The girl staggered toward a decrepit manor hidden behind overgrown gates. The door hung crooked, wind sighing through rotted paper walls. Vines clutched the courtyard stones like dead fingers. The entire place breathed decay.
She stepped through the ruin, eyes hollow, guided by a silent command. At the entrance of what once was a bedroom, her feet stopped.
From the darkness, a figure drifted forward.
A demon. Tall. Elegant in shape yet deeply wrong. His skin was ghost-pale, his nails black and tapered like obsidian claws. A garish robe draped loosely over him, floral patterns stained with centuries of hunger. Long hair fell over a handsome face carved with predatory delight.
Dreambane. That was the name whispered among those who vanished.
His lips parted into a charming smile that hid a corpse's appetite.
"Well now," he purred, lifting one graceful finger toward the girl's sleeve.
A spark. Blood-red and malign. A tiny seashell rose from her pocket, glowing like a corrupted firefly.
"Look at this," Dreambane crooned. "You kept it. Which means you belong to me."
He tucked the shell away, fangs slipping into view as he reached for her throat.
A lightning-bright slash cleaved the air.
Dreambane jerked back, shock shattering the hunger in his eyes. A clean strike had nearly taken his head.
"Too slow," Ryo muttered, blade raised to shield the trembling girl. His lightning-patterned Nichirin sword gleamed white with barely contained force.
Dreambane's eyes narrowed, taking in the sword's radiance.
"Oh. Thunder Breathing."
His voice dripped ridicule.
"How vulgar. How brutish. Such an uncultured technique, especially in the hands of a barbaric man with zero artistic taste."
Ryo stared back, utterly unimpressed.
For a self-proclaimed aristocrat of nightmares, this guy talked like a delusional forum troll. The only proper correction was to hack him into paste.
Lightning surged through Ryo's veins.
"Thunder Breathing. Fourth Form. Distant Thunder."
He vanished into a streak of electric light, slicing for Dreambane's throat again.
Dreambane twisted away and hissed a string of warped syllables. Across the courtyard, dozens of discarded seashells rose from the dirt. They shivered violently, then launched themselves like arrows.
Ryo pivoted.
"Thunder Breathing. Second Form. Rice Spirit."
Blades of lightning tore through the incoming volley. Shell fragments rained down like shimmering hail. Yet too many remained. A few sliced into his arm and shoulder, burning like acid.
Dreambane laughed. A grating, nasal laugh full of smug superiority.
"How predictable. All that strength and still just a muscle-headed savage."
Ryo spat blood.
"Say that again and I'll send you to the sun."
He charged. Claws clashed against steel with a deafening crack. Both were forced back, feet digging trenches into the dirt.
Dreambane glanced at crimson staining his perfect hands. Rage cracked through his elegance.
"You filthy brute. You wretch. You common mongrel."
Ryo arched a brow.
"What language are you even speaking. Are you begging for a beating."
He had survived years of online games in his previous life. His soul had long achieved immunity to insults. Dreambane's vocabulary was less offensive than a mosquito with a megaphone.
Ryo inhaled. Pressure built around him. Air snapped with electricity.
He sheathed his blade.
Lightning roared to life.
"Thunder Breathing. First Form. Thunderclap and Flash. Threefold."
Boom.
Boom.
Boom.
Three consecutive strikes detonated the courtyard. Dreambane was flung backward, crashing into a crumbling wall as blood splattered across the debris.
Ryo rushed forward to finish him, but dizziness crashed over him like a wave. The world blurred. His pulse stuttered.
Dreambane stood again, lips curling into a victorious grin.
"My Blood Demon Art is not merely a tool to command shells."
His voice deepened, echoing like a snare drum beneath the earth.
"It reveals desire. It magnifies the darkest hunger inside the human heart."
Ryo felt something coil around him. Not vines. Not claws. Thought itself turned hostile.
"Greed. Lust. Pride. Gluttony. No matter what lies within you, you will drown in it."
Reality shattered.
The manor dissolved into a void. Ryo's body no longer obeyed him. His sense of self threatened to tear apart.
Dreambane laughed triumphantly.
"Now I will see what filth you keep hidden beneath that crude flesh."
He thrust his hand deeper into Ryo's consciousness.
Silence.
Then a thunderous roar inside Ryo's mind.
Kill him. Chop him apart. Slice him into bits. Grind him down. Burn him. Scatter his ashes.
Dreambane froze.
His pupils shrank.
"…What."
He yanked himself out, horrified.
That could not be right. He must have entered incorrectly.
He forced his consciousness back in.
Kill kill kill kill kill
Rip. Shred. Pulverize. Drag into sunlight. Erase from existence.
Dreambane screamed. The inside of Ryo's mind was not lust or fear or weakness. It was a bottomless pit of pure, focused murder.
The demon saw himself beheaded and butchered a thousand times in a heartbeat. His limbs torn. His head kicked like a ball. His bones ground to dust and fed to crows.
He bolted from Ryo's mind.
Stumbled backward.
"You lunatic." His voice cracked.
"You are a complete lunatic."
"Is killing me the only thing in that rotten skull of yours."
"Yes," Ryo replied with honesty that felt like divine judgment.
Dreambane's facade shattered. His perfect composure drowned in terror.
"You monster. You are the real monster."
His pride crumbled. His Blood Demon Art had never failed until now. But Ryo Anzai's psyche was barren of all but one desire.
To eliminate demons.
Dreambane shrieked, black hair snapping like whips.
"If all you think about is killing me, then die first."
He lunged, claws slicing for Ryo's skull. The scent of death suffocated the air.
A blazing roar answered.
A trail of fire cleaved the night sky.
"Flame Breathing. First Form. Unknowing Fire."
The strike crashed down like a sunrise exploding into the earth.
Heat washed over Ryo's weakening form. Flames danced, roaring with heroic conviction.
A deep, bold voice followed:
"Young man, rest now. Your heart burns bright. Let me handle the rest."
A flame-colored cloak fluttered like a phoenix wing in the moonlight.
Ryo's vision steadied just long enough to see the newcomer.
Kyojuro Rengoku.
The Flame Hashira.
His smile was radiant. His eyes fierce with unwavering passion.
"Behold," he declared, standing between Ryo and Dreambane like a blazing wall of hope.
"For where the flame roars, despair shall burn away."