The Scarlet Duology

Bloodshed

Bloodshed

Akari thought for a while more, before settling on a plan. She wasn't going to gather new forces, she was going to recycle old ones. More specifically, she was going to find people just like her.

She started slowly, teleporting herself to the gates of heaven. There, she saw the heavenly guards. They didn't quite know about her yet, as her oath to take the throne was still private information. "Halt! State your name, title, and order of business!"

Akari decided to start with respect. "Akari, maid of the heavenly imperial palace." The gate gods nodded. "Order of business?" The one on the right asked. Akari nodded, "it's not actually within heaven itself, I just came to talk to you two." The one on the left, Qin Shubao, spoke first: "And what do you wish to talk about?"

Akari started slow. "The thing is... I've been kicked out of heaven by The Jade Emperor." The right gate god, Yuchi Gong, spoke next: "I apologize, Lady Akari, but we do not allow for castaways to re-enter this realm." Akari looked calm. "I'm not here to ask about that. I'm here because I've declared war on heaven." The two gate gods widened their eyes.

"And why do we not know about this?!" Akari sighed. "It's because the so-called emperor hasn't told anybody yet! He doesn't care about his realm or his subjects!" The gate gods looked like they were deep in thought at this. "And what does this have to do with us?" Yuchi Gong spoke up.

"Because," Akari said, "I have no supporters thus far, and I'm here to ask if you two want to join me, since it's clear The Jade Emperor doesn't care enough for you guys." Qin Shubao seemed to be having a mental conversation with Yuchi Gong, before both of them nodded. "We accept," Qin Shubao said for the both of them. Akari flashed a smile, "excellent. I promise I will value all of my supporters, and will strive to make heaven better and stronger once I take the throne." The two gate gods looked satisfied at this. "Best of luck, Lady Akari."

Next up, Akari went to the black waters and found the East Sea Dragon King's son. She knew she had to get someone who could oppose Rin. "Who are you?" The young dragon spoke. "Akari," she said.

"Why are you in the black waters?" Akari decided to ignore his question, and asked a question of her own. "What's your name?" The young dragon paused for a moment before responding: "I don't have one..." Akari seemed surprised, "can I just call you East, then?" The dragon nodded.

"Very well, then. East, I have an offer for you. I have recently been cast out of mainland heaven, and have waged war on The Jade Emperor and his subjects. I know he doesn't care all that much for minor spirits like you, so care to join me?"

East thought for a while before nodding yes. Well that was easy and straightforward, Akari thought, next person won't be that easy to convince. As she thought this, she flashed over to the Daleiyin Si, where all the Buddha recited incantations. Luckily, she memorized their schedule correctly and got there right as the person she was looking for was practicing.

"Hey Wukong," she greeted casually. She and the monkey king had actually spoken to each other a few times before, and were on par with each other in terms of skill.

Wukong noticed her pretty quickly, and muttered a greeting back. Akari decided to play it off cool and have some casual conversation before getting into the main topic.

"So," she said, "I may or may not have left out a detail or two..." The monkey king was slightly intrigued. "Shoot." Akari nodded: "I was casted out of heaven and I kinda... waged war?" She said sheepishly.

Wukong's eyes widened. "You what?! You mean just like how I did nine hundred years ago?!" Akari nodded. "Pretty much, and I'm here to convince you to join me." Wukong sighed.

"Are you insane?!" Akari nodded, "I am." The monkey king's eyes darted to random directions. "Say I did join your side in this war, how do I know we're not both gonna get destroyed by Rulai?"

Akari rolled her eyes. "Come on! We all know that the gods don't ACTUALLY improve her skills. Besides, you have plenty of reasons to get revenge on her, don't you? She made your godly rank LOWER than that of your mortal companion's even though he did nothing but ride a horse and get captured and saved a few times, while you had to battle all the monsters! She trapped you under a rock for five hundred years, and she asked for a FEE for the Tripitaka Sutra despite being a literal BUDDHA!"

The monkey sighed, "That's true, but still... I was captured by heaven in the end wasn't I? What makes you different?" Akari thought for a moment. "The gods trained to get stronger after capturing you successfully BECAUSE of how much damage you caused. My situation is different because my war announcement isn't public news to them yet. They haven't trained and don't know what's coming for them, meanwhile you HAVE trained. You're probably stronger than most of them now. Plus, I have other allies."

Wukong knew that Akari had logical points, and finally caved. "I'll help you, but don't make me regret it." Akari nodded. "I won't," then she flashed away yet again.

After Akari successfully convinced a few more people to be heavenly generals for her army, she came to her final heavenly spirit. "Hello Kian," she greeted casually.

Kian was a minor spirit of shadows, ascended to heaven as a bat spirit. Akari had talked to him a few times during some of the peach festivals they held, and the two got along okay.

Kian looked up from the book he was reading - a classic written by a mortal on the three kingdoms era of China. "Hi?" Akari decided to be frank with Kian this time and got straight to the point: "I waged war on heaven. Help me."

"Okay I guess?" Kian was still confused, but went along with it. "What do I do now, do I get like a- title or something-?" She nodded. "I'll get to that. For now..." Akari flashed Kian away with the rest of her generals, to a location outside of the borders of heaven.

After Akari had assembled a decent amount of generals for her army, it was time for the actual army itself. She knew she couldn't keep relying on wisps turned into small fox spirits, and the monkey king's mini army of monkeys wasn't gonna be enough for her either.

A while of contemplating later, she finally decided on something. Akari summoned all of the immortals with no godly domains assigned yet to her. "Greetings, fellow spirits of heaven. I am Akari, and I waged war on heaven."

At this, the room erupted into chaos before Akari silenced them all. "Since you all have not received domains yet, they clearly do not care about you. I do. Any immortal who wishes to join me in my conquest for the throne shall be greatly rewarded after the war is over, and will receive domains immediately."

Most of the immortals in the room accepted the offer, however some denied it and flashed back to the heavenly palace to warn The Jade Emperor. Akari shrugged, she had enough forces to work with now anyways.

Since she was only a self-proclaimed queen at the time, she could only assign domains relating to fire, since that was her main ability, however the immortals were all happy just to receive a godly role, and stuck around.

Akari was done with gathering her army together at that point, and finally went back to the generals to give them their titles. First she assigned Qin Shubao and Yuchi Gong with the tasks of commanding her fox spirits and Wukong's monkey spirits. Next, East was made commander of all water spirits. The Monkey King was made second-in-command of the entire army, while Kian was made first-in-command. All of her other generals were given other roles such as third-in-command or main medic.

As Akari finished assembling her entire army, she commanded all of her generals except for the gate gods, Wukong, and Kian to lead attacks on the main sections of heaven, assigning one or two generals to attack each of the nine layers of it.

Next, she assigned the gate gods in charge of patrolling their area to make sure no heavenly generals attack, and told Wukong to kill any immortal in her army that defied her rule.

Finally, she finished off by having Kian in charge of being a last resort defense line and gave him a few soldiers. Then, she flashed off to spy on The Jade Emperor and get their war plans.