I'm in another world, and I start out transformed into Lancelot.

On this morning, the sunlight was exceptionally bright, illuminating the palace with a golden glow. Yuko Narukami gazed at Amaterasu, who sat in the sunlight. The goddess-like girl's flowing golden hair resembled molten gold, and her innocent face was untouched by the morning light.

A certain thought in her heart finally overwhelmed all rational considerations. She took a deep breath, as if gathering enough courage, and reached out her hand to the deity beside her.

With a slight, almost imperceptible tremor in his fingertips, he firmly grasped Amaterasu's soft, fair wrist.

“Lady Amaterasu…” Narukami Yuko began, her voice unusually tinged with a hint of hesitation, her calm, sharp, silver-gray eyes fixed intently on Amaterasu, “I…”

Chapter 156 Izanami Descends Again, But This Time She's Destroying the World

The sudden physical contact and Yuko's hesitant expression made the young goddess's heart skip a beat.

Amaterasu clearly remembered that when she secretly observed the villages below the mountain, the men and women who had feelings for each other also closed the distance between them in such a hesitant manner.

Could it be... could it be that Yuuko is going to...? This guess, like a pebble thrown into a calm lake, stirred up huge ripples in her heart.

Her cheeks seemed to be ignited by the morning light, and the blush quickly spread to her ears. Amaterasu felt a surge of heat rush to the top of her head.

He forgot even the small point of insistence on "not using honorifics," his golden eyes blinked frantically, his gaze like a startled butterfly with nowhere to settle, almost forming two small swirling mosquito coils.

A surge of joy clashed with an equally immense sense of helplessness; she wasn't ready, she hadn't figured out what she expected to hear or how to respond...

Her chaotic thoughts made her blush and sit stiffly, waiting for Yuko to finish her sentence.

The sun shone brightly, a gentle breeze blew, and birds sang sweetly; everything awaited that moment—that crucial declaration that could change their relationship or reveal profound information.

Just before Yuko was about to speak, the jade throne floor beneath her feet trembled violently without warning!

"Boom—!!!" The entire temple seemed to have been struck by an invisible giant hammer, and suddenly began to shake violently!

The heavy beams creaked painfully, and a beautiful blue-and-white porcelain vase plummeted from a height, shattering on the ground. The chirping of birds outside turned into shrill screams. The warm morning light instantly dimmed and became eerily dark, as if shrouded in a massive shadow.

All the tenderness and trepidation between Yuko and Amaterasu were abruptly torn apart by this earth-shattering upheaval, and their expressions changed drastically almost simultaneously.

A familiar, bewitching voice, carrying a cruel pleasure, pierced through the barriers of space, resounding directly in the ears and deepest consciousness of them—and indeed all living beings in the world—like ice rolling over a mountain rock:

"Hehe~ I'm back from that eternal sea of ​​nothingness~ My dear child, do you like this little gift?"

Izanami's laughter, like tangible sound waves, resonated deep within the soul. "This is... my first greeting to this new world!"

Before her laughter had even faded, the once vibrant landscape outside the window, which had been shrouded in shadow, was suddenly replaced by a shocking sight.

As far as the eye could see, on the distant horizon, flames symbolizing destruction suddenly shot into the sky for no apparent reason, thick smoke billowing and obscuring the color of the sky.

The blush on Amaterasu's face vanished instantly, like a flame thrown into cold water. In its place came unprecedented shock, anger, and disbelief.

Those golden eyes, previously misty with shyness, now blazed with fury like the sun's rays. "Stop! Why?! Why are you doing this?! Izanami?!?"

The voice, imbued with divine power and resonance, was no longer the clear, melodious sound of a young girl, but rather the thunderous fury of a god, piercing through the turbulent space and heading straight for the source of the voice hidden behind nothingness.

She didn't even have time to savor the words that Yuko had almost blurted out, which were unexpectedly interrupted.

The sight before her was enough to shatter her spirit. Through the trembling windowpanes, the misty, idyllic landscape was no longer visible; the distant sky was being stained a sickly dark red.

Thick smoke, like a giant python, twisted and shot straight into the sky, painting the clear heavens a despairing gray-black. One could almost hear the agonizing cries and terrified screams of creatures dying in the distant earth.

The flames of life, full of curiosity and innocence, that she herself had sown in this newborn land, are being mercilessly extinguished.

The ambiguous and enchanting atmosphere vanished, replaced by desperate wails. The sunlight was stained blood red, and the mountains and rivers flowed with a sorrowful wind.

Thick black mist, as dense as solidified swamp, gathered before the High Temple, and a graceful figure, exuding an aura of endless death, slowly emerged from it.

It was Izanami, the mother goddess of destruction, who had just returned from the Sea of ​​Nothingness.

Her delicate face still held a half-smile, but her eyes ignited a chilling displeasure.

"Oh my~" Izanami's voice still carried that unique, almost lyrical rhythm, as if she were reciting a poem praising destruction.

"You actually question me over these ants...Amaterasu?"

She took a step forward, and black mist surged beneath her feet, silently corroding the pure white jade ground.

Those unfathomable eyes were fixed on the young sun goddess, their gaze carrying a tangible weight that made Amaterasu feel a suffocating pressure.

"...I'm really... a little disappointed." She sighed softly, her tone still carrying a certain languid mockery.

But that displeasure, like cold mercury, had silently seeped into every syllable. "The way you're questioning me now reminds me of some damn guy..."

Izanami's gaze passed over Amaterasu's shoulder and fell into the distant void, as if she were staring at a figure she had long ago buried in the dust of her memory.

A chilling venom called "betrayal" surged up once again from the deepest recesses of her heart.

This time, it wasn't because of an old love, but because of the goddess before her, whom she had personally summoned from the sea of ​​nothingness, a symbol of new life and hope.

In her eyes, the question itself was a sign of betrayal.

“They’re all like that.” Izanami murmured, her eyes growing darker and more dangerous, the last trace of amusement vanishing completely.

"It is I who gave you the light of existence, it is I who shaped the world in which you were born!"

Her voice rose higher and higher, carrying a kind of frenzied pain: "These so-called creatures... these fleeting, fragile lives..."

"Their very existence is an error, a mark of time! Only eternal silence is the final destination for all erroneous worlds and all their impurities!"

"Look at them, how fragile, how...foolish?" The words of the Creator Mother were like sharp icicles, "Laughing for fleeting pleasures, weeping for lives that will eventually vanish..."

"Isn't this a kind of morbid obsession? I'm just correcting these mistakes, purifying these impurities tainted by time! Giving them... true perfection."

Izanami could not understand, or rather, she refused to understand because she was deeply mired in her obsession.

She couldn't see that it was her own behavior of viewing everything as "impurities" and "errors" and recklessly wielding the blade of destruction that pushed Izanagi away and now forced the nascent Amaterasu to her opposite side.

Chapter 157 Returning to the Correct Time

In her distorted logic, all deviations are due to the other party's lack of "perfection" and failure to understand the "ultimate mercy" she bestows.

“...Amaterasu…” Izanami refocused her cold gaze on Amaterasu’s face. “You should understand me, you should witness this magnificent epic of purification with me… Why are you hindering my progress because of these things?”

She tilted her head slightly, and her fake smile seemed to reappear on her face, but the chilling emptiness emanating from the deepest part of the underworld was growing stronger.

The flames of destruction cast a vast, ominous shadow behind her, as if the entire newborn world was groaning in pain because of her mere "displeasure."

Yuko Narukami's pupils suddenly contracted, and all the confusion in her silver-gray eyes vanished instantly, replaced by a sharp, blade-like fighting spirit.

Between slender fingers, a card with a peculiar texture suddenly appeared.

Just as she was about to crush the card, preparing to summon "Persona" to test the power of the goddess of the end times who had returned from the abyss of the underworld—

A cold, powerful, yet subtly pulling current of spacetime surged up behind her without warning.

It was not a creation of Izanami's destructive power; it was silent, spinning and twisting, forming a vortex gate that emitted a faint starlight.

This is precisely the gateway that will lead her away from this wrong point in time and back to her own time and space.

"Yuko!" Amaterasu sensed the quietly opening door even more keenly than she did. A flash of understanding crossed the young goddess's golden eyes: mortals should not remain on the battlefield of the gods.

As a being born from the call of Izanami, Amaterasu, though innocent and naive, understands better than anyone the terror and tyranny of the ruler of the underworld before her.

She didn't want Narukami Yuko, who had stirred the deepest emotions within her, to turn to ashes in Izanami's fury, just like the lovely creatures she had seen with her own eyes in the fields and villages!

The intense, almost painful thought of "not wanting to lose" overwhelmed all hesitation and attachment at that moment.

Without giving Yuko any chance to explain or struggle, Amaterasu took advantage of Yuko's attention being entirely focused on the front line against Izanami and suddenly stretched out her arm when she was completely unprepared!

"—!" Narukami Yuko only had time to feel an irresistible force coming from her side and behind before the scene of destruction and Izanami's figure blurred and receded into the distance.

Caught off guard by the sudden push, she crashed straight into the swirling vortex of starlight!

The power of space immediately enveloped her like a warm swamp, and a powerful suction began to engulf her and drag her away from this world on the verge of collapse.

"We will definitely meet again!!!" Just before the figure was completely swallowed up, Amaterasu's words, mixed with sobs, clearly hit her ears.

The last thing Narukami Yuuko saw was the colossal shadow of the palace's magnificent dome collapsing under the impact of the boundless black flames descended by Izanami.

In the heart of that shadow symbolizing utter destruction, the slender, golden figure of a young girl did not retreat; instead, she raised her arms high to face the raging torrent of destruction.

A powerful, intense golden light surged wildly around her, bursting forth with unprecedented brilliance as if it were burning itself out, and shot headlong into the abyss-like darkness.

Then, the vortex closed completely. All the chaos, roaring, heat, and cold was shut out.

The battlefield of the gods, along with that resolute golden figure, vanished completely from Yuuko's perception. She floated alone in the cold spatial passage, leaving only the slightly warm card in her palm that hadn't been crushed.

"Hiss... So, what point in time have I fallen into now?"

Having just been "poofed" out of that dizzying vortex door, Yuko Narukami swiftly dodged into a narrow, quaint alleyway nearby.

She didn't want to flaunt that out-of-date outfit in public, so with a thought, a stream of data particles, almost invisible to the naked eye, swirled around her like stardust.

With a few quick swipes, a Heian-kyo-style kimono with elegant subtle patterns and a well-fitting design was draped over her body, complete with suitable wooden clogs and a hairband.

After straightening her clothes, Yuko habitually slammed her fingers into that "irresponsible" guy in her own private channel deep inside her consciousness: System! System! Say something! Where's your location? Where's your timeline?

A synthesized electronic wailing sound immediately filled his mind: [Waaaaaahh ...

[It's all because of these messy collaboration events in this world! And those shikigami that appeared out of nowhere, they've turned the spacetime energy field of Heian-kyo into a ball of yarn that's been scratched by a cat, waaaaaah...]

Before Yuko could even sigh and complain, several file icons started falling down in her consciousness space with a "clattering" sound. 【Go, Host! You're the best!】The system encouraged her in an energetic tone.

Yuko stared at the several compressed files in her mind and sighed helplessly. Although they didn't sound very reliable, information was better than nothing.

As an "unusual high school student" whose five dimensions are already maxed out, coupled with the group of dazzling Lv.99 Personas in her encyclopedia, even if she is randomly killing people while also being distracted by researching information, it is really not a problem that she cannot solve.

My innate optimism quickly took over, and the minor troubles from before were instantly forgotten.

Yuko patted off the dust that probably wasn't even on her kimono, and her face regained the sunny smile unique to a young girl.

"Alright! Operation begins! Information gathering, let's go!"

With this light and cheerful mindset, Yuko walked out of the alley and blended into the crowds of the streets of Heian-kyo.

Her natural, effortless charm flowed naturally, like a warm breeze under the sun. Almost instantly, she attracted a lot of attention.

Before long, a woman with gentle features and simple clothes was attracted by Yuko's clean, bright, and comfortable temperament and took the initiative to chat with her.

After exchanging a few pleasantries, the woman grew increasingly fond of this poised and intelligent young woman. Upon learning that she was new to the area and temporarily without a place to stay, she readily offered her assistance.

"Oh, what a clever child! Life outside must be so hard. If you don't mind, why don't you stay here with me for a while?"

Chapter 158 A Happy Half-Son

And so, Yuko naturally settled into her new "home." To express her gratitude for being taken in, and to better integrate into the environment and gather information, she enthusiastically accompanied the kind woman to set up a stall on the street corner every morning.

The stalls mainly sell exquisite little trinkets made by the women themselves: cute clay bells, finely woven bracelets, and delicate little sachets folded from colored paper.

Yuko's mission wasn't just to sell things. She treated the stall as a perfect intelligence station, outwardly smiling as she helped the woman attract customers, and deftly packing up the items the customers had chosen.

But those bright eyes and ears, like the most sensitive radar, silently captured every fragment of conversation around them.

Whether it's the noble ladies and maids traveling together whispering about the elegant music banquet in the palace last night, or the weary traveling merchants complaining about the strange things they've seen along the way, or the worried old man next door saying that strange shadows have been appearing in the neighborhood recently...

She listened casually, her hands moving gently and skillfully, like a seasoned intelligence agent, quickly and subtly sensing the pulse and life of Heian-kyo.

The market was still bustling, with vendors' shouts, children's laughter, and old people leaning against the wall telling ancient legends, all weaving together a picture of daily life.

However, in these voices, the names of the gods have quietly faded away, and the once resounding honorifics and prayers now only exist in some faded incantations or forgotten songs.

Yuko Narukami sat quietly by a small stall on the street corner, her fingertips unconsciously stroking a small wooden amulet that she had carved herself. The thought that the name "Amaterasu" was now like a legend from another world in this time and space made her feel an indescribable sense of loss.

"Miss Yuko, are you daydreaming again?" A kind voice came from beside her; it was Mrs. Fujiwara, who had taken her in.

The woman, with a kind face, was neatly arranging some handmade trinkets. "Don't think too much about it. Life in Heian-kyo may not be peaceful, but we still need to live well."

Yuko snapped out of her reverie, smiled, and said softly, "Yes, Madam is right." She hid her disappointment even deeper and turned her gaze to the bustling street.

The sunlight was just right, casting dappled light on the bluestone slabs through the sparse branches and leaves. Suddenly, a particularly bright golden hue caught Yuko's eye in the crowd.

He was a young man dressed simply yet with exceptional quality, his golden hair like melting sunlight, and he was strolling through the market with great interest.

His eyes were clear and gentle, yet beneath that purity lay a sharp edge that remained hidden.

The boy was quickly drawn to the unique trinkets at Yuko's stall and stopped in his tracks, curious. It was none other than Susanoo, the legendary executioner from Takamagahara who temporarily resided in Abe no Seimei's garden.

"Huh? These are..." Susanoo's voice was clear and youthful as he bent down to examine the items on the stall.

My gaze lingered on a particularly adorable little raccoon dog and several uniquely woven bracelets.

"This looks interesting!" He couldn't help but smile as he thought of the little monsters in the courtyard eagerly waiting for him to bring back gifts.