The silence was not what fell… but a heavy hesitation. The blood was still warm. It had not yet coagulated.
Tsukoshiro was standing there. Not over the corpse, Nor far from it. Right in the middle.
Lilithia felt anger. Atsuro grabbed her arm. She did not look at him. Her gaze was fixed on Tsukoshiro. On his hands. There wasn't much blood on them.
She spoke, her voice not rising, but sharp enough to cut through the air:
"This is not a ritual."
He did not answer immediately. He looked at the ground, at the red line drawn by the blood, then said quietly, without pretense:
"Nor is it murder."
Atsuro stepped forward half a step. It was not a threat, but a refusal.
"Then… what do you call it?"
Tsukoshiro finally lifted his head. His expression was steady. He said:
"An opening."
The word fell like a stone into still water. It made no noise… but it changed the depth. Lilithia felt it. Clearly, disturbingly.Then she said slowly:
"Doors opened with blood… do not lead to salvation."
He smiled, a small smile, as if he had heard that sentence before.Then he said:
"Salvation is a human idea."
Then he added, looking directly at her not at Atsuro:
"As for us… we know the price is always paid."
For a brief moment, Lilithia did not know why she felt anger. Not fear. Nor disgust.
Atsuro said, in a voice he tried to steady:
"And what do you expect when this door is opened?"
Tsukoshiro was silent. It was not a silence of hesitation, but a silence of choice.Then he finally spoke:
"Something… that should have remained forgotten."
He looked at Lilithia once more. A brief glance, but it struck a precise spot.
"The stone chose you because you know the way. Even if you have forgotten it."
In that moment, something trembled in her chest.
Then… Tsukoshiro moved first. It was not a rush. Nor an attack. It was… a distortion. He raised his hand slightly, and said in a low voice, as if whispering to the void:
"Coincraft - Spatial Misalignment."
The moment Atsuro lunged, he felt the ground move a step away from him… then suddenly come closer.
He struck. But his fist passed before reaching the body. Then, it collided. Not with Tsukoshiro, but with the air that returned late. His body twisted, his feet stumbled, as if the distance had betrayed him.
Atsuro said between breaths:
"…The place is wrong."
Lilithia did not wait. She lunged with her sword. But Tsukoshiro was not there. He said in a cold, calm voice:
"Coincraft - Void Interval."
Time did not stop. It did not vanish. But the location disappeared. The sword cut through the void as if the target had never existed at all.
And in the next moment, Tsukoshiro was behind her. His knee struck her back. The blow was not lethal, but it was painful.
Lilithia fell to one knee, air violently expelled from her chest. It was not the pain that paralyzed her, but the feeling that her body had lagged a moment behind her will…
Atsuro moved immediately. Tsukoshiro did not attack but the possibility. He extended his weapon slightly, and whispered:
"StoneArt - Luck Stone - Level 1: Minor Tilt."
A small stone shifted half a centimeter under Tsukoshiro's foot. It should have been balanced. But Tsukoshiro smiled. He raised his finger.
Right became left. And up lost its meaning. Atsuro's sense of his body flipped suddenly. He staggered and fell harshly onto his shoulder. He gritted his teeth, and said as he struggled to rise:
"Level 3 : Misstep Thread."
The thread did not work now. Instead… it hid.
Lilithia rose. Blood ran from her mouth. She wiped it with the back of her hand. She activated nothing. She lunged again. One strike.
A second.
A third.
All close. Fast. But the distance… was consuming her.
Tsukoshiro said in an even calmer voice:
"Coincraft - Distance Bleed."
Every step Lilithia took weighed down her legs. Every lunge gnawed at her focus. She screamed not in fear, but in anger. She struck. And hit. Her sword cut Tsukoshiro's shoulder. Blood came out. Red. Real.
He stepped back half a step. But his eyes did not change.
Atsuro spoke immediately, seeing the opportunity:
"Level 5 : Risk Lock."
At that moment, Tsukoshiro no longer had a safe option. Any movement
= a price.
He moved. And chose the risk. The thread tightened. But he said calmly:
"Coincraft - Axis Collapse: Second Shift."
The void flipped again. The thread worked— but on Atsuro. He stumbled. And Tsukoshiro struck him in the chest. The blow was not lethal, but it drew blood from his mouth.
Lilithia screamed his name. Tsukoshiro looked at her, and said in a cold, harsh voice:
"Oh, your weakness… It seems the Drakhaens army is truly filled with scum."
The air grew heavy. And Lilithia— clenched her sword tightly. She did not hold it as a tool, but as the only thing still connecting her to herself…
Atsuro was on his knees. And across from him, stood Tsukoshiro. He spoke in a calm,
cold voice, as if explaining a physical law:
"Coincraft - Spatial Misalignment."
Atsuro moved a step. The ground slid beneath him not a fall, but a feeling that the step was not where it should be.
A second strike. This time… he did not see it.
Lilithia screamed:
"Atsuro!"
She tried to advance. But the shadows around her did not move as if the place had suddenly decided to weigh down. She reached out her hand. Something invisible pulled it backward. A third strike. Blood scattered.
Atsuro coughed… and the cough was red.
"Stop!"
She screamed his name again. Her voice broke.
Tsukoshiro finally turned. He smiled.Not a smile of victory but a smile of knowing.
"Do you know?" he said, stepping sideways… and the direction of the place flipped for a moment.
"Weakness… is not the mistake. The mistake is clinging to it."
He looked at Lilithia.
"Villiam was weak."
He sneered.
"And you still carry his name as if it were a shield."
She gritted her teeth.
He looked at the exhausted body.
" Atsuro . A clearer version."
Then in a softer, closer voice:
"Do you want the truth? What if I was the one who started all this? What if I was the one who stabbed Villiam? I am the one who made blood… a necessity."
Silence prevailed. Something… broke.
Lilithia slowly lifted her head. Her eyes were not angry. They were… steady.She spoke in a low, clear voice, without a tremor:
"Impossible."
Tsukoshiro did not laugh.
At that moment, Lilithia raised her sword:
"Because you are weak."
The shadow beneath her feet moved Cracked. Weighed down. As if the night itself bent to listen. And inside her chest, the Black Stone pulsed.
A notification appeared. Not a sound, but a fact imposed:
<< Dark Points: +12
Source: Emotional Threshold Breach
Synchronization: Unstable >>
The shadows stretched. Then she spoke it, in a clear voice:
"Stone Art - Black Stone - Level One: Shadow Mark."
The darkness did not attack. It did not wound. But… it MARKED.
Black seals formed within the shadows themselves. Stillness in one corner. A pull in another. Confusion creeping slowly.
Tsukoshiro felt that his steps… were no longer entirely his own. As if the darkness had begun dragging the past along with it.
Lilithia did not advance. But the place… moved toward her.
Even Tsukoshiro who always smiled and for a brief moment was silent. It was not fear. But a momentary confusion… as if the place he obeyed hesitated for the first time.
The air grew heavy. And the shadows no longer moved by his will, but to a different rhythm.
And here the battle had not yet begun, but everyone understood: that something had awakened.
_
At the same moment… far from the arena, in the depths of the Drakhaens Kingdom, the heat of the fire inside the towers diminished.
The Black Dragon lifted its head slowly.No roar… No anger… But a heavy silence, as if something older than flame whispered its name.
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-To be continued...-