Ryu had never felt so tired waking up. His dreams had been filled with twisted landscapes—a black desert beneath a bleeding sky, and distant voices whispering his name. One voice stood out, ancient and heavy:
"You will inherit what the world forgot..."
He sat up in bed, drenched in sweat, his right hand trembling slightly. He couldn't shake the chill in his spine.
At school, everything felt off. Shadows seemed longer, darker. Whispers echoed too sharply in the halls. Even his friends noticed.
"You're out of it today, Ryu," Ren said, eyeing him. "Did something happen?"
Ryu just shook his head. He didn't want to talk about it.
Between classes, Alice Mikaelis approached him. Calm, serious, unreadable.
"Follow me," she said, her voice commanding but not unkind.
They slipped into an empty classroom. Ryu felt uneasy.
Alice raised her hand and began chanting in a language he didn't understand. A ring of light formed around him, glowing faintly.
Her eyes widened. "It's true... You carry it. A demonic essence... but it's not like anything I've seen. Old. Faint. Almost extinct."
Ryu blinked. "I don't understand. What are you talking about?"
"You have something sealed within you," Alice said. "Something that should not exist."
Suddenly, a blast shook the windows. A new demonic presence had emerged near the school grounds.
Alice turned. "Stay here."
But Ryu didn't listen. He ran after her.
A grotesque demon stood in the yard, snarling, targeting a random student.
Without thinking, Ryu threw himself forward to help. The demon struck him aside, but before it could finish the job, a dark shield burst from Ryu's shadow, blocking the blow.
Alice arrived in a flash, her sword of silver and gold cutting through the demon with ease.
She looked back at Ryu, now barely conscious, the shadow retreating into him.
Later, Ryu sat alone behind the school building, trying to process everything.
That's when he heard it.
A voice inside his head.
"Give it back. Give me my power!"
Ryu clutched his head, panicked.
"Who are you?!"
The voice laughed darkly.
"You carry what was mine... what you don't deserve. But I will reclaim it. Soon."
Ryu collapsed to his knees, breath shallow.
Then silence.
He looked up at the sky, unsure of who—or what—he really was.
And deep within, something stirred.