Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu
As if his system heard his comment, another notification followed right after the first one—[You can still open the door to the Spirit House by paying an additional amount of points or Inner World crystals.]
That was more like it!
This made his system seem like a merchant who was raising prices during a time of crisis? Never mind, Seiji decided not to care too much about it.
He instantly chose to pay an extra price to open the door to his Spirit House!
A gray crack appeared in midair and slowly opened up. This dimensional crack opened up far slower than normal as if it was difficult for it to open up.
Shika came over at this time, having interrupted her shower to put on her clothes.
"Brother…"
"Shika, go find Mika and the others, and summon all of them here!" Seiji gave this order.
Shika glanced at Reo and nodded before heading out the door.
After opening up the portal to the Spirit House, Seiji had Reo enter first. He then took out his cell phone, intending to contact everyone else.
Actually, he really wanted to call Yui to ask about the specific situation, but he felt that it was likely she wouldn't pick up.
"An abnormal situation is occurring! Watch out for white mist—"
Seiji swiftly started writing a group text message, but his cell phone rang before he could even finish.
Yukari was calling him.
"Seiji, I'm seeing some white mist…"
He immediately heard her reporting on her situation.
"I can also see some white mist. Right now, I don't know what's going on. I only know that it's highly likely to become a dangerous situation." Seiji paused for a moment. "If things over there seem abnormal, you should head over to Natsuya's place immediately. I'll be heading there as well…"
After he finished talking to Yukari, his cell phone rang right away again.
At this time, Mika and her mother Nozomi arrived in his apartment.
"Seiji, mom says that she feels really cold…"
It seemed that Mika had also been in the middle of a shower. Her hair was still wet and rumpled, and her face had a worried expression.
Meanwhile, Nozomi Uehara was hugging herself and trembling all over. Her face was pale white as if she was currently in an extremely cold environment.
She had the same reaction as Reo?
"Hurry and take her into the Spirit House!" Seiji immediately indicated to Mika to bring her mother into the Spirit House.
Mika listened and started bringing her mother towards the portal.
"What's… this?" Nozomi couldn't help but ask since this was her first time seeing the mystical dimensional portal.
"This is the Spirit House… a special space." Mika had her mother enter first, and then she followed right after.
Seiji then took the second phone call. It was from Natsuya.
"Seiji, can you see it?"
"Yeah, I see the white mist."
"Not only white mist, there's also a light… If you look outside your apartment towards the north, you should be able to see it!"
"North…" Seiji wanted to go outside and take a look, but his Spirit House portal would automatically close if he left this room. "It's not convenient for me to look right now. What's to the north?"
At this moment, outside Seiji's apartment.
Shika, Chiaki, and Kaede were all looking to the north.
There was a certain light in that direction.
A tremendous bright red pillar of light was rising from the ground to the sky. The red pillar of light was so large that even the biggest skyscraper would be dwarfed in comparison. At a rough estimate, the pillar was already six to seven hundred meters tall, and was still rising. It seemed like it would rise until it reached the heavens!
All three girls sensed danger from that giant pillar of light.
Although they didn't know what it was, they instinctively felt that it was something ominous… that it wasn't a good thing!
'I need to tell Brother Seiji immediately.'
Right as Shika thought this and was about to go inside again, she suddenly saw the top of the pillar of light explosively begin expanding. The entire pillar began transforming as if it was swiftly being sculpted.
It was a tree!
Shika and the others were soon able to identify that the pillar of light was rapidly changing into the shape of a tree—a towering, blood-red, magnificently blossoming cherry blossom tree!
The crown of the tree started spreading into the skies, obscuring the blue sky with red branches. The scene was beautiful and breathtakingly majestic.
Right after that, countless flower petals started falling down like rain. This was extraordinarily beautiful!
Yet, Shika and the others felt a bone-piercing chill.
Chiaki felt the chill more than anyone. She instantly recalled what she'd experienced in her dreams and felt a deep sensation of terror.
"The Evil White Sakura Goddess…" Chiaki muttered.
The final boss of the Realm of Cherry Blossoms, who had only malevolent intentions towards humanity, had appeared.
"We need to hurry and leave!" Shika told the other two girls.
She instinctively felt that it would be highly dangerous to come into contact with those bright red falling petals.
The three girls hurriedly went back inside Seiji's apartment.
Shika swiftly explained the situation to Seiji after she went back inside.
"All of you, go into the Spirit House!" Seiji told them.
The three girls entered the Spirit House through the portal.
Right after that, Seiji's cell phone suddenly lost signal. At the same time, the lights in his room started flashing and then instantly went dark.
Although Seiji was now in a completely dark room, he saw with his [Astral Vision] that the white mist was constantly thickening. He could feel a deep cold chill beginning to envelop him.
His system then notified him that [Due to outside interference, the door to the Spiirt House is about to close!]
Something flashed in Seiji's eyes as he entered his Spirit House at the last moment.
Outside, red cherry blossoms kept falling as the white mist thickened. The entire city sank into darkness…
Reo and Nozomi were both fine.
After entering the Spirit House, they no longer felt cold or any type of discomfort.
It was safe inside the Spirit House. The outside environment didn't affect things inside at all.
After confirming their condition, Seiji then tried to open the door to his Spirit House again and go back into the outside world. However, his system informed him that [Due to a powerful outside force's interference, a payment of 100 Soul Energy will be required to open the door unless the outside force disappears. You may pay also 999 points or 99 Inner World crystals to level up the door to the Spirit House so that it can be opened.]
Seiji was rather surprised to see this.
He would have to pay 100 Soul Energy, or a large amount of points or crystals to level up the dimensional portal door… This "powerful outside force" had to be strong indeed.
He had less than 300 Soul Energy saved up, so he didn't want to use 100 Soul Energy just like this. If he used his [Temporary Recharge] skill to obtain more temporary Soul Energy, that would consume his entire Mana pool, which would also be disadvantageous for moving about.
After some consideration, Seiji decided to use 99 Inner World crystals to level up the dimensional portal door!
He felt some heartache from being forced to use so many crystals in one go. Still, he decided to treat it the same as leveling up his Spirit House and adding more rooms to it.
Previously, his system had never even given him the option to level up the door to the Spirit House… Judging from the much higher than usual crystal payment required, this was likely a higher-level construction option. Maybe this counted as being able to access higher-level options earlier than planned.
Seiji confirmed in his system that he would use some crystals stored in his warehouse to level up the door. The system immediately notified him that [Spirit House door is now being leveled up. Current progress: 0%.]
Seiji frowned upon seeing this.
Leveling up anything in the Spirit House required time. However, he was quite worried about Natsuya and the others and wanted to go out as quickly as possible.
"Hey System, could you please increase the leveling speed?"
"I'm already letting you build this option earlier than planned, yet you still want a rush job? Impossible!"
"I can pay you even more if you want."
"This isn't a matter of money! Don't think that you can do anything you want just because you have money!"
Of course, that conversation was completely imagined by Seiji as his system remained silent as always. Seiji could only sigh as there seemed to be no method to increase the door's leveling speed.
"We won't be able to go out for a while. We'll have to stay here for the time being," he told Shika and the others.
"Why can't we go out?" Chiaki asked him.
"Because the door to the Spirit House is being interfered with…" Seiji gave a summarized explanation.
"What's going on outside right now?" Mika inquired.
"I don't know, either. But I know for sure that… it's nothing good." Seiji sighed.
He suddenly felt like maybe he should have stayed outside just now.
"I hope that everyone is alright…"