"Amitabha."
It was an ordinary phrase. Monks said it, and so did ordinary people.
And yet...
Those familiar words, spoken without the slightest trace of magic, suddenly resonated with the headless Buddha statue—
Outside.
The blackness covering the great sun receded like a tide. The figure within it remained indistinct, but he spoke softly to the boundless demonic tide.
"I vow that my land shall have no evil realms. If there are hells, hungry ghosts, or beasts in my land, I shall not attain enlightenment."
The beings on the ground who had been turned into food fell to their knees—not one or two, but hundreds upon thousands. Under the power of that great vow, they regained their original forms, bowed three times, then became motes of firefly light and returned to the cycle of reincarnation.
At the same time, a portion of the figure's body crumbled away.
He seemed not to notice. He recited another vow.
"I vow that none shall fall into the evil realms. If the heavenly beings and humans of my land enter the three evil realms after their lives end, I shall not attain enlightenment."
The masses of flesh turned back into martial artists. They knelt and wept as they confessed their sins. Those guilty of the worst crimes would be cast into boundless hell until their sins were expiated, while the figure would bear the sins of those whose offenses were lighter and who had repented.
His immaculate golden body abruptly grew sullied, but he continued to recite.
"If the radiance of my light is limited, such that it fails to illuminate hundreds of billions of Buddha lands, I shall not attain enlightenment."
"..."
"..."
Vow after vow, the towering figure lost his boundless golden radiance and became an ordinary man, white-bearded, aged, and stooped.