The sound kept ringing.Sharp.Smothered.
The toy lay on the wet stone.A torn button stared into the void, like a dead eye.
Kael hadn't moved.His fingers barely trembled, clenched in the air.
The voice returned—fragile.Faint.Raw.
— … Mommy… daddy… I'm scared…
A cold shiver climbed his spine.His breath snagged.His golden eyes stayed locked on the cell, unable to blink.
Thana, perched on his shoulder, had frozen too.Her halo barely flickered, a flame beaten by wind.No word.No analysis.Only silence that—for the first time—looked like fear.
She was a little girl.Barely five, maybe.Not very tall.
Her clothes gave her away.Simple. Common.Nothing of a princess.
Still a child all the same.
But her body…wasn't truly there.
Translucent.Evanscent.Like a shadow poorly anchored to the world.
Kael wondered if she'd even noticed—if she knew she wasn't quite alive anymore.
He glanced around.Nothing.
Umbra had devoured everything already.Every soul.Every whisper.
Except her.The only one.
The little one.
He told himself Umbra's case would wait.
Kael crouched slowly.A breath.A smile.
In his hand, the toy.Lifted in silence.Like an offering.
— What's your name?
She was shy.And afraid.
Sad.And curious.
Yet her words kept circling,loopinginside Kael's head:
— Mister… why do I see the end of everything in your eyes?
He went still.Stunned.
No answer.No reaction.
His gaze slid to Thana.But she… looked away.Avoiding his.
A phrase both philosophical and cold.— Change of plan.Thana… you stay with the little one.Umbra… back into the kusarigama.
— You'll stay here with Thana.
— With Ms. Fairy? she said, timid but thrilled.
— Yes, Ms. Fairy—though she can be as kind as she is mean, so make sure you listen, all right? he said, straightening.
Gold burned in his eyes.
— I'll go free the souls myself.
Thana reacted at once.Her voice cracked:— You're going to kill them?
Kael shook his head.His tone was calm.Cutting.
— No.I'm going to free them.
A breath.Then, lower:
— I have a plan.But I need you to trust me.Can you?
— Umbra.From now on, you're forbidden to touch a single soul.
His golden eyes glinted.Cold.
— If I catch you again…
He paused.His breath hardened.
— I lock you in a box.And drop you at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.
Silence.Heavy.
— Clear?
Umbra shivered.His coils tightened.
Then, suddenly…a flare.
A memory.Not his own.
Kael.Red and black.Possessed.
That gaze.That raw terror.
The image skewered him like a blade.And the shadow retreated.Folded.
Terrified.
As if, deep down, Umbra knewthat this master—
could become madness and death.And would not hesitate.
— Mister… don't be mean to Mr. Shadow.He was nice to me, she said, small face clinging to a sweet expression.
Kael's smile was thin and cold.— Don't worry.He's only working with me till death—… uh. Till later.
His gaze hardened.— Be good. Listen to Thana, all right?
— Okay!… Mister scary!
Silence.Then Kael set his jaw.
— Umbra.
Move.We're going.
Kael lifted the kusarigama.Muscles taut.The chain thrummed—heavy, saturated with shadow.
Seventy kilos of concentrated death in his hands.
He brought the weapon down.Stone shattered.Runes split.Their eternal glow went out like a candle in wind.
A scream burst—ripped from the walls—and Umbra swallowed it whole.
Kael clenched his teeth.— … One.
He moved on.Again.
Second door.The chain cracked the air.Impact.A muffled detonation.
The runes blew apart.Incandescent shards fell in a rain.His breath hitched, but his arms didn't shake.
Souls screamed.Dozens, torn out—expelled in a spectral uproar.Umbra quivered, but did not feed.He waited.Submissive.
Kael exhaled.His golden eyes burned brighter.— Two.
Third door.He drew back.The weight crushed him, but his shoulders held.The kusarigama fell.
At times smashing walls and doors,at times severing soul-chains with surgical precision.This time, the whole wall vibrated.
The eternal runes resisted for a second.Just one second.Then imploded—as if time itself refused their command.
Silence fell.Then murmurs.— … sleep… sleep… sleep…
Kael froze.His gaze slid into the gutted cell.A black feather lay on the floor.Intact.
He stretched a hand.Fingers brushed the icy quill.A shiver bit his nape.
Hypnos.
He stepped back.His fists locked on the chain.He raised the weapon again.
— Three.
Fourth door.Stone gave in a burst of dust.The kusarigama quivered in his grip, hungry.The runes howled before going dark.
Behind it…a broken toy.A spinning top.Abandoned in dust.
Kael's throat tightened.The translucent child…
He moved again.The kusarigama snapped.Stone flew.
— Four.
He lifted his eyes.This corridor…
An infinity.An endless trap.A tunnel with no exit.
But he persisted.His steps rang.His arms burned beneath the weapon's weight.
And still…he would see it through.
His idea.His madness.
Free them all.
He struck.Again.Always.
Walls.Doors.Chains.
Every way he could.And some he invented.
The kusarigama traced its black dance.A circle of ruin.A hammer.A lash.A fang.A scythe.
His arms burned.His muscles screamed.He did not stop.
Each impact made the walls tremble.Each rune burst in a spray of sparks.Each spectral cry guttered into the void.
Kael no longer counted.He moved forward.Machine-like.Sentence-like.
Until…
The weight eased.The breath of the air changed.
A shiver ran his spine.Then the window appeared.
⟡ [ Interface – System ] ⟡
Kael stood still.Fingers locked on the chain.Golden eyes fixed on the screen.
A cold pulse ran his veins.His body had adapted.Forged.Hardened.
The weapon no longer weighed seventy kilos.It weighed less.
At least that's how it felt.
He knew the weight hadn't truly changed.Or else…he had grown enough to carry it.
A breath slipped from his lips.Dry.Inflexible.
— … About time.
Then he lifted the weapon again.Ready for the next door.
He raised the kusarigama.
And realized.The sudden lightness.
Not because his strength had grown.No.He had understood.
A certainty.A motion.A rhythm.
His fingers tightened on the chain.He spun it.Once.Twice.
Then the speed surged.
Dizzying.Hissing.As if the air itself bent to his dance.
The chain carved perfect circles.Fluid.Implacable.
The seventy-kilo weapon became an extension of him.Another limb.
Kael gripped the chain.His gaze slid to the cells still sealed.
A perfect ground.To test.To learn.
He advanced.
The first.One circle.Just one.
The chain whistled.A black whirlwind.The door burst into fragments.The runes burned out at once.
Kael's smile cut cold.— … Fluid.
The next.He snapped the blade forward.A whip.Sharp.Precise.
Steel passed through stone like paper.The inner chains tore free in a single motion.
Kael inhaled.— … Keen.
Third.He jerked hard.The chain bit into the hinges—caught.One motion.A pull.
The entire wall gave, ripped away like rotten wood.
Kael lifted the kusarigama.Gold glowed in his eyes.
— … Obedient.
Last cell.Kael breathed in.His arm extended.
The weapon spun—fast, furious.A perfect ring.A black hurricane.
The door exploded in a plume of dust.Runes shattered one by one like broken mirrors.
But behind it…no cries.No chains.No shadows.
Only… silence.
A silence heavier than screams.More oppressive than walls.
Kael stepped in.His golden eyes fixed on the dark.
And there—
Two eyes.Clear.Suspended in the black.
A gaze already locked on him.