"You have come."
"I have come."
"You have come after all."
"...I'm just here?"
After taking a deep breath and entering the gates of Takamagahara with maximum vigilance, the one thing Sū ěr didn't expect was to have such a Wuxia-style dialogue with the person—or god—inside.
When the other side said those three words, he instinctively gave the corresponding reply. Unfortunately, the words she spoke next prevented Sū ěr linguistic art from being fully realized.
"You knew of our existence from the beginning?" Ignoring Sū ěr bad taste, Think asked with a frown. She had already thought of too many possibilities.
"I watched with my own eyes as you fell into this world... and I was not the only one," the goddess replied calmly, though she didn't elaborate.
Twelve plain-colored ribbons radiated a faint blue spiritual glow, encircling the goddess's shoulders and sides. They didn't look chaotic or bulky; their mere presence added a sense of divinity to their master, even in this environment.
Amaterasu—she had to be Amaterasu. Even though she had never introduced herself to Sū ěr, Think was certain of her identity. She was also the god who had suddenly appeared and startled Sū ěr when he had cautiously peered into Takamagahara during his first trip onto the Milky Way.
A woman warm as the sun—at least for now, she was merely warm rather than fierce or scorching. Simply floating there allowed one to clearly feel the concept she represented, like the God-Core [Shin-zui] of a Old Zeus, a weak core with a physical body.
This perception only lasted as long as one didn't look down.
Silent wails. A flesh-and-blood body bound by iron chains, its skinless muscles carved with deep furrows, writhed desperately the moment Sū ěr and Think entered. It resembled a blood-soaked maggot. It didn't inspire terror, but rather disgust... and pity.
It writhed with all its might, as if trying to scream something, but the iron chain pierced through its throat ensured it could make no sound. This horrific scene, resembling some primitive ritual, added a touch of eerie color to the "sun" above it.
The Goddess was the Sun.
"So you've watched our every move?"
Think eyes grew increasingly dangerous. She hated the feeling of being watched by something disgusting from the shadows. But Amaterasu gaze was wandering, not answering her question.
"...Your grandson?" Sū ěr moved his lips, withdrawing his gaze from the struggling corpse below. He suddenly found he had so many questions that he didn't know where to start. "What was his name? Ninigi...-no-Mikoto?"
He waved a hand, skipping the long, tedious name. To be honest, it would have been easier for Sū ěr if Amaterasu had charged at them screaming the moment they stepped into Takamagahara. At least that would have saved him some brainpower. But like last time, the goddess simply floated there, her status as friend or foe still unknown.
"Ah... I once placed great hopes in him..." Amaterasu sighed suddenly. "I gave him the three sacred treasures and sent Takemikazuchi to help him pacify Izumo... but even with all that help, he couldn't do what he was supposed to do."
"A waste... just like his weak father—my son. He only knew how to run away," at this point, Amaterasu suddenly looked up and smiled at Sū ěr. "Did you know? The one originally meant to be sent to Ashihara no Nakatsukuni was his father. In the end, that cowardly man fled."
Unlike the Great Fox or some gods who stood on ceremony, this Amaterasu-Omikami spoke with surprising brevity, closer to a colloquial style.
"Sounds like a scapegoat," Sū ěr remarked sarcastically.
"Is he not?" The Goddess seemed in the mood to talk. "That man, whom even I found shameful, offered his own son to me as a sacrifice. So, I granted his wish: I built him into the pillar beside the Heavenly Floating Bridge, so he could watch his son achieve greatness step by step."
Sū ěr couldn't judge; he just felt his scalp tingling.
Whether greatness had been achieved, he didn't know. He only knew that this "Grandson of Heaven" was currently bound at her feet, without a single patch of skin, his tar-like blood constantly dripping into the void. Sū ěr wanted to tell himself that this was Amaterasu "shock therapy" to free the grandson from a curse, but this self-deception didn't seem to be working well.
There seemed to be no trace of sadness or pity in her heart. She described her son and grandson as if they were two unrelated strangers. This Goddess Amaterasu even spoke to Sū ěr in a tone of: "Ah~ you see, I'm so kind~ I granted their wishes~."
Even though she radiated warm light and appeared as a perfectly righteous god, everything she said and did was no different from an evil god... at least to Sū ěr. Whether she counted as an evil god in this prehistoric era of low moral standards, he didn't know.
[You were right. Amaterasu does not have the gentle and kind personality of the legends.]
Ah, not surprising at all. Isn't this the standard plot in modern anime and novels? It's well within the bounds of human imagination.
[True.]
Think voice echoed in his heart, and Sū ěr shared a brief exchange with her.
It really wasn't a surprise. To be honest, after stepping into Takamagahara and looking around to find only Amaterasu present, Sū ěr had a premonition. In a clearly abnormal environment, if there's only one seemingly normal or even sunny person, that person usually isn't normal either.
Takamagahara was a land of death. Compared to the scene here, even that "pancake" moon outside could be considered a paradise—this was the first thought that struck Sū ěr and Think upon entering.
The ground was littered with the bones of former gods. Many corpses, far larger than the massive form Takeminakata had once taken, lay on the ground, half-buried by the blood-red, gelatinous soil. Scattered here and there, many corpses showed signs of having fought one another—the final struggles before their end, only to die simultaneously at the last moment, one body falling upon another.