The siren wailed louder as Haruto approached the source. It came from a side street off Shibuya's main drag—less crowded, more industrial. Warehouses and old office buildings lined the road. The air grew thick, heavy with Aether. Purple-black mist seeped from between two buildings, forming a swirling vortex against a brick wall.
The Gate.
Smaller than the A-rank one. Irregular edges. Unstable.
Haruto stopped ten meters away.
**[Instant Analyze – Gate Scan.]**
**[Gate Status: B-rank (Unstable Variant). Type: Abyss Echo. Monsters: Shadow Remnants Lv.15–20 (x12), Echo Guardian Lv.25 (Boss). Warning: Dimensional instability detected. Risk of memory interference.]**
He felt it immediately.
A pull.
Not physical.
Deeper.
Inside his chest, something stirred. Tenebrae pulsed in response.
**[Memory Fragment Resonance detected. Entering this Gate may trigger Fragment 2.]**
Haruto's red eyes narrowed.
"Good."
He stepped forward.
The mist parted like water. He crossed the threshold.
Darkness swallowed him whole.
No gradual transition this time.
Straight into void.
He landed on cracked obsidian ground. The sky above was black—no stars, no moon. Only faint purple cracks like lightning frozen in time. The air tasted like ash and old blood.
Echoes surrounded him.
Whispers at first.
Then voices.
His sister's again.
"Yami… why didn't you save me?"
Haruto froze.
A figure materialized ahead—translucent, ghostly. A girl of sixteen. Same face from the memory. Blood on her cheek. Broken spear in hand.
His heart clenched.
"Not real," he muttered.
The figure tilted her head.
"But it hurts, doesn't it?"
The whispers multiplied.
Comrades. Friends. All the faces he failed.
They circled him—ghostly, accusing.
"You let us die."
"You ran."
"You were weak."
Haruto's hands trembled.
Then he clenched them.
**[Aura Fear – Lv.2.]**
Crimson-black pressure exploded outward.
The ghosts recoiled.
"Shut. Up."
He walked forward.
The ground cracked under his steps.
The boss appeared at the chamber's center.
Echo Guardian.
A towering humanoid of shifting shadows and purple flames. No face—just a void where eyes should be. In its chest, a glowing purple core pulsed like a heartbeat.
It raised a hand.
The ghosts reformed—stronger, armed with spectral weapons.
They charged.
Haruto moved.
**[Judgment Blade – Lv.2.]**
Silver crescents sliced through three ghosts. They shattered like glass.
More came.
**[Black Chain Curse – Lv.2.]**
Chains erupted from every shadow, binding, crushing, dragging the echoes into the dark.
EXP ticked up.
But the Guardian watched.
Silent.
Haruto reached the center.
The boss finally moved.
A wave of purple-black energy rolled toward him—pure void.
Haruto countered.
**[Crimson Flames – Lv.2.]**
Red-black fire met void.
They clashed.
Fire devoured shadow.
But the void pushed back.
Haruto staggered.
**[Tenebrae – Lv.2 (Selective Devour).]**
He raised his palm.
A black sphere formed—larger now. Controlled.
He hurled it at the core.
The sphere hit.
And expanded.
Darkness swallowed the purple flames.
The Guardian roared—a sound that shook the dimension.
The ghosts screamed.
Then silence.
The core cracked.
Shattered.
The Guardian dissolved into mist.
**[Boss defeated.]**
**[EXP +1800]**
**[Level Up! Level 7 → Level 9]**
**[Memory Fragment 2 Unlocked.]**
The chamber faded.
Haruto stood in darkness.
A new vision.
Not the battlefield.
A quiet moment.
Before everything fell.
His sister—smiling. Handing him a small pendant. A black stone on a chain.
"Promise you'll come back, Yami."
He had taken it.
"I always do."
The vision ended.
The pendant wasn't in his hand now.
But he felt it—deep in his soul.
**[Memory Fragment 2: The Promise.]**
**[Reward: New Accessory Unlocked – Purge Pendant (Hidden). Effect: +15% resistance to memory/illusion attacks. Passive: Accelerates Purge Legacy evolutions by 10%.]**
Haruto exhaled.
The Gate collapsed around him.
He stepped out.
Back in the alley.
Rain had started again.
No cheers this time. No witnesses.
Just him.
And the weight of a promise long broken.
He touched his chest.
The pendant wasn't physical.
But it burned there.
Warm.
Real.
He looked up at the sky.
"I'm coming back," he whispered.
"Not for you."
"For them."
The rain fell harder.
Haruto walked away.
The siren had stopped.
But the echoes hadn't.
They never would.