Chapter 256: The Authentic Yamata no Orochi
Chapter 256: The Authentic Yamata no Orochi
Sprawled out on the ground, Adam could only just barely prop himself up slightly with his arms to get a clear view of the battle.
Diana was blasting pillars of black draconic flames incessantly at a figure in the sky, and her breaths were incredibly powerful. Even the residual shockwaves from her attacks could destroy entire streets.
However, Hebi no Miko was able to withstand Diana's attacks head-on, and standing behind an enormous wall of ice that she had conjured up, the fury in Hebi no Miko's eyes was no less ferocious than Diana's.
"I'm glad both of you are gathered in one place! In the beginning, I thought there was only one person responsible for my sister's death, but after watching the footage, I discovered that you were the one who played the biggest role in her death!"
The wall of ice shattered as Hebi no Miko was speaking, and Diana came crashing directly toward her.
Hebi no Miko made no attempt to take evasive measures as she drew the lightning in the sky down upon herself, then threw a punch into Diana's head.
A resounding boom rang out from the clash, and Diana was sent flying back several hundred meters, while Hebi no Miko was also forced back several dozen meters.
The disparity in power between the two was very clear. After knocking Diana away, Hebi no Miko raised her hands up to the heavens in preparation to bring down more lightning, but a streak of electricity suddenly appeared around her, and it was somehow able to absorb all of the lightning that she was drawing down onto her hands.
However, she wasn't alarmed by this in the slightest, and she threw another punch at the streak of blue lightning, immediately following which Mole came tumbling out of the sky with blood gushing out of his mouth.
Before Mole crashed down onto the ground, he was caught by a wave of yellow sand, which carried him over to Armadillo's side. Mole was just about to open his mouth to speak, only to throw up another mouthful of blood alongside a bunch of broken teeth.
Mole was displaying superior physical resistance compared to Adam, but not by a very significant margin.
Thankfully, as a complete psychic mutant, his regenerative abilities were far superior to Adam's, and he was able to quickly snap his own broken bones back into place, but his face had been completely disfigured, and it wasn't going to be recovering anytime soon.
"Don't get close to her! She's too strong!"
After taking a moment to catch his breath, Mole used his lightning abilities to harass Hebi no Miko from afar, but the other two psychic mutants weren't exercising the same level of caution.
Psychic mutants possessed superb regenerative abilities, but that came at the expense of intelligence, and they completely disregarded Mole's warning, springing up into the sky to directly confront Hebi no Miko.
Unsurprisingly, both of them were quickly also sent tumbling out of the sky.
"She's so strong!"
"I told you not to get close to her!"
"What do we do then? How about we take Adam and run, and leave that woman here!"
"That's a good idea!"
In the sky above, Diana was facing Hebi no Miko on her own. She was significantly more powerful than the three psychic mutants, but even she was severely outmatched by her opponent, both in terms of abilities and physical prowess.
Thankfully, Diana's defenses and physical resistance gave her a very high tolerance for punishment, and she wasn't going to perish anytime soon.
While Diana was keeping Hebi no Miko occupied, the three psychic mutants quickly rushed over to Adam.
"Let's get out of here!"
Armadillo immediately sprang into action as he spoke, chipping away at the boundaries of this psychic world, but the psychic boundaries imposed by Hebi no Miko were as thick as mountains, and it was impossible to break through them in a short time.
Adam was feeling quite exasperated as he watched the three psychic mutants toil away in futility.
"Go and help her!"
"We can't! We're no match for that woman!"
"We don't know her that well anyway."
The three psychic mutants felt no attachment to anyone else aside from Adam, who they considered to be a member of their brotherhood.
"We have no choice but to help her! These psychic boundaries are clearly too sturdy for us to break through! I already called up all of the nearby Mechguard units prior to being dragged into the psychic world, and now that I've been standing still on that street for so long, they'll definitely have already realized that something's wrong. At the moment, they should be searching for Hebi no Miko, and it won't take them long to track her down with their infrared scanners. All we need to do is survive for a few more minutes, and we'll be saved!"
"That makes sense," Mole said with an enlightened expression. "I must say, you're almost as smart as me, but if all we need to do is wait for a few more minutes, then why should we risk out lives to help Diana?"
Right as Mole's voice trailed off, an agonized draconic roar rang out from the sky, and Diana came tumbling down from above, unable to remain aloft any longer due to her severe injuries.
"Hurry up and go help her! If she dies now, we'll all be screwed!"
Adam felt as if he were about to have an aneurysm, and under his insistent urging, the three psychic mutants finally re-entered the battle.
Adam was unable to participate in the battle himself, but he invoked Nun to provide his four allies with some assistance.
Nun's pitiful combat prowess naturally wasn't going to be able to make any impact on the battle, but its abilities, particularly Lights Out, could have some disruptive effects.
While Nun approached the battlefield, Adam was carefully controlling it from afar for fear that it would be swept up and killed by the shockwaves from the battle.
Far too many of Adam's anomalies had already perished. Vampire was gone forever, while Mummy and Camera were still in their infantile, ragdoll forms.
Once a mature anomaly perished, it would lose all of its anomalic power and return to its infantile form, and if an infantile anomaly were to perish, then it would be gone forever.
At the moment, Adam was already running dangerously low on the number of anomalies that he could employ in battle, and his situation would only be exacerbated if he were to lose Nun as well.
The battle was becoming more and more intense, and even though the three psychic mutants were able to alleviate some of the pressure on Diana, the four of them were still being comprehensively crushed.
However, time was on their side.
As the battle continued, Hebi no Miko's brows began to furrow slightly. She could already sense danger with her telegnosis.
She had thought that this battle would be over very quickly, but all of a sudden, she realized that she hadn't even killed a single one of her targets yet.
Mole was extremely fast and cautious, constantly darting around in the distance like a slippery eel.
After experiencing Hebi no Miko's devastating power firsthand, Rabbit and Armadillo were also making sure to keep their distance, and they immediately burrowed into the ground at the first sign of danger.
As for Diana, she was more powerful than Hebi no Miko had anticipated, and not only was she still alive, she even had the power to retaliate, albeit rather ineffectively.
Looks like I underestimated all of you. It's no surprise that my sister perished at your hands.
Upon sensing the imminent danger, Hebi no Miko didn't delay any longer, slamming a palm into her own body, upon which she abruptly exploded.
A cloud of black mist that was countless times denser than the one Oni no Miko had been able to release instantly erupted forth, plunging what seemed like the entire world into complete darkness.
Several serpentine heads gradually emerged within the black cloud, and they were frantically devouring the black mist around them. As the black mist slowly thinned out, it was revealed that there were a total of eight serpentine heads, all of which were connected to the same body.
Yamata no Orochi had finally been invoked.
Adam had already seen Yamata no Orochi once, but he still couldn't help but be stunned at the sight of the almighty beast.
How is it this massive?
The Yamata no Orochi invoked by Hebi no Miko was several times larger than the one that Oni no Miko had managed to invoke. Every single one of its scales was like an impregnable stone wall, and there was a crown of scales situated on top of each of its serpentine heads, heralding its eminence as an al-powerful world destroyer.