THE SETTLEMENT HAD BEEN reduced to rubble.
What was once a collection of homes, tents, and huts now lay in complete ruin. The air smelled of burning wood, ash, ice, and blood. Not a single structure stood intact, and the only sign that monks had been here was the piles of bodies in the center of the wreckage.
Some were still breathing; others were not.
It was a scene of utter desolation, and the silence was thick. There were no sounds of cries or wailing, just the eerie quiet of desolation.
Arthur was seen dragging a monk across the ground. The man's body was half-limp as his lower half scraped against the dirt. Arthur's own face was stoic, and his eyes were still cold. In his other hand, the Legacy of Kaguya book was open, and he was casually reading an interesting passage.
'Before I became the matriarch of our clan, before destiny took hold of me, I was just Kaguya, someone curious about the universe, born in a realm those from earth would not understand. Growing up among the stars, my days were filled with discovery. Our realm wasn't as filled with so much light as earth was. The skies there were dark and starry. I remember spending hours gazing upward and dreaming of what lay beyond the unknown. We were celestial beings, travelers of the cosmos, always seeking new worlds to explore and nurture. One could say that my time there was not filled with any sort of the adventures mankind underwent. My kind studied the energies that pulsed through the sky and mapped the stars. It was a means of learning how to connect with that energy and harness it for ourselves. From a young age, we were taught to be selfish, and I was eager to understand the universe's secrets. What made everything tick? What made us powerful? I spent my days learning from the elders, listening to stories of our past. Traveling through space was nothing special because of how moot everything seemed for us. Everywhere I heard of had its opportunities taken by us. All because of the trees we planted.'
Arthur stopped in his tracks to consider things. From what he understood, stories like these were never thought of by the creators of the ninja world. Rather, this creature sounded oddly like the Nephilim he had read about in the bible.
They were the offspring of fallen angels, and this Kaguya greatly related to them.
'The bonds with my fellow clan members were strong, and we had a common purpose: to survive by destroying everything else. I admired my elders for a time. They were powerful and helped guide me through my perpetual boredom. Even as I reveled in the beauty of my world, I was eventually told by them that I was next in line for the matriarch. Those days laid the foundation for everything that was to come. Looking back now, I realize those days would not help me carry the hope of our clan.' –Legacy Of Kaguya, page 24.
Arthur scoffed at this passage. The more he heard, the more it reminded him of the things that transpired in the bible. Only, the Legacy of Kaguya was a watered-downversion from a devil's point of view.
"K… Kill me…" he heard the monk he was holding whisper.
Arthur didn't respond immediately since the monk was barely able to keep his eyes open. Arthur simply closed the book before glancing down at the man. No pity, no remorse. Just the same detached expression.
The monk's eyes flickered with desperation, but Arthur continued to drag him till they reached the center of the destruction, where the other pile of bodies had been stacked.
These weren't fresh corpses—no, Arthur had left the monks barely able. Anyone who saw them would tell that they were all teetering on the edge of death if death hadn't already claimed them.
Arthur dropped the monk into the pile, watching him crumple among the others. He then scanned the area with his outstretched senses by reaching into every corner of the ruined settlement.
No one had escaped. He had collected them all.
There was a reason for his actions: these were monks with important information, all of which was stored in their memories. To let them die so easily would be a waste.
So Arthur reached down and grabbed one of them by the head. It was a middle-aged monk, who looked as if he had been roaming these plains for decades. Surely he had something valuable in that skull of his.
'Eye mind reading jutsu…'
The monk's eyes bulged as Arthur's chakra poured into him. In an instant, Arthur's consciousness slipped into the monk's memories. He saw the monk as a small and innocent child, running through the fields with his father.
A family, a home, a simple time to be a kid.
The monk had trained under his father's watchful eye, learning the ways of the world and the ways of the monks. The images bled together into training, dinners, and then later, marriage. It wasn't long until he had a daughter.
While his time on this earth was rooted in tradition, duty, and modesty, there was nothing here that intrigued Arthur in the slightest. So Arthur continued to sweep through the memories by picking through the mundane and discarding the useless fragments.
This monk had no special techniques, no secrets to offer, and no hidden knowledge that would advance Arthur's understanding of how to exploit ninshū.
"Pathetic..." Arthur muttered in a flat voice after pulling back from the monk's mind.
The monk's body jerked violently as he gasped for air, and his eyes were wide with horror since he had been unable to process the invasion. Suddenly, his chest convulsed in a final, desperate breath before his heart gave out.
He was dead.
Arthur didn't even glance at the corpse; he just moved on to the next one.
He reached down and grabbed one by the head with the same calm. The monk's terrified eyes locked onto Arthur's, and his breathing quickened in fear. Yet Arthur offered no words as his eyes flared, diving into the monk's mind.
A blur of moments passed by. He saw the monk's youth, his training, the devotion to his cause, and the sacrifices made. He also saw the monk's failures, his moments of doubt, and his struggles with his faith.
But again, there was nothing here that piqued Arthur's interest. No hidden techniques, no valuable knowledge.
"Useless," Arthur said, stretching the word out.
After pulling out of the monk's mind, the monk convulsed, and his body went stiff. His time on this earth was quickly drained away, cut short by the mental intrusion.
Arthur stood there for a moment, looking over the pile of dying monks. He didn't need to feel guilt or remorse. This was the price they paid for having dared to stop him in the first place. Even if it was an indirect one, it cost them all their secrets now.
They, like many others, were his tools and nothing more. Why should he sympathize with those without any more purpose? Just like those evil ones from earth, once death was ready to claim them, there would be no need to shed a single tear.
✟
Eight hours had passed, though time had no true meaning to Arthur during those moments. What were hours spent looking at these monks' minds were weeks if not months to him.
Some monks had died sooner than others. Some had resisted, fought, or tried to hide the truth. But in the end, they were all the same. He had seen it all, from their most vulnerable memories to their deepest fears. And because of that, he had long since lost count of the bodies, the faces, and the names of those he had extracted from.
Once the final monk breathed his last, Arthur felt the familiar sense of clarity settle over him; he had gotten what he needed, and with it, a sense of direction.
The knowledge he had attained, now locked within his own mind, was filled with techniques he could one day learn and forgotten pasts that were just now uncovered.
Such gains were mainly the resurfacing of the past. They were the fragments of this world's history, the things that were said to be unanswered or locked away from public knowledge.
Faces he had forgotten, places lost to time, feelings that had long since faded. They were now his to do as he pleased with. And there was one thing in particular that stood out—one memory, repeated by several monks, stitched together to form a coherent whole: the Land of Ancestors.
A long time ago, over a thousand years before the events of the series, there was a small country called the Land of Ancestors. It was made up of simple farming villages surrounded by tiny forests and a large lake that served as the heart of the land—providing water, food, and life to everyone there.
The leader of this land was an emperor named Tenji, the same Tenji Kaguya had written about.
This country was also the birthplace of that accursed tree. More important were the two figures that played a role with that tree: Kaguya's grandchildren, Asura and Indra.
Arthur had completely forgotten how they had journeyed to where the three once stood. When one of the brothers tried to help the village by healing a girl who was sick, he saw how deeply affected they were by the tree's influence. Many villagers had died from an illness linked to the sap of the tree, which acted like fertilizer but was slowly poisoning the land and everyone in it.
Asura believed that they could find a way to save the land without destroying the tree outright. He wanted to help the villagers and find water to sustain them, even if it meant taking years of patience.
Over time, the villagers helped Asura dig a well, and he taught them about ninshū. Together, they worked to gradually destroy the tree's influence, saving their land from its deadly grip.
In the end, the success of their effort led to a new hope for the village, and Asura's leadership was recognized. That was why Hagoromo chose Asura as his successor, believing he was the one who could bring true peace.
Why this was an important reminder was because now Arthur knew the location the tree was planted at. If he could harness the tree's power and use it as his own, the word "limited" would cease to exist for him.
After determining what he would do, he buried these corpses and completely wiped the settlement off the map. The shrine would eventually be unmanned, forcing the Two-Tails to eventually leave since no one was taking care of it.
If someone were to attack it, it would not be Arthur's problem.
Once he was done, he quickly took to the skies. The journey from the Land of Birds to the Land of Ancestors took him roughly two nights. And when he arrived, it was apparent just how much more fruitful this part of this world was.
The Land of Ancestors was a tranquil, pastoral realm that seemed untouched. Its villages, scattered across rolling plains, were modest and surrounded by small forests, creating a harmonious landscape that seemed to breathe.
Dominating the land was indeed a vast lake that Arthur had committed to memory. Since this was the primary resource for the locals, he'd have no problem contaminating its waters if push came to shove.
What was interesting about this land was how much older it was compared to the lands he's visited in this timeline. For instance, those lands still showed marks from Japan's Edo period. Yet this land reflected the Yayoi period.
With sturdy wooden structures and thatched roofs, it looked to be embodying a society deeply connected to nature and their heritage.
What surprised Arthur the most was that there was quite a large castle here. Close to the center was an imperial fort. The new emperor likely lived there. And Arthur knew their name.