The blood came before the sound.A body struck the wall, then slid slowly, leaving a dark line that wasn't straight.
The demon didn't stop. It didn't scream. It didn't threaten. It lunged. Its claws tore through the air where Lilithia had been half a second before. The wall exploded. Stones scattered.
Atsuro appeared between them. One strike he drove the massive body backward with it.
"Focus."
He said it calmly, blood dripping from his arm.The demon turned. Its eyes didn't blink. It leapt again.
This time it was faster. Lilithia didn't run. She raised her arm.The impact was direct. Her bones screamed inside her.
She staggered back two steps. Her breathing fractured.The demon lifted her by the throat and slammed her into the ground. Once. Then again.
The earth cracked. Air crushed her chest. She saw blood. Not only her own. Other blood… old, stained into the place itself.
She heard Atsuro shouting her name, but the sound was distant. Something else was closer.
Not a sound,nor a clear image. But an old sensation.
She remembered Villiam.
Not his face, nor his final voice. But that moment when everything changed without a fight.
The emptiness he left behind.The sudden severance. As if something had been torn from reality itself, not from the body.
He wasn't killed. That was what she felt. He was removed. And magic like that… does not leave a clean trace. If he vanished, then it meant that someonewas still holding the thread.
And inside her,one single thought rose sharp, impossible to ignore:
If the hand that did this isn't broken…he will never return.
Then In her chest, the Black Stone shifted. Not a pulse.
Friction. As if something inside it was trying to remember how flesh breaks. The demon lifted her again. Its mouth opened wider than it should have.
In that moment, Lilithia stopped resisting.
She didn't think. She didn't call power. She only let the feeling rise. The heat. The weight. That sensation that didn't feel like magic.
The demon froze. Its claws trembled. It stared at her chest, at the place where nothing emerged but should have.
Atsuro sensed the shift. He didn't interfere.
Lilithia slowly raised her head. Her eyes were steady. Calm. Empty of hesitation. She extended her hand. There was no explosion. No glow. Only the air caved inward.
Her sword sank into the demon's chest. Not like piercing flesh but like entering a wrong void.
The demon released a sound that wasn't a scream. It was loss. She pulled the blade free.
The heart fell.
It struck the ground. Shattered. The massive body remained standing for one second. Then collapsed.Blood spread fast.A heavy silence followed.
Lilithia looked at her hand. It trembled. Yet she felt no guilt. She felt something else.
Harmony. The stone in her chest settled.
Atsuro approached. He studied the corpse. Then her.
"This…"
He paused.Then said quietly:
"It wasn't magic. It was the beginning of your soul's bond with the Black Stone."
Lilithia didn't answer. She kept staring at her hand. For the first time, she understood. The power hadn't come out of her. She had entered it.
The moment she saw the blood spreading across the floor, her breathing shifted.The scent reached her before thought.
Warm.
Her pupils widened without permission. The pulse in her ears climbed.
She took a step forward. Then another. She wasn't thinking of attacking. She wasn't thinking at all. Only that urge to draw closer, to touch, to consume. Her fingers shook. Her teeth pressed together slowly.
Atsuro noticed instantly. He didn't call her name. He didn't raise his voice. He caught her wrist before she moved farther. His grip was firm. Unforgiving.
"Stop."
She didn't hear him.
He pressed something small and cold into her palm.
"Swallow it."
She finally turned to him.Her gaze wasn't angry it was hungry.She hesitated for a fraction of a second. Then swallowed.
The taste was bitter. Sharp. A silent gasp escaped her.The heat in her chest recoiled. The surge snapped. The feeling didn't vanish it compressed,like a beast suddenly locked inside a cage.
Her knees weakened. Her breathing returned, uneven but her awareness came back.
She slowly pulled her hand away. She looked at the blood again. This time she didn't move.
Atsuro released her wrist.
"This isn't a cure," he said calmly.
"Only… a restraint for your bloodlust, since you're a demon."
She didn't reply. She was still fighting the echo inside her.
But one thing was clear: Control was not her nature. And she would have to learn it.
_
Elsewhere ...
Kagami didn't move. He stood among the corpses, the three demons directly behind him. They weren't snarling. They weren't hungry. They were waiting.
Kuroya looked at them first, then at Kagami.
-"Strange…" he said calmly. "Demons without will."
Kagami didn't turn.
"Will…"
he said,
"an unnecessary burden."
He lifted his hand slightly. The demons trembled. Kuroya narrowed his eyes. Something felt wrong not magic, not blood :
-"What did you do to them?"
Kagami smiled faintly.
"I planted."
He paused.
"Inside vital zones. The heart. The spinal column. Points the body cannot ignore."
Kuroya looked closer. And finally saw them. Pulses. Unnatural. Beneath the skin
"Steel coins…"
Kagami murmured.
"They're called Control Coins. Every Wizard plants them to ensure absolute obedience from a servant."
He paused.
"They're not only in the chest."
He nodded.
"Every demon requires a different number. Some need one. Some need dozens."
He lowered a finger.
"And the rules are simple: the coin doesn't grant power.
It only…"
He paused.
"…prevents refusal."
Then, colder:
"The body moves before it thinks."
The first demon collapsed to its knees. It hadn't been struck. It hadn't been touched. Its chest caved inward as if something had been ripped out by force. The coin emerged cracked.
The body fell.
Kuroya didn't blink.
-"You kill them…" he said.
"With a word."
Kagami finally looked at him. he replied.
"I remind them who owns the decision."
He raised his hand again.
"Three coins," he said to the second demon.
"I planted them near the spinal column. Do you know what that means?"
The demon tried to scream.But its body folded into itself. Bones snapped from the inside.It dropped without a sound. The third demon started backing away.
Kagami inhaled slowly.
"You're different,"
he told it.
"That's why I settled for only one."
The coin in its neck melted. The head separated and struck the ground with terrifying calm.
Silence returned.
Kuroya stepped forward.
-"And these humans…"
he said.
"In the village. Their pulses feel the same."
Kagami didn't deny it.
"A primitive version,"
he answered.
"Incomplete. But functional."
Kuroya's eyes tightened.
-"You plant coins inside living beings…"
he said slowly,
"…and turn them into tools."
Kagami smiled.
"Into a system."
Silence held for a moment. Then Kuroya spoke, his voice heavier than blood:
-"And you think this won't turn against you."
Kagami met his gaze.
"I'm certain it will."
Then he raised his hand. The air shifted.
"But not today."
Kuroya took one step forward and the ground slipped beneath him.
"StoneArt - Chaos Stone - Level 3: Fractured Step."
It wasn't a full fall, only a warped deviation… just enough for Kagami to misjudge distance.
Kagami raised his hand, emotionless.
"Coincraft - Atomic Reformation."
The air distorted. Particles rearranged. Thick gray smoke burst out as if the place itself were breathing poison.
Kuroya rushed in but the wind reversed. Not air…possibility. He coughed. At the same instant, his blade slid from his hand not from force, but because the ground had become irrationally slick.
Disarray.
Kagami stamped the earth.
"Coincraft - Molecular Flux."
Stone beneath Kuroya turned viscous, semi-liquid then hardened instantly. Kuroya froze, half a second.
Enough.
"Coincraft - Catalyst Strike."
Reactions surged through the air. Sudden heat. A sharp crack.
A small explosion hurled Kuroya backward. But he didn't fall.He smiled.
"Level 4: Unstable Strike."
One single blow. No power in it. But weight vanished.
Kuroya's strike landed on Kagami, yet Kagami's body shot in an impossible direction, as if gravity betrayed him.
kagami crashed into a barrier he'd formed a moment earlier.
"Coincraft - Atomic Reformation."
The barrier unfinished cracked. As Kagami tried to reshape it .
"Level 5: Disarray Chain."
A burst from behind. Metal dropped from above. The smoke he'd made turned against him. Everything was simple. Everything was small.
But chained.
Kagami stepped back. For the first time, he frowned.
Then, kuroya shouted :
"Level 7: Chaos Veil."
Air rippled around Kuroya. His image fractured into mismatched copies. Sound lagged. Movement outran shadow.
Kagami focused.
"Coincraft - Atomic Reformation."
But particles no longer obeyed.Because the flaw wasn't matter it was expectation.
Kuroya emerged from an angle that didn't exist.
"Level 1: Reality Tear."
Reality split briefly. The wall behind Kagami collapsed, and he almost dropped into nothing.
kagami rolled caught himself at the edge. He inhaled sharply. Then looked up.
"Coincraft – Catalyst Strike."
The ground itself accelerated.
But, kuroya use :
"Level 8: Disorder Field."
Everything changed. Ground. Sky. Direction. There was no longer attack or defense. Only unpredictability.
They stood inside chaos. Kagami surrounded by particles that no longer trusted him.
Kuroya inside a world even he couldn't fully command.
Kagami said, calmly lethal:
"You don't change reality… you break it."
Kuroya smiled.
"No. I let it collapse on its own."
Then suddenly without warning sound stopped being clear. Even silence lost its rhythm.
Kuroya was breathing… but his chest no longer rose correctly.
One beat then delay.
Then two pulses too close together. A drop of blood slipped from his mouth,but it didn't reach the ground. It hovered in the air.
Not frozen hesitating…as if reality itself didn't know where to place it. The stone in his chest trembled. The Chaos Stone did not glow. It did not release power.
But… it moved.
Around him, the people of the village began to collapse, as if their will had been pulled out.
The coins inside their hearts shifted without being touched.
One fell and its bearer's pulse vanished. Another rose inside a heart. Then the entire arrangement reversed.
Kagami slowly lifted his head. For the first time…he didn't understand what he was feeling.
"Coincraft - Atomic Reformation."
He tried to reorganize the particles but the formula shattered before completion. Not because the ratio was wrong. But because the particles no longer waited for orders.
Kuroya clutched his chest.The pulse turned painful. Not the pain of injury but the pain of error. As if the heart itself was running on another system. He smiled, blood sliding between his teeth.
"…Hah."
He raised his head.
Level ? — (Unregistered)
No name appeared. No description. Only the rhythm changed.
The ground sank half a step.The air grew heavier on one side. And Kagami's shadow lagged behind him by a fraction of a second.
Kagami stepped back. And in that instant the air split. Something unseen punched through Kuroya's shoulder.
Blood burst out. Not a spray ,a surge,as if the body itself refused to contain it.
Kuroya dropped to one knee.
He lifted his head and Draven stood before him. But…the stone didn't extinguish. Instead, it began to throb.
One beat, then another, irregular.
Kagami straightened, his gaze locking onto Draven, a feral smile filling his eyes. This wasn't a fight. This was a malfunction.
__
Elsewhere, near the village, Atsuro and Lilithia froze.
<< SYSTEM NOTIFICATION
[Warning]
Anomalous Combat Detected.
Source: Unstable Chaos Signature.
Distance: Within Intervention Range.>>
Atsuro narrowed his eyes.
"…A battle?"
But the signal wasn't normal. It wasn't power. It wasn't magic. It was something…that didn't belong to order itself.
He lifted his weapon.And moved.
_
The scene returned to Kuroya. He slowly raised his head. He looked at Kagami…but his gaze wasn't truly on him. As if he were seeing something standing behind him.
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-To be continued...-