Yushi ran until his legs felt like lead. The light had promised a way out — a warmth, a fix — but it kept folding in on itself until direction meant nothing. The corridor inside the glow lengthened and shrank like a living thing. Panic rose in his throat.
"What…? What is this? I thought the light was the way. I thought—" He pressed his hands to his temples, breath blown away.
A voice answered him before he could finish. What did you think?
"What? Who's there? Why are you inside my head? Who brought me here?" His voice scraped the fog.
I did not bring you, the voice said. I cannot. Fate brought you. I am only the guide.
A shadow stepped from the mist — a blurred man, edges dissolving like ink in water. When he moved closer he still looked like a smear: face, body, everything indistinct.
"Who are you? What are you?" Yushi demanded.
The figure made a soft, almost regretful sound. "Oh, Yushi. How I wish I could tell you everything. You will know soon enough. For now — look." He pointed.
Yushi squinted. Far away inside the white haze a black speck floated: a dark spot. Tiny. Distant.
"What is that?" he asked, voice small.
"A void," the man said. "You wandered every twist of this cave and got lost. You saw a light — your hope — and you rushed in without thinking. You believed the exit was near. But there was no exit."
"The light… the light is empty," Yushi whispered, his face falling.
"Yes." The man's tone was softer than the fog. "The light is as empty as the dark."
So was it all just for nothing?
Yushi's chest tightened. "I don't know. I know I must protect my friends. I came because I had an intuition." His hand clamped to his heart. "I feel… strange. Even though I think it was for nothing, I feel Like I miss someone I haven't met...I haven't even met yet"
The figure's voice broke; there was an almost-human tremor. "You do. You miss what is to come, you miss someone." He tapped Yushi's shoulder once. "Just go."
Before Yushi could reply the dark mote widened and swallowed him. He fell through nothing — a small, cold tumble — and landed where sound was heavy and the world smelled of iron.
---
Above, Waren laughed until the stone itself seemed to quiver. He paced like a beast about to be fed. "I will kill you all now," he crowed, voice raw with mania. "Yes. You will die here forever. Come back and die. Come back and die." His grin split into madness. He raised his hand and began an invocation. "Command — Forever…"
The seal overhead shuddered.
Waren's grin hit confusion as a fissure cracked along the cave's ceiling. The dark spot writhed and opened. Waren blinked, stunned. "What? What is—?"
From the tear in the dome, a figure dropped. Yushi slammed into the ground and, without missing a beat, planted a surprising kick that knocked Waren off balance.
"God," Yushi panted, breathless and laughing like a madman. "Never going into mysterious lights alone again." He sucked in air like it was a challenge. "I've been looping inside that thing forever."
Waren spat and wiped his mouth. "You little pig, you'll die with them."
"No, you don't understand — I came to save them," Yushi said, voice oddly calm under the frantic chest-thumping. He unsheathed his daggers; a nick gleamed on his palm. He smiled wider. "Nice. You gave me a cut."
Waren's eyes narrowed. He unleashed tiny flying blades from his sheath, a glittering storm. He closed the distance with animal speed. Slash — slice — slice.
Yushi dodged, rolling, weaving; one cut flared across his hand. He laughed at the sting. "That's all? I didn't have my daggers last time. Now you'll see Yushi of Doer." He launched a barrage of attacks — fast, mechanical, precise.
Waren danced with ease, arrogance in every movement. "You will never—" he began.
Then he realized. The strikes Yushi had thrown had already landed. Cuts crossed his arms, legs, chest; blood spread along his skin. He staggered back.
Yushi's grin sharpened. "How about this."
Waren's face went hard. "You prick. Enough." He intoned with snarling certainty: "Command — Aetherin Seal."
The cave convulsed as dark energy pooled and lunged toward Yushi: a viscous, suffocating tide meant to bind and drain all Code energy. Waren smiled with the sick confidence of a man who commanded the place. "You will die now, you prick."
Yushi's eyes did not flinch. "What? Why didn't it work? It's meant to seal all Code energy." Waren's arrogance cracked at the edges.
Yushi's voice hushed. "There's a reason." He looked at Waren with a tired clarity. "There's a command I never use. It steals memory. It drains everything. But sometimes you must burn everything to save the rest."
Waren's features paled. "You used it before. When the cave was destroyed." His tone dropped to a whisper of dread. "You monster."
Yushi breathed out a single name in a cold calm. "Forbidden Command — The Zero."
The cavern shuddered like the world buckling. Waren's eyes widened until the whites showed. He knew that name: erasure, undoing, the absolute null. His hands clawed at air. "Cave — change! Move! I am master here!" he barked, panic knotting his voice.
But the cave held. The dome did not shift. The stones remained.
Waren lunged to end Yushi before it finished. He struck with a devastating blow — a killing attack meant to stop any command mid-birth.
"Yushi sees it, his eyes widening—but once he uses his Command, he can't move. And then, suddenly, the daggers pierce his head."
Waren dropped to his knees and thought he had won. "Thank Lord… I'm safe."
Then Yushi's face did something impossible. Flesh split and knit in seconds. Veins and bones flashed. Internal structures showed themselves and then sealed up again with sickening, clinical speed. Waren's stomach turned; bile burned his throat. The sight was raw, obscene, so absolute that he retched.
Yushi's body knit clean. He stood naked, skin gleaming in the cave light, eyes blazing a bright impossible blue.
Waren launched the cave — attacks from every angle, strike after strike — but the blows whined and faded against an invisible shield. Nothing landed.
Yushi doesn't glance at Waren.
He walks past him, his steps deliberate, his gaze fixed on Weller. Kneeling, he slips his arms under Weller and lifts him gently.
Waren snarls, raising his weapon once more. He swings—
The strike misses Yushi… but grazes Weller.
That's when Yushi stops.
His body freezes mid-motion. His eyes widen, glowing faintly. Slowly, his head tilts toward Waren.
The cavern falls silent.
With the flick of a single finger, snap—Waren's body shreds into a hundred pieces.
Another flick—crack—a thousand more pieces.
Another—snap—millions, each fragment smaller than dust.
And with one final flick, Waren ceases to exist. His body is erased, scattered to atoms beyond any hope of healing.
The cavern groans, then collapses… but not with violence. The fall is soft, calm, almost respectful, as if even the earth feared Yushi's wrath. No one is harmed.
When the dust settles, only silence remains—
and upon the surface of the open desert, the Code Crystal lies revealed, shimmering in the sun.
And Yushi now drops Weller slowly to the ground. The desert air ripples with heat, grains of sand clinging to their sweat-drenched faces as he kneels and touches Weller's head, healing him completely. A gust of hot wind drags dust across the ground, stinging yushi's eyes as he moves toward Kage, laying his palm upon him and mending his wounds as well. Nicolas comes next, but when Yushi touches him, his hand jerks back instinctively, as if burned by something unseen. For a heartbeat he hesitates, the dry air heavy in his lungs, then forces his hand forward again, healing Nicolas too.
Then he steps toward Hakari—but shockingly, he senses nothing. Not even a flicker of Code energy. The air around them feels heavier, the stillness of the desert pressing in as Yushi lays a trembling finger on Hakari. In that instant, something unseen surges back at him. Yushi's body recoils violently, and he screams, voice echoing across the dunes.
"No! Nooooo! Noooooooo!"
His cry fades into the vast emptiness of sand and sky before he collapses onto the burning ground, dust swirling around his limp form.
Far away, in the royal palace of Doer, the king—out of love for his son—has already commanded his soldiers to pursue Weller and the others. By the time the armored riders arrive, the desert sun is sinking low, throwing long shadows over the collapsed group. The soldiers dismount, boots crunching against dry earth, and find everyone sprawled except for Weller, who forces himself upright, brushing sand from his arms.
"So you came," Weller says, his voice raspy. "Do one thing—please carry Hakari and the others back to Doer. They are not in a position to walk to Koha…"
"Yes, my lord. But what about you? Aren't you hurt and tired?" one soldier asks, shielding his eyes from the swirling dust.
"Hurt?" Weller glances down at his dust-caked body. "I don't think so. And tired? Well, I think you all are too. So I will walk myself."
"Alright, as you say, my prince."
The soldiers bend against the wind, lifting Yushi onto their backs, then Kage, then Nicolas. One soldier steps toward Hakari—but before he can touch him, Hakari's body suddenly lifts off the ground, suspended in the shimmering desert air. His eyes snap open, burning with something unearthly.
"No. We walk towards Koha," Hakari—or whatever had taken hold of him—says in a voice not entirely his own.
Weller stumbles forward, sand whipping at his face. "But w—"
Hakari, or the thing within him, cuts him off with a roar that shatters the quiet nightfall:
"We have to go to Koha!"
Weller's throat goes dry in the desert wind. He doesn't argue. "Alright, as you say."
"But my lord," another soldier ventures cautiously, "going to Koha without giving notice to King Yami would mean disrespect."
Weller nods, the desert wind tugging at his cloak. "Yes, you are right. Tonight we will camp here, and tomorrow we will leave.
Hakari's body suddenly crashes back down, a cloud of dust rising around him.
"What now, my prince?"
"I don't know what or why," Weller admits, eyes fixed on Hakari's motionless form, "but I feel it too—that we need to move to Koha as soon as possible. So tonight we camp, and we will send notice to the king."
And also, the Code Crystal… I'm sure just before you arrived, it was here—the Code Crystal was here. I don't know what happened, my head is spinning. Well, aside from that, tomorrow we move towards Koha."
The soldiers bow their heads. "Alright, my prince."
The desert grows colder as night spreads across the dunes. Above them, stars burn in silence, and though one challenge has been completed, 9,999 more still wait in the shadows of the world.