The village square was drowning in silence.
Torches hissed in the mist, their smoke curling upward into the night sky where no stars dared to shine. Soldiers moved with clockwork precision, boots striking stone in perfect rhythm as they closed the circle tighter around the villagers. Rifles gleamed, bayonets catching the faint firelight like fangs.
Yoshiki's chest burned with every breath. His arms still ached from the firestorm that had ripped free two nights before; the veins of ember running under his skin hadn't faded. He stood ready to move, fire already flickering along his fingertips, but Daichi's hand clamped his shoulder with the weight of stone.
"Not now," Daichi whispered harshly, his broad frame steady despite the fear etched into his jaw. "You're still burned from before. You won't last."
Yoshiki's teeth ground together. His hair, now a permanent flame-red, caught the torchlight like embers ready to reignite. "Then what? We stand here and let them drag us like cattle?"
The soldiers shoved forward, barking orders. One snatched a boy by the collar. His mother screamed, trying to clutch him back. Another rifle butt silenced her, the sound echoing across the square.
Something in Yoshiki snapped—he moved forward, but before the fire could burst, Hikaru stepped into his path.
"Wait."
His voice was quiet, but it cut through the chaos.
Hikaru's dark eyes scanned the soldiers, his expression unreadable. The mist clung heavier around him than anyone else, as though shadows thickened just to follow his frame.
"Hikaru—" Yoshiki hissed, frustrated.
But Daichi's grip tightened. "Look at him."
Yoshiki did.
The air around Hikaru was bending, warping, like the square itself was holding its breath. His black hair had begun to streak silver at the edges, faint lines crawling through it like threads of moonlight. His shadow stretched unnaturally long across the ground—not matching the torchlight, not matching any rule of nature.
A soldier leveled his rifle at an old man who had fallen to his knees. Hikaru moved before Yoshiki could. He stepped into the torchlight, his hand lifting slowly, fingers trembling.
The torches sputtered. Their flames dimmed, and the mist seemed to solidify into darkness.
Then, the shadows moved.
They rose from the ground like living smoke, twisting, coiling, then lashing out. The soldier's rifle was yanked from his grasp by a tendril of black, the steel swallowed by the dark before clattering uselessly to the dirt.
The villagers gasped. Soldiers shouted in panic, slashing at the mist with bayonets, but their blades struck nothing. The shadows only thickened, wrapping around legs, dragging men screaming into the dark.
Hikaru's body shook with the force of it. His veins glowed silver through his skin, his pupils burning pale like two moons. The cloak of shadow pouring off him wrapped his frame, part armor, part abyss, but his face—his face remained human. Calm. Cold.
"Subject Hayashi Hikaru," one soldier choked out, eyes wide with horror as his device scanned the air. His voice quavered as he recited the words. "Male… eighteen years old… resonance type: Umbral. Codename—Abyss Warden."
The name seemed to shudder through the square.
Yoshiki stared, stunned. This was his best friend—the boy who had once laughed with him under the stars, who had kept watch when they snuck out at night. But now, Hikaru's presence felt like standing at the edge of a bottomless chasm. Protective, yes—but terrifying.
The soldiers broke formation, some stumbling backward. Others tried to rally, shouting orders, but every step they took was swallowed by shadow. Rifles fell useless. Boots scraped against stone that seemed to dissolve beneath the black veil.
One soldier charged anyway, bayonet thrust toward Hikaru's chest.
Daichi surged forward, slamming his arm into the soldier's path. The ground beneath his feet cracked, a tremor splitting the dirt. The soldier collapsed with a cry, his weapon skittering away.
Daichi glanced back at Hikaru, his earthy eyes wide with both awe and fear. "You… you've been hiding this?"
Hikaru didn't answer. His voice was low when it finally came, strained under the weight of something vast. "I didn't know… until now."
The last of the soldiers fled, dragging their wounded, shouting orders into the night. The veil of shadow began to recede, curling back toward Hikaru's body until only a faint shroud clung to him, flickering like smoke in the breeze.
He swayed, exhausted, but did not fall.
The villagers stared at him in silence, pressed against the walls of the square. Their fear was palpable—not just of the soldiers anymore, but of him.
Yoshiki stepped forward, ignoring their stares. He placed a hand on Hikaru's shoulder. The shadows flinched under the contact, then calmed.
"You're still you," Yoshiki said quietly, fiercely, as if daring the world to disagree.
For a long moment, Hikaru didn't answer. His silver eyes dimmed slowly back to dark. Then he turned to Yoshiki, lips twisting in something like a smile, though it was bitter and heavy.
"Am I?"
The villagers still whispered in the square, some clutching their children, others staring at Hikaru as though he were something unholy.
Yoshiki kept his hand on his friend's shoulder, firm. Daichi stood beside them, chest heaving, ready to defend them both. And Yuzuriha—though pale—was already scribbling furiously, her sharp eyes drinking in every flicker of shadow around Hikaru, as if the patterns themselves would one day save them.
But far away, in the steel-lit halls of the government outpost, another set of eyes was watching.
The resonance monitor beeped.
Lines of jagged script scrolled across the machine, spikes flashing in rhythmic bursts. The data tech swallowed hard, sweat beading on his forehead as he tried to keep his voice steady.
"Director Shiga… Subject Hayashi Hikaru has awakened."
Shiga did not look up immediately. He sat at his desk, back perfectly straight, fingers drumming against the armrest as though marking time to music only he could hear. His gaze lingered on a large projection before him—spiking graphs of resonance output, marked with the codename stamped in military precision:
Codename: Abyss Warden. Resonance Type: Umbral.
Finally, Shiga rose, his long coat brushing the floor like a shadow of its own. His reflection caught in the steel wall panels—sharp, severe, eyes gleaming with something colder than satisfaction.
"So," he murmured, voice smooth as glass, "the second flame ignites."
He turned his gaze toward the projection, silver light washing across his face.
"Pyrokinetic fire to burn, and now shadow to bind…" His lips curled into a thin smile. "It seems the Forsaken have begun to remember what they are."
The tech shifted uneasily. "Sir, do you want us to deploy—"
Shiga's hand cut the air, silencing him instantly.
"Not yet." His voice was quiet, but each word dripped with control. "Let them believe in their strength. Let them awaken one by one. The more they burn, the deeper their despair will cut when I take it from them."
He leaned forward, fingers brushing over the codename glowing across the screen, like a man touching the edge of a knife.
"Abyss Warden… another piece on the board." His eyes glinted. "And when the last one falls, they'll see. They'll all see why this island must suffer."
The resonance monitor pulsed again, its lines jittering erratically across the screen.
The data tech frowned, hesitating. "Director… there's also… another fluctuation."
Shiga's eyes narrowed. "Where?"
The tech swallowed, zooming in on the feed. Another name flickered faintly on the console, its signal weak, inconsistent—like an ember fighting to catch.
Subject Hayasaka Daichi. Resonance anomaly detected. Type: unstable.
"It's… not a full awakening," the tech stammered. "Just tremors. Like the earth beneath him is… stirring."
For a moment, Shiga was silent. Then, slowly, the corners of his mouth curved.
"Good," he murmured. "Even the quiet ones cannot hide forever. Every stone cracks under pressure."
He turned away, his coat sweeping behind him, boots echoing against the steel floor.
"Let it grow," Shiga said coldly. "When he breaks, I will be there to claim the rubble."
The screen flickered again—two codenames pulsing now:
Infernal Sovereign. Abyss Warden.
And, flickering faintly beneath them… Stonepulse.