We marched numbly through the dead silence and blood-red expanse, as if crossing the span of several centuries. When a faint, eerie twilight finally broke at the edge of my vision, a massive, dilapidated stone torii gate loomed ahead at the end of the floral sea—ancient, ruined, and radiating an oppressive aura that severed it from the mortal world. At that moment, the shrine maiden came to a slow halt. She turned slightly, extending her other hand to point toward the depths beyond the gate, the black tears glistening even more sharply in the dim light. In a flash, the invisible threads that had shackled my flesh snapped without warning, and familiar sensation flooded back into my limbs. Bursting with a mix of wild ecstasy and terror, I used every ounce of my strength to violently fling away her ice-cold hand. Without daring to steal a single glance at her expression, I sprinted frantically like a madman toward the only light ahead, pouring all my will into the run past the gate.