The pale-white stallion skidded to a violent halt at the crest of the pine-draped hill, its hooves churning wet soil and golden needles into the air. Kairo pulled on the leather reins, his knuckles bloodless. His chest heaved with ragged breaths, his teeth clenched so hard his jaw throbbed in rhythm with his pounding heart.
He turned halfway in the saddle, looking back down the mist-shrouded mountain trail where three faint shadows stood in the damp gloom.
"Well, damn..." Kairo growled, his voice laced with bitter iron as he stared back at his companions. "I didn't think my own friends would think of me as a traitor. Well... bye. Why would a villain like me stay with good kids?"
Akio took an urgent step forward, stretching out a hand through the swirling fog. "Wait! We didn't mean it like—"
"Save it!" Kairo spat, cutting Akio off mid-sentence with an explosion of raw, angry breath. He yanked the reins hard to the left, kicked his heels into the horse's flanks, and disappeared into the thick timber ahead like a ghost vanishing into smoke.
Down on the soggy trail, the air felt suffocatingly cold. Rain began to drizzle from the darkening canopy, big heavy drops clicking against the broad leaves above.
Renji turned his head slowly toward Daichi, his voice tight with suppressed frustration. "Daichi... why did you make him so angry? You should have just left him as he was! What if he was just nauseous from his mana awakening and didn't realize we were still deep in the forest?"
Daichi stood unmoving, his wool coat dark with moisture. He crossed his arms, his sharp eyes fixed on the spot where Kairo had vanished. "We can't ignore the facts, Renji. Look at him. He has never lost his temper like this before. It's the Jins—or whatever entity is lurking inside him. They are manipulating his emotions, controlling his behavior."
Akio grabbed Daichi by the shoulder, spinning him around. "Forget about those damn creatures for a second, Daichi! You need to come with us and apologize to him! We have to ask him to forgive us!"
Daichi exhaled a sharp burst of white vapor, his posture stiffening. "Okay, fine. If I don't go, I'll be the jerk here. I would have asked him anyway, but... wait a minute."
Akio blinked, stepping back. "Wait, what?"
"No way..." Daichi's expression paled, his analytical mind racing through every dynamic of the scene. "The enemy's plan... it was to isolate him. They wanted us to turn on him so he would ride off alone! Renji, head toward the Leonhart manor right now."
Akio gestured frantically at the dense trees surrounding them. "Hey! We are under a total kingdom lockdown, remember?! We can't move between sectors!"
"Renji is a General's son," Daichi shot back coldly. "The border guards will let him pass." Daichi then turned his dark, piercing gaze directly onto Akio. "And Akio... please go back. I want you to stay away from Kairo right now."
Akio froze as if struck in the chest. A look of total shock crossed his features. "Wait... what? Why? Why the hell should I stay away from him?!"
Daichi looked away, his jaw tightening as he spoke the blunt, unvarnished truth. "I'm sorry if it hurts you... but you are way too damn weak."
Akio's hand fell from Daichi's shoulder. His head snapped down, his bangs casting a dark shadow over his eyes as his fists clenched until his nails bit into his palms.
"I will be helping them using my mind," Daichi continued quietly, the words tasting like lead on his tongue. "Even though I am weaker than you in physical combat—and I hate admitting that—Akio, stay away from Kairo if you want to stay alive."
A heavy silence reigned in the glade, broken only by the steady patter of rain against the stone. When Akio lifted his head, his face was set into an expression Daichi had never seen on him before—stripped of all humor, burnt clean by quiet fury.
"Well... don't talk to me again," Akio said, his voice deadly quiet. "I will go to him even if it kills me. I may be weak... but I am not a coward. And I am not a traitor who lets his brother die alone. Let me die a martyr's death."
Akio pressed two fingers to his mouth and let out a sharp, ear-splitting whistle.
Within seconds, his dark bay charger tore through the thick brush. Akio swung himself up into the saddle in one fluid motion, dug his spurs into the horse's sides, and galloped off into the blinding drizzle after Kairo at full speed.
Renji, who had been sitting quietly on a fallen, mossy log beside them, let out a tired, heavy sigh. He stood up, adjusting his dark sleeves. He walked past Daichi, stopping right beside his shoulder.
"Daichi... learn something from Akio," Renji said, his voice devoid of its usual mildness. "I know your ego is sky-high because you think you're some kind of untouchable genius."
Daichi pulled at his damp sleeves, his eyes flaring with instant irritation. "What do you mean by that? Do you think I'm just some arrogant brat?!"
Renji suddenly reached out and shoved Daichi hard back against the rough bark of a pine tree.
"Yeah! You are arrogant!" Renji shouted into his face, his eyes fierce. "Because a true genius learns even from a fool if it helps him fix his own weaknesses! And your biggest weakness, Daichi, is speaking things that are logically right, but completely destroying people's hearts in the process!"
Renji took a step back, wiping the rain from his nose. "Akio is going to push himself into hellish training now just to prove to you that he isn't weak. And Kairo won't talk to either of us until noon. I'm going home. You should go back to your father and learn some actual manners."
Renji whistled for his mount, leaped onto its back, and tore away down the south path, leaving the forest echoing with fading hoofbeats.
Daichi stood completely alone.
The rain fell harder now, soaking through his dark wool coat, chilling him to the bone. The forest was dead silent save for the rush of water. Slowly, Daichi walked away from the path, stepping through heavy ferns until he reached the banks of a roaring, ice-cold mountain river.
The gray water churned violently over sharp black rocks. Daichi crouched down at the edge, staring at his own pale, fractured reflection in the rushing current. He looked at his gloved hands, then down at the icy foam washing over his leather boots.
"Where..." Daichi whispered into the empty, rain-swept woods, his chest aching with a hollow, unfamiliar pain. "Where did I go wrong?"
The rain fell in unrelenting, icy sheets, turning the dirt banks of the mountain river into slick, black mud. The roar of the rushing water was thunderous, drowning out the whistle of the wind through the pines.
Daichi knelt at the river's edge, his hands trembling as he stared at his own fractured reflection in the gray, churning foam. The cold water soaked through his trousers, but he barely felt it. The bitter weight of his own sharp words still burned in his throat.
A subtle rustle of wet leaves sounded directly behind him.
Daichi turned his head quickly, pushing himself up from the mud. Standing beneath the drooping canopy of a giant hemlock tree was Kairo. He stood perfectly still, his clothes dripping with rainwater, offering a faint, warm smile through the gloom.
"Kairo..." Daichi breathed, relief washing over him in a sudden, heavy wave. He took two fast steps forward, wiping the rain from his eyes. "I'm sorry, Kairo. I shouldn't have said those things back in the forest. I—"
Daichi's voice died in his throat. His boots froze in the mud.
Standing right beside Kairo was a shadow—a second figure identical to him in every way, wearing a dark, sickening grin. And held loosely in the clone's left hand, gripped by its soaked hair, was Kairo's severed head. Below, the boy's body lay brutally chopped and broken on the red mud, yet his pale, lip-quivering face was still moving.
Kairo was still alive.
"Help me..." the severed head sobbed, his amber eyes wide with unspeakable terror, his throat leaking crimson onto the cold earth. "Please, no... Daichi, run away! Run away right now! He's going to do the same to you! Bring my father!"
The clone leaned down, its dark eyes vacant and cruel as it let out a low, hollow chuckle. "Well... now what will you do, genius?"
With a casual flick of its wrist, the clone tossed the severed head across the wet grass. It rolled into Daichi's lap.
Daichi collapsed to his knees, his mind shattering under the sheer, unadulterated horror of the sight. He clutched his own skull, his head throbbing with a agonizing, blinding pain as he began to cry uncontrollably. Rain and tears mixed on his face as he stared down at his best friend's severed head resting against his knees.
"Please, Daichi..." Kairo's head wept, his jaw clicking as he choked through the pain. "Don't listen to him! Please... just run away..."
"No..." Daichi choked out, his chest heaving as a terrifying resolve took root in his heart. "No, I'm not leaving you."
Daichi pressed both of his gloved palms against the raw, jagged flesh of Kairo's neck. A sickly, brilliant white light erupted from his hands, humming with an ancient, forbidden resonance that caused the surrounding river water to part and boil.
It was the ultimate taboos of life magic—Chronos Equinox—a forbidden spell that traded the caster's own temporal life force to reconstruct a shattered vessel.
As the blinding light wrapped around Kairo's mutilated remains, Daichi's body began to rapidly age. Within seconds, his youthful skin wrinkled, his sharp jawline softened, and his posture hunched as he turned twenty... then thirty... then a withered forty years old.
Daichi offered a faint, gentle smile through his tears, his voice cracking with age. "Don't worry... I'm fixing it..."
Kairo's severed head blinked up at him, the agonizing pain momentarily dulled by shock. "Wait a minute... you look like a gramps... I don't know, I'm not feeling the pain as much, but..."
Daichi's hair turned completely snow-white, his spine bending as his body rapidly withered into that of an frail, ancient man. The magic roared like a hurricane. On the mud, Kairo's torn torso and severed limbs began to twitch, black and white mana threads stitching the muscles and skin back together with nauseating precision. But as the body knit itself whole, the neck remained open—the head refused to reattach.
A fresh wave of excruciating agony tore through Kairo, and he screamed until his voice cracked into a whisper.
Daichi knelt there, a frail old man gasping his final ragged breaths, his eyes filled with absolute warmth as he looked at his friend one last time. "I'm sorry for being rude... my best friend, Kairo. This is my final..."
Before the sentence could finish, the clone stepped silently out of the mist behind him.
With a single, effortless thrust, a jet-black blade pierced directly through Daichi's withered chest. The white light died instantly. Daichi's eyes went dark, his frail body collapsing lifelessly onto the muddy bank.
The moment the magic broke, the spell inverted.
Every thread stitching Kairo's body together snapped violently. The flesh tore apart once more, the limbs detaching as his whole body ruptured in a gory spray. Every single ounce of horrific pain came rushing back all at once, multiplying tenfold as Kairo's severed head screamed into the cold, empty rain, trapped in an endless, agonizing nightmare on the riverbank.