With the heavy rain pouring down, Toki's shadow appeared in the room before his body emerged.
The man briefly lifted his gaze toward the bandages covering his abdomen and chest, then returned to what he was doing, while Toki spoke in a calm, humble tone:
"Sorry for being late."
The room smelled of dust and metal. On the right wall sat a man near a burning torch, hammering a heated iron rod.
The man stayed silent for a moment without turning, then asked in a voice burdened with wisdom:
"Is your wound still holding up…?"
Toki closed the door and stepped toward him, walking through the shifting shadows cast only by the torch's glow.
His name was Zon, son of Riz — Zon Rizson.
He possessed a sturdy build, as if life itself had forged him in countless battles, and his stern appearance revealed his dwarven origins.
Toki sat in his usual posture: left knee raised with his arm resting atop it, his right leg stretched forward, and his back almost straight.
As he settled, Zon adjusted the torch's brightness. Shadows crawled across the room, deepening the tension and mystery hanging in the air.
Zon tossed the iron rod aside and spoke in a cryptic tone, his narrow eyes hiding far more than they revealed:
"Winter has arrived… time brings something, and takes something else."
Toki replied,
"Yes… the winds never stop shifting."
He removed his shirt and unwrapped the bandage, inspecting the deep wound on his chest — a wound resembling a torn twilight sky.
Zon looked at the injury, which had healed in just two days:
"You're lucky that attack didn't take your life."
Toki stared at the strip of cloth between his hands and said:
"You're right… I have a question, Mister Zon."
Zon slid his rough fingers through his beard and turned toward him in heavy silence, the flickering flame casting restless shadows across his face.
Toki continued:
"That night… you really helped me. And what caught my interest is that your fighting style matches Shun's… but—"
He paused, then lifted his head to find Zon's smiling face unexpectedly close.
Still, he went on:
"No— you held back. I don't know why… and I don't want to know."
Zon burst into a deep, booming laugh:
"Fine words to say to me, boy! Bahahaha! Don't you care about your companion? Or yourself?"
Toki remembered the advanced capabilities he had seen from Zon…
How could something like that remain dormant?
What had happened two days ago was—
---
Two Days Earlier—
On a calm night with gentle weather, around midnight, Toki stood atop a hill performing continuous exercises without rest. The last thing he did was 69 push-ups with his feet above his head before rolling forward with flexible movement.
He murmured to himself with focus:
"For now… everything I need for my journey is almost complete."
While the villagers slept and the night guard patrolled the paths, Zon was preparing tools to give Toki once he finished.
Amid the heat of the metal, he thought:
"It has been a long time since I came back to my father's craft."
Meanwhile, Sophie — who was supposed to be asleep with Anna and Rai on a floor bed — sat stroking the fur of a fox that seemed wary of something. Her eyes were fixed on the full moon, its colors shifting between blue, gray, and white.
She whispered to herself:
"It feels like the night's darkness stretches endlessly…"
As for Luna, her trembling and twisted sleeping posture suggested she was suffering from a troubling nightmare… an omen of something ill.
At that moment, all water surfaces throughout the village began to tremble gradually, as if signaling an inevitable danger.
A bright, powerful light burst from Luna's body, responding to the moonlight, which seemed unusually radiant.
Her body lifted from the bed while she was still asleep — making the situation all the more bizarre.
She rose through the ceiling as if it didn't exist, continuing to float upward. With every meter gained, the brightness intensified.
Luna soon stood face to face with the moon, and then a massive aura exploded from her, infused with its radiance.
Silence swallowed everything — a silence like the birth of a stellar explosion.
Toki felt a terrifying pressure engulf his body, confusion painting his face.
He opened his mouth to speak, but—
"…**"
No sound came out.
He instinctively touched his throat, remembering a moment from before… one of their moments in the labyrinth.
At that same time, Sophie, Shun, and even Zon felt the overwhelming surge of that horrifying presence — a presence that felt as though it didn't belong to this world at all.
Zon had already left his workspace and opened a cabinet in his room, gazing deeply at his medium-sized axe.
Shun opened the window of his hilltop house, sparks crackling in his eyes with electric excitement.
He murmured to himself:
"That presence… it nearly pierced through my defenses."
Sophie was still seated, unfazed by the silence drowning her surroundings.
Toki inhaled sharply, hurriedly put on his white shirt, forgot his shoes — as usual since childhood — and ran barefoot toward the source of the light.
Descending the hill, he dashed through the alleys with measured steps, checking the villagers' safety. The shockwave had not damaged anything — but it had muted all sound.
He understood immediately, and tried to speak to himself, but struggled.
In fragmented thoughts, he muttered inwardly:
"So… her usual seizure returned.
But why now? And that terrifying pressure unlike anything I've ever felt before…
Is it because her power has grown over these past months?
Still… I feel something missing, as if there are things about her I still don't understand… Luna—"
He stopped and lifted his gaze to the sky.
There he saw Luna's shadow covering the land like a solar eclipse cast by the moon.
Moonlit energy circled her body as if she were inside a sphere of light.
Unconscious, she opened her eye — its pupil reduced to a dot, fractures spider-webbing across her irises.
She stood upright in midair, her eye shifting to a golden hue — a change triggered after midnight passed.
Without looking at anyone, only at the horizon, she released a barrage of shining needle-like beams, like a hedgehog bristling its quills in danger.
Toki leapt onto a rooftop, pulled out a wooden staff, and enveloped it with his energy.
He dashed forward to intercept the beams, but their number rapidly increased.
Assuming his semi-combat stance, he prepared to stop them midair.
He jumped from the rooftop, measured his recoil perfectly, and rebounded into the sky.
The beams accelerated each time he redirected them, each carrying intense heat.
His eyes scanned the area, sensing something terrible about to occur. His goal was to bring Luna back to normal — yet in this moment, it seemed as if he was neglecting her, though he wasn't.
The frequency of the beams increased, the winds slowed to an eerie standstill, and the water violently shook.
Shun began to move before a gravitational surge from Luna's aura could cause a flood.
Standing atop a wooden barrel, he formed electric energy and wrapped it around the area, then let it dissipate softly.
Zon emerged from his room wearing a cracked helmet, holding his axe and dusty armor, walking calmly toward the source of light — even as the village glowed like daylight.
Back to Toki, deflecting beams, he thought as he advanced toward Luna:
"Not again… I won't lose sight of you.
No matter what happens— I'm staying here with you."
He smiled faintly, though the heat grew unbearable.
Suddenly, gigantic concentrated beams erupted in random directions.
One struck Toki before he even sensed it, placing him right within Luna's line of sight.
He was launched backward violently. The staff shattered, and his body weakened.
Toki thought:
"I was close… haah…
Can I block the others in time?"
As he fell, he coughed out a thick mass of dark red blood, the salty taste filling his mouth.
"I'm too late!?" he uttered before the beam approached the village.
Zon intervened with a single, raw swing — no spirit energy — and obliterated all the beams.
The winds returned to their natural flow in the wake of his strike.
He spun the axe in his hands, then jumped toward Luna high above, aiming to cut one of her kinetic threads so she could stop.
From his second swing, which scattered the beams, a faint spark flickered from Shun — a signal, as his voice echoed:
"You're facing Luna now. Expect the unexpected… try draining her energy or disrupting her spirit field."
Zon landed beside Toki, who sat quietly, deep in thought.
Zon relayed Shun's instruction about severing Luna's spirit field.
But Toki refused — the calmness on his face hinted that he had found another solution.
Meanwhile, in the wide alley, Shun stood with a nervous night guard beside him.
Shun was converting the properties of every water-based object agitated by Luna's aura into electric charges.
After restoring the sound of his surroundings, he smirked:
"So you finally crawled out of your cave… Zon… took you long enough."
——
To be continued…
~~~
(Author's Note: I wonder… what solution did Toki discover?)
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Author's Note:
I sincerely apologize for my delay and shortcomings, and I want to share this new update with you:
The earlier chapters will be revised, with some details that I had previously summarized being added. I will also share some of the terms used in the story, which will help you on this journey.
Finally, thank you to everyone who is following, and I hope to consult with you in the future.