Your ears flatten against your head as the discordant chimes grow louder, each twisted note making your tails bristle. Stepping carefully to avoid the scorch marks, you follow the sound deeper into the forest where the trees grow twisted and pale. The bark here peels away in unnatural patterns, revealing wood stained dark as if burned from within. A thick mist rolls between the trunks, carrying whispers in a language that makes your claws extend instinctively.

Pushing through the mist, you come upon a sight that chills your blood. The Moon Shrine stands in ruins, its once-gleaming torii arch cracked down the middle. The sacred bell hangs at a drunken angle, its surface now blackened and covered in pulsing veins of crimson light. Shadowy figures swarm around it like flies on carrion, their elongated fingers tracing glowing runes across its surface. With each mark they carve, the bell shudders and emits another wave of corrupted sound.

You crouch low, observing their movements. There are nine of them - an intentional mockery of your own sacred number. Their leader, a hunched figure with antlers growing from its elongated skull, holds a jagged shard of onyx that drips black liquid onto the shrine's steps. Where it falls, the stone bubbles and warps. The creatures chant in guttural tones, their voices harmonizing with the bell's twisted song to weaken the barrier further.

A sudden pain lances through your right forepaw - you've stepped on one of their runes. The creatures freeze as one, their yellow eyes snapping toward your hiding place. The antlered leader smiles, revealing a mouth full of needle teeth. 'Ahhh,' it hisses, 'The little fox comes to play.'