Ephus started as he had with his training in the Egyptian sword style, then quickly advanced through all four. He had actually knocked the demon's sword from its hands.
This, of course, caused the demon to completely lose its temper. Unfortunately, the demon's strength grew with it.
Ephus was still trying not to smile as he saw the last two from the first wall vanish. A moment later the demon grasped the medallion on its chest, looking at it, then up, growling at Ephus.
"Hmmmm," started Ephus, "seems to be running out of power, huh?"
It was at that moment that Shuten-dōji noticed that the major gods that had been on the wall were gone. "What have you done!" He then looked at Ephus and laughed. "No matter, I will recapture them."
"Don't see how that is possible," Ephus said with a smile, thinking to Hachiman, now my friend.
There was a sudden and very loud screaming and clashing of swords. This caused the demon to stare daggers at Ephus. With a scream, Shuten-dōji attacked Ephus in anger,
Ephus managed to hold him off, but the demon was still managing to draw much closer to him. A few minutes later Ephus smiled as the last he'd freed were gone, making the demon grasp the medallion.
A moment later Shuten-dōji swung very close to Ephus, then laughed as he grasped Ephus by the shirt. "Now little demi, experience true power as I take yours!"
Ephus felt something like a pull at his power. He just stood there as he felt a pull, then it changed, as did the look on the demon's face.
At first, it was a wide smile, then a grin, then a look of confusion. He tried to release Ephus, finding that he couldn't let go. Not only that, but his hand got very hot, hotter than he'd ever felt.
He started harder, to pull away, as his hand started to get hotter than the fires of hell. "WHAT IS THIS!?" Shuten-dōji started to yell louder. "I can take the power of any god with this. How is it that you aren't effective!"
Ephus just smiled as he watched the demon's hand start to smoke, the smell of roasting meat in the air. "You are really more stupid than I thought. I am not a god, as I thought you knew, after all, you called me a demi."
The demon was more concerned with its arm, which was getting very cooked. "That shouldn't matter if you are a god, a demi-god." The demon said in extreme pain as its arm started to peel the skin off it.
Ephus shook his head. "So stupid, you just said it, I am a demi-god, not a god. I don't have the same power nor energy." Ephus smirked as the demon's arm started to crackle, then fell off its body, the demon falling to its knees.
With a final scream, the demon panting looked at Ephus with pure hatred. "This isn't done demi," it spit out.
"Oh. I think it is," Ephus said as he drew his sword.
The demon started to laugh evilly, "no demi, it has just started." With that, Shuten-dōji vanished, as did the rest of those that were chained to the wall.
"Damnit," he yelled, heading toward the cave opening. What he saw made him almost smile. Hachiman was surrounded and smiling. "Need help," Ephus said, then started to cut my way to him.
Ephus was so angry that he was fighting Hachiman for a moment before he noticed. He backed away, looking at what had to be a thousand dead demons everywhere.
"Ummm, such savagery! It was beautiful to watch. You took them ten and twenty with one swing. I was afraid that I might not have enough skill to beat your anger," said a proud-looking Hachiman. "I have never had a great of a student like you."
"That might be all and good, but that bastard demon got away with the rest of them," he spit out, feeling his anger growing a bit.
"That is true though, you managed to free all the major gods and goddesses. That includes all five of Amaterasu's sons. I believe that this is a moment for celebration, not grief," Hachiman said confused.
Ephus lowered my head, realizing that he had freed a lot. Was he crazy? This was a demon, not a god, a lot different than any he had ever fought before.
Ephus looked at Hachiman, feeling a little embarrassed. "I apologize, Hachiman, I was hoping I could get more than I did."
Hachiman nodded, then put an arm around my shoulders. "At least we have deprived him of a great many of his soldiers."
Ephus stared at him a moment, then nodded. "Yeah, at least there's that," he said.
He nodded his head as they both winked out, appearing a minute later in rhe grand room where Ephus had met Amaterasu. He could see that all of them were tired and still a little weak.
Ephus suddenly realized that he, himself, was feeling a bit drained at the moment. He saw that Amaterasu was welcoming everyone back. He had also noticed that all the buildings were repaired.
She walked towards me with five males as soon as she saw him. "Ephus, I would like you to meet my first son, Ame-no-oshihomimi, my second son, Ame-no-hohi. This is my third son, Amatsuhikone; my fourth son, Ikutsuhikone," she then pulled a younger male over. "This is my youngest, Kumanokusubi."
She took Ephus' arm and pulled him to different males and females. "These are minor goddesses amid gods, Onryō and Izanami." Ephus nodded to the two females.
They walked further and she stopped before two males. "These are my brothers Susanoo and Tsukuyomi, they are younger than me. Over here we have the twins, Fujin and Raijin," they both looked at Ephus, then turned away.
Huh, not that friendly I see, he thought.
Amaterasu then pulled Ephus to a group of four. "Here we have Inari, Ryūjin, Kagutsuchi and Kajin.
"Inari, are you not the god of foxes?" Ephus asked the fox-headed god. When the god nodded, Ephus continued. "Shuten-dōji mentioned that he was using the absorbing ability of Miktsume. As you are the god of them, do you think you can turn that off?"
"I'll get back to you on that Ephus. I need to think on it," Inrari said.
Amatsuhikone smiled and pulled Ephus to a female and a male, "This is the goddess Ame-no-Uzume. This young man is my grandson, Ninigi-no-Mikoto."
Finally, she brought him to another group of four. "These four gods might be of great use to you later. They are Omoikane, Suijin, Takemikazuchi and Takeminakata. These are all the gods and minor gods that you rescued. I believe that the last three here might be of a greater help to you."
Ephus's eyelids went up, "Oh? In what way?"
"They are the gods of water, thunder and wind among a few other things," Amatsuhikone said.
Ephus nodded as he thought that over. True they would help though, he needed them to work together, so far, he saw they didn't.
Ephus pulled Amatsuhikone aside to air his misgivings about all the others. A fact that she found slightly distressing.
Ephus sighed as he nodded to her as he sat to try and find a plan for this.
In a far distant cave, Shuten-dōji was pacing he had lost all the major god and goddesses. Then he'd lost all of Amatsuhikone's sons and grandson. He had been depending on them, forcing her to comply.
He quickly lost his temper as he smacked a demon through a wall. When the demon got back up, Shuten-dōji pulled more power and destroyed the demon.
A roar and a growl followed as Shuten-dōji stomped and cursed that he'd lost as many as he had. Worse was the loss of their power that had aided their own downfall.
He'd managed to destroy another ten demons when he finally managed to calm down. He then flexed his arm (the one he still had), putting it through the cave wall.
Shuten-dōji sat for a few minutes then snapped his fingers. "Ibaraki-dōji, Come to me! We have a plan to make this, time we will defeat that damned demi. I won't make the same mistakes."
Ibaraki-dōji stood there listening while his boss made truly evil plans. A wicked smile came to his features as the plan he heard was as devious as Shuten-dōji had been before.
