Chapter 39 — The Place He Had Left Behind
The Dark World was still trembling when Caelan reached Yuto. The boy had finally collapsed, the strain of sustaining Hope through two forced evolutions having wrung nearly everything from him, and Michael lay limp against his chest in his small Juvenile form, barely conscious enough to breathe steadily. Caelan gathered them both against one armored side, handling them with a gentleness that looked almost strange coming from a completely enclosed silver-white knight whose only visible features were the golden eyes behind his visor. Nearby, Stormmane had managed several more steps before his legs simply refused further discussion and folded beneath him. Luminel was in little better condition. One wing was gone entirely, the other damaged almost beyond use, and even his usual ability to complain had become suspiciously quiet. Caelan extended one hand and gathered wind beneath both of them, creating a broad supporting current that lifted the wounded lion and tiny fairy from the ground. There was no dignity left to preserve. There was only survival.
Behind them, darkness folded and crawled around the enormous cocoon Arachne had built for herself. It had become the centre of the entire twisted domain, an obsidian shell of layered silk thicker than fortress walls, pulsing slowly as the ancient spider repaired the damage they had finally managed to inflict. Every pulse released another faint wave through the darkness, and each one carried the unpleasant promise that Arachne was not finished. She was simply healing. Waiting. Her final words still seemed to cling to every shadow around them, promising that no matter where they hid, she would eventually follow. Caelan did not answer her. He did not turn around. Retreat sat badly with every instinct cultivated into him by the Heavenly Flame Sect, but stubbornness and courage were not the same thing, and Path Maker had been brutally clear. There was no route to victory here anymore. Remaining meant death.
He moved, though not at the full, reckless output of Stellar Movement he would have used alone, because Yuto and Michael would not survive being dragged through the world like loose luggage behind a meteor. Even so, ruined towers became streaks of black and grey around him. Wind wrapped around the entire group, carrying Luminel and Stormmane while cushioning Yuto against the armored plate of Caelan's chest. The last remnants of Myriad-Star Fate Body glimmered through the seams of his armor at a far lower output than before, just enough to strengthen exhausted muscles and keep his speed from collapsing entirely. Even that was expensive now. His reserves had been mauled by Arachne's domain, his ribs objected to every landing, and something inside his abdomen remained sore in a way cultivators generally regarded as a request to stop being struck by ancient monsters.
"Luminel," Caelan called through the rushing darkness. "Where?"
For several seconds there was no answer. Then the fairy shifted weakly within the wind supporting him. "There is a forest beyond this region. A large pond at its centre. Near an old city."
"Safer than this?"
"Everything is safer than this."
"That wasn't the question."
Luminel made an exhausted sound that might have been a sigh. "The city is ruled by a demon-born Aetherkin. Old. Dangerous. Very territorial. Very fond of contracts and rules. Arachne would not enter his lands carelessly, especially wounded."
Stormmane opened one eye. "We're escaping the spider by running toward a demon."
"Correct."
His eye closed again. "Good. Just checking."
Caelan followed the faint route Path Maker continued to reveal through the darkness. "Distance?"
Luminel hesitated.
Caelan disliked the hesitation immediately. "How far?"
"Two domains, perhaps."
Caelan was silent.
Stormmane's eye reopened. "Is that far?"
"Yes."
"Very," Luminel added.
Caelan's golden eyes narrowed behind the visor. "Fine."
Luminel stared weakly at him. "Fine?"
"I've crossed worse distances."
"While injured, carrying four people and being hunted by an ancient spider?"
"No."
"Then perhaps don't sound so pleased with yourself."
Caelan might have answered, but the darkness behind them suddenly pulsed. A black wave spread across the ruins, searching through the Dark World like the sweep of an enormous hand. Path Maker's route sharpened violently. Caelan accelerated, and the ruined city disappeared behind them.
Far away from Arachne's web, Haruto Akiyama woke beneath an ordinary blue sky.
For several seconds he thought that was the strangest part. There were no floating ruins. No impossible stars. No corrupted horizon. No World Tree insisting upon being visible from half a world away. Just blue. Simple, cloudless, human blue.
Grass tickled his fingers.
Haruto sat up.
His entire body went still.
There was a playground beyond the trees. A real playground. Metal swings. A slide faded by years of sunlight. The old climbing frame he remembered from childhood, complete with the bent railing someone had never bothered repairing. A road beyond it. Apartment buildings. Cars. Power lines.
Haruto stared.
"No."
Something warm moved against his side.
He looked down.
Ryu lay curled beside him. The small orange Juvenile dragon looked as though someone had dropped him out of the sky and then asked him to sleep through the complaint process. His broad little head lifted sluggishly.
"Haruto?"
Haruto grabbed him.
Ryu made a startled noise as he was pulled tightly against Haruto's chest.
"We're home."
"What?"
"We're home!"
Haruto stood so quickly that the world tilted. He turned in a circle, staring at every familiar detail: the old footpath around the park, the vending machines near the public toilets, the convenience store visible beyond the trees, even a cracked section of pavement where he had once fallen off a bicycle and insisted to everyone within hearing distance that he had not cried.
"This is my neighbourhood."
Ryu looked around. "So this is your world?"
Haruto laughed.
Then the laugh stopped.
The park was too normal. After everything that had happened—the desert, Luminel, Eidon, Cipheron, Ironwyrm, the black hole—normality itself seemed suspicious.
A little girl was playing near the swings.
Haruto stared at her, then approached carefully with Ryu tucked beneath one arm.
The girl noticed them.
Her eyes moved from Haruto to Ryu.
Haruto crouched. "Hey. Sorry, weird question. Is this... real?"
The girl blinked.
Haruto tried again. "Are you from here?"
Ryu smiled.
This revealed teeth.
The girl screamed.
"MONSTER!"
Haruto shot upright. "No, wait, he's friendly!"
The screaming became louder. A nearby woman turned. Then another. Someone pointed. A phone appeared.
Ryu looked at Haruto. "This seems bad."
"Run."
They ran.
Haruto sprinted across the park and disappeared into a narrow alley beside the convenience store, where he finally ducked behind several stacked delivery crates and tried to remember how breathing worked.
Ryu sat beside him. "You said your world was peaceful."
"It normally is!"
"You were here thirty seconds."
"That was an unusually efficient misunderstanding."
Ryu considered this. "I liked the desert."
Haruto glared at him.
Then he began laughing again.
He couldn't help it.
He was home.
Somehow, impossibly, he was home.
Haruto reached his apartment building at a run. It had never looked particularly beautiful before. The concrete was old, some of the balcony rails needed repainting, and one of the lights near the entrance had been flickering for at least two years because apparently everyone in the building had silently agreed that fixing it would be surrendering to responsibility.
At that moment it looked magnificent.
He fumbled with the spare key, pushed through the door and stopped.
Home.
The smell.
The shoes near the entrance.
The marks along the hallway wall.
The familiar clutter that had seemed entirely ordinary until he had spent more than a month wondering whether he would ever see it again.
"I'm home," he whispered.
Ryu stepped inside behind him.
No answer came.
Haruto checked the kitchen. Empty. Living room. Empty. His parents were out.
He did not care.
The refrigerator existed.
That was enough.
He opened it and stared inside with the reverence of someone discovering a religious relic.
Ryu appeared beside him. "Food?"
"Food."
Several minutes later Haruto was standing at the counter eating cold leftovers directly from the container while Ryu attacked bread with astonishing enthusiasm.
Then Haruto noticed the calendar.
His chewing slowed.
He stepped closer.
The date had barely changed.
Haruto stared at it. "No way."
Ryu swallowed. "What?"
"We've been gone more than a month."
"Yes."
Haruto pointed. "Here it's barely been any time at all."
Ryu looked at the calendar as though it had personally insulted mathematics.
Haruto remembered Luminel's explanation. Time did not flow equally between connected universes. In the region they had been travelling through, days could pass while only minutes moved here.
Haruto leaned against the refrigerator. "A month."
He looked toward the window.
"And here... almost nothing."
The thought should have been comforting.
Instead it made the Aetherkin world feel even farther away.
Then came footsteps from the hallway.
Haruto turned.
His younger sister stood there.
Aoi Akiyama was ten now, still small enough that the oversized shirt she wore for sleeping nearly swallowed her, with slightly messy dark hair and the same observant eyes Haruto remembered from before he left. She held a stuffed rabbit tucked under one arm and stared at him for several long seconds.
"Haruto?"
He smiled.
"Hey, Aoi."
The rabbit hit the floor.
She ran toward him.
Haruto caught her and held on far more tightly than he ordinarily would have admitted to. For several seconds neither of them spoke.
Then Aoi looked over his shoulder.
At Ryu.
Her entire expression changed.
"Ryu."
Haruto froze.
Ryu froze.
The room became very quiet.
Haruto slowly released her.
"What did you call him?"
Aoi looked confused. "Ryu."
Ryu stared at her. "Do I know you?"
Her face fell slightly.
"You don't remember?"
Haruto looked between them. "Wait. How do you know him?"
Aoi hugged her toy closer after retrieving it. "I've seen him before."
Haruto's stomach tightened.
"When?"
She looked at Ryu again.
"Years ago."
They sat in the living room with an old family album lying open between them. Ryu sat opposite Aoi, watching her with an uneasiness he normally reserved for enemies much larger than himself.
She turned a page. "You were six," she said to Haruto. "I was three."
Haruto frowned. "I barely remember anything from when I was six."
"I do."
That did not surprise him as much as it should have. Aoi had always remembered strange little things the rest of the family forgot.
She pointed toward the television.
"It started there."
Haruto followed her finger. "The television?"
"Or the computer. I don't remember exactly. There was light. Like the screen was breaking, except it didn't break."
Her small brow furrowed with concentration.
"Something came through."
Haruto's pulse quickened. "An Aetherkin?"
She nodded.
"Small."
Her eyes moved to Ryu.
"Like him."
Ryu said nothing.
"We hid him," Aoi continued. "We fed him everything."
Haruto frowned. "Everything?"
"You got angry because he ate your snacks."
Ryu looked at Haruto.
Haruto pointed at him. "That sounds believable."
Aoi smiled faintly.
"Then he changed."
Haruto's expression became serious. "Evolved?"
She nodded. "He became bigger. Much bigger."
The memory grew clearer as she spoke, as though saying it aloud was pulling something long buried back into reach.
"There was another creature. It came through after him. Stronger. It was flying."
Haruto felt something move at the back of his mind.
A night sky.
A whistle.
Roaring.
He pressed one hand against his temple.
Aoi noticed. "You remember?"
"Barely."
She continued. "You and I were both with Ryu. He listened to both of us."
Ryu's eyes widened slightly.
Both.
Two human partners.
Haruto remembered Luminel explaining that bonds could affect evolution, resonance and growth.
Aoi went on. "He became stronger because of us."
Not merely because Haruto had been there.
Both children.
Two bonds at once.
The form she described had carried more power than Ryu should ordinarily have been able to produce through a single young partner at that point.
Haruto's scattered memories stirred again.
A huge shape.
Horns.
Fire.
Aoi crying.
Then a whistle.
"You had that pink whistle," he murmured.
Aoi smiled. "You remember."
"A little."
"I blew it because I wanted him to get up."
Haruto closed his eyes.
A sharp, childish whistle cut through the fog of memory.
"I took it."
"You blew it really loud."
"And he evolved."
She nodded.
"The other monster was hurting him. Then he changed again."
Ryu stared at her. "I don't remember any of this."
Aoi's expression became sad. "You disappeared."
Ryu went still.
Haruto opened his eyes. "What happened?"
Aoi looked down at the album.
"Ryu fought the other creature. He won."
Her voice became quieter.
"But there was one final attack."
Haruto could almost see it now.
Light swallowing the road.
Aoi screaming.
A huge body standing between them and destruction.
"Then both of them vanished."
Ryu lowered his head.
Haruto understood before anyone said it.
The Ryu from that night had died. His essence had eventually returned to the Aetherkin world and reformed, but the memories had not.
The Ryu sitting in their living room was the same being and yet not the same life.
Ryu looked at Aoi. "I'm sorry."
She shook her head immediately.
"You saved us."
Ryu stared.
Then something small and uncertain entered his expression.
Haruto rested a hand against his head. "So that was you."
Ryu looked up. "Apparently."
Haruto laughed softly.
"We met before either of us remembered."
Aoi nodded.
"I always thought it might have been a dream."
She looked at Ryu.
"Until now."
Haruto leaned back.
The implications were enormous.
The children had not simply been dragged randomly into another universe a month ago. The connection had existed for years. Aetherkin had crossed into their world before. Ryu had crossed before. Haruto and Aoi had bonded with him before.
And something—whether the Grand Archive or another force entirely—had chosen to reconnect those threads.
"We were part of this before we knew what it was," Haruto whispered.
Aoi nodded.
Ryu remained very quiet.
Morning arrived without Haruto feeling that he had slept.
He made eggs because eggs were easy and because after spending weeks surviving on whatever the Aetherkin world decided counted as food, cooking something in an ordinary pan felt strangely luxurious. Ryu sat on the counter and watched every movement with absolute concentration.
"Don't touch them."
"I wasn't going to."
"You ate bread while I was looking directly at you."
"It looked unattended."
"I was holding it."
"Poorly."
Aoi laughed from the table.
For several minutes it almost felt normal.
Then the television ruined everything.
"...unusual atmospheric disturbances have now been reported across several countries," the newsreader said, while footage showed lightning appearing under clear skies, dense mist forming without weather systems and brief distortions moving through city streets. "Scientists have not yet determined whether the events are related."
Haruto stopped eating.
One clip showed a dark shape crossing the sky.
Winged.
Too large to be a bird.
Aoi looked at him.
"You saw it."
"Yes."
Another report showed something enormous moving behind fog before the footage abruptly cut out.
Ryu climbed onto the table. "Those are Aetherkin."
Haruto's stomach sank.
"The worlds are overlapping."
Aoi looked toward the window.
"Like before."
A sharp beeping interrupted them.
Haruto's Resonance Linker had been sitting beside his plate.
It began vibrating violently.
Static filled the display.
Then a face appeared.
"Shun?!"
The image was distorted, but unmistakable.
Shun Nakamura's red hair was a mess, his face exhausted, and something flashed behind him.
"Haruto!"
Haruto grabbed the Linker.
"Where are you? Is everyone okay? Where's Renji? Misaki? Yuto?"
"I don't have time!"
The transmission crackled.
Shun looked over his shoulder.
"Whatever you do, don't try to come back!"
Haruto stared. "What?"
"You heard me!"
"What happened?"
Static swallowed half the answer.
Haruto caught fragments.
"...scattered..."
"...Caelan..."
Then something orange moved behind Shun.
Someone shouted.
The screen distorted violently.
"Shun!"
His friend's face returned for less than a second.
"You're safer there! If you come back now—"
The connection died.
Haruto stood motionless.
Ryu stared at the blank display.
Aoi spoke softly. "What did he mean?"
Haruto tightened his fingers around the Resonance Linker.
"I don't know."
He looked at the dead screen.
"But I'm going to find out."
Time became unbearable after that.
Haruto had always been bad at waiting when people he cared about were in trouble. The Aetherkin world had taught him that rushing blindly into danger could make everything worse, but understanding a lesson and enjoying it were very different achievements.
The sky outside gradually changed.
Purple crept into the blue.
The television continued reporting unexplained disturbances: power failures, localized tremors, animals behaving strangely, things glimpsed in fog that disappeared before authorities arrived.
Haruto sat on the living-room floor.
Ryu rested beside him.
Aoi watched the window.
"You might not be able to go back," she said suddenly.
Haruto looked at her.
"What?"
"What if the black hole sent you here and closed?"
He hated that possibility because he had already considered it.
"There'll be another way."
"How?"
"I don't know."
Aoi looked down. "Shun told you not to come."
Haruto clenched his jaw. "That doesn't mean I'm leaving them there."
Ryu lifted his head.
"They wouldn't leave us."
"Exactly."
Haruto looked at the Resonance Linker lying uselessly on the table.
"All I want is a path back."
The apartment shook.
Hard.
Glass rattled.
Something heavy struck the street below.
Haruto was on his feet before the second impact.
Aoi ran toward the balcony.
Ryu followed.
They looked down.
A massive red saurian Aetherkin lumbered between the buildings. It was taller than the parked vehicles around it, with a heavy tail, powerful claws, a ridged spine and a blunt horned head. Glowing heat pulsed beneath its scales, and every breath escaped its jaws in a curl of smoke.
Ryu's eyes widened.
"Cindermaw. Adult stage."
Cindermaw swept its tail across a row of parked cars and sent them spinning over the road. People screamed and fled. The great saurian opened its jaws, and a blast of fire struck the side of an office building, showering the street with glass and twisted metal.
Aoi gripped the balcony railing. "How did it get here?"
Haruto looked beyond the monster.
The air behind Cindermaw shimmered.
Not heat.
Something else.
A distortion.
A wound between worlds.
His heart started pounding.
"If it came through..."
Ryu understood.
"There might still be a passage."
Haruto was already moving.
He grabbed his backpack, shoved the Resonance Linker inside and pulled on his shoes.
Aoi followed.
Haruto stopped.
"No."
She looked at him.
"I'm coming."
"This thing breathes fire."
"I know."
"You are not coming."
"I remember more about the last time Aetherkin came here than you do."
Haruto opened his mouth.
Closed it.
Ryu looked between them.
"I think Aoi won."
Haruto glared at him.
Ryu suddenly found the floor fascinating.
Aoi stepped past Haruto.
"You aren't leaving me alone while monsters are appearing outside."
Haruto sighed. There were moments when being an older brother meant giving wise guidance. There were other moments when it meant recognising that nobody was going to listen to you anyway.
"Stay behind me."
Aoi nodded immediately. "Always."
Haruto looked at Ryu.
Ryu grinned.
The three of them ran from the apartment.
Outside, Cindermaw roared as another fracture of strange light flickered behind it.
Haruto tightened his grip on the Resonance Linker.
Weeks earlier, the impossible world had pulled him away from home.
Now home itself was beginning to split open.
And if the cracks went both ways, then somewhere beyond one of them were his friends.
Haruto ran toward the monster.
For once, he was chasing danger because danger might be the road back.