I Save The World In A Doomsday Text Game

Chapter 278-2: Tenmei Grand Shrine, Sinister Nightmare (2)

[You leave the Main Hall’s grounds and stride toward the Sessha Shrine…]

[There was no Mizugaki around the Sessha Shrine, nor any barrier to obstruct or protect it, so you entered smoothly…]

[Inside, no other pilgrims were present. The vast hall was exceptionally quiet, and the lighting was dim, giving it a shadowy, eerie atmosphere.]

[You look around. Besides the three differently shaped statues enshrined on the altar, there was nothing else noteworthy.]

[Clearly, Tsukishiro Murasakiyo wasn’t here either.]

“Tch… could Senior Sister really be cleaning the statues of the little deities in the Massha Shrine? That’s too pitiful.”

Then again, it made sense. A newly arrived shrine maiden needed to go through a promotion process.

[The three statues on the altar were brightly painted and vivid in form. Apart from their faces being indistinct, they were no different from ordinary divine statues. You examined them for a moment and prepared to leave.]

[Suddenly, an invisible hand rested on your shoulder, forcibly dragging you into a dark corner of the hall.]

[Startled, you were about to raise the Knowledge Barrier to defend yourself, when you saw a graceful silhouette take shape out of the gloom.][The figure gradually turned clear. It was Tsukishiro Murasakiyo!]

[She wore a white robe and scarlet hakama shrine maiden attire. The Pillar God crest on her chest had been replaced with Tenmei Grand Shrine’s unique insignia, a mass of pitch-black flame.]

[Tsukishiro Murasakiyo’s face looked extremely haggard, as if she hadn’t slept properly in a long time. Her expression was tense as she quietly asked, ‘Why have you come here, benefactor?’]

[She lifted her index finger to her lips, signaling you to answer softly.]

[You weren’t sure if it was just your imagination, but you seemed to glimpse a trace of fear in her expression.]

[You could only reply in a low voice, saying you happened to be in Kyoto and heard from her teacher that she was now serving Enma at Tenmei Grand Shrine, so you had come to see how she was doing.]

[But Tsukishiro Murasakiyo shook her head and said that you were her lifesaving benefactor. Together with her teacher, you had risked your lives to rescue her from Nurarihyon’s clutches…]

[She should have repaid you properly, but now… ‘Benefactor, you should leave this place as soon as you can.’]

[You asked in confusion what was going on. Tsukishiro Murasakiyo didn’t seem willing to involve you. She repeatedly urged you to leave the shrine, best to leave Kyoto itself, even to get far away from Sakura Falls, the farther the better.]

[Do you want to heed Tsukishiro Murasakiyo’s advice?]

Lin Xun raised an eyebrow, understanding that Senior Sister had definitely discovered something by infiltrating Tenmei Grand Shrine.

Clearly, this was the trigger for the next storyline. He’d have to be crazy to pass it up.

[You knew Tsukishiro Murasakiyo was trying to repay you in another way, by urging you to avoid danger, but your favorite thing was to resolve danger.]

[You took out the Dragon Sword Masamune and told her that before coming here, the Ninja Master had entrusted this treasured blade to you, granting you the duty of acting in his stead. Now that you saw she was in danger, how could you stand by and do nothing?]

[You had saved her once, and you would surely save her a second time!]

[Tsukishiro Murasakiyo looked at the divine weapon in your hand. After hesitating for a long time, she finally revealed the truth…]

[There was a trace of fear in her eyes as she slowly said that the people in Tenmei Grand Shrine were probably no longer human at all…]

[Following her teacher’s instructions, she had come to Tenmei Grand Shrine to continue serving as a shrine maiden. Everything went smoothly; the shrine’s chief priest merely glanced at her and nodded in agreement to let her join.]

[The work of a shrine maiden was extremely monotonous. Cheerful by nature, she actually disliked the position. Compared to being a shrine maiden, she would much rather be a free-roaming ninja, slipping through the shadows of the night…]

[Befriending other clergy was undoubtedly the best way to add some interest to such a dull life.]

[She took the initiative to chat with the other shrine maidens, but all she received was an unnervingly cold indifference. Not just one maiden, every person in the shrine, from the Gon-negi to the attendants, was the same.]

[She had been at Tenmei Grand Shrine for quite some time, but she had never once seen any of the clergy show any other expression. It was always that same strange, cold detachment.]

[It was as if they were not people at all, but a group of soulless string puppets.]

[Her sense that something was terribly wrong with Tenmei Grand Shrine only grew stronger… until one night, she awoke in the middle of the night from a nightmare.]

[In the dream, all the clergy of Tenmei Grand Shrine were in the Main Hall, fanatically worshipping a terrifying, evil deity… and it was definitely not Ancient Heavenly Enma!]

[After waking, she lay sleepless for a long time, feeling the scene from the nightmare was unbelievably real. In a daze, she got up and left the shrine lodgings, going to the living quarters of the other clergy.]

[There, she was horrified to discover that those quarters were completely empty. The clergy who should have been asleep had all vanished without a trace.]

[At that moment, only one thought filled her mind, could everything she had seen in the dream be real? That in the dead of night, every single clergyman, except for herself, was gathered in the Main Hall for that frenzied worship?]

[The shrine’s divine domain possessed a manifesting power that revealed what was hidden, but as a fully ordained shrine maiden, she naturally could resist that power.]

[She used an escape technique to approach the Main Hall. She saw the doors tightly shut, blocked by the Mizugaki barrier, preventing her from entering.]

[But the Main Hall was brightly lit through the entire night, and the countless black silhouettes cast against the shoji screens told her that all the clergy were gathered inside.]

[As the shadows rose and fell together, she knew that the chief priest, the Gon-negi, the shrine stewards, and the shrine maidens were all worshipping in unison…]

[She clenched her teeth, maintaining the concealment technique, waiting for those ‘people’ to finish the ritual.]

[She didn’t know how much time had passed when the ceremony finally ended. The Main Hall doors swung open, and the chief priest was the first to step out.]

[It was the first time she had ever seen the chief priest smile, no, it was all the clergy smiling together.]

[Those wide, bulging eyes and mouths stretched almost to the ears were grotesquely twisted, brimming with an unspeakable malice, expressions no normal human could ever make.]

[At the instant the Main Hall doors opened, she glimpsed, through the gap, a twisted, evil, horrifying shadow deep within the hall…]

[In that moment, she lost consciousness and collapsed.]

[When she woke again, it was already dawn. She was lying in her own bed in the shrine lodgings.]

[After leaving the lodgings, every clergyman’s face had returned to that usual cold indifference. Not one person asked her anything about the night before, as if it had all been some absurd nightmare.]

[But she knew it wasn’t a dream, because from that day on, she no longer dared to sleep…]

[Every night, all of them would leave the lodgings together, to perform that terrible, frenzied worship.]

[Only she remained alone, clutching her pillow, waiting for dawn to come.]

[…]

[After telling you everything, Tsukishiro Murasakiyo finally seemed to regain a little of her spirit. The haggard look on her face eased a bit.]

[You did not ask her the foolish question of why she didn’t flee the shrine. Instead, you gently patted her shoulder to comfort her.]

[Tsukishiro Murasakiyo looked at you again, once more urging: ‘Benefactor, you should go down the mountain as soon as you can… And please, don’t tell Master anything about this.’]

[Her eyes were full of pleading. She clearly didn’t want you and the Ninja Master to become entangled in this danger again.]

[She understood perfectly that this crisis might engulf all of Kyoto, even all of Sakura Falls. It was no longer something human strength could resist.]

[Perhaps only by fleeing far away to Tisi Island, or escaping to the distant foreign lands in the west, could one hope to survive.]

[Do you want to heed Tsukishiro Murasakiyo’s advice?]

According to Senior Sister’s description, the shadow that was being worshipped in the Main Hall absolutely couldn’t be unrelated to the Extreme Delusion Fruit.

But with his strength, could he handle that terrifying, unknown shadow?

Lin Xun rubbed his brow.

The Great General hadn’t been dealt with yet, and now another boss of unknown power had appeared. As this chapter moved into the second half, the hell-level difficulty was becoming so overwhelming it was almost despair-inducing.