Transformed into the leader of an esoteric sect in Japan

"How is my father doing lately? Have you been treating him carefully?" Asakura narrowed his eyes, but there was a hint of malice in his voice.

“We would never dare to neglect the Apostle. We will hold regular sacrifices every month to satisfy the Apostle’s desires. The Apostle’s condition is currently quite stable!” Shinji Sakata answered without hesitation.

"So, can we prepare the ceremony today to awaken Father?" Although Asakura Yuki was asking a question, it was clear that no refusal was permissible.

"My Lady, everything is ready."

"Kurosawa, look carefully. This dance should be performed by every prince of the cult. It's a dance to praise the black sun, called the Dance of the Sea Gate. You'll have to dance it with us sooner or later."

Asakura placed half of a pale gold, ornate mask on his face. A dark gold wreath wrapped around the top of the mask, giving him an impression of unparalleled majesty and nobility, like the mask of an emperor. Only the lower half of his exquisite face was visible, with a mysterious smile on his lips.

Yuki Asakura walked alone toward the sea. A tall altar had been erected, and a strange spire stood atop it. The wooden spire was covered with strange inscriptions, which seemed to reflect a bizarre brilliance in the sunlight. At the very top of the spire was a black round mirror carved into the shape of the sun, and flames seemed to burn inside the mirror.

Rows of Black Sun Cultists raised black prayer flags adorned with strange patterns. The flags were covered with black sun faces that seemed to mock others, but this time, the black sun faces were shedding tears of blood. They chanted ancient incantations in unison and struck the earth with the base of the prayer flags.

Facing the deep sea, Asakura sang an elegant yet eerie song, like an ancient sea siren perched on a rock wall, bewitching sailors with a seductive melody. Her voice was ethereal and clear, yet utterly empty inside.

“I dreamt of a land three thousand nautical miles away, which was called ‘Gate’.”

In her left hand she held a small, round fan adorned with gold and silver, while in her right hand she shook an exquisitely crafted Kagura bell. Accompanied by song, she danced a ritual dance to honor the gods, her magnificent robes flowing and displaying all things in the universe.

"On that fertile soil, with a short sword at my waist, I dance a sacred dance."

Yang Yan spun along with her dance steps, distorting space. An invisible flame burned out of thin air, swirling and intertwining, transforming into a fire tornado connecting to the sky. Its semi-transparent texture resembled a staircase leading to the heavens.

"Seated on the throne surrounded by flowers is the King of Sunfire, burning brightly under the blazing sun."

P.S., I played Genshin Impact, and it's terrible, really terrible. With such a huge budget, what did miHoYo produce? It's all about grinding, nothing but grinding. There's practically no innovation; it's just the same old Honkai Impact 3 formula. It's neither a mobile nor a PC game, and it only superficially copied Zelda. Since you can only get stronger by spending money, what motivation is there for me to explore and collect in the open world? The map is full of useless junk, and even after opening a bunch of chests, they're all full of trash. All the truly powerful items are in the shop and gacha pools. What's the point of this open world? It feels like gacha mechanics and open-world elements are fundamentally contradictory. miHoYo's game design was flawed from the start.

Chapter 92, Section 92: The Apostle Transforms into a Dragon and Hides in the Clouds

"I use my blood to dye it red, this is the delicious wine," Asakura, wearing a golden mask, danced gracefully on the high platform, her steps moving to the rhythm of a wondrous song. The invisible black matter of yang flames danced with her, the yang flames condensing into translucent blades, cutting countless wounds into Asakura's delicate skin. Her blood splattered recklessly all over her gorgeous kimono, dyeing it a shocking scarlet, just like the kimono of the yang princess.

However, on the gorgeous, dynamically beautiful garments, thousands of patterns flow, the sunlight shines even brighter, and the vast ocean surges, as if there really is a living world running inside.

As Asakura danced, an incredible realm was indeed slowly unfolding, enveloping everything within it. Within this realm, which resembled a false history, only a being that did not belong to the ordinary world nor was accepted by the Netherworld could reveal its true form.

She is offering her own blood as a sacrifice, calling upon something in the sea.

A normal person would probably die on the spot from this amount of blood loss, but Yuki Asakura, whose immortality is in no way inferior to Shizuki Kurosawa, is still able to dance with increasingly faster steps and changing dance steps, making people feel as if she is dancing a dying dance on blades.

"Flowers fall one after another with exquisite dance steps, and hundreds of eyes watch all of this," Asakura, bathed in sweet blood, has a sweet smile on her lips. Behind her, the blood-red setting sun casts a dark red hue over everything.

Asakura's blood flowed downwards along the blood grooves that had been repaired on the high platform. Under the light of the setting sun, the blood seemed to ignite into invisible flames and burning threads of fire. This burning blood gathered into rivers and seas, flowing into the gradually boiling deep sea.

"The blood was boiling, between rising fire and water."

Dozens of blurry figures gradually appeared behind Asakura. As Asakura's blood continued to drain away, more and more figures silently knelt down towards the sea, then disintegrated into foam under the sunlight.

Kurosawa Shizuki couldn't help but wonder if these shadows were also Asakura's shadow servants. Why was Asakura able to possess so many shadow servants? Did she possess some special skill in controlling dark spirits? Why could she only have four shadow servants at a time?

Asakura is constantly offering her blood during the festival, she is also drawing life force from the Shadow Servants to begin regeneration.

Asakura's movements slowed down, and time seemed to slow down along with her dance. Half of her body was still delicate and tender, bathed in sunlight like a holy child descending to earth, but the other half of her body was withering and decaying due to massive blood loss, turning as black as an old woman, and burning with black flames.

The imagery of death and rebirth appeared on Asakura almost simultaneously, making her more like a figure from a religious mural than a human being. All the Black Sun Cult members looked at Asakura with incredibly fanatical eyes.

"Praise be to the Black Sun! Praise be to the Prince of Kagerou! Praise be to the Supreme King of Kagerou!" Many Black Sun cultists, including Shinji Sakata and Jubei Kurosaki, bowed and worshipped towards Asakura in rows, and the scene became increasingly frenzied and noisy.

Kurosawa Shizuki and Nakamura Yukise stood out from the crowd of fanatical Black Sun cultists, feeling somewhat out of place. Kurosawa Shizuki hesitated for a moment, wondering if she should also kneel down and worship the so-called King of Blaze with everyone else, or else she would be too unsociable.

Just as Kurosawa Shizuki was about to reluctantly kneel down as well, Nakamura Yukise stopped her and shook her head: "Holy Maiden, no, Lady of the Yin, we do not need to kneel before the King of Blaze."

"Why? Didn't everyone kneel down?" Kurosawa Shizuki asked, puzzled.

“Sometimes it really makes one wonder if you are really the saintess of the Order…” Nakamura Yukise said somewhat speechlessly, “But I am already your shadow servant, and I will explain to you unconditionally whatever questions you have.”

“You are already the prepared Prince of Yin. The Prince of Yin and the Prince of Yang are equal. We only need to show respect for the miracles performed by the Prince of Yang. Kneeling rashly would be an offense to the dark matter of Yin.”

"Wait, if the Prince of Yang worships a King of Yang Flame, then as the Prince of Yin, will I also have to worship something?" Kurosawa Shizuki was taken aback.

“That’s right. Within the Order, that Apostle is called the King of Yin. If you truly become the Child of Yin, you will eventually be responsible for communicating with that person. The Order desperately needs the power of the King of Yin right now,” Nakamura Yukise said confidently.

Kurosawa Shizuki was confused again. "Suzuki-senpai, you never said that the Shadow Prince had such a responsibility!" She had thought that the Shadow Prince was a leisurely position with only privileges and no responsibilities.

Although she's already at the fourth rank, she probably won't die no matter how much blood she loses, but it must hurt terribly, right? Not everyone can be like Asakura, who can bleed the equivalent of several people's blood without batting an eye and still smile and dance nonchalantly!

"The voice calling out in the flames... Can you hear it?" Asakura chanted in a hoarse voice. Her movements became slower and slower, like a dying swan. Miko of the Sun had completely turned into a blood-soaked figure. She walked down the high platform step by step, swaying towards the sea, leaving a trail of burning bloody footprints behind her.

At the bottom of the boiling and surging sea, clumps of bloated black matter finally emerged one after another, like flowers blooming from the mud.

Indeed, strange flowers bloomed on the sea. Kurosawa Shizuki watched in astonishment as an incredibly surreal scene unfolded. Countless lotus flowers formed from black matter bloomed wildly amidst the raging waves, bathed in the blood-red light of the setting sun, giving off a sense of calm and tranquil "divinity".

Asakura stopped dancing, crossed her arms over her chest in a praying gesture, and slowly knelt down facing the sea. A sweet and happy smile appeared on her lips. Behind her, countless black figures formed from condensed yang energy knelt down with her.

"The gears of eternity begin to turn, the sacrifice... has awakened." She said in a very soft voice, as if the words would be swallowed up by the raging waves as soon as they left her lips.

As she sang her final song, from the depths of the sea, amidst thousands of blooming lotuses, a figure as large as a moving island suddenly rose up, its body entwined with countless seaweed, corals, and the remains of various aquatic animals. Tons of waves flowed down its body. The Black Sun Apostle, known as the King of Sunfire, finally revealed its incredible and magnificent form in the sunlight.

Then black flames ignited, washing away all filth and revealing the true form, solemn and dignified.

The black giant, nearly sixty meters tall, had eight arms growing from his back. His face was covered by a dark gold lotus-shaped mask similar to the one worn by Asakura. His entire body was made of black liquid, which was constantly flowing and possessed a dynamic quality.

Its body, composed of black sludge, is covered with hundreds of constantly writhing human eyes, much like the Hundred-Eyed Giant from Greek mythology.

That face, which seemed to have once belonged to a human, even with the mask covering it, still vaguely revealed how handsome and sculpted the man was back then. Now, his eyes were forever closed, and a kind smile appeared on his lips, but the third eye between his eyebrows revealed a thin slit, slowly opening.

The Apostle's third eye burned with unparalleled light and heat, its interior resembling a black pearl. Everyone was bathed in this dazzling black light, as if a black sun had truly fallen to earth out of nowhere.

Bathed in the glow of the dark sun, Asakura seemed oblivious to the warmth and heat. She gazed with deep, fascinated longing at the mythical body of the eight-armed giant, uttering with a mesmerizing excitement the name that once belonged to him:

"Akira Asakura, my former father, now the King of Blaze, may I use your power once more?"

The giant let out an ambiguous roar, and the entire earth trembled at his furious cry. Anyone could see that the almost inexhaustible light and heat within him were waiting to be poured out and released.

The giant stretched out an arm toward Asakura, his movements extremely slow, yet unexpectedly displaying a gentleness disproportionate to his size. He spread his five fingers toward Asakura Yuki, as if extending an invitation. One could clearly see that a giant eyeball was still constantly rotating in the palm of his hand.

"Thank you, Father. Let's fight side by side again for the next few days." Asakura smiled and climbed into the palm of the King of Blaze. Then, the King of Blaze gently lifted her up with his palm and held her to a very high position.

Asakura looked up at the King of Blazing Sun without fear, her pupils reflecting his ugly and ferocious face.

She held one of the Sunfire King's fingers, leaned against his tall body, and greedily inhaled his scent, as if immersed in a beautiful memory: "Father, your scent has never changed."

The King of Blazing Sunshine grinned at Yuki Asakura, revealing rows of fine, dark teeth, intricate mandibles, and countless black tentacles, resembling a twisted smile or a bottomless abyss.

Kurosawa Shizuki suspected that the King of Blaze truly... wanted to swallow Asakura whole.

The slender girl and the eight-armed giant that blotted out the sky created a striking visual contrast, yet Asakura remained unmoved, her royal robes flowing, her gaze towards the King of Blazing Sun filled with sorrow and pity.

Just as Kurosawa Shizuki was worried that Asakura might really be swallowed whole by her father, who seemed strange to her no matter how she looked at him, thus repeating the principle of divine punishment.

Asakura's pale gold mask shimmered with a bright, sun-like radiance, making him appear like an emperor descending to earth. Under the golden light, the King of Blazing Sun let out a painful roar, his body contorting in pain. His other hand stroked the lotus-shaped mask on his face. It seemed that the Black Sun Cult had planted some hidden tricks on the King of Blazing Sun, and only Asakura could control him. His massive body sometimes condensed and sometimes dissipated, appearing quite unstable.

"Father, it's not time yet. You can't eat me now. Please bear with it a little longer, okay?" Asakura whispered sadly to the King of Blazing Sun.

The King of Blazing Sunshine, facing Yuki Asakura, finally lowered his proud head with great reluctance, letting out a series of low roars.

Then his body collapsed into wisps of black mist right before Asakura's eyes, the towering black mist completely enveloping Asakura as well.

After a long while, just when Kurosawa Shizuki thought Asakura wouldn't return, Asakura's body detached from the black mist and floated lightly down from mid-air to Kurosawa Shizuki's side, as if it were a feather without any weight.

"How did it go?" Kurosawa Shizuki asked Asakura somewhat uneasily. The ritual to try to communicate with the King of Blaze seemed impossible to be safe, right? Kurosawa Shizuki suspected that if there had been even the slightest mistake, the King of Blaze might have started fighting the Black Sun Cult on the spot.

"Although there have been some changes, it's generally fine. I'm afraid I won't have many more opportunities to use Father's power in the future. But at least Father agreed this time. If necessary, I can summon him to assist the Order at any time over the next three days. This will be a very powerful force. At least with the King of Blazing Sun as an aid, we don't need to fear a direct confrontation with Fujiwara no Kage before Kirigakure arrives." Asakura removed the golden mask that was clearly not ordinary, his expression calm yet sorrowful.

Kurosawa Shizuki saw behind Asakura's head, amidst the black mist that permeated the coastline, the body of the King of Blaze had actually condensed into a black Eastern dragon. Its scales faced the sun, its five claws were ferocious, its long whiskers flew, and its serpentine body coiled. With a long roar, and amidst the worship of many reverent members of the cult, the dragon rose from the sea, soared into the sky, stirred up towering waves, and finally disappeared into the thick clouds.

Although it was only a fleeting glimpse, Kurosawa Shizuki could still clearly see that the dragon formed from black matter still had the same human face as before, and was wearing that ancient golden lotus-shaped mask. This made the dragon's body appear devoid of any holiness; on the contrary, it only gave people an impression of evil and terror.

Within the dark, cloud-covering sky, a gigantic, strange object soared and danced incessantly. Thunder rumbled, a torrential downpour was imminent, and the dim sun sank to the horizon, its last rays, cruel as blood, drifting across the vast ocean.

It's hard to say whether the so-called King of Yangyan is a god or a demon. However, with just one glance, Kurosawa Shizuki was certain that she would have no chance of winning against such an existence. Fifth-tier beings have already walked the path of divinity. Even a long-lived being like the King of Yangyan, who was disqualified due to offending the heavens, still has an absolute gap in status compared to mortals.

"Kurosawa, from now on we may have to rely on you more often to communicate with the King of the Underworld. The mask I wear is called the Sun Flame Mask, and there is another mask that belongs to you called the Underworld Mask. Both are ritual objects used by the Order's princes and apostles to communicate." Asakura showed Kurosawa Shizuki the exquisite golden semi-circular mask in her hand, which indeed resembled both a human face and a dazzling sun.

"Huh? Why didn't I get that mask?" Kurosawa Shizuki wondered, since Asakura had only given her a set of royal robes.

“The Yin God Mask is still in the hands of the former Yin Goddess, which is why I said—” Asakura said through gritted teeth, “We are mortal enemies with that woman.”

"However, before we go after Mihara, we must deal with the Shindaikai first. This time we must make the most of Father's power. Heikyo is very important to the Order, and we must not let him be destroyed by Kirieko."

P.S., the King of Kagerou is roughly similar to a certain freakish giant in Death Stranding. Actually, the idea of ​​the black matter originated entirely from those freakish creatures in Death Stranding that were both liquid and solid.

Chapter 93, Section 93: Kurosawa Ai dreamt of the Red Death.

Ai Kurosawa was watching TV alone. She turned off all the lights in the house and turned the TV volume down to a very low level, pretending that no one was home.

Anyway, she can hardly see anything. When she is alone at home, she often does this. Although her sister has mastered the power of the dark matter, it is clear that her sister only feels happy in the light. Love is completely different from her sister. Love only feels safe when she is bathed in darkness.

She sat alone on the sofa, shivering, her cane lying casually beside her. She was covered with the blanket that Kurosawa Shizuki had draped over her before leaving, but the chill did nothing to lessen it.

From the prosthetic leg, she could still feel waves of cold touch and a faint itch. This was the phantom pain of the missing limb, as if her own limb still existed there.

She listened to the exaggerated dialogue between the male and female leads in a soap opera on TV, voices so distant they seemed to come from another world. She rubbed her eyes, tears welling up, everything blurry and indistinct, like looking at flowers through a fog. She had actually lied to her sister.

For the next few days, she would probably have to stay at home as a blind woman. Fortunately, since this was not the first time such a thing had happened, she had already meticulously imprinted the layout of her house into her memory palace. Even if she couldn't see anything, she could still move around in the house as usual and at least maintain a normal life.

Although she appeared to be listening to a television broadcast, she was actually quietly listening to the whole world.

The rumble of the train echoed once again in the vicinity, causing the entire apartment building to tremble and sway slightly. Kurosawa Ai remembered clearly that this was the twelfth train to pass by the area every day, indicating that it was already past seven o'clock in the evening.

The reason why my sister initially chose to settle here under the arrangement of the Anti-Suppression Bureau was because the nearby railway tracks actually symbolize the flowing life force in the occult. In the turbulent environment, even a great enemy would find it difficult to determine their location through divination or other supernatural means. Most supernatural means would be temporarily ineffective under the impact of the flowing railway network.

But Ai Kurosawa still often has those terrible dreams: the shadow of the great enemy roams the darkness, the lenses of His glasses reflect a cold light, and bloodthirsty fangs tear through the night sky of Heikyo. The whole world seems to have sunk into a suffocating winter. The great enemy seems to be death itself. He has never given up searching for the Kurosawa sisters, who seem to have become an unforgettable thorn in his side. If he cannot get rid of them, the great enemy will never be at peace.

At the end of each nightmare, Ai Kurosawa always sees the formidable enemy knocking on their door. All their struggles seem like a joke in the face of this smiling enemy. They will be erased from this world like their parents, and no one will remember that they ever existed...

"Sister...why haven't you come back yet?" Kurosawa Ai muttered to herself worriedly. Although she had seen an ominous sign about "reindeer" in her half-awake state this morning, she was quite clear about the extent of prophecies and was certain that such a death omen could not harm Kurosawa Shizuki's life. The reason why Kurosawa Shizuki's fate seemed gloomy in her eyes only meant that a greater threat was always looming over them.

Was it really because of that omen? If I interpreted the prophecy more clearly, would there be a chance to avoid it? Kurosawa Ai shook her head, shaking off this absurd thought. Meaningless self-blame wouldn't help her. If she misinterpreted fate, it might even lead to worse consequences.

On the television, the female protagonist suffers brutal domestic violence from her husband, her face bruised and swollen. She cowers in a corner, silently wiping away her tears. As the sun sets at the edge of the screen, darkness is about to engulf everything. The slender woman, under the cruel fate, has no chance to struggle. She can only silently await her destined destruction. With a bitter smile, she points a fruit knife at her throat. After hesitating for a long time, she stands up, takes the knife, and walks towards her drunken, unconscious husband…

Although Kurosawa Ai couldn't see the television screen clearly, she could always imagine such a scene by listening to the sound. Had she ever dreamed of such a scene in a dream? Kurosawa Ai wasn't sure. She had too many dreams, most of which had sunk into the abyss of her subconscious. Even though Kurosawa Ai had built a memory palace long ago, she couldn't retrieve every fragmented dream from the deep sea of ​​her mind.

Ai Kurosawa had many dreams in various shapes, but the final omen of each dream was the shape of death. It seemed that the fate of the sisters was already predetermined before the story began. They would all face inevitable death. No matter how many branches of history they went through, their timeline would always come to an abrupt end at some point, only the form of the interruption would be different.

Sometimes Kurosawa Ai sees death as a bleeding sun, sometimes as a black pheasant feather, and sometimes as a drooling wolf. But lately, what Kurosawa Ai sees most often is a moth lurking on a tree trunk in the woods.

Kurosawa Ai wanted to do something for her sister, but she always had to admit her powerlessness. She could see so much, yet she could hardly change anything. Her father, her mother—everything was something she had foreseen, but no matter how much she resisted, struggled, or warned, it was all in vain. It was as if Kurosawa Ai's foresight was itself part of the future's plan. Kurosawa Ai even suspected that if she hadn't foreseen all this, perhaps she and her sister wouldn't have ended up in such a state, sinking into the filthy mire of Heikyo. All prophets in the world ultimately foretell their own inevitable destruction.