"This place is going to collapse. We need to move," Rin said, brushing herself off as she stood.
Elowen turned, her expression soft but worried. "Just… don't push yourself, alright? I can't heal much more—not yet."
"I'll be fine." Rin gave a small smile, but it didn't quite reach her eyes.
Arthur sat up with a grunt, leaning back against the warped metal wall. He ran a hand through his tangled hair. "What the hell happened here?"
Rin glanced over her shoulder. Her smirk was tired, dry. "I'll explain later. Or he can. Either way, we're not staying."
Lyra tugged her gloves off and wiped sweat from her brow with the back of her hand. She flicked dust from her uniform in one smooth motion. "We don't know what Sterling left behind. Could be rigged."
"You mean booby traps?" Isabelle's voice came from the side.
Rin spun around. "You're awake?! Oh my god, I thought—"
"That I died?" Isabelle forced a breathy laugh, then winced and pressed her hand against her ribs. "Feels like it. Still here, though."
Ren sat with his back to the wall, arms crossed, head tilted slightly down. His posture was tight—too tight. His jaw clenched, and he didn't look up when he spoke.
"…What about Nina's body?"
Silence.
Rin parted her lips. Nothing came out.
Lyra crossed the room in two steps. She knelt beside him, hand resting gently on his shoulder. "We have to keep moving. If you die in here, it makes her death meaningless."
Ren blinked, once. Then again. He stood slowly. "…Yeah."
Lyra stood with him. "Let's go."
They made their way down the fractured corridor, boots crunching glass and broken steel, weaving around collapsed pipes and sparking consoles. The deeper they moved, the hotter it got—air humming with the aftershocks of combat, smoke curling up toward the broken ceiling.
Then—
A sudden shift. A sound. Not metal groaning.
Something had been activated.
Behind them, somewhere far below, a low whine built into a sharp crescendo.
Isabelle froze. "Did you hear that?"
Arthur's eyes narrowed. "That wasn't structural."
A pulse ran through the floor.
Elowen's breath caught in her throat. "…That felt like mana."
And then—
The walls began to glow.
———
Blink.
Another.
Sosuke's eyes dragged open, slow and dazed. Red shadows filtered through a canopy of twisted leaves.
A forest.
But not one from his world.
The air was wrong—too still. The trees, too gnarled. Their leaves bled a dark crimson.
His eyes snapped open fully.
Morvain.
The Blight dimension.
He tried to move.
Clank.
Cold metal clashed with resistance. His limbs were pulled tight—arms splayed and bound to two blackened iron pillars, his legs chained down in a similar spread. He was elevated just enough for the weight of his body to strain the cuffs. A pulse of energy hummed faintly through the stone beneath him.
They were draining him.
Using him.
Like a battery.
"Good. You're awake," a voice purred.
Julius emerged from the haze. Behind him, half-sunken in the rot of the forest, stood a ruined building—familiar, fractured, and heavy with memory.
He snapped his fingers in front of Sosuke's face. "Hey. Eyes on me."
Sosuke's gaze flicked to him, then to the building.
Julius grinned. "Yeah. You remember it. The place I nearly killed you. Hell of a time. I was so disappointed when you didn't die." He gave a carefree laugh and swept his arm theatrically, calling forward others.
Sosuke couldn't see them.
But he heard them—Blights—moving behind him. Working on something. Heavy, metallic, alive.
Julius dragged a crooked wooden chair from the brush and planted it before him, spinning it once before sitting down and crossing his legs. "Took you long enough to break through that next level. I've been waiting. My kin?" He jerked a thumb to the trees. "Not great conversationalists. Most of them are little more than instinct and claws."
He leaned back, hands behind his head. "But you? You've got promise."
Sosuke said nothing. His head lolled slightly, every part of him aching.
Julius smiled wider. "So. Welcome. You'll be staying for a while."
His tone turned sing-song as he gestured behind him. "Back in that lovely building, I was planning to carve you into paste. But when I saw you snap—that chaos, that lightning—oh, I knew I couldn't kill you. You're too useful."
"W-what are you…doing…?" Sosuke's voice was hoarse, barely audible.
Julius leaned forward, cupping a hand to his ear. "What was that?"
He rose with a spin and pointed to the glowing device behind Sosuke. "That pretty magic of yours? The perfect fuel. I'm using your body as a bridge. Your aura cracks the barrier between worlds wide open. No more trickles. No more tiny portals."
He spread his arms like a preacher. "You're ushering in a new era, Sosuke. An age where we walk freely into your world."
He began to pace in slow circles. "You, a boy drunk on power, just handed us the key to humanity's extinction."
He stopped. Tilted his head. "How's that for legacy?"
Sosuke said nothing. His breathing grew ragged.
Julius sank back into his chair and snapped his fingers.
Two towering Blight creatures lumbered into view—mandibles twitching, carapaces clicking. They flanked someone between them, barely conscious.
Reid.
Bruised. Bleeding. Dragging his feet.
Julius rested a hand on Reid's head, as if claiming a pet. "He's tougher than he looks, I'll give him that."
Reid looked up weakly, eyes locking with Sosuke's. "Don't let them… win," he rasped, shaking his head.
Julius slapped him hard. The sound cracked through the forest.
His smile faded. "Loud again. I don't like loud."
He turned back to Sosuke, voice low. "Resistance is fine. Rage is fine. But noise?"
He waved a finger. "That, I don't tolerate."
Sosuke's gaze dropped. He stared at the grass beneath him, face blank.
"This can't be real…"
"Oh, it's very real," Julius said, lounging. "And don't burn out on me now—I need you at your peak, lightning rod."
Sosuke's eyes twitched. "You stabbed me… back then. You ran me through."
Julius gave a short, sharp laugh. "Me? No, no. I'd love to take the credit. But I haven't seen you in months."
He leaned forward, smirking wide.
"How could I stab a ghost?"
"Sosuke… we'll get out of the Blight Dimension together!"
Reid's voice rang out, hoarse and trembling. Each word pushed through clenched teeth, laced with defiance.
Julius slowly stood, the legs of his chair scraping the ground before he kicked it aside with a thud. He turned his head first—shoulders following after a beat, his eyes glowing faintly in the murk. Then he moved.
In one smooth motion, his hand clamped around Reid's neck and lifted him into the air.
"Not only are you loud," Julius murmured, voice dangerously soft, "but you've the gall to butcher the name of my home?"
Reid choked, kicking feebly. His hands clawed at Julius's wrist, but the grip didn't budge.
"Morvain," Julius continued, pressing his forehead briefly to Reid's like a priest giving final rites. "It breathes. It hungers. And yet humans treat it like rot, something to be purged." His voice rose now, sharp with mockery. "It seems Estrella hasn't taught you anything."
He let go.
Reid collapsed, coughing violently, his hand around his throat.
"But I shouldn't worry much longer." Julius gave his coat a slow, casual brush—flicking off nonexistent dust with the back of his hand. "Soon, you won't be the only soul to learn the true name."
His boots crunched against the blood-damp grass as he turned toward Sosuke.
The chains rattled.
Sosuke grit his teeth. Sparks surged across his body, electricity snapping in bursts around his arms and chest. The poles that bound him shook, metal groaning beneath the pressure of his mana. His core ignited with purpose—he'd been waiting for Julius to step just a little closer.
Julius did.
And lightning struck.
A crackling arc lashed across Julius's arm. He flinched, stepping back with a small grunt. His coat smoldered at the edge of one sleeve.
He raised his wrist to his mouth and licked the thin trail of blood.
"Good," Julius said, eyes gleaming. "Keep struggling."
Sosuke's breath hitched. His power hadn't budged the chains. Worse—he felt it, the pull again. His mana was draining, siphoned through the poles, feeding the grotesque machine behind him.
It's using me.
His body was a conduit. A fuel source.
I can't fight like this…
Julius circled again, each footstep slow, deliberate.
"You feel it now, don't you?" he said gently, almost like a parent explaining something to a child. "Your precious lightning—your fury, your fear, your hope—all of it powering something far bigger than you." He smiled wide. "You're a living key, Sosuke. And you've already unlocked the door."
Sosuke tensed. His eyes burned—not with power, but desperation.
Reid groaned in the grass behind him, reaching out weakly. "You… you can't let him win, Sosuke…"
"Don't worry," Julius said, stepping into Sosuke's view again. "I'll let you go once this is all over."
He crouched just enough to meet Sosuke eye to eye.
"And if you still have a soul by then…"
His grin widened.
"Welcome to freedom."
He stood and turned away, the machine behind them beginning to hum with rising intensity.