Chapter 6: A Strong Opponent and Painful Truth

Shikari woke up and found himself once again in the darkness. His hands were still tied by the thick short chains. He was getting tired of it. He raised his head and looked around hearing the silence. 

He sees that there is no one around. He sighed and closed both of his feet. In his face, a bright white demon shadow mask appeared and his strength was doubled. He immediately pulled the chain with his hands and broke free shattering the chains into pieces. 

He then stood as the mask on his face that appeared out of nowhere disappeared. He sighed in relief, tired all of a sudden. He grabbed the sheath of his sword on his left waist and realized his sword was missing. He sighed once again as he began walking looking around. 

In the far distance from where he is, he could see countless unknowns also tied up with chains. He felt sad and angry for a moment seeing the poor souls of the swordsmans. He didn't feel anyone was alive in the dimension making him advance towards an open spiral portal in the far distance.

"I need to leave, get out of here, this place is too dangerous. I hope I don't meet another Deity because if so, that would be my death," Shikari thought as he cleared his throat and made a solemn face. 

It took him a couple of minutes to reach the portal. He reached it and was about to step in when all of a sudden, he froze when someone walked out of it. He didn't even notice but felt its presence on his right side which overwhelmed him. The unknown walked past him and the portal in front of him suddenly closed in a blink of an eye. Suddenly, the unknown stopped and stood right behind him on his right.

"You're powerful, admirable. Be grateful," the unknown remarked menacingly. With his voice alone, it was enough to make Shikari tremble in fear. He cleared his throat removed his human presence and presented his powerful presence. He maintained it till the unknown began walking again. 

"I'm honored!" He turned and said it politely and bowed while sweating intensely. That made the unknown smile and the dark spiral portal opened once again behind him. Shikari sighed in relief walked into the portal and disappeared. The unknown who arrived in the dimension didn't know that Shikari was a human. 

Shikari arrived at a forest. He walked out of the spiral dark portal and it closed right behind him. He cleared his throat as he turned around and stared at the portal vanishing in thin air. 

"What the hell just happened? That could've turned sideways, I hid my fear, my humanity just for that moment. I barely even breathe. Just who the hell is it? I caught a glimpse in the corner of my right eye, a cloud of dark purple smoke and shadow, I don't know if it's dress human, I just happened to see its coat," he thought while trembling. He turned around and began walking on the grassy road. It was dark, he saw that it was night. 

"Where the hell am I?" He said as he wiped his sweat all around his forehead, cheeks, and neck with his right hand. He reached a giant tree, stopped by its side, and sat on the ground. He leaned his back to it and sighed in relief. He raised his head and looked at the sky. He stared at it for a while, seeing the moon and the dark sky. He could also see the giant leaves and the branches of the trees up above him. 

All of a sudden, a sword blade was underneath Shikari's chin and two swordsman's appeared in front of him standing menacingly glaring at him. Shikari didn't even flinch or show any signs of fear, he just looked at them like nothing happening. 

"State your name," said the two unknown swordsmen in unison. Shikari made a solemn face as he slowly stood while still having the blade underneath his chin. 

"I'm Shikari Gakure," he said making the three swordsman's eyes widen. "Do you swordsmens know where we currently are?" He asked as the swordsman on his side that has a sword underneath his chin vanished and appeared standing with the two swordsmen in front of him. They all of a sudden bowed showing respect towards him. 

"Sir! We are honored to meet you! Currently, we are on the Mountain of Zigaria, the nearest forest. On your right, that's the heart of the mountain where the giant ravine is located, and the others, we just happened to sense something strange here, that's why we came," one of the swordsmen said as they all stood straight. Shikari nodded at the swordsman as he turned to his right and began running. They immediately followed him from behind.

As he ran, he grabbed the sheath of his sword on his right hand and gripped it tightly. His right eye turned bright red and his left eye turned bright white. He suddenly flew forward and reached the giant ravine. 

He flew down and ran sideways on the wall and started feeling Gakushin's presence and Kiyoroshi Rigakure. He landed on the ground and made giant cracks on the ground. He stood tall as he glanced in the distance seeing Gakushin with his eyes widened. 

He sees him sigh in relief as Kiyoroshi glances at him with his eyes widened. Kiyoroshi was on top of a giant tree making his way to the surface but he came to a halt when saw Shikari down at the surface landing. 

"Shikari?!" Kiyo exclaimed as he glanced down seeing Gakushin running towards him. Kiyo made a suspicious move, he gripped his sword for a moment flew down to the ground, and reached Shikari first. 

"Shikari! Good thing you're well!" Gakushin said in relief handing over his sword. He grabbed it and put it back in its sheath sighed in relief and smiled warmly at Gakushin. 

"Yeah, and what happened here? This is the mountain of Zigaria, it's the heart of the mountain. This is not what it looked like before I got kidnapped," he said scratching his head. 

"Kiyo, we're returning to the surface, we're heading back, the mission is already a fail, we'll alarm the heads about this," one of the swordsmans said behind them. Kiyo turned around and nodded and the six of them started making their way back to the surface.

"There's an earthquake, it occurred last morning till afternoon. It destroyed a large portion of the mountain and opened up this ravine. And Gakushin, tell him what you did," Kiyo remarked menacingly turning towards Gakushin while glaring at him. 

"What did you do?" Shikari asked as he saw Gakushin raise his right hand and all of a sudden it began glowing. Shikari's eyes widened when he realized what he had done. He immediately grabbed his right hand and gripped it tightly stopping the glow. 

"You consumed the gem! Tell me! Which gem is it?!" Shikari asked in a hurry. He stared at Gakushin's eyes confused, he turned to see Kiyo but Kiyo scratched his head and said nothing. 

"I don't know what's that part but it's a white gem," Gakushin replied with an emotionless face. Kiyo remained silent on their side as Shikari tapped him once in the head and smiled awkwardly for a moment. 

"Good... Well, we have nothing to worry about here, Kiyoroshi. We should go back, there's no point being here," Shikari said while being awkward. He began walking to his right silently as Gakushin followed him from behind and they both walked past Kiyo. 

Shikari didn't say a word as he jumped up and landed on a giant tree branch. Kiyoroshi on the other hand, faced palms and sighed. He turned around and followed them from behind.

The two of them reached the surface first followed by Kiyoroshi who landed right behind them. They both turned around and saw Kiyoroshi standing menacingly, all of a sudden glaring at them.

Kiyoroshi's eyes began to turn violet and lowered his head. Suddenly, a hand appeared on top of his left shoulder and an unknown being appeared on his right side making Shikari and Gakushin angry. 

"It's painful to see your comrade fall into the enemy's hand, am I correct? Gakushin Gakure, a former chief, a swordsman, one of the few who stands out from the rest, and Shikari Gakure, I am honored to meet a man like you, perhaps I kill you both right now right away," the unknown being remarked, removing his hood and showing his girl face with violet smoke coming out behind her. 

"Who the hell are you?!" Shikari exclaimed. He drew his sword but suddenly, she waved her index finger and smiled. She hugged Kiyoroshi who froze on the ground. She smiled as she glared at them and made Shikari stop moving. 

"I'm Kiyoroshi Rigakure all along. That's the reason this mission failed, it's because I killed those six swordsmen, hmmm, I guess not for the Dark mob you killed, you decapitated his head," she said menacingly revealing the truth. That made them take a single back remembering the old woman in the safe house that Gakushin was in a while ago.

"What about that woman? What did you do to her?! What's the meaning of all this? What's your plan?! Who are you?!" Gakushin exclaimed furiously as his left eye all of a sudden began glowing. 

"I'll answer your questions one at a time, the woman you see was Kiyoroshi Rigakure's wife. She doesn't know that her husband is long gone which is unfortunate. I took down this Hashira a long time ago. He was good, yet he had a desire, to become powerful, acquired all the gems which he did... He got the purple one for me in exchange for a life, his daughter, I said to him that I could revive his daughter in exchange for that gem but I betrayed him and killed him and took over his body, now I made him betray his comrades and made him kill his own students," she replied making Shikari and Gakushin angry even more that they gripped their swords menacingly. 

"Oh yeah, I'd like to say that the five swordsmen that he killed were his students, all skilled and had potential. It's a shame that he has to bury all of his students on his own, I revive him at that time yet I have control over his body, so he has no choice but to cry, haha! So fun isn't it?" She added while laughing. All of a sudden, the ground that Gakushin was standing on had massive cracks.

"You bastard! You deprived old lady! I'll make sure to make you pay for what you've done to him! How dare you ruin his name?!" Shikari said menacingly raising his sword. All of a sudden, a bright dark red-colored mask appeared on his face. His demon mask only has one horn and the other horn appears to be cut. He moves into a battle stance making the unknown woman take a step back seeing his terrifying presence with both of her eyes.

"Hahaha! That's quite an impressive soul to see!" She exclaimed while laughing out loud. Suddenly, the Kiyoroshi on her side began moving on its own. Kiyo suddenly flew and reached Shikari in the blink of an eye resheating his sword. 

Shikari immediately took a step back trying to avoid a fight with Kiyoroshi's body. Suddenly, Gakushin appeared on Kiyo's side grabbing his right hand stopping him from resheating his sword, and pushing him to his side but he realized he couldn't even move him and stopped his hand from resheating his sword. 

"He's crazy strong! Was his body enhanced or is this showing how strong he really is?!" Gakushin thought furiously as he jumped backwards and Shikari dashed forward passing Kiyoroshi who resheated his sword and swung it sideways in the air sending a powerful slash that cut the air and the giant trees behind Shikari a second ago. 

Kiyoroshi air slashed managed to slice six trees made it fall to the ground and blew the tree's leaves away. Gakushin was shocked, he immediately drew his sword with his right hand and was on guard. 

Shikari, on the other hand, reached the unknown woman who simply smiled at him. She pointed her index finger underneath his foot and all of a sudden, a pillar appeared underneath his feet and he got rose by it. It then stopped raising him and he was hurled into the air upward by unimaginable force that gave him trouble breathing.

"Oh that's cute," she said while biting her lips and staring at Shikari up in the sky. Shikari began falling to the ground holding his sword with both of his hands. He landed his single feet on top of the pillar and used it to dash down even faster towards her. 

He reached her and was about to cut her into two with his blade but she jumped backwards and avoided his blade at the last second. Shikari landed on the ground and hit the ground with his blade instead of her. He heard her giggle, and it prompted him to stand but all of a sudden, he saw her have her fist closed. That made Shikari's eyes widen when sharp pillars appeared on all his sides about to stab him. 

He froze for a moment and couldn't move an inch, he was about to be stabbed by the sharp pillars and killed when all of a sudden, bright white barriers appeared in front of the sharp rock pillars and blocked it. The sharp rock pillars were destroyed itself making the unknown woman surprised. 

"White barriers? Where did that come from?" She thought as she caught a glimpse in the corner of her left eye, Gakushin had his palm opened towards Shikari and it was glowing. That made her become solemn, she realized that he had the white gem. 

She then looked in front of her to see Shikari but he wasn't there. She immediately looked around with her eyes widened but she couldn't find him. Suddenly, she was punched in the right side of her face and she saw Shikari's fist. 

He then swung his sword towards her and cut her right arm off of her. She immediately dashed to her left and jumped distancing herself from him but as soon as she jumped, Shikari teleported above her and kicked her down to the ground. 

She lay flat on the ground grunting. She looked up and saw Shikari landing. She tries to stand but all of a sudden, a bright white barrier blocks her from standing by making a wall on top of her. Shikari was about to land when the barrier was removed all of a sudden and Shikari's right foot punctured her head and destroyed the ground underneath her. 

"Marked my word! You die today! You piece of trash!" Shikari insulted her as she grunted in pain. Black blood was flowing in the cracks as Shikari got a glance at her mouth seeing that she was still smiling while half of her upper head was crushed. 

"I'm gonna die today? Idiot, who do you think caused that ravine? Mother nature? And how do you think you're gonna kill me? I'm immortal," she said while smiling as all of a sudden, her right arm healed itself and was back to normal. It swung itself towards Shikari making him jump backwards away from her. He felt the force in her right hand that made him jump back and hit a giant tree behind his back. 

She began standing while her head started regenerating on its own. Before turning into a whole head, it turned violet and dark for a moment to its normal human color of a head. Her hair grows violet instead of black and she glared at Shikari while smiling. 

Kiyoroshi on the other hand, began moving towards Gakushin menacingly. Suddenly, Kiyoroshi's sword blade began lighting up bright orange and it slowly began flaming. 

Gakushin's eyes widened as Kiyo's sword turned into a flaming sword. He then stood tall and flew towards Gakushin reaching him before in the blink of an eye. 

He swung down his sword and Shikari can be heard shouting his name. He was about to dodge the flaming sword that he swung down towards him when all of a sudden, giant roots grabbed both of his legs and feet and pinned him to the ground making him immobile.