The flames had long died out, yet the stench of charred flesh still hung heavy in the night air. The battlefield lay silent—eerily so. Moonlight spilled over broken weapons, shattered masks, and torn banners that once symbolized hope.
Kaizen knelt in the ruins of the eastern trench, blood caked to his cheek, his breathing ragged. His hand trembled, gripping the hilt of his blade tighter than necessary. He wasn't alone.
"Kaizen…" came a soft whisper behind him.
It was Rika—her left arm torn, eyes dull with shock. She clutched a glowing shard in her bloodied fingers. "They knew… they knew about the weak point in our formation. Someone told them."
Kaizen's jaw clenched. "A traitor."
"No." Rika looked at him, eyes haunted. "A ghost… someone not listed on any roster. A man cloaked in black flame, no face, no voice… only a whisper: 'He walks before the fall.'"
Kaizen's heart stopped for a second. That line.
He'd heard it before.
Back when he was a child, just before the Bist horde attacked his village. His mother had screamed it in delirium seconds before she was torn apart.
"He walks before the fall…"
He stood up slowly, his spine straightening like steel. "We need to regroup. Get the survivors to the north sector."
"But—" Rika's voice cracked. "Kaizen, three squads have already vanished. It's like they never existed. Only their screams remain."
Kaizen didn't flinch. "Then we make sure our screams reach the right ears."
Elsewhere… Deep beneath Sector C's ruins.
The shadows shifted unnaturally in the underground chamber. A man sat alone, draped in robes stitched from the skin of fallen beasts. A twisted crown of broken shards floated above his head like a halo of damnation.
Nerovar.
He held a sphere of black fire in his palm, watching flickers of Squad Umbra's current location flicker inside.
He murmured to himself, his voice low and cold: "So… the heir is awakening on schedule. But his conviction still wavers. Good. Let him feel hope again… so I can crush it."
He turned to the figure kneeling behind him. It was a young boy, eyes white, veins glowing.
"Begin Phase II."
The boy nodded, then collapsed—his body consumed in silent black smoke.
Back at HQ – Shard Research Division
Ayaka stared at the wall, where symbols had begun glowing on their own. She hadn't touched anything. The shard recovered from the last mission pulsed again—like a heartbeat.
Suddenly, a voice echoed from within the chamber—not hers, not anyone alive.
"He is not the heir… He is the vessel."
Ayaka's eyes widened. She stumbled back as the shard cracked open… and for a brief moment, saw Kaizen's face within it—bleeding, screaming, eyes turning black.
"No…" she whispered. "Kaizen…"
Then the vision ended.
But one thing remained burned into her mind—the sigil on Kaizen's chest. It wasn't human.
Back to Kaizen – 30 minutes later
The survivors had been gathered in a partially collapsed bunker. Kaizen sat in silence, Rika beside him, watching the skies. They weren't alone for long.
A new recruit burst in, panting, covered in frost. "Sir—there's something outside. It's just standing there. Won't move."
Kaizen stood, sword in hand, stepping out into the ash-covered wind.
And there, fifty meters away, stood him.
A cloaked figure. Silent. Still. As if carved from obsidian. No face. Just a glowing red mark on his forehead… shaped like an inverted flame.
Kaizen stared. "Nerovar…"
The name escaped his lips without understanding how he even knew it.
The figure didn't move. Instead, it raised a single finger and pointed toward Kaizen.
Then—a voice echoed inside Kaizen's head:
"Not yet. But soon. When the 10th seal breaks… your soul will no longer be yours."
Kaizen fell to his knees, gripping his skull. His vision cracked like glass. For a second—just a second—he saw a ruined world. Fire. Blood. Bones stacked like towers. And at the center stood himself, his eyes cold, the world bowing to him in fear.
Then the vision vanished.
And Nerovar was gone.
Final Scene
Ayaka sat alone in the chamber, the broken shard still pulsing beside her. She opened her journal, trembling hands flipping to the final page she wrote this morning.
Only now… there was new ink scrawled across the page.
She hadn't written it.
"You must choose soon, Ayaka. To save him… or stop him."
Her breath hitched.
Because the handwriting… it was Kaizen's.
But he hadn't seen this journal. Ever.
TO BE CONTINUED…