Quickly things began for the two opposing forces.

Instantly taking action, the Coffin-Borne God's Coffin opened up, allowing a faintly glowing green eye and a blue coloured arm to pop out into existence. Following this, it pointed the arm at Shiro who quickly broke into a sprint, sensing danger and immediately acting on his instincts. Good thing too, cause from above, many purple spheres formed from complete nothingness which then proceeded to bombard his moving form resulting in purple explosions occurring all around him.

To counter this, Shiro formed his barrier using Rashomon, then three seconds later he hopped into a 360 degrees twisting motion to throw his Spear at the Coffin-Borne God, the tip morphing into its jaw form with the intent of chomping into the being inside the Coffin. However, the creature closed it's Coffin lid and the attack got blocked, Kurogane being deflected from it's target.

'Tch, now that's annoying…' Shiro thought as he dashed forwards, flipping from side to side to avoid the plasma balls and eventually grasping his Spear's shaft while in mid air, rolling across the ground until he managed to get back to his feet, the barrage of Spheres having been halted. 'So, the real thing's inside that Coffin, and it's protecting it from being damaged… must figure out how it's patterns work then so I can time my attacks when it opens that damn Coffin lid…'

To that end, Shiro got Rashomon ready, summoning it into its true form as that Tendril with the beastial head. With it formed, Shiro launched Rashomon the moment that he saw it's lid beginning to open, intending to bite off it's arm since according to what he had observed whilst avoiding the plasma spheres, that the energy used for them gathered at that arm's hand. It had been something he'd been forced to do in order to effectively defeat the monsters without wasting too much power since, by his logic, he figured that he didn't have the opportunity to leave her mind and return whenever he pleased. Thus, quickly observing and defeating his foes became his main attack method.

As its lid opened, the Coffin-Borne God noticed the attack coming and quickly made to close the Lid again, however Shiro noticed this and quickly changed his tactics, having Rashomon target the LID instead by opening its jaws wide and then clamping down on it, resulting in it not being able to be closed properly thanks to it's head being in the way. As the monster tried to do something about it by grabbing onto the beast's head, Shiro acted by throwing his Spear again, this time keeping it in it's base Spear form and having it impale the creature inside where the eye was located, having deduced where the forehead would have been based off where the eye and arm were positioned compared to the average human body.

His guess turned out to be right though, since the creture's form vanished like the others did seconds after Kurogane had impaled it there, allowing him to retrieve his weapon and retract his Sacred Gear into his coat again. "Hmph, like I mentioned before, another weakling just like the rest of them." Shiro snorted, turning away from the space the monster had once occupied.

After Shiro had managed to escape the 'battle arena' (that's what he will call it now) he went up another floor saw the another door with an ankh handle, prompting him to pull it down and proceed to another room which had a bottom that was filled with sand, a broken bridge and a giant arrow launcher. Thus, Shiro commenced jumping through the bridge. He ignored the arrow as it was not important to him, jumping through another few floors and went through another door.

Along the way, he passed some Egypt jars and decorations, and upon entering a room the white haired male, saw what looked to be an altar with light energy entering it, attempting to get through the wall.

Staring at this, Shiro looked confused for a moment… "Ahh, fuck it." before he decided to just go 'screw it' and pulled out his Nightingale, using his divine energy to make an arrow, pulled back the string and finally released the arrow.

BOOM!

The wall broke thanks to this, with the following actions being how the wall that was blocking the light went to another area. As he felt something move from the area as he jumped another floor and saw that the light was going at the door as he went to it, it sensed his presence and opened it for him as he deducted an answer.

"So the light was the key to opening the door, huh? Impressive..." Shiro said as he went through the doors. At this point, he had confirmed in his mind that this place was just chock full of different puzzles that needed to be solved. With those monsters acting like defenders, and he was the intruder. Not too different from sieges made back in the Crusade, really.

Upon going through them, he saw that another floor was there as he jumped to it as he continued to run through the halls and saw something that was floating there, an orb. As Shiro went to it, he examined it to see if it's a trap or something. There were no booby traps so he took the orb and put it in his pocket. As he went to another floor, he saw another door and went to it. Another orb was there so he took it and went out of the door and continued his path.

When he approached another door he opened it, when he was in the room he saw the same altar but a different statue as it was turning in another direction instead of the door. "I see, maybe if I… no, I already took the risk and I was lucky that it didn't damage her mind. So, let's see if there is anything here that can help." Shiro muttered under his breath to himself. Afterwards, he looked throughout the room to see if anything could help him with the altar without damaging it. In the end, he saw two pedestals that had the same dog face he saw that the orbs had. "Hmmmmm... let me see."

To that end, Shiro put the orb he got from before as he put it in the pedestal and it fit, he saw another pedestal and put the orb there to see if anything were to happen. He was right when the floors began to tremble as he looked at the walls that were on the side pulled back and the altar moved its proper direction and opened the door.

Looking at the altar and the door before going to the door, Shiro jumped some floors and climbed some long stairs. Whilst climbing stairs and passing a door, he soon came across another enemy on his way, a dog head man with some wraps around his body and floating. Looked like an 'Anubis' as he had discovered through some verbal wordplay during a couple previous encounters with monsters of this type, not to mention that he was with two Nagas too, prompting Shiro to scoff. "More enemies. Looks like this one's going to take a while this time… actually, I have an idea. Maybe I can test THAT technique out now…"

Instead of using Kurogane or his Nightingale, Shiro opted to just release his Rashomon in it's true form, slamming it into the ground behind him. Inside his mind, the male shouted the following words: 'Rashōmon: Budding Bracken!' Following this, Rashomon surfaced beneath the three adversaries in the form of many long spikes, spikes which ended up impaling each of the monsters before they could react in multiple vital areas, resulting in their quick defeat before they could do anything to him. 'At this point, I'm more concerned with effectively destroying these guys than drawing out the fights and wasting both time along with energy. Now then, let's continue…'

With that thought, Shiro walked through some more corridors and entered another door, to which he then saw another Altar that would take a while to get there if anyone had patience but not Shiro. Since he had Rashomon, he launched it in the form of threads swinging around, resulting in him landing on an Altar. Once he did so, Shiro saw another wall that was blocking the light, to which Shiro just went ahead and destroyed it since he didn't have the time, nor the patience, to go through some damn puzzles.

When he was about to leave, something caught Shiro's eye, prompting him to turn towards it, As a result, his gaze laid itself upon… what looked like some sort of painting, one at the stairs by the door. 'Hm? That painting…' Curious, he went to see what it was, and upon doing so he got greeted by the sight of Jinako in an Egypt's clothing, with people in black around her as she was in tears while on her knees. Judging from what he saw, it looked like they were saying something as if she was…. "Bullied…" Shiro mumbled, his eyes widening as the possibility of things being MUCH worse than simply being attacked by an Apostle dawning on him. He then thought back to what Ganesha had told him, and a look of disturbed understanding crossed onto his face. "So, perhaps that's why they didn't tell her father all that much..." Shiro muttered as he went to another door. Passing through it, Shiro saw Jinako in front of him, on the ground and desperately crawling away from something.

"Jinako!"

"No no, get away from me!"

Upon hearing him, Jinako became a panic-ridden mess as she got up and ran away like something was chasing her as Shiro then went to where she was and disappeared. Shiro looked left and right for her as if she wasn't there. "Dammit! What the hell is chasing her?" the male wondered, growling in frustration as he looked to where she had been looking and saw nothing.

Guessing that he didn't have that much time left, the boy proceeded to run towards the direction she had run in, but not too long into this a bolder got dropped and rolled to his side. It would have flattened him like a pancake, had Shiro not pulled out his Kurogane and slashed and destroyed it. Before he could breathe easy however, another came after the first, which prompted the boy to get out of the way, and whilst doing so he saw a little hole in it. As such, he quickly went to it and crawled up it.

Before he could go to it, Shiro blinked in confusion when he came across some… coffins, and before he could leave the area instantly became dark, like most of the light in the world had been sucked away by the shadows. Furthermore, there was a red tinge, one which dominated the atmosphere, sending chills down the boy's spine similar to when he had been in the Eclipse. as he looked left and right before he arrived at a large battle arena. However, compared to previous times, it looked so much darker with what looked like some sort of ritualistic pentagon being drawn on the floor.

'Oh shit, this doesn't look good…' Shiro thought, soon being proven right when he saw blood coming out, similar to a splash one would make when stepping on a puddle. Out of the bloody splash came a mechanical-looking spindly leg, followed by another, then a large body, until it finally revealed itself in all of its entirety… prompting Shiro to grunt in disgust as he held Kurogane at the ready. It appeared in the for of a huge brain with various facial features, such as menacing eyes and teeth, mounted atop a cybernetic chassis with four mechanical legs and a Chaingun, making it similar to a spider at first glance. It looked at him before it screamed.

SCCRRRRAAAAAAAHHHHHH!

"...Ugh, fuck my life."

Holding Kurogane in his right hand, Shiro got into his battle stance. His eyes narrowed at the beast as he decided to have it make the first move, wanting to see what it could do and how he could exploit possible weaknesses. As such, the Spider-like creature's Chaingun made the first move as it repeatedly fired a burst of energy spheres at him that were cracking with electrical energy, prompting him to roll to the side instead of having Rashomon devour the space between him and the projectiles with its barrier. 'I see, so it favours ranged attacks then, huh…?' the white haired male mused internally as he saw the… well, he'll call it a 'Spiderdemon' since that was what he could think of as a name for this sucker. Especially since it reminded him of the Apostles he'd seen during the Eclipse, much to his internal fury.

Switching his Kurogane out for his Nightingale, Shiro began firing a bunch of energy Arrows using his Divine Energy as a power source, however what he did NOT anticipate was how the Spiderdemon demonstrated it's surprising level of speed by dashing out the way of his Arrows, retaliating with short bursts of fire from it's Gatling Gun. 'Well shit, I didn't expect that…' Shiro thought, gritting his teeth as head to force himself into dodging the rounds launched at him by the enemy and counter with his own, paying extra attention to where it dashed to instead of firing at it's position.

This repeated tradeoff between the two foes lasted a few minutes, before the Spiderdemon got tired of the stalemate. The Arrows had similar numbers to what its Gatling Gun could fire, but the amount of pain it felt from them when they hit it's hulking form gradually increased the more time passed by. The longer it dragged the battle on, the more of a disadvantage it would be in, its massive brain deduced so it hopped into the air and crashed downwards, surprising Shiro as he almost lost his balance from the shockwave the landing generated…

Although he instinctively used this to get into a side flip to avoid a curving laserbeam launched by it's Gatling Gun.

'A second fire mode?! I heard that some guns have that kind of thing, but this is…!' the boy thought before he noticed similar lasers being fired from multiple spots around the creature's body, mostly the main area which the legs were connected to. It followed suit by turning a full 360 degrees to try and use these lasers as makeshift energy blades to try and cut him apart, only for Shiro to put up a barrier via Rashomon and deflect them from his being with it instead. 'Tch, these lasers will be a nuisance if I don't do something to stop it from moving…' Shiro thought.

Just then, an idea struck him as he quickly switched out his Nightingale for his Kurogane, rearing it back and then throwing it at the Spiderdemon JUST as it had finished its movements. In mid air, the Spear's tip morphed into it's mouth form… and thus, it angled itself so that it could bite into the Spiderdemon horizontally.

SCCRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!

A huge howl of pain escaped the creature, though it got dulled by the fact that his Kurogane's maw covered the majority of it's face… though what Shiro REALLY intended was to cut off its eyesight and startle it for just a brief moment, intending to do something else with his Rashomon. 'Rashomon: Agito!' He yelled into his mind, summoning his Sacred Gear in the form of a long Tendril tipped with a massive head with an equally large maw… one which lunged forwards and bit through two of the Spiderdemons' legs like a hot knife through butter.

SCCRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!

A louder scream, slightly drowned out by Shiro's Kurogane, escaped the beast as it tried to smack the Spear against the ground to forcefully dislodge it from its face, with gradual signs of this working becoming apparent when the mouth form began to lose its grip. Along the way though, it began to charge up its Gatling Gun again with the intent of firing a laser at pretty much any direction ever, not something which Shiro would allow though since that kind of reckless behaviour risked damaging Jinako's mind.

'Time to get rid of you, then…' The boy thought as he drew Nightingale from his coat again, notched an energy arrow before firing it… right into the Gatling Gun's barrel just as it had prepared to fire.

BOOM!

This caused the Gatling Gun to explode beneath the Spiderdemon, causing it to go flying into the air and give a shrill shriek of pain… although this also had the side effect of finally dislodging Kurogane from it's prey to the Spear's displeasure. However, Shiro ran up towards it whilst slamming Rashomon in it's jaws shape into the ground to propel himself into the air, grasping his Kurogane by the Shaft. He then retracted his Sacred Gear into his Coat, before coming down towards the falling Spiderdemon with the intent to impale it with his Spear, finally finishing this fight.

That WAS what he had intended…

BUUUUT, that didn't happen since, well, the Spiderdemon landed upside down sure, but it seemed to keep the remaining front leg forwards to the right and the back led to the left, all whilst flipping its main body upside down so that it's former Gatling Gun would have been above the main head instead of below it, somewhat akin to a turret. As such, Shiro only stabbed the bottom part of it, not reaching anything vital like he had hoped causing him to scowl and bite back a curse when it threw him off by swinging its body around.

This also separated him from his Kurogane since he dropped it out of reflex during the fall.

Several grunts escaped his lips as Shiro grunted, rolling across the ground before coming to a halt and looking upwards once he had recovered his senses, only to see the Spiderdemon already leaping at him, fury roaring within its eyes as it raised it's remaining front leg to try and strike him down. 'So it can balance itself as well… whelp, at least this one's more of a challenge than the weaklings I fought before…' Shiro thought as he quickly threw his left arm forwards. "Rashomon!" He yelled, the Sacred Gear activating and forming a barrier in front of him JUST in time for the leg's tip to slam into it, sending Shiro sliding further along the ground.

Pulling out his Nightingale, Shiro made to fire some more Arrows at its eyes, knowing that it would be a big possibility that he'd miss due to how small they were and how fast this beast was, though he banked on it's lack of half its legs limiting its mobility to help him with this. However, before he could fire, Shiro grunted in annoyance when he saw the creature start releasing metallic spheres from it's main body, sort of like it were some kind of mobile tank that Karna had shown him once. 'Oh, come the fuck on!'

Luckily for him, Shiro managed to summon Rashomon again as a bunch of strands, having them stab into the ground and push upwards, taking him out of their reach as the spheres exploded like grenades after a few seconds. Instincts told him to take the Strands out of the ground too, so Shiro did and impaled the surrounding walls with them. Good thing too, because the creature's brain (once the main body rotated back to so that it's brain was upright) crackled with electrical energy that then spread all across the floor, making Shiro feel REAL glad that he had done what he did. He didn't want to know if Rashomon's damage could be passed along to him especially if what he knew about electric currents was true… he wasn't the smartest bookworm in the world let's just say that.

His skills lay on the battlefield, that would be where he would die, too.

In any case, Shiro knew he had to get this done quickly, he didn't want any more risk of damaging Jinako's mind to happen because of this thing, so he decided on a plan to end this fight once and for all. 'Alright, let's do this…' he thought to himself, retracting Rashomon into himself before falling downwards… directly on top of the Spiderdemon. Similar to before, only this time he notched a couple arrows onto his Nightingale and fired them at the joints of his opponents legs, having made sure to prepare good shots for them. \\

This time, things worked out like he hoped as the arrows shredded through the joints of the legs thanks to him putting a bit more energy into them, resulting in the Spiderdemon howling as its main body fell to the ground beneath it, unable to rotate itself to defend against his following attacks.

'Rashomon: Murakumo!' the boy thought, throwing his right arm to the side in which it got enveloped by the dark matter that Rashomon spawned from, becoming a long whip-like appendage tipped with a claw-like hand. He used it not on the Spiderdemon, though… but to retrieve his Kurogane then retract it back to him, allowing Shiro to grab it with his left arm, dismiss Rashomon, then position Kurogane for a Stab… one which impaled it in the brain.

One last dying screech escaped the creature upon the attack's inevitable collision… before it finally went dead, losing what motions it could have made as it disappeared, Shiro flipping forwards and landing in a crouch. He stood up, dusted himself off whilst retracting Rashomon and storing Kurogane into his Coat with his Bow (which he'd stored away after its previous use). He then pocketed his hands inside his coat pockets whilst he turned to glance behind him through the corner of his eye at where the beast once lay, a few words of farewell to his fallen foe escaping him. "I'll give you this much, you were more of a challenge compared to the small fry so far…"

Not too long afterwards, did the place start shaking, all before Shiro found himself back at the coffin room. However, it still rumbled as Shiro saw Boulders, multiple of them, rolling down for a while before it stopped leaving a trail. Shiro then jumped some floors before jumping on the boulders as he continued his path as he then dropped down the floor from the builder as he went to the door and opened it.

As he opened it he saw the alters lights going on a path as he followed it, when he reach a room he saw the altar was stopped by the wall and behind it was some kind of blank screen(again, he was filled in knowledge on the modern world) as he went around the altar before seeing some green egypt symbols before he pressed it.

It was then the area was filled the same thing happened when he fought the Spiderdemon. In front was a black mass before it began its shape, its skin was dark brown with the same red, dot-like design extending from his shoulders reaching down to his arms, with long, pale white hair reaching down across his shoulders. The most unique trait about him though, from what Shiro could see, was that his face resembled that of a gigantic spider with several eyes and spider pincers in both of his cheeks. Though, regardless the boy didn't take too kindly to this. "Great another one."

"STAY AWAY FROM HER!"

The massive humanoid roared whilst jumping forwards and raising both its arms for an overhead smash. However, Shiro responded by jumping forwards and sliding beneath it, resulting in him sliding across the ground and getting on all fours, twisting around so that he faced the creature's behind. Shiro then pulled out his Kurogane, reared it back before jumping forth into a thrust, driving it right… into the creature's backside.

"GROOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!"

A loud howl of anger and pain erupted from the creature's mouth as it twisted its backside back and forth, throwing Shiro away and separating him from his Spear. It then took the Spear out, looked at it for a moment before grabbing it's main end to try and break it off… only for a flying kick to slam into the side of its head with the force of a jackhammer, sending it tumbling away as the attacker grabbed the Spear by its shaft before it could fall to the ground.

The attacker, a rather pissed Shiro, growled. "I may be a lot of things, but what I'm NOT is forgiving… ESPECIALLY if you try to break what's mine!" he bellowed, summoning Rashomon in its many threads form which then lunged forth to try and spear the place where the large creature had been slammed into. However, the monster managed to get out of there at the last second, sliding beneath the threads before grabbing them after getting back to its feet.

'Uh oh…'

Shiro gulped as the creature pulled back, pulling the male into the air and flying towards it. Therefore, since this was going to happen Shiro threw Kurogane once again, this time commanding it's tip to morph into mouth form which bared its jaws open wide. The creature didn't give it much attention though, just simply backhanded the Spear away with no intent to touch it since the last time didn't work out so well, therefore it did that in order to get a good view of Shiro… who had drawn out his Nightingale and had begun firing energy arrows at its face. This caused it to raise its free hand to block them, but that was what Shiro wanted as he fired several ones to his side to reposition himself so that he would fall past it.

By the time the arrows stopped and the creature could lower it's hand, it saw that Shiro had already run a full circle around it so that he could pull on Rashomon's threads, causing them to wrap around it's legs and trip it up, making it fall flat onto its back. Retracting the threads to him, Shiro decided to go with another technique of his, wanting to finish this now. 'Rashomon: Early Blooming Sakura!'

Following this, Rashomon manifested itself from his back, taking the form of a tendril-like appendage, one which wrapped around the creature and lifted it up high into the air. Once at an appropriate height and distance, Rashomon exploded into several finely-developed flower spikes, shredding through the creature inside until the Sacred Gear retracted inside him once again. 'I bet it's not defeated yet…' Shiro thought as he observed it's form whilst having his Sacred Gear retrieve his Spear and bring it back to his waiting right hand. 'To make sure I win, I'll do what people call a 'double tap', bite off its head…' With that in mind, Shiro did just that, getting into a position where he could throw Kurogane at the creature's head from a reasonable distance, and then did so whilst the Spear's tip became it's mouth form again.

This time, true to Shiro's theory, the creature had started to do something but before it could do so his Spear bit off its head, stopping whatever process had been happening before it could even begin. With this battle done, Shiro was then transported back to where he was at the altar from before, though he didn't have much time to gain his bearings again since the screen began to buzz to life. A few seconds later, it showed a picture of a woman and Jinako. It looked like she was jumping to a car while Jinako was trying to reach her. It was then he realized what happened.

"She committed suicide… but why….? Of course, the Apostle. Could it have done something to the mother…?" Shiro muttered under his breath as the Altar began to move towards the screen, which then disappeared as the next door opened. Seeing that he could advance, Shiro got down to the floor as he began to run up the stairs again. At this point he approached the door before it began to open, to which he entered it. Upon doing so, he discovered that the room had two golden egyptian statues sitting down whilst it looked like they were bathed in glory.

Uncaring for this, began to walk through the hall before he entered another door.

Later

"Ugh just how big is this mindscape for a demigod?" Shiro complained as he had to run around for seemingly an eternity, looking for another way to proceed through this place. Back in his village, he had once heard a few females talk about how a girl's heart held many secrets, to which he had to wonder if their minds did too, definitely seemed that way with everything that had been going on.

As he proceeded to jump some floors, Shiro noticed a button and a crossbow nearby. Thanks to being slightly curious about them, he nearly touched it before pulling back his hand, remembering the part when that huge spider appeared. Perhaps something like that could happen again, so he wouldn't take any chances. This time. Therefore, Shiro pulled his bow's bowstring back at the wall and let loose a few energy arrows, destroying it. Afterwards, instead of any monsters appearing the light went to the Altar as it began to go the other direction.

Normally other people would go around solving puzzles, but not Shiro as he didn't have much time for puzzles, thus he jumped off the floor, then used Rashomon to get to the floor where the light was going. When he landed on where the Altar was, he followed the light through some rooms before he found himself in the same room as the statues. The light looked like it was going through some blue floating rhombus before going to the correct direction as Shiro jumped the statues and the rhombus.

As he ran through the halls and the stairs again, Shiro soon found himself at another screen and Altar pair. By this point, he had figured out the truth behind these screens, their purpose and their nature… though that didn't mean that he liked what he thought. This time though, Shiro's instincts prepared him for another enemy, his Kurogane already out and eager to devour some more.

Yet, as he reached out to touch it, his ears twitched when he heard Jinakos voice. "WATCH OUT!"

"?!"

Instincts activated in time, as Shiro jumped to the side, dodging what looked like a Pincer that had been swiped at him from above, having intended to end him by splitting him in half vertically. 'Tch, good thing I was ready just then, even if that girl's voice alerted me quicker…' The teen thought as he slid across the ground to a halt. Whilst he did so, the arena turned dark again but this time, it had some webs around the arena he noticed whilst looking around, before his gaze fell upon the form of Jinako trapped within a large web cocoon, save for her face.

Before he could move or do ANYTHING for that matter, a disturbingly sickening, almost feminine voice spoke, accompanied by a maniacal cackle afterwards that sent chills down Shiro's spine. "Hmmmmm, what do we have here….? An intruder, and what's this….. Ahhhhh, the pharaoh demigod."

From above, a large figure dropped down in front of Shiro, landing opposite him which allowed the teen to get a clear view of it. Whilst it looked goddamn hideous, it didn't faze him too much considering the shit he had seen during the Eclipse. The thing took the form of a huge spider that was the size of two houses, the face sporting multiple eyes as the mouth looked like an alien predator(A picture of one of the movies that a god had shown him) but more like a serpentine basilisk. Shiro's eyes narrowed when he saw green liquid spewing out of its mouth and the top body part, whilst it sported additional pincers on both sides, making about 2 large ones and 2 smaller ones. 'Okay, this fucking bitch looks disgusting… though it reminds me of those Apostles, so it's going to die…' Shrio thought, getting an agreeing grunt from his Sacred Gear which internally made him smirk in bloodlust.

"Hmmmm so, you were the one who destroyed my brethren. Impressive boy, you are the first to ever reach here, perhaps the last one to ever come this far."

"Spare me the details, I'd rather not look at you more than necessary." Shiro snorted whilst positioning his Kurogane, the Spear gleaming menacingly whilst he felt it shudder in his grasp. 'I say that, but since I'm not exactly at 100% at the moment, I'll have to rely on skill and perseverance to get out of this alive…' the boy thought whilst Kurogane's bloodlust leaked out of it. If it had its mouth out right now, then it would have been frozen into a savage grin with drool seeping out.

"Arrogant boy, just because you killed my brethren, doesn't mean I'm weak. I, Silitha, enjoy feasting on your body alive!"

In that moment, the battle began with the large spider known now as 'Silitha', abruptly vanished in a cloud of purple smoke, causing Shiro to widen his eyes a bit at the sight before he looked down when he noticed a shadow. Instincts told him what was going to happen in the next few seconds, so he jumped to the side and out the way of his adversary before she could smash on top of him. He had to flip backwards too to avoid a swing of one of her legs too, lest it smack him and launch him flying.

Stabbing Kurogane into the ground to slow his movements to a halt, Shiro looked up to see the creature having already closed the distance between them by moving across the battlefield, swinging one of it's pincers in a low sweeping motion. Of course, Shiro jumped over it, then summoned Rashomon as a couple threads to thwack away the second overhead pincer slash that Silitha launched afterwards, deflecting it so that it struck the ground beside him instead.

Afterwards, Silitha teleported away from him, giving Shiro the chance to retract the strands but then she appeared before him whilst flicking her Pincers in his direction, Shiro barely raising his Spear into a horizontal position in time to block them, as well as summoning two threads from Rashomon to halt the Pincers when they went for an overhead smash again. Not a second later, did the massive Spider teleport away again, intending to crush him beneath her weight once she reappeared above him…

Unlike before though, the teen was prepared for this. When her form appeared above him again, Shiro quickly summoned Rashomon in its true black beast form, launching it upwards from his back right into her backside. This caused a surprise screech to escape it as Rashomon opened it's maw and bit into her hide, causing a pained screech to escaped Silithia's maw as it tossed her aside, making her slide across the ground upon landing.

"You will regret that!"

Screeching this, Silitha teleported once more, appearing beside the male this time with her right pincer poised to thrust down at him. However, Shiro allowed the Spear he held to switch to its mouth form before it bit onto the Pincer with a strong grip, not letting go that easily which reflected how Shiro did the same when she pulled the Pincer back, taking him into the air with it. Of course, Silitha wasn't a fan of this development, so she tried to fling him down to the ground below after teleporting to the ceiling so she could squash him, however Shiro instead used his Spear as a pole to vault on top of the creature, landing on top of her head and then pulled out his Nightingale. He notched a few arrows, then let them loose into her head at point blank range.

PEW-PEW-PEW!

… To her credit, he would admit that she had a hard head which also made him think had a contribution to her stubbornness, since the arrows only lightly pierced through her skull and didn't in fact go through her brain like he had intended. Therefore, Shiro had instead made to put more power into his next Arrow, a risky move on his part, had Silitha not flung her head forwards at the last second which successfully flung him off. He then shot his arrow towards her, but she Teleported behind him to avoid it, forcing him to quickly put up Rashomon in it's signature defensive barrier to defend against the Pincer strike that followed. It DID send him flying towards a wall though, so he retracted the barrier and summoned several Rashomon threads, impaling the wall behind him like they were spider legs (oh, how ironic, he couldn't help but internally muse…) before he repeatedly fired arrows at his opponent.

PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW!

Arrows flew out in a long, wide volley towards Silitha who began teleporting all over the place, at one point dropping Kurogane from her Pincer which caused Shiro to pull out a Rashomon Thread to grab it by it's hilt then bring it back to him, that being his signal to store the Bow away in his coat in favour of grabbing his Spear's shaft (the thread retracting into his coat) before he had the Threads push forwards to propel him towards his enemy.

Seeing this, Silitha, who had attached herself to the ceiling, tried to swing at him with her left Pincer, however Shiro swung his Spear and deflected the blow, resulting in him getting close enough to her face…

For the following slash fest.

SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH!

His spearmanship began to show in that moment as Kurogane became a massive blur of motion, swings upon swings being landed upon the creature's face.

"ARGH! GAH! Stop this, damn you!"

"How about… no."

Shiro then got an idea, prompting him to grab onto his opponent by one of her horns with his free hand whilst he summoned Rashomon in it's beast form. The Sacred Gear then proceeded to act according to it's master's will and repeatedly smashed itself into the massive spider's torso area. Thanks to it being on the ceiling, these repeated attacks eventually forced it to be dislodged from said ceiling, falling down to the ground below. However, Shiro didn't let that stop him from his task as he launched Rashomon in the form of many Threads out towards the creatures' legs as well as her Pincers, preventing her from moving them or using her Pincers to stop what would come next.

Thus, Shiro reared his Spear back after forcefully yanking open the Spider's mouth then rammed it full force right through the top portion of said mouth, the spear piercing right through the top of its head and through its brain. His idea had been that, if he wanted to puncture this fucking bitch, then he needed to find a softer area, and the inside of the mouth definitely fit that bill if one asked him.

As the Spider's corpse vanishes and the setting returned to normal (Shiro having launched a few Threads from Rashmon to free/catch Jinako), he had to reflect on what had happened and the luck he'd had to pull that little stunt off. His idea, though he doubted that the now dead Silitha would have let him get that cose if he had approached with that plan in mind from the beginning, so he felt lucky that he'd thought of the idea on the fly.

Afterwards, he placed his Spear inside his coat again before he approached Jinako, who sat on her ass since his Threads had retracted into his coat. "You alright Jinako?" he asked her slowly, prompting her to look at him.

Following this, she gave him a nod as she gradually got up to her feet. "I'm….. fine, better yet I feel almost complete." she told him, confusing the boy.

"Almost complete?" As Shiro asked this of Jinako, he and her glanced to the side, seeing the screen before the Altar buzzed to life. It then showed after a few seconds, a picture of her and her mother had their hands up while on their knee as a huge spider on the top of the painting, it looked like the spider had a human head on the forehead, it was preparing to attack Jinako and her mother. "So it's true… you were attacked by a spider-shaped Apostle."

"A…. spider Apostle?"

"I'll explain it later, right now we need to get out of here."

"I see…. wait I know how we can get out of here."

"You do?... hold on." After hearing that, Shiro grabbed Jinako by her waist and lifted her into his arms with ease, resulting in him carrying her like a princess whilst internally noting how light she was. Needless to say, she made a quick squeak of surprise whilst Shiro jumped down to the floor below, the wind being knocked out of her whilst he then let her on her own two feet.

After she recovered from those quick movements, the dizziness soon faded from her mind whilst she looked at him. "You could warn me you know?" she remarked, pouting whilst trying to stop her heart from skipping beats.

Meanwhile, Shiro rolled his eyes at her, not really seeing the problem with his actions. "The less talk we have, the quicker we get out of here." he told her, proceeding to head up the Stairs with Jinako following suit, resulting in them walking side by side with one another.

Seeing that he didn't intend to apologize for scaring her like that, Jinakojust decided to move on. "Ok but first let me explain, for so long I have been tormented by those spiders almost everyday, trying to kill me, eat me, whatever. I don't know what they would do to me, but I didn't think it'd be anything good so I've been escaping them for over 3 years. When you did something to them, I feel like the pressure is gone, I feel like I can walk out of here anytime... but, somethings still holding me back." she explained, frowning in confusion at the end as she wondered what could still be trapping her here… though deep down, her gut told her that she already had an answer to this.

An answer only known to her and theorized by Shiro, though he didn't outright say anything about it and instead started to inquire about something else. "Where can I find this thing that's holding you back?" he questioned.

Just in time for her to stop walking since they had reached the top of the Stairs, thus Shiro did the same. "In there." She told him, pointing with her right arm to a green looking door that had spider webs covering it. However, when he looked it over, Shiro noticed something off about the spiderwebs there, some of them had begun dripping off like torn clothing rags, turning brown and wilting away like life was being rapidly drained from them. "You see these webs had been blocking my exit since those spiders have entered here. But now they're getting weaker thanks to you." she explained.

'Huh, so that must mean those spider things were part of what's keeping her from leaving this place…' Shiro thought to himself, a new level of understanding taking hold within him. "I see..."

Approaching the web-covered door, Jinako pressed her hand on a section of it that wasn't covered by the webs. As if responding to her touch, the door glowed as Shiro noticed that the webs were disappearing much quicker than before, like the whole thing was burning them off its form like a snake shedding its skin. Or a microwave heating up, that second one looking more feasible considering how the webs looked like burned cinders when they hit the ground. Finally, the door began to open before a platform appeared before them, prompting the two to approach it with Shiro at the front since he had been fighting this whole time.

Not too long into their walk, the platform began to go upwards as it stopped before they came to a room definitely filled with webs and small spiders going around it. 'Pft, more small fries. Not too keen on dealing with them and wasting my remaining power…' Shiro thought to himself whilst looked at the path in front of him. He eyed the multiple enemies walking around warily, noticing that they hadn't been alerted to their presence yet, before he spotted a floor at the top of their current position. 'Hmph, that'll work…' he thought to himself.

"Eek!"

'Women like to squeak a lot, don't they? Wonder if Brihanna was an exception to this…'

Instantly following an idea he'd thought of, Shiro grabbed onto Jinako's waist, pulling her close to him which prompted her to squeak again, though he didn't pay attention to this. Instead, he summoned several Rashomon threads to propel them upwards, several launching themselves and impaling the platform above to pull them the rest of the way. As such, the two were lowered onto the higher platform with his Threads retracting into his coat once more.

Whilst he let his new companion go, she aimed a mildly frustrated yet annoyed look at him. "Again? You need to tell me before you do it again!" she whined.

Once again though, Shiro remained unaffected by this as he rolled his eyes, pocketing his hands inside his coat as he proceeded to walk forwards. "Like I said before, less talk means the faster we can get the fuck out of here." he told her.

This prompted another exhale to escape from her lips as she slouched a bit. "Can you just act like a rational person instead of straight forward?" she wondered, though she still followed slightly behind him despite his words.

This caused him to glance behind her in confusion, one could literally see the question marks that formed over his head when he responded to her words. "What, at least it gets the job done faster."

"...(SIGH), now I know why mother said boys are so complicated." Jinako mumbled under her breath whilst shaking her head, Shiro not paying attention to this so he didn't hear her as they approached a large coffin. Whilst looking at it, Shiro approached the Coffin warily, cautious for any traps or anything of that sort due to past experiences with navigating through this place. As he touched it however, the floor began to shake before a hole in the pyramid was made lighting both of them up, like they were being engulfed by some kind of searchlight in a top secret facility. Following that, everything became silent, eerily silent as the two covered their faces to shield them from the intense light, mostly due to having gotten used to seeing without much of it. However, in the back of his mind, Shiro could feel Rashomon cautiously growling, which told him that something dangerous was nearby, prompting him to narrow his eyes…

Before all of a sudden, an eye instantly came into focus.

"JIIIIIINNNNNNNAAAAAKKKKKKKOOOOOOO!"

A loud voice, both feminine yet so inhumanely monstrous, shrieked like a ghostly echo whilst it's owner began to destroy the blocks of the pyramid from the outside. Loud trembles erupted forth because of this, prompting Shiro to use Rashomon to cover himself as well as Jinako, since they could feel the blocks breaking down and falling, before it stopped.

When Shiro uncovered him and Jinako they then got a clear view of it: It was… well, only an abomination, that's the best way that he could describe it… much like the countless Apostles he'd seen back in the Eclipse. The creature had the body of a spider, true enough, with a feminine body consisting of a waist, upper torso, arms and head protruding out the top of the spider body's 'head'. The whole thing looked completely black, being more than big enough for it's many legs to stab into multiple parts of the entire Pyramid. But, more than that… the body looked similar to the woman that he had seen from the pictures, making him realize that this thing could possibly Jinako's mother... but she, now looked like a complete MONSTER, those spider legs of hers being sharp enough to resemble blades whilst she sported two Pincers for her humanoid part's forearms.

"YOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUU WILL NOT STEAL HER FROM MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

(Play Persona 5 OST - Blooming Villain)

The woman/monster screeched at him, her human mouth opening into four to reveal various spider characteristics like the fangs and teeth inside, her face soon sporting multiple eyes on both sides making her human face resemble that of the spider face her humanoid form protruded out the top of. "Holy shit…" That was what Shiro muttered under his breath as he beheld this monstrosity, glancing over to Jinako to see her reaction. As he had anticipated, it wasn't pretty since Jinako had her jaw hanging open, her irises the size of dots whilst her eyes looked like they had expanded to the size of saucers, her skin tone having become paler than a corpse as her look of sheer HORROR reminded him of the first time he truly faced something that could kill him like swatting a fly. "Oi, girl, quick get to co-"

SMASH-SMASH-BASH!

Before he could finish issuing a command to his female companion to try and snap her out of it, the 'Spider-Mom' as he would now dub her as, quickly lashed out at the two, swiping her right Pincer towards him which forced Shiro to jump away from Jinako in order to not get impaled. Well, he COULD have defended against her strike with Rashomon, but by the time he'd seen her attack coming he didn't think he could bring it out in time. Thus, the dodge as well as the following dive roll to avoid the following diagonal smash from her left Pincer, and finally the back flip to avoid the double smash that came from both Pincers.

'Shit, now that was close!'

Things weren't looking good for Shiro, and this battle had already just begun. Lets list his disadvantages shall we? First off, the enemy dwarfed him in size, making it nearly impossible to strike at any vital areas thanks to the majority of them being in the humanoid body according to Shiro's past experiences with Apostles. Striking their human parts had been their weaknesses, something which he'd discovered during the Eclipse, not to mention they'd fought pretty hard to defend those areas when he had tried going after them back then. Second, the enemy proved that she could strike with more than just her Pincers, since two spider legs would come and launch wide sweeping attacks on his ass whilst on multiple occasions, the spider head would spew out either a burst of spider silk to try and immobilize him for a followup strike or a burst of acid that filled major portions of the floor. Luckily, it didn't melt the platform or anything, but from slight brushes with his skin Shiro had QUICKLY learned that human flesh wouldn't be so lucky.

All the while, Jinako had fallen onto her backside near the corner of the newly created platform. She could only stay there and watch, looking absolutely terrified as she saw what kind of monster her mother had been twisted into. "No… this can't be… mother…" She muttered to herself, her eyes trembling alongside the rest of her body as Shiro continued battling against her mother in this state, using a combination of Rashomon and Nightingale to try and target the multiple eyes on the Spider head that he had noticed would stagger her briefly. Pretty much played hit and run tactics, essentially, whilst doing what he could to avoid her massive AOE attacks which could potentially lead to fatal blows if he weren't careful.

'Tch, guess I have no choice…' Shiro thought as he figured now would be a good time to unleash his Armour's true form and power. Therefore, with a click of his tongue acting as the signal, his entire outfit started glowing in a dim light, quickly changing into it's true form as golden armour that covered Shiro's form. A surge of power swelled inside of him after he did this, as the next attack launched by the Spider-Mom slammed into him, though he hardly felt it this time thanks to the Armour's defensive properties becoming active once its true form got revealed. 'Yes! It's working fine…! Well, i'm glad though I'll have to end this fight quickly instead of celebrating like a little idiot since wearing this in its true form drains my energy with gusto…' Shiro thought as, after a momentary bout of confusion passed, the Spider-Mom shrieked with outrage again, quickly launching a series of smacks with her Pincers which Shiro tanked thanks to his Armour. This stunned the monster before him, stunned it long enough that Shiro managed to get a quick breather in before an idea struck him. 'Oh, now that could work!'

With a plan in mind, Shiro switched out Nightingale for his Kurogane, before he waited for his prime opportunity to strike. Said chance came in the form of the Spider-Mom slamming one of her Pincers down onto him, to which he quickly raised his Spear and switched its tip into it's Mouth form. As such, the moment the Pincer came close enough, Shiro made his Kurogane grab onto it by the flat sides with it's powerful jaw, stopping the Pincer in its tracks and creating a significantly large crater beneath the white haired teen, his legs trembling from the strain although he managed to keep himself together.

"YOOOOOUUUUUUUU…. BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!"

Obviously not a fan of this development, a furious shriek escaped her lips as the Spider-Mom howled, raising her other Pincer to try and stab into Shiro's form, too blinded by fury and a powerful obsessive desire to stop him from bringing Jinako out of this literal 'prison', acting as essentially like the 'monster within her mind'. However, instead of letting his Armor tank it, Shiro decided to deflect the blow by thwacking away at it with Rashomon in it's beast form, letting it then bite off a part of it within its jaws which caused the monster to howl in a mix of anger and pain. Utterly outraged by this, the Spider-Mom tried to spew her webbing from the spider head, however Shiro stopped this by using the piece of the Pincer his Rashomon had snapped off as a makeshift weapon itself, stabbing it right into the woman's spider head from the top so it went into the top and jutted out it's bottom.

Induced more screams from her alright, which at this point Shiro wanted to find out how he could cut through her vocal chords just so she could shut the fuck up. But for now, the boy glanced over to the quivering female whom he'd been rescuing, his eyes narrowing.

(OST END)

As much as he hated to admit it, considering his low reserves and that he had about 2 more minutes before this Armour would sap the remaining amount of his energy, he would need her help to fight this bitch of a Spider-Mom, otherwise they might as well kiss escaping this place goodbye and spend the rest of their lives here… something which he refused to allow to happen no matter what, with an image of Brihanna's comatose form entering his mind. "Hey if you stay like that you would get killed by that spider!" he yelled, that image spurning him further and adding a rather hard tone onto his words, an unintentional action on his part but one he didn't regret.

Especially since it wound up snapping Jinako out of her terror-stricken stupor, though the look of unadulterated fright told him that it wasn't smooth sailing yet. "I-I don't know, what should I do?! She's my mother!"

At this point, Shiro decided to throw discretion to the winds and appeared before her, catching the fear-stricken girl by surprise and grabbing her by her neck. He then lifted her so she and him were on face level whilst making sure his grip wasn't too tight to the point where she couldn't breathe. "If that thing is your mother then why is she trying to kill us?! Face it Jinako this is not your mother, if she is then she would've let you go and be with your father!" he yelled into her face.

"I-I can't, I just don't know how!"

BONK!

"OW!"

Having had enough of her bullshit, Shiro slammed a fist on top of her head with enough force to leave a normal human in a coma, causing a yelp to escape from Jinako though. That demigod physiology really helped her there. Seconds later (Rashomon having formed from Threads to deflect various attacks from the Spider-Mom) she regained her posture as she glared at him while holding the top of her head, a bump the size of his fist forming there.

Shiro didn't give a crap though, as he proclaimed the following. "Listen, your father told me that he trusted me to get you out of here, but I can't because of this spider. Do you REALLY want to still believe that thing is your mother or accept that she is dead?!" he bellowed. "Cause believe me, if you think that THING has any maternal instincts, then you must have hit your head when you were a child or you don't know jack shit about what a REAL parent would do for their kids!" Part of him felt a bit hypocritical for saying that, but Shiro didn't give a shit right now, since he wanted to wake up that fighting spirit that lay dormant within her.

Normally he DESPISED cowardice, but not only did this girl have potential in her just from her lineage alone, but he could sense it within her by looking at the girl with the eyes of a warrior. If she could just break through this pointless fear she's in right now, then things would be MUCH easier for the lot of them in the long run.

As she digested his words, Jinako gazed into Shiro's eyes, her own widening in shock when she swore she saw the illusion of her mother behind him, smiling down at her. This lasted only a few seconds though, before she closed her eyes and reopened them, no longer seeing her mother there anymore. However, the vision did leave it's mark as she gripped her fists whilst gaining a determined expression. "You're… you're right, that thing…. Is not my mother, she is a monster only taking an appearance of her…" she muttered, glancing at the Spider-Mom who just finished batting away the Rashomon beast but not after it had smacked her upside the head leaving her a bit dazed. Still, that just made her narrow her eyes at it as she finally, finally took a look at it in its ENTIRETY. Instantly, she began to grow disgusted with both the hideous sight as well as herself for even THINKING that this was her mother. "...my real mother is dead, this creature mocks her by transforming into this. I'll make sure no one mocks my mother and if they do, I'll make sure to put their head on a stake or burn them alive!"

It was then that a light appeared over her, pretty much illuminating her form to the point where Shiro and the Spider-Mom (who had been intending to continue her assault on the boy) covered their eyes as it died down when they looked at her.

(Play Rising of the Shield Hero OST - FAITH)

Gone were her egyptian clothes, replaced by ones similar to what Ganesha wore although her figure remained like that of an hourglass comparable to a female model. Furthermore, she now had four arms instead of two, whilst in her lower right hand was an axe almost similar to her fathers, a spoon in her lower left hand. Finally, in her upper right side was a strange weapon that had a blade on top and a curve in the middle of it, and a pot of….. Dangos?

Whelp, he didn't care much, instead Shiro focused more on the fact that she was ready for combat now. "Listen, I'll use the last of my energy to finish her off, can you distract her for me?" Shiro questioned, glancing behind him at her after strolling close to the wailing Spider-Mom who was beginning to recover from the light show. He switched out his Kurogane for his Nightingale, holding it in his right hand as he began pumping his remaining power into the bow whilst applying Mana Burst to it. Something which he hadn't used throughout the entire time he'd been in this place. Whilst it was usually active, Shiro also suppressed the Skill from activating so it could only be used when he wanted to use it. Thus, thanks to this instead of just an energy arrow Shiro's Nightingale now had a larger, more fiery Arrow which was twice as large as the normal ones.

Meanwhile, Jinako nodded her head as she held her Axe and other objects at the ready. "Yessir!" she proclaimed, holding her Dango pot in front of her. She then proceeded to pluck some of them out with her spoon and launch them… this action may have seemed normal to the casual observer, but when Shiro eyed those Dango balls he noticed a surge of energy dwelling within them. This energy erupted within, turning the Dango balls into energy projectiles that slammed into the Spider-Mom's various legs, causing her to howl in anguish thanks to the hits leaving searing scorch marks behind.

"AAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGH! JINAKOOOOOO! I KNOW I DIDN'T RAISE YOU LIKE THAT! HOW DARE YOU HANG OUT WITH SUCH AN AWFUL CROWD! THE ONLY THING YOU SHOULD BE DOING, IS OBEYING MY ORDERS!"

"Shut it! You're not my mom!" Jinako fired back, scooping up and launching more Dango projectiles at her opponent. These hit various parts of the spider legs keeping the Spider-Mom on the Pyramid. She didn't stop there though, as Jinako also jumped at one of her Pincers and rammed her head straight into it, smashing into the Pincer with enough force to blow it backwards before she brought her Axe down on the Spider head section, carving a deep gash into it though that was all she could have done before flipping off it and landing on the Pyramid.

"YOOOOOOUUUUUUUUU! TALKING BACK TO YOUR MOTHER?! YOU REALLY HAVE BEEN WITH THAT NO-GOOD BRAT FOR TOO LONG, HAVEN'T YOU?!"

At this, Shiro rolled his eyes whilst continuing to pump the arrow full of his energy, waiting for his precise moment to strike that would be provided by his companion. He even sealed up his Armour, putting himself back into his black outfit from before so he could focus solely on gathering the needed energy.

Meanwhile, Jinako formed multiple tick marks over her forehead, like the cowardly girl whom she had been before had never existed… Shiro had to internally admit, women could prove surprising on occasion. "Like I said, YOU'RE NOT MY MOM, YOU FUCKING BITCH!" She screeched, this time throwing her entire stash of Dango balls up into the air. Each one of them then fell down onto the Spider-Mom's legs like a meteor shower, smashing onto them with the force of an angry woman… essentially the force of a fierce typhoon.

Not a nice feeling to have, and also one which succeeded in dislodging the majority of the legs from the Pyramid.

With the loss of her balance, the Spider-Mom screeched in panic and fear as she tried to regain her footing, sliding down the Pyramid a bit before she managed to re-stabilize herself. Though, when she looked up, she noticed to her horror that the human head she sported was now much more level with the Pyramid platform… right alongside Shiro's notched fiery Arrow ready to be launched her way. Not to mention the glowing aura of power around Jinako which made the woman growl angrily.

"Nnngh! Jinakooooo… if only I had never birthed you…!"

"Sorry bitch, but it'll take more than that to bring me down." Jinako declared coldly, glancing over at Shiro with a nod of her head. "Shiro, here's your shot."

At this Shiro grinned…

And fired.

BOOM!

The arrow exploded into her now headless face as it spews out blood before it lost its balance at the pyramid and fell. Shiro and Jinako looked at her corpse down below, before the teen turned his blindfold-covered head and faced Jinako. "So, how do you feel now?" he questioned her, returning his Nightingale to his Coat.

Looking down at her right hand, her form having reverted back to the one he'd first seen her in when entering this dreamscape-like place, Jinako experimentally clenched and unclenched her fist. Her gaze showed him that she saw not just her hand, but her entire body as now alien to her, like she could hardly recognize it now. "I…. feel great. Like I'm finally... complete..." she muttered, though her tone implied she still didn't believe it completely just yet.

Nevertheless, Shiro figured that she would need time to accept this revelation, time which she could spend out in the real world instead of here, for the first time in a long while he believed. "I see, so are you finally able to get out of here?" he questioned, getting a nod from the brown haired girl.

"Yeah I can, all we have to do is cross that door." Jinako replied as she pointed at a tall door of light, similar in shape to the one which they'd opened to get access to this platform, that had appeared before them. Just before she could enter it however, Jinako looked behind her at him, blinking a few times before she asked whilst glancing to the side. "Will I… get to see you again?"

For a moment, Shiro began to think about what he could say, since he wondered about that himself. Perhaps they would meet in the real world if what he recalled before entering this place was accurate, plus she would likely be too preoccupied with the impending family reunion she'd be soon experiencing. "... maybe once we get out of here my job is getting you out of here." Still, he decided to put that aside for now and focused on the task at hand, getting this girl out into the real world and into the arms of her worried father.

"Ok…" She replied, nodding and seemingly perking up about that. Shiro recalled how Brihanna had once told him that when a man does something nice for a girl, especially as a first impression, he does leave a lasting impact on her. Therefore, what he did here probably qualified in her eyes even if he'd only done it at the request of another. Still, the following question she asked did pull him out of these thoughts for the time being. "You never told me your name… can I ask?" she questioned a bit timidly, her hands behind her back whilst she shuffled about nervously.

At first, Shiro remained silent, before he strode towards her and went past her, muttering the following words to her so only she could hear them. "... it's Shiro." Her eyes widened at this, but she didn't focus too much on it since she then followed him into the door as it began to glow so bright it covered the whole area.

"Uuuhhhhh... finally." His consciousness once again awoke inside the room he had been in when the elephant God had sent him into that pyramid maze. Shiro groaned as he got up from the floor, glancing to the side at the sounds of heavy footsteps which allowed him to witness an anxious Ganesha approaching him.

The man soon kneeled before him, placing his hands on his shoulders so their gazes could lock. Normally, Shiro would be uncomfortable at the close proximity, but looking into Ganesha's eyes told him everything that the God was feeling, and what he saw reminded him of human emotions so the fact that this God could feel them separated him from the Apostles Shiro had known, allowing him to be spared Shiro's wrath… though in all fairness, he likely wouldn't have been able to do anything since he'd spent all his power back in that fight. "Well is she…..?" Ganesha urgently asked.

Thus, Shiro nodded his head in response as he glanced at the unconscious girl. "She's good Ganesha, it won't be long until-" he began to say, only for the girl's form to start stirring from the realm of sleep, likely for the first time in a while.

"Uuuuhhhhh where….. Am I?" she mumbled, her eyes slowly opening which she found harder to do than she'd remembered, likely due to using some muscles that had not been active for a very long time.

Still, the sight of her being awake at ALL caused the God to develop small teardrops in his eyes "JINAKO!" Ganesha exclaimed as he almost pushed Shiro over when he rushed over to her side. The girl then began to sit up as her eyes flickered before her hands began to move around, trying to reach for her glasses. Ganesha, knowing that she couldn't see without them, handed her glasses as she began to see clearly.

Though, when he saw a guy with a literal elephant head for once, she looked like she was wondering if she was still in her little dream world. "A…. An elephant head?" she questioned, taking off her glasses and rubbing them with her covers before putting them on again.

The sight of this resulted in the God of Success to sigh in exasperation. "... hhhhhaaaaa, it wouldn't be the first time people said that to me but I'm glad you're alright." he told her, though through the exasperation the parental relief of knowing that she was alright could be felt.

Something which only confused her all the more as Jinako tilted her head in confusion, not understanding what this Elephant thing was talking about. "Who... are you?" she questioned him, though internally she also began to wonder… Why did he sound so familiar to her? Like she'd seen him somewhere before...

For a moment, Ganesha remained silent, his eyes showing the conflict raging within him as he debated on whether or not he should say the truth or not… before he finally decided on doing so since she had the right to know. He'd sensed that her power had awakened somehow not too long ago too, so that was also a deciding factor. "It would be hard for you to hear this, but i'll say it regardless. I'm Ganesha, God of beginnings, success and the remover of obstacles… also, I'm your father." he explained to her.

As such, Jinako's eyes shot wide open, a shocked gasp escaping her mouth as she covered it with her hands. For a moment, a tense and awkward silence overcame the room, one which caused Ganesha to fidget in discomfort since he could predict what the girl who grew up without knowing about him would ask him. His instincts came true when she finally found the voice she had temporarily lost from that revelation. "... where have you been this whole time? Why haven't you visited us?" she questioned him, not with a tone of anger like Ganesha had expected and somewhat hoped for, but worse: one of confusion and hurt, something which stung the God's soul especially with the growing dejection in her eyes.

Something which tore the God's soul apart as he tried to keep his cool. Though one look at him could easily show that it wasn't going all too well. "It's not easy Jinako I would've spent some time with you when I had the chance, but my duties as a God were stopping me." he told her, before proceeding to say something else whilst he had the chance. "Your mother… she knew everything about me, including why I left as I made sure she knew the truth. She was fine with it… with everything, despite the sadness I'd see in her eyes…"

After his admission, Jinako looked down at her lap, having adjusted so she was in the japanese sitting position with her legs spread out in a V shape. Still, her bangs covered her eyes as she took in the fidgeting God's words whilst Shiro remained silent, not wanting to intrude on this awkward moment. "... I've been wondering when you would appear, you know. When you would come and take me away from my relatives after how they have been treating me..." she told him slowly, her tone barely above a whisper as Ganesha's beady black eyes gazed at her in shock and confusion.

"... what? Treating you? Didn't they treat you well?" he questioned, obviously showing how he didn't understand the words she said.

Before she could respond to those words after a moment of uncomfortable silence, her form shuddering as memories played themselves in the back of her mind, Shiro finally decided to step into the talk between father and daughter. "Let me explain." he declared, getting to his feet before he walked forward. This resulted in Jinako looking up to see him before widening her eyes.

"You….. you were in my dream!" she exclaimed, pointing her right hand's index finger at him in shock whilst the limb trembled visibly.

Shiro nodded his head in agreement to this, before he sat on the far side of the bed. "Yes, but your dad will explain it later to you. Ganesha, I'll be blunt: they abused her, and it looks like there were other details you weren't made aware of. I've seen proof in her memories." he told the Elephant God whilst intentionally omitting the specifics. THOSE belonged to Jinako, so it would be her choice whether to share them or not.

Though with the look of horror and shock on Ganesha's face, those details may be coming to light soon enough anyways, as the God turned his gaze towards his daughter. "... what? They did what to her? Jinako, is it true?" he asked her, hoping that Shiro was making this up.

"I…"

"It's alright Jinako, just tell me."

"... Yes, they blamed me for mom's death. They kept saying that I caused her death, saying I shouldn't exist." she explained, looking down as she hugged the pillow closer to her chest whilst trying not to break down from the memories. She'd sworn to make those who hurt her mother pay dearly after all. "They'd do horrible things because of that: beat me… take my first from me... lock me in my room, didn't let me eat or bathe for long periods… I felt like an animal back then, not a person…" she admitted, causing BOTH males to go wide eyed in horror. Even Shiro. "When mom died… I felt something prickle me when I escaped… I didn't know what it was, but about a year later I… I just blacked out. Next thing I know, I'm in that dream…"

'...Holy shit, I had thought that she had bad experiences, but THAT bad…?!' The boy thought, genuinely shocked and appalled. For the first time, he felt glad to be an orphan, if parents were capable of this. It usually took a lot to surprise him, but this definitely succeeded in that.

On the other hand, Ganesha's face turned tomato red in rage, his fists tightening to the point where they sported multiple veins thanks to the fury of a pissed off father rushing through his veins. He could hardly believe it, his daughter was abused by the people he trusted to take care of her in his absence… made him wonder why his wife hadn't said anything about the depths of their potential for cruelty, but that wasn't important for him. Jinako, his little girl, she'd gone through all that without him being any the wiser! "Those bastards! When I see them I'll-"

"Calm down son or else you'll scare my granddaughter."

They turned their back to see who spoke, he had four arms, a pair on top of his shoulders. He has three eyes that are shown when he's calm. There are also those stripes of bandanas crossing his head. His trousers are baggy and airy and he had no shoes. His hair is green and black hair which looks more bluish. He has a sharp eye possessing bottomless divinity and limitless superiority that causes people to shiver in fear. Though, right now Ganesha's fatherly rage prompted him to speak up despite this presence. "Father, these people abused her, kept this a secret from us!"

"I know, and you have the right to be angry Ganesha, but right now your divinity is leaking out almost causing a storm in our territory. Calm down and act like a god of wisdom." The man stated sternly, crossing his arms under his chest as he radiated an aura of authority around him.

Something which forced the angry God to start coming back to his senses, lest he do something far worse than vent his well-deserved parental fury on helpless innocents. "...(INHALE)(EXHALE) your right father, I should act like a wise God. But, my little girl…"

Seeing Ganesha's distraught state, the man nodded his head in agreement to this as he made the following statement. "She is awake now Ganesha that's all it matters. Nevertheless, it's been proven that these people have committed a sin big enough that we cannot ignore. Therefore, in the name of my name SHIVA, I CURSE THOSE PEOPLE WHO HAVE NOT LOVED MY JINAKO TO NEVER REACH SUCCESS, THEY WILL NEVER REACH PARADISE FOR THEY NOW BELONG TO NARAKA!"

Following this declaration, Shiro could feel the power from Shiva as he began to sweat in fear. A loud, thunderous explosion was heard big enough for the whole people that are in heaven to hear, prompting them to sweat bullets whilst a few wondered who could have caused lord Shiva's anger.

Meanwhile, back in the room Jinako's eyes widened as she heard that Shiva cursed the people who abused her, before the God who was apparently her grandfather went to her side. "Remember Jinako, no matter what there are people who care about you." he told her gently, a small but affectionate smile on his face as he pulled her into a warm hug.

The following surge of warmth pretty much broke the damn inside of her, prompting Jinako eyes to become wet with unshed tears. Tears filled with happiness and joy to see the love she finally gets after being with her other relatives for so long. "Thank you…." she mumbled into the God's embrace, relishing in the moment for all that it was worth.

A moment or two later, the two separated as Shiva began to address her in a grandfatherly manner. "Now, why don't you and Ganesha spend some time in Mount Kailash? I'm sure that Paravati will be excited to see you finally awake. I'm sure that you and Ganesha need to catch up."

"As you wish father, come Jinako let's go see your grandmother. I'm sure she would love to see you."

"... Alright, dad." Jinako then got off her bed as she wobbled when her father caught her to get her balanced. Looked like she would need time to get used to her body again, since it hadn't been properly used for a long time now, the girl noticed as well as her father.

Still, this didn't bother them as they then walked out of the room leaving Shiro and Shiva alone.

Turning to him, Shiva spoke to Shiro with a grateful smile on his lips. "Young man, I thank you for awakening my granddaughter, you have no idea how much this means to use, I knew you were the right person who can fix her."

"... I did this only because it would speed up the recovery of Brihanna nothing else." he replied coolly, however if one looked into his eyes like Shiva did, it would show that there was slightly more to it than that.

Still, he didn't press for those feelings for now, opting to address the more current issue at hand here. "Ahhhh Arjuna's descendant, a noble cause that will be fraught with hardships, I fear. Still, Paravati will be happy to see her granddaughter, I can imagine it already. Oh can't forget Kali and Durga, they would absolutely love to see her. Anyway still this debt will not go unpaid."

"...How can I even receive a god's debt if they can't honor it?"

"Hah! Some gods are prideful and arrogant that they would not honor it, but not us. We Hindu Gods will honor it because we will never break our words, you have earned your rights to receive the Brahmastra!"

Shiva put his finger on Shiro's head as he received the energy that flooded into him before Shiva pulled his hand as Shiro looked at his red aura as he could feel new energy in him. Thus, it prompted him to question the God on what the heck he had done to him just now. Not to mention why his Rashomon seemed to almost purr like a kitten regarding it, seemingly appreciating the gesture. "What…. Is this?"

"The Brahmastra, an astra made by my fellow Trimurti Brahma, this astra is also given to Karna, your ancestor. This astra will help you a lot, young man, but be warned: this astra can be dangerous if you're not careful when you're in a populated area. Its power is so great it can destroy a high ranking god if not an ultimate god level, so use it carefully young man, train it with Karna to control it."

"... I will."

AN:

Yo, hunter here, and welcome to the next Frenzy chapter. Not going to lie, whilst the fight scene with the final monster leaves a bit to be desired if you ask me, I'd say it's a decent one considering this is the first time I tried anything like this. Shiro also now has a similar Astra to what Karna once had, though unlike him his version won't be cursed so he has more free reign on its use. Furthemore, now Jinako has been freed and has had a past similar to Futaba Sakura from Persona 5. This also concludes this arc, everybody. Hope you like and look forward to the next chapter.

PEACE OUT!

Ahhhh man this was exhausting!... My name is Darklord, bringing you another chapter of the series! Now like what my partner said about the astra he can use it but on less populated are or another dimension like the rating game, it can cause a massive destruction if he is not careful so he won't use it often unless he has to. For the appearance of Shiva, think Record of Ragnarok, you should see it. I recommend it, and Ganesha's form is from the SMITE game. For Jinakos power it's similar to her fate and SMITE so we won't spoil it, you'll have to wait and see. Alright thank you reading our story, be sure to leave a review if you want and I'll see you next time!

GOOD LUCK!