I Enslaved The Goddess Who Summoned Me

Chapter 813: Norihiro Escapes

Nathan returned to the battlefield as the sun began sinking behind the western hills.

The empty field where he had fought Shiina was far behind him now. He had moved quickly despite the wounds across his shoulder, side, and thigh. Blood had dried beneath his torn clothes, and the poison mark near his neck still burned faintly from the strain of releasing so much power.

But he could not rest.

Not while Norihiro remained alive.

The distant sounds of battle reached him before the battlefield came into view.

Steel striking steel.

War horns.

The cries of wounded men.

And beneath it all, the continuous roar of soldiers fighting because neither side had yet accepted defeat.

Nathan slowed near a ridge overlooking the western field.

The battle had changed during his absence.

Norihiro’s soldiers were losing.

Their black banners still stood in several places, but their formations had broken apart. Men fought in scattered groups across the bloodied ground, trying to hold lines that no longer truly existed. Some had retreated toward the southern ridge. Others had been surrounded by Urakami’s samurai and were fighting desperately to avoid being cut down.

The red armored force had regained its momentum.

Urakami’s advance army had been battered heavily by Norihiro’s first trap, but its discipline and equipment were proving decisive now. The samurai moved in organized lines, slowly crushing the leaderless defenders before them.

Nathan’s eyes immediately searched the center of the field.

Norihiro’s banner was still there.

But Norihiro was not.

Nathan’s expression darkened.

A shadow shifted behind a large broken boulder near the ridge.

Nathan’s hand went to Kyomei’s hilt.

Then Hanzo stepped out.

She had concealed herself well beneath a dark cloak, her clothing marked with dust and blood from the battle. A thin cut ran across her cheek, but it was not deep. Her eyes were sharp and alert as she approached Nathan.

For a moment, Hanzo simply looked at him.

She noticed the cuts on his body.

The blood.

The torn clothes.

And the absence of the mask he had worn when entering Minami Kyoto’s battlefield.

“Did you fight that Shiina,” she asked.

Nathan had warned them about the very dangerous dark blue haired woman whom he had met and she could only see her to give such injuries on Nathan.

Nathan nodded.

“She is alive.”

Hanzo’s eyes widened slightly.

Nathan continued before she could ask more.

“She is unconscious. I left her in an empty field south of Minami Kyoto. Send someone trustworthy to retrieve her once there is time. Do not let Urakami’s soldiers find her.”

Hanzo studied him silently.

“She fought you to protect the city?”

“Yes.”

“And you spared her.”

Nathan’s expression remained unreadable.

“She is not Norihiro.”

Hanzo gave a small nod.

She did not argue.

Nathan turned his gaze toward the battlefield again.

“What happened here?”

Hanzo stepped beside him, following his eyes toward the carnage below.

“More than you expected.”

Nathan looked at her.

Hanzo took a slow breath.

“First, what happened in Minami Kyoto? We saw the gates break from here. The explosion shook the field.”

“Yukihime destroyed them.”

Hanzo’s face went still.

“She did what?”

“She opened a breach in the main gate,” Nathan said. “Urakami’s second army is inside the city now.”

For one second, Hanzo did not respond.

Then the color drained from her face.

“They are inside?”

“Yes.”

“How many?”

“I do not know exactly. Thousands.”

Hanzo’s hands tightened around the hilts of her blades.

The situation inside Minami Kyoto had become far worse than she feared. The shinobi had expected Urakami to threaten the gates, perhaps force a siege, and create enough fear among the people that the city would later turn against him.

But a breach changed everything.

Once samurai were inside the city, the fighting would become close, chaotic, and brutal. Civilians hiding in houses could be caught in the streets. Fires could spread. Norihiro’s soldiers might panic and begin attacking anyone they suspected of helping the invaders.

And with Shiina defeated, the one commander capable of rallying Minami Kyoto’s defenders was gone.

Hanzo looked sharply at Nathan.

“Where is Yukihime now?”

“Near the gate. She knows the shinobi will be coming.”

Hanzo’s jaw tightened.

“She destroyed the entrance, and now Urakami’s men are pouring through it.”

“It was necessary.”

Hanzo stared at him.

Nathan’s voice remained calm, though his eyes were hard.

“If the gates had remained closed, Shiina would have held the city. Urakami’s army would have been pushed back, and Norihiro’s authority would have survived through her. The people would see Shiina as the hero who saved Minami Kyoto. The shinobi would remain strangers, and the South would continue clinging to Norihiro’s old order.”

“I understand,” Hanzo said quietly.

But understanding did not make it easier.

Nathan looked toward the east, though Minami Kyoto remained hidden behind the distant hills.

“Now the samurai are inside. The people will see them as invaders. They will see what Urakami’s victory truly looks like.”

Hanzo’s expression hardened.

“And we will be the ones who drive them out.”

“Yes.”

The words settled heavily between them.

Nathan turned back toward the battlefield and searched the scattered formations again.

He couldn’t seen Norihiro.

His unease sharpened.

“Where is Norihiro?” Nathan asked.

Hanzo’s eyes shifted away.

For the first time since Nathan arrived, she looked uncertain.

“He left.”

Nathan’s gaze became cold.

“When?”

“Not long after you went to Minami Kyoto.”

Hanzo pointed toward a narrow route running south from the battlefield, partially hidden behind a line of low hills.

“He left with a group of knights. His personal guard. They did not ride toward Minami Kyoto.”

Nathan’s face darkened.

“Where did they go?”

“We do not know,” Hanzo replied. “They went south east. Away from the city.”

Nathan’s thoughts moved instantly.

Norihiro had not fled toward safety.

He had not returned to his capital.

He had not tried to rally the soldiers waiting behind Minami Kyoto’s broken walls.

He had gone somewhere else.

Somewhere he believed mattered more than the city, more than the army, and more than the thousands of people fighting under his banners.

The Kijin shrine.

Nathan’s fingers tightened around Kyomei.

“The Shrine,” he muttered.

Hanzo looked at him.

“You think he went to the shrine?”

“I do.”

Mitsuhide’s shrine had been only one part of a larger darkness. Norihiro had known of it. He had used its symbols on the battlefield. He had prepared ritual poles and carried corrupted power with him even while leading his army.

The shrine beneath Minami Kyoto had not been an emergency weapon.

It had been the foundation of his final plan.

Now that the battle was slipping from his control, Norihiro had likely decided to stop pretending he could win through soldiers and politics.

He was going to seek the power he had spent years preparing to claim.

Hanzo spoke again.

“Genzo went after him.”

Nathan looked at her sharply.

“Alone?”

“Not exactly. He took six shinobi, but they are tracking Norihiro from a distance. He did not want to engage until he knew where Norihiro was going.”

Nathan said nothing.

Genzo was skilled. He had survived decades in the shadows, fought powerful men who controlled entire regions, and built a hidden village while the Daimyos hunted him. But Norihiro was not an ordinary target.

If the man reached the shrine and awakened its power, Genzo and six shinobi would not be enough.

Not after what Nathan had seen Mitsuhide become.

“He should not face Norihiro without me,” Nathan said.

Hanzo nodded slowly.

“I know.”

Below them, a horn sounded.

Both Nathan and Hanzo looked back toward the field.

Urakami had moved forward.

The samurai leader rode near the front of his remaining force, sword raised as he directed his soldiers through the fractured remains of Norihiro’s army. He had not noticed Norihiro’s absence, or perhaps he simply did not care.

The Daimyo had already fled.

To Urakami, the battle was decided.

His samurai pushed through the final pockets of resistance. Norihiro’s soldiers, without their lord or their strongest commander, began breaking in greater numbers. Some threw down their weapons. Others ran toward the southern roads. A few continued fighting stubbornly around fallen banners, but their resistance had become meaningless.

Urakami was destroying the army.

Not pursuing Norihiro.

Hanzo watched the battlefield grimly.

“He does not care where Norihiro went,” she said.

“He does not need to,” Nathan replied. “He thinks Norihiro is finished.”

“He thinks he has won.”

Nathan’s eyes narrowed.

“He has won this field.”

But not the war.

Urakami had beaten Norihiro’s main army. His second force had entered Minami Kyoto. Soon, if nothing stopped him, his advance force would turn east and join the larger samurai army inside the city.

Then Minami Kyoto would be surrounded from within and without.

The samurai would hold the streets.

The remaining defenders would be crushed.

The frightened people of the South would be forced to accept Urakami’s rule before they even understood what had happened.

Nathan looked at the red banners below.

Killing Urakami right now would be easy.

The samurai leader was exposed. Nathan could descend from the ridge, cross the battlefield in seconds, and end him before his guards realized what had happened. Without Urakami, the advance force could lose cohesion. The soldiers might retreat. The battle could end quickly.

But that was not what Nathan needed.

Urakami had to reach Minami Kyoto.

He had to let the people see the red banners in their streets. They needed to witness the samurai claiming their city, threatening their homes, and treating them as conquered people rather than allies.

Only then could the shinobi step from the shadows as defenders.

Only then could the South begin to understand that its old enemies had not come to take revenge.

They had come to save it.

Nathan looked at Hanzo.

“You need to go.”

Hanzo’s gaze returned to him.

“To Minami Kyoto?”

“Yes.”

She nodded immediately.

“I will gather every shinobi still near the field and lead them into the city. We know the alleys and side streets. We can strike the samurai from places they do not expect.”

“You need more than strikes,” Nathan said. “You need to protect civilians. Keep the streets around the market district clear. Get people into secured buildings. Use the old tunnels if you have to.”

Hanzo’s face became serious.

“There are tunnels beneath the eastern quarter. Old storage passages. Some lead near the temple district and the inner streets.”

“Good. Use them.”

“And the samurai at the gate?”

Nathan looked toward the distant eastern road.

“Yukihime will help you.”

Hanzo paused.

“You are leaving her there?”

“She can slow them down. She can hold the breach long enough for the shinobi to organize.”

Hanzo glanced toward the city again.

“She cannot fight thousands of soldiers alone.”

“She will not need to fight them alone.”

Nathan’s gaze settled on Hanzo.

“You will be there.”

Hanzo looked at him for a long moment.

Then she nodded.

“We still may not be enough.”

It was not fear.

It was the truth.

Even with the shinobi inside Minami Kyoto, the enemy army was enormous. Urakami had thousands of soldiers in the city already, and more would be coming. Shinobi could fight from shadows, disrupt formations, and turn narrow streets into traps.

But they were not an army.

Not yet.

Nathan’s expression did not change.

“You will be enough to hold them back.”

Hanzo’s eyes narrowed slightly.

“And then?”

“Then I will join Genzo.”

Nathan looked toward the southern road where Norihiro had escaped.

“I will end Norihiro and whatever he plans to awaken.”

His hand tightened around Kyomei.

“After that, I will return to Minami Kyoto. Urakami’s army will be destroyed as we planned.”

Hanzo inhaled slowly.

The plan had become more dangerous than anything they had expected. The battlefield was no longer fully under their control. Norihiro had escaped. Urakami was winning too quickly. Minami Kyoto was already under attack.

But Nathan still spoke as though victory remained possible.

Not easy.

Not clean.

But possible.

Hanzo’s expression became firm.

“Then we will hold the city until you return.”

Nathan nodded.

Hanzo stepped closer for a moment.

The battle continued below them, and the distant cries of Minami Kyoto seemed to carry on the wind. Yet for that brief second, the world felt quieter.

“Be careful,” Hanzo said.

Nathan looked at her.

“You too.”

Hanzo gave a small nod.

Then shadows seemed to fold around her.

She moved down the ridge in silence, slipping between rocks and grass before disappearing into the nearby trees. Within minutes, she would gather the shinobi waiting along the hidden routes. Then she would lead them toward Minami Kyoto, where red armored samurai were already spreading through the streets.

Nathan watched until she was gone.

Then he looked back at Urakami.

The samurai leader had dismounted now. He stood amid the wreckage of Norihiro’s defeated army, giving orders as his soldiers gathered prisoners and searched the fallen. Red banners rose around him, bright against the bloodied field.

Urakami looked victorious.

He looked like the hero of his own story.

The proud warrior who had marched south, defeated a dangerous Daimyo, and taken control of Minami Kyoto for the good of Kastoria.

Nathan’s face remained unreadable.

Killing him now would be easy.

One strike.

One step through darkness.

One moment of surprise.

But Urakami was more useful alive.

For a little longer.

He needed to march toward Minami Kyoto believing he had conquered the South. He needed to join his army in the city, let his men reveal their greed and cruelty, and become the face of the invasion in the eyes of every frightened person hiding behind closed doors.

Then the shinobi would rise.

Not as hunted killers.

Not as shadows blamed for the old King’s death.

But as the people standing between Minami Kyoto and the samurai who had come to claim it.

Nathan turned away from the battlefield.

Norihiro was heading toward Death God Valley.

Genzo was following him.

And somewhere beneath the ruins of an ancient shrine, a power older than the war for Kastoria was waiting to be awakened.