The night air in Veridonne was thick with a creeping stillness, broken only by the occasional echo of footfalls along the cobblestone streets. Kazuki walked silently, his gaze set ahead, but his mind replaying the day's events in relentless loops. The monsters' attack, the strange army, the whisper of danger—each detail gnawed at him with a sense of incompletion. By the time he reached the inn, the familiar weariness had settled in, wrapping around him like a cloak.
He reached his room, his hand instinctively lifting to his mask. Just as he was about to remove it, muffled voices drifted down the hall, pulling his attention. Thud. Thud. Heavy footsteps echoed outside his door, and Kazuki stilled, tilting his head to listen as he carefully removed his mask.
"Did you see how strange those monsters acted?" one of the men outside muttered, his voice low but tense.
"Yeah, it was like… something was driving them here. Almost like they were being forced," the other replied, his tone uneasy. A moment passed, then he added with forced optimism, "Oh well, what matters most is we won!"
Kazuki frowned, leaning back against the door. Forced? Driven here by something? he wondered. The words resonated with a nagging sense of dread, though he couldn't quite place why. Another thought drifted unbidden to the surface, like a whisper he couldn't silence: Selena.
"Why… why is she still in my head?" Kazuki muttered to himself, frustrated. He didn't have the answers, and somehow, even with all the pieces he had gathered, the picture only seemed to get blurrier. Exhaustion was a kind of solace, a way to let his thoughts blur and fall silent, if only for a moment. Without another word, he lay back, letting sleep draw him under.
Outside the city walls, under the cloak of night, Selena walked alone, her steps steady and unhurried despite the biting chill. The moon cast an eerie glow over the fields stretching out from Veridonne's gates, and the cold bit into her skin, pricking with an ache as sharp as her thoughts.
She hadn't been alone for long when a low, mocking voice sliced through the silence. "Seems like you're in a hurry… sister."
The word made her freeze, her spine stiffening. Slowly, she turned to find a figure in white perched above her, seated on a drifting cloud. He looked down at her with eyes like molten gold, a sickeningly familiar smile gracing his face. His princely attire was pristine, all white and gold embroidery, a picture of otherworldly arrogance.
Selena narrowed her eyes. "Don't call me that. I'm not your sister."
"Oh? Not anymore, is it?" he chuckled, brushing off her words with a flick of his wrist. "Still holding a grudge, I see. Are you that mad that our dear Father and Mother kept you sealed away in that crystal? You should be grateful, you know. Thanks to them, you got to live for centuries untouched by time. That's quite a gift."
Her anger rose, hard and unyielding. "Enough."
He continued as if she hadn't spoken. "By the way, how exactly did you manage to escape that little prison of yours? I heard the dungeon was especially well-guarded. You had to pass the kraken's lair, did you not?"
"That's none of your business." She turned sharply, preparing to leave, but his laughter made her halt.
"Oh, come now," he taunted, floating down from his cloud to stand before her. "Don't tell me you got out of there on your own? You, dear sister, were always a weakling. So… who rescued you? A party of adventurers? Maybe an entire army?"
Selena's silence only seemed to embolden him. His eyes gleamed with a sinister curiosity, his lips curling into a cruel smile. "Ah, I see. You're not going to talk. That's fine—I'll just look for myself." He raised his hand, forming it into a half fist, and his eyes began to glow an eerie, pale blue.
"Stop!" Selena hissed, quickly casting a barrier of light, but it was too late. The probing tendrils of his magic wove into her thoughts, plucking the memory from her mind like a treasured possession stolen by an uninvited guest.
"Oh my, how interesting…" he said, his tone dripping with feigned awe. "A lone warrior, shrouded in mystery and darkness, wields both dark and lightning magic. Now he sounds like a rare find." He laughed, the sound cruel and biting. "This Masked guy of yours—he would be a perfect addition to the family. Imagine, a child born with lightning magic to continue the bloodline. Father and Mother would be so pleased."
"Stop," Selena said coldly, the anger in her voice barely contained.
"Oh, don't be so quick to dismiss it," he continued, his voice now venomously smooth. "Just convince him to marry you, and after he's fathered a child with lightning magic… well, we can always dispose of him before he passes on that dark magic curse of his." He leaned closer, his breath ghosting over her cheek as he whispered, "It's what any dutiful daughter would do, for the family."
Selena's fury ignited, her voice rising to a sharp crescendo. "ENOUGH! I have no intention of reuniting with any of you. Do you think a single apology could erase all you did?"
Her so-called brother's expression soured. His mouth twisted, his eyes narrowing to slits. "What you do or do not want is irrelevant, Selena. No matter how far you run or how much you deny it, you cannot escape the blood in your veins. Divine blood flows within you, just as it does in me. You will never be able to erase that. We are gods and goddesses—whether you accept it or not."
As he spoke, his image began to flicker, fading in and out as if he were some apparition summoned by her hatred. He lingered for a moment longer, his mocking smile searing into her memory before he vanished entirely. The wind shifted, cold and biting, howling across the fields as a sudden blizzard swept down over the landscape.
Selena gritted her teeth, pulling her cloak tighter around her shoulders as she braved the biting cold. It felt fitting, in a way. Her heart was colder than any winter storm, hardened by the weight of betrayal and the loss of innocence. She stood there, unmoving, letting the icy wind claw at her face and whip her hair into wild strands. Every moment spent in her brother's presence, every word he spoke, reminded her of the gulf that now lay between her and her so-called family.
Far behind her, nestled within the walls of Veridonne, Kazuki stirred from his uneasy slumber, feeling a distant, inexplicable chill creep into his dreams. The night continued its march toward dawn, cloaking all in shadows. But even in the darkest corners of the city, a strange and relentless tension lingered, pressing down upon Veridonne as if waiting for something—or someone—to break.
Kazuki woke before sunrise, his mind still a muddled haze from the previous night's rest. He sat up slowly, his fingers brushing over his mask where he had set it beside him. The voices of those men still echoed in his head. Why would someone—or something—send an entire army of monsters here? And more importantly, who could possibly wield such power?
As he rose to his feet, the faintest sliver of light broke over the horizon, casting a dim glow over Veridonne's rooftops. Kazuki walked to the window, gazing out at the quiet city below, the soft dawn light warming the stone and wood, painting it in a gentle, ephemeral gold.
But the peace was an illusion. He knew that the shadows cast by dawn's first light were just as treacherous as those that came with night. Somewhere, lurking beyond the city walls or perhaps even within them, was a force far more dangerous than anything Veridonne had ever faced. And somehow, Kazuki couldn't shake the feeling that he was connected to it—that this was merely the beginning.
And as the day broke, so did a quiet resolve within him. He would have to confront these mysteries, whether he wanted to or not. The city might have won one battle, but the true war was still far from over.