They called it the Dawnbreak.The moment the last god died, the sky fractured—not with sound, but with silence.
The kind of silence that comes right before a scream.The kind that drips down your spine and asks, what have you done?
Kazuki Arin stood on the altar ruins with godblood still drying on his hands. The mountaintop shrine groaned beneath his boots, the divine sigils crumbling like ash around him.
Above, the sky was wrong.
The stars had turned their backs.The sun refused to rise.The whole world was holding its breath.
Rin was pacing. She never paced.
"You feel that?" she muttered, teeth clenched. "That's not a wind. That's a summons. Something ancient just woke up. Something that should've stayed buried."
Kazuki didn't answer. His mind was somewhere else—fractured images flashing through his skull like blades:
Yuna, laughing in moonlight.Kaien, kneeling to the Emperor.Ayame, screaming as the flames consumed her.
His pulse was slow. Too slow.As if his body was already leaving him behind.
Below the shrine, in the depths of the Empire…
The Eclipse Moves
In a sunless chamber lined with obsidian mirrors, nine figures stood in a circle. No faces. No names. Just cloaks and shadows.
At their center: a flame, flickering black.
"He's done it," whispered one voice. Old, cracked, filled with delight.
"The last Lightborn is dead."
"Aetherion?" said another. "That can't be true."
The first voice chuckled. "His heart stopped at 4:09:17. The sky stuttered. The sigils collapsed. We felt it."
"The Godkiller has awakened," rasped a third. "Too early. Too wild."
A gloved hand curled around the black flame.
"Then it's time."
Somewhere across the empire, in the drowned streets of Virellia, wanted posters fluttered in acid wind.
KAZUKI ARINAge: 17Status: ExiledCrime: DeicideReward: 10,000 Bloodmarks — Dead preferred.
And yet not one bounty hunter touched them.Not after what happened at the altar.Not after the god screamed.
The Path of Ashes
Kazuki stumbled through the broken forest, the Hollowblade pulsing at his side. Every step felt heavier now. As if the world was starting to notice him.
"I need to rest," he muttered, though his voice didn't sound like his own.
"Rest is for corpses," Rin said flatly.
She walked beside him—barefoot, half-smiling, her violet eyes scanning the trees like they might come alive.
"You made a crater in the god hierarchy, Kazu. You don't get to nap after that."
"I'm not napping," he snapped. "I'm bleeding."
"Semantics."
She reached out, pressing her finger to his chest. Right above his heart.It burned.
"There's something inside you now," she whispered. "I can hear it. The godfire didn't die—it latched onto you. You're not a killer, Kazuki. You're a vessel."
He fell forward, hitting his knees hard.The trees around him bent backward—physically recoiling from the energy he gave off.
The Hollowblade flared. A single rune along its hilt lit up in red.
Rin's smile dropped.
"...That's not supposed to happen."
Meanwhile, in Lirael…
Yuna Tetsuragi knelt in the cleansing chamber, steam rising around her body.She scrubbed at her skin until it bled. Not from dirt. From memory.
Kazuki's face wouldn't leave her.
Not when he smiled.Not when he screamed her name.Not when he walked into the Trial fire and lived.
A knock at the chamber door.
She rose, wrapping a crimson cloth around her. The mark of a Lightfang—a sanctioned holy blade. The Emperor's own enforcers.
"Priestess Yuna," the attendant said. "The Council has summoned you."
She nodded.
She already knew why.
The Hollowblade Hungers
Night fell. Or what passed for it now. The sky was a canvas of shifting void, colors bleeding where they shouldn't. Kazuki leaned against a ruined pillar, eyes half-shut. The blade lay beside him.
Rin watched him sleep. Not with affection, but with fear.
"This wasn't the plan," she murmured. "You were supposed to kill Aetherion and break the seal. Not… fuse with it."
A soft rustle behind them.
She turned sharply.
From the trees stepped a figure—tall, armored, face veiled in bone.
A Paleborn.
"You're early," Rin muttered.
The thing didn't speak. Just raised a spear of white flame.
Kazuki stirred—then gasped.
The blade flew to his hand before he even saw the attacker. His eyes burned red.
The Paleborn struck.
Steel clashed with soul.
Kazuki screamed.
And the forest exploded.