『The Presence』
Dusk stained the outer walls of the royal capital red.
Beyond the grasslands, above a crumbling tower, something was wavering.
Not the wind.
Something else.
The swordsman Ragus stood perfectly still, one hand resting on the hilt of his sword.
"…Do you feel it?"
Beside him, the mage Elmeria lit a faint glow at the tip of her long staff. A wave of magical energy brushed across the air, revealing layers that should have remained invisible to the eye.
"Yes. It isn't miasma. It isn't a curse either. It's something more… 'ancient.'"
The shadow of the tower warped ever so slightly.
Something that should not have existed was certainly lurking there.
Sweat trickled down Ragus's forehead.
"It doesn't smell like the blood I've smelled on battlefields, either. That thing… it's as if its very existence is a裂け目, a tear in reality."
Elmeria quietly closed her eyes and began chanting in an ancient tongue.
The moment she touched the other side of the atmosphere, her eyes trembled ever so slightly.
"—The presence of a Devil."
The instant she spoke that name, the wind stopped.
In this world, "Devil" was not a term for some higher race of demons.
It referred to primordial abominations that had fallen from the order of the gods, beings so alien that even their names had been rejected.
Entities that had once silenced a temple at the northernmost edge of the continent in a single night.
"The seal was supposed to have been placed a thousand years ago."
Ragus's voice was low.
"A seal doesn't 'close away' an existence."
Elmeria looked up at the tower.
"It merely drives it outside the story."
"The story never ends."
The walls of the tower groaned.
From between the stones, black mist began to seep downward like thin threads.
Ragus drew his sword. The blade reflected the setting sun, and for an instant, the entire world seemed to stop.
"If you're coming, then come. I'm not running."
Elmeria gave a small smile.
"You're always like this. But I wonder… is that the kind of thing you can cut with a sword?"
Something opened an "eye" within the black mist.
A gaze that should not have belonged to a body.
It was reading them from the other side of the world.
A chill ran down Ragus's back.
"…We're being watched."
"Yes."
Elmeria whispered.
"Not just us. The entire world is being watched."
The summit of the tower collapsed without a sound, and a裂け目 tore across the sky.
The stars flickered, and darkness seeped through the opening like a hole torn into a sheet of paper.
The Devil had not manifested.
Not yet.
Only its presence was brushing against the edge of the world.
And that alone was enough.
The gods fell silent, and the bells of the royal capital suddenly began to ring.
Ragus stepped forward.
"If you're coming from outside the story, then we'll drag you inside."
Elmeria raised her staff and began to chant.
"A myth takes shape the moment it is observed. Then, from this very moment—"
The black mist swirled, casting a gigantic shadow over the ruins of the tower.
It was not yet "complete."
The swordsman and the mage stood side by side.
The Devil laughed.
The story had only just begun.
『The Presence』 — The End