Kaen woke in a cold sweat.
His body was shaking before his eyes even opened. His breathing came shallow and fast. The mark on his chest wasn't just glowing — it was burning. Hot, deep, alive.
He sat up, hand pressed against his ribs.
There was no wound. No blood.
But something was changing.
Something inside.
Yui still slept beside him, curled under the rough blanket, her hand loosely clutching the edge of his cloak. Her breath was calm. Her small chest rose and fell.
Kaen gently slipped her grip and stood.
The blade was already at his back.
The air was too still.
He stepped outside.
The entire outpost was covered in fog.
It wasn't normal mist. It clung to the buildings, pooled like smoke, shimmered faintly with a purple hue under the pale moon. The torches lining the walls flickered wildly, then snuffed out one by one.
Kaen heard a crack.
Not wood. Not stone.
It came from inside him.
From behind the mark.
He dropped to one knee.
Something in his chest shifted.
A chain. A lock. A door.
Cracking.
Then—
Laughter.
Not the demon's usual voice.
A second voice.
Older. Colder. Laughing softly as if watching from deep inside.
Kaen gritted his teeth, fists clenched.
"Stop it," he growled.
The laughter grew louder.
The burning spread from his chest to his arms, up his throat.
He gagged.
Smoke curled from his mouth.
Then a whisper—no, several. Layered. Whispering in unison.
"The first has stirred. The first has seen. The first door cracks. The vessel opens."
Kaen stood, shaking, gasping for air. The fog around him moved.
It wasn't fog anymore.
Shapes formed within it.
Not demons. Not beasts. Things with limbs bent the wrong way, faces blurred, crawling, twitching, whispering his name. They didn't attack. They circled him.
Watching.
"Kaen!"
A voice behind him. Human. Urgent.
Yoru.
She stepped through the mist, blade drawn, eyes glowing faintly from the talisman etched on her forehead.
"What are they?" Kaen asked.
She didn't answer.
Instead, she stared at him.
At the mark on his chest, now glowing bright enough to light the mist.
"I told you not to draw that sword unless you were ready."
"I didn't."
Her eyes narrowed.
"Then it's too late."
She moved, fast as lightning.
In a breath, she was beside him, blade slashing through one of the creatures.
It screeched and vanished in smoke.
Another leapt toward her.
Kaen spun and cut through it.
He didn't think.
His body moved on instinct. His blade burned black.
It drank the mist as it slashed.
The creatures shrieked in unison and scattered.
But the mist did not fade.
By dawn, three slayers were dead.
Found just outside the walls, skin gray, eyes wide, mouths full of ash.
Kaen sat in the center courtyard, blood still on his hands.
Yoru stood over him.
"They came for you."
Kaen nodded.
"I've only seen foglike that once before," she said. "During the last breaking."
Kaen looked up. "Breaking?"
"When the chains holding back the original demons began to crack. Long before your time. We stopped it. Barely. But now… it's starting again."
"And I'm the reason."
"You're the door."
She said it flat. Cold.
Kaen didn't deny it.
"I can leave," he said. "Run. Draw them away from here."
"That won't work."
"Why not?"
She crouched down, lowering her voice.
"Because wherever you go, the door follows."
Kaen's hands tightened into fists.
"What am I?" he asked.
Yoru stood.
"I don't know yet," she said. "But I know what you're becoming."
She walked away without explaining.
That night, Kaen sat beside Yui again.
She still hadn't spoken. But her eyes followed him now. Her hand never left his.
He brushed her hair back gently.
"I'll protect you," he whispered.
She blinked slowly.
The wind howled outside.
Kaen stood and walked to the mirror by the wall. He pulled open his robe and looked again.
The mark had changed.
It had opened.
Once a single spiral flame — now a cracked seal, with a faint slit running through the middle.
Something had shifted.
And behind the slit, there was darkness.
Deep. Endless.
Watching.
Kaen closed his robe, his reflection flickering as the candlelight danced.
Then he heard something behind him.
He turned.
Yui was standing now.
But her eyes were wrong.
Black veins crawled from the corners of her lids. Her mouth opened, but no voice came — only smoke.
Kaen ran to her. "Yui!"
She collapsed in his arms, shaking.
Then she screamed.
A long, high scream that wasn't hers.
The candle went out.
The door slammed shut.
The darkness in the room thickened.
Kaen held her tightly. "Stay with me! Stay—!"
And then he saw it.
Something crawling out from the shadow beneath the bed.
It wasn't a demon.
It was a hand. Bone-thin. Long fingers. Claws scraping the floor.
Then another hand. A second arm. Then something rising.
Kaen backed up, still holding Yui.
The mark on his chest glowed again — too bright now.
The shadow creature spoke without a mouth.
"You opened it. You let it breathe."
Kaen drew his blade.
The room pulsed with energy.
Flame-black steel shimmered in his grip.
The creature lunged.
Kaen slashed—
—
The wall shattered. Smoke exploded outward.
Slayers rushed in.
Yoru was first. She saw Kaen standing over the now-vanishing corpse of the thing, his blade dripping black.
Yui lay beside him, unconscious.
Kaen was pale.
The mark on his chest… fully open.
A thin, faint crack.
Yoru's face went pale.
She turned to the others. "Seal the room. Double the wards."
"What was that thing?" someone asked.
But Kaen already knew.
It wasn't a demon.
It wasn't real.
It was a memory.
A piece of something deeper, clawing its way out.
One of many.
And the door… was just beginning to open.