"Miko, you've been quite free these past few holidays. How about you help me take care of a weakling? I can give you this much as a reward!"
Gabriel stood up, walked to Miko Yotsuya's side, and gestured a number with two fingers.
"...Is it dangerous?"
Miko Yotsuya promptly pressed the pause button and tilted her head in confusion.
"I already said it's a weakling, how could it be dangerous? Besides, I'm not letting you go alone."
"Is that so... fine, I'll go! I don't need a reward or anything; you've already helped me so much."
"Excellent, I really didn't misjudge you! I'll leave the matter of dealing with the Mountain God to you then."
Gabriel's eyes sparkled with a firm light. She tightly clasped Miko Yotsuya's right hand in both of hers, her tone filled with gratitude and trust.
"Hehe, there's no need to be so polite with me... wait!"
Miko Yotsuya smiled somewhat bashfully, but she was soon struck by a sudden shock. She hurriedly asked, "What did you just say?"
She didn't hear that wrong, right?
Mountain God?
Letting her deal with a deity?!
For real?
Gabriel gave her a thumbs up, her face overflowing with a confident smile. "You didn't hear wrong. But don't worry too much; Mountain God is just a title. In essence, it's just an evil spirit that receives incense offerings."
Miko Yotsuya frowned slightly, a hint of unease flashing in her eyes. "An evil spirit with incense offerings... that doesn't sound simple at all. Can I... win?"
A trace of hesitation and worry bled through her voice.
"You will win."
Seeing this, Gabriel patted her chest with a look of confidence and immediately guaranteed, "Rest assured, I'm here. If you truly encounter a life-threatening danger, I can save you. Even if you accidentally lose an arm, I can make it grow back..."
"Stop, stop saying such scary things. If you keep going, the courage I finally mustered up will be smashed to pieces."
Miko Yotsuya quickly extended her palm in a stop gesture, a flash of helplessness in her eyes.
Then, Miko Yotsuya took a deep breath and slowly picked up the holy cross (the lily) sitting on the table. Her gaze focused on the faint golden patterns on the petals, and a glimmer of determination gradually surfaced in her eyes.
Though she was still very afraid in her heart, she had to do something for Gabriel.
Besides, with the personal guarantee Gabriel gave her, she had an extra bit of confidence.
Although this trip might come with certain risks, it shouldn't be enough to threaten her life.
"So, roughly when do I set out? And who am I going with?"
Miko Yotsuya stopped declining and proactively inquired.
"In two days. Granny Mitsue and Rom will drive over to pick you up. I'll be going with you all then as well."
Gabriel sent text messages to Mitsue Takeda and Rom, telling them to get ready.
"You're going too?"
Miko Yotsuya asked with slight surprise.
Gabriel glanced at her and shook a fair index finger. "It's just on the way, and I don't plan on entering the mountains with you. If nothing unexpected happens, you'll have to deal with the Mountain God yourselves."
She wanted to pull a vicious sneak attack on that big fellow sealed deep in the mountains.
Even if, according to her perception, the opponent's strength was no match for hers at all.
But what if the opponent was playing the pig to eat the tiger!
Play is play, and jokes are jokes.
She must never joke with her own life.
Therefore, Gabriel chose the most steady fighting style.
Using strength far superior to the opponent to conduct a sneak attack might indeed be embarrassing to talk about, but the probability of winning this way was high.
the reason she suddenly changed her previous reckless fighting style was that Gabriel had recently binge-watched a new anime titled Cautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious.
After finishing it, she suddenly had an epiphany, and her whole being felt a few degrees clearer.
Thus, Gabriel began to reflect on herself.
In the past, she felt cool catching shells with her face, but what if the enemy stuffed a nuclear bomb inside a shell!
If you die, you're really dead!
Therefore, she must never do such things that look down on people again!
Gabriel wanted to learn the traditional virtues of the Cautious Hero.
She swore an oath in the depths of her heart.
No matter how powerful she became in the future, even if the enemy's strength was incredibly weak, she must never abandon this virtue passed down from the Cautious Hero.
"Right, when you set out, I'll apply a few divine arts for life-saving and escaping on the three of you."
Gabriel planned to give Miko Yotsuya and the other two all the divine arts for protecting their lives and fleeing.
With these safeguards, combined with her protection in the shadows, Miko Yotsuya and the others' safety would be somewhat guaranteed.
Senior Cautious Hero, am I doing it right!
"Thank you, Gabriel."
Miko Yotsuya's heart felt warm hearing this, and her fear of the unknown suddenly faded quite a bit.
She felt a full sense of security.
"Let me first give you a brief introduction to the Mountain God you're going to face..."
Gabriel pulled over a chair from the side, sat next to Miko Yotsuya, and began to explain patiently. "The emergence of the Mountain God stems from an unfortunate human sacrifice..."
The deity enshrined in the Sankonoya Shrine was actually artificially created as a hitobashira.
The Mountain God's appearance has a layer of fox camouflage, but its true form is incredibly terrifying, with an unknown number of human souls existing within its body.
When someone makes a wish to the Mountain God, the Mountain God will help them realize it.
But everything has a price.
The moment the wish is fulfilled, the Mountain God will collect payment from the person who made the wish—namely, their soul.
In other words, from the moment the wish is made, the wisher naturally becomes the Mountain God's next sacrifice.
Every bell hanging on the Mountain God represents a human life, and the number of such bells is not small.
"Since it is an artificially created deity, its weakness is also very obvious. As long as you smash the skull enshrined in the shrine as the goshintai, the Mountain God will naturally disintegrate."
"However, my suggestion is to just start fighting. Miko, when you arrive at the shrine, directly activate the third divine art and cleanly blow the shrine away for me."
"If the Mountain God tries to stop you, then blow him away along with the shrine. Do not hesitate!"
"If nothing else happens, just run after the blast. I will then remotely add another strike to ensure there's no possibility of the opponent resurrecting."
"As long as you follow this process I gave you, the clearing speed will definitely exceed your imagination!"
Gabriel solemnly told the walkthrough to Miko Yotsuya in advance.
Miko Yotsuya listened, stunned.
As expected of you, wanting to speedrun even this kind of thing.
But isn't Gabriel being a bit too cautious? Blowing up the shrine and the Mountain God together, yet still wanting to add a follow-up strike...