Starting With The Sefirah Castle In The Anime World

In the end, the girls remained hungry but didn't eat.

The lingering nausea made it impossible for them to stomach anything.

Yesterday's events had also left an impression on Amamiya Ren, though not to the same degree. As long as he avoided meat, he didn't feel the urge to vomit while eating.

So, in the end, he was quite satisfied with last night's vegetarian dinner.

The next morning, he woke up early as usual.

But today, he didn't go for a run.

Yesterday's morning jog had only been a pretense to gather intelligence; it wasn't as though Ren had developed a morning exercise habit during his vacation.

After waking up, he soaked in the hot spring for a while, washed up, and got dressed.

Once he finished his morning routine, he headed to check on the action teams stationed near the danger zone of the hotel.

Not all the team members were on duty, some remained on guard while others rested.

That arrangement was perfectly reasonable.

After all, if everyone remained on high alert through the night, they would've been too exhausted to stay sharp by the time morning arrived. Splitting the shifts ensured they maintained their vigilance.

After confirming the situation, Ren made his way to the hotel entrance, where Sato Miwako had been stationed.

When he arrived, he found the heroic policewoman slumped against the wall, fast asleep in an uncharacteristically unkempt manner.

Seeing this, Ren quietly returned to his room, retrieved an extra blanket from the bed, and spread it out on the ground. Then, using the power of the Gray Fog, he carefully transferred Sato Miwako onto the makeshift bed and covered her with the quilt.

With that done, he left without a word.

He strolled through the empty main hall and sat down in one of the chairs.

The next wave of officers from the Metropolitan Police Department should arrive soon, he thought.

The bodies found in the drug lab couldn't be handed over to ordinary officers, they would need professional forensic specialists to handle the situation.

The presence of drug dealers actively researching new substances also required experienced narcotics officers to join the investigation.

Aside from the front-line special forces, most of the officers here will likely leave with us.

Tsukikage Island wasn't a large place. The only detective stationed here year-round was an old veteran, and the island lacked proper facilities to store bodies, let alone perform autopsies.

The bodies would have to be transported to Tokyo.

Moving that many corpses is no small task.

The interrogation of the captured drug dealers likely wouldn't yield much in just a single night. Besides, Tsukikage Island was only a small piece of the puzzle, just a stepping stone.

The real danger remained in Tokyo.

If we want to dismantle the drug network that's spread across Tokyo, we'll have to dig deeper into what these arrested dealers know.

As his thoughts drifted along, something suddenly came to mind.

The lottery.

The contents of yesterday's diary had been unusually eventful.

While Ren didn't fully understand the diary's evaluation criteria, he could feel that yesterday's events had been far more intense than usual, perhaps twice as much so.

Maybe… this time, I can draw a Sequence 8 potion.

With that hope in mind, Ren summoned the diary and initiated the lottery.

The massive roulette wheel spun rapidly, the needle circling faster and faster.

Eventually, it slowed and came to a stop.

The pointer landed on a single phrase.

[Lord of Mysteries].

The result wasn't particularly surprising.

His path had already been set, it was only a matter of what he might draw along the way.

[Obtained Source: River of Eternal Darkness]

"??????"

Seeing the message, Ren instinctively froze. A giant question mark seemed to appear above his head.

But after a moment of disbelief, he quickly processed what had happened.

I actually drew a second Sefirot…

"Did yesterday's diary really have such a big impact?"

The diary's lottery mechanism prioritized significant emotional impact. The greater the psychological shock on the diary readers, the better the rewards drawn from it.

He still remembered how, when he first obtained Sefirah Castle, he self-destructed to lure Shinomiya and the others into investigating him.

That exposure combined with the ripple effect on those who read the diary, triggered the most significant change in his life.

But for yesterday's events to cause the same effect as that first time…

Ren furrowed his brow and recalled the reactions of Kaguya, Nagi, and Ran.

Yesterday had ripped open the darkest corner of the ordinary world for them to witness—a corner filled with horror, despair, and filth. And beyond that, it showed them that the supernatural world was no less terrifying.

The shock of that revelation had undoubtedly shaken their worldview to its core.

Come to think of it, I wasn't immune to that impact either.

Even he had never experienced such a grotesque, visceral scene before.

"…Yeah, it really was a lot."

The emotional shock, the psychological distress, it had affected everyone involved.

And given how fate seemed to influence the diary's mechanisms, maybe it wasn't so surprising that he'd received such a significant reward.

And it wasn't just those three who were affected.

What if the diary also registered the reactions of the other girls?

If that were the case, then it might explain how he had drawn another source so quickly.

But if the diary acknowledges the emotional impact of others as well… does that mean a second wave of diary holders might soon appear?

The possibility intrigued him.

If more diary holders emerged, he would prefer to select candidates from the girls who had accompanied him to Tsukikage Island. After all, they were already somewhat familiar with the mysterious side of the world.

Still… let's leave that for later.

Ren shook his head, dismissing the thought for now.

Instead of continuing to sit in the living room, he returned to his room.

There, he used the Door pathway's abilities to block the door and seal off any potential intrusions.

Once everything was secure, he sat down, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes.

Focus.

A sensation of falling immediately followed.

"Plop!"

It felt like his entire body had been submerged in water.

Ren opened his eyes, but the world around him was pitch-black, an abyss of shadow without any discernible color.

He realized he was floating within a river, though he felt no discomfort.

I can still breathe normally…

As he slowly adjusted to the darkness, faint glimmers of light became visible. An inexplicable glow filtered down from above, causing the surrounding water to shimmer softly.

The river surged beneath him, pushing his body upward.

The invisible current lifted him until he broke through the surface.

There, beyond the river, he saw a familiar sight.

A majestic castle stood on the riverbank, its walls adorned with a faint, starlike radiance. The castle gates were wide open, as though waiting for him to step inside.

Sefirah Castle…

"The river flowing before Sefirah Castle… is actually the River of Eternal Darkness?"

The realization struck him like a thunderclap.

Had his own actions caused this shift?

At that moment, he could feel an unfamiliar resonance, a new connection between the Sefirahs.

If the Evernight Goddess from the other world saw this scene, she would probably lose her mind.

***

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