The Disposition

Between the two halves of the massive mountain split asunder, Takemikazuchi-no-Kami stood upon the rubble, his body covered in blood. His robust form gripped a simple iron longsword with both hands, having just raised it as if about to strike straight down.

At this moment, Takemikazuchi-no-Kami had returned to his most primal divine domain, that of the God of Decapitation. When Futsunomitama was raised by Takemikazuchi-no-Kami, the ritual of death had already begun; the moment the blade fell, a head would inevitably drop to the ground.

Takemikazuchi-no-Kami gazed at Miketsu in the sky. Everything was now prepared, lacking only the cause of his swinging blade to bring about the effect of the decapitation.

At that very moment, Miketsu, looking down at the earth from the heavens, watched Takemikazuchi-no-Kami raise his blade and spoke in a solemn voice.

"Are you certain you want to strike with this sword?"

"You... what do you mean by that?" Hearing Miketsu's words, Takemikazuchi-no-Kami's expression tightened. He asked in a low voice, his heart involuntarily constricting.

'Could she have noticed some anomaly? That shouldn't be possible. The gods who know the true ability of Futsunomitama are extremely few, and Uka-no-Mitama-no-Mikoto is certainly not one of them...' Takemikazuchi-no-Kami thought silently. Meanwhile, Miketsu continued to speak in a calm, serious tone.

"I have no other meaning. I only wanted to ask if you have the resolve to strike this blow..."

Miketsu looked at Takemikazuchi-no-Kami, an unusual light flickering in her expression. Hearing her words, Takemikazuchi-no-Kami froze for a moment, his thoughts churning frantically.

'She saw through my ability? Is she... begging for mercy? No, if it were a plea for mercy, her attitude is far too arrogant... This is more like a warning... If it really is a warning, could she possibly break the power of Futsunomitama? She has already shown too many irrational feats. What if she can see through and break it now...'

For a moment, the voice of reason from deep within made Takemikazuchi-no-Kami hesitate. However, he was soon overwhelmed by the influence of his divine virtue. The fearless and extremely confident divine virtue of Takemikazuchi-no-Kami forced him to cast aside the doubts in his heart.

'Impossible! Futsunomitama cannot be broken! She is merely blustering. Even if she knows the ability, what of it? Strike now! Do not give her any room to breathe!'

"Hmph, mere bluster..."

Takemikazuchi-no-Kami gave a cold snort. Driven by the extreme fearlessness and confidence of his divine virtue, he tightened his grip on Futsunomitama-giri, adjusted his stance, and slashed upward through the air.

With a flash of sword light, a burst of blood followed immediately.

"Ugh... ah..."

Futsunomitama-giri fell to the ground. Takemikazuchi-no-Kami's eyes widened. He clutched his own neck with both hands as a large amount of blood surged out from between his fingers, splashing heavily onto the ground.

When Futsunomitama is swung, it must slice a neck and take a head. But this time, the one who nearly lost his head was Takemikazuchi-no-Kami himself.

Just now, he had almost decapitated himself...

When Takemikazuchi-no-Kami drew Futsunomitama, Miketsu, possessing causality vision, already knew what would happen if the blade struck. She clearly saw an abnormal Thread of Causality form between her neck and Futsunomitama. This thread indicated that when Futsunomitama struck, it would cut her neck.

Futsunomitama was a divine weapon manifested by divine power, based on the manipulation of causality. However, as an ancient god, Miketsu once held a certain title...

The Lord of Causality...

Using the crystal that contained a trace of her ancient divine power, Miketsu grafted the Thread of Causality connected to herself, transplanting the 'effect' end onto Takemikazuchi-no-Kami himself.

Therefore, from the very beginning, if Takemikazuchi-no-Kami struck with the blade, the one whose neck would be severed was himself.

"Ah... it didn't fall off completely. It seems you showed mercy at the last moment. Congratulations, you saved yourself." Looking down at Takemikazuchi-no-Kami, who was clutching his bleeding neck, Miketsu spoke indifferently.

After Miketsu grafted the causal thread onto him, the feedback of the 'effect' from his 'cause' of striking was one hundred percent. Miketsu had no intention of showing mercy; if Takemikazuchi-no-Kami had struck with full force, his head would have surely fallen. Since his head remained on his body and his neck was merely severely injured, it proved he had held back.

"Ugh... ugh... This seat's... mission was... to bring you to the heavens..." clutching his wound, Takemikazuchi-no-Kami spoke haltingly. It appeared that his strike just now had been controlled with extreme precision in force and angle; while it sliced his neck, it avoided the most vital parts, not even damaging his windpipe.

Takemikazuchi-no-Kami's mission was to bring Miketsu to Takamagahara, not to kill her. As a God of Heavenly Punishment loyal to Takamagahara, he naturally wouldn't arrogantly mess up the mission. He had precisely controlled the strike to only cut about a third of the neck, avoiding vital organs and arteries. While such a wound would cause a mortal to bleed out and die, a god could still survive.

But who could have expected that Takemikazuchi-no-Kami's mercy toward Miketsu would ultimately save his own life...

Clutching his still-gushing neck, Takemikazuchi-no-Kami's legs gave way, and he collapsed to his knees. The surrounding divine realm crumbled; the continuous, magnificent peaks vanished, and the scene returned to the appearance of Mount Inari.

The collapse of the divine realm meant that Takemikazuchi-no-Kami had completely lost his combat capability. Under Miketsu's causality vision, he could no longer create any threatening attacks. Miketsu slowly flew down from the sky, landing before the kneeling Takemikazuchi-no-Kami.

"You..."

Clutching his neck, Takemikazuchi-no-Kami's bloodshot eyes were wide open, staring at the Miketsu who was now within arm's reach. There was still no fear in his gaze.

Under the influence of his divine virtue, if he were still able to fight, he would surely continue to fight to the death, even knowing that the Miketsu before him was someone he could never defeat.

"Now then... how should I dispose of you?"

Looking at Takemikazuchi-no-Kami, Miketsu began to stroke her chin in thought. At this moment, she was considering whether to deliver a finishing blow to kill Takemikazuchi-no-Kami, thereby removing a powerful opponent for when she eventually faced Takamagahara in full. After all, Takemikazuchi-no-Kami's raw strength was quite formidable.

However, if she killed him now, would it directly and completely escalate the conflict with Takamagahara? Would it bring about the full confrontation with Amaterasu prematurely? Although she was strong now, could she truly face an entire pantheon? Her godhead had not yet fully recovered, and the battle just now had already caused it to fluctuate.

As she continued to think while looking at Takemikazuchi-no-Kami, a very interesting idea suddenly occurred to her.

"It seems... Eirin is still in the shrine right now..." Miketsu said, a smile curling at the corners of her mouth.