(Yuuta's POV)
The tunnel behind me was quiet.
Too quiet.
Not the kind of silence that brings calm, but the kind that wraps around your chest like a tightening rope.
My feet pounded against the stone floor, echoes bouncing back at me from every direction. Each step sounded louder than the last, like the walls themselves were trying to remind me—
You're alone.
My breath came heavy and fast, but I didn't slow down.
Couldn't.
Elena...
Her name repeated in my mind like a heartbeat.
The children had made it out. They were safe now. But she—she was still missing.
Taken.
And I couldn't shake the feeling that if I didn't get to her soon, I'd be too late.
The tunnel finally opened up ahead—barely visible through the darkness. I pushed against the cold stone panel at the end, and with a low, reluctant groan, it slid open.
Light spilled through.
But not warm daylight.
No, this light was pale. Flickering. Artificial.
The space beyond the tunnel looked like it hadn't been touched in decades—a auditorium, stripped of life. Dust floated through the air.
I stepped in carefully, scanning the room.
That's when I saw him.
A figure.
Standing at the center of the stage, perfectly still. Like he had always been there. Like this whole place existed just for this moment.
He didn't speak.
Didn't move.
He just watched me.
Something about him… felt wrong.
Not in an obvious way. Not like a monster or a demon or anything I could name. But there was a stillness to him that didn't belong in something alive.
Slowly, I approached.
"Who are you?" I asked, my voice echoing through the empty space.
He raised his head.
His face emerged beneath the flickering lights.
Sharp features. Impossibly clean. Hair slicked back with meticulous care. A crisp, black suit. Gloves. He looked like a butler out of time, untouched by the dust and decay around him.
But it was his eyes that stopped me.
They weren't eyes.
They were voids. Deep, soulless, cold.
He smiled faintly. Not with joy. Not even with mockery.
Just… calculation.
"I am Allen Manstar," he said softly. "It's a pleasure to meet you… Son of Disaster."
My pulse jumped.
That name.
"…What did you just call me?"
"Son of Disaster," he repeated, like it was a fact, not an insult. "The one who leaves ruin wherever he walks."
"I don't know who you are," I said, taking a step forward, "but if you're with Mobius—"
He raised a gloved hand.
Not fast. Not threatening.
Just a single, slow gesture.
And suddenly, everything changed.
My breath caught in my throat.
A wave of pressure hit me—unseen, but heavy. Like the air had turned to stone.
I stumbled back, knees shaking. My vision blurred at the edges. The world tilted, as if something massive had shifted just beneath the floor.
I clutched at my head, trying to stay focused. But something inside me… felt like it was unraveling.
"What… what the hell are you doing to me?"
Allen took one step forward. His movements were fluid. Silent.
"You feel it now," he murmured. "The weight of what's coming, My key."
My legs buckled. I dropped to one knee, struggling to hold on.
I gritted my teeth.
No.
I couldn't lose consciousness. Not now.
Not until I find her. Not until I see Elena again.
But the strength was slipping from me—slowly, like a candle burning down to its final flame.
Allen's voice echoed again, softer this time. Almost gentle.
"Sleep now, Yuuta Kounari. Your part is not yet over… but it must pause."
My vision fractured.
Everything faded into a haze of gray and black.
And then—
Nothing.
___________
(Rock's POV)
Elena was asleep.
Even now—tied up beside me, surrounded by cold concrete and the hum of dying lights—she looked so strangely calm.
Like the chaos around her didn't exist.
Her chest rose and fell softly. One cheek rested against her shoulder, her small hands curled slightly in her lap as if she were just resting in a quiet room, not bound to an old theater seat in an underground ruin.
It unsettled me.
Most kids her age would be crying. Screaming. Fighting the ropes. But not her.
She was quiet. Still.
Like she knew something I didn't.
Or maybe… maybe she just wasn't afraid.
I wish I could say the same.
I was terrified.
The second auditorium was suffocating. The walls were empire time, and the paint peeled in long, curling strips. The air smelled like old dust and metal. A faint mechanical hum came from the surveillance cameras in each corner, their red lights blinking steadily. Watching. Always watching.
We were tied side by side—cables wrapped around our arms and legs, fixed tightly to the rusted theater seats. Escape was impossible.
I glanced upward, toward the old control booth built into the rear wall above the stage. A figure moved behind the glass.
Faulni.
He was pacing like a madman, fingers jittering over controls, flipping between surveillance feeds. I could see the sweat on his forehead even from here. His hands shook with every button he pressed.
"No, no, no…" he muttered, voice rising in panic. "Not now. Why are the childrens outside?! Who opened the gates?!"
His fist slammed down on the control panel, and a spark flickered from the edge of the screen.
"They were supposed to be in Hall ! I had this timed! Planned! If they escape now… I'll never complete the summoning!"
My blood ran cold.
Summoning?
I held my breath, trying not to react, not to draw attention. I looked at Elena again, wondering if she was really asleep—or if she was pretending better than anyone I'd ever seen.
Then Faulni said something that froze me in place.
"Everything I prepared… ruined. Because of one man. That damned Genius bastard."
He kicked his chair backward—it crashed into the wall behind him—and stormed out of the booth, vanishing from view.
I barely had a second to process when—
The side door creaked.
The sound echoed like a scream in the silent room.
I turned toward it instinctively, every muscle in my body tensing.
Allen entered.
And he wasn't alone.
He moved like a shadow slipping into a room that already belonged to him. Graceful. Controlled. Not a single sound from his shoes on the floor. But it wasn't his quiet that scared me.
It was what he was dragging behind him.
A body.
At first, the figure was limp, hidden in motion. But then the face tilted forward, and I recognized the uniform.
Mobius.
My throat tightened.
His face came into view—pale, battered. His black hair stuck to his forehead, and bruises covered one side of his jaw. His hands dragged uselessly behind him, and he didn't seem conscious.
Boy…?
That was him?
That's Elena's father?
He didn't look like a military commander. He didn't look like a Man. He looked… Young teenager.
Like a boy who had stumbled into a fire too big to survive.
Allen dropped him unceremoniously by the wall. The sound of impact made me flinch. His body crumpled.
And then, from the far side of the room, someone stood.
Aaron Muru.
He'd been leaning against the wall, arms crossed, eyes burning with something dangerous. He hadn't said a word this entire time. But now—he moved.
He crossed the space slowly, purposefully, and without hesitation grabbed Yuuta by the neck.
Yuuta groaned weakly, barely able to lift his head.
"This is what you deserve," Aaron hissed, tightening his grip. "Everything I lost—every dream you shattered—I'll repay it now."
"Hey!" I shouted, straining against the cables. "What the hell are you doing?! Let go of him!"
Aaron didn't answer.
He didn't even look at me.
His eyes were locked on Yuuta with a fire that felt ancient—like it had been burning for years.
Faluni said "killed him Aaron."
And just when I thought he might really kill him—
Allen moved.
He laid a gloved hand on Aaron's shoulder. His voice was quiet, but it cut like a blade.
"Don't. We need his blood intact."
Aaron froze. His jaw clenched. But after a moment, he let go, stepping back has he was controlled by him.
Yuuta collapsed to the ground with a dull thud.
I stared in silence, my heart pounding against my ribs.
"What is this?" I asked, my voice smaller now. "What are you doing? What's the point of all this?"
Allen turned to face me.
And for a second, I saw it.
That emptiness behind his eyes.
He wasn't angry.
He wasn't satisfied.
He was just… hollow.
"My point is for my freedom," he said.
I blinked. "Freedom… from what?"
He stepped closer, slowly, as if explaining something to a child.
"The contract. I was bound—ordered. Forced to serve your kind. A spirit caged in obedience. Chained to weak masters."
His voice remained calm, but there was something ancient beneath it. Something vast.
"You humans think you own power because you speak its name."
I didn't understand, what this fucker was saying.
But the weight of it settled over the room like a storm cloud.
Then—Faulni returned.
Bursting back into the room like a man holding onto his last thread.
"Allen! Don't forget your promise me! You said if I helped you, you'd help me—!"
Allen didn't even blink.
"I haven't forgotten."
Faulni's eyes darted to the empty rows of seats. "I needed the children! They were the offerings—the vessels! I did everything right!"
Allen pointed toward Elena.
"You still have her."
Faulni frowned. "What?"
"She's not ordinary you know that right ," Allen said. "Her blood isn't human. She's the daughter of something greater. Something far beyond your offering."
Silence.
Faulni's breath caught in his throat.
"She… she's that powerful?"
Allen nodded once.
"More than you know."
He didn't explain further.
He just walked to Yuuta, lifted him over one shoulder like a sack of cloth, and turned.
Aaron followed without a word as he was puppet to him.
They left the room through a rear passage, vanishing into shadow.
Leaving me alone.
Tied to a chair.
Beside a girl who didn't even know she might be the spark to summoning a monster.
__________________________
(Allen's POV)
Location: Soul Mountain near Libeus hidden beanth valley – Inner Sanctum
The silence here is sacred.
Not the silence of peace—but something older. Heavier. The kind that settles after centuries of screaming.
Silence hung heavy—because this place terrified me.
It was the very first place I was summoned to, dragged from my world itself into this world by the Emperor's royal sorcerer.
From that day on, I did everything I could to survive.
Manipulating my master… deceiving mortals… anything to buy myself time—
Time to find a way to break free from this cursed contract.
And now...
Today is the day, I will be free.
I stood at the edge of the circle, watching him.
Yuuta Kounari.
Bound. Unconscious. Completely still.
He lay like an offering on the obsidian altar at the mountain's heart, the chains biting into his limbs, etched with runes older than the empire that had tried to bury me. The cave's red glow shimmered off his skin, casting shadows over his face.
He didn't look like a threat. Not like himself.
But I knew better.
Son of Disaster.
That's the title humans gave them—
Out of fear. Out of ignorance.
Those who are not dragons, yet carry Zani,
They're called monsters.
Weapons.
Cursed souls born to destroy nations.
"Son of Disaster," they whisper,
As if they chose this path.
But they never understood what it truly meant.
Not really.
Not the way I do.
He wasn't a curse. He was a chosen by Divine being.
A doorway.
A key.
And I had waited… so long for this moment.
I moved closer, slow and deliberate. The stone beneath my feet pulsed faintly with Zani—the forbidden energy that ran like molten blood through the veins of the mountain. It welcomed me. Whispered to me. We had history, this place and I.
"Finally," I said softly, more to the mountain than to the boy. "You're here."
I let my hand hover over his chest—felt the coldness of sleep, of fear, of something sealed. Deep inside, I could sense it.
Her Aura.
The one whose name I dare not speak.
The First.
The Founder of Zani. The being even the oldest demons still feared. Her touch was woven through his soul like poison and prophecy.
The others feared her legac. I saw it for what it was: the last remaining truth in a world full of cages.
If Yuuta survived the awakening…
If he endured what Zani would do to his body…
It meant only one thing:
He is hers. Chosen.
I closed my eyes briefly.
For a thousand years I served this world in silence. I wore false names. Bowed to fools. Bent my will to kings and gods alike, waiting for the one thread that could unravel it all.
This boy.
He was my end. And my beginning.
I turned, slowly raising my arm. Shadows stirred around me.
"Come."
They obeyed instantly.
Five figures emerged from the far corners of the chamber—silent, deformed, bound. Once men, long ago. Now? Twisted by Dark Mana. Creatures of my will. My instruments.
"Yes, boss," they said in a voice not entirely human.
"Guard the sanctum," I commanded. "No one enters. Not until the ritual is done. Kill whoever tries."
They bowed, melting back into darkness like smoke returning to flame.
But I wasn't finished.
One more.
The only one of them I'd ever trust with something close to thought.
"Xemon."
He stepped forward slowly.
Massive. Silent. His armor was blackened and fractured, claws stained red, eyes glowing like coals left too long in the dark. He didn't speak right away—he never rushed words.
"My lord."
"When he wakes up…" I muttered, stepping closer, my boots echoing against the stone floor, "start the torture."
I didn't shout. No rage. Just control.
"Keep him awake. I don't care if he faints—wake him up. Again and again. He needs to feel it. Every snap of bone. Every scream caught in his throat."
My fingers tightened around the vial in my hand—dark red, thick, fresh. Human blood. Still warm.
I shoved it into the servant's palm. "After an hour… make him drink this filth. Slowly. Make sure he tastes every drop."
I saw the flicker of hesitation in the fool's eyes.
"No mercy," I said, my tone dropping like a blade to his throat. "Not even if he begs. Especially if he begs."
I turned, letting the shadows swallow half my face.
"And when he finally awakens…"
I smiled. A smile only the damned would understand.
"Stab his heart. Rip it out. Drain him until there's nothing left but silence."
The servant nodded, voice trembling. "Y-Yes, Boss. I will make sure to take out his blood for ritual."
My gaze returned to Yuuta.
His breath was steady now. Shallow. But I could already feel the stirrings—Zani moving faintly beneath the surface, like a storm far out to sea.
He would wake soon.
And when he did…
The boy would scream. And the mountain would remember the sound of blood again.
I leaned in close, the words barely audible now, spoken like a secret to the gods.
"Let's see how long it takes… for you to awaken."
A smile curved across my lips.
"Yuuta Kounari."
To Be Continued.