Sirens didn't wail. They wept.
The city hadn't seen devastation like this since the Ninth Fracture, and yet, there were no headlines. No emergency broadcast. Only silence—and a widening crater where the world had tried to forget a name.
Shin Arata.
He sat in the center of the scorched void, sword stabbed into the earth beside him. Blood still dripped from its edge, but it wasn't his.
It never was.
Ryuu leaned against a broken streetlamp, arms folded, lips curled into a half-smile. Not amusement. Not approval. Just... recognition.
"You broke the veil," he said.
Shin didn't look at him. "It broke me first."
Wind stirred the ash. Somewhere, a raven landed on a twisted railing, then exploded into black mist.
Signs. Echoes. The Void was whispering.
And Ryuu was listening.
"You felt it, right?" he asked. "That flicker when the blade screamed?"
Shin nodded slowly. "A presence. Watching."
Ryuu's eyes narrowed. "It wasn't watching. It was waiting."
Meanwhile...
Chains snapped.
One.
Then two.
Kai's eyes burst open in the ruined cathedral. The sigils dimmed. The altar cracked.
He stood—barely. Shoulders shaking. Blood trickling from his palms.
But his eyes? Empty. No fury. No confusion. Just... quiet clarity. Like the eye of a storm that hadn't been born yet.
"Fragmentation: 61% stabilized," said a voice in his head. Cold. Mechanical. Not his.
But it was him.
A version locked behind the altar. One forged in the paradox.
"Protocol override?" the voice asked.
Kai didn't answer.
He walked to the edge of the shattered stained glass. Looked at the city bleeding in the distance.
And whispered, "Not yet."
The chains recoiled. The altar sealed again. But something had changed.
The storm began to spin backwards.
Back in the ruins, Ryuu tilted his head as the clouds swirled unnaturally.
"You felt that?" he said.
Shin didn't answer—but the sword in his hand pulsed.
Ryuu grinned. "Looks like the Warden's waking up."
"But which one?" Shin murmured.
Ryuu's smirk faded. For the first time in hours, his voice dropped to a whisper.
"That's the part that scares me."
And miles away, in a chamber made of mirrors that reflected nothing real—
A figure stirred.
Not Kai. Not Shin. Not Ryuu.
But someone who once stood beside them.
A girl.
Eyes closed. Fingers twitching.
And above her, a screen blinked to life.
[CLASSIFIED SUBJECT // CODE: RED WIDOW]
[STASIS SUSPENDED – RESONANCE DETECTED]
[BEGINNING WAKE SEQUENCE]
The war hadn't even started.
But the pieces?
They were falling into place.