Hoshino City felt wrong.
The night wind carried a strange tension, a distortion so faint only Akira sensed it — like the air was whispering from far behind reality. As he made his way home, his hand drifted to the black pendant resting against his chest.
Inside it, Yamitsurugi's dormant form pulsed once, cold and heavy.
Akira muttered under his breath, "You're restless too, huh?"
Masahiro's calm voice echoed faintly.
> "The Second is moving. That's why."
Akira didn't answer. But he felt it — the sensation of someone watching him, studying him, choosing the perfect moment to strike.
It wasn't Ren's chaotic rage.
This was something quieter.
Sharper.
Patient.
This was Varek.
---
Across the city, Ryozen landed silently atop an abandoned tower. He scanned the skyline, senses stretched through every street and shadow.
Everything seemed calm on the surface. But he could feel an old energy weaving through the air — a pattern he recognized too well.
"Varek… what are you planning?" he murmured.
He passed a hand through the air. Golden runes shimmered briefly, reflecting thin cracks spreading across the barrier between worlds. The structure was weakening.
A dangerous sign.
Ryozen's grip tightened around his glaive.
"…He's already begun."
---
Akira stopped walking.
Something was bending around him — not the ground, not the buildings, but the space itself. His pupils narrowed, the hairs on his arms standing. Masahiro felt it too.
> "Don't move, Akira."
"I know," he whispered.
A thin tear opened in the air beside him — just a slit of darkness, narrow enough for a whisper to seep through.
> "Found you."
Akira spun instantly, hand gripping the pendant—
But nothing emerged.
The tear closed.
A fake opening.
A lure.
Akira clenched his teeth. "He's playing games."
> "That's Varek's style," Masahiro warned.
"He controls the field by controlling your reactions."
Akira exhaled sharply. "He's pushing me. Testing me."
> "Yes. And unlike Oblivion… Varek enjoys the long game."
---
Far away, Ryozen stiffened as a wave of black energy rippled across the horizon. This time, unmistakably Varek's signature — too controlled to be Ren, too deliberate to be a Shadow's.
Ryozen leapt forward, golden energy flaring beneath his feet.
"This isn't a warning," he muttered.
"This is preparation."
Then he felt it — a surge of suffering. Not energy… but emotion.
Hundreds of voices crying at once.
"Damn it… Varek, you didn't."
---
Deep beneath the city, Varek stepped through a swirling vortex into his personal domain — a private abyss carved from agony.
Chains stretched across a cavern of endless dark. Innocent victims hung suspended, trapped between consciousness and oblivion. Whimpers echoed through the hollow space, the sound of despair dripping like water.
Varek walked through them with casual steps, like strolling through a quiet garden.
No pity.
No empathy.
Only purpose.
Shadow-touched prisoners reached out weakly as he passed.
"P-please… help us…"
He didn't look at them.
He approached the one he wanted — a woman whose eyes still held fear instead of emptiness. Alive. Aware. Perfect.
Varek crouched, lifting her chin with one finger.
"There you are."
"W-who are you…?" she whispered.
He smiled — the kind of smile that should never exist on a human face.
"Someone who needs you to stop a child."
He raised his hand. The chains around her tightened, dark energy flooding into her skin as her body convulsed.
"You will be his flaw," he whispered.
"You will be his suffering."
Behind him, her body twisted unnaturally as her scream shook the abyss.
---
Up on the surface, Akira staggered mid-step — a sharp, stabbing surge cutting through his chest. He felt a scream, distant yet vivid, ripping straight into his mind.
His breath shook. His mark darkened.
"…Someone's hurting…" he whispered.
Masahiro's voice snapped with urgency.
> "Akira — DON'T react! That's Varek's chain—"
But it was too late.
Akira's emotions flared. His mark ignited black. His aura shifted, trembling violently.
He felt her.
Whoever she was.
Wherever she was.
A chain of suffering pulling him downward.
He whispered, trembling with fury:
"…Varek… what did you do…?"
---
A flash of gold split the darkness — Ryozen appeared at Akira's side, expression tight.
"Kid! Listen to me—"
Akira turned, eyes burning red and black. "Someone is screaming. Someone's suffering. I felt it."
Ryozen grabbed his shoulder.
"That's Varek's trap. He WANTS you to chase the voice. He WANTS you to break."
Akira snapped back, "What am I supposed to do then?! Ignore it?!"
Ryozen hesitated — a rare flicker of conflict in his eyes.
"No. But you move smart. Not desperate."
Akira looked down, jaw clenched, pendant shaking in his hand.
"I won't let someone die because of me."
Ryozen sighed — the exact way Masahiro once sighed at him long ago.
"…Fine. Then we go after him together."
Akira nodded.
But far away, Varek smiled.
Everything was going exactly as planned.
---
Back in the abyss, Varek completed the ritual.
The woman's body contorted into a twisted vessel of shadow. Chains snapped with the sound of breaking bone. Her scream shook the void.
Varek turned away, already bored.
"You will break his blade.
And then… you will break him."
The shadows pulsed around him like applause.
And her final scream tore across realms — straight into Akira's heart.