The Lady in White stood inside with a lantern dangling from two thin fingers. When she looked at me, it felt like she could see straight through my bones.
"Are you certain?" she asked, voice echoing like we were already inside a tomb.
I swallowed once.
Then nodded.
"Yeah… if beating you is what it takes, I'm ready."
The dome split open like a jaw.
I stepped in.
My knees hit the ground immediately.
Not because I fell—because something pushed me down.
The air pressed on my shoulders like a giant hand, and the dirt below me felt like a heartbeat.
I forced myself upright and realized where I was.
The Forgotten Crossroads.
Not again.
The moon overhead bled white light like it was melting.
And in the fog, silhouettes moved… or twitched… or tried to.
This domain sucks
Even breathing hurt.
"So this is… what's in your mind." I muttered.
"You stand on the threshold of the dead," she said, appearing ahead of me, floating a few inches above the cracked crossroads. "Few living things enter a Ghost's Domain and leave with their bodies intact."
I clenched my fists, ignoring the goosebumps stabbing up my arms.
"Yeah well, you ghosts usually go after regular people with no powers though so… that's not really that impressive."
She tilted her head slowly.
"So eager to die."
The lantern glowed—and the crossroads literally screamed.
Hands burst out of the cement beneath me—cold, pale, desperate.
I dove aside, rolled, tore one off my ankle, but another grabbed my wrist. Another clawed at my calf. Then five more. Ten. A swarm.
I ripped free, panting, but the Lady in White was already beside me.
She didn't attack.
She touched my chest.
And I felt my life force being pulled out through my ribs in thin white threads.
"Ghh—!"
I slapped her hand away, stumbling back, chest burning, it felt like something had scooped out a chunk of my soul.
"You're draining me that fast!?"
"Resisting this domain is admirable," she whispered. "But futile."
I tried gathering spiritons—my inner energy flickered, igniting around me—
only for the domain to crush it instantly.
Like the place itself smothered my power under mud.
What the hell? I can't use abilities here?
My breath caught in my throat.
She looked like she wasn't even trying.
She drifted toward me, the hem of her dress dragging shadows.
I lashed out with a kick—
she vanished.
A cold hand gripped the back of my neck.
"You cling to life like a child clutching broken toys."
I swung an elbow.
She slipped away with no effort, like she wasn't bound to the same physics as me.
My heart hammered painfully.
I was already lightheaded.
This was her holding back!?
If she went all out, I'd be dead in seconds.
Genkei and Saiko really carried me back then didn't they?
"Death-Call Lantern"
The lantern's flame sharpened and rang like a bell.
Spirits formed out of fog.
Dark silhouettes, faceless and hollow, all standing at crooked angles like puppets waiting for strings.
"Walk." she commanded.
They swarmed me.
I sprinted between them, dodging grasping hands, ducking beneath clawed fingers. One of them raked across my back—I felt the pain both physically and spiritually.
I pushed harder, leaping over barricades, weaving through lamp posts
I couldn't beat them all.
I had to reach her.
I bolted forward—
A whisper slid past my ear.
"You will break soon."
She appeared behind me again.
I didn't think—I just punched.
It went straight through her.
"Did you forget about my intangibility?"
I'm so dead.
"You're strong," she said. "But strength means little here."
She let out an ear piercing scream that sent me flying.
I hit a lamp post hard enough to go through it.
My vision blurred.
I couldn't hear.
Breath ragged.
Blood dripping from somewhere—I didn't have time to check where.
I forced myself to my feet anyway.
"My Soul Doesn't Waver" I muttered subconsciously.
She drifted toward me, pausing only a few feet away.
"What did you just say?"
I see her lips moving, but I can't make out what she's saying.
"...Nevermind that, your soul should be trembling," she murmured. "It should be unraveling. Fleeing your body. Desperate to escape."
I wiped blood from my lip. I could hear her words in my head.
"Sorry to disappoint."
"No…"
She sounded genuinely puzzled.
"Even when I drain you, even when I force your consciousness to the border of death… your soul refuses to bend. Why?"
"I don't know," I said between breaths.
"But I'm not planning on dying to find out."
For the first time, her lifeless eyes flickered—as if something inside them cracked.
"Then come, Itsuki Ririku."
She dropped her lantern.
The flame didn't fall.
It exploded upward into a spiral of white fire.
"Show me your will."
I sprinted into the fire.
It tore across my skin.
Burned through my clothes.
Filled my lungs with heat.
But stopping meant dying.
I forced my spiritons to surge—each pulse like needles stabbing my bloodstream. I threw myself at her, swinging a punch loaded with everything I had left.
She raised a hand to block—
I twisted, kicked her side, elbowed her jaw, swung again.
She stumbled back half a step.
Her sleeve sliced across my ribs—hot blood spilled.
I hit her again anyway.
She kicked my leg—I nearly collapsed.
I slammed my head forward, grabbed her arm, dragged her to the ground with me.
The earth rumbled.
Her lantern flickered weakly.
She froze beneath me, expression unreadable.
And for a moment—
Everything in the domain went silent.
—
She phased out of my hand and floated back to her feet, dress completely untouched.
Only her lantern dimmed slightly.
"You barely survived," she said. Not mocking. Just stating fact. "And I was nowhere near my full strength."
"G…great," I gasped. "So glad to hear that."
"But you passed."
I blinked. "Passed? I didn't do any damage to you. I thought you were trying to kill me."
"If I could have," she said simply, "I would have."
My stomach dropped.
"But beating you was not enough. Even when I brought you here… even when I crushed your body and drained your life… your soul refused to waver."
She looked away, almost uncomfortable.
"You are… vexing."
Then the graveyard shattered like glass.
I fell forward as the domain vanished around me.