The scripture was carved in roots.
Kaia brushed away the frost, her fingers slow, reverent, almost afraid. The words were etched not by hand, but grown—bent into the wood itself by something older than prayer.
"When the Second Coming comes, the Grove shall stand by its side once more. Let the leaf bloom."
She stared at it for a long time.
Then she said nothing at all.
They left at dawn.
The cold was softer here, but it lingered like grief. They walked beneath ancient pines bent low by snow, their branches whispering with every wind-tossed sway. Around them, the wilds stretched vast and untamed, a white ocean of bark and shadow that rolled endlessly beneath the gray sky.
Kaia led the way. She did not speak, and Rei followed without question.
Frostfang Grove faded behind them — not just in distance, but in memory. As if the land itself refused to hold the weight of what it once was.
They didn't stop until the sun began to sink low, and the wind shifted west. A craggy outcrop of stone provided shelter, its overhang forming a half-hollow against the biting air. They gathered branches. Made fire. Neither said much until the flame took.
And then Rei broke the silence.
"You ever feel like… you're forgetting something important?" he asked, eyes on the embers.
Kaia looked at him sidelong. "You mean beyond the part where we're being hunted by sorcerers and monsters born of a bleeding sky?"
He gave a dry chuckle. "Yeah. Beyond that."
She waited.
He exhaled, arms wrapped around his knees. "Back home, I was no one. Just a guy. Quiet job. Small apartment. I didn't matter in the grand scheme of anything. And yet... I miss it."
Kaia raised a brow. "What do you miss?"
Rei's stomach grumbled softly before he could answer. He winced.
"…Curry bread."
Kaia blinked. "What?"
"Curry bread," he repeated with a faint smile. "It's fried. Crunchy on the outside, soft and warm inside. Cheap convenience store stuff. But gods, it was good."
She tilted her head. "Like meat pie?"
"Kind of. But sweeter. Messier. I'd grab one on the way home, eat it while dodging vending machines and drunk salarymen."
Kaia snorted. "That sounds miserable."
"It was. That's why I miss it."
She nodded solemnly, as if understanding in a way only warriors and survivors did.
Rei's stomach growled again. She sighed, rose to her feet, and slipped into the woods. When she returned a few minutes later, her arms held a few half-frozen mushrooms wrapped in leaves.
"Not much," she said, "but these grow on corpsewood. They keep your body warm, if not your pride."
Rei eyed them. "Food's food."
He grabbed one, inspecting its crooked shape and speckled cap. Kaia turned to sit, but before she could warn him—
He bit into the wrong one.
"No—" she started.
Too late.
The world tilted.
He was in Tokyo again.
Steam rose from a bowl of ramen. Neon lights bled through rain-slick windows. A salaryman stumbled past the glass, his reflection smeared in hues of pale blue and amber.
Rei blinked.
He sat in a quiet corner of a small restaurant. A plate of shiitake mushrooms grilled in butter lay in front of him, the scent sharp and earthy. He lifted his glass—cold sake glinting in his hand—and took a sip.
It was warm here. Clean. Familiar.
A TV hummed softly in the background.
"…He's not real," Rei whispered.
The curry bread came next. Golden. Perfect. He held it like a relic.
Then—
The lights dimmed.
The city outside flickered, as if someone was pulling the plug on the world.
And then—
A voice.
Slithering.
Low.
Coiled in the shape of laughter.
"Missing home, little Riftborn?"
Rei froze.
"You tasted flame, and shadow, and memory. But now you crave bread and comfort?"
The restaurant windows went black. The walls breathed. The floor pulled away, unraveling like threads of a severed dream.
"You saw me at the Fangstone. You saw the sins. You saw war. And still—"
A presence leaned close, though there was nothing there.
"You do not know me."
The voice echoed through static and starlight.
"I fed in the pits. On fear. On silence. I will feed again. On you. On her. On every flicker you try to protect."
Rei tried to stand. Couldn't.
The table melted into ash. The curry bread burned in his hand.
"You have power, Riftborn. But you are not ready. Not yet. When the time comes, you will scream my name. And you will be mine."
Then—
A splash.
Cold. Sharp. Real.
Water soaked his face.
Rei gasped, coughing, sputtering, eyes flying open.
Snow.
Fire.
The real world.
Kaia stood above him, an empty flask in her hand. Her face was pale with tension, her breath misting between clenched teeth.
"You idiot," she said.
He coughed again, blinking away the fog. "Mushrooms…"
"You ate the ink-spotted one. That's corpse-fungus. Used in rituals. Hallucinogenic as hell."
He sat up, head spinning. "It felt… too real."
She crouched beside him, scanning the woods. Her ears twitched.
"We're not alone."
Rei stiffened. "You saw something?"
"No," she said. "But the woods changed their song. Someone's following us."
Rei wiped water from his eyes. The mark on his chest pulsed faintly. Not with pain.
But with knowing.
Kaia rose, blades already in hand, face taut as snow-bitten steel.
"We move. Now."
Rei nodded, gathering his cloak.
Still reeling.
Still remembering.
The bread. The sake. The voice.
And the promise whispered in the dark—
"You do not know me. But you will."