The moment the talismans ignited, the world turned into a furnace of black fire and suffocating pressure. The red paper strips didn't burn away; they melted into the air, transforming the white fog into a thick, crimson haze that tasted like copper and old graves.
[WARNING: DOMAIN OVERLAY DETECTED]
[STATUS: MOUNTAIN GOD'S TERRITORY]
"Ren, look out!" Nobara's voice cracked through the roar of the mountain.
The iron stake Kurosu had hurled didn't just sit in the ground—it grew. Jagged iron vines, slick with a dark, oily substance, erupted from the shaft. They lashed out like rusted whips, moving with a sentient hunger. I felt the [Demon's Instinct] scream in my mind, a thousand needles pricking the back of my skull.
Left. Up. Down.
I moved. With the [Shadow-Wrap Gloves] pulsing a cold, violet light, I triggered [Phantom Step - Lv. 3]. I didn't just dodge; I flickered upward, my feet finding purchase on a falling roof tile that had been torn loose by the sheer pressure of the domain. Mid-air, I kicked off the empty space—the gloves allowing me to "grip" the very air for a split second—and slammed my palm toward the ground.
[GRAVITY WELL: ACTIVATED]
A sphere of crushing force expanded beneath us, snapping the iron vines like dry twigs. But as I landed, my heart sank. The villagers hadn't moved. The iron spikes had pierced through their chests, pinning them to the earth, yet they stood there, masks still grinning. Their blood wasn't hitting the dirt; it was being siphoned upward, flowing into the iron vines like fuel.
"They aren't people anymore," Nobara hissed, sliding into a back-to-back stance with me. She slammed a nail into a passing vine, her cursed energy exploding in a flash of brilliant blue. "They're batteries, Ren! This whole village... it's a giant ritual circle. The mountain is eating them to get to you!"
The Shadow's Gambit
Kurosu laughed from his perch atop a leaning torii gate, his milky eyes reflecting the crimson glow of the talismans. He looked less like a man and more like a corpse being puppeted by strings of darkness.
"Very good, little sorceress!" Kurosu sneered, leaping down. His black haori billowed like the wings of a starving crow. "The 'Mountain God' doesn't want prayers. It wants a circulatory system. Valthazar was a King because he took what he wanted. These people are simply fulfilling their ancestral debt!"
He landed silently, the ground beneath his feet turning into a pool of liquid shadow. As he moved, the shadows didn't follow him—they led. They formed a jagged spear of solidified darkness aimed straight at my throat.
I parried the strike with my forearm, the [Shadow-Wrap Gloves] sparking as they met the dark energy. The impact sent a vibration through my teeth that felt like a scream.
"He's using the dregs of my old power," Valthazar whispered, his voice dangerously calm, devoid of its usual mockery. "He is a thief trying to play with a King's crown. Reach into the earth, Ren. Feel the ley lines. They remember me. COMMAND THEM."
'I'm not your King!' I roared back mentally, pushing Kurosu back with a concentrated burst of gravity.
"Nobara! The stake in the center—it's the anchor for the domain!" I yelled over the howling wind. "If we pull it or break it, this whole nightmare collapses!"
"On it! Cover me, Alley-Cat!"
Nobara sprinted toward the center of the square, her boots clicking against the stone. But the Zenin family hadn't come alone. Two enforcers intercepted her, their Kyoto uniforms shimmering with protective seals. They moved with the surgical precision of Grade 2 veterans, their swords glowing with refined, white-hot cursed energy.
"Stay focused, brat!" one enforcer barked, swinging a blade that left a trail of light. "You're just the distraction. The Vessel is the prize!"
As I traded blows with Kurosu, the world slowed down. My [Demon's Instinct] began to filter out the noise, focusing on the flow of cursed energy in the square. I saw something the others missed. One of the Zenin enforcers wasn't attacking. He was standing near the edge of the ritual circle, hidden by the crimson fog, holding a small, pulsating crystal that hummed with a frequency that made my teeth ache.
[HIDDEN OBJECTIVE UPDATED]
[TARGET ACQUIRED: THE ZENIN SPY]
[GOAL: SECURE THE RESONANCE STONE]
The Zenin weren't here to help us. They weren't even here to kill the curse. They were here to harvest it. They wanted to bottle the power of the mountain—and Valthazar—into that stone to create a weapon they could control.
"You're not just here for me," I realized, parrying a flurry of shadow-blades from Kurosu. "You're trying to trap him! You're treating this village like a slaughterhouse just to fill a battery!"
Kurosu's grin widened, revealing teeth stained black by shadow. "The Zenin are nothing if not efficient. Why execute a King when you can turn him into a power source? You're just the packaging, Ren. We're here to take the gift inside."
My blood boiled. A heat I had never felt before—not Valthazar's, but my own—erupted from my chest. They were treating us like tools. They were treating Nobara like a disposable shield.
[SYNC RATE SPIKE: 14.2%]
[NEW SKILL TEMPORARILY UNLOCKED: COLLAPSE POINT]
"Nobara! Get down!"
She didn't hesitate. She dove into a roll just as I slammed my palms together. The [Shadow-Wrap Gloves] shrieked, the violet runes turning a violent, blinding white. I forced every drop of my cursed energy, and a portion of Valthazar's boiling rage, into a single inch of space between my hands.
The air didn't just move; it folded.
A microscopic point of infinite weight appeared in front of Kurosu. The sound was terrifying—a high-pitched whine followed by a roar like a vacuum cleaner the size of a hurricane. The iron vines, the stone floor, and the shadows themselves were dragged toward the point of the [Collapse].
"What... is this?!" Kurosu screamed, his shadow-spear shattering into dust as he was sucked toward the gravitational anomaly.
But I wasn't looking at him. I was looking at the Zenin spy with the crystal.
Zip.
Using the chaos of the gravity collapse, I triggered [Phantom Step]. I appeared directly behind the spy, the mist parting around me like I was a ghost. My hand, glowing with a violet, predatory heat, closed around his throat before he could even turn.
"I'll take that," I said. My voice was no longer my own. It was a terrifying harmony—two souls, one intent.
As my fingers touched the Resonance Stone in his hand, a jolt of pure, unadulterated power surged into my arm.
The stone wasn't amplifying Valthazar—it was tearing a shortcut straight through my soul.
> [WARNING: RESONANCE DETECTED]
> [SYNC RATE: 14.2% → 18.9%]
> [VALTHAZAR IS FORCING A MANIFESTATION]
>
The world began to bleed into gold. I could feel my humanity slipping, the edges of my mind fraying like old rope.
"Ren?" Nobara's voice sounded miles away. She was standing over the defeated enforcers, looking at me with wide, horrified eyes. "Ren, drop the stone! Your eyes... they're changing!"
I looked at my hand. The skin was turning a dark, bruised violet, and black veins were climbing toward my elbow. I wanted to drop it, but Valthazar was screaming in my head—a sound of pure, ecstatic hunger.
"Take it all, Ren! With this, we don't need the System! We don't need the Zenin! We can be WHOLE!"
I stood there, trembling, the Resonance Stone glowing like a miniature sun in my palm, while the mountain began to roar in response to its original master.
Author's note
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