‘This is bad, this is bad, truly bad…’
An ominous premonition slowly crept into Shion’s heart. By the time she truly noticed that her surroundings were amiss, it was already somewhat too late.
It was as if she had inadvertently stepped through the wrong doorway, with no path to return.
Though the recent reward had boosted her combat power against malevolent spirits, she currently lacked Spirit Cutter. Without it, she was probably only capable of fighting a stray kitten to a draw, nothing more.
‘Calm down, calm down, Hoshimori Shion. First, first observe your surroundings,’ Shion mentally reassured herself. Despite the fine beads of sweat already forming on her forehead, her hands continued to tremble.
‘Why, why was she encountering such a situation? She hadn’t actively sought out spirits in the back mountains this time. Moreover, none of the malevolent spirits she’d faced before possessed such formidable power, capable of completely encircling her without her detecting even a trace of their presence beforehand…’
She continued down the dim street, but the houses lining it were now entirely engulfed in shadow. This wasn’t merely the embrace of nightfall; it was as if a colossal, black, yet strangely familiar monster had settled upon the rooftops, completely obscuring the buildings beneath it.
The streetlights flickered intermittently, as if faulty wiring or sporadic short circuits prevented them from staying lit. Or perhaps, there was another reason… for instance, the streetlights standing along the road blinked like incandescent eyes, for reasons unknown.
It was as if they had been watching her all along.
The road stretching ahead was utterly consumed by darkness, from which a faint, yet terrifying, miasma of malevolent spirits seeped forth. Shion felt that if she continued into that abyss, she might be entirely swallowed by the unending gloom.
It was as if she were stepping into a gaping, blood-soaked maw.
The tolling of a distant bell, perhaps, was a warning to her. There were no structures with such a grand bell in the town; the resonant chime seemed to emanate entirely from the void itself.
Shion glanced at her phone. By all accounts, several minutes should have passed since she first realized something was wrong and began observing her surroundings. Yet, the time on her phone remained stubbornly fixed at midnight, utterly unchanged. She tried to call Ayane or Shigure, but the blank signal bar at the top of her screen indicated that calling for help was an an impossibility.
“Die…”
A hoarse voice seemed to rise from the distance, from the same direction as the bell, sending an involuntary shiver down her spine.
‘Her exorcism abilities had improved, so the malevolent spirits evolved along with them, was that it?…’
“Th-this isn’t just some stat inflation, is it?!” Shion clutched her head as the aura of malevolent spirits continued to surge towards her from all directions. She didn’t even need a system prompt; the spiritual miasma in this small area had already reached an unbearable intensity, and Shion felt a violent surge of nausea and revulsion welling up within her.
The girl’s vision seemed to dim. After the nausea and revulsion had subsided slightly, a wave of profound fatigue washed over her once more. Shion desperately fought to remain conscious, but her vision was slowly being enveloped by blackness.
No, not blackness, but… a dried, deep red.
The sky was black, yet it appeared to be daytime. However, the heavens were entirely shrouded in storm clouds, with patch after patch of dark mist staining the sky black.
Shion felt another wave of headache surge through her, the discomfort making it difficult even to walk. Consequently, she could only rely on her instincts, inching forward step by laborious step.
The once-smooth street now seemed to grow uneven and treacherous.
“Die…” “Die.” “DIE!!”
The hoarse roars drew closer and closer, sounding as if they were right beside her ear.
Innumerable malevolent spirits seemed to materialize around her, roaring and howling, still locked in battle with each other. Even though they were no longer… living humans.
Her face felt somewhat warm. Shion struggled to lift a hand, touching her cheek to find blood-red streaks. It was nothing less than fresh, still-wet blood, the very gore that had gushed and sprayed from those who had just fallen.
Her pristine miko robes were utterly soaked in blood, dark red stains marring every inch. Over the older, darker bloodstains, fresh crimson streaks were smeared across her attire.
‘Ah… when had she changed into miko robes? When she had come out to find Shigure earlier today, she had only been wearing casual clothes, certainly not such formal miko attire…’
Shigure, Shigure… It took Shion a moment to register the name. Ah, why was it that even Shigure’s name seemed to dim at this moment, why couldn’t she even recall her name?
Innumerable bloodstains, the sounds of battle and hacking, echoed in her ears. Assailed relentlessly by nausea, headaches, and profound fatigue, she finally collapsed to the ground.
Before her, however, she saw two soldiers, clad in different colored cloth and armor, locked in a brutal struggle. Each had used a grotesquely blunted dagger to pierce the other’s chest. The blood on their bodies had long dried, yet their faces still bore the hideously ferocious expressions of their final moments in battle.
“No, no, no…” The girl, fallen to the ground, was utterly terrified by the sight. Nausea surged instantly, and Shion, who hadn’t eaten much, couldn’t stop dry-heaving beside them.
But no matter how unwilling Shion was, the exact same scenario as with the two soldiers continued to unfold around her, endlessly repeating, with the only difference being the identities of those who fell.
Tens of thousands of lives perished here, and countless malevolent spirits were born, harboring immense resentment.
A cold wind swept through, carrying a heavy stench of blood. Pierced by the biting chill, Shion finally regained a degree of clarity, and she opened her eyes.
The white-haired girl stood amidst a vast battlefield. She held a Kagura suzu, a symbol of her miko status, yet no matter how forcefully she shook it, she could not make those around her cease their slaughter.
On a distant mountain, a collapsed red torii stood. While her surroundings were almost entirely muted in black and white, only that solitary red torii remained strikingly conspicuous.
Shion finally felt the immense despair of that miko from over four centuries ago, trapped on a battlefield, utterly powerless to halt the ceaseless conflict.