What was worse?
Being alone or being surrounded by people who made you feel alone anyway?
There was no universal answer to that question. For some people, solitude was peace. For others, it was unbearable. It depended entirely on the person.
But children feared loneliness more than anything.
Even if they were mocked.
Even if they were treated poorly.
Even if they knew, deep down, they were unwanted.
Most children would still choose companionship over isolation.
This child was no different.
Every afternoon after school, the village children gathered together to play. They ran through fields, climbed trees, shouted loudly enough for the entire village to hear them.
And every day, he followed after them.
Not because he fit in.
But because he desperately wanted to.
He was never really part of the group.
They gave him errands while they laughed together.
They blamed him whenever something went wrong.
Whenever teams were formed, he was always chosen last.
Sometimes not chosen at all.
Yet he still tagged along behind them like a stray dog afraid of being abandoned.
Because if he complained...
Would they stop inviting him entirely?
That fear alone was enough to keep him quiet.
He hated how they pushed him around.
He hated how they made him carry their things.
He hated how they laughed whenever he stumbled or failed.
But he endured it anyway.
Because occasionally...
Very occasionally...
There were moments that almost felt genuine.
Moments where he laughed too.
Moments where he won a game through pure luck and everyone shouted in surprise.
Those tiny fragments of happiness were enough for him to convince himself it was worth it.
Better this than being alone.
At least, that was what he kept telling himself.
Until the day he made the mistake of speaking honestly.
"You seriously told your parents about that?"
"Who even invited him anyway?"
"We were joking around. Why's he acting like a crybaby?"
The "jokes" were never funny to him.
They never had been.
Whenever he tried to explain that, they always answered the same way.
We're laughing with you, not at you.
But somehow, the laughter always felt directed at him.
After that day, he stopped complaining entirely.
Because he couldn't bear apologizing again after feeling wronged.
Standing there awkwardly while trying to earn his place back among people who clearly did not value him—
That feeling was unbearable.
So instead, he learned to pretend to smile.
Anything was preferable to being left behind.
One afternoon, the children gathered near the forest at the edge of the village.
They decided to play hide-and-seek.
And naturally, he became the seeker.
At first, he searched enthusiastically.
Behind trees.
Inside bushes.
Near the riverbank.
But as time passed, excitement slowly turned into unease.
Thirty minutes.
Then nearly an hour.
And he still hadn't found anyone.
The forest had grown quieter.
The wind rustled softly through the leaves overhead while the orange light of sunset filtered through the trees.
The temptation to simply give up and go home became stronger with every passing minute.
But he couldn't.
Because if he quit, If he abandoned the game while they were still hiding...
They would never let him play again.
Then suddenly, a voice called out behind him.
"Oh my... what is such a young boy doing all the way out here?"
The boy nearly jumped.
He turned around immediately.
And froze.
A woman stood several steps away from him.
She possessed a small, delicate frame, almost doll-like in appearance.
Long platinum hair flowed down her back like liquid silver, so luminous beneath the fading sunlight that it seemed almost transparent. It shimmered softly with every movement of the wind, resembling a waterfall of pale light cascading past her knees.
Her eyes...
Those eyes were unforgettable.
Deep blue, like the bottom of the sea, with slit pupils that made them feel strangely inhuman.
Long lashes framed them beautifully.
She was beautiful.
Inhumanly Beautiful.
For a moment, the boy forgot how to breathe.
The woman tilted her head slightly.
"You look troubled."
"I-I'm sorry..." he stammered instinctively. "I was... playing hide-and-seek with my friends."
"There's no need to apologize."
Her voice was gentle.
But for some reason, it still elevated his anxiety.
"Oh," she continued thoughtfully, "now that you mention it... I believe I did see some children running around earlier."
The boy's eyes widened.
"Really!? Did you see where they went?"
The woman raised one pale finger and pointed deeper into the forest.
"I saw one of them head that way."
Excitement immediately washed over him.
Without hesitation, he started running in the direction she indicated.
"Thank you, miss—"
But halfway through his words, he turned around.
And stopped.
The woman was gone.
No footsteps.
No movement through the grass.
Nothing.
Only the quiet forest remained.
The boy swallowed nervously. Still, he continued walking.
Eventually, the trees began thinning out until he arrived before a cave hidden within the mountainside.
The entrance was jagged and dark, cold air slowly drifting out from within.
"Are they seriously hiding in there...?"
The cave looked terrifying.
But at the same time, It felt exactly like the kind of place children would choose for hide-and-seek.
Maybe to try and scare him so they can get a laugh out of him.
Trying to ignore the unease creeping into his chest, the boy stepped inside.
The deeper he walked, the colder the air became.
His footsteps echoed softly through the darkness.
Then, his foot struck something.
Crack.
"Hm?"
Looking down, he noticed a strange cracked cube resting near the cave wall.
It was ancient and black, covered in symbols he couldn't understand.
Curiosity overcame caution.
The moment his fingers brushed against its surface, his consciousness vanished instantly.
The world tilted violently.
Darkness swallowed everything.
And just before his senses faded completely, he heard a familiar voice whisper softly into the void.
"You shall serve as a trial once again for our savior."
It was the same voice as the woman he had met in the forest.
*********************************************************************************************************
White.
An endless world of white stretched in every direction.
No sky.
No ground.
No shadows.
The space around him was so overwhelmingly pale that it hurt his eyes. It felt less like a place and more like being trapped inside emptiness itself.
The boy staggered backward, panic rising in his chest.
"W-Where am I…?"
His own voice sounded strange here, swallowed immediately by the silence.
Then he saw it.
Far away in the distance, a figure was standing alone.
At first, it looked human. Small. Motionless.
But the longer he stared at it, the more wrong it felt.
The space around the figure warped unnaturally, as though the world itself bent around its existence. Even from that impossible distance, the boy could feel it watching him.
A chill crawled down his spine.
Then the figure spoke.
"Pleasantly satisfying surprise… Are you the lamb who touched the seal?"
The voice echoed from every direction at once.
One moment it was far away, they were only a few feet apart.
And the boy finally saw him.
A man dressed in a black attire covered in strange markings, his smile stretched unnaturally wide across his face. His eyes were deep crimson, devoid of humanity, carrying the horrifying amusement of something that viewed people as insects crawling beneath its feet.
"Compromising. Adjusting. Settling…" the man muttered, tilting his head. "But I suppose I can make do with you."
The boy's body jerked upward violently.
"Huh!?"
The man's hand seized him by the throat and lifted him into the air. His feet kicked frantically against nothingness as panic consumed him.
"I-I can't!"
He clawed desperately at his neck, trying to break free.
The boy trembled violently.
Something was wrong.
The man, he was getting bigger.
No…
The man was not growing.
The boy was shrinking.
The endless white world distorted around him as his body became smaller and smaller, reduced to something insignificant before that monstrous existence.
The man's grin widened.
Then his mouth opened.
Wider.
Wider.
Far wider than any human mouth should have been capable of opening.
Darkness stretched endlessly inside it like a bottomless abyss.
The boy screamed.
And the man swallowed him whole.
_
__
___
"Hugo! Hugo!"
A violent shaking dragged him out of darkness.
The boy shot upright in bed with a gasp, sweat pouring down his face as though he had been drowning.
His lungs burned.
For several seconds, he could only stare blankly ahead while his heart hammered against his ribs.
A familiar room.
His room.
"Hugo!"
His mother's trembling voice finally reached him.
She gripped his shoulders tightly, tears nearly spilling from her eyes.
"Mother…?"
Relief flooded her expression so suddenly it almost hurt to look at.
"Oh thank goodness… Are you alright? How do you feel?"
"I… I'm fine."
Physically, he didn't feel like there were any issue, but after he uttered those words, his throat felt a bit dry.
His memories were blurry.
Another voice cut through the room.
"What's going on?" his father said sharply. "Don't you remember anything?"
Hugo slowly turned toward him.
His father stood beside the bed with his arms crossed, though the exhaustion in his face betrayed how worried he truly was.
"What's going on?" his father said sharply. "Don't you remember anything?"
Hugo slowly turned toward him.
His father stood beside the bed with his arms crossed, though the exhaustion in his face betrayed how worried he truly was.
"I don't remember..." Hugo muttered weakly.
His father exhaled heavily in frustration before turning away.
"I'll speak to Marvin later. Maybe his daughter saw something."
"Are you going to work?" Laila asked quietly.
At that, the man's stern expression softened slightly.
He then placed a hand gently on his wife's shoulder before speaking again. "The doctor said he collapsed from exhaustion," he replied. "He will recover with rest."
"Hugo… stay home today. It's the weekend anyway. But if you feel better later, help your mother with the groceries."
For a moment, Hugo simply stared at him.
Then he forced a small smile and nodded.
"…Okay, Father."
*********************************************************************************************************
Later that morning, Hugo walked beside his mother through the crowded market streets.
The city was lively as always.
Under normal circumstances, the noise would have been comforting.
Today, it only made Hugo feel tired.
His mother chatted casually while carrying a basket filled with vegetables, occasionally asking him to hold something for her. Hugo answered absentmindedly, his thoughts drifting elsewhere.
Ever since waking up that morning, something felt wrong.
As though there was something inside his head that didn't belong there.
Then he saw her.
A young woman walking through the crowd.
At first glance, there was nothing unusual about her. She looked to be in her early twenties, with light brown hair tied behind her shoulders and gentle blue eyes. Her clothes were simple, the attire of an ordinary citizen.
But around her, there was black fog.
Thin strands of dark mist leaked from her body like smoke, dragging themselves across the ground before dissolving into the air.
Hugo froze.
The noise of the market suddenly felt distant.
The woman kept walking.
The black mist followed behind her.
His heartbeat quickened.
Without realizing it, Hugo stepped toward her.
One step.
Then another.
Until suddenly, his hand grabbed hers.
The woman stopped walking.
"…Can I help you?" she asked in confusion.
At the same instant, Hugo's mother gasped loudly behind him.
"Hugo!"
She hurried over immediately, panic written all over her face.
"I'm so sorry!" she apologized repeatedly while pulling at Hugo's shoulder. "I don't know what's gotten into him lately. Hugo, apologize right now!"
Only when she touched him did Hugo suddenly snap back to reality.
"Huh…?"
His eyes widened.
He was holding the hand of a complete stranger.
The moment realization hit him, the black fog around the woman thickened violently.
No, It was not coming from her anymore.
It was coming from him.
Dark mist spilled from Hugo's arm, slithering across their joined hands before rapidly engulfing the woman's body. It crawled up her shoulders, her neck, her face until...
Blink.
The fog vanished.
Completely.
As though it had never existed.
The woman simply stared at him awkwardly while Hugo stumbled backward in horror.
"Huh…? I-I'm sorry, sister…"
His voice trembled.
He truly did not remember reaching for her.
It felt less like his body had moved on its own…
And more like someone else had moved it for him.
After bowing apologetically several times, the woman eventually brushed it off and walked away, though she still looked confused by the encounter.
__
___
____
That evening, the atmosphere at dinner was calmer.
The sounds of utensils lightly clinking against plates filled the room while Hugo silently ate.
His father suddenly spoke.
"I talked to Marvin earlier."
Hugo stiffened slightly.
"His daughter told me the children were playing hide and seek in the forest that day."
His mother sighed.
"How is that funny? Those children have pulled these kinds of stunts before. I'm going to speak to their teacher tomorrow."
His father shook his head immediately.
"This isn't something a teacher can fix."
He looked directly at Hugo.
"He has to stand up for himself."
The words were firm, but not cruel.
Still, the moment Hugo heard them, something twisted violently inside his chest.
"You're pathetic."
His father's expression became harsher.
"You let everyone walk over you and then come home crying about it."
"I-I'm not…"
"You're not?" his father snapped. "How many times did this happen!"
"Just a whiny little boy..."
"Shut up!"
Then—
A loud crack echoed through the room.
His father slapped him across the face.
The chair toppled backward as Hugo hit the floor.
His mother screamed.
And in that moment, Hugo's eyes landed on the kitchen knife resting beside the table.
The world became strangely quiet.
His hand slowly reached for it.
Then he drove it forward.
Warm blood splashed across his hands.
His father's eyes widened in shock.
"Hugo..."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Hugo?"
The voice snapped him back to reality instantly.
He blinked.
The dinner table was untouched.
No blood.
No screaming.
His father sat across from him exactly as before, looking at him with concern.
"Huh…? W-What is it, Father?"
His father frowned slightly.
"I said, if you don't stand up for yourself, those kids will keep taking advantage of you forever."
The words were calm and genuine.
His mother spoke softly from beside them.
"That's enough, Will…"
She had clearly seen this discussion happen too many times before.
Usually, Hugo would try defending the other children.
"They were just joking."
"It wasn't a big deal."
And eventually the conversation would end with him getting emotional while his parents worried helplessly over him.
This time, however, Will simply nodded.
"…You're right."
The discussion ended there.
After finishing dinner quietly, Hugo returned to his room and laid down in bed.
Darkness filled the small room.
For a while, he simply stared at the wall in silence.
Then, a voice whispered from behind him.
"Why didn't you let me kill him?"
Hugo's entire body froze.
Slowly, he turned around.
And saw him.
The terrifying man dressed in the black attire sat casually in the corner of the room, crimson eyes gleaming within the darkness. His smile stretched unnaturally wide across his face, enough to make Hugo's stomach twist in fear.
"What… what are you?"
The figure tilted his head slightly.
"Helping. Salvaging. The name is Abaris." His grin widened further. "The one who shall grant your desires."
"I-I'm not the one who wanted to kill him…" Hugo muttered shakily. "That was you. You made all of that up."
Abaris chuckled softly.
"Yes… he did not say those words aloud."
His crimson eyes narrowed.
"But I did not make them up."
The room suddenly felt colder.
"He thought them."
Hugo's breathing became uneven.
"S-sooner or later," Abaris continued calmly, "someone will push you far enough."
The black mist around him slowly spread across the floor.
"And when that happens…"
His smile widened impossibly further.
"I will take over your body completely."
Hugo clenched the blanket tightly.
"Just let go," Abaris whispered. "You will feel so much better."
But Hugo said nothing.
Slowly, he turned back toward the wall, refusing to look at him any longer.
Even so, he could still feel those crimson eyes watching him from the darkness behind.
*********************************************************************************************************
The next day, Hugo returned to school.
The moment he stepped into the classroom, the atmosphere already felt uncomfortable.
Children whispered quietly among themselves while sneaking glances at him. Some looked guilty. Others looked annoyed. A few simply avoided eye contact altogether.
The teacher stood at the front of the class with her arms crossed and an exhausted expression on her face.
"I already spoke with all your parents yesterday," she said firmly. "What happened to Hugo in the forest was dangerous. I want everyone involved to apologize properly."
A chorus of reluctant murmurs spread throughout the classroom.
Theo clicked his tongue loudly before kicking the leg of his chair in irritation.
"Nice work, shrimp," he muttered under his breath. "Can't you do anything except snitch to adults?"
Before Hugo could even react—
A girl sitting nearby immediately slammed her foot against Theo's chair hard enough to make it scrape across the floor.
"Shut up, Theo!"
The girl had short grey hair tied into a loose ponytail and sharp green eyes that glared at him without hesitation.
Her name was Lina.
"I'm the one who told Hugo's dad," she snapped. "So if you've got a problem, take it up with me."
Theo frowned.
"…Tch."
Hugo remained silent.
His fingers tightened around the fabric of his uniform.
Seeing his reaction, Lina's expression softened immediately.
"Hey, Hugo…" she said more quietly. "I didn't know they were planning to leave you out there. I'm sorry."
Theo scoffed from the side.
"We were just messing around..."
"You call abandoning someone in a forest for an hour a joke?" Lina shot back immediately. "You idiots seriously crossed the line this time."
"Hey! Who are you calling an idiot!?"
"Don't worry," Lina replied smugly. "I wasn't talking about you."
Theo crossed his arms.
"…Then who?"
She pointed directly at him.
"You're not an idiot, you are the king of idiots."
"You little!"
Hugo lowered his gaze and muttered quietly.
"…It's fine."
That was all he said.
Nothing more.
*********************************************************************************************************
The days passed.
And little by little, something inside Hugo began to rot.
The more people talked to him…
The more he wanted to kill them.
At first, the thoughts only came occasionally.
Sudden images and violent impulses...
A horrifying scene flashing through his head before disappearing.
But as time passed, those thoughts became more frequent.
More vivid.
More tempting.
Hugo stopped talking almost entirely.
Even when Lina and the other children tried approaching him again, asking him to join games during recess or inviting him home after school, he always refused immediately.
His daily routine became painfully mechanical.
Wake up.
Go to school.
Return home.
Eat.
Sleep.
Repeat.
Nothing else.
Even his vocabulary seemed to shrink with every passing day.
"Good morning."
"Thank you for the food."
"Good night."
That was all.
His parents noticed.
Of course they noticed.
"How was school today?" his mother would ask gently during dinner.
"It was the same."
"Did anything happen?"
"No."
Every response was short.
Clean.
Carefully chosen to end the conversation as quickly as possible.
His tone was never rude.
But there was something deeply unnatural about it.
He no longer sounded like a child.
More than once, his mother tried reaching out to him.
"Hugo…" she whispered softly one evening while kneeling beside him. "You know you can tell me if something is wrong, right?"
Her voice was sincere.
Painfully sincere.
When Hugo looked into her eyes, he could see she was on the verge of tears herself.
But behind her, standing silently in the corner of the room...
Was that thing.
That monstrous figure in black robes.
Smiling.
Watching.
Always watching.
"I'm fine, Mom."
The words nearly broke him.
How badly did he want to cry?
How badly did he want to throw himself into her arms and tell her everything?
The fear.
The man that only appeared to him inside his head.
But he couldn't.
Because he understood something now.
If he let his emotions slip even slightly...
If he gave in to anger…
Or sadness…
Or loneliness, that monster would take control.
Sometimes, while standing in the kitchen beside his mother, Hugo would suddenly feel his hand twitch toward a knife resting nearby.
And in his mind, he would see himself plunging it into her back.
Again.
And again.
So he buried everything.
Every emotion.
Every thought.
Every scream.
He buried them as deeply as he could.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Hey…"
The classroom was unusually quiet that afternoon.
Students sat in groups working on a sewing assignment, carefully cutting white cloth with small scissors provided by the school.
Theo sat beside Hugo, awkwardly scratching the back of his head.
"You've been acting seriously weird lately…"
No response.
Theo frowned.
"…Is it because of that hide-and-seek thing?"
Still nothing.
Theo sighed heavily.
"Look, I get it. We went too far that day."
His voice lowered slightly.
"If you want, I'll apologize properly this time…"
Then he stopped talking.
A red droplet fell onto the white cloth in front of Hugo.
Theo blinked.
Another drop followed.
Then another.
"…Huh?"
Slowly, Theo reached out and placed a hand on Hugo's shoulder.
"Hey… what's wrong with you?"
Hugo didn't answer.
Theo looked down.
And froze.
Instead of cutting the cloth, Hugo had buried the scissors deep into the palm of his own hand.
Blood poured steadily between his fingers and soaked into the fabric beneath him.
The scissors trembled violently as he continued driving them deeper.
"HEY! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?"
heo shouted so loudly the entire classroom turned instantly.
But Hugo's expression never changed.
His face remained completely blank.
A thin trail of blood slowly trickled from the corner of his mouth.
Hugo had bitten through his own tongue.
The teacher rushed over immediately.
"Hugo!"
Students screamed in panic as chairs scraped loudly across the floor.
But even as the classroom descended into chaos, Hugo's empty eyes remained fixed downward.
__
___
____
After that incident, Hugo stopped going to school completely.
At first, everyone thought he needed few days to recover.
But the days became weeks.
And the weeks slowly became months.
Yet nothing changed.
Most of the time, he simply lay on his bed in complete silence, staring endlessly at the ceiling of his room as though something invisible was written there. His cyan-green eyes gradually lost their color over time, little by little, until the vibrant shade faded into a dull, unnatural crimson.
The room itself became suffocating.
The curtains were always drawn halfway, allowing thin strands of pale sunlight to spill across the floorboards. Dust drifted lazily through the air. The smell of medicine, wet cloth, and sleepless nights lingered heavily inside the room.
And in the center of it all, Hugo remained motionless.
Like a corpse that still breathed.
At night, he could hear his parents arguing through the walls.
Not screaming.
That would have been easier.
Instead, it was quiet desperation.
His mother crying softly.His father trying to reassure her even though his own voice shook whenever he spoke.
But as the months passed, even those words began sounding hollow.
They brought doctors.
Then healers.
Then water magicians skilled in examining the flow of mana through the body.
None of them could explain what was wrong with him.
"There's no damage to his gate."
"His body is healthy."
"Perhaps it is emotional trauma."
Every answer only made things worse.
Eventually, with nowhere else to turn, his parents sought help from the Divine Dragon Church.
That was when the red-haired nun began visiting him.
At first, Hugo barely paid attention to her. His body already felt distant to him by then, like something wrapped around his consciousness instead of belonging to him.
But eventually, he noticed strange things.
Whenever his parents stepped out of the room, the nun's expression changed completely.
The warmth disappeared.
And without saying a word, she would force crushed substances down his throat.
After each visit, his complexion improved slightly. His skin regained color. His breathing steadied. His body became healthier.
At least, that's how it looked on the outside.
But inside him, the burden grew heavier.
His attempts to die had already failed countless times.
At some point, even speaking became impossible.
His body no longer listened to him properly.
Sometimes his fingers twitched on their own.
Sometimes he would suddenly stand in the middle of the night without meaning to.
So all he could do now…
Was hold himself back.
Every waking second felt like pinning down a monster from inside his own skin.
"If I don't move…"
That thought became his entire world.
"If I don't move… he can't do anything."
So he stayed still.
Completely still.
He prayed constantly for something, anything, to end it.
For his parents to finally give up on him.
For his heart to stop.
For someone to kill him before he hurt anybody.
But time was cruel.
The longer it passed, the harder it became to stay conscious.
His thoughts felt heavy.
Distant.
Like he was slowly sinking underwater while something else floated upward in his place.
And then, one day, she came.
The room suddenly felt colder the moment she entered.
A woman with short white hair and golden almond-shaped eyes stepped quietly into his room. She wore a white kimono that flowed around her like drifting snow, and protruding from her forehead were two unmistakable horns.
An Oni.
In her hands, she carried a glowing sphere overflowing with violent mana.
Even without understanding what it was, Hugo instinctively feared it.
The air around the orb trembled unnaturally. Its light pulsed like a heartbeat.
The woman approached his bedside silently.
Then she placed the sphere into his hands.
The instant his fingers touched it, something inside him broke.
No...
Something inside him sank.
Completely.
The last fragment of resistance he had been clinging to was swallowed whole beneath an endless abyss.
*********************************************************************************************************
The group was now on the run.
The streets of Kararagi had descended into madness.
A suffocating black haze flooded the district like poison leaking into the world itself. The miasma was so dense that visibility had begun to blur, swallowing alleyways, rooftops, and lantern lights beneath a sea of shifting darkness. Every breath burned the lungs. Every inhale carried corruption deeper into the body.
Tristan was carrying both Reize and Melty over his shoulders as he ran.
Neither of them could move properly anymore.
Melty's face had gone pale, sweat dripping down her forehead as her body trembled weakly against his back. Reize, still unconscious, hung limply from the other side. Even with Tristan's monstrous physical strength, the weight was beginning to drag on him.
Not because of their bodies.
But because of the atmosphere itself.
Zarestia flew beside them, her white kimono fluttering violently amidst the polluted winds. Her golden eyes were narrowed in frustration as violent currents swirled around her fingertips.
"They're clearly trying to kill us," she snapped. "Let me use my magic already!"
"They're brainwashed!" Nora shouted back immediately. "You can't just kill them!"
"And even if you could... Don't."
Tristan's voice was sharp despite the exhaustion clawing at his body.
"The entire district is engulfed in corrupted mana. The more magic you use, the faster miasma your gate draws in."
Magic required mana.
And mana inhalation was involuntary.
Just like breathing.
The moment a mage activated their gate, the circulation accelerated. Under normal circumstances, that wasn't dangerous.
But this, this was different.
This miasma contaminated the mana in the atmosphere.
Tristan had read the tales before, describing the Witch of Envy's miasma during the Great Calamity. Entire villages had gone mad simply by existing near it. Minds broke apart. Personalities dissolved. Flesh annihilated.
And now, something terrifyingly similar was unfolding right before his eyes.
People emerged from every direction.
Their movements were stiff and unnatural, their eyes glowing an eerie bloody red devoid of any true focus. They stumbled forward like puppets dragged by invisible strings, yet there was horrifying aggression behind every step they took.
The streets became a sea of bodies closing in around them.
"They're cutting off our path!" Nora yelled.
"Zarestia-Sama! Rooftop! now!"
Without hesitation, Zarestia raised her arm.
Violent winds exploded beneath them.
The group was launched upward as currents of compressed air carried them onto the roof of a massive city hall building towering above the surrounding district.
For a brief moment.
Silence.
Or at least something close to it.
From above, the true scale of the disaster became visible.
Black fog stretched endlessly across the city like a living plague. Entire streets had vanished beneath it. Screams echoed from distant districts. Buildings burned in the distance while crowds wandered aimlessly below like corpses searching for prey.
Kararagi was collapsing.
Tristan tightened his grip on his sword.
His mind remained intact thanks to his Divine Protection. The corruption couldn't fully seize control of him.
But his body was another matter entirely.
His muscles felt heavier with every passing second.
His breathing had become uneven.
Even standing upright was starting to feel exhausting.
He glanced around.
Nora was panting heavily, barely able to remain standing.
Zarestia looked even worse. Her breathing was ragged, her golden eyes unfocused as she leaned slightly against the rooftop railing to steady herself. Spirits were beings of mana by nature. The corrupted atmosphere was affecting her far more severely than the others.
Tristan clenched his teeth.
The little boy from earlier, the one carrying the light sphere.
That had to be the vessel.
But if they killed the vessel… would it even matter?
Would the warlock simply transfer bodies again?
Would this nightmare just continue endlessly?
He couldn't find an answer.
And time was running out.
A violent tremor suddenly shook the rooftop beneath them.
Crack.
Everyone froze.
The center of the building split apart.
A massive wind slash had carved straight through the lower foundation.
"The building's collapsing!" Nora shouted.
The rooftop tilted violently.
Chunks of stone and debris broke apart beneath their feet as the entire structure began caving inward.
They had no choice.
"Jump!"
The group leapt from the collapsing rooftop just as the city hall crumbled behind them in an explosion of dust and shattered stone.
For one horrifying moment, they were suspended in midair above the streets below.
Then Zarestia raised her trembling hand.
Wind gathered beneath them.
The currents softened their descent just enough to prevent them from being smashed against the ground.
But the instant they landed, a razor-sharp wind blade tore through the air toward them.
Tristan reacted instantly.
CLANG.
He drew his greatsword and blocked the attack head-on, the impact sending a violent shockwave through the street beneath his feet.
Another slash came immediately after.
Then another.
Then dozens.
Invisible blades carved through walls, streets, and buildings as Tristan desperately intercepted each strike one after another.
"Get moving!" he shouted.
"Nora! Take Zarestia and run!"
"What about you!?"
"If he reaches Zarestia, it's over!"
Nora bit her lip hard enough to draw blood.
She understood.
Reluctantly, she grabbed Zarestia's arm and forced herself forward.
But even moving had become difficult.
Her legs felt unbearably heavy.
The miasma was eating away at her stamina faster than she could recover.
And then, People appeared in front of them again.
Dozens.
And among those people, the nun Melty was carrying earlier and the girl Reize with the short dark brown hair.
The color of their irises were no longer golden and blue.
Their empty red eyes locked onto her.
Nora slowly drew her kunai.
Her hands trembled.
They were innocent civilians.
People who had families.
People who had done nothing wrong.
But at this point…
They would die.
A voice suddenly rang out behind them.
"Hey… can you maybe not do that?"
The voice was calm.
Almost annoyed.
An instant later...
BOOM.
A gigantic wall of ice erupted from the ground between Tristan and the incoming attacks, towering high enough to block the entire street. Frost exploded outward violently, freezing debris and corrupted mist alike.
The battlefield went silent for half a second.
Nora with her faltering vision and Zarestia weakly turned her head towards him.
Tristan's eyes widened.
He knew that voice.
Slowly, a figure stepped forward from behind the ice.
His long dark blue hair was messy.
His clothes were stained with dust
And despite the overwhelming situation surrounding him, his gaze never wavered.
It was steady and unshaken.
Zarestia weakly smiled. "Jay..."
The man let out a dry laugh as he stared at the boy was glaring daggers at him.
No, It sounded more like exhausted self-mockery.
"This is seriously the worst…"
The little boy's expression twisted violently.
Shock.
Confusion.
Fear.
His teeth cracked audibly from how hard he clenched them.
"How…?"
The voice coming from the child no longer sounded human.
"HOW ARE YOU HERE!?"