"Yomi?!" As a servant of Izanami, Ogun was no stranger to the underworld, though he'd never actually been there—and didn't dare go.
Now, suddenly discovering the entrance to Yomi opening in the material world, he was shocked.
Even more horrifying was Little Sadako's death grip on his spirit as both "people" were pulled by tremendous suction toward the entrance to Yomi.
"You're coming with me!" Ogun struggled desperately. Suddenly, Bella appeared behind him and struck Little Sadako with her palm. Little Sadako, brimming with malevolence, dragged Ogun toward the entrance to Yomotsu Hirasaka.
"I won't accept this! I won't!" Ogun's true strength actually exceeded Bella's by a margin. He struggled with all his might, but Little Sadako clung to him tightly. Despite his immense psychic power and unfathomable mana, he could only cry out in vain as he was forcibly dragged inside.
Even as he left the material world, he never learned who had opposed him—only that it was a woman. His death was utterly baffling...
"Crack... crack..." Shattering sounds echoed nearby. The body that had been struck by Fushigiri "Open Gate" cracked like porcelain, splitting in half from the middle. Then, wearing a white dress and looking utterly confused, Sadako Yamamura slowly emerged. She had been resurrected!
Bella surveyed the surroundings. Old man Yashida had died the moment Ogun and Sadako's battle began.
The remaining soldiers had all been killed. Her eagle vision swept a kilometer in all directions—about two-thirds of a mile. Besides her and Sadako, not a single human life sign.
"Miss Yamamura, have you recovered?" Bella picked up her Fushigiri "Open Gate." It was precisely with this blade and her spellcasting that she'd managed to sacrifice the evil Little Sadako and resurrect the kind, innocent Big Sadako.
Ogun being taken along was entirely Little Sadako's initiative, unrelated to Bella. In that situation, whoever was closest got dragged away—it had nothing to do with hatred or enmity.
A one-for-one trade—opening the gate worked out great...
The newly resurrected Sadako Yamamura lay on the ground, breathing heavily. She seemed to have long forgotten the rhythm of breathing, like a newborn baby—sometimes fast, sometimes slow, occasionally even forgetting to breathe at all.
Seeing her face turn red from holding her breath, Bella didn't dare ask more questions after that one inquiry, afraid Sadako might accidentally suffocate herself.
Take your time catching your breath. We can talk about everything later.
Bella sheathed Fushigiri "Open Gate" and glanced at the possessed body Ogun had left behind. This body had been pulled back and forth like a tug-of-war by several "people," then eroded by the aura of Yomotsu Hirasaka. It no longer looked remotely human.
She found it distasteful. Seeing no trace of life force remaining, she paid it no more attention.
After nearly half an hour, Sadako Yamamura finally recovered to normal. She stood up shakily and looked around.
Despite the severe destruction, she still recognized this place. This was her father's retreat—and her own burial ground.
Bella had been watching from a moderate distance the entire time.
Truth be told, Sadako Yamamura really resembled Alessa. Both had suffered unjust treatment, both had their good and evil natures separated.
The only difference was that Alessa had completely abandoned her good and evil sides, letting them manifest separately to fight and quarrel however they wanted while her main body stayed uninvolved.
Alessa had been burned like a mummy but had never actually died.
Sadako, on the other hand, had re-fused her good and evil sides, then died—killed by her own father and thrown into a deep well.
Overall, Alessa's resentment was somewhat less. She hated her mother, hated the church people, hated Silent Hill.
Sadako Yamamura's resentment was greater. She hated her father, hated everyone! However, because her kind side still existed, there was still some room to maneuver. Bella had communicated with her good side and, using "Open Gate's" properties, sacrificed the evil side while carrying away nearly all the resentment.
"Thank you. I feel so much better."
The restored Sadako Yamamura was a gentle woman with averted eyes, seeming somewhat timid.
Such a person definitely couldn't be recruited onto her ship, Bella thought with regret. Still, she was happy for her—being able to return from death was fortunate.
Good people should receive good rewards. Whether she joined the crew or not was secondary.
"How much do you remember? Do you know what year it is now?" she asked.
Sadako Yamamura stared blankly, thinking for a long time before tentatively answering, "1970?"
"Alright, looks like you need to catch up on a lot. Come with me—let's leave here first."
The earlier gunfire and the aura seeping through from Yomotsu Hirasaka had already affected all of Izu Oshima. They needed to leave immediately.
"Thank you, thank you, but... who are you?" Sadako glanced at her ruined home with a sigh and followed Bella's footsteps. After walking for a while, she finally asked quietly.
Bella was somewhat speechless. "I'm just passing through..."
They quickly left the scene. Along the way, they found a villager's house and got Sadako a change of clothes.
That white dress was burned directly.
Afterward, the two boarded a ship and left Izu Oshima, returning to Tokyo.
Not long after they departed, ball lightning erupted in the battle area. The dense negative energy scattered, more than half of it dissipating as a blurry shadow emerged from the air.
Ogun had forcibly killed his way back from the other side of Yomotsu Hirasaka! Seven or eight hands pulled at him from behind, seemingly trying to drag him back, but he still managed—at the cost of severe spirit damage—to continuously sever parts of his own spirit like a lizard dropping its tail, struggling back to the material world with great difficulty.
He tried to come out ahead and ended up worse off—that described him perfectly.
His possessed body was now ruined and unusable. As a wandering ghost, if he didn't want to be ground to dust by the material world, he had to find a new body.
Ogun tried to conduct a psychic search, but he was too weak—weak enough that a strong wind could extinguish him.
The spirit he'd condensed over four hundred years was on the verge of collapse. The material world didn't need to punish him at all—merely existing in a magic-free environment would completely destroy him.
His movements were now labored. He checked three bodies and found all were corpses.
He could possess the living but not the dead. Once he possessed a dead person, he'd die along with them.
Even an immortal like Li Tieguai could only possess the recently deceased. Ogun was far from that level—the dead were absolutely off-limits. Just as he grew desperately anxious, he unexpectedly discovered a living corpse.
It was old man Yashida!
During Ogun and Sadako's battle, the old man had been caught in the combat aftershocks and died on the spot.
However, his life-support equipment was truly formidable. Though his brain had died, his heart still had some beats.
Bella's eagle vision primarily detected brain waves. In her view, with no brain waves, the person was definitely dead. Modern medicine also considered brain death to be true death.
Now, Ogun had only one choice before him.