ALMIGHTY

Chapter 78: The Demon-Faced God

"You look like a mess."

Horu Sakaki never expected to see himself sitting in a room full of bandits, warriors, thieves, and ordinary, yet armed citizens. They were all eyeing the mortal they had heard so much of. To them, Horu was merely a kid.

He could easily extract some energy from his Blessing to do so, but Lily insisted she tended to his wounds.

"Well, I did get thrown off a mountain. Or at least, that's how I recall it."

He sat lazily on a wooden chair, wearing nothing but pants made of tough leather, which he was given.

"You saw her, have you not?"

Sitting at the same table, was Lily—who sat to Horu's left, fully focused on his wounds, Yae, as timid as she was, a couple of useful rebels, and lastly, sitting on the opposite side, was their leader.

"And who are you?" Horu said scoffingly as he slouched, looking one of humanity's greatest swordsmen dead in the eyes.

"Shouldn't you start with expressing your gratitude for the men who just saved your ass?"

Musashi said as he glanced at the two rebels sitting beside him, drenched from having to carry Horu on their shoulders through a riverbank at the foot of Izanami's mountain. From there, the river spread towards the city and was the reason why it had so many bridges.

"I didn't need any saving, but I should commend you for having decent scouts... at least."

Horu said as he bowed twice, each time sharing a gaze with one of the scouts.

"Well then, since you fell off, I can only assumed you reached that place. How was it?"

"You mean to tell me none of you have been in that temple before?"

Horu's words made for a lot of confused and startled faces. Specifically, the term 'temple' was what peaked their interests. Musashi tuned in and closed his chair on the table.

"You saw... a temple?"

"Yes, I was led there by a pair of girls at the festival..."

Should I tell them about that Demon I saw sitting on the temple's walls? They seem to not know a thing about what's up that mountain.

No, I should probably dismiss the thought.

After all, I could just have been seeing things.

"They took me to this large, beautiful shrine. When I got inside, the hall I was in shifted its appearance and I ended up in a dojo with a nice view of the city. Before I knew it, everything went dark and I found myself in some kind of spiritual land where I couldn't see a thing..."

The room had gone silent to allow Horu's words to reverberate well for every person present to hear. He explained everything that went on at Izanami's shrine.

As Musashi listened, he rapidly connected all the dots he had gathered so far. With Horu's information on his enemy's location, he grew more confident in his plan.

"Interesting. Izanami staying at the top of that mountain was already a given, however, who would've thought she had built herself a shrine."

"Have you and your men never climbed that mountain?"

Princess Lily asked as she finished tending to Horu's wounds, giving him a warm smile in the process of packing the medical equipment lent to her.

"I have sent men on several expeditions to explore whatever the hell is up there. They either never returned to us or ended up walking for countless days, to the point that traveling back down became too strenuous on our rations. We've lost a lot of men simply from trying."