The wind over Outpost Veyra howled like a mourning spirit. The skies were dim, bruised with the deep purples and grays of an incoming storm. Lightning danced far above, and the air itself seemed to shiver with a pulse older than time.
Kaizen stood on the edge of a ruined watchtower, eyes locked onto the distant horizon. His veins still shimmered faintly with the residual glow of his last awakening — a power he didn't understand, one that whispered in a language only his blood recognized.
Below, Squad Umbra was silent, scattered around the cracked stones of the courtyard. Every single one of them had felt it. That… presence.
A hum in the air. A whisper in the bones. Something… calling.
"You feel it too?" murmured Liora, stepping beside Kaizen.
He didn't nod. He didn't blink. "It's not just a presence. It's a voice."
Liora's eyes narrowed. "Like a memory trying to be remembered."
Just then, the shard that had been retrieved from the last mission — black, jagged, pulsing — gave off a low, trembling vibration inside its containment crystal.
And then it spoke.
> "Kaizen Ryouma… you are the bearer of ruin. The blood that walks. The king unborn."
Every member of Squad Umbra froze. Even Raen, who had scoffed at the shard's importance, stepped back in dread. The voice was in no language they knew, but they understood it. On a primal level.
"What the hell was that?" growled Captain Vexar, drawing his blade as if it could fight a voice.
Kaizen didn't answer.
Because the shard wasn't done.
> "He watches… the shadow beneath the roots. Nerovar has seen you."
Kaizen's breath hitched.
Nerovar.
That name again. That cursed name that had begun to haunt his dreams and waking thoughts alike. Always just out of reach. A silhouette in smoke. A figure veiled in whispers and fear.
Suddenly, Ayaka staggered forward. Her eyes were glassy, her breathing sharp.
"He's watching us—right now," she whispered.
And for a fleeting second, they all felt it. A gaze. Cold. Piercing. Not from the sky, nor from the earth — but from within.
Like the world itself had eyes.
Kaizen's heart thundered. Not in fear… but in a strange, electrifying anticipation.
> Come find me.
The voice vanished.
The shard cracked. A single fracture ran down its length, and from it leaked a black mist that hissed before vanishing into the air.
Then silence.
And Kaizen spoke, voice low, almost lost to the wind.
"He's drawing closer… But not yet."
Liora gritted her teeth. "We're not ready."
Captain Vexar turned to them all. "Prepare yourselves. This isn't just war anymore. This is prophecy walking."
But Kaizen was no longer listening.
His mind drifted to a fragment of a vision he'd seen just nights ago.
A battlefield scorched with flame.
A throne made of bone and veins.
And Nerovar… kneeling before it.
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