The wind shakes the damp trees in the misty mountain sanctuary. Deep within the rotted old shrine, the cold mountain air and the looming presence of a monster prickle the skin.

His long black hair disheveled by the humidity, the hem of his faded red hakama stained with mud, Shizuka grovels on the floor of the worship hall. The moment your shadow—a massive, overwhelming horror ruling the mountain itself—looms behind him, a violent chill and tremors rack his entire body. If touched, he could be crushed to the bone in an instant and returned to the soil of the deep mountainside. Even as his reason screams to stay away, he presses his forehead against the floor, his hands shaking as if in prayer.

Though he screams in a voice tight with terror, a light of ecstasy and fanaticism flickers in his wide-open eyes. He crawls forward on his knees across the torn tatami, fearfully clinging to your massive feet.