W sank into a chaotic expanse of gold.
Her eyes were vacant as she fell into an illusion woven from her own imagination and Hoshino's script. Hoshino finally let out a sigh of relief. Putting on such an intense performance was seriously exhausting.
As for why she had not used Fenghuang Down from the start, she naturally had her own considerations. She had to maintain the lofty, unfathomable image of an immortal at all times. From beginning to end, the shrine maiden had said nothing. From the Xuanyuan Sword descending from the heavens to Fenghuang Down's feathers falling from the sky, it all came from a vague image—an elusive, powerful will.
An immortal.
People always treasured answers that had been hard-won, and accordingly, gave less thought to whether they were true.
That was the purpose of the test.
After struggling desperately to find an answer, people would only be overwhelmed with gratitude for the result. Make the scene grand enough, and W would believe she had found the ultimate answer.
Hopefully, anyway...
Now that she had found an opening, there was no need to keep acting. The main body immediately transformed into Yae Sakura, while the duplicate vanished with a snap of her fingers, leaving only the shrine maiden to face the awakening W.
The wait would not be long. Time flowed differently in the illusion than it did in reality.
"Mm..."
"You're awake?"
W touched her hair. It was like waking from a dream, yet she was still deeply moved.
"That golden gladiator... she felt far too different from the Durandal I usually see. She didn't seem like her current self." W muttered to herself. "There was nothing in the place I saw—only a hazy field of gold."
"What you saw was one possibility. She is going away to