The air in the subterranean hall was thick with the copper stench of fresh blood and the sharp, static tang of ozone.
Daichi didn't look back. With his chest heaving and his throat burning like swallows of lye, he bolted across the deep-blue marble floor. He had no weapon, no shield, and his mana reserves were dangerously depleted—only raw, blind terror propelled his boots against the stone.
Behind him, the two heavily bleeding sentinels stepped into the corridor, raising their shattered shields to block the doorway.
"Go, kid!" the male guard spat, coughing up a crimson spray. "Run!"
Akio—or the thing puppeteering his broken frame—did not give chase immediately. It tilted its head at a sickening ninety-degree angle, its yellow eyes wide and unblinking, and began to count down.
"Fifteen..."
Daichi pushed his legs faster, the world blurring into streaks of neon-blue crystal and dark ironwood.
"Ten..."
His lungs screamed for oxygen. Every breath tasted of cold dust and iron.
"Nine..."
"Eight..."
Through his blurred vision, Daichi caught sight of the archway ahead. Liana stood right at the threshold of the exit, waving her hands frantically.
"Seven..."
"Daichi! Over here! Hurry!" Liana's frantic voice echoed down the hall.
"Six..."
He was only a few yards away.
"Five..."
Daichi reached out, his trembling, cold fingers locking around Liana's wrist. "I've... I've got you..."
"Four..."
Three steps to the exit.
"Three..."
Two steps.
"Two..."
One step—
A high-pitched, shrill cackle suddenly tore from Liana's throat, shattering the quiet of the hall.
Before Daichi could even process the sound, Liana's spine bent backward with a series of wet, terrifying crunches. Her arms whipped forward with terrifying, superhuman force, hurling Daichi backward across the marble like a ragdoll. He crashed violently into a stone pillar, the impact knocking the air completely out of his chest as he slid to the floor, gasping.
Liana turned, her face contorted into a monstrous, unnatural sneer, her eyes gleaming with the same sickening yellow light as Akio's.
Behind her, the two sentinels were already down, their armor crushed like dry leaves. Akio stepped up beside Liana, his broken fingers clicking back into place. Together, the two possessed figures turned toward the inner sanctuary—where hundreds of evacuated citizens and royal guards were huddled behind the primary warding barrier.
Meanwhile, far above ground on the northern ridge beyond the City of Harmony...
The midnight sky was bruised indigo, illuminated only by a pale, crescent moon. Smoke rose in thick, lazy plumes from a mountain of twisted monster carcasses—a grotesque hill of scales, severed limbs, and black blood spanning fifty yards across the clearing.
King Ariston sat atop the highest mound of slain beasts, his massive broadsword resting flat across his knees. Beside him, Max leaned casually against his peg leg, wiping dark monster grease from his cutlass with a stained rag.
Max glanced sideways at the King, letting out a low, gravelly chuckle. "So... why are you looking so dull, Ariston?"
King Ariston didn't look down. His dark eyes remained fixed on the pale moon hanging over the silent kingdom below. "Something's wrong, Max. I can feel it in my gut."
Max adjusted his hat, his single eye narrowing as he looked toward the distant spires of the city. "So... you want a ride back?"
Ariston exhaled a long, heavy breath. "I don't know... maybe yeah. It'll be a lot faster. But take the same path we just came through—don't destroy the land or the trees."
Max smirked, leaning on his peg leg. "Uhh... I can respect that."
Deep inside the quietest alcove of the Grand Royal Archive, Kairo sat cross-legged on the blue-veined marble floor, surrounded by towering stacks of leather-bound folios. He flipped through the yellowed parchment of an ancient chronicle, his amber eyes scanning every line for mentions of the original memory seal.
He was entirely unaware of the blood bath unfolding just two levels above him.
At the primary security checkpoint of the subterranean bunker, two hundred fully armored soldiers of Harmony stood in tight rank, their tower shields locked together in an unbroken wall of silver steel. Mages positioned behind the front line channeled dense defensive barriers, their glowing runes illuminating the vast stone vault.
"Hold the line!" the captain roared, drawing his broadsword. "Nothing passes this gate!"
At the far end of the narrow stone bridge, two small figures stepped into the blue light. Akio and Liana.
A young guard at the front line faltered, his shield trembling. "Wait... those are just kids—"
Before the soldier could finish, Liana vanished.
A sharp sonic boom shattered the stone beneath her feet as she reappeared directly atop the captain's tower shield. With a flick of her wrist, her nails elongated into razor-sharp black talons, shearing cleanly through steel, plate, and bone in a single fluid sweep. The captain collapsed before his sword could even hit the ground.
Panic erupted across the front line. "Open fire! Contain them!"
A volley of azure mana bolts and heavy crossbow bolts rained down upon Akio. He didn't even bother to dodge. The bolts slammed into his chest and shoulders, piercing his flesh—but the boy simply grinned, his yellow eyes glowing with dark delight. He lunged forward, his body contorting mid-air to slide beneath a spear wall, grabbing two guards by their helmets and slamming their heads together with enough raw physical force to shatter iron visors.
What followed was not a battle; it was a systematic slaughter.
Liana moved like a spectre through the ranks, her laughter echoing hauntingly off the subterranean arches. Every strike she dealt was precise, devastating, and effortless. She tore through enchanted armor as if it were damp paper, using the soldiers' own momentum against them, flinging fully armored men into the stone walls with bone-crushing velocity.
Akio walked directly through the barrage of offensive magic. When a fire spell scorched his left arm to the bone, his flesh simply bubbled and regenerated within seconds, black mana threads knitting the tissue back together before the ashes even hit the floor. He swept through the second rank, snapping spears with his bare hands and driving his fist straight through steel breastplates.
In less than three minutes, the deafening roars of two hundred elite guards dissolved into a horrifying, suffocating silence.
The cavernous corridor was painted in dark crimson. Broken shields, shattered spears, and dented helmets lay scattered across the blood-slick marble floor. Not a single soldier remained standing.
In the center of the carnage, Akio and Liana stood side-by-side amidst the pile of fallen guards.
Akio wiped a trace of blood from his cheek, his vacant yellow eyes turning slowly toward the heavy iron doors leading directly into the civilian shelter.
Liana smiled—a wide, unnatural tear across her face—and raised her blood-stained hand toward the lock.
A white-hot spike drove straight through Kairo's temples, shattering his concentration into a thousand jagged pieces.
He stumbled backward, his boots skidding across the slick, deep-blue marble floor as he clutched his skull with both hands. A guttural scream ripped from his throat, echoing hollowly off the vast, silent tiers of the archive. The agony was blinding—a suffocating pressure that felt as though his brain were being boiled within his skull.
Yet around him, the ancient sanctuary remained untouched, its glittering star-ocean reflecting calmly on the ceiling.
Before his blurred vision, the smooth wall behind the water-encircled pedestal began to groan. A massive stone relief carved into the obsidian masonry shifted, its fine details separating into the distinct, sculpted silhouette of a sleeping monarch step out from the rock.
Driven by sheer survival instinct, Kairo reached inward, tapping directly into the cold interface of his core.
"Summon me a book!" Kairo shrieked, his voice cracking with desperation. "Summon me a book that reduces my pain!"
A blinding flash of golden mana burst into existence above his palms. A thick, leather-bound tome materialized, its cover pulsing with a steady, soothing radiance. Crawling forward on his hands and knees, Kairo forced himself toward the stone pedestal and slammed the glowing ledger straight into the vacant book holder.
The ring of neon-blue water suspended in mid-air instantly evaporated into a dense cloud of fragrant white steam.
From within the steam stepped a figure of ethereal, imposing grace. The youth wore a flowing robe of royal blue and brilliant white silk. His features were remarkably smooth, almost feminine in their delicate beauty, yet his posture carried an ancient, suffocating authority that filled the vast vault.
The youth stepped down from the pedestal, extending a slender, pale hand to rest his fingers against Kairo's trembling forehead.
The white-hot agony vanished instantly, replaced by a soothing, cool wave of absolute stillness. Kairo's ragged breathing slowed as he slumped against the base of the pedestal.
The feminine youth looked down at Kairo, his deep, serene eyes reflecting the starlight above. "So... you are my adopted younger brother, huh?" A faint, enigmatic smile touched his lips. "Now, do me a favor. Read this book, summon my other dead brother, and make sure you watch us kill each other... and try to learn our martial arts while you do."
Kairo raised his head, wiping a bead of sweat from his chin, and offered a firm, quiet nod. "Okay... I will."
Without another word, the youth in the royal blue robe turned on his heel. In a blinding flash of motion that shattered the surrounding air with a sonic boom, he vanished into the upper corridors, dashing at terrifying speed toward the outer rotunda.
Meanwhile, near the perimeter of the central hall...
Liana stood before the first of the four impossible gateways. Her yellow-tinted eyes gleamed with a dark, unnatural ecstasy as she raised her hand and pressed her palm flat against the glowing neon-blue crystalline frame.
CLICK.
The ancient seals dissolved. The colossal marble doors groaned as they slid backward into the stone walls, unsealing the subterranean prisons—the forgotten vaults holding the true sons and daughters of King Ariston.
The surviving royal guards fell to their knees in sheer terror.
A sudden, catastrophic surge of pressure erupted from the depths of the four open gates. The atmospheric density spiked so violently that the marble floor cracked in spiderweb patterns.
Fifty yards away, Daichi was slammed flat against the cold stone floor, the sheer weight of the combined royal aura grinding his bones together. He couldn't even force his head up; he was trapped, helpless, forced to kneel before the absolute authority of the ancient bloodlines.
Then, stepping out from the inner corridor as if the oppressive aura were nothing more than a gentle morning breeze, the smooth-faced youth in the blue-and-white robe entered the hall.
He didn't even slow his stride. With a single, casual wave of his slender hand, a wave of pure, neutralizing mana swept across the rotunda, instantly cancelling out the crushing pressure suffocating the room.
The shadowy entity inhabiting Akio's body took one look at the youth and gasped in visceral terror.
Abandoning Akio's frame, the dark parasite burst out from the boy's mouth as a squirming, black mist, turning to flee into the ceiling shadows.
In a fraction of a heartbeat, the feminine youth appeared directly above the escaping entity. His pale hand shot out, clamping around the shadow's neck like an iron vise. With a single, effortless flick of his bare wrist, he twisted the shadow's neck until it snapped with a sharp, resonant pop, crushing the dark core into a cloud of harmless dust.
Over by the opened gate, the dark spell controlling Liana broke. Lacking the high magical resistance required to withstand the mental recoil, her eyes rolled back into her head, and she collapsed unconscious onto the marble floor.
Footsteps echoed from the four opened gates.
Stepping out into the light in perfect unison were three imposing men and one tall, regal woman—the newly unsealed royal siblings. They paused, turning their sharp, ancient gazes toward the trembling guards kneeling along the walls, briefly introducing themselves as the firstborn heirs of Harmony.
And right on cue, the feminine youth who Kairo had freed stepped down from the elevated walkway to stand beside them, his white-and-blue robes fluttering quietly in the cold subterranean draft.