The seal on the door was unraveling.
Hikaru could feel it—not just see it, but feel it. The air was shifting, the old stone walls vibrating with a pulse that didn't belong to the world of the living. Whatever was behind that door, whatever had been sealed away for centuries, was waking up.
Budi muttered something under his breath in Indonesian that Hikaru was fairly certain translated to oh hell no.
Selene was already moving, silver sigils flaring around her hands as she tried to reinforce the failing barrier. But the moment her magic touched the ancient locks, the runes rejected her. She staggered back, her breath sharp. "I—I can't hold it. It's unraveling from the inside."
Aldric's sword was drawn, his steel-gray eyes locked on the shifting chains. "Then we stop it before it fully breaks."
Marrow stood at the far end of the chamber, his smile calm, unshaken. "There is no stopping it."
Hikaru adjusted his glasses, flicking a card between his fingers. "You cult types really need to get some new material. 'There's no stopping it,' 'You cannot escape fate,' 'You don't understand what you're meddling with'—you guys are basically a walking cliché."
Marrow chuckled. "And yet, despite knowing this, you still play the game."
Budi cracked his neck. "Yeah, well, he likes playing with broken rules."
Hikaru grinned. "Exactly."
The chains on the door snapped.
The rumble that followed was deep—not a sound, but a vibration that reached into their bones. Dust rained from the ceiling. The ground beneath them shifted, pulling inward as if something was breathing from the other side.
Aldric didn't hesitate. His body blurred forward, sword raised, cutting toward Marrow in a single lethal strike.
Marrow vanished.
Not dodging. Not moving.
One moment he was standing there—the next, he wasn't.
A whisper brushed against Hikaru's ear.
"You cannot trick something older than truth itself."
He spun, but nothing was there.
Selene's silver eyes widened. "It's happening."
The door shattered.
Not physically. Not violently. It simply unmade itself. One moment it was there—the next, it was as if it had never existed at all.
And behind it—darkness.
A void that didn't belong to any space Hikaru understood. Not an absence of light, not a shadow.
Something deeper.
And then, from within that abyss, a voice.
Soft. Whispering. Distant.
"Ah... we are remembered."
Budi froze. His mask darkened, his breath sharp. Hikaru saw it—a flicker, a twitch. The same reaction he'd had back when the first shadow had recognized him.
Selene took a slow step back. "That wasn't—one voice."
She was right. It wasn't.
It was many.
Layered. Endless.
And then, for the first time, something moved.
A shape.
No—an impression of a shape.
It wasn't solid. It wasn't real. It was a suggestion of something that had once existed.
Hikaru's stomach twisted. His instincts screamed at him to run. He had never fought something like this before because this wasn't something you fought. This was something that shouldn't exist.
Aldric moved first. His blade flashed, cutting through empty air. The moment the strike landed, the world shifted.
One second, he was standing in the ruins.
The next, he was somewhere else.
A battlefield.
A battlefield that wasn't real.
Hikaru's breath hitched. No. Not a battlefield. A memory.
Aldric didn't pause. He simply adjusted, pivoted, and struck again. He had been here before.
Budi gritted his teeth. "It's pulling us in."
Hikaru flicked a card into his palm. [Skill Activated: ♠Q – Reality Shuffle]
The effect should have grounded him—should have forced the world to align with what was real.
Instead, it barely worked.
The ruins flickered around him, shifting between past and present, between existence and memory.
Selene exhaled. "This is wrong."
Marrow's voice echoed from nowhere. "You cannot fight memory."
Budi growled. His mask flickered, shifting between forms Hikaru didn't recognize. He clutched the edges of it, his voice rough. "I know this place."
Hikaru's blood ran cold. "Budi—what do you mean?"
Budi didn't answer.
Because the shadows were stepping forward now.
And they were wearing masks.
Not twisted echoes. Not like the last ones.
These were real.
Selene's breath hitched. "They're… like him."
Hikaru didn't like that at all.
Aldric wasn't hesitating. He moved like he had been here before. His sword cut through the first shadow, dispersing it before it could fully form.
Hikaru forced his mind into overdrive. The Forgotten Ones weren't coming back as monsters. They were coming back as echoes of what had already existed.
Which meant—
"Oh," Hikaru whispered. "I get it now."
Budi turned to him sharply. "Get what?"
Hikaru grinned. "They're not just pulling themselves into reality."
He pointed to the figures stepping out from the darkness.
"They're rewriting it."
Selene's silver eyes widened in realization. "You mean—?"
Hikaru nodded. "We're not just fighting the past. We're fighting their version of it."
Marrow's voice chuckled from nowhere. "You are clever, trickster."
Budi clenched his fists. "Enough talking. We shut this thing down now."
Hikaru sighed. "See, normally I'd agree, but we might have a problem."
Budi raised an eyebrow. "What?"
Hikaru motioned toward the shifting battlefield.
"Reality is collapsing, my friend."
The ruins flickered again.
And suddenly, they weren't in the ruins anymore.
They were somewhere else.
Somewhere older.
Somewhere that hadn't existed for a very, very long time.
Selene whispered. "Where—are we?"
Aldric tightened his grip on his sword.
"The past."
Hikaru sighed. "Yep. That tracks."
Budi exhaled sharply. "What now?"
Hikaru flicked a card between his fingers.
"Oh, you know."
He grinned.
"We cheat."