The scent of decaying leaves mixed with damp soil seeped into her nose.
The stench of blood assaulted the fox-girl’s fraying nerves.
Sanjouno Haruhime’s consciousness drifted in the cold, her blurred vision barely managing to focus on the pairs of murky beastly eyes not far away.
They were large monsters—boar-headed humanoids.
These creatures were round and bulky, with brown skin and the heads of pigs.
Tattered scraps of aged hide hung around their waists like ragged skirts.
“Ugh…” A frail whimper slipped from her cracked lips, mingled with tears of despair.
The young Sanjouno Haruhime could not understand why this was happening.
Just two days ago she had been the cherished daughter of a noble household.
She had done nothing wrong, yet she was suddenly cast out of her home.
And now she was about to become food for monsters.
“Amaterasu…
anyone…” Her throat was hoarse from crying.
As an ordinary person who had never received a god’s blessing, she had no way to fight these monsters.
“Help…
someone, please save me…” But within this dense forest, only the occasional roar of wild beasts answered her.
The boar-men around her let out low, meaningless grunts.
Drool dripped onto the ground as they anticipated a feast.
It’s over!
At that moment of utter despair— Bzzz!
The world fell silent.
Invisible ripples bloomed from the void.
A strand of emerald radiance manifested abruptly, then drifted swiftly into the girl’s slightly parted lips.
—The Crimson Pearl Immortal Grass melted the instant it entered.
Cool, sweet essence rolled down her throat.
Haruhime heard a thunderous roar within her body, as though an endless stars had been poured into her veins.
An indescribable tremor surged through every inch of skin and flesh.
The weakness in her body was swept away with ease, replaced by unprecedented clarity and strength.
In the unseen depths, the fox-girl sensed a strange connection being established.
“G-God…?” Haruhime’s lips trembled, her voice so hoarse it was barely a sound at all.
Yet the despair in her eyes had been replaced by disbelief, ecstasy, and reverence.
Gods existed.
They descended from Heaven to the mortal world, living alongside adventurers and forging the legends of their familias—this was common knowledge among all intelligent beings on the continent.
There was no doubt.
She had been noticed by a noble god.
“I will borrow your body for a moment, little fox.” The voice was clear and resonant, carrying the echo of the heavens as it descended into her spiritual world.
Haruhime’s tear-filled eyes widened.
Within the depths of her mind, a phantom figure clad in dark robes and crowned in gold stood with hands clasped behind his back.
Exquisite ornaments hung at his waist.
In his eyes were reflected a triple-layered world encircled by sun, moon, and stars.
“Y-Your name…?” “Tian’el.
The full title is too long—remember it later.
First, we clear the field.” “I understand!
Please use Haruhime as you wish!” As the daughter of a shrine family who had been trained in Shinto rites since childhood, she naturally understood what divine descent meant.
Without hesitation, she opened her body and mind completely, surrendering control.
In the next breath, her slender frame was enveloped in gentle golden light.
Tian’el opened the fox-girl’s emerald eyes, observing this brand-new world with faint curiosity.
“Roar!” The leading boar-man, enraged by the sudden change, let out an earth-shaking bellow.
Its thick arm tore through the air with violent force, reaching for Haruhime’s head!
“Tsk…
brainless fool.” Clicking his tongue in mild annoyance, Tian’el directly invoked his core authority—the Power of High Heaven—to guide this body in digesting the vitality of the Crimson Pearl Immortal Grass.
As an extension of the Celestial Emperor’s status, the Power of High Heaven allowed Tian’el to interfere with anything nominally belonging to him, deepen his dominion over concepts that were truly his, and weave those governed concepts together into something entirely new.
To govern heaven, earth, and even the air itself—within the Three Realms and Six Paths, nothing lay beyond a world’s Celestial Emperor.
That was, if title and reality fully matched…
Regardless, merely aiding a mortal girl in refining the essence of a single heavenly immortal grass was effortless for Tian’el.
Though such spiritual herbs were abundant in the Heavenly Realm, each contained a vast quantity of high-grade vitality.
For an ordinary human, it was a treasure beyond imagination.
Now reduced to an observer, Sanjouno Haruhime felt the transformation within her body.
It was like parched earth receiving heavenly rain, like a dormant volcano erupting with molten lava!
Her bones cracked sharply.
Her muscle fibers were reforged and strengthened.
Streams of blazing light flowed through her meridians!
Her five senses expanded in an instant.
The world seemed to shed its disguise before her eyes, revealing the surging veins of energy beneath!
“Disgusting things…
disappear.” Just as the boar-man’s arm was about to seize its prey, it suddenly felt the world overturn— It had been lifted single-handedly by a petite fox-girl.
Boom!!!
In the next moment, her fist exploded with mountain-shattering force, transforming into a visible azure storm.
More than a dozen boar-men did not even have time to scream before they were blown apart into a rain of flesh.
Tian’el frowned slightly in distaste.
A ring of pure golden radiance, visible to the naked eye, spread outward from the fox-girl!
Wherever the light passed, the air hissed as if purified.
The mangled remains of the boar-men melted like snow beneath the sun, dissolving into the most primitive dust.
The entire process happened in the blink of an eye.
When the light faded, only a spotless clearing remained—as if those vicious monsters had never existed.
“Lord God…” Haruhime cried out in astonishment within her mind.
Tian’el did not respond, because the matter was not yet finished.
At the very instant the boar-men had lunged, dozens of greedy eyes had been watching from the bushes on the other side of the forest path.
They were armed ruffians with vicious faces.
Originally intending to take advantage of the boar-men, they had witnessed this unimaginable scene and were now frightened out of their wits, attempting to slip away quietly.
Tian’el raised an eyebrow.
Recalling the plot of the light novel Danmachi, he knew these were the thieves who, in the original story, would sell Haruhime to the Ishtar Familia.
The scum who sold an eleven-year-old girl into the Pleasure Quarter.
What more needed to be said?
The fox-girl raised a finger and flicked it lightly.
Snap.
A ripple formed in the void.
The locked-on thieves instinctively stiffened.
Turning back in terror, they saw moonlight pierce through sparse clouds, illuminating the fox-girl who should have been devoured—cloaking her in a sacred halo.
Golden fox ears trembled faintly.
In those emerald slit pupils, there was no longer weakness or panic—only cold indifference and divine majesty, as though gazing down upon ants.
“Spare us!
Divine Lord, spare us!
We never intended to harm your familia!” The leader of the thieves let out a shrill scream.
Realizing the situation, he dropped to his knees with a thud.
But it was already too late.
Haruhime—or rather, the Celestial Emperor temporarily inhabiting her body—was not the sort of existence who would grow soft-hearted simply because villains begged for mercy.
This world possessed souls and reincarnation.
All sins would be reckoned with after death.
Therefore, Tian’el had only one thought now—to send them to meet the god of death.
The ripple in the void swept outward.
The thieves did not even have time to groan before their bodies stiffened and collapsed to the ground.
Extreme terror lingered in their eyes as the light of life vanished.
The “girl” brushed her hands together cleanly, as though dusting off dirt.
After finishing everything, Tian’el’s divine consciousness wavered slightly and separated briefly from Sanjouno Haruhime’s awareness.
A powerful wave of dizziness struck at once.
Haruhime staggered, steadying herself against a nearby tree trunk before managing to stand upright.
She looked at the corpses on the ground, already rapidly losing their warmth.
Her heart still pounded wildly.
Her fox tail bristled, her mind burning hot.
Lord God…
Lord God…
so powerful…
so merciful…
to personally act and save someone as useless as me…
Half a minute later, the fox-girl finally regained her senses from the series of upheavals.
Turning toward the empty air before her, she knelt down in the most devout posture, her forehead pressed firmly against the cold earth.
“Lord God, thank you for saving my life!
Haruhime has no way to repay you.
I am willing to offer this body and this heart, for all eternity, to serve at your side and dedicate everything to you!” “Please allow Haruhime to become your personal shrine maiden, to spread your honored name throughout this mortal world.” Under the moonlight, the fox-girl bowed deeply, swearing in the most solemn tone.
Her golden tail swayed gently behind her, betraying her nervousness.
As the daughter of a shrine family, Sanjouno Haruhime had undergone training for clergy since childhood.
Had no accident occurred, she would naturally have inherited her father’s duties and become a miko serving Amaterasu.
Though all of that had now turned to ashes, the vast sea of Shinto knowledge she had learned remained.
This was the only way she could think of to repay Tian’el.
Otherwise, how could an ordinary mortal ever reach a god who stood high above all things?
“A shrine maiden…” Tian’el’s consciousness regarded the fox-girl, far younger than in his memories.
She could be considered the most overpowered support in the entire Danmachi storyline.
The blessing system of this world was said to hold the potential for godhood.
Yet the highest level ever achieved in history was only Level 9.
Haruhime’s magic—Uchide no Kozuchi—could, at critical moments in battle, forcibly raise the level of her companions.
As her own strength increased, both the duration and number of targets of the spell would continue to grow.
This was also the source of her suffering in the original story—the beauty goddess Ishtar, upon obtaining her, had been overjoyed.
She intended to sacrifice her as a one-time consumable item to mass-produce the effect of Uchide no Kozuchi and defeat another beauty goddess, Freya.
At that thought, Tian’el could not help but feel a trace of pity.
“Very well.
As you wish.” The young man’s voice softened slightly.
“I bestow upon you the title Supreme Emperor of the Purple Pole High Heaven and the Mysterious Great Firmament.
You may abbreviate it as the Sovereign of High Heaven.” This was the honorific that had naturally formed from the laws of the Three Realms after he bore the position of Celestial Emperor within the Vast Expanse.
In legend, the heavens possessed Nine Wilds.
Among them, High Heaven occupied the center—the dwelling place of the Celestial Emperor, supreme above all.
The Vast Expanse had initially seemed to evolve toward that direction.
Yet something had gone wrong midway, causing the Nine Wilds to fail in their formation, ultimately merging into one.
Of course, no matter how underdeveloped the Heavenly Realm might be, Tian’el remained the sole Celestial Emperor who wielded all authority.
Compared to this world, where divine authority was divided among numerous gods…
He felt he could defeat those freeloaders with one hand alone!