I went closer to the sleeping figure.
"No guards, no words. Just you, Sacred One. Sleep in Peace, Shinki-Sama."

I looked over to the table, and opened the book. It is her notes of her creations.

I flipped through the pages, after seeing the contents. Sara, Louise, Elis, Yumeko and even Alice Margatroid... They're all her creations?

But then I see one page in particular. The Mystic City's Soul of Nature.

"The Soul of Nature, despite it's size, is a very important piece to finish the creation of Makai, and The Mystic City, consisting of 8 elements, namely Light, Dark, Fire, Water, Earth, Ice, Thunder and most importantly, Time. The reason the Mystic City looks so well maintained is because of the effect of the Soul's time element which I used to freeze it's state. It has been centuries now, while in Gensokyo... That Land that I wished for my people to be able to gain entry... I don't know how much time passed there. If anyone ever finds this note, it means that I am already asleep. If you ever find the soul in my grasp, do not ever attempt to separate it from my touch. Never tell anyone about the existence of it in my grasp, tell them that it is buried in the Ruins of Vina, somewhere in the Mystic City, or even say that I have dropped it into the Sanzu River in Gensokyo. The soul must not be separated."

So that's the reason why the city looks so well maintained, neat and tidy despite the lack of people living. Makai's Soul of Nature managed to preserve it all. It is, undoubtedly Shinki's greatest creation... And the most fragile one at that. Everything we've seen is an illusion, on top of it all.

As I finished reading, I see Daiyousei walking closer to the sleeping goddess, and she slowly reached out her hand.

"Dai, don't touch--"

But it's too late, her nails touched the soul, and it shatters into pieces. Daiyousei widened her eyes in shock, as Shinki then raised her head to look at us, opening her eyes for a bit.

As we stare at her gaze, the room is filled with a bright light which blinded us.

It took a couple of seconds for the light to dissipate, and when we open our eyes we see what happened.

The room looks like it has been abandoned for eons, with cobwebs scattered all over, the windows behind the throne were shattered open, and the sunlight is dimmer than before.

As for Shinki, her body remain seated on the throne, although her body is already a skeletal remnant of her self. Her eyes are hollow, since there are no eyes to begin with, and so little skin is seen. Her clothes, which are once majestic for a goddess is now torn apart, tattered into pieces due to time. She still held the shattered fragments of the soul.

"Dai... Please, fly out and see what it's like out there."

And Daiyousei complied. She flew out, and a few seconds after she returned to me, saying "I think you should see what happened as well."

Before going out, I noticed that in the center of the room is a small campfire. Which means that Reimu was not affected by the Soul's influence on the city and us.

I froze the campfire, and thank goodness it worked due to the fact that it's dark and cold inside the former throne room. We headed out through one of the windows behind Shinki, and we see what happened.

What once was a sprawling city with buildings as tall as mountains, were buried in mountains of sand. A harsh wind blows through the landscape, and the sun is darkening. This is undoubtedly, Makai's true condition after eons.

"Isn't that the cave where we entered the city from?"

"It is. Maybe we can go back to Gensokyo now. We failed to find Reimu after all."

We walked forwards, although the sand slows us down. With each step our feet gets buried inside them. Daiyousei also couldn't fly, in this heavy sandstorm. If she did, she would have crashed herself instantly.

We walked until we descend a slope, where we see a worn out sign that says "Tomb of Mikos."

I also read that part in Shinki's book. This tomb... Is where the souls of the previous Hakurei Mikos were entombed. Their dark souls, from the hatred of the people from the human village resides there at the tomb. Below the sign we see a soldier of Makai, crawling slowly with her eyes falling off her sockets, and her body begins to crumble.

"Shinki-Sama... The crimson slasher... Has come to... Consume the souls..."

We widened our eyes and quickly headed towards the tomb where we see a girl in red and white shrine maiden clothing, letting 8 hitodamas into her body. She turned around and sees me. Beside her is an empty stone coffin with a yin-yang embossed on it's side.

"What, still here...? Hand it over... That thing..."

She pointed her finger at me.

"...Your Soul. For Gensokyo's survival..."

- To Be Continued