Shion climbed down from Sakura's back. Sakura clenched her fists. "Lady Priestess, leave this place to us!"
Sakura leaped into the air, her Monstrous Strength unmatched. Every punch carried a brutal kind of beauty.
Naruto was already far stronger than before. He actually managed to suppress the Ghost Army. If not for their endless regeneration, they would not have been so troublesome!
Shion cast one last look at Naruto before turning and running into the shrine.
The shrine's interior felt oppressively hot, yet Shion gradually calmed down. A question arose in her heart.
"This isn't the place... No, that's not right. This isn't the place from the prophecy... What is going on? Could the prophecy really have changed...?"
Shion recalled the scene she had seen in the prophecy: a world of ice and snow, strange writhing purple clouds floating in the sky, and heavy snow falling.
The farther she went, the deeper Shion's doubts became. At last, after passing through a long tunnel beyond the shrine entrance, she arrived at a massive sealing altar—the place where Mōryō's physical body had been sealed.
Yomi was reclining sideways on a bench, waiting. When he saw Shion, he greeted her in a tone as though they were old acquaintances. "You've grown up... You look so much like Miroku..."
Shion seemed distracted as she surveyed her surroundings, as though searching for something. Even Yomi was slightly taken aback by her strange behavior.
"Is this your first time leaving the capital of the Land of Demons? You really are still a child, curious about everything, aren't you? I bear the name Yomi. Your mother, Miroku, once thwarted my ambitions. If not for her, I would have already revived Lord Mōryō, and the Millennium Kingdom plan would never have failed..."
At Yomi's command, two Terracotta Soldiers