The darkness that erupted from Reiji wasn't a scream—it was a collapse. A tidal wave of shadow that devoured the lantern light, smothered the Hunters' formation, and drowned the Codex sigils in a pitch-black surge. For a moment the world itself seemed to lose its shape.
When sound returned, it came in fragments.
Breathing.
Staggering footsteps.
The crackle of dying lantern flame.
Reiji forced his eyes open.
The battlefield was a ruin.
Codex Hunters sprawled across shattered stone. Some unconscious, others groaning. The chained Codex lay half-buried in rubble, its pages twitching like a dying creature. The sigils that moments ago had torn at his mind now flickered weakly, fading like morning frost.
And standing at the edge of the devastation—
Akari.
Her clothes were torn. Dust streaked across her cheek. But her eyes—sharp, steady, impossibly calm—cut through the suffocating darkness around him.
Reiji stared, chest tight.
"…Akari," he whispered.
She walked toward him, the shadows peeling away from her presence like mist retreating from sunlight.
"You lost control," she said quietly. Not accusation. Not fear. Just truth. "Again."
Reiji looked away, jaw tensing. "I know."
She stopped in front of him.
Too close.
Close enough to feel the warmth of her breath against his cold, trembling one.
"You didn't hurt me," she murmured. "That's what matters."
Reiji felt something twist in his chest—relief? Guilt? Both?
His shadow pulsed faintly behind him, still unstable from the attempted separation.
But before he could speak, the ground beneath them trembled.
Akari's expression sharpened. "They're still coming."
Reiji snapped back into the moment.
The lead Hunter—the one who invoked the forbidden doctrine—was forcing himself to stand. Blood streamed from his eyes. Scripture marks still crawled across his arm like burning roots. His body shook violently, yet he raised the chained Codex with the stubbornness of a man who would rather die than fail his mission.
"Target… anomaly…" he rasped.
Reiji stepped in front of Akari instinctively.
"I'm still here," he said to the Hunter. "And I'm not going anywhere."
The lead Hunter didn't look afraid.
He looked resigned.
"We are not here to kill you, Shinomiya Reiji." His voice cracked. "We are here to prevent the world from repeating the same mistake."
Reiji felt a cold weight settle in his stomach.
"What mistake?"
The lead Hunter coughed blood. "The Lost Script."
Reiji frowned. "I've heard about it. Something sealed long before the Codex was written."
The Hunter shook his head weakly. "Not sealed. Buried. Forgotten. Erased from memory itself."
Akari tensed beside him. "Memory erasure on that scale is impossible. Even with the full Codex."
"That's because it wasn't done by the Codex," the Hunter whispered. "It was done by something older."
Reiji felt his pulse quicken.
The shadow curled inside him, suddenly alert.
Older than the Codex?
"What does it have to do with me?" Reiji asked.
The Hunter's blood-stained lips twisted. "Everything."
He lifted a trembling hand, pointing at Reiji.
"The Lost Script was destroyed by a being of shadow—one that looked exactly like you."
Reiji froze.
His heart stopped.
His breath vanished.
His mind blanked.
Akari whispered, "Reiji, don't listen—this could be Codex manipulation—"
"No," the Hunter cut in, his voice ragged. "It's not manipulation. It's history."
"But," Akari protested, "that makes no sense—Reiji wasn't even born—"
"Time does not matter to shadows," the Hunter rasped. "They do not live in it. They do not die in it. And one day, one of them destroyed the Lost Script… a script that defined the first truths of this world."
Reiji felt the shadow inside him constrict painfully, as if recoiling from memory.
A whisper—broken, frightened—slithered into his consciousness.
Reiji… do not ask about that.
But he ignored it.
"What was in the Lost Script?" Reiji demanded.
The Hunter's eyes widened, as if that was the one question he feared.
"It contained the origin… of you."
Reiji's breath caught.
"And the origin of me," the shadow whispered weakly.
Before he could react, the lead Hunter collapsed to his knees.
"The Monarch seeks the Lost Script," he gasped. "Not the fragments we use—not the Codex pages—not the doctrines—but the original. The one your shadow destroyed."
Reiji's pulse thundered in his ears.
The Monarch.
The name burned like acid.
The man behind the Court of Shadows.
The figure orchestrating the Silent Conspiracy.
The one every Codex Hunter feared.
Reiji stepped toward the lead Hunter, voice tight.
"Why does he want it?"
The Hunter met his gaze.
"To rewrite the world."
Reiji felt the ground tilt beneath him.
Akari inhaled sharply. "You mean—literally rewrite—?"
"Yes." The Hunter's voice cracked. "Rewrite everything. History. Memory. People. Shadows. Humanity itself."
Reiji stared at him, unable to speak.
Akari whispered, "Reiji… if he gets the Lost Script…"
He finished the sentence for her, voice hollow.
"The world won't survive."
Before either could speak again, a violent burst of light exploded behind the Hunters.
A voice boomed across the battlefield.
"Stand down."
Reiji turned sharply.
A tall figure stepped through the smoke, flanked by two subordinate Hunters. His presence alone seemed to straighten the air—cold, authoritative, absolute.
His mask was different.
Black.
Gold-lined.
Unbroken.
A high-ranking Executor.
The room seemed to bow under his presence.
"Unit Twelve," he said, glancing at the injured lead Hunter, "your mission is complete. I will take over."
Reiji stepped back, shadows tightening around him like armor.
Akari's hand hovered near her blade.
The Executor's mask turned to Reiji.
"Shinomiya Reiji," he said, voice calm, almost polite. "I am not here to kill you."
Reiji didn't lower his stance. "That's what the last ones said."
"And they were correct." The Executor gestured toward the lead Hunter. "If we wanted you dead, the doctrine he invoked would not have targeted your shadow. It would have targeted your heart."
Akari muttered under her breath, "Comforting."
The Executor continued, unfazed.
"We are not your enemy. But the Monarch is."
Reiji narrowed his eyes. "Then help us take him down."
A long silence followed.
The Executor tilted his head slightly, as if studying him through the mask.
"You misunderstand," he said.
"You cannot kill the Monarch."
Reiji's jaw tightened. "Why not?"
"Because the Monarch," the Executor said, voice turning cold,
"is the only one who can control what you are becoming."
Reiji felt as if someone had driven a blade into his ribs.
Akari stepped closer, furious. "He's trying to manipulate you. Don't listen—"
The Executor lifted a hand, silencing her without a word.
"He fears you, Reiji," the Executor continued. "And he fears the Lost Script more. You and the Script are intertwined. If he obtains it, he will reshape the world. If he destroys it, you will vanish with it."
Reiji swallowed hard.
"Then what do you want from me?"
"A choice."
The Executor stepped forward slowly.
The shadows around Reiji reacted instantly, rising like a beast guarding its territory.
"Help us prevent the Monarch from reaching the Lost Script," the Executor said. "And in return, we will help you remain… human."
Reiji flinched.
Akari stiffened.
The Executor added softly:
"Because right now, Shinomiya Reiji… you are not."
Silence fell.
Reiji's shadow flickered, almost in pain.
Akari reached for him but didn't touch.
Reiji clenched his teeth.
"And if I refuse?"
The Executor stepped back, giving him space.
"Then the Monarch will find you," he said.
"And when he does… the next shadow he pulls into his army will be yours."
Reiji said nothing.
Because deep down, he knew the truth:
The Monarch would eventually come for him.
And when he did, the world would bleed.
The Executor turned away, leaving a final sentence drifting in the broken air.
"Choose soon, Reiji. The Lost Script is awakening."
The Hunters withdrew.
Akari and Reiji remained in the ruins.
She finally spoke, voice trembling despite her controlled expression.
"…Reiji. What are we going to do?"
Reiji stared at the distant darkness where the Hunters had disappeared.
The Monarch sought the Script.
The Hunters wanted to protect it.
His shadow—his other self—feared it.
And he himself stood in the center of it all.
Slowly, he breathed out.
"We find the Lost Script first."
Akari swallowed. "And after that?"
Reiji looked at her.
At the fear she tried to hide.
At the trust she didn't say aloud.
"At that point," he murmured,
"We rewrite our own fate."
Behind him, his shadow whispered in a trembling voice.
And hope… that fate doesn't consume you.