"A human?"
The clear call seemed to fall from the heavens, distant and resonant.
"Yes."
Arata answered the Giant Deer Idol before him softly, while the obscure energy stirring around him caught the corner of his eye.
They were streaks of azure light, their outlines strangely familiar: powerful builds, proud chests, rugged antlers...
It seemed the Underworld Butterfly's power had not merely summoned the last lingering faith within the Giant Deer Idol. It had also affected the Deerfolk Tribe whose spirits lingered here.
"I never imagined that the last person I saw would be you, a human, rather than Young Deer Man."
The voice from the Giant Deer Idol carried a complex tangle of emotions: surprise, uncertainty, resentment, and countless others. Yet what came through most clearly in its gentle tone was tenderness, the tenderness of an elder.
The souls of the Deerfolk Tribe around them, however, were far less friendly.
Even reduced to souls, even with their remaining consciousness blurred, they could not help showing unmistakable rejection and hostility toward the human in their sight.
That gentle voice suddenly grew excited.
At a glance, it recognized the human standing within an energy construct, personally blocking the monsters' attacks, as the very onmyoji who had later summoned it!
"Perhaps this truly was guidance ordained by fate."
Without the slightest hesitation, Arata forced open a path with the black flames of Amaterasu, and two enormous giants took their places on either side of the last deerfolk.
And so, [Young Deer Man] came into being.
He did not think that was the case.
Once they stepped beyond the "island," monsters began appearing again. These mindless creatures seemed to receive some sort of guidance at that moment, streaming together toward the depths of the forest.
At the shout, Dalu Nü snapped out of