Kagami wasn't walking. He was being pulled. Not his body but his consciousness.
A single step in the corridor turned into emptiness. The walls vanished. The ground gave way. He didn't know where he was. But he knew why.
Kagami raised his hand slowly. The moment he did a sharp sting pierced his chest.
Not pain.
Precision.
The void folded in, and another place opened. A small village. Low stone houses, weathered roofs, candles burning in broad daylight.
Drakhaens soldiers stood around its perimeter. Unseen by anyone, their ranks were perfectly aligned. Spears raised. Guarding. But not protecting.
Kagami didn't move. He felt them. One… two… then dozens. Embedded in chests. Inside bodies.Pulsing to a rhythm that wasn't human.
A woman holding a child. Her chest glowed from within. An old man leaning on his cane. The pulse came before his breath.
"…So that's how it is," Kagami whispered.
There was no visible corruption. No blood. No deformity.
And that was what made it worse. He lowered his hand. The shadow moved. Not from beneath him but from behind reality itself. Three rifts opened in the air. And from them they emerged.
Three demons.
The first was faceless. The second was unnaturally tall, its limbs thin.The third didn't walk. It dragged itself, its claws leaving bloody grooves in the dirt.
They knelt. Kagami didn't look at them. He was watching the soldiers.
"Distract them."
He said quietly. No need to add anything.
One of the soldiers lifted his head suddenly.
"…Did you hear th...!"
He didn't finish.
The first demon lunged. Its mouth opened and swallowed the soldier's head in one bite. Blood spattered on the armor. Screams erupted.
The second demon moved through the ranks like a long shadow. Everyone it touched fell, their bodies bending at angles flesh shouldn't allow.
The soldiers tried to fight. Spears pierced bodies. But the demons did not stop.
The third demon exploded inside an entire row. Not a fire explosion but flesh. Blood. Bones. Screams vanished instantly.
Kagami stood. Still. The coins in the villagers' chests pulsed strongly.He didn't touch them… He didn't kill them. He just turned his face slightly.
"Don't be afraid."
He said in a voice no one could hear.
"It's not your turn yet."
In the background the soldiers fell one after another. The pulse didn't stop. It grew stronger.
Kagami took a step forward. One person was the closest.A young man. His knee on the ground. His hands raised meaninglessly.
The coin in his chest beat.
Kagami stretched out his hand.
The air around his fingers twisted, as if reality itself was preparing to strike in his place.
"Finished..."
He didn't finish.
The ground trembled. Not an earthquake.
A black rift opened directly beneath the young man's feet.The dirt didn't scatter, it flipped. And from beneath it something emerged. An arm. Covered in dark scales, black with a hint of purple, shining like wet metal.
The arm coiled around the young man and pulled him backward in one clean, decisive, motion.
Another body leapt from the rift.It stood between Kagami and the man.The smoke cleared slowly.
A tall Drakhaen. Named Kuroya stood.
He raised his head slightly. Looked directly at Kagami.
"You're late…"
He said in a heavy, quiet tone,
"by one minute and ninety seconds."
The village fell silent. Even the demons paused for a moment.
Kagami lowered his hand slowly. He didn't step back.
"Drakhaens protecting a human?"
He said, without a trace of sarcasm.
"That's new."
Kuroya didn't turn. He stood in front of the young man like a wall.
"This place…"
he said,
"is under my responsibility."
He lifted his foot slightly and struck the ground.The shadow from which it had emerged closed.
The demons froze. Not because they were ordered but because something heavier than them entered the field.
Kagami felt it. A different weight. Not a coin. Not human magic.
Ancient blood.
He smiled a small smile.
"So you're Kuroya…"
he said.
"The guardian who only appears when disaster is one step late."
Kuroya finally looked at him. Eyes sharp, Silent.
"And you…"
he said slowly,
"are the wrong person at the wrong time."
One second. The air tensed. The coins in the humans' chests pulsed strongly. And the demons began moving again.
Kuroya struck with a single step. The Chaos Stone in his hand began to glow with a shifting dark hue, as if it were breathing in silent chaos. He raised his hand suddenly, then shouted:
"Stone Art - Chaos Stone - Level 4: Unstable Strike"
In an instant, the physics around the demons changed. The ground moved as if it were liquid, their body weights inverted, their speeds distorted, and even their directions went wrong.
The air cracked, and the demons collided with one another. Some fell to the ground, others slammed into the walls.
Kuroya didn't stop. He smiled a deadly smile, then raised his hand again:
"Level 5: Disarray Chain"
Small events began to cascade against his enemies. A small stone fell from the roof of a house, a pillar shook suddenly, a gust blew from a broken window, and every movement of the demons became unpredictable, unable to foresee the next attack.
In that moment, Kagami felt the disruption. The pulse of power within his body became irregular.
He saw a child in the middle of the chaos, the green coin in his heart trembling dangerously.
Kagami trembled, then dashed at full speed, striking the ground, lunging toward the child, trying to lift him out of the path of chaos.
But Kuroya, as if reading reality itself, threw his finger into the air, and used Disarray Chain again.
The final strike was enough to rearrange the attack's trajectory, freezing Kagami for a moment, while Kuroya continued his assault on the demons directly.
Blood and debris flew through the air, the demons' cries colliding with the sounds of crumbling walls.
Kagami finally lifted the child, but Kuroya was already a step ahead of him, smiling a deadly smile:
"No one escapes easily."
The air snapped for a moment.Time seemed to stop, and the chaos around them intensified, to the point where even the walls began to crack, and the demons no longer knew from which direction the next strike would come.
_
In the Drakhaen kingdom,
Atsuro didn't care about the silence. He looked directly at Lilithia.
"Mission."
She didn't ask. He reached toward the door.
"One demon. Only one."
Lilithia smiled.
"Enough."
They stepped out.
In the human lands, in one of the districts, the corridor was dark, narrow, and the smell of iron lingered.
"Follow me. No room for mistakes."
Atsuro said as he advanced.
They reached the lower district.
They stopped.
Something massive moved between the alleys. Its pulse was wrong. And its eyes… gleamed with savagery.
Atsuro whispered:
"This is it…
No one survives its power if we make a mistake."
Lilithia grasped his hand.
"Don't stray."
Atsuro smiled with lethal gentleness:
"If we succeed… we might stop this disaster before it kills anyone else."
The ground trembled. The shadow stretched. One step forward and the mission began.
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-To be continued...-