"Everyone, please follow me."
Led by Amame, the group arrived at the shrine's main sanctuary.
The sanctuary usually housed the sacred object, offerings, and ritual wands. It was where the god resided, and the most sacred part of the shrine. Humans were forbidden to enter.
But since they had the will of a god, that restriction no longer applied. After all, the entire shrine belonged to the Inari God, so nothing was forbidden here.
Creak—
The wooden doors, long sealed shut, swung open.
The setting sun spilled into the sanctuary, coating it in gold.
In the small shrine's main sanctuary, there was only a single fox mask on display.
And even though it was the shrine's largest building, once everyone followed Amame inside, it felt cramped.
The next moment,
the fox mask suddenly came to life.
Whoosh—
The scenery around them shifted in an instant.
The sunset turned into the blazing midday sun, and the cramped sanctuary became an endless golden rice field!
"This is..."
"This isn't the shrine!"
"Could it be that we've entered Takamagahara?"
Just as the group stared in astonishment, a clear string of bell chimes came from the rice field ahead.
They looked up to see a blue-black beast slowly approaching. Its ears stood upright, its eyes narrowed to slits, and golden markings outlined its cheeks. Cloud patterns adorned its four hooves, and a massive bell hung around its neck—the source of the sound they had heard.
A young woman sat sideways on the beast's back.
She wore a white top and red hakama, dressed as a Shrine Maiden. Faint patterns of cranes and pine branches adorned her white robes, and golden ornaments crowned her head, with ears of wheat hanging down on either side. Her face blended gentleness, joy, and happiness; one look at her made them feel refreshed and invigorated.
"She's riding a... donkey?"
The American female adviser—Lieutenant Colonel Tina—muttered the words without thinking. Nagisa Kazuha quietly corrected her.
"It's a fox."
America had donkeys, and wild donkeys were abundant there.
The beast beneath this "god" did indeed look somewhat like a slender donkey.
"Welcome to my Divine Kingdom, humans."
The young woman riding the donkey—no, riding the fox—slowly approached. Golden waves of grain swayed wherever she passed, as if welcoming their creator.
"You must have many questions, but before that, I have something to show you—"
The young woman spoke with a peculiar accent, yet her words were clear to everyone. No, the voice was resonating directly in their minds. Even the two American advisers, who shouldn't have been able to understand her, grasped her meaning perfectly.
Before anyone could ask anything, the scene abruptly changed:
"ROOOAAARRR!!!"
Amid a world-shaking roar, visible waves of air burst outward like a raging gale.
The waves uprooted trees and sent them flying, turning them into weeds dancing across the sky!
And the cause of it all was—
BOOM!!
A gigantic claw slammed into the ground, shaking the earth.
When the claw lifted, countless chunks of earth and stone tumbled away, revealing a crater as large as a basketball court.
???
Everyone looked up.
A colossal beast, as vast as a mountain, filled their view.
The beast was so terrifyingly huge that trees dozens of meters tall were mere weeds beneath its feet. Each movement brought landslides and shattered earth. Nine tails lashed wildly across the sky, like a calamity poised to destroy the world.
It wasn't like one. It was a calamity that would destroy the world!
Before the beast, whose every movement sent rings of white air rushing outward, a dense mass of "people" charged forward.
There were samurai clad in full armor, their faces hidden behind demon masks, racing like galloping horses; Dharma Monks in conical hats, carrying Buddhist staffs; and Onmyoji in flowing robes and tall hats, riding all kinds of "monsters."
Every one of these "people" moved at a speed beyond belief.
Their legs carried them faster than modern armored vehicles could ever hope to go.
Trees swept up by the waves of air hurtled toward them, but the warriors didn't slow down. They slashed through the air, shattering the obstacles before they could reach them!
Every single one of them was a supernatural being!
As the two sides closed in at tremendous speed, some of the superhumans chanted incantations while others formed Hand Seals. They spat out roiling fireballs the size of cars, summoned enormous water dragons with gaping jaws and claws, or suddenly swelled in size, transforming into armored giants dozens of meters tall.
The two forces clashed, and a great battle erupted at once!
Enormous fireballs roared past. Wherever they went, even the ground they didn't touch was torn open into a dazzling river of lava.
The water dragons lashed out with their claws, smashing even hills into rubble as mudslides poured down like waterfalls.
A giant Armored Samurai swept its long blade through the air, cutting the forest in half like grass.
The intensity rivaled a modern artillery bombardment!
Yet before the nine-tailed beast, these superhumans still seemed so weak and helpless. Its mountain-like tails swept through the battlefield, and fire, water, and warriors alike were powerless to resist, bursting into fragments and debris that scattered through the air.
The ferocious beast fought countless superhumans alone and still held its ground.
In the midst of the fierce battle, the Nine-Tails seemed to grow impatient. It suddenly opened its enormous mouth, lined with sharp teeth.
Black light condensed into a sphere, ominous with the signs of destruction. Even the superhumans fighting there paled and scattered in every direction—but it was too late.
The beast spat out the black sphere. It flew into the middle of the fleeing "crowd," and then—
Light.
Boundless light was born from the darkness!
The entire world seemed to light up. In an instant, the black sphere expanded into a "sun" more than two kilometers across, engulfing the whole battlefield.
Scorching flames,
blinding light,
and endless heat—as hot as the real sun!
The earth melted beneath the "sun," forming a massive crater. Shock waves rolled outward one after another, like billions of frenzied beasts stampeding across the forest, rivers, and mountains. Everything in their path was reduced to ash.
The dark clouds that had been ravaging the battlefield vanished beneath the "sun's" radiance. The entire sky became a blinding white. The intense light reflected off the clouds, and the heat vaporized the clouds high above.
The shock waves continued to spread. The cold air had yet to rush back in, but a vortex had already formed in the clouds above, taking the shape of a colossal tornado.
One strike—and the world-ending calamity was upon them!
"A nuclear explosion?!"
"No, that kind of power..."
The light of the blast illuminated their stunned faces.
This was even more terrifying than the Little Boy and Fat Man bombs from back then!
They were absolutely qualified to say so. As the only ones to have ever used nuclear weapons and had them used against them, Japan and America knew their destructive power all too well.
"The Nine-Tails..."
"Tamamo-no-Mae..."
Many novels and anime exaggerated Tamamo-no-Mae's beauty while overlooking her strength.
But after witnessing all this, no Japanese person could still cling to the fantasy that this golden-furred behemoth was anything but real.
There was no other being that could look like the White-Faced Golden-Haired Nine-Tailed Fox of legend.
Whoosh—
The scene shifted again.
The despairing battlefield vanished, and the group found themselves once more amid golden waves of grain.
"You must have guessed the identity of that Demon King."
The gentle voice of the young woman riding the fox soothed the shaken group.
"And surely, you know who I am as well."
"Yes, Lady Miketsu."
Bowing deeply, Takeya Haru and the others were now certain of the young woman's identity.
"May I ask, what was that just now?"
"A war that took place more than a thousand years ago."
"I know you have questions. It was because of that... szzzt..."
In an instant, it felt as though red-hot steel rods had plunged into everyone's minds and twisted. They clutched their heads in agony.
"Ah, human souls are too fragile. Merely hearing that being's name nearly makes them collapse."
The young woman riding the fox raised a hand and plucked a stalk of wheat from the air.
Then she waved it, sending flecks of light drifting down over the group. The agony that had seemed ready to tear them into thousands of pieces vanished at once.
"It seems I'll have to keep my explanation simple."
"Several hundred years ago, the human world gradually became unfit to live in. Beings like me chose to leave."
"But just as the tides rise and fall, and the moon changes its phase, this world—or, as you would say, this planet—has recently welcomed another Spiritual Energy Tide."
As the group listened intently, the young woman pointed below them.
"The Spiritual Energy Tide will sweep across the world once more, starting from this place."
"The first to awaken will be the demons that left behind means to resurrect themselves."
Tamamo-no-Mae!
Remembering the Sessho-seki shattering a year earlier, the Japanese officials' faces twisted in dismay.
Damn it, why did it have to start in Japan? In Tokyo, of all places?
"Don't worry. I will protect you, just as I did a thousand years ago."
"Wait."
Just then,
the American male adviser stepped forward.
"These are all just your side of the story. Why should we believe—?!"
He couldn't finish. No sound came from his mouth.
An unseen force had clamped his lips shut.
"Human."
"Are you questioning me?"
The young woman riding the fox sighed and lowered her eyes.
"Always so arrogant and presumptuous. Perhaps I've been too kind, and made you imagine that you could stand as my equal?"
With that,
the young woman waved the stalk of wheat again.
This time, it wasn't to heal anyone.
"AAAHHHH!!!"
The American male adviser suddenly found that he could move his mouth again.
But he could make only one sound now: a scream!
His body beneath his clothes, his exposed hands and face, all began to writhe. It was as if countless rats were scurrying beneath his skin, or roots were spreading through him—
Squish—
With a soft sound, two vines pierced his eyeballs and grew wildly!
Then a thicker vine emerged from his mouth, cutting off his screams.
Next came his hands and chest. In the blink of an eye, a "tree" growing from within him had replaced the American male adviser.
Whoosh—
The tree continued to grow and spread. Buds sprouted along its branches, and flowers bloomed.
What a picture of vibrant life!
If not for the tattered American military uniform.
????
"Disrespectful humans."
The young woman sitting on the fox seemed bored. She waved a hand.
"Perhaps I should have listened to 'them' and waited for half of humanity to die before projecting my power into this world?"
Whoosh—
The next moment,
the world blurred before everyone's eyes once more.
"Where are we?"
"The main sanctuary of the shrine."
"Ahhh—Lieutenant Colonel Miller?!"
The scream beside them brought the others back to their senses. Right before them stood a blooming Cherry Blossom Tree!
Except its trunk was still "wrapped around" a corpse with blond hair and blue eyes.
"He still has a pulse."
Takeya Haru spoke first after placing his fingers on the wrist of Lieutenant Colonel Miller, whose body had almost completely fused with the tree.
"Lieutenant Colonel Tina, regarding your personnel's disrespect toward our god, I'll personally report it to the Prime Minister's Official Residence and lodge a formal protest."
With that, the head of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department pointed toward the exit, his face dark.
"Now, please leave!"
Those damn American bastards.
They were used to throwing their weight around, and even dared to show such disrespect before a god?