The Grand Narukami Shrine, the most sacred sanctuary in all Inazuma, once thronged with worshippers, now lies shrouded in oppressive silence. Its vermilion torii gate still stands tall, yet it seems to have lost its divine radiance. Only a few prematurely fallen cherry leaves twist in the bleak autumn wind, settling soundlessly upon the dust-covered stone steps.

 

Inside the shrine’s main hall, Yae Miko reclined lazily beside the sacred altar. Her exquisite features, always touched with mischief and indolence, now bore a heavy solemnity and a faint, almost imperceptible weariness. Her long, pink-violet hair had lost its former luster, falling softly over her shoulders. Her slender fingers traced unconsciously across the smooth surface of the altar, her gaze drifting through the open hall doors toward smoke-shrouded Inazuma City in the distance, as she let out a quiet sigh.

 

“Miko, what do we do now?”

 

The Traveler Aether’s voice came from nearby, thick with anxiety. Dust still clung to his clothes from earlier battles, and his golden eyes were filled with concern for the current crisis, longing for his sister Lumine, and fresh dread for Inazuma’s future. Paimon was not with him — for safety, he had hidden the small creature away.

 

“What do we do?” Yae Miko turned her gaze back, forcing a faint, familiar yet hollow smile. “Little one… if even our Shogun has chosen such a path, what can a mere shrine maiden do to turn the tide? The Tokugawa armies advance like a broken bamboo. The Shogunate’s resistance… alas.” She fell silent, but Aether understood. The rule of the Inazuma Shogunate was collapsing faster than ever before.

 

At that moment, rapid, heavy footsteps — sharp, metallic clangs against stone steps — shattered the shrine’s last peace. The stride reeked of bloodlust, utterly alien to the sanctity of the holy ground.

 

Yae Miko’s eyes sharpened. Aether instantly gripped his sword, staring warily toward the entrance.

 

A figure appeared in the doorway, backlit. Only a tall, imposing silhouette in distinctive Tokugawa armor was visible. He stepped slowly into the hall, the plates of his armor clattering with every movement. When he stepped fully into the light, a young but weathered, resolute face was revealed, eyes sharp as a hawk’s, with a long and a short blade at his waist. He was Kiyohide Takagi, a renowned young general under Ieyasu Tokugawa.

 

“Kiyohide Takagi…” Yae Miko rose slowly, her voice regaining its usual composure, yet colder. “The Grand Narukami Shrine is a pure and sacred place. How dare you barge in bearing steel? Have the samurai of the Tokugawa cast aside even their last reverence for the gods?”

 

Takagi’s gaze swept past Yae Miko and settled on Aether, utterly unyielding, cold with the single-minded resolve of a mission. “High Priestess Yae. Traveler Aether. By order of my lord, eliminate all remnants who would hinder the unification of the realm under heaven. Surrender and come with me to face judgment… or die here, right now.”

 

He slowly drew his katana. Its gleaming blade reflected cold light in the dim hall.

 

“Arrogant fool!” Aether roared. Without another word, he charged forward, sword raised. He knew words were useless now. Only the blade in his hand would decide life and death.

 

Clang!

 

Sword and katana clashed, sending a shower of brilliant sparks flying. Aether’s skills, honed across countless worlds, were exceptional; his strikes agile and fierce. Yet Takagi, an elite of the Tokugawa armies, wielded a killing style forged in battlefield blood — steady, brutal, efficient. Every heavy blow howled through the air, forcing Aether back again and again, his blocking arm numbed by the impact.

 

Yae Miko did not stand idle. With a flick of her wrist, several Electro runes woven by fox spirits fluttered out like purple butterflies, assailing Takagi from the flank. The lightning crackled and burst, attempting to throw him off balance.

 

But Takagi moved as if he had eyes behind his head, twisting and dodging within a hair’s breadth, evading most of the charms. The few bolts that grazed his armor left only faint scorch marks, no real harm done. His focus remained locked on Aether, his assault a storm that gave no room to breathe.

 

“Ugh!”

 

In a moment of carelessness, Aether’s sword was skillfully knocked aside, leaving his defenses wide open. Takagi seized the split-second opening and drove a heavy kick into Aether’s chest.

 

“Pth —”

 

A violent force surged through him. A bitter, coppery taste filled his throat. His body flew uncontrollably backward, slamming into the temple pillar before sliding to the ground. His sword slipped from his grasp and clattered nearby.

 

Takagi closed in like a shadow. Before Aether could struggle up, he dropped one knee onto Aether’s chest, his weight crushing the air from his lungs. A large, gauntleted hand then clamped around his throat like an iron vice.

 

“Aether!” Yae Miko cried out. Her calm finally shattered, replaced by genuine panic. She rushed forward recklessly, grabbing Takagi’s arm with both hands and straining with all her might to pull it free. “Let him go!”

 

Her strength was pitiful next to his. Without even turning, Takagi’s free left hand flashed, drawing his tantō. Without looking, he stabbed backward.

 

Thud.

 

The dull, sickening sound of blade sinking into flesh made the skin crawl.

 

Yae Miko froze completely, her movements halted. She looked down in disbelief at the tantō tip protruding from her abdomen. Scarlet blood welled rapidly along the cold metal, staining her elegant shrine maiden robes.

 

Takagi’s expression did not change. As he pulled the blade free, he drove his left elbow backward hard, striking her squarely across the cheek.

 

“Mmn…”

 

A pained whimper escaped her. Her delicate body stumbled back like a kite with a broken string, then crumpled weakly onto the cold floor. Blood gushed from her wound, spreading into a grim, vivid flower beneath her. She tried to push herself up, but agony and blood loss left her helpless, curling inward with muffled, ragged breaths.

 

“Miko!!!”

 

Watching it all, Aether’s eyes burned with rage. The suffocating grip around his throat, the crushing weight on his chest — none compared to the erupting volcano of fury and despair in his chest. He had just watched the priestess who always teased him with a playful smile yet guided and protected him when it mattered most suffer grievous wounds saving him.

 

The injury of a dear friend, the fear of death, the grief of a fallen homeland… all converged and ignited, unleashing a power unlike anything he had ever felt, shattering his reason.

 

His eyes bloodshot red, his vision blurred, a power from deep within his blood — not of this world — stirred under the extreme emotional shock. He no longer fought the hand at his throat. Instead, he stretched his arm with every last ounce of strength toward the sword lying nearby.

 

His fingers finally touched the cold hilt.

 

“AAAAH —!”

 

A roar like a wounded beast tore from his constricted throat. From somewhere, he summoned one final burst of power, grabbed the sword, and drove it wildly, recklessly, deep into Takagi’s abdomen.

 

The strike was wild, unrefined — yet lightning-fast, fueled by a suicidal will to take his enemy down with him.

 

Takagi had devoted all his focus to subduing Aether and guarding against Yae Miko. He never imagined the Traveler, already pinned and half-dead, could unleash such a ferocious, desperate counterattack.

 

“Ugh!”

 

The sword pierced cleanly through a gap in his armor, burying itself deep. Agony wrenched a cry from him. His grip on Aether’s neck slackened. He staggered, his vision swimming abruptly from the sudden, crippling wound. The world spun around him.

 

And in that split second —

 

Yae Miko, still on the ground, suddenly blazed with blade-sharp intensity in her pained, half-lidded violet eyes. This was the moment she had been waiting for.

 

Gritting her teeth through the searing abdominal pain, she lurched upright. Her right hand seized the tantō still embedded in her stomach — Takagi’s tantō.

 

Squelch.

 

She ripped the blade free, sending a spray of blood flying. The pain beaded sweat across her forehead in an instant, draining her face of all color. Yet her movements did not waver or pause.

 

In the next breath, she poured every last bit of strength and resolve into her motion. Like a vixen pouncing on her prey, she lunged forward and drove the short blade — still warm with her own blood — precisely, ruthlessly, into Takagi’s left chest, straight into his heart.

 

“You…!”

 

Takagi’s body convulsed violently. His pupils shrank to pinpricks. He stared down at the blade buried in his chest, then up at Yae Miko’s beautiful, pale face only inches away, at the freezing, murderous resolve in her eyes.

 

He opened his mouth as if to speak, but only dark blood poured from his lips. The light in his eyes faded rapidly. His tall frame swayed, then collapsed heavily to the floor with a heavy thud, raising a small cloud of dust. The fierce Tokugawa warrior lay dead on the sacred floor of the Grand Narukami Shrine, his eyes unclosed.

 

A deathly silence fell over the hall, broken only by Aether’s ragged coughing and Yae Miko’s muffled, pained breathing.

 

Aether struggled to his feet, ignoring the bruises on his neck and the ache in his chest. He stumbled to her side.

 

“Miko! Miko, are you alright?!” He stared at the terrible, bleeding wound in her abdomen, his voice hoarse and trembling from fear and suffocation. He frantically pressed his hands over the injury, but blood continued to seep relentlessly through his fingers.

 

“Cough… I… I’m not dead yet…” Yae Miko managed a weak smile, her breath growing noticeably faint. “Little one… you… were quite fierce just now…”

 

“Don’t speak!” Aether panicked. He tore a strip from his robe to wrap her wound as best he could, but the injury was too deep — such makeshift care was useless. He knew they needed a healer, and immediately.

 

But Inazuma City had fallen. The Grand Narukami Shrine was no longer safe. The Tokugawa forces would discover Takagi’s body at any moment and send more soldiers.

 

“We have to get out of here!” Aether decided at once. He recalled information that only Ritou, due to unique circumstances and terrain, remained partially free from Tokugawa control. There might still be a chance to escape.

 

Without hesitation, he bent carefully, slipped one arm beneath her knees and the other around her back, and lifted her gently in his arms.

 

“Mmn…”

 

The movement jostled her wound. Yae Miko let out a muffled cry of pain, her brows tightly knit, her forehead drenched in cold sweat. Yet she bore it in silence, resting her head weakly on his shoulder, closing her eyes to conserve what little strength she had left.

 

Aether held her light, cold frame, his heart heavy with indescribable sorrow. He cast one last glance at Takagi’s corpse and the alien, war-tinted skies of Inazuma beyond the hall. Clenching his jaw, he held Yae Miko tightly and strode heavily out of the main shrine, never looking back.

 

The path down Mount Yougou felt unnaturally long and rough. Aether carried Yae Miko, each step agonizingly difficult. Her blood soaked through his clothes; the warmth felt bitterly cold against his skin.

 

“Aether…”

 

Her voice was barely audible in his arms.

 

“I’m here, Miko. Hold on! We’ll reach Ritou soon. We’ll be safe there. We’ll find a ship and leave!” Aether replied hurriedly, his voice trembling despite himself.

 

Yae Miko seemed to want to say more, but her lips only moved faintly before she fell silent again. Her faint breathing was the only sign she still lived.

 

Aether held her tighter and quickened his pace. He had to reach Ritou — it was their only way out. Behind them, the great Sacred Cherry Sakura of the Grand Narukami Shrine swayed in the wind, as if weeping silently for the fallen nation and the blood spilled. Their path ahead was unknown. But he had no other choice.