Mushoku Tensei: A different path

(Rudeus POV)

This is bad, this is bad, this is bad. Why now? Out of all the times, why does it have to be while we are in the middle of a crisis?

Could this be something Hitogami let happen through some chain of events?

Suddenly, I felt on my partially damaged sleeve being tucked at. When I looked over, I met eyes with the anxious looks of Sara.

"What is it?"

"… those three… they attacked us."

I wasn't sure if she expected me to know who those other men were, but then remembered what people she was talking about.

Now I know. Those three were the underlings that were together with Jester. Which means only one thing. I turned around and tried looking back at three others.

"What the... where did he go?!" One of our people exclaimed.

When I turned back, the presumed Death God vanished.

I noticed soon enough where he was.

Pushing Sara away from me, I soon found myself getting punched back with high force. Strong enough to push me through quite some distance for a single punch.

With a roll, I attempted to get back on my footing, but was unable to as a blade nearly slashed one of my ankles before I could apply Touki on it.

With a [Sonic Boom] I shot myself upwards.

Some knifes were thrown at me, but I easily blocked those with Barrier Magic.

Getting a view from above, I realized that the three assassins were below me.

What I also realized was that Death God was taking Sara hostage, his (surprisingly cool looking) emerald green sword against her neck.

'Not on my watch.'

As I landed, one of the underlings was doing a downward slash at me, but I was prepared for that and simply ignored it with my barrier.

"Oho, you're just as formidable as I heard, Rudeus Greyrat." Said the Shinigami imitation.

I was glaring at him and tried to see an opening to use a full power Touki dash. But all he did was stay stagnant and grin, his eyepatch removed, revealing his unique mismatching eyes.

His right eye was black with a six pronged red star in the middle.

Sara lost her bow and arrows, but was trying to get a grip on her dagger to stab him.

Then out of nowhere, he moved his sword away from her enough for me to attack.

Once I moved forward, strange signals of mana forming appeared from his right eye.

The air in front of me started to get solid, and I face-planted against it. Colliding against it wasn't exactly painful, but I still fell on my back.

Another underling must've used this opportunity and slashed at my neck. Pushing his sword upwards with Gravity Magic, it stayed stagnant.

I used [Wind Blast] against his torso to push him away.

A bit of it was used to push myself, and I was back on my feet. I stepped back a little and unfortunately made contact with the sudden air-wall. It was a barrier.

Did they go THAT far just to kill me by setting this up? No, we only randomly got here. What is causing this?

I looked around and found Death God, his sword sheathed and his arms crossed.

His right eye was glowing, presumably the power source of this barrier.

"Amazing, isn't it."

One of the assassin underlings spoke to me, the back of his single edged sword on his shoulder.

"Believe it or not, that man over there is none other than Death God, number five of the Seven Great World Powers."

And there I was hoping Hitogami was just saying that to get a laugh at me. This guy really is the real deal.

"And who might you three be?" This was of course a distraction to get a spell from below ready.

"Who are we?!" He yelled at me. "WE are the ones YOU made a joke out of."

Wait, I humiliated them? I thought they came after me for revenge for killing Jester and his brothers.

"Ever since you killed our leaders all on your own, the [Tri-Daggers] are considered a joke!"

"No one in the assassins guild is taking us serious anymore."

"We can't even get any job offers because people think we're too unreliable."

"I get that, but what does Death God have to do with this?"

The three of them just smirked and pointed at another direction with their swords.

As I looked over where they were pointing at, I saw Soldat on the ground, holding his blood covered right shoulder. Next to him lied his broken sword.

I didn't have to search long to find the person responsible for this. It was Death God.

"Either you fight us, or your friends will-"

Not letting him finish his dumb monologue, I gave all three of them a [Blizzard Storm]. As they all backed off, I aimed a highly overcharged [Stone Canon] at Death God's direction.

The barrier cracked and crumbled away. With another dash, I attempted to give Death God a punch in the abdomen.

However, he took on a weird stance and swung his sword at me while evading as well.

With his sword colliding with my wrist, sparks ignited, and the edge went along with my arm, cutting my sleeve apart finally reaching my neck.

After getting out of balance, I wasn't prepared and ended up missing my step, falling on my back while still moving forward.

What the hell was I expecting? Of course, it wouldn't be as easy as against Jester. This guy's at God level.

Quickly recovering from my failed attack, I attempted to go over to Soldat and heal him.

But I was intercepted by Death God again with a slash into my abdomen.

He got through not because I wasn't paying attention, it was more like, he vanished from my radar only to appear out of nowhere next to me.

Sharp pain coursed through my side and I gritted my teeth to endure it. I lost feeling in my legs and had to blast myself away while grabbing onto Soldat.

We flew away a few, and I prepared to use Healing Magic with both of my hand to heal us both.

"Hey Randolph, this isn't what we agreed upon."

"Not my fault the little brat got through my Absolute Void Demon Eye's barrier. You guys need to pay more attention. You actually want to kill him or not?"

While I was recovering from his attack, Death God was having an argument with the three assassins.

Did he just say Demon Eye? I didn't know there was one that could form barriers. It was certainly not on the list of options Kishirika had given me.

But that doesn't matter right now. I need to get rid of that demonic looking eye first.

Or so I thought.

Another barrier got formed, and I was trapped again with those three assassins.

They were already coming for me while Soldat was lying next to me.

I had no other choice but to carry him and use my Magic to keep them away from us.

I didn't have enough time to check up on Sara and the other, since I'm practically out of hands here.

"Urgh… damn it."

"Good, you're awake."

It wasn't long before he finally woke up and went back up to help me.

"You good?"

"Well, better than a hangover."

"… seriously?"

"… Let's just get this over with. The monsters could be coming for us."

Immediately agreeing with his plan, I handed him a sword from my pocket dimension.

"Hey! That's Jester's sword. How dare-"

"Oh, shut up." I said while shooting out a [Rock Bullet].

As he was distracted with evading, Soldat went ahead and swung his sword at his shoulder.

Meanwhile, I was aiming two [Sonic Boom] spells at the other two.

As the trio got separated, Soldat's opponent was still able to block his attack.

I honestly didn't think Soldat could do it. It's not like Soldat isn't an experienced swordsman himself, but this underling has better experience dealing with people.

For this fight, I need to be perfect backup support for Soldat.

While keeping an eye out for the two I blasted away, Soldat attempted another sneak attack.

Using Gravity Magic, I lessened the man's movements, but Soldat just got a few minor cuts against him.

This guy could be on the threshold of becoming Saint class, or the experience gap is just that big.

Either way, I still tried supporting Soldat by giving better foothold than him when using [Quagmire].

It wasn't long before the other two arrived and joined the battle.

I was gonna let Soldat fight this guy alone while I dealt with the other two.

We don't have to kill them, so I will merely knock them out with a minor [Electric], which they stupidly thought they could block or even redirect.

Once the other two got shocked, I shot two [Rock Bullet] spells against their heads, only for knockout.

After finishing those two guys, I turned back to the other guy who ran past Soldat and tried to hit me.

He was surprisingly faster than he looked and easily shortened the distance between us.

With an iaido, he unsheathed his sword, but not before I had my finger pointed straight at him.

In the middle of my spell, however, something happened.

The face of the guy changed into that of Jester. Not just that, it was the face Jester had after I shot the [Rock Bullet] through his head.

I was caught off guard by the sudden image change and didn't shoot my spell in time.

The speed at which he swung his sword was not fast enough for a [Longsword of Light]. Meaning, he used the lesser version [Longsword of Silence].

My left hand got cut off by his sword and blood sprayed out of my stomp.

This worked as a distraction for Soldat, as he launched a [Longsword of Silence] himself at the guy.

With a slash accord his back, he was now laying face down on the snowy ground.

"Rudeus!"

Soldat was obviously concerned about my missing hand and quickly went and got it while I was trying my best to reduce my blood lose.

He handed… he held… he placed my severed hand at its previous place and allowed me to use my Healing Magic easier.

"What happened? You don't usually hesitate like that."

"Against monsters. This is different."

I can't possibly tell him about my curse's sudden effect. Just now, my own murderous action came back to haunt me, and it nearly costed me my life.

Once my healing was done, we both looked at the last guy we had to face.

Death God had his green sword on his shoulder and a leisure expression on his face.

"Oho. You two seem like a good match in battle. Support from the Magician while the swordsman attacks. Not bad."

His laid-back attitude paired with his easy-going personality made him seem less threatening than he looked.

A part of me was wondering if he was taunting us to attack. But I know better than that.

"Tell me, what is it that one of the Seven Great World Power wants from me?"

"Pah. Don't tell me you don't remember me, Rudeus Greyrat."

Oh, great. My previous fear of him knowing my name has come true. Please don't have a note book with his victim's full names written in it.

"You can't be seriously after me because of that."

"Oh, but I am. Well, it's also because I want to know what you can do in a fight."

Crap. I can see where this is going. He is a battle freak. A person who gets a kick out of the thrill of fights.

"You can have your fight with me once our mission is over."

My entire group looked at me in disbelief, but this is the place to start anything right now.

"Nah. Better do it now before you decide to runaway."

He then pointed his sword at Sara, who got startled and stepped back a bit.

"To tell you the truth, I used to be fed up with fighting, but thanks to you that has ignited back. And I'm very curious as to what it feels like to fight a chantless Magician."

Damn you~, cranky Rudeus!

Wait, I just had a thought. With the timing and suddenness… could it be…

"You wouldn't happen to have been contacted in your dream right?"

His eyes just widened, and soon a little smirk appeared on his face. He then proceeded to cackle hysterically.

"Oh? And what if I did?"

That's as close of an answer I will get out of him. But now it's confined for me. He is one of, how Orsted calls them, Hitogami apostles.

"We can have your fight you want so much right now but on one condition. You let the others here leave this place immediately. I can't go all out with people around me to bother."

"Well, that's a compromise I can deal with."

As he accepted my offer with ease, he placed his eyepatch back and turned off his barrier.

While I was sensing the feeling of betrayal from Sara and Soldat, there was another signal that had slipped my mind.

"How many times do I have to repeat myself, Ru-"

I held my hand out to interrupt him.

"I'm giving you guys a head start. THEY are coming. You need to leave, NOW!"

After a second of confusion there was the sense of fear coming from him as he understood my words but wasn't cooperating.

To get this done quickly enough, I dashed forward with a [Fireball] ready to throw at my second-strongest opponent yet.

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