The Body

Memories drifted back, time and space receded, and as she gazed at the azure sky outside the window, Miketsu's thoughts returned to fourteen years ago.

Within a hidden space above the Three Realms, amidst a hazy, iridescent realm of light, the Ancient God of Darkness—the Heavenly Mandate Mysterious Bird with black feathers and golden patterns—hovered above the Torrent of Time woven from billions of threads of causality and fate.

Before the ancient god body of the Heavenly Mandate Mysterious Bird, two translucent figures stood silently facing each other. One was the Maiden of Mandate, dressed in solemn, profound black ceremonial robes with an indifferent expression. The other was Miketsu, clad in a white robe and scarlet hakama, looking completely relaxed.

At this moment, all restoration work had been completed. The divinity and humanity that had originally merged within the Heavenly Mandate Mysterious Bird were separating once more. According to their agreement, they were splitting back into two independent sides of a single entity.

"Phew... it's finally over," Miketsu said, scratching her head as she let out a long sigh of relief. Her eyes drifted toward the Torrent of Time below, and she couldn't help but continue, "Even though it didn't feel like long up here, the world below must have turned upside down by now."

"Yes. We have been merged for over a thousand years. The gods have passed away, and the mortal world has long since entered the era of mortals—an era similar to the one in your memories," the Maiden of Mandate said calmly to Miketsu, her expression as cold as ever. Hearing her words, Miketsu raised an eyebrow.

"Is that so... then I can't wait to go back and experience life..." Miketsu said as she began to roll up her sleeves, appearing ready to immediately cross the boundary and return to the long-lost mortal world. However, at that moment, the Maiden of Mandate tilted her head and gave a faint reminder.

"Do you intend to go down in that state?"

"Hmm? Otherwise..." Miketsu looked at the Maiden of Mandate in confusion. Then, following the maiden's gaze, she shifted her attention to herself. Seeing her translucent hands, she had a sudden realization.

"Ah, right... I don't have a physical body... No, I should say my current physical body is completely inconvenient for going down..." Miketsu said as she turned to look at the massive ancient god body beside her. Having been reborn as a complete ancient god, her true form was now the vast and majestic body of the Heavenly Mandate Mysterious Bird.

As for her original modern god body, it was gone. The reason was simple... it had been destroyed during the battle with the Great Snake.

'Tsk... this is a bit of a problem. I originally wanted to use my modern god form to stall for as long as possible, but I didn't expect that guy to go full power without saying a word the moment I showed up...' Miketsu muttered with a slight frown, her arms crossed. Unlike when she released her divine soul to seal Chang'e—where her modern god body was preserved and only her godhead was destroyed—her body had been completely obliterated by the Great Snake's breath during their battle.

At the time, Miketsu needed to stall the Great Snake to give Chang'e enough time to forge her own divine remains on the moon and send them over. However, against the revived, complete Great Snake, Miketsu could only contend by releasing her divine soul. A released divine soul could only be maintained for a short period without a vessel. To buy more time for Chang'e, Miketsu didn't release her divine soul and charge into the celestial realm immediately; instead, she went up in her modern god body first.

Miketsu had thought she could dance around the Great Snake in her modern god body for a while, or perhaps the Great Snake would fall into the typical villain's trap of talking too much when they have the advantage, allowing her to stall through conversation.

In reality, the Great Snake did have a lot to say, but because it had so many mouths, it could talk and fight at the same time without missing a beat. More critically, the Great Snake went all out from the very start. In her modern god form, Miketsu had no chance to resist and was forced to release her divine soul immediately. Once the soul left, her empty vessel was destroyed by the Great Snake.

So, while Miketsu's divine soul eventually successfully possessed the divine remains and she was revived as an ancient god, her original modern god body was gone. Her previous descents to the lower realm had relied on projections—projections powerful enough to materialize, but not true physical bodies.

The problem Miketsu faced now was that she had no body to use for descending. She couldn't exactly go down in her ancient god body. Because the energy scale of an ancient god was so terrifyingly vast, it was extremely difficult to contain. Furthermore, ancient gods generally disdained the tiny forms of mortals, so throughout the entire primeval era, no ancient god had ever developed a transformation technique like those used by yokai. Thus, Miketsu could not use her mysterious bird form to shapeshift.

"What should I do? I can't just keep projecting myself down there... Projections have such a poor sense of interaction; there's no sense of presence at all..." Miketsu said, stroking her chin in thought. Whether as a modern god or an ancient god, her authority did not include the ability to create a physical body out of thin air.

Actually, the Great Snake's abilities could have done it, and Miketsu had even devoured its divine soul. However, because she had been busy repairing the world for the past thousand years, she hadn't developed the Great Snake's abilities. Her control over them was incredibly shallow. Moreover, that specific ability required significant life deconstruction knowledge as a foundation. With Miketsu's current level, if she tried to create life, she would at most produce a giant sea cucumber, a giant amoeba, or a giant starfish... Since she had plenty of energy, she could make them hundreds of meters tall, but their life forms would still be primitive. Anything slightly more advanced was beyond her.

'Should I ask Eirin to clone one for me? But products from her hands might experimentally add or omit a few things...'

Miketsu was lost in troubled thought. On the other side, seeing this, the Maiden of Mandate tilted her head from one side to the other before slowly speaking again.

"Perhaps... you could try entering the cycle of reincarnation and then be reborn."

"Hmm? Reborn?"

Hearing the Maiden of Mandate's words, Miketsu—who had been deep in thought—suddenly had her eyes light up. She lightly smacked her fist into her palm.

The recollection ended. Miketsu's thoughts returned from the sky outside the window. She let out a yawn and looked at her solid, physical palm.

Fourteen years ago, just after her fusion with the Maiden of Mandate ended, Miketsu left her ancient god body in the upper space. Her divine soul, carrying her repaired modern god godhead, dove straight into reincarnation. Through that cycle, she was reborn into the mortal world as a human, regaining a physical human body.

To avoid unnecessary trouble and skip the boring years of infancy and childhood, she had sealed her own memories and abilities. It wasn't until a few days ago, when the preset time limit for the seal was reached, that it unraveled on its own.

Finally, Miketsu had awakened within a new body and a new identity, ready to face this complicated world once more.

"Fushimi Inaba... is it?" Miketsu murmured softly, looking at her hands.