Summary

Prologue: The start of a long night

-The prologue of volume X opens with a description of the state of affairs in the Village after Shiba’s attack. The elders discussed it among themselves and also Vatican as Celis was also badly injured, and Georgius taken

-Shiba took 3 of the divine weapons of the Village and Celis’ Georgius. He wasn’t able to take Byakko because it rejected him as its master.

– Basara explained this to everyone, including Maria and Zest who are on the phone. He also resolved to take down Shiba.

– This attack did nothing to lessen the complication on Basara’s group’s political situation at all

– Basara then suggested that as they are unaffiliated they may be able to move faster without the discussion, and can shoulder the responsibility and if they take down Shiba both Village and Vatican would be indebted to them.

– Basara asked for two things from Shuuya: 1) to return Yuki and Kurumi’s weapons (which I think is something they used from early on) and 2) For Byakko, as Basara would require it to find Shiba as the other three weapons are with him, and his current position is unknown

– Celis is recovering well from Shiba’s attack, but the same can’t be said about Takashi. Kaoru asked Basara to check Takashi’s condition as Basara has Banishing Shift (Basara is still spiritually imbalanced and as a result can only use an incomplete Banishing shift unless under the influence of Banyuusekiryoku which temporarily fixes his spiritual imbalance)and she thinks that might be able to give a special look to the reason Takashi isn’t recovering well

– The problem with Takashi isn’t poison or a curse, but something deeper and Basara used Banishing Shift to get to it. Mio’s case with Wilbert was mentioned as being somewhat similar but not the same

– Prologue ends with the items needed to find Shiba in place. Byakko, according to Takigawa did not approve of Shiba as it already approved of Takashi, and as Basara helped Takashi he was able to wield Byakko with approval

Chapter 1: What those eyes gaze upon

Part 1

A special department of the Vatican began using banned magic and mass-producing clones of Toujou Jin
The Special department ended up partnering with a group of gods in secret to expand and accelerate their research
Shiba Kyouichi was one of the mass produced clones. Solved the problem of the clones producing impurities due to him being able to absorb the impurities that existed inside himself and use it as a source of power. (They used hair from Jin Toujou to create the clones, taken from him without his knowledge when he was younger!)
The plan was to create the strongest hero, but Shiba got too powerful and his power started to expand to different dimensions so the gods abandoned the Vatican
Since the gods abandoned the Vatican, The Vatican was looking for someone to share in their sin. Since the Village didn’t have much political power they decided to use the opportunity in order to gain a political advantage, and a symbiotic relationship between the Village and Vatican was born. (This is how Shiba ends up in the custody of the Village)

Part 2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10+11+12

Basara and company (Mio, Maria, Kurumi, Yuki, and Zest) have a strategy meeting where the origins of Shiba and the Four divine beasts are explained
A large barrier is seen over Tokyo, created by Shiba
Basara and company create a plan for taking down Shiba’s barrier. The plan was to invalidate Georgius since it’s only serving as a substitute for Byakko.
Once entering Shiba’s Barrier they have a run in with the blue dragon and Yuki explains the history of the four gods in relation to the Heroes and the original chinese mythology which they are derived
Yuki then talks about the four gods and how they can be thought about how the different elements all have a way of complimenting each other)
The blue dragon appears and Yuki decides to stay back and fight the blue dragon alone, as Sakuma would be good against it element-wise, and promises to catch up with everyone once she kills it.
Mio recalls her fight against Takashi and Byakko (She was a noob back then) She thinks to herself how things are different and she’s stronger now. Fire is best suited for fighting against Georgius impersonating Byakko since Byakko is wind based.
They finally reach Georgius Byakko which is completely under the control of Shiba. There’s a confrontation with Balflear, and Mio decides to fight against Georgius Byakko.
Balthier is able to use advanced magic, Balthier predicted that Basara and company would try to use the Five lines in order to stop Shiba. Maria decides that she’s going to be Balthier’s opponent
According to Takigawa, Balthier has the ability to erase entities. Balthier ends up spawning a couple hundred demons and talks about the contract he has with the demon named Legion which basically gives him an infinite army. (The demons that make up legion were the ones that were sacrificed to Chaos)
Maria faces off against Balthier and Legion (It took Basara, Mio, Leohart, and Ramsus to take down Chaos and Maria is supposed to fight Balthier and all of Legion on her own) Maria has a moment where she talks about how this is her fight, and how she promises not to lose. Part 10 ends with her running off to fight Legion
Basara, Kurumi, and Zest are flying down the highway trying to figure out a way to improve the odds of Mio or Maria winning their respective battles, as a means of potentially forcing a 2 vs 1 fight for whichever of the girls wins their battle first. Basara and company end up flying out towards Tokyo Bay and encounter Suzaku. (the Phoenix) Kurumi decides that she’s the most prepared to face off against Suzaku and flies off to fight against it.
After parting with Kurumi, Basara and Zest head for the northern part of the city. They end up encountering Genbu (which is half turtle half snake)
It’s also the most dangerous of the four gods, because it’s comprised of two sacred beasts.
Basara thought it would have been better if he was to help Zest kill one half of Genbu.
Basara and Zest then have a heart-to-heart, and she talks about how it’s her duty as his maid to support Basara. Although Zest is in a dangerous situation the threat of Shiba is still out there and Basara needs to leave Zest in order to stop Shiba at all costs. Zest talks about how she believes in Basara and that he needs to believe in Mio, Yuki, Kurumi, Maria, and herself.
Ultimately Basara ends up listening to Zest and commands her to win her battle against Genbu. Zest then nods with a smile and summons a rock golem in order to even the odds a bit against Genbu.

Part 13

Basara finally reached the center of the barrier Tokyo Tower (Which is the modern center of Japan figuratively and literally)

Basara and Shiba finally meet each other face to face and Basara talks about how he’s going to stop Shiba
Shiba ends up telling Basara the truth behind his secret: that Jin knows of who he is and what he is – something he told Jin himself but Kaoru and Shuuya had omitted to Jin, but Jin himself did not do anything or both political reasons and to protect Basara
The great war was a political nightmare. If a truce was never reached the war would have continued on until Basara, Yuki, and kurumi were of age to fight, and they would have most likely all been killed
Basara somewhat understands that Shiba’s hate and thirst for revenge against the Village and Vatican is somewhat legitimate
The topic of Jin comes up in their discussion. (Jin learning the truth about Shiba is probably what caused the rift between him and the Vatican) Basara finally understands why Jin always told him to be careful of Shiba
The chapter more or less ends with Basara and Shiba talking about the nature of the Heroes.

Chapter 2: What lies beyond the four beasts

Part 1

Yuki faces off against the Seiryu. If she was to somehow die than Basara would lose power. She realizes that she can’t die no matter what because she still wants to live with Basara and everyone else is counting on her. The fight with the Seiryu continues on until Sakuya listens to Yuki’s feelings and she gets a new power up. (Sakuya turns red)

Part 2

Kurumi is fighting against Suzaku and pelting it with water blasts along the Tokyo Bay. Her attacks aren’t working because of the extreme heat of Suzaku’s fire element. After realizing she can’t go on this all out offensive against Suzaku she decides to focus on her attack and defense at once. She creates a barrier of wind around herself and proceeds to go underwater and combine with the wind with the water in order to create a cyclone. Suzaku tries to attack Kurumi, but she’s so deep underwater it’s attacks are ineffective. Kurumi then decides to go on the offensive once again and uses the cyclone to create a giant water dragon. The water dragon that Kurumi created is basically suffocating Suzaku and putting out it’s fire. Kurumi’s dragon and Suzaku start to wrestle in the Tokyo Bay. A whole bunch of ships explode and ignite Suzaku making it’s fire even stronger than it was before. The flames become so strong that they could potentially evaporate all the water in the Tokyo Bay. Kurumi then recalls what happened back in the demon world, and how this time she can’t lose because people are counting on her

Part 3

Predominantly focuses on explaining Genbu and how it’s half turtle and half snake. It has control over water and its entire body is weapon. Zest is basically riding her golem and trying to figure out a way to fight it.

Part 4

Mio and Maria are fighting their respective battles somewhat close to each other
Maria is fighting against Legion while trying to determine the location of Balflear. Legion is described as being basically a lesser version of Valga (If memory serves me correctly he was the dude who got killed fairly early in the series possibly within the first 4 episodes or so). Maria is fighting outnumbered so her plan is to stay on her feet and try to keep the number of Legion under control as best as possible using shockwave attacks through the ground. Maria is able to hold Legion off for quite a while, but it’s an impossible task considering as soon as defeats one another just spawns in its place. Maria’s physical strength and mental toughness is limited. So she begins to think up a new strategy which was to try and find Balflear, because at this point defeating him is the only way to stop Legion. Maria thinks back to how she lost her fight against Lars. In the time since her fight against Lars, She’s been training and her adult form is stronger than ever. Her only issue is that she still lacks combat experience using it outside of training and to use it against Balthier is a gamble. Maria begins to think to herself that she can’t lose no matter what, because if she was to lose then Balflear would go after Mio. Realizing this she decides that it’s time to use a new ability that she discovered that she had when training with Basara, but she only can only use it once.

Part 5

Basara lures Shiba away from the Tokyo tower as they begin to fight each other. Basara has come to the realization that Shiba has pretty much taken all of Japan hostage. If Shiba’s barrier was to go down all of Japan would basically turn into a sea of fire as the four gods are set free.
As Basara and Shiba engage with each other, Basara begins to see the difference in power between himself and Shiba. Shiba pretty much blocks or parries all of Basara’s attacks regardless of how fast Basara moves.

Part 6

At first, Basara thought that Shiba had been using magic to counter all of his attacks. However basara figures out that Shiba hasn’t been using magic, but is a Ki based fighter. Ki based fighters are rare among the Heroes. There’s only been a few Heroes capable of Ki arts.
Shiba basically manipulates the Ki around him. His Aura is dependent upon the element that he draws his Ki from. In his fight with Basara he has a brown aura since he’s drawing on Ki from the earth.
What makes Ki based fighters so dangerous is that they can practice their Ki arts in both close quarters and long ranged combat. Shiba is capable of absorbing Ki and passing it through people or objects. (When he attacked Takashi at the end of volume 9 he used a Ki attack which basically left him close to death)
After figuring out Shiba uses Ki arts, Basara thinks that he finally has a chance at victory. Basara figured he could use Banyuusekiryoku and rebalance the imbalances within him caused by his contract with Chisato. However though if Basara was to rebalance himself Shiba might catch on to it since he can see fluctuations in Ki.
Basara then realizes that he’s somewhat over thinking things and that he needs to focus on the battle at hand. The difference in ability between himself and Shiba are clear. He just needs to press on and find a way to beat Shiba

Part 7

Sakuya begins communicating with Yuki as she’s fighting the Seiryu. (The blade of Sakuya begins to glow) Sakuya ends up leading Yuki to an area with a whole bunch of cherry blossom trees since they hold the key to beating the blue dragon. (Sakuya is of both the wood/tree and gold/ore elements)
Yuki begins to think about her relationship with Sakuya and how much they’ve grown together. The key to her winning is going to be believing in herself as well as Sakuya.
The Blue dragon appears in the sky, Yuki is by all the cherry blossom trees. Sakuya begins to glow even brighter and it begins to absorb all the cherry blossoms off the trees causing Sakuya’s color to change from bright silver to a deep red.
Seiryu sees the powered up Sakuya and then fires off an attack. Yuki meets it with an attack of equal force and the two clash

Part 8

Kurumi continues to fight against Suzaku whose flames got a power up.
Suzaku’s flame is burning so bright that if it was to use its fire offensively it runs the risk destroying the surrounding Tokyo Bay area..
Suzaku begins to see that Kurumi can’t keep up and is starting to slow down show signs of fatigue. Kurumi then launches an attack against Suzaku.
Suzaku tanks the attack and thinks that everything is okay at first. Then a whole bunch of wind barriers begin to appear around Suzaku. Kurumi uses wind barriers to deprive Suzaku’s flames of oxygen.
Without its fire Suzaku becomes just a giant bird. Kurumi then fires of a multitude of water spears that pierced Suzaku

Part 9

Zest leads Genbu to the shopping district that she visited with Basara, Mio, and Maria after they returned from the demon world following the events of volume 7. Zests plan was to lure Genbu away from it’s source of power the Japanese Self Defense Force.
Zest also chose this area because it contained a large building she could use to make a golem.
Rather than making one golem Zest decided on making two. She made a golem with a sword and shield to defend and attack against Genbu.
Zest flies off in the air and begins commanding both golems. Commanding two golems at once is no easy feat and puts tremendous strain on it’s user.
Zest plan was to overwhelm Genbu with both of her golems attacking it. Since Genbu is comprised of two divine beasts it has two separate lines of thought. Because Genbu has two differing lines of thought it has to chose between either attacking one part or defending the other. Zests advantage is that she is in complete control of both golems simultaneously so that they can overwhelm Genbu.
Genbu doesn’t really know what to do and seems confused before finally finding an opening while Zest was in the air.

Part 10

Maria is doing her best to fight against legion while looking for an opening to use her trump card
Mio is fighting against Byakko and although she’s come along way since the beginning of the series her fire based attacks don’t seem to be working due to their differences in speed. (Mio has always struggled against speed-type fighters)
Mio has to be careful of using ranged attacks against Byakko because if she was to destroy the spear, Shiba’s barrier would dissolve and cause the four gods to destroy Tokyo.
Byakko roars and fires off an attack against Mio. Mio then defends against the attack and comes to the realization that the only way to win against Byakko is going to be a precision attack.
Mio thinks for a moment how she really sucks against fighting against speed-type opponents. She remembers back when she first started training with Basara and how he struck her using Brynhildr. She then thought back to the fight against Takashi and Byakko and how that feeling of helplessness stayed with her.
Mio then looks to the other side of the baseball field and Maria is trying her best to fight off legion. Mio then begins to wonder where Balthier is, because if Balthier was killed then she would be able to save Maria for a change.
Mio then decides that she needs to end her fight with Byakko quickly in order to save Maria. In an effort to quickly end the fight, Mio creates vortex that begins to gather all the sand along the baseball field creating a tornado.
Mio then uses herself as an electromagnet to trap Byakko inside the vortex. The vortex then begins to heat up to the point where Mio’s fire evaporates Byakko
After Mio wins, Balthier finally shows himself and Maria cries out to her in a concerned voice as one of legion began to pursue Mio

Part 11

Although Maria was able to warn Mio her warning wasn’t enough. Mio’s reaction time is naturally slow and she expended lots of magic creating the vortex to defeat Byakko so it would be difficult for her to block the incoming attack from legion
Maria then quickly thinks to herself what could she do to save Mio. She considers unlocking the seal on her adult form, but that wasn’t enough time to do that.
Not really knowing what to do Maria begin to hit the ground and produce shockwaves in an attempt to destroy the legion pursuing Mio.
Balthier realized that Maria really has no way to win against Legion and with Byakko defeated he had to step in and begin targeting Mio.
The shockwaves never seemed to reach legion, but soon the ground starts glowing crimson red and legion gets crushed by an invisible power. Balthier acts all surprised at first and then realized that Maria used gravity magic.
Balthier then withdraws and Mio who was surprised by Maria flies to her side.
Mio then tightly hugs Maria who lost consciousness due to exerting herself to protect Mio.

Part 12

– Basara and Shiba continue to fight in the central district. After learning that Shiba was a Ki user, Basara decided to switch up his fighting style, and pretended to be chased in order to lure Shiba to a particular street in Tokyo so that he could enact his plan to defeat Shiba.

– Basara basically moved Shiba into a position that is disadvantageous for him since it limits his power and prevents him from absorbing the ki

-After getting Shiba into position Basara leaps forward and goes on the offensive

Part 13+14+15

As Basara is charging at Shiba, Shiba disappears in a red Aura.
Basara then uses anti gravity magic to increase his speed in order to catch up to Shiba. Once Basara is in front of Shiba, He noticed Shiba’s true trump card which were his gauntlets which possed an incredible amount of Ki.
Basara then uses Banyuusekiryoku in order to change his state so that he could use Banishing shift to strike Shiba. Basara is successful in striking Shiba, because Shiba thought that Basara could only use Banishing shift as a counter attack or in times of emergency. After the conflict in the demon world Basara secretly learned how to use Banishing shift by using only one arm.
A surprised Shiba then counter attacks by using a Ki attack of equal force. Basara though didn’t realize that Shiba was using a two stage attack. So Basara attacks again using the combination of Banyuusekiryoku and Banishing shift.
Shiba’s attack ends up hitting Basara and he gets blasted into the air and falls to the ground.
Shiba then talks about the different ways in which he can use Ki and how he basically won the fight when Basara first tried to attack since he can manipulate the ki in both physical and magic attacks.
Shiba then proceeds to tell Basara as to why he destroyed the temple that they were fighting close to as the ground began to glow gold.

Part 16

After defeating Seiryu, Yuki immediately tries to find Mio and the others.
Yuki, Mio, Maria (who’s still unconscious), Kurumi, and Zest eventually meet back up, but can’t get into the center of Tokyo due to the barrier. The girls contemplating trying different combinations of their magic and techniques in order to break the barrier.
After realizes there’s nothing they can do, they see a yellow dragon (Kouryuu) begin wrapping itself along the radio tower in the center of tokyo.

Part 17

Koryuu begins to manifest (300m long Yellow Dragon wrapped around the Tokyo Tower)
It’s then explains how the four divine beasts have their own orientation in terms of North, South, East, West, as well as corresponding season.
The best way to explain how all this works is the following link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Symbols_(China)
Basically Mio and company by defeating the four divine beasts triggered Koryuu waking up
Shiba is planning to use Koryuu to take his revenge on the Vatican for creating him.

Part 18 + 19

Shiba explains the process for awakening Koryuu, along with the significance of the Tokyo Tower, and the role of Georgius
Shiba basically tells Basara that he’s been manipulating him the entire time. He purposely left Takashi alive, because he knew Basara would use Byakko to chase after him
Basara regrets that his actions have only helped Shiba achieve his goal.
Since Koryuu hasn’t fully awakened, Basara feels there’s still a chance to stop Shiba’s plan.
Shiba then projects an image of Mio and all the girls connections to the 5 elements are explained. (Mio=fire, Maria= wood, Kurumi= water, Yuki= gold, Zest= Earth
Shiba then starts commanding Koryuu and it fires off an attack in the direction of Mio and everyone. (Koryuu is the head of the 4 gods and strongest of the divine beasts)

Part 20

Part of southern Tokyo was destroyed by Koryuu’s attack and Shiba admires the destruction.
Shiba then proceeds to antagonize Basara after having seemingly killed Mio, Maria, Kurumi, Yuki, and Zest.
Basara gets pissed off and disappears in front of Shiba (Basara has achieved god tier speed under the influence of Banyuusekiryoku ) Shiba then remarks about how Basara still isn’t able to reach him as he’s easily able to perceive Basara’s movements.
Shiba then decides to counter Basara by using a Ki attack. He takes the Ki inside his body and then places it inside Basara in order to immobilize him.
After immobilizing Basara, Shiba decides it’s time to kill Basara and fires off a ki blast at him.
Basara’s body disappears as Shiba was readying his death blow. Basara being immobilized means that someone else must have broken through the barrier and saved him.
Chisato finally makes her appearance on the battlefield.

Part 21

Chisato in her Afueria form holds an unconscious Basara. There’s a brief summary of her trip with Basara, and how she tied two contracts with him. One was her contract as the former high ranking goddess Afueria, and the other was a master servant contract so that she would be able to grasp Basara’s location.
Chisato was able to use her powers as the goddess Afueria in order to enter Shiba’s barrier from the northern district undetected.
She takes a moment to examine Basara’s condition. She notices his heart was gradually weakening. Although there was no blood, Shiba’s attack left a fatal scar on Basara.
Shiba showed knowledge on who Chisato is and vice versa (he calls her Afueria) – it is revealed that for the past twenty years ‘Ten God Reginleif’ had been with Shiba as a demon fist

Part 22

Twenty years ago, Reingleif was involved in the cloning project with Vatican. However, with how Shiba’s power grows too large, he had disappeared – the heroes inferred he had simply returned to the heavenly realms, but this is not the case
He was in a sense absorbed into Shiba and exist in that way
But of course, as Shiba is now he has more than that
Shiba expressed his amusement at the prospect of fighting Hasegawa in place of Basara. She agreed.

CHAPTER 3: Completing the Master-Servant Contract

Part 1 – 3

Mio found herself waking up on a large bed, Zest and Kurumi next to her
The conscious Yuki and Maria approached her – when Mio asked if they were captured, Maria said it was a possibility as Yuki was unable to find an exit
They don’t know where Basara is, and their locating from the contract isn’t working
Hasegawa then appeared to explain that this was to help Basara – she clicked and the wall turned transparent to reveal him, also on a bed in a room next door
Maria wanted proof that Hasegawa isn’t Shiba’s cohort, but Mio could feel the Basara in the next room is the real Basara
With Hasegawa’s explanation on how she had saved them, Maria accepted it
The reason why they have this time is Shiba is waiting for the power to further grow so he can take on the world, not just Japan. But because of this they have quite a bit of time left – it is presently at 50%
There’s more explanation on Shiba and the weapons and his plan

Part 4

Mio asked if this isn’t the first time Hasegawa saved them
There are recaps on all the previous times she had
In the end Mio asked if she made a contract with Basara around sports festival

Part 5

How sharp Mio’s sense on this is is part of the development of her master-slave contract with Basara, and Hasegawa realised how far they have gone
Hasegawa came clean about her true form to Mio and the others
But she kept it short, as more importantly she has to tell them how to take down Shiba

Part 6

Basara woke up, and Mio ascertained that they are together and safe
She then suddenly collapsed – Shiba had found them, and the other four are taken down by him
Basara readied to fight with Brynhildr, releasing his Banishing Shift when…

Part 7

Basara is actually still asleep, and Mio is by his side
They have explained the situation as they know it from Hasegawa to Kurumi and Zest as they woke up
Basara woke up to everyone by him, Mio reassured him that they’re in a place where Shiba can’t find them and hurt them

Part 8 – 9

Hasegawa appeared, and they caught Basara up on what they know of Hasegawa, as well as Hasegawa and Basara’s relationship
They accept it as something they can’t complain about, especially not now as it was proven that them not knowing had let Hasegawa act like a trump card for their group
But while they’re safe now, their fight is not yet over
Hasegawa explained the condition and what she can do – and how she cannot beat Shiba, even though she can create this barrier to protect them
Shiba knows of Hasegawa’s true form as he had Reginleif’s memory and knowledge, henceforth, knowing Afureia
Hasegawa explained that the dragon is almost at 70%, and the larger it gets the harder it is to control – she estimate that it’ll be another 50 hours until Shiba unleash it
It feels like they’re at a complete loss – till Hasegawa said that there is a way
To beat Shiba of the five elements, Basara too needs five elements flowing through him

Part 10 – 11

But is that possible, they asked
They then talked about the master-slave contract, and how they can change it into a master-slave vow
There are conditions to changing it into a vow 1) for the contract as is to reach the maximum possible state 2) that they can devote all their heart and body eternally to the master for here on always
Basara has to be able to take on all of them as his always from here on
But in that case shouldn’t they have done that many times? Shouldn’t it be relatively easy to reach?
Hasegawa explained the complexities of the contract, and how many fail to fulfill the first condition for the vow – in a sense, the bond that Basara has with Mio and the others are miraculous, and it is time to use such a miracle
It became clear to change it into a vow they need to have sex – and Hasegawa had explained it to the girls who agreed to it and is resolved to it
They explained they understood that Basara had not crossed that line in consideration to them and as he treasures them. They too, are scared of things changing, however, not being able to be with Basara scare them more
All of them had chosen a path off the beaten track – there’s very little chance of them going back now. They want to move forward with Basara and with that they need to beat Shiba
At these, Basara to made his resolve to change it from contract to Vow

Epilogue: The vows between those tied together

The order of elements that Basara has to absorb is explained ( Fire, Wood, Water, Gold, Earth)
Mio sex scene which ultimately ends with Basara preparing to have sex with Maria and Kurumi.

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