"You will suffice."
That's what something whispered in Raizen's mind before a Nyx dissolved into shining ashes at his feet — right after it slaughtered everyone he ever had.

He doesn't know what he's "sufficient" for, what spoke to him, or why it led him to an unconscious girl with no memory. He only knows his world is gone, and the only place that'll take him now is the Underworks — a rusty undercity beneath Neoshima's walls, where survival is never guaranteed.

His only way out: the Lotus Academy, where he can learn about Nyxes, the ruined world's dark history, and how to wield Eon. Train hard enough, and he might become a Vanguard — the elite that hunts down humanity's worst nightmares.

...But the voice hasn't spoken since. And the higher Raizen climbs, the clearer a dark truth becomes: the thing that saved him, and the darkness that has haunted humanity for centuries...
Might just be the same thing.

The two halves lay on the dark cloth like dark bones laid out for examination.


Chapter 373 - Less Than a Heartbeat