The heavy leather cover of the book snapped shut with a dull, echoing thud that seemed to reverberate off the cold stone walls of the subterranean vault.
Renji stood motionless in the dim ambient light, the weight of the knowledge pressing down on his chest like a leaden slab.
"I've been searching for power..." Renji murmured to himself, his voice sounding hollow and detached in the empty chamber. He stared down at the weathered binding in his hands. "...and now, in order for me to actually get that power, I'll slowly lose myself. Every step forward is a step toward erasing who I am."
He set the first book carefully back onto the stone shelf, his mind racing through the harrowing catalog of costs and sacrifices detailed in Kenji Hoshikawa's legacy. But he couldn't afford to linger on the past. The immediate present demanded his attention.
Turning back to the shelf, Renji reached out and slowly picked up the second book.
Wait a minute, Renji thought, his eyes narrowing sharply. My uncle probably kidnapped my parents in order to find this key... but that doesn't make any sense.how did it end up sitting right out in the open on my father's desk?
Driven by a sudden, spiking surge of anxiety, Renji popped the cover of the second book and flipped quickly through the yellowed pages.
His eyes widened in instant shock.
"A page is missing..." he gasped, his thumb brushing over the jagged, torn edge where parchment had violently been ripped from the binding. A cold sweat broke out across his neck as recognition hit him. "And this book... I've seen it before. It was inside my father's private library."
The pieces clicked together with terrifying clarity. It wasn't a random break-in. It was a calculated setup.
Without wasting another second, Renji turned on his heel and bolted out of the secret room.
He sprinted down the dark stone corridors, taking the stairs three at a time, his boots pounding against the marble floors as he raced as fast as his legs could carry him back toward the main residential wing of the estate.
The moment he burst through the outer doors of his family's quarters, a cold dread seized his stomach.
The place had been utterly torn apart.
His uncle hadn't just searched the room; he had tossed it looking for something specific, leaving a trail of absolute devastation in his wake.
Renji rushed through the wreckage, his boots crunching on broken glass as he searched frantically for any clue about where his parents had been taken.
And then, resting on the splintered wood of his father's wrecked desk, a single piece of white paper caught his eye.
He snatched it up, his breath hitching as he read the brief, mocking lines scrawled across it:
If you want to see your parents alive again, come down to this address.
At the bottom was a set of coordinates leading to the location.
Renji narrowed his eyes, a dangerous fire igniting in his chest. "Damn it..."
He didn't hesitate. He folded the note, shoved it into his pocket, and bolted back out into the night, pushing his body to its absolute physical limits as he sprinted toward the location
Minutes later, Renji burst through the heavy doors of the underground facility.
The room before him was a vast, silent, and bitterly cold chamber—the high-tier training arena reserved exclusively for the elite members of the Star Eyes Clan.
The massive stone pillars rose up into the shadows.
Renji stopped dead at the entrance, his chest heaving as he scanned the open expanse.
In the exact center of the vast training floor, illuminated by the harsh glow of overhead spotlights, were his parents.
They were bound tightly to heavy metal pillars, ropes cutting deep into their arms, unconscious or heavily sedated.
Surrounding them on the cold stone floor was a massive, intricate arrangement of glowing energy lines, drawn in what looked like luminous, shifting ink.
Complex geometric symbols and cosmic glyphs forming a complete ritualistic circle with his parents trapped right at the centre.
A slow, deliberate pair of footsteps echoed from the far side of the chamber.
Stepping out from the shadows of a large stone pillar was his uncle.
Kurogane Hoshikawa—a man with cold, calculating eyes, sharp aristocratic features, and a posture dripping with absolute arrogance—smiled a thin, condescending smile as he looked at his nephew.
Renji stepped forward, his fists balling up so tightly his knuckles turned completely white, his voice laced with venom. "I'm guessing you aren't here alone."
Kurogane tilted his head, his smile widening into something mocking. "What do you mean, nephew? Whatever gave you that ridiculous idea?"
Renji frowned deeply, his eyes darting around the perimeter of the room,. "I mean, it's not possible for you to defeat my dad alone. Not in a million years. His mastery over the Star Eyes far surpasses yours. You had help. In fact, even with outside help, catching him off guard like this shouldn't even be possible."
Kurogane let out a low, smooth chuckle that echoed coldly off the stone walls. "My dear child... there are countless ways to defeat a man of pride and principle. You just have to know the most effective, venomous method to use against him."
Renji took another cautious step forward, his gaze dropping to the symbols on the floor and the book clutched tightly in his uncle's left hand. "What is this? What do you want to do with them?"
Kurogane looked down at the symbols surrounding his captive brother and sister-in-law, his expression turning into one of twisted reverence. "Oh, this? It's just a ritual, Renji. A very old, very powerful ritual."
"A ritual?" Renji repeated, stepping closer, his heart hammering against his ribs.
"Yes, a ritual," Kurogane replied smoothly, lifting the second volume—the missing book Renji had been looking for—and holding it up like a trophy. "As it is written in this, forbidden book... in order for one to truly gain the full, unadulterated power of the Star Eyes, one must offer a supreme sacrifice."
Renji frowned, a cold shiver running down his spine as the horrifying implication began to take root. "What are you talking about?"
Kurogane smiled, his eyes gleaming with mad ambition under the harsh lights. "This book entails the hidden secrets to unlocking the ultimate power of the Star Eyes. It is a method which our ancestors rightly deemed forbidden because of its cost. But once I have this complete power... once this ritual is completed using the bloodline of the direct heirs... I am going to rule the Star Eyes Clan. And next? The Border. And then, the entire world."
Renji's jaw clenched.
Without another word, Renji closed his eyes for a fraction of a second. When he opened them, his irises flared brilliantly.
The vibrant, crystalline crimson glow of the Star Eyes ignited within his vision.
"Over my dead body," Renji whispered, his voice dropping into a lethal, ice-cold register.
Instantly, he tapped into the deeper layers of his bloodline, activating the Third Edge.
Across the ritual circle, Kurogane stopped smiling.
Instead, a chilling, knowing grin spread across his face.
"Impressive," Kurogane murmured softly.
In a flash of motion, Kurogane's eyes snapped open. The same brilliant, crystalline glow ignited within his own irises, casting a blinding crimson reflection across the polished stone floor.
He, too, activated the Third Edge.
The air between uncle and nephew suddenly grew thick and heavy, charged with an immense, terrifying pressure as two future-seers locked eyes across the ritual floor, both of t
hem staring into a horizon that hadn't happened yet.