Or was it left outside the world when he broke through the barrier?
Why was it here?
Why was it beneath the spot where Amaterasu had just been perched?
The sudden surprise caught Sū ěr off guard.
"Ah~, you found it~," Amaterasu, having regained some composure from the pain, also looked at the trace. She laughed weirdly. "I noticed you from the moment you appeared outside the world... I watched you, watching you test the outside, until you rushed in before that shell lost its light..."
Sū ěr skin crawled. He never imagined that while he was cautiously observing this world, there was someone he couldn't see, staring back at him with wide eyes, waiting for him.
"So? Keeping this... did you want to follow the path we came from?" Think head popped out from Sū ěr shoulder as she mocked. "With your puny power?"
"Yes... puny. I am weak... especially compared to the master of this power, the god who sent you here. The difference is that of a giant and an ant," Amaterasu murmured. "But... does that not make me want to escape all the more?"
"You don't exactly look like someone trying to escape," Sū ěr said, mocking her for binding herself to Takamagahara, which directly contradicted her words.
"And what choice do I have?" Amaterasu sighed. "Whether it's Takamagahara or Ashihara no Nakatsukuni, this entire world is like a fruit hanging on a tree. We are the worms inside. I simply want to become the fruit, so I can drop from the tree and head toward a broader, more beautiful world..."
"So... please offer up your lives and souls to me..." She began to chuckle. Even though golden-red blood flowed from her eyes and mouth from the previous injury, she excitedly reached out again. Her voice grew until it was like thunder. "With this divine power, and using your souls as a catalyst, I can become the whole world and follow the trail to your home..."
"GIVE ME—YOUR SOULS!!!"
BOOM!!!
The shattered earth was torn open once more, but this time the perpetrator was Amaterasu herself. Crimson waves of blood turned heaven and earth upside down; Sū ěr even heard the creak of the entire world groaning under the strain. Something was snapping.
Amaterasu, having unified with Takamagahara, was also destroying her own body by doing this, but she no longer cared. Great mouthfuls of blood erupted from her mouth, yet the Sun Goddess laughed maniacally.
Sū ěr hadn't misheard; the creaking was indeed the sound of the world failing. The actions of the two were like someone rubbing a plastic bag until it shredded, and it had indeed torn.
The fake sun had vanished. In the gaps that looked like tattered cloth, Sū ěr saw the hollow, black starry sky outside. The fake starry sky. The Milky Way was at his back; that ridiculous moon was at his back.
He didn't know what the beings in Ashihara no Nakatsukuni saw when they looked up right now, or what future awaited a world without a sun. Amidst Think sharp cries, the only thing Sū ěr focused on was that divine power Amaterasu had pulled from the outer wall—Tet power.
In the past, he had wondered how the pink-haired angel Nurarihyon mentioned had come to this world. He had guessed many possibilities: Tet sending her, or him summoning her in an era where the source of all things was less obscured... But now, seeing the remnants of Tet power, he understood how Jibril had arrived.
Of course, Tet hadn't sent her. After leaving that universe, even Tet didn't know where Sū ěr had gone, let alone how to return using this bit of power. This remnant would likely be annihilated in the gap between worlds.
But this was Tet power as the One True God. His attributes, his concept, his existence—Sū ěr, who knew him, only needed to use this power to create a resonance, and Tet would feel it.
Breaking through the sea of blood, breaking through the natural disasters born of her rage... to be honest, whether Jibril could come through had to take a backseat. Sū ěr gathered the remaining independent spiritual energy of the world to protect himself as he reached those traces. The most primal, honest resonance and call he could send out was just one word: HELP!!!
He had to. How could two people use the same "cheat code" at once? And the other side's output was higher than his—who could withstand that?
Seeing those bits of divine power recognize him, and seeing them begin to vibrate and slowly vanish into the air, Sū ěr couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief... but Amaterasu didn't look happy about it.
"NO!!!"
In a roar full of fury, watching the divine power she had painstakingly gathered from the outer wall vanish one by one, Amaterasu—who had previously been careful not to pollute or wear down that power—lost all control. She no longer held back.
BOOM!!!
A blow slammed down from the sky, but even that physical mass mixed with earth could not hide the radiance—like a rising meteor, with a long tail like a straight spear, it pierced directly through the giant humanoid in the sky.
"What... is that?" Yakumo Yukari murmured, unable to help herself. Already prepared for trouble, she looked up at the massive, half-bodied humanoid in the sky, her mind going blank.
Behind her were thousands of Yōkai busy with evacuations. It should have been a scene of frantic activity, but now everyone stood staring at the sky in stunned silence.
The sun they were so familiar with had vanished. It wasn't even night yet, but after a sudden flash, it was gone, replaced by a giant, monstrous woman with only half a body, screaming in rage.
Who was she?
What was happening?