The next day.
The sun dipped below the Tokyo skyline, casting long amber streaks across the windows of the Nightguard Corps headquarters. On the rooftop just before the shifts started and where the air was quieter and the hum of the city softened, Lucien stood with Rylen. Both leaned against the railing of the rooftop, drinks in hand, as if pretending life was normal.
Rylen broke the silence first. "Almost three whole months since Frostjaw," he said, voice low and steady. "Feels longer, doesn't it?"
Lucien exhaled slowly, watching the horizon. "Yeah it does. Like things should be different by now." His eyes flickered crimson for a brief second before fading. He felt it again: the faint tremor in the air, like static, like ash drifting in unseen currents.
Rylen tilted his head. "You feel it too. That... weight. Like something bigger is about to come."
Lucien didn't answer immediately. His fingers tightened around the railing, the metal groaning under invisible pressure. "Something's coming. I don't know what yet. But it's far from over, so in the meantime we need to get stronger."
The rooftop door creaked open. Emiluna stepped out, arms folded against the evening chill. Her silver hair caught the last rays of sunlight. "HQ wants us downstairs," she said. "Division One has a briefing. Something in Hokkaido."
Inside the war room, First Division's command holograms flickered with satellite images. Karu, Cho, and Kagetsu stood at the head of the table. A map zoomed in on a town near the northern coast.
"Kita-Saroma," Karu said, voice clipped. "Population: two to three thousand. A small island reported as silent for the past fourty-eight hours. No digital signals, no civilian activity. The last communication was emergency calls about missing family members."
Cho added, eyes sharp beneath her glasses: "No monster sightings as of yet. No energy signatures. Just... emptiness and silence."
Lucien frowned. "Same pattern as yesterday in Asagiri."
Karu nodded once. "Which is why we're moving in immediately to Hokkaido. Lucien, Emiluna, Jason: you're with me. Priority is reconnaissance and civilian recovery. Do not engage unless necessary."
Rylen opened his mouth as if to protest, then closed it. His gaze lingered on Lucien for a beat longer than usual.
The trip to the island was uneventful. A Nightguard transport jet cut through the evening sky, silent save for the whisper of wind against reinforced glass. Lucien sat by the window, staring at the stars, his reflection faintly outlined in red.
Jason, seated across from him, leaned forward. "You think it's really the exact same as it was in Asagiri?" he asked.
Lucien shrugged. "The similair signs we are given say yes."
Emiluna, beside Jason, coughed lightly. She'd just recovered from a small flu, and the shadows under her eyes still lingered. "If it is," she murmured, "we need to find out why. Before it spreads and becomes a globas problem."
Karu remained silent at the front, reading mission data. His presence was a steady weight, anchoring the team. No panic. No fear. Just resolve.
They landed just outside Kita-Saroma an hour past midnight. The town was shrouded in mist, streetlights dimmed as if drained of power. Buildings stood intact but no life in sight, windows like hollow eyes.
Lucien stepped onto the cracked asphalt, scanning instinctively. His upgraded senses reached out—telekinesis probing for movement, his mind brushing against ambient energies. Nothing. Only the faintest echo of... something.
Jason's voice cracked through comms. "No animals either this time," he reported from a side street. "Not even birds or small insects."
Emiluna shivered, pulling her coat tighter. "It's like walking into hell."
Karu gestured for them to regroup near the central plaza. From there, they could see most of the town: a convenience store, a closed school, a small shrine, a bookclub and some hyakkaten. One light flickered faintly in the distance.
Lucien squinted. "That building... sports gym or whatever it is. Its giving light or am i blind?"
Karu followed his gaze. "No Lucien your not blind. Possible civilian holdout. Let's check it."
The gymnasium doors creaked open under Lucien's hand. The inside smelled of old sweat and cold dust. The floor was polished wood, scuffed and cracked. Overhead lights flickered, casting a sickly red hue across everything.
Emiluna stepped in after him, eyes narrowing. "Why is the light red? That shouldn't be standard."
Jason ran a scanner across the room. "No power source detected. It's not electricity."
Lucien walked forward, boots echoing against the wooden floor. His eyes adjusted to the gloom, locking onto something at the far end of the gym.
An old dark japanese mural.
Drawn crudely across the far wall in what looked like smeared paint—or something darker. A demon with six twisted horns, an endless grin carved into its face, arms outstretched as if to embrace the viewer.
Beneath it, words in uneven strokes:
HE IS COMING TO EARTH.
Lucien felt his pulse spike. Not from fear. From recognition.
Karu's voice was tight. "No signs of life here as expected. We pull back and report to HQ for now. Lets go."
But before they could move, a whisper rippled through the air.
Like laughter. Distant. Childlike. Demonlike.
Lucien's head snapped around. His vision blurred for a heartbeat, shadows stretching unnaturally across the walls.
"...did anyone hear that distant laugh?" Jason asked, voice cracking.
Lucien didn't answer. His seal burned faintly under his skin, unbidden. He was ready to fight.
Something was watching them. Not from the shadows—the shadows themselves were alive.
An hour later.
The helicopter blades echoed through the stillness as Division one, two and five descended onto the frozen remnants of the bay. Black skies laced with faint auroras, a cold wind sweeping across the surface of what once was the battlefield against Frostjaw Reiken. The shattered ice had re-formed unnaturally. Layers of frost stacked in unnatural, geometric patterns, as though some hidden architect had etched its design.
Lucien stepped off first, boots crunching against crystalline frost. His breath came out in soft plumes. Behind him followed Rylen, Jason, Emiluna, and Kagetsu from Division One and five, and Ayumu also joined them from divison two specially assigned for tonight's investigation.
Rylen surveyed the area. "Why are we back here exactly?"
Lucien spoke quietly, eyes never leaving the horizon. "Because something's wrong. I couldn't sleep. Kept hearing it."
Emiluna tilted her head. "Hearing what?"
"A rare voice. Not in my head. In the air itself. Beneath the ice." He clenched his fists, feeling his pulse stir unnaturally fast.
No one argued. Since Lucien's return to japan after Forstjaw almost three months ago, his instincts were rarely wrong.
Kagetsu activated a sonar scanner and Ayumu helped Lucien with her gravitational force, glancing at her wrist display. "No life signatures. No power fluctuations." Yet her tone didn't sound confident.
The team spread out, flashlights sweeping the icy landscape. The beams reflected like fractured mirrors.
Then Lucien froze completely. There, under a patch of semi-transparent ice, something pulsed faintly red. A glow—not quite flame, not quite energy. A shape resembling... a feather.
Again.
He knelt, touching his glove against the frozen surface. As his skin made contact, a voice slipped through the wind, barely audible but unmistakable:
*Do you see it now, DemomBoy? The ash never sleeps...*_
Lucien yanked his hand back. "There it is again, you bastard. Who are you?''
Jason crouched beside him. "What did you hear Lucien?"
Lucien didn't answer directly to Jason. He instead balled his fists and punched through the 5 inches thick ice like it was nothing . Cracks spider-webbed, and then shattered inwards, revealing a hollow cavity below. Black water swirled beneath with shimmering crimson streaks.
Rylen cursed under his breath. "That... isn't natural in the slightest."
Emiluna knelt next to Lucien, eyes wide. "I sense infernal energy. Pure... raw. This shouldn't exist here, this shouldn´t exist anywhere on earth."
The wind shifted, carrying the sound of soft laughter. Childlike. Hollow.
Lucien stood slowly, his eyes igniting faintly gold-red. "We're not alone here guys."
Following Lucien's lead, the team set up harnesses and descended through the hole in the ice. Kagetsu secured ropes while Jason kept watch at the surface.
Lucien dropped first, landing softly on a frozen platform about twenty meters below. The cavern stretched wider than expected. Black walls rippled like obsidian glass; faint glyphs flickered in deep red.
Rylen, Karu, Cho and Emiluna landed next, followed by Kagetsu.
The silence here felt heavier. Like sound itself struggled to exist.
Lucien touched the wall. It was warm.
"Impossible," Kagetsu murmured. "We should be in sub-zero temperatures."
Lucien whispered under his breath, mostly to himself, "The King of Hell... His influence is growing. Even here, what is he trying to do?''
Suddenly, footsteps echoed from deeper within the cavern.
Everyone spun, weapons drawn. Ready to kill. Lucien extended his hand, summoning a flicker of Purgeflame, illuminating the path ahead.
And there—standing motionless—was a figure. It wasn´t human but it was human-shaped. Wrapped in tattered black robes, face obscured by shadows. Its form flickered like static.
"Identify yourself now," Kagetsu commanded sharply.
The figure didn't move.
Lucien narrowed his eyes. "Everyone. Stand back."
He stepped forward. The closer he got, the clearer the figure became: no face, only a swirling void beneath its hood.
Then it spoke. The voice layered—child and ancient overlapped:
"Lucien... Chosen of Ash... You stand at the boundary. The echo calls you."
Lucien's skin crawled. His infernal seal pulsed under his ribcage.
"Who sent you here?" he demanded.
"The King watches you closely. The Creator mourns. You must choose soon."
Suddenly, the figure extended its hand—and from its palm drifted another black-red feather.
Lucien stepped back instinctively. But then something inside him—an impulse—pushed him forward. He reached out, fingertips brushing the feather.
His vision exploded.
Lucien found himself standing on a vast obsidian plain. No sky. No horizon. Only endless black and red ash swirling around him.
And in the distance—two colossal thrones.
One throne was forged of gold and ivory, cracked and weathered.
The other burned infinitely, chains wrapped around its base. Black flames. Crimson smoke.
On each throne sat a figure.
To the left: the Creator of Gods. Eyes closed. Head bowed in silent grief.
To the right: the King of Hell. Smiling. Horns ablaze.
Lucien staggered forward, voice rough. "What... is this?"
The King's voice rumbled like an earthquake. "Your soul, Lucien. Your true battleground."
The Creator lifted his gaze, sad and distant. "It's time you understood."
Flashes of memory flooded Lucien's mind: the battles, the power surges, his transformation against Reiken... all of it led here.
The King stood, towering and infinite. "You were never meant to be a vessel for one god, Lucien. You are both. Ash and Flame. Creation and Destruction. You are the ALL MIGHTY GOD!"
Lucien fell to one knee, clutching his head. The seal on his chest burned, spreading black tendrils across his skin.
The Creator's voice broke through softly: "You must choose your path sooner or later. Or the echo will consume everything."
Lucien gasped for air. "I... I don't..."
Then both figures raised their hands simultaneously. A single, final image etched itself into Lucien's mind:
A city in flames. Tokyo. Screams. Ash falling like snow.
The childlike laughter returning. Echoing over it all.
Lucien's eyes snapped open. He was back in the cavern. On his knees. Emiluna holding his shoulders, Rylen yelling his name.
His body smoked faintly. Black ash drifted off his skin.
Kagetsu spoke urgently. "Lucien, what did you see?!"
Lucien rose slowly, voice shaking. Guys there is something that i need to tell. "The King... and the Creator..."
His golden-red eyes burned. "I need to make a decision. Or everyone dies."