noveltune Chapter 136 The Sacrifice of 3000 People in the Land of Cherry Blossoms, and the Descent of Amateras
Chapter 136 The Sacrifice of 3000 People in the Land of Cherry Blossoms, and the Descent of Amateras
Deep in Hokkaido, the land of cherry blossoms, lies an unnamed snow-capped mountain.
There was no wind inside the cave, and the air was filled with a strong smell of rust.
Dozens of torches were stuck in the rock walls on both sides, their flames flickering and casting extremely long shadows of the altar.
Shinsuke Minamoto knelt on the rough stone slab, his hands clasped together, his forehead pressed tightly against the back of his hands.
He was wearing a traditional white hunting robe, most of the sleeves of which were now soaked in dark red.
On the blue stone altar directly in front, a woman lay.
She is the last "shrine maiden" in the Sakura Kingdom with pure blood.
But her ferocious expression and resentment revealed that this was merely what the person who killed him thought.
At this moment, her chest cavity was completely opened, and her white ribs were turned outwards to both sides.
The abdominal cavity was completely empty; all the organs had been removed and thrown into the bronze cauldron below the altar.
The blood flowed down the grooves of the bluestone platform, gathering into a thin stream that meandered deeper into the cave.
It was a stone gate about ten meters high, and in the center of the gate was a constantly rotating, dark blue vortex.
This is the entrance to a secret realm.
However, this secret realm is broken.
The edge of the vortex was covered with spiderweb-like gray-white cracks, like a mirror that could collapse at any moment.
Shinsuke Minamoto raised his head and formed a complex hand seal in mid-air.
"The supreme ruler of Takamagahara, Amaterasu Omikami."
His voice echoed in the empty cave, filled with extreme excitement: "Your people offer up their purest bloodline, please descend to earth."
no respond.
Only the blood on the altar continues to drip.
Gen Shinsuke turned his head and looked out of the cave.
Outside the cave entrance lies a vast basin, once covered in thick snow. Now, the snow has turned black.
Three thousand corpses lay scattered haphazardly across the entire basin.
They were all wearing the standard armor of high-ranking awakened beings from the Sakura Kingdom. Each of them had a deep, bone-revealing, fatal knife wound on their neck.
In order to gather the energy needed for this blood sacrifice, the Onmyōryō (Bureau of Yin and Yang) of the Sakura Kingdom issued a death order.
Three thousand level 50 Awakened Ones lined up and walked to the center of the basin, where they slit their own throats.
Their blood, drawn into the cave through a pre-embedded array of runes, was poured onto the broken gate to the secret realm.
"The enemy has already advanced ahead of us!"
"We have nowhere to retreat!"
Shinsuke Minamoto stared at the entrance to the secret realm, his lips moving rapidly. "The Sakura Empire has no way out. Without divine protection, we will be crushed by this new era."
He slammed his forehead against the stone slab again.
"Please, Amaterasu Omikami, descend!"
one second.
ten seconds.
One minute.
The crackling sound of the burning torches was particularly jarring.
The broken gate to the secret realm was still slowly rotating, the gray-white cracks had not healed, and the eerie blue light was even dimmer than before.
The passage behind the door, which should have connected to "Takamagahara", was deathly silent.
Shinsuke Minamoto remained in the position of kowtowing, his body frozen.
He slowly straightened up, looked at the motionless altar, and then at the dim stone door.
He stood up, walked to the altar, and reached into the bronze cauldron, grabbing a handful of scraps of meat. The meat was already cold.
"It failed."
Gen Shinsuke released his grip, letting the pieces of meat fall back into the cauldron with a dull thud.
He turned around and looked at the three thousand corpses piled up like a mountain outside the cave.
Three thousand high-level combatants—this was the last remaining strength that the Sakura Kingdom could boast about. For this high-stakes gamble, they emptied the national treasury, drained their combat power, and even risked the lifeline of the royal family.
What they got in return was a broken door that they couldn't open.
"Was it all for nothing?" Gen Shinsuke's voice trailed off.
He walked dejectedly to the edge of the cave, leaned his back against the cold, damp rock wall, and slid down little by little until he finally sat down on the ground with a thud.
He grabbed his meticulously combed hair and pulled hard, causing blood to seep from his scalp.
"It's all over." He looked at his blood-stained hands and let out a long sigh. "The core of the secret realm has long been shattered, and the passage can't be built at all. We killed all our own people and are now bowing down to a door of death."
He drew his sashimi from his waist. The blade reflected the firelight.
The mission failed, and according to the rules of the Yin-Yang Bureau, he had to commit seppuku to atone for his sins.
Shinsuke Minamoto tore open the hem of his hunting robe, revealing his abdomen. He gripped the hilt of his sword with both hands, pointing the tip at his stomach.
Just as the knife tip was about to pierce the skin.
Tick.
A drop of black water landed on the tip of his nose.
Shinsuke Minamoto paused. He looked up.
A thick, black liquid had seeped from the rocks at the top of the cave.
Immediately afterwards, the torchlight changed. The originally crimson flames turned a ghostly green at the same time.
The temperature inside the cave plummeted, and a thin layer of red ice quickly formed on the surface of the blood on the ground.
Shinsuke Minamoto lowered his hand that was holding the knife. He turned to look at the altar.
The witch's corpse, whose internal organs had been removed, began to move.
Her flared ribs made a sickening grinding sound as they contracted inwards one by one. In her empty abdominal cavity, clusters of black, barbed flesh sprouted. The flesh intertwined and wriggled, filling the space that once belonged to her heart and liver.
"This..." Gen Shinsuke braced himself on the ground with both hands, staring intently at the altar.
Click.
A very crisp cracking sound came from deep within the cave.
The cracked gate to the secret realm stopped rotating.
The gray-white cracks on the door suddenly expanded outwards, and large pieces of space peeled off, smashed to the ground, and vanished into nothingness.
The originally deep blue vortex turned pitch black.
The door was forced open.
It wasn't opened from this side; rather, something on the other side of the door violently tore apart the barrier of the secret realm.
A hand reached out from the passageway.
That could not be called a human hand. It was three meters long, and its skin was a deathly grayish-white.
It has no fingernails, and at the ends of its five fingers are rings of fine, lamprey-like teeth.
His palm gripped the edge of the stone door.
The solid stone gate to the secret realm shattered like tofu under the grasp of that hand.
A second hand reached out. Then came a gigantic head.
It had no eyes, no nose. Its entire face consisted of only a gigantic mouth that took up two-thirds of its surface. Black flames burned within its mouth.
It squeezed out of the door, its enormous body almost filling the back half of the cave.
With its appearance, the three thousand corpses outside the cave visibly shriveled up. All the blood, fat, and muscle turned into red mist, which rolled back into the cave and was sucked into its belly by the giant maw.
Shinsuke Minamoto got up from the ground. He threw away the wakizashi he was holding.
He stared at the colossal creature lying on the ruins of the stone gate, chewing on the red mist. He stared at the body that had taken over the witch's corpse, reshaping its internal organs with black flesh buds.
There was no holiness, no solemnity. Only pure devouring and destruction.
"It has arrived..."
Shinsuke Minamoto's shoulders began to twitch.
He took two steps forward, his knees slamming heavily into the frozen blood.
"It's happening! It's really happening!"
He raised his hands high, tilted his head back, and let out a hysterical burst of laughter. The laughter echoed through the cave, carrying extreme madness and morbid satisfaction.
He didn't care what it looked like, or whether it was a monster.
As long as it possesses power beyond this dimension, as long as it can tear the awakened ones of China to pieces, it will be the ruler of the Sakura Empire.
"Amaterasu!"
Shinsuke Minamoto slammed his forehead hard onto the stone slab.
Bang! The stone slab shattered, and his forehead was a bloody mess.
He didn't raise his head, but remained lying on the ground, his voice sharp and piercing with extreme excitement:
"Please... lead our Sakura Empire to its peak!"
The enormous, grayish-white monster stopped inhaling the red mist.
It turned its eyeless head, its massive mouth slightly splitting open, and from within the black flames, a low, inhuman syllable emanated.
"So noisy!"
A pile of minced meat was stuck to the ground, but the man's smile seemed to have been slapped onto the ground as well, permanently imprinted on the stone.