The man was alive. Not alive enough to survive, not dead enough to rest. His chest rose… then stopped. Then rose again, as if life itself had not yet made up its mind.
The place was not a cave… nor a hall… nor a complete world. It was a fractured void. Pale threads, almost transparent, twisted like massive veins, encircled the man's suspended body inside.
Before this scene, Izanami stood. Her back straight. Her black robe did not move… even though the space around her shivered slowly. She did not look at the body.
Behind her, the shadow opened.
Draven stepped out. He stood behind her by half a step, always half a step. He spoke in a calm voice, filled with the confidence of one who knows that everything has gone as it should:
"All paths… intersected where you expected."
Izanami did not turn immediately. She paused for a moment. Then she spoke, in a low voice, as if addressing nowhere and not him:
"And did anyone err?"
Draven smiled. A brief, sideways smile.
"No. Even weakness… moved in its proper place."
Then— Izanami moved. Not a step. But a transformation. In that same moment, the air shifted. The void contracted.
Izanami smiled. But not with her mouth. Her smile started from her nails. Her black nails lengthened… not in size but in sharpness.
She spoke, her smile still invisible on her face, but clear in her tone:
"Good."
She turned her hand slowly.
"And this…"
The fracture stopped trembling for a brief moment.
"…means that the mirror no longer lies alone."
Draven did not comment. He was watching her hand. Her nails. The way darkness obeyed her without command.
He finally spoke, a savage smile curling his lips:
"And what of Lilithia? Has her role ended… or do you still want her alive?"
Izanami paused for a moment. Then she lowered her hand. The threads tightened and multiplied like rain. The body inside the cage shuddered.
Draven said calmly:
"I understand."
She finally turned to him. Her eyes were black… but deep within them there was only a single reflection. Neither hers. Nor Draven's. Then she said:
"She… answered."
_
And while the threads tightened in that void… Lilithia was choking on something entirely different.
Tsukishiro laughed. Not a laugh of victory, nor a boisterous mockery. A quiet laugh, as if he were finally hearing the note he had been waiting for.
From beneath the emblem, a black mirror appeared.
At that moment, Atsuro's eyes widened, while Lilithia remained standing firmly in place.
He brushed his hand across his face slowly, then spoke, his tone carrying genuine delight:
"You've done it…"
He lifted his head slightly, and looked at the inscribed shadows the way a scientist looks at an experiment that has finally succeeded.
"The mark… not the attack."
He laughed again.
"You would have failed if you had tried to kill."
He moved a single step. Not forward but to the side, as if making room for something invisible.
"Do you know what this battle is?"
He gestured with his hand to the ground, to the heavy shadows, to the air that had lost its obedience to the fixed mirror.
"This was not a battlefield. It was… an anchor point."
He paused. Then continued, in a clearer, colder voice:
"The village that fell before? It was no coincidence. Nor a stage."
He looked at her directly.
"It was an anchor. Anchor Point."
The darkness trembled slightly, as if in acknowledgment.
"Amid chaos, corrupt spirits, and the black mirror."
He smiled.
"The mirror does not awaken on its own, Lilithia. It does not dream. Nor create."
He stepped half a pace closer.
"It listens."
He raised his finger.
"Blood. Fear. A breaking of reality's laws."
He lowered his finger slowly.
"And chaos… unstable."
He was silent for a moment, then spoke with genuine admiration in his tone:
"That's why we chose the stone."
His eyes widened slightly.
"The Chaos Stone does not seek control. It does not understand itself. It reacts… instinctively."
He laughed.
"And chaos as you now know hates those who try to possess it."
He tilted his head.
"But it opens… to those who do not understand it."
He gestured behind him, as if the past stood there.
"Koroya screamed. The stone exploded. The place began to forget its laws."
Then he made a small, precise movement with his hand.
"And Kagami… did not stop the chaos."
His smile deepened.
"He made it readable."
He took another step. The shadows receded slightly… but did not attack him.
"He rearranged the atoms. Imposed a temporary grid of laws."
He looked up at the ceiling, at the void.
"He understood the mirror. For the first time."
He looked back at her.
"The activation failed, yes. But the mirror… remembered."
He fell silent. Then spoke, in a lower voice:
"And the place became tainted."
He reached out toward the inscribed shadows.
"It became ready… to return."
He paused for a moment. Then said, as one placing the final piece:
"That's why the deviation appeared. That's why Atsuro's device saw the map… then lost half of it."
He smiled a narrow smile.
"The outcome has not been decided yet."
He tilted his head.
"And today?"
He looked at the black seals within the shadow.
"You did not awaken the mirror."
He raised his head slowly.
"You taught it how to observe."
He lowered his voice.
"Level One - Shadow Mark does not break. It does not kill. It does not attack."
He stepped closer.
"It leaves a trace. It makes the darkness… carry intent."
He smiled a narrow smile.
"The outcome has not been decided yet."
He looked at her for a long moment.
"And you… were the missing piece. The only one in five centuries."
He raised his hands slightly, as if declaring the end of the performance.
"The mirror observed. The second seal trembled."
He lowered his voice until it became a whisper.
"And now… only the final seal remains."
He fell silent. Then said, in a deadly calm:
"Well done, Lilithia."
Lilithia did not answer. Her silence was not a choice. It was a weight. Her grip on the sword tightened… then loosened slightly.
The shadows around her were no longer behind her. They were beneath her feet. Clinging. Breathing:
"Were you ever just a tool?"
She felt it not as a force, but as something that waited. Something that clung to her without asking permission. She raised her eyes slowly. She did not look at Tsukishiro. She looked at the void that should have been stable… but no longer was.
Atsuro did not move. The sensor device in his hand did not issue a warning. It did not scream. It did not glow. Instead it hesitated.
The map that had appeared as points and probabilities shuddered. Half of it vanished. Not erased… but pulled away. He swallowed.
He felt the stone in his chest tighten. The Luck Stone did not react. No warning. No inclination. And that… was worse. Because luck no longer knew which direction to favor.
He lifted his head slowly. He looked at Lilithia. And for the first time he did not see her as a point of safety. Every breath now arrived a fraction of a second late before reaching his lungs.
The shadows stretched further. Not as a phenomenon… but as a decision. Then the shadow before Lilithia split.
Kaguchi emerged. He did not step forward, nor come through a gate. It was as if the darkness had suddenly remembered him… and restored him to existence.
Lilithia's eyes widened. Not in astonishment. Not in fear. But in that harsh moment… when the body recognizes an enemy before the mind can comprehend it.
He. The one who attacked her. The one who tore Villiam apart. The name she had been hunting… and now stood a single shadow away.
Kaguchi did not smile. He did not take a fighting stance. He simply looked at her, a direct, empty gaze…
At that same moment, Atsuro felt something brush against his shoulder. A hand. Cold. Light… but its weight was heavier than the place itself.He froze. He did not need to turn.
The shadow behind him had already preceded the sound. A black hand emerged from the darkness, its fingers long, its nails sharp, as if they were not made for touch but for reminder.
Then the voice came calm, close to his ear, like a whisper that knew the way:
"It's been a long time, Atsuro…"
The air stopped.
"Have you forgotten… your blood relatives?"
At that moment, the sensor at Atsuro's side shivered. The map, half of which had been missing, went completely dark, as if something had pulled the location from existence.
The aura shifted. It no longer pressed… but observed. Lilithia did not move. Her eyes remained on Kaguchi. But her shadow… no longer matched her.
The darkness around her twisted as if recognizing something old.
Behind Atsuro: Izanami stepped closer. She did not appear fully. She did not need to. Her presence alone was enough.
Then, everything went silent.
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-To be continued...-