodged their swings, he knew he had a way to figure out their identity.
{Inspect}
{Name: Nameless Grim Reaper
Age: 200
Class: Lowest Class Grim Reaper
Skills: Teleport (B+), Replicate (A+), Scythe Wielding (A+), Death Essence Manipulation (A-), Expert Weapon Master (A-)
Special Trait: Grim Reapers have the ability to slash away the life energy of their enemies.}
As he inspected the other two, he saw the same status.
Kento was shocked at seeing such status.
'Three grim reapers? Nameless?' Kento frowned, as he kept dodging their attacks. 'And why do they have so many A grade skills!'
He was well aware how rare A grade skills were and it was only thanks to his system that he was able to obtain quite a few of them.
'It says the lowest class but their strength is superior to any of those fallens!'
And what shocked him even more was when they formed clones of themselves –identical to them.
Under normal circumstances, it would have been difficult to win against them.
However, for Kento, he had his ways.
Realizing that his opponents were grim reapers who were the farthest beings from being holy –he summoned the best weapon he had for such beings.
[Tessaiga (S)]
<<Master Swordsmanship (A+)>>
Kento would have not been able to fight properly with their clone ability, but he had the {Inspect} skill which rendered their cloning ability useless.
Summoning the strongest weapon that he had and activating the swordsmanship skill that he plundered from Freed –who sadly managed to escape as Kento did not kill him– Kento slashed towards the actual reapers.
As he swung his sword towards the reaper, it tried to block him with his scythe.
However–
<<Negate Activated!>>
<<Defense Ignored!>>
One of the two features of Tessaiga was ignoring any defense on the first strike.
And because of that, Kento managed to land a clean strike on the reaper.
Which resulted in another effect.
<<Purge Activated!>>
Beings of their caliber whose strength rivaled middle class devils should not have taken as much damage as they took –having their robes slashed and ribs cracked that were visible because of their skeleton body.
However, {Purge} was one of Tessaiga's skill that caused four times the normal damage to any ungodly creatures.
As it took damage from the sword, the clones immediately vanished which was quite underwhelming in Kento's opinion. However, he was pleased that he did not have to deal with such annoyance.
Happy with the results –he continued to fight.
The reapers tried to form a dark and deathly form of energy but Kento had no intention of allowing that.
{Light Manipulation (C)}
Immediately shooting a sharp ray of light at the enemies, he rushed at them –using another attack on the way.
{Water Manipulation (C)}
Creating an explosion of water right in front of them with his upgraded water control, he managed to land a devastating blow on the reapers with his sword –instantly burning down the enemies.
<<Purge Activated!>>
The reapers could do nothing as Kento had all the skills that countered them perfectly. And as a result, they got destroyed by his Tessaiga.
***Where–***
<<Quest Completed!>>
<<Opponent Defeated: 3/3>>
***Is–***
<<Rewards Obtained: Points ×50, [Potion of Fire Breathing (D+) ×3], Status Enhancement Potion (D) ×3>>
***Speaarrr***
<<Plunder Activated>>
<<Plundered Opponent's Essence>>
<<Skill Plundered: Expert Weapon Master (A-): Allows host to use any item that is classified as a weapon with the utmost ease.>>
<<Opponent's plundered skill cannot be reduced because of its death.>>
"What spear?"
<<Plunder Failed>>
<<Failed to plunder opponent's essence>>
Kento was surprised to know that they could speak. Even more so when they talked about a spear.
<<Plunder Activated>>
<<Plundered Opponent's Essence>>
<<Skill Plundered: Replicate (A+): Allows the host to create upto five clones of himself that vanishes after half an hour.>>
<<Opponent's plundered skill cannot be reduced because of its death.>>
But as he wondered about what the reaper meant, he heard a noise.
*Bark!* *Bark!*
Surprised by the sudden bark, Kento turned around.
And what he saw both confused and amused him.
"A fox?"
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
[[A/N: Read 25 chapters ahead on Pat reon + other stories: Pat reon.com/Greedyfrog
And there we have a new arc.
And about the enhancement potion… Whether it is a stat enhancement, item enhancement or skill enhancement potion… If it is below grade B, it will only have a temporary effect. For it to be permanent, it has to be B grade or above.
And yes, the pantheons I decided to focus on are Shinto and Greek.]]
