The chamber they dragged Haruki into was nothing like the training halls or the Binding Seat's arena.
This was containment, and it felt alive with menace.
Thick steel walls rose around him, engraved with layers of runes that pulsed faintly with light wards designed to suppress, to smother.
The floor was etched with circles within circles, each connected to chains anchored in the walls. The air itself tasted heavy, metallic, like blood.
The guards shoved him inside and the chains snaked toward him of their own accord. They wrapped around his wrists, ankles, and chest, binding him to the central seal. With each link that clicked shut, his strength ebbed further.
Kana tried to follow, but Hoshin stopped her at the threshold. His tone was colder than before. "Not here. This is Guild protocol. He's not to be approached until I say otherwise."
She clenched her fists. "You're treating him like a monster, not a person."
"If I'm wrong," Hoshin said, his eyes still fixed on Haruki, "then he'll walk out of here alive and vindicated. But if I'm right…" He left the words unfinished. The door boomed shut behind him and the others, sealing Kana out.
The silence pressed in.
Haruki sagged against the chains, every breath shallow. The runes glowed faintly beneath his skin, as if reading him. He thought about struggling, but even the thought left him exhausted.
System Zero's voice broke the stillness.
[Oh, how dramatic. Shackled, silenced, and stared at by glowing squiggles. Very heroic.]
Haruki exhaled sharply. "Not… now."
But the System didn't stop.
[They don't trust you they'll never trust you. You saw it in their eyes. Fear, suspicion, even your precious Kana they'll hesitate eventually. And when they do… you'll break.]
Haruki closed his eyes, jaw clenched. "She believes in me. That's enough."
A pause. Then a laugh, low and cruel.
[Enough? For now, maybe. But when he comes, her belief will mean nothing.]
A chill ran through Haruki's veins. He knew the System meant the other voice the one deeper, darker, that had clawed at him in the Binding Seat.
"You heard it too," Haruki whispered.
[…Of course I did. But unlike you, I understand what it is. A shadow older than me. Older than this world. And it has chosen you.]
The chains rattled as Haruki trembled. His pulse hammered, not just with fear but with something dangerously close to temptation.
The runes around him flared suddenly, as if sensing the shift. A harsh hum filled the cell.
Outside, Kana pressed her palms against the cold steel of the door. Her voice was muffled but fierce. "Haruki! Hold on. I'll get you out of there, I promise!"
Inside, Haruki lifted his head, eyes burning faintly red in the gloom.
"I'm not done yet."
Outside the containment chamber, the fortress air was colder than stone. Kana stood rigid in the torchlit hall, her hands curled into fists.
She watched as Hoshin gave curt orders to the soldiers guards stationed at every angle, runes checked, layers of seals reinforced. The whole fortress now revolved around Haruki's imprisonment.
Her chest burned with anger. "This is insane. He saved us. He saved you. And this is how you repay him?"
Hoshin didn't so much as blink. "I repay him by keeping this city alive. One boy's suffering is preferable to a hundred funerals."
Kana stepped forward, fire in her eyes. "You didn't see it! When that monster had us cornered, we were already dead. Haruki he didn't hesitate. He chose to fight, even though it nearly killed him. That power isn't a curse. It's proof he was meant to be here!"
Hoshin finally looked at her.
His expression wasn't anger, but something sharper calculation. "You speak with conviction, but conviction doesn't erase risk. You want me to trust him because you do. That isn't leadership. That's gambling with lives."
Kana's throat tightened. "Then gamble with mine. If you can't trust him, trust me. I'll take responsibility for him."
Murmurs rippled through the nearby soldiers. Hoshin's brow furrowed, but before he could answer, a familiar laugh drifted down the hall.
Kuro stepped into view, arms folded, his shadow long under the flickering torchlight. "Oh, this is rich. Kana the gambler, betting everything on a broken toy. Haven't you realized yet? Haruki isn't some misunderstood hero. He's a time bomb."
Kana spun on him, fury flashing in her voice. "Shut your mouth, Kuro. You don't get to talk about him after what you pulled back there."
"Me?" Kuro's grin widened. "I didn't do anything except tell the truth. You saw the Binding Seat it couldn't classify him. That means whatever's inside him isn't human it isn't Hunter it's something else."
His voice dripped with mock sympathy. "And when it wakes up fully, do you think it'll care about you, Kana? Or will you be the first one it swallows?"
Her hand went to the hilt of her dagger. "Say that again, and you'll find out how sharp my blade really is."
The tension spiked instantly, soldiers shifting uneasily between them.
Hoshin raised a hand, his voice iron. "Enough." His gaze moved between Kana and Kuro. "This isn't the place for personal grudges. Until we know what Haruki is, he remains under Guild custody. That is final."
Kana's teeth ground together, frustration spilling out in a sharp exhale. "Then I'll find proof. Whatever it takes. I'll prove he isn't a monster."
Hoshin gave her a measured look, almost pitying. "You'd better hurry, Kana. The Council won't wait forever."
Kana turned sharply, cloak whipping behind her as she stormed down the corridor. Kuro's quiet chuckle followed her, low and venomous.
Inside the containment cell, Haruki's eyes opened. He couldn't hear the words, but he could feel the vibrations the clash of belief and doubt, loyalty and suspicion.
And somewhere deep in his chest, the darker voice whispered again.
[She fights for you. How sweet. Let's see if she still does when the world bleeds because of you.]
The runes beneath Haruki's feet flared without warning. One moment, he was slumped against the chains, his body limp from exhaustion. The next, a searing light swallowed him whole.
When his vision cleared, he was no longer in the cold cell. He stood barefoot in a vast, endless plain of white stone, stretching to infinity in all directions. The sky above was a flat sheet of grey, unmoving, oppressive.
"W–what is this?" His voice echoed, unnaturally loud.
[Containment protocol initiated.]
The System's voice rang out, hollow and absolute, though something about it felt fractured glitching.
Symbols appeared beneath his feet, circling outward in concentric patterns. They glowed with sharp intensity, forming a cage of light.
[Subject anomaly requires testing.]
Figures stepped out of the hazen at first, they were blurry, half-formed shapes. Then they solidified monsters Haruki had fought since arriving in this world. The snapping jaws of Bantings.
The writhing tendrils of the beast from the ruins. Dozens of them, surrounding him in a perfect ring.
Haruki staggered back, heart hammering. "This… isn't real."
[Your power will be weighed. If unfit, termination will follow.]
The closest Banting lunged. Instinct drove Haruki's arm up, but the chains from the real world manifested here too, dragging against his wrists. His gauntlets flickered into existence, but dulled, as though muted by the seal.
The creature slammed into him, claws raking his chest. Pain was sharp and immediate. He stumbled, coughing blood.
"This isn't real," he repeated, but the agony said otherwise.
[Fight. Or be erased.]
The other Bantings moved as one, shrieking as they charged. Haruki roared back, swinging his gauntlets wide. Metal met flesh, cracking bones, shattering skulls. Each strike sent ripples of black fire surging across the white plain.
The System's voice glitched again, stuttering.
[Power output error. Source unknown. Identity anomaly.]
The black fire spread, staining the perfect stone beneath his feet. The sky trembled, fragments of grey breaking away to reveal something darker beyond an endless abyss.
And then he heard it.
[Yes… burn it. Break their cage. Show them what I made you for.]
The deeper voice. The one that had claimed him. It resonated beneath his skin, vibrating with hunger.
Haruki clutched his head, screaming. "Get out of me!"
The Bantings didn't stop. They swarmed, teeth and claws ripping into him, even as the black fire burst from his body in jagged waves.
For every monster that fell, two more surged forward. The pain was unbearable, but so was the temptation the whisper telling him that if he stopped resisting, if he let go, he could end this all with a thought.
His knees buckled. Blood dripped into the cracks forming beneath the white stone. The abyss stared back at him, endless and alive.
And in the distance, far away, he thought he heard Kana's voice cutting through the static.
"Haruki! Fight it! Don't let them take you!"
He raised his head, trembling, caught between the abyss and the echo of her voice.
The plain shook violently as if the world itself couldn't contain what was happening. Every time Haruki struck a monster down, the black fire spread further, spilling like ink across the pristine white stone. Cracks widened under his feet, revealing glimpses of the endless abyss below.
The System's voice struggled to maintain control, words overlapping, glitching:
[Containment… anomaly strength… override failed… ERROR… ERROR]
Haruki's chest heaved as he struggled to stay upright. Blood matted his hair and ran down his face, dripping onto the stone that was quickly being consumed by the fire.
The chains on his wrists burned hot, biting into his flesh, yet still they rattled with every strike of his gauntlets.
"Damn it… I can't hold on like this," he muttered, teeth gritted.
The monsters didn't stop. Their bodies piled up around him only to dissolve into white mist, reforming again at the edges of the field. A cycle without end. His muscles screamed, his lungs burned, but the fight went on.
And through it all, the voice coiled in his mind.
[Why resist? You were never theirs to bind. Tear off the leash. Let me show you what you truly are.]
Haruki squeezed his eyes shut. "Shut up!"
He forced his legs to move, charging through the pack. His gauntlet smashed into a Banting's skull, splintering bone, while his knee drove into the gut of another. But even as he fought, his focus wavered. His vision blurred, swimming between the glowing runes and the abyss beyond.
Then Kana's voice rang out again faint, like a memory carried on the wind.
"Haruki! Don't give in! You're not alone, remember that!"
His heart lurched. He gasped, clutching at the sound as though it were a lifeline.
"Kana…"
The black fire surged, but this time it didn't explode outward blindly. It curled tighter around him, forming jagged patterns that resembled wings of smoke and flame. The monsters hesitated, their snarls faltering as if something greater than them had entered the field.
The abyss trembled.
[Yes… YES. That's it. Break the cage. Open the void. Let me through.]
Haruki dropped to one knee, slamming his gauntlet into the ground. The shockwave cracked the plain wide open. From beneath, the abyss stretched upward, tendrils of shadow licking at the edges of reality.
But then he saw Kana again or rather, the memory of her face flashing in his mind.
Her smile.
The way she had looked at him before the Binding Seat had taken everything away.
"No…" He panted, bloodied lips trembling. "If I let you in… I'll lose everything. I'll lose her."
The shadows quivered, as though mocking his resolve.
[You already lost her. And soon you'll lose yourself. Unless…]
The temptation was suffocating. Power throbbed at his fingertips, promising freedom, promising survival, promising vengeance.
Haruki roared, forcing himself upright. "I won't give in to you!"
The System's fragmented voice pierced through the chaos:
[Containment… stable barely. Subject resisting… corruption.]
The monsters all froze at once, their bodies dissolving into white mist. The plain grew silent, but the abyss beneath continued to spread, dark and hungry.
Haruki staggered, shoulders heaving, sweat and blood dripping. He had resisted the call, but he knew the cracks he'd made in this vision this cage wouldn't heal.
Somewhere beyond, the entity laughed.
[We'll see how long you last.]
The plain trembled once more, then shattered entirely—hurling Haruki back toward consciousness.
Haruki's eyes snapped open with a gasp.
The suffocating darkness was gone, replaced by the blinding glow of the ceremonial chamber's runes. He lay on the stone floor, chest heaving, drenched in cold sweat. His gauntlets twitched with residual sparks, and the chains binding him rattled weakly.
The crowd of Hunters erupted into gasps and hurried whispers. Elders leaned forward from their seats, while apprentices huddled close, staring as though they'd just witnessed a man rise from the dead.
Kana was the first to move. She dropped to her knees beside him, her hands glowing faintly as she scanned his battered form. "Haruki! Can you hear me?"
His throat was dry, but he forced the word out. "Y-Yeah."
The relief in her expression was brief overshadowed by the horror dawning on her face. She pulled her hand back and stared at her palm. Black streaks of fire had clung to her skin before evaporating into nothingness.
The runes etched on the chamber floor began to flicker. What had once been a clean white glow now pulsed with veins of dark crimson and shadow, crawling outward like cracks in a mirror.
"Containment breach!" one of the elders barked, his voice echoing through the chamber.
Haruki blinked hard, trying to sit up. His body screamed in protest, but the real shock came when he looked at his hands. His gauntlets were no longer pristine silver.
Faint black markings, like living veins of smoke, spread across the metal and into his flesh. They pulsed with every beat of his heart.
Kana grabbed his wrist. "Haruki, stop moving something's wrong with you."
He looked at her, wide-eyed, fear and defiance warring in his chest. "I… I fought it. I didn't let it take over."
"Then why do you still carry its mark?"
Before Haruki could answer, the System's voice cut through the chamber. It didn't echo in his head this time it filled the room, loud enough for everyone to hear.
[Warning. Subject Haruki Aoi has resisted assimilation. Partial corruption detected. Z-Rank seed… active.]
The entire hall went still.
The words hung like thunder, incomprehensible to most but heavy with dread for the elders.
"Z-Rank…?" Kana whispered.
The eldest among the council slammed his staff down, the impact shaking the room. "Silence!" His wrinkled face twisted with fury, but beneath it was something else fear. "That rank was erased from history for a reason. To awaken it now… this boy is a danger to us all."
"No," Kana shot back, shielding Haruki with her body. "He's not a danger he saved himself without succumbing! Doesn't that mean he can control it?"
"Control?" another elder hissed. "Do you not see the corruption in the runes? The abyss leaking into our world? This is exactly how it begins."
The crowd grew restless, mutters rising like a storm. Haruki clenched his fists, staring at the black veins crawling over his arms. His heart pounded, not from weakness this time, but from the unbearable weight of every eye on him.
The voice inside him chuckled softly, unheard by the others.
[See? They already fear you. No matter what you do, they will brand you as a monster.]
Haruki grit his teeth, shaking his head. "I'm not… I'm not your puppet."
He forced himself to his feet, legs trembling but unbroken. His gaze swept across the elders, the Hunters, and finally landed on Kana.
"I don't care what this power is called. I'll prove it doesn't control me. I'll prove it's mine."
For a moment, silence reigned. Then the eldest elder's voice boomed again:
"Very well. If you wish to prove yourself, Haruki Aoi, then you will. But know this if you fail, it will not be the abyss that destroys you. It will be us."