Chapter 34: The Forbidden Memory of Blood
The summer wind blew hot and dry through Sujin Village's surrounding hills, rustling the long grass as Yue and her gang made their way up the rocky path behind the old shrine ruins. Hidden by time and neglect, this place had long been dismissed as a simple, crumbling relic of old stories. But lately, Yue had been feeling something pulling her here. A strange humming in her bones. And she wasn't the only one.
"Are you sure we're allowed up here?" Shu Fen asked, glancing around nervously.
"No one even remembers this place," Mei Qui shrugged, adjusting the old flashlight in her hands. "Besides, Yue said it called to her. That's enough for me."
Yue walked at the front, eyes focused. Something was close. Something ancient. Her system had gone quiet again, only repeating: "The five-year prophecy will answer your question, Host." The same message for months now.
Tao Lin pointed. "Over there! Behind that collapsed stone!"
The gang cleared away some of the rubble, revealing a strange metal gate embedded in the ground, half-covered in moss and dirt. It shimmered faintly with energy, like a boundary between this world and something else.
As they crowded around it, Chika slipped, her hand scraping across a jagged stone. Blood dripped freely down her palm, splattering the old metal.
"Chika!" Lian rushed to help her, pulling out tissues. "Be more careful!"
But as the blood touched the gate, a deep rumble echoed beneath their feet. The metal pulsed red. Ancient runes began to glow. One by one, stone slabs slid aside with a grinding boom, revealing a hidden spiral staircase descending into darkness.
They stared in stunned silence.
"...Was that because of the blood?" Minna whispered.
No one answered. They moved as one, their curiosity stronger than fear.
Down the steps they went, their lights flickering against walls carved with unknown symbols. The air grew colder. Finally, they reached a chamber—a broken hall lost beneath the earth.
Shattered statues lined the walls, their faces faded and ruined, but their postures regal, some even wielding weapons shaped like spears, scythes, and strange orbs.
And at the center... stood a crystal.
It floated inches above a stone altar, glowing with soft blue light. The moment Yue stepped forward, it brightened.
The room went silent.
Then the crystal flared—and their minds were pulled into light.
---
They stood in a sky that wasn't a sky. A vision. A memory. Before them stretched a battlefield—no, a warzone—ancient and brutal. Cities crumbled in the distance. People were flying through the air, conjuring storms, tearing the earth, melting mountains.
"It looks like... awakening," Chika whispered.
Yue watched, wide-eyed, as people in strange armor used abilities unlike anything they'd seen. Some wielded fire so pure it turned the sky black. Others controlled hundreds of blades at once, slicing apart monsters bigger than towers.
Then the vision changed.
Humans—once united—began fighting each other.
"We need more," one snarled. "More power. More dominion. The gods chose us!"
"No," a woman in silver armor shouted, "They gave us gifts... not permission!"
But greed spread like poison. Cities became fortresses. Friends became enemies. And always, more powers awakened.
"They were so busy fighting…" Riko murmured. "They forgot to ask why the gods gave them those powers in the first place."
Then, the sky darkened.
A massive circular gate appeared in the sky—a void of shifting shadows and whispering winds. It cracked open in silence.
A Queen with flowing white hair, surrounded by guardians, approached the gate. She stepped forward cautiously—
And something stabbed through her chest.
Gasps echoed in the memory. The girls clutched each other in horror as the Queen collapsed.
From the void, they emerged.
Demons.
Twisted creatures of shadow, claws and fangs and dripping malice, charged through the gate. Unlike anything human, they tore across the land with monstrous hunger.
The vision became chaos. Screams. Flames. Powers colliding. Heroes dying. Humanity scrambling to unite—too late.
Yue clenched her fists as she watched a lone man hold the gate with his dying breath, sealing the rift just enough for the rest to survive.
The crystal dimmed slightly.
But the vision didn't end.
They stood frozen, still watching as more horrors brewed on the horizon.
"To be continued…"