Asahi's heart raced, his eyes tracing the figure of the girl as she walked away from him. Her steps were calm, measured, as if the ruin surrounding them held no fear, no danger. The dark temple seemed to hum with an energy he couldn't place, but it wasn't the power of the shard buried in his chest—no, this felt different. There was something more in the air tonight, something that tightened around him like a noose.
He wanted to call out, to ask her what this all meant, but his throat felt dry, and his voice wouldn't rise above a whisper. The girl had said nothing about who she was, only that she knew of the shard he carried. She had spoken as though the temple itself were her home, the place where forgotten gods once walked.
"Why are you here?" he finally managed, his words trembling in the cool air of the ruined temple. "What do you know of the shard?"
She didn't stop walking. The silence between them stretched, thick and suffocating.
When she did answer, it was without turning around. Her voice was soft, but it carried weight, as though every word was a secret passed down through generations.
"Because I know what it holds… and what it can unleash."
The words echoed in Asahi's mind, twisting, pulling at the edges of his thoughts. Unleash? What are you talking about?
He pushed himself to follow her, his boots crunching against the dust-laden floor, the sound too loud in the quiet temple. The shadows seemed to shift with each step, as though watching him, waiting.
"You… you know about the curse?" Asahi called again, a tremor of fear creeping into his voice. He didn't care if she heard it. He was terrified. The shard burned in his chest, its pulse a constant reminder that he was tethered to something ancient and dangerous.
The girl paused, her back still turned to him. She didn't speak at first, and Asahi thought for a moment that she might simply vanish into the shadows, like a ghost slipping through the cracks in the world.
But then, she spoke. Her voice was low, almost imperceptible.
"The curse… is not what you think. The shard isn't just a weapon or a relic of the past." She turned her head slightly, just enough for him to see the glint of her silver eyes, cold as steel. "It's a key. A key to the world beyond… and a prison for something worse."
Asahi's blood ran cold, the weight of her words sinking in like a stone in his gut. A key? A prison? For what? And why was he the one chosen to bear it?
"Why me?" Asahi asked, his voice quiet, his mind spinning. "What do you want from me?"
The girl's gaze flicked over her shoulder, her lips curling into a faint, almost sad smile. "What I want is irrelevant," she said. "The question is, what do you want?"
Before Asahi could respond, she turned fully, her silver eyes locking onto his. There was something in those eyes—something that unsettled him, something that spoke of far more than the years she had lived. She didn't look like a typical wanderer, a lost soul. She looked like someone who had seen things, too much for a lifetime, and yet still walked the world like a shadow of herself.
"I'm not here to guide you," she said, her voice cutting through the thick air like a blade. "I'm here to warn you."
"Warn me? About what?"
She didn't respond immediately, instead, stepping away into the shadowed hallway that seemed to stretch endlessly ahead. Asahi hesitated, glancing down at the shard embedded in his chest. The faint light it emitted flickered with each beat of his heart, as if reacting to her presence.
"You're not alone on this path," she said, her voice almost swallowed by the darkness. "You may think you are, but the truth is… the journey you're about to take will show you how far the abyss reaches."
Asahi clenched his fists, the need to understand rising within him like a tide. But before he could take another step toward her, she disappeared into the darkness, her figure fading like smoke in the wind.
The temple was silent again, but the weight of her words remained. "The journey you're about to take will show you how far the abyss reaches."
Asahi stood there, alone in the ruin, the cold stone pressing against his palms as he rested them on the walls for support. The whispers of the dead had grown louder again, filling his head with incoherent voices, distant cries, and the sense of a world on the edge of collapse. But it wasn't just the voices of the dead now—there was something more. Something waiting.
He could feel it, deep within his chest, just beneath the shard. A faint stir of power, ancient and terrifying. It was the same pull he had felt when he first touched the shard—an overwhelming sensation that urged him forward, deeper into the temple, into the heart of the ruin.
And then, as if on instinct, Asahi knew. He wasn't the only one marked by the shard. He wasn't alone in this journey.
Someone else was out there, watching him.
The realization hit him like a storm, and his eyes snapped to the entrance of the temple, his gaze searching the darkness beyond. He wasn't sure if it was the temple playing tricks on him or if there truly was someone else waiting. But in his gut, he felt a sinking certainty.
This journey was no longer just his own. It was a path shared with others—others who had their own reasons for seeking the shard, for unraveling its secrets. And as much as Asahi hated the thought, he knew that his fate was tied to theirs.
With a final glance at the shadows, Asahi turned and began to walk forward, his resolve hardening with each step. The journey ahead would be long, and it would be filled with uncertainty, danger, and betrayal. But there was no turning back now.
Not when the shard was calling to him.
Not when the abyss was waiting.