Beneath the Beniyama Grand Shrine is a whole other world. Living quarters, a chapel, an armory stacked with dangerous-looking steel, a workshop. And on the bottom level…
“So this is what they were hiding.”
The dying worm led me down into an underground cavern.
The place is massive, big as a schoolyard, and flooded with ankle-deep water. No sunlight reaches this deep, but the water itself casts a faint, blue-white glow across the space.
In the center sits a small island marked by four torii gates, one for each cardinal direction. Hakuya Dōdō crawls toward it.
I follow, shotgun loose in my hand.
A figure stands on the island. An old woman in the red and white robes of a Shinto priestess.
In her hand, she holds a ceremonial bell staff, a kagura suzu. The Hearkening Bell.
“That Relic belongs to the Akai vaults.”
“It’s in my hands now,” she says. “The Akai bloodline is gone. I’ve simply taken it into my care.”
“I stand here representing the Akai. Hand it over.”
“A representative? You?”
The old woman lifts the bell to hide her mocking smile. A soft jingle cuts the silence.
“You’re younger than I expected. And my, to think a man with no mana could cut down my followers and reach this sacred place.”
Her eyes crawl up my body, from my boots to my face.
“Teruno Sakaki, I presume. Leader of the Hidden Flame.”
“I am.”
“Grandma, help me…!” Hakuya’s voice is a ragged gasp.
Sakaki glances at him, her face a mask of contempt. “Pathetic. Your failure has undone years of work. I can’t even be bothered to be angry.”
“Grandma…”
“Now then, Ikaku Akamuro.” Her attention snaps back to me. “How would you like to die? Crushed? Torn limb from limb? Squeezed? Or maybe you’d prefer to burn, just like that night. Like the entire Akai clan, and every guest at their party.”
My blood boils. Every muscle in my body screams to lift Alek’s Shotgun and pull the trigger.
End it. Avenge them all. Erase my regrets in one clean burst.
The impulse claws at me.
But not yet. There are things I need to know. I have to hold, just for a moment longer.
I force a slow breath. Control myself.
“I know about you,” I say, my voice steady. “Your family, the Sakakis. A line of Mages, Shinto priests. Your shrine was well-known.”
“So you knew. The blade was closer to my neck than I realized,” she says. “But I was still one step ahead. I ended the Akai first.”
“You used a spy? Gave someone magic to take down the barrier?”
Sakaki’s eyes narrow. “You want to know?”
“Don’t answer a question with a question.”
“Insolent whelp. That’s no way to speak to an elder.”
“You want respect? Look at what you’ve become, murderous hag.”
I level the shotgun at Hakuya. “I’ll give you a chance, too.”
“A chance?” Amusement touches her voice. “And what sort of chance is that?”
“Answer my questions. And as you think about your answers, remember I can put a hole in your grandson at any moment. You do that, I might let him live.”
“That’s absurd. You talk as if you have any way to deal with me, a descendant of Mages.”
“I can kill him,” I say, keeping the muzzle trained on Hakuya.
Sakaki falls silent. Her gaze drifts to the pathetic man on the ground.
“Grandma, help me…”
“If you want him to live, you talk. And you give everything back. The girls, the Relics, the dragon.”
“Well, no matter,” she says finally. “I suppose I can make you understand just how meaningless your struggle has been. How all the pain you’ve endured, all the blood you’ve shed… was for nothing, Ikaku Akamuro.”