Reborn to Devour: A Demonic LitRPG

[Yoshitsune]

My senses returned to me and I was placed upon a scene that I knew all too well in life. The grisly aftermath of a battlefield abandoned to the spirits. Soldiers wearing shimmering copper-tinged breastplates and skirts were strewn about the muddy ground. Spears rested in their open palms and ornate round shields rested atop their chests. Some were plain while others had strange patterns or animals. Some had majestic people on it that I did not recognize; people that glowed with divinity.

Their gods.

But, their gods would not visit them in this grim recreation. Their comrades would never arrive to retrieve them. Their blood drained from numerous gaping wounds in their bodies and soaked the ground. Crows and carrion birds ripped exposed flesh from the bones and flew back to their nests.

In the center of the area, the bodies were piled up in a small hill. Despite their mangled limbs and crushed bones and severed pieces, they all stared upwards. Whatever that was there that made them die en masse, I could not determine.

And, atop the piles of corpses, was the snake-haired woman.

“I was not expecting you to be the one to greet me last,” the snake-haired woman said, her back facing me. “I believed you to be already dead.”

“That’s what they’ve all said,” I remarked, my sword drawn and pointing towards her back. “But, I am here while they are not.”

“I heard what Smile announced. You eliminated everyone else yourself?”

“I have.”

The snake-haired woman rose from her position and I tensed my muscles in anticipation. She turned to face me and gripped onto a wooden shaft that was poking out of the pile of corpses. A long spear emerged from the viscera and dripped with the blood of the defeated.

“I’m envious of you,” the snake-haired woman said. “It was the philosophy of me and my sisters to kill every opponent that we had. I believed that was what I was doing by standing on the top and preventing anyone from standing above me. But, you climbed from the bottom, dragging the corpse of everyone who tried to stand above you to drown in the mud. Your journey through this game has been far more complete than my own.”

“You’re more talkative than I expected.”

“You seemed like an honorable warrior, so I thought that you would understand,” she replied. “And, this place has me feeling nostalgic in the worst way possible. I had been on this exact battleground before. This is where I lost everything in my life. This is where I accepted to be an Erinyes for the gods and hunt down the oath breakers and false-tongues that smothered the earth with their duplicity and greed. Even in this new life, I hunt down my patron’s oath breakers with my sisters.”

“Then, you wish to treat this as a duel with honor?” I asked with a raised eyebrow. It was not a consideration I would have afforded any of my other foes.

“I think it would make a fitting finale,” she replied, gesturing towards the invisible viewers above.

“Where I am from, it is customary before a duel to introduce yourself to your opponent,” I stated. “My name is Yoshitsune.”

“Tisiphone.”

Tisiphone descended the corpse mountain in a few casual steps. Her clawed feet dug into the blood-soaked mud and her spear was raised in a readied position. But, I did not flinch or move to strike. Her spirit remained neutral and I chose to trust her honor as a warrior.

I could feel the raucous energy of the viewers above beat down atop us. They cared little for the pageantry, only the violence.

“Are you ready?” She asked.

“I am.”

As soon as the words left my mouth, Tisiphone sprang into action. The spear tip sliced forwards like a snake bite. I sliced my sword upwards without any magic assistance and allowed it to pass harmlessly over my right shoulder.

Before she could pull the weapon back, I stepped inside to Tisiphone’s unprotected flank and tried to slash her stomach. Her scaled palm blocked the strike just short of her chest armor. Her hand wrapped around my blade. As I pulled the weapon free with a splatter of blood, she twisted her body and kicked the back of my right leg while her bloodied hand drove towards my chest.

I followed the path that she wanted, allowing myself to be driven to the ground. I kicked her face with my right leg while [1000 Bleeding Eyes] carried me to a spot just outside of range.

Just as I landed, I released a volley of lightning arrows at Tisiphone. She stomped the ground and one of the circular shields shot into her hand. The lightning clashed against the white-haired god depicted on the surface and was dispelled in all directions. I fired another arrow of lightning to see it obliterated again.

I saw the spear in Tisiphone’s hand shrink to half the size it was originally. She took a defensive stance and moved towards me with quick steps. From her slackened mouth, a red mist billowed out and covered the battlefield in a crimson haze.

My mouth dried like fruit in the sun and a shuddering pain of hunger spread through my stomach. I was temporarily shocked. The need for food or drink was something that I had not experienced in many years.

Tisiphone stabbed her spear forward, but she was still too far away for the tip to reach to meet me. The spear grew in length and rapidly extended my way. I ducked and deflected before charging Tisiphone. She shrank her body behind her shield and used it to block my sword. With one hand, I slashed against the shield while my other hand fired a bolt of lightning through a portal. The strike emerged from behind Tisiphone and slammed into her back.

At the same time, I felt a sharp pain in my ankle. I glanced down and saw a snake’s fangs dug deep into the flesh and scraping against my bone. With a flick of my sword, I tried to decapitate the snake. However, the flesh turned solid and the snake’s head became a spear tip. Tisiphone retracted her weapon that shrank back down to the short spear.

I immediately hopped out of the way of another strike. This time, the spear did not bother hiding its hidden transformation and immediately became a snake. Its writhing body made unpredictable movements and I missed deflecting it properly.

It dug its fangs into my armor and tried to penetrate into my shoulder. I slashed again, drawing blood and the snake withdrew.

But, I had lost track of Tisiphone. I met the white-haired god of Tisiphone face to face as her shield smashed me across the face. Blood spewed out of my twisted nose and my feet left the ground. I rolled and popped back on my feet. I shook my head, my mind sloshed around in my head like a drunkard’s sake. I allowed the blood from my nose to drip onto my outstretched tongue and slake my thirst.

Tisiphone leapt into the air. The crimson smoke spilled from her mouth and cloaked her body. The hiss of a snake tore through the miasma.

I reached my arm into the air and emitted a full blast of lightning into the sky. Immediately after, I swung my blade to the left and sliced into the whip-like snake. My feet kicked me backwards and out of the way of Tisiphone’s slam into the ground.

A spray of dirt and bloody flesh spread into all directions like a filthy wave. I stepped through at speed and delivered an overhand blow directed at Tisiphone’s back. I landed a solid hit, but not fatal.

I felt the snake coil around my arm. I gripped the snake and jumped into the portal. Before I could close it, the weapon was unsummoned by Tisiphone. I floated in my hidden space for a second, repositioning my portals to surround my foe. I channeled my lightning and exploded through one of the portals directly on top of Tisiphone.

Tisiphone managed to react in time to get her shield above her. The full force of my swing connected with Tisiphone’s shield with a large blast and sent us both flying away from each other in a shower of sparks.

I went along with the momentum of the blast and used a nearby portal to slingshot me right back into an attack. The tip of her spear waited perfectly for me at the exit. I twisted my torso and the weapon dragged along my stomach.

Avoiding disembowelment caused me to lose my form and forced me to withdraw my attack. With the speed I still possessed, I rotated my body to go feet first into the fray. I slammed into Tisiphone, both of my feet pressing into the shield. I bent my legs and jumped into a different portal, causing Tisiphone to be pushed onto her back.

A plume of red smoke greeted me on the other side of my portal. I followed the path that I believed her to be to be met with the shield again. I pushed off of the shield and received a snakebite to the left forearm.

I dug my feet into the ground and ignored the snake bite harder onto my arm. I lunged forward with [Ride the Lightning]. The speed caused the snake to be dislodged from my arm and my sword pointed forward to pierce whatever was on the other end. I saw the bearded face of her god on the other end.

I formed a portal on the surface of her shield and plunged my sword all the way through. The blade emerged behind her. I felt the sword pierce through her neck and I saw the tip shoot out of the front of her throat.

Tisiphone’s eyes widened. She dropped her weapon and pulled her right arm back in a fist. I tried to disengage, but the snakes on her hair had snapped down on my arms and locked me in place. She pulled on my arms with the snakes and sent my torso through the portal and out the other side. I sent as much electricity as I could through my body, but she refused to lessen her grip on my arms.

Her fist already finished its arc and collided directly with my face with a thunderous impact. My head snapped backwards. I felt my teeth crack and several muscles in my neck tear.

My body was sent flying back through the portal. I bounced several times through the muddy ground until I regained my footing. My knees weakened and weeping wounds covered my arms. The fangs of the snakes carved long wounds through my forearms as I was forcibly dislodged from their grasp.

Tisiphone charged me; a river of blood flowing out of the wide wound in her neck. She abandoned the spear and her clenched fist waited behind the cover of her shield.

I dug my feet into the ground. My body was not in a condition for rapid movement. Our wounds were already near fatal.

A long inhale was followed by a long exhale. I tried to force my fear and unnecessary thoughts into a dark corner of my mind. Thoughtlessness directed me towards instinct; the moves that I practiced over and over and over again in order to survive war. Though I did not survive, it did not mean it was not valuable.

Tisiphone pressed her shoulder behind her shield and charged into me. I sent an arrow of light into a portal directly in front of me that struck her in the back. The force caused her to momentarily lose her footing right before impact. I gripped the shield with my left hand and tried to wrench it to the side while I directed a slash into Tisiphone’s unarmored thigh.

My action succeeded and a slice of Tisiphone’s leg muscle sheared away. I felt another bite on my other ankle and a hammering fist popped my shoulder out of place.

I tried to redirect my sword, but my limb no longer complied with my demands. My left hand fired another bolt of lightning directly into her torso as a punch to the face snapped my neck to the right with a crack and a loss of sensation in my body.

My legs, no longer possessing the strength to support me, collapsed and dropped me into the mud. Numerous wounds covering my body contributed their share of blood to mix into the soil.

I could go no further.

“It was a good fight,” I said to my opponent and the viewers. “I have no regrets.”

If a killing blow came for me, I did not feel it. The next thing that I felt was the faint warmth of a fire and the gentle pokes of blades of grass against my skin.

I jolted into an upright position and looked around. The bloody battlefield that I collapsed in disappeared. The familiar mountainside campsite replaced it. I quickly inspected my body. All my wounds were gone. The numerous snake wounds were gone, my nose was no longer crooked, and there was no more hunger.

“Our contestant finally awakens…long after the viewers have left to watch other things,” the voice of Smile echoed over the landscape. “I didn’t even get a winner’s interview.”

“What happened?” I asked in confusion. “I thought I died.”

“You did. You both died, she just died first. It was a very thrilling fight; worthy of the finale,” Smile complimented and fell into temporary silence. “Well, I have other places to be and you need to be getting to the next stage. Off you go.”

“Wait, what about my reward?”

“Check your messages when you get off the train,” Smile instructed. “I have placed a location within it. You will find your reward there. Now, off with you.”

I tumbled through the light and was dropped into a place nearly identical to the room that I just left. The bodies of demons littered the ground like bloody flowers. Unlike the soldiers who died in conventional ways. These bodies were crushed, burned, ripped limb from limb, and every other creative way that these unnatural abilities bestowed upon us could unleash.

I made it one step before I felt danger. The metallic clunk of a weapon slapping against a hand made my muscles tense.

“So, you were the one who won the death game,” a giggling voice emanated from a distance.

“Capitaine?”