The world stood still.
Ashes drifted through the broken skies like snow. The remnants of the last battle still smoldered—burnt trees, shattered earth, blood soaked into stone. But none of it mattered now.
Kaizen stood alone at the edge of the ruins, his pulse deafening in his ears. Squad Umbra was split across sectors, regrouping after the latest Bist ambush. He was supposed to wait. But something deeper had called him here—something ancient. Something wrong.
His boots crunched over cracked earth, his hand resting near the hilt of his curved obsidian blade. A low hum thrummed through the ground beneath him, like a sleeping beast breathing under the crust.
And then—
He saw him.
A figure stood among the ruins of a collapsed cathedral, where stained-glass windows now lay shattered like memories. The man was tall—unmoving—draped in a cloak that flickered like oil against firelight. His back was turned.
Kaizen's breath caught.
The same pressure he'd felt for weeks—haunting visions, echoes in dreams, glimpses in mirror shards—it all pointed here. His heart thundered. Veins glowed faintly along his forearms. The Shard within him pulsed.
"Nerovar."
The figure tilted his head, as though the name amused him.
Slowly, he turned.
His face… was wrong. No scars, no mutations—nothing monstrous. Just… calm. Human. Cold. But the eyes… Kaizen staggered. The eyes were too old. Too silent. As if they'd watched civilizations collapse and never blinked.
"So," Nerovar said, voice smooth like cracked glass. "The lost son of Flame finally seeks answers."
Kaizen's grip tightened. "You've been haunting my mind. Whispering. Why?"
Nerovar stepped forward, boots silent against stone. "Because you're waking up, Kaizen. And they fear what you'll become."
"Who is they?"
Nerovar smiled. Not kind. Not cruel. Just tired. "The ones who caged your bloodline. Who used your ancestors as weapons. The same ones now parading as saviors."
Kaizen took a step forward. "Stop speaking in riddles. What do you want from me?"
Nerovar's cloak shifted unnaturally—like it wasn't cloth, but something alive. "Want? Nothing. I've already seen your future. I'm only here to make sure you see it too."
Suddenly, time cracked.
The sky above them split like paper being torn. Black veins surged across the sun. Kaizen's mind imploded as a surge of images tore through his thoughts—visions of a burning city, a throne made of bone, Ayaka weeping blood, Squad Umbra screaming his name as shadows consumed them—
"STOP!"
Kaizen dropped to his knees, gasping, blood dripping from his nose. He looked up—Nerovar was closer now, standing just outside blade's reach.
"You fear yourself," Nerovar said softly. "But what's inside you… is older than your name."
"What are you?" Kaizen rasped.
"I am the whisper between your pulses," Nerovar replied. "The reason your flames scream in silence. I am your warning."
Kaizen's eyes flared. "If you're a warning… then say it."
Nerovar leaned close. His breath was cold. Time slowed.
"You were not born, Kaizen. You were created… by the same gods who forged the Bist."
Silence.
The wind died.
Kaizen froze. The words sank into his veins like poison.
"You lie," he whispered.
"Then why does the Shard within you respond to me?" Nerovar extended a hand. Kaizen's chest burned—the Shard embedded in his heart glowed blood-red. It throbbed like a second heartbeat, matching Nerovar's presence.
Kaizen stumbled backward.
"Stay away from me," he snarled.
Nerovar didn't move. "I already am within you."
A loud CRACK split the air. Squad Umbra's distress flare launched in the far distance. Backup was arriving.
Nerovar turned, cloak hissing against wind. "The others are coming. You're not ready yet. Not for what you'll have to do."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Kaizen growled.
"To stop the end, you must become it."
Kaizen shouted, lunging forward—but Nerovar was gone. No teleportation, no smoke. Just… gone. Like a bad memory fading after waking up.
Kaizen stood alone, breathing hard. The Shard inside him was still pulsing. Not in pain. In resonance.
For the first time in his life—he didn't know who he was anymore.
He turned back toward the horizon, where flames flickered on the edge of the battlefield.
But the face he wore now…
It wasn't the same as the one he'd worn before.