CHAPTER 5
How long had I lingered in this place?
Beneath the eternal moonlight, where Luna reigned as my merciless master, I trained until my body broke. Blow after blow landed upon me, but I could no longer cry. The instinct had been scoured from my soul. Pain became my meal, my sleep, my breath. The memory of peace had long since dissolved into dust.
The world she forged for me was a subspace of midnight skies, still and eternal. It was beautiful—eerily so—like the dreamscapes of an anime given cruel life. Silence stretched infinite, as though we were the only remnants of existence.
In that silence, Luna taught.
Swordsmanship. The origin of demon blades such as herself. Endless drills of meditation, posture, and stamina that carved months into me like an unrelenting chisel. She was cunning, patient, and ruthless—yet every lesson came wrapped in the sting of her fists or blade.
Weeks bled into months. My body grew alien to me. My hair fell wild over my face, my stature stretched taller, my appetite devoured anything like a savage beast. My eyes—once human—burned crimson like the cursed moon. Three months, and I was no longer myself.
At last, the final trial awaited: defeat Luna, or draw blood enough to call it even.
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The bell tolled.
We moved as shadows, steel clashing like storms. I thought I had read her—studied her every rhythm—but I was wrong. With each step she revealed tricks I had never seen, deadly enough to slay me a hundred times in the world beyond.
I wove darkness to my will. Her shadow bent at my command, while I vanished beneath a cloak of black. Yet the air trembled. The subspace itself seemed to recoil—Luna's temper had ignited.
Daggers shaped like wings tore through the void. I slipped between shadows, every dodge calculated. When she lunged into the darkness itself, I smiled. She had entered my snare.
Within, a legion of shadow-clones awaited her. My finger snapped, and they descended like a plague. She cursed my name, ripping them apart with fury. But her triumph soured when one clone erupted in flame—dark fire, born of my will, a forbidden craft that devoured mana and sanity alike.
Explosions rippled across the field, drowning her in crimson-black infernos. While she staggered, I struck. Her eyes, sharp with anger, softened faintly with a flicker of admiration.
But mercy was not mine to give.
Chains erupted from the abyss, coiling around us both. Luna's gaze sharpened with dread as I bound her.
"Soul Chain!" I roared.
Her voice echoed mine, but it was too late. Darkness gnawed at her essence. I tore half her life force away, and with it came a surge that nearly split me in two. The taste of her strength was intoxicating—and fatal. My body screamed, bones trembling on the brink of rupture.
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Yet I did not falter.
I had carved my flesh into a vessel for this.
"Time to shatter all limits," I whispered.
"Eclipse Form."
The world shuddered. Half my body blackened, transfigured into the pallid flesh of a demon. I became something monstrous, neither man nor beast. Luna froze. She had forbidden this—and I had embraced it.
I vanished and struck her in an instant. One blow sent her flying, bones splintering, blood spilling. Horror rooted me.
Had I killed her?
My mind unraveled. Thought crumbled. The thin thread of reason snapped. My heart screamed, but my body moved like a beast unchained. Luna's cough broke the silence. "Enough… I did good… I should stop."
But I could no longer hear her.
Her eyes widened. "He must be restrained."
She chased me through her night sky. Yet before her hand could reach me, my body betrayed me. Organs ruptured. Blood poured from my lips.
Distant, faint, her voice called. "Yuta… Yuta…"
Am I dying?
I had not slain Rena. I had not returned home. Was it all meaningless?
"No… not meaningless."
My voice faltered, but I forced the words to her:
"I wish… to leave in peace."
I collapsed into her arms. My breath ceased. Her face—once radiant and mischievous—darkened into despair.
Her scream tore through the heavens.
"YUTA!!!"
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But I did not die.
Darkness swallowed me whole.
I opened my eyes in a void without end. No path. No sky. No escape. I wandered, seeking light that never came.
Then—a throne materialized before me. Majestic, terrible, as vast as the night itself.
A figure emerged, its hand gripping my shoulder. Cold breath brushed my ear, whispering with words that stained my soul:
"Welcome, Vessel."