"History is written by those who survive. But what about the ones who were erased?"
The air on the mountain was sharp, cold, biting against Rei's skin.
But he barely felt it.
His thoughts were too heavy.
Too tangled in the weight of Kiyoshi's words.
"You should not exist."
"This sword is a memory of a war that never ended."
"Every wielder before you has disappeared."
Rei's grip on Muramasa tightened.
The more he thought about it, the more it made sense.
The Holy Dominion controlled history. They had wiped out anything that threatened their divine authority.
The Abyss did not keep records. They thrived in chaos, letting the past rot beneath the weight of new sins.
So what had happened before them?
Before the Dominion's rule.
Before the Abyss was called the Abyss.
Before the world was divided between light and darkness.
What war had Muramasa survived?
And why was he now a part of it?
He exhaled slowly.
There was only one way to find out.
And it wasn't by standing still.
"Alright," Ren said, stretching her arms. "We've been standing in the cold for too long. If we're done having existential crises, maybe we should start figuring out what the hell we do next."
She was trying to keep things light.
Rei could tell.
But there was a tension in her voice—the kind that only came when someone realized they were in deeper than they had ever planned to be.
Rei glanced at Kiyoshi.
"You know more than you're saying."
Kiyoshi smirked. "Of course I do."
"Then start talking."
Kiyoshi's dark eyes gleamed.
"Very well. Since you're so eager to learn the truth, let's talk about the world before the Dominion. Before the Abyss. Before this war was even given a name."
Rei said nothing.
Because he already knew what was coming would change everything.
"There was a time," Kiyoshi began, "when the world was not ruled by gods or demons."
He walked past them, stepping toward the cliff's edge, staring down at the vast lands below.
"The Dominion speaks of an era of chaos before their holy rule. The Abyss tells of a time before the Sin Covenants, when power was free for the taking."
He glanced back.
"They are both wrong."
Ren frowned. "Then what actually happened?"
Kiyoshi turned toward them, his expression unreadable.
"There were once three great kingdoms. Not divine, not abyssal—human."
Rei's breath slowed.
"The first kingdom was Sumeragi, the land of warriors. A nation built on strength, where swords were not just weapons, but a way of life. Their rulers were not kings, but champions—those who had proven themselves on the battlefield."
He gestured toward Muramasa.
"This sword was born from that land."
Rei's fingers twitched.
Kiyoshi continued.
"The second was Tenryū, the land of scholars. A kingdom devoted to knowledge, magic, and the pursuit of understanding. Their rulers were not warriors, but sages—those who wielded power through wisdom rather than steel."
Rei's mind flashed back to the strange inscriptions he had seen in the shrine.
Old runes. Words that no scholar today could read.
Had those belonged to Tenryū?
"And the third?" Ren asked.
Kiyoshi's voice darkened.
"The third was Kyōkoku, the land of shadows. A kingdom that existed in the space between war and knowledge. Their rulers were not champions or sages—they were unseen. Assassins, spies, watchers in the dark."
A pause.
Then—
"They were the first to disappear."
Rei inhaled slowly.
Something in his chest tightened.
Because he had felt like that his entire life.
Like he was walking a path that didn't belong to the Dominion or the Abyss.
Like he was something in-between.
And now, he knew why.
Ren narrowed her eyes.
"Let me guess," she said. "Those three kingdoms didn't exactly get along."
Kiyoshi chuckled.
"They coexisted for a time. But as you can imagine, three great powers in one world do not remain balanced forever."
His gaze sharpened.
"And so, a war began. A war that lasted for centuries."
Rei exhaled slowly.
"The war that Muramasa remembers."
Kiyoshi nodded.
"The war that was erased."
His tone was steady, but there was something in his voice—something close to anger.
"The Holy Dominion did not create order. They did not bring peace to a world of chaos."
His hands clenched slightly behind his back.
"They built their empire on the corpses of the kingdoms that came before them."
Ren stiffened. "You're saying the Dominion wiped them out?"
"Not just the Dominion," Kiyoshi said. "The Abyss, too."
He turned to face them fully.
"Those three kingdoms were destroyed. Not by each other, but by a new power that rose from the ashes of their war."
Rei's breath slowed.
Because he knew what Kiyoshi was about to say.
"The survivors of Sumeragi, Tenryū, and Kyōkoku did not vanish," Kiyoshi continued. "They were taken. Converted. Rewritten."
His gaze darkened.
"And they became what we now know as the Holy Dominion and the Abyss."
The wind howled.
Ren cursed under her breath.
Rei simply stared.
Because this—this was the truth that had been buried.
There was no original sin.
There was no divine order.
There was no abyssal hunger that had existed since the beginning of time.
There was only war.
A war that had created both sides.
A war that had never truly ended.
And now, somehow, Rei was tied to it.
Somehow, Muramasa had survived it.
And if that was true—
Then everything he thought he knew about this world was a lie.
Silence hung heavy between them.
Ren ran a hand through her hair, letting out a slow, frustrated breath.
"Okay," she muttered. "That's… a lot."
Kiyoshi's expression remained calm.
"It is."
Ren frowned. "And let me guess. The Dominion and the Abyss don't want anyone to know this?"
Kiyoshi smiled slightly. "What do you think?"
Rei inhaled slowly.
His fingers brushed against the black steel of Muramasa.
This sword was more than a weapon.
It was a relic of the past. A past that had been erased.
And now, he was holding it.
He had never belonged to the Dominion.
Never belonged to the Abyss.
Because he had never been part of this war to begin with.
So what did that make him?
What was he supposed to do now?
Muramasa pulsed in his grip.
As if waiting.
As if it already knew the answer.
And deep in his chest—
Rei was starting to know it, too.