A vivid black-and-red prompt flickered before Uesugi Tetsu's eyes, as if urging him to hurry and ascend to Ghost God.
The instant the Heaven's Path progress reached "100%," Uesugi Tetsu felt as though he had "stopped" at the end of a long, endless road.
He could also feel that he had now become "complete and flawless."
The feeling was strange, because neither the end of the Heaven's Path nor the so-called completeness had any real physical substance to support or reference them.
Yet to Uesugi Tetsu, it was extraordinarily real—so real that it felt as though he were truly there.
It also made him realize that the path beneath Ghost God had finally reached completion.
"Yes, I finally made it here..."
A soft murmur, almost like sleep-talk, lingered beside Uesugi Tetsu's ear.
A faint phantom of Hundred-Eyed Demon floated behind Uesugi Tetsu, her ink-black hair hanging quietly, untouched by the wind.
The nearly transparent black-haired girl spread her slender arms, then gently wrapped them around Uesugi Tetsu's waist and abdomen, pressing herself tightly against his heated back.
In silence, Uesugi Tetsu stood at the end of the Heaven's Path and cast his gaze toward the brief yet lengthy past.
The events of bygone days surfaced in his heart bit by bit...
The two iron-cabinet brothers who had tried to conceal his existence with their bodies; the first time he transformed into Laughing Brahma and actually frightened Ririko; the first time Sister Nanjō rescued him from fire and water.
The first time Fangxiangshi chopped off his head; the first time he picked up a Bamboo Sword under Ririko's guidance; the first time he met his first Shikigami, Two-Shaku-Sama, in a ruined temple.
The strange and unpredictable Ai Bielie; the shy zashiki whose hair tips still bore tiny bells back then; the