I Enslaved The Goddess Who Summoned Me

The empty field disappeared beneath their power.

Shiina moved first.

Blue light erupted from the frozen ground beneath her feet, and the hundreds of sword paths surrounding her became real. They crossed the air at once, each one carrying the sharp, controlled intent of a master swordswoman.

Nathan raised Kyomei.

The Curse of Pandora surged around him.

Countless black faces twisted through the darkness, their empty eyes fixed on Shiina. Their mouths opened in silent screams before the sound arrived a heartbeat later, crashing across the field like the cries of a thousand lost souls.

Shiina’s first attack reached him.

Then the second.

Then twenty more.

Blue cuts appeared around Nathan from every direction.

He stepped aside from one strike, blocked another, and turned Kyomei to catch a third. The next slash came from behind him. A black face rushed toward it, opening its mouth wide as though swallowing the blue blade whole.

The magic collided.

BAAAADOOM!

A blast of blue and black power tore through the field.

The frozen ground shattered beneath Nathan’s feet. Chunks of ice and stone launched into the sky, only to be swallowed by the swirling darkness around him. Shiina moved through the explosion without slowing, her two blades cutting through the smoke in perfect succession.

Nathan blocked her katana.

Her blue short sword cut toward his ribs.

A cursed face rose from the darkness and slammed into the blade.

The attack did not disappear cleanly.

The face screamed as the blue sword split through it, tearing the dark shape apart. But before Shiina could follow the opening, three more faces rushed around Nathan’s body and lunged at her from different angles.

Shiina twisted away.

Her katana cut through one.

Her shorter blade pierced another.

She spun between the remaining cursed shapes, her movements still precise even as the black faces pressed closer.

Each one she destroyed dissolved into smoke.

Each one screamed.

And each one returned.

Nathan stepped forward through the darkness.

Kyomei cut down toward her shoulder.

Shiina caught the blade with her katana. The force drove her backward through the frozen soil. Her short sword rose immediately, cutting at Nathan’s wrist.

Nathan released a burst of dark energy from Kyomei.

Shiina was thrown back.

But she landed cleanly.

Blue magic gathered around her feet before she touched the ground, softening the impact. She slid across the field and stopped with both blades raised.

Her breathing had grown heavier.

The blue aura around her was still powerful, but the black faces surrounding Nathan had changed the rhythm of the battle.

Before, Shiina had controlled every exchange.

Her technique had forced Nathan to react.

Her speed had created openings faster than he could close them.

Now the curse filled every gap between their swords.

It attacked when Nathan did not.

It defended when Nathan could not.

It created danger from every direction.

Shiina’s red eyes moved across the field.

The darkness had spread far beyond Nathan now.

It crawled over the broken earth in long shadows, twisting around pieces of shattered stone and frost-covered grass. Faces rose from it without warning, some only half formed, others large enough to tower above Nathan for a second before collapsing back into black smoke.

The screams never stopped.

Shiina tightened her grip on both swords.

Then she rushed forward again.

Her katana cut down.

Nathan blocked.

Her short sword struck from the side.

A black face intercepted it.

Shiina’s right hand moved again, sending a blue slash toward Nathan’s throat.

Nathan leaned back just enough to avoid it.

The edge cut across his mask.

The black cloth split and fell away.

Shiina froze for the smallest fraction of a second when she saw his face.

Nathan used it.

Kyomei struck against her katana with a force that drove her several steps backward.

Shiina recovered instantly, but the black faces had already moved.

Two rushed from the ground and closed around her legs.

She cut one apart.

The other opened its mouth and bit into the blue aura surrounding her body.

Shiina’s eyes widened.

The cursed face did not bite flesh.

It bit her magic.

Blue light tore away from her like smoke pulled into a fire.

Shiina jumped back, slashing the face apart before it could take more. But another appeared behind her. Then another. Then another.

They did not attack her body.

They fed on the power she released.

Each time Shiina drove them back with blue light, they swallowed part of it.

Each time she destroyed one, black smoke gathered and gave birth to another.

Her blue aura flickered.

Nathan’s face hardened.

He had not fully understood how the Curse of Pandora would react to Shiina’s magic. Against Mitsuhide, the curse had devoured the darkness inside a man who had surrendered himself to a Kijin shrine.

Against Shiina, it was feeding on something purer.

Her strength.

Her technique.

The power she had spent years refining.

But he could not stop now.

Shiina’s next attack came faster.

She vanished in a burst of blue light and reappeared directly before him. Her katana struck toward his neck, while the shorter blade attacked lower, aimed at the gap beneath his ribs.

Nathan caught the katana.

The cursed faces moved toward the shorter sword.

Shiina spun.

Her left blade sliced through three of them in one motion. The faces burst apart with screams that shook the air.

Then Shiina’s katana slipped around Kyomei.

The blue edge cut across Nathan’s shoulder.

Blood sprayed over the frost-covered ground.

Nathan staggered.

Shiina moved to finish it.

But the black faces rushed between them.

One rose from beneath her feet.

Another appeared beside her head.

A third formed directly before her chest.

Shiina cut through them, but every strike made the curse gather more closely around her. Their empty eyes watched her. Their open mouths stretched wider. Their screams became louder.

The curse was no longer simply surrounding Nathan.

It was surrounding Shiina.

Her blue aura began shrinking.

She felt it too.

Nathan saw the realization in her expression.

For the first time since she used her full power, fear touched her eyes.

Not fear of death.

Fear of losing the sword.

Fear of losing the strength that had defined her whole life.

”No,” Shiina whispered.

Blue energy surged outward from her body.

The frozen earth cracked beneath her.

She forced the darkness away in a violent wave, sending dozens of cursed faces flying across the field. The force was enough to break several hills of ice and split the remaining stones around them.

Nathan shielded himself behind Kyomei.

The black faces screamed as Shiina’s magic cut through them.

For a moment, she stood alone inside a circle of blue light.

Her chest rose and fell heavily.

Blood ran from cuts along her face and arms. Her armor had been damaged in several places, with thin cracks spreading across the plates protecting her shoulders and chest.

Still, she raised her blades.

Still, she did not retreat.

Nathan looked at her from inside the darkness.

”Shiina.”

She shook her head.

”Do not.”

The words came out strained.

”Do not say my name as though you are sorry for me.”

Nathan remained silent.

Shiina’s red eyes burned with defiance.

Then she lifted her katana and short sword together.

The blue light around her condensed once more.

This time, it did not spread across the field.

It gathered around her body, compressing into a thin, brilliant layer of power. The air around her began to hum. Frost spiraled upward from the ground. Her remaining magic sharpened into something so concentrated that the space around her blades began to distort.

Nathan felt the danger immediately.

She was placing everything into one final attack.

Every ounce of strength.

Every remaining piece of magical power.

Every lesson she had inherited and every battle she had survived.

Shiina lowered her stance.

Her katana rested behind her.

The blue short sword pointed forward.

For a moment, she looked like a drawn bow.

Then she disappeared.

Nathan could not see her.

Not at first.

The field blurred.

A line of blue light crossed through the darkness faster than his eyes could follow. Kyomei rose just before Shiina’s katana reached him.

CLANG!

The impact shook Nathan’s entire body.

His feet dug into the earth.

Shiina’s short sword came next.

Nathan turned Kyomei, but the blade still cut across his side. Pain flared through him. The poison mark burned like fire.

Shiina appeared behind him.

Nathan spun.

Her katana was already there.

He blocked.

She appeared to his left.

Nathan moved again.

Another strike.

Another block.

Another blue line cutting through the air.

Shiina attacked from every direction, moving so quickly that the field filled with afterimages. Each image carried the shape of one of her sword paths. Her katana and short blade seemed to be everywhere at once.

Nathan was forced back.

His arms shook from the impacts.

Blood ran down his side and shoulder.

One cut reached across his thigh.

Another grazed his cheek.

The black faces rushed to protect him, but Shiina’s final technique was too fast. She cut through them before they could fully form, slicing screaming shapes apart as though they were mist.

For several seconds, Nathan could do nothing but defend.

Then he made his choice.

He stopped blocking.

Shiina appeared before him, both blades moving toward his chest.

Nathan lowered Kyomei.

Shiina’s eyes widened.

The katana struck his shoulder.

The short blade cut into his side.

But before she could pull away, the Curse of Pandora rose beneath her.

Not one face.

Not ten.

Hundreds.

They erupted from the darkness around Nathan in a tidal wave of screaming black shapes. Their empty eyes stared into Shiina’s. Their mouths opened around her blue aura.

Shiina tried to pull free.

Her katana cut through them.

Her short sword sliced apart more.

But the faces did not stop.

They wrapped around her arms.

Her legs.

Her blades.

They clung to the blue light around her and began consuming it.

Shiina cried out.

The sound was swallowed by the endless screaming.

Blue magic burst around her in desperate waves, but every burst only fed the curse. The faces tore through the aura surrounding her, stripping away layers of light. They crawled across her armor, biting into every crack and weakness.

The black shapes did not devour her flesh.

They devoured the force she used to fight.

Shiina’s katana dimmed.

The blue short sword began breaking apart.

She forced one last surge of magic through her arms.

A shockwave exploded outward.

Several cursed faces vanished.

But it was not enough.

The others returned immediately.

They rose around her like a storm.

Her armor cracked.

A line split across one shoulder plate.

Then another appeared along her chest guard.

The blue aura holding the armor together flickered violently.

Shiina fell to one knee.

Nathan stood several paces away, bloodied and breathing heavily, Kyomei still in his hand.

The Curse of Pandora twisted around Shiina.

He could end it.

He knew he could.

One command.

One final release of darkness.

And the curse would swallow everything Shiina had left.

But Nathan did not give it.

He raised one hand.

The black faces stopped.

Their screams weakened.

Shiina looked up at him, breathing hard.

Her blue katana shook in her hand.

”Ryo...”

The cursed shapes pulled away slowly.

Not fully.

They remained around her, circling like hungry wolves unwilling to leave their prey.

Shiina tried to rise.

She placed the tip of her katana against the ground and forced herself upward.

Her legs trembled.

The broken armor across her body finally gave way.

Cracks raced through the plates.

Then, with a sharp burst of blue light, the damaged armor shattered.

Fragments flew away and dissolved into fading magic before they reached the ground.

Beneath it, Shiina wore only the torn kimono that had been hidden under the armor. It was ripped along her sleeves and sides, stained with dust and blood. Cuts marked her skin, and blood ran from the corner of her mouth.

She was barely standing.

But she still gripped her katana.

Nathan looked at her for a long moment.

Then he released the rest of his power.

The black smoke faded.

The cursed faces opened their mouths one final time before dissolving into the earth. The field grew quiet at last. No screams remained. No darkness crawled over the ground.

Only the wind moved across the ruined land.

Nathan lowered Kyomei.

His body ached.

The poison in his blood had reacted badly to the fight. His shoulder burned from Shiina’s blade, his side bled steadily, and exhaustion pressed against him now that the curse was gone.

But he remained standing.

Shiina laughed quietly.

The sound broke into a cough.

Blood slipped from her lips.

”As expected,” she murmured.

Nathan did not speak.

Shiina looked at him with tired eyes.

”I knew it.”

Her fingers tightened around the katana’s hilt.

”I knew I could never defeat you from the moment I first laid eyes on you.”

”You were the best swordsman I have ever fought,” Nathan replied.

Shiina stared at him.

For a moment, her face lost its pain.

Then she smiled.

”It is an honor,” she said quietly, ”to hear that from someone as strong as you.”

The wind passed through the field again.

Shiina looked down at her katana.

Her ancestor’s legacy.

The sword that had carried her through every battle.

The blade that had given her a path when she had nothing else.

Slowly, she lowered herself to her knees.

Nathan’s eyes narrowed.

Shiina placed the katana on the ground before her.

The sound of the blade touching stone and frozen earth was soft.

Final.

She lowered her head.

”Please,” she said.

Nathan did not move.

Shiina’s voice shook, but she continued.

”I failed Norihiro.”

Her hands rested against her thighs.

”I failed Minami Kyoto. I failed to stop you.”

Nathan stood in silence.

Shiina raised her face enough to look at him.

Her lips were stained with blood, but she was still smiling faintly.

”Kill me now.”

Nathan took a step toward her.

Shiina watched him approach.

He stopped directly in front of her kneeling form.

The field around them had been destroyed. The earth was split open and covered in frost. Broken stone lay scattered beneath the fading afternoon light. Their blood had soaked into the soil in dark patches.

Shiina looked up at him.

For a moment, she did not look like Norihiro’s loyal sword.

She did not look like the feared warrior who had cut down samurai outside Minami Kyoto.

She only looked tired.

And heartbreakingly honest.

”I think,” she whispered, ”I really love you.”

Nathan’s grip tightened around Kyomei.

Shiina closed her eyes.

Her head lowered.

She waited.

Nathan raised the sword.

For one breath, everything remained still.

Then Kyomei came down.

THUD!

The pommel struck the side of Shiina’s head.

Her body swayed.

The katana slipped from her fingers.

Shiina collapsed forward onto the broken ground before she could make another sound.

Nathan caught her before her face struck the earth and lowered her carefully onto her side.

She was unconscious.

Alive.

Nathan stood over her for several seconds, breathing heavily.

Then he looked toward the distant direction of Minami Kyoto.

The battle there had not stopped.

Nathan wiped blood from the corner of his mouth and picked up Shiina’s katana from the ground.

He placed it beside her.

Then he turned away.

Norihiro was still alive.

And the war was not over.