The gates of the Demon King's citadel loomed into view, obsidian towers stabbing into the clouds like jagged fangs. For weeks, Asura and Selene had moved beyond the walls—fighting, spying, and testing themselves. And now, finally, they returned.
The guards snapped to attention, crimson halberds crossed before lowering in salute.
"The prince returns!"
Their voices echoed down the endless corridor as Asura strode forward, golden eyes steady, Selene a shadow at his side. Though his steps were calm, the weight of what they had seen clung to him: corrupted nests teeming with mana-beetles, the strange human adventurers who nearly caught them spying, and whispers of kingdoms inching dangerously close to demon borders.
The black doors of the throne room swung open.
Inside, the air was heavy as always, thick with heat and mana. Braziers of crimson fire licked upward like serpents. At the far end, the obsidian throne rose high, and upon it towered the Demon King, crimson-golden eyes glowing like suns hidden in flame.
"Report," he rumbled, voice carrying the weight of mountains.
Selene bowed gracefully, her voice smooth but sharp. "The nests were purged as commanded. The corruption was burned away. As for the humans… adventurers from Valoria's guilds fought the same beasts. They are bold, but disorganized—seeking coin, not conquest."
Asura crossed his arms, smirking. "They were loud, messy, and nearly got themselves killed. Honestly? I was embarrassed just watching them."
Gasps rippled among the nobles lining the walls. Some whispered approval of Selene's calm report, while others hissed at Asura's arrogance. To call humans pathetic in the throne room was no sin—but to speak so casually before the Demon King was audacious.
The King, however, only chuckled, a sound like thunder rumbling across mountains. The walls quivered. Torches flared.
"Good. You observed. You cleansed. You returned alive. That is success."
He leaned forward, one clawed hand curling on the throne's armrest. "And for success… there must be reward."
The chamber stilled. The soldiers froze. The courtiers held their breath as the King raised his other hand.
In his palm flickered a crystal. Clear as glass, yet glowing from within with countless shifting colors. It pulsed like a living heart, each thrum spilling light across the black hall.
Gasps broke the silence. Even Selene's violet eyes widened faintly, the closest she'd shown to open surprise.
"This," the Demon King intoned, his voice echoing like scripture, "was found in the depths of a ruin even I had forgotten. It resists my hand… yet it sings in yours."
The crystal drifted upward on invisible currents, humming like a note struck from an ancient instrument. Slowly, it floated across the hall until it hovered before Asura.
"…Me?" Asura muttered. His hand rose almost without thought. When his fingers curled around the shard, the glow flared like a star bursting to life.
His system chimed violently.
Item Acquired: ??? – [Crystal Blade Fragment]
Type: ??? (Bound to User)
Quality: Exotic / God-Tier (Evolving)
Effect: Locked until True Demon Lord Awakening reaches 100%.
Asura's breath caught. The fragment throbbed in his palm, steady and deliberate, like a second heartbeat.
The nobles murmured in awe. "It… it responds to him…"
"Not even His Majesty could tame it…"
"Another cursed relic? Or… a destined weapon?"
Selene stepped forward, her whisper sharp as steel. "Young master, put it down. That thing radiates a force beyond even my senses."
But the Demon King only laughed, low and dangerous. His fangs glinted in the firelight.
"A gift, Asura Satomi. A mystery even I cannot tame. Perhaps it will shape you. Or perhaps it will devour you. Either way… it is yours."
He leaned back, watching with crimson-golden eyes that burned with both pride and curiosity. "After all, you already wield a blade that devoured five others—Yamikami no Tsurugi. Now fate offers you a second enigma. Two weapons that no demon before you has commanded."
Asura's golden eyes gleamed as he looked from one hand to the other—one holding the pulsing crystal, the other brushing the hilt of Yamikami. The contrast was striking. One weapon alive and silent, its storm of purple lightning bound within. The other still locked, waiting for his awakening to be complete.
He smirked. "Heh. Guess even my swords want to be protagonists now."
Selene frowned deeply, her violet eyes flicking between the cursed blade at his hip and the fragment in his palm. "…Or they'll be the end of you."
But Asura only lifted the crystal high. Light refracted across the throne room, painting the black walls in colors never seen before. Nobles shielded their eyes. Even Selene's breath caught.
The Demon King's grin widened, sharp as a predator's.
And in that moment, Asura felt it—a shift in the air, in destiny itself. Yamikami no Tsurugi hummed faintly at his side, the crystal pulsed in his palm, and somewhere deep within his soul, the world whispered:
This boy will either rise as a god… or fall as the end of all things.
✦ Midnight Experimentation
The castle was silent, bathed in pale moonlight that spilled through tall windows like rivers of silver. Torches burned low in the hallways beyond, their flames whispering softly, shadows flickering against the obsidian walls.
Inside his chamber, Asura sat cross-legged on the polished floor, Yamikami no Tsurugi propped lazily at his side. His golden eyes, glowing faintly in the dark, were locked on the other object resting in his palm.
The crystal.
It pulsed softly, like a slumbering heart. The colors inside shifted constantly—brilliant sapphire one moment, blood-crimson the next, then dissolving into veins of black that seemed to devour the light around it. Each thrum sent a vibration crawling up his arm, subtle but undeniable, like a whisper against his bones.
Asura tilted his head, lips quirking. "So… you're not just some shiny paperweight, huh?"
He set the fragment gently onto the floor in front of him. The glow bled outward, painting his room in shifting hues. Then he exhaled, focusing his mana toward it.
Ding!
Bound Item Detected.
Analyzing…
Synchronizing with host mana…
Golden eyes widened as glowing words filled his vision.
Item: Yōken no Kesshō (Crystal Blade Fragment)
Type: Katana Core – Exotic / God-tier / Evolving Weapon
State: Fragmented (Incomplete)
Requirements: True Demon Lord Awakening – 100% (Locked)
Hidden Potential: ???
Asura leaned forward, breath caught in his throat. "…Katana Core? No way…"
Before he could blink, the crystal flared. Light exploded across the room, briefly banishing every shadow. His heart hammered as his system projected something new—an image, faint but sharp.
Not ore. Not rubble.
A blade.
For a heartbeat, he saw it: a katana forged of living crystal, its edges refracting light into impossible colors, shimmering sharp enough to split the heavens themselves. An aura so alien and divine it made even Yamikami's cursed glow seem almost tame.
And then—gone. The vision shattered, leaving only the pulsing fragment, dim once more.
"…A blade," Asura whispered, golden eyes wide. His grin spread slow and sharp. "Don't tell me… this thing's trying to evolve into a sword."
The system pinged again.
Warning: Current host body too unstable.
Synchronization at 3%.
"Three percent!?" Asura hissed, shaking his hand. Sparks of raw mana jolted through his arm, making his fingertips tingle. The crystal burned against his skin—not painfully, but insistently, as though testing him, probing whether he was worthy.
His grin only widened. He clenched his fist tighter around it. "Heh. You're just like Grandfather—always judging."
The fragment pulsed violently, a shockwave of color spilling across the floor. For an instant, his True Demon Lord markings flickered to life across his chest and arms, glowing faintly like cracks filled with molten gold. His horns tingled, buzzing with unstable mana.
Asura's breath hitched, sweat dripping down his brow. "…So you react to that, huh? My Awakening."
He stared at the crystal in awe, then burst into laughter, sharp and childlike.
"Good. Guess we're both incomplete, then. But don't worry—when I hit one hundred percent, you and I? We're gonna make Yamikami jealous."
He held the fragment up to the moonlight streaming through the window. The colors within swirled like galaxies trapped in glass, glowing faintly against his small fingers.
"…My first life was boring," Asura murmured, eyes burning bright. "But in this one? Even my weapons are trying to be main characters."
The crystal pulsed once more, like it was agreeing. Then it went still, its heartbeat fading into silence.
Asura lay back on the floor, the fragment still clutched to his chest, golden eyes staring at the ceiling. His smirk softened into something almost boyish.
"Fine. Sleep for now. I'll wake you when the time's right."
He closed his eyes. And as dreams tugged at him, the image of the shimmering katana lingered in his mind—bright, sharp, inevitable.
✦ Visions in the Dark
The crystal trembled violently, a low hum rising from its depths. It wasn't a clean hum either — it rolled like something breathing under an ocean trench. The sound was almost like a heartbeat… but too deep, too ancient. Mana swelled from it in waves, curling through the room like living smoke. The torches sputtered, spitting sparks. Shadows stretched long across the black stone floor, reaching toward Asura's bare feet as if claws were growing from the dark itself.
Asura barely had time to react before his vision blurred.
In an instant, the room was gone.
Darkness swallowed him whole.
There was no floor, no ceiling, no air — only an endless void that pulsed with a soundless hymn. Tiny flecks of light floated past like dying stars, dissolving before they could drift out of reach. The black felt heavy, like the inside of a great beast's chest.
And then he saw it.
Suspended in the nothingness was a blade unlike any he had ever imagined. A katana of pure, translucent crystal hovered before him, its edges refracting light into a thousand colors. Within it pulsed veins of silver and gold like frozen lightning. It was beautiful — beautiful in a way that frightened him.
Asura's breath caught. "This… this is you…"
Around the blade, faint shapes appeared. Not words — sigils, fractals, patterns that twisted into alien symbols. They shifted faster the longer he stared, rearranging themselves into half-formed phrases he couldn't comprehend. The sound that accompanied them was like whispers echoing from the bottom of an endless well.
Whispers of gods. Or something older.
They scraped at the edges of his mind, each syllable like a claw. His horns throbbed as if answering. His heartbeat pounded louder and louder, syncing with the crystal's glow.
He reached out.
But this time, before his fingers even brushed the blade's edge, a second presence stirred.
At his hip, Yamikami no Tsurugi pulsed faintly. A flicker of purple lightning cracked across its sheath — a warning, or a challenge. It was as if the cursed blade recognized the crystal's power and didn't like it.
"Easy, Yamikami," Asura muttered under his breath. "I'm just looking…"
The cursed katana's aura hissed and receded slightly, but not completely. The void rippled. The crystal blade's glow sharpened, veins of silver tightening like sinew.
Then his fingertips made contact.
Agony lanced through him like a spear. It wasn't just pain — it was as if every nerve in his body was being rewritten, his very name clawed apart and rewritten in a language he didn't know. His vision whitened. The whispers became a roar. His system screamed in scarlet text across his mind's eye:
Synchronization Failed.
Warning: Insufficient Awakening Progress.
User at Risk of Mana Collapse.
Asura gasped, staggering back. The void wavered, reality flickering like a candle in wind. Sweat poured down his face, his chest rising and falling as though he'd sprinted a marathon. At his hip, Yamikami's sheath hissed, dark energy crawling up his arm as if bracing him.
The crystal fell from his hand. It hit the ground with a single, chiming note that echoed through the void like the toll of a distant bell.
The blade vanished. The whispers died.
And with a violent jolt, Asura found himself back in his chamber.
The torches flickered weakly. The air reeked of ozone. Silence pressed in from all sides.
He slumped against the bedframe, clutching his chest, his hair sticking to his damp forehead. Yamikami no Tsurugi pulsed faintly at his side — no longer menacing, but watchful.
"…So that's it, huh?" he panted. "You'll only accept me if I'm at full power…"
His golden eyes narrowed, the exhaustion burning off and leaving only cold fire behind. His fingers curled into fists, nails digging into his palms.
"Fine," he whispered. His voice was hoarse but steady. "I'll awaken completely. And when I do…" He bared his fangs in a grin that was half challenge, half promise. "…you'll be mine."
He picked the crystal up again. Its glow had dimmed to a faint pulse, as if it had gone back to sleep. Yet as he cradled it, it pulsed once — soft but deliberate, like a heartbeat answering his own.
Asura stared at it a moment longer, then smirked faintly. "Even my weapons act like anime protagonists."
At his side, Yamikami flickered once with purple lightning — a subtle scoff, if a cursed blade could scoff.
Asura chuckled low. "Yeah, yeah, I know. You're jealous. Don't worry. You'll both get your screen time."
The crystal flickered again in the dark, and Asura's grin widened.
✦ A Whisper He Couldn't Ignore
He set the fragment gently on the table beside his bed. The crystal's glow dimmed, its once-blinding pulse settling into a faint rhythm—soft, steady, unmistakably like a heartbeat. In the quiet of his chamber, it was the only sound besides his own breathing.
Asura sat on the edge of the mattress, his golden eyes fixed on it. His fingers twitched once, as if he wanted to reach for it again but knew better. That faint pulse tugged at something deep in his chest.
"You're not just a weapon," he murmured, his voice low. "You're something bigger. Something meant for greatness…"
He leaned back against the wall, a small, crooked smile playing across his face. "Figures. Even my swords are overdramatic protagonists now. What's next, you start giving speeches before every battle?"
The crystal flickered faintly in response, as though amused.
Asura chuckled, pulling the blanket over himself but keeping one arm free so he could still see the fragment. "Yeah, yeah. Keep playing coy. I'll get strong enough to pull you out of that little cocoon of yours, just you watch."
He shifted onto his side, still staring at it. The glow dimmed until it was just a faint ember in the dark—yet it was enough to paint strange shadows across his face, making his horns look sharper, his eyes more like silver flames.
In his mind, the image of the blade from the void remained. That shimmering, impossible sword of crystal hung in his memory like a star he couldn't stop chasing. The whispers still clung to the edges of his thoughts, fragments of a language no one in this world knew.
"I'll finish what I started," he whispered again, softer this time. "Six-Blade Demon Style might be gone…"
He rolled onto his back, staring at the ceiling, his expression shifting into that strange mix of childlike excitement and deadly focus. "…but when you awaken, you'll be the first blade of something even greater. Something they won't even have a name for yet."
The crystal pulsed once—soft, deliberate—as if acknowledging his vow. Then it went still, leaving only darkness and the faint scent of mana in the air.
Asura closed his eyes, a smile still ghosting across his lips. Even as sleep took him, that image stayed bright and sharp in his mind—the blade waiting for him, calling to him.
And in the quiet of the Demon King's castle, the fragment's faint heartbeat continued to echo—too soft for anyone else to hear, but loud enough to stir dreams in the boy who would one day wield it.