Akagetsu's last scream had barely faded when the world went silent.
Not peaceful—
emptied.
Rin, Nahara, and Elion stood frozen behind Rokuro, who hovered in the air like a suspended eclipse—
half man, half devouring void.
Akagetsu's body—what was left of it—crumbled into drifting red dust.
A calamity extinguished.
A millennium-long terror erased in seconds.
Rokuro lowered his hand slowly.
His expression remained cold, unreadable.
But the world trembled around him like it feared he might not stop at one.
Kurotsuki moved first.
No sound.
No flare of power.
Just a flicker—
space bending at an impossible angle—
and he was suddenly twenty meters back.
His void-black eyes stayed fixed on Rokuro.
Kurotsuki:
"Akagetsu… destroyed so effortlessly.
He's stronger than his last cycle.
Much stronger."
Orivun snarled, molten cracks glowing brighter with panic.
Orivun:
"We can't fight this. Look at him—LOOK AT HIM. His aura is wrong. It's not stabilized."
Rokuro took one step forward.
The ground spiderwebbed.
The trees around them wilted as if aging a thousand years in a breath.
Kurotsuki didn't even pretend to be calm.
Kurotsuki:
"Retreat. Now."
He carved a slit in space with a single finger.
A rift.
Orivun stumbled toward it, trembling.
Orivun:
"Rokuro… this isn't over. We'll return for the boy—with more than you can handle."
The rift folded, swallowing them both, leaving only silence behind.
For a moment, only Rokuro remained standing—
the reaper of calamities.
The living scar of the Moonfall.
Rin stepped forward first.
"Roku… you okay?"
Rokuro didn't answer.
His breathing was heavy—too heavy.
His eyes dimmed slightly, losing their godlike shine.
Slowly—like a man waking from a violent dream—he exhaled.
Rokuro:
"…I'm here."
His knees buckled.
Rin and Nahara grabbed him before he hit the ground.
Elion placed a glowing hand over his chest, stabilizing his aura just enough.
Rokuro gave a weak, grateful nod.
"I… woke up too early. The Celestial Reversal… isn't finished."
Elion swallowed hard.
"So you fought like that… while still recovering?"
Rokuro managed a tired smile.
"Akagetsu was loud. I don't like loud."
Rin laughed—half shock, half relief.
Nahara punched his shoulder softly.
"Warn us next time!"
Rokuro shrugged.
"I didn't know."
A distant wasteland—
the remains of a sealed battlefield from a forgotten age.
Kurotsuki and Orivun emerged from the rift, both trembling from what they had barely survived.
Orivun collapsed to his knees.
Orivun:
"Akagetsu… gone. Just like that.
What do we even do now!?"
Kurotsuki stared into the roiling sky, expression cold and calculating.
Kurotsuki:
"We adapt.
We cannot face Rokuro directly now—not while he is nearing his next ascension."
Orivun slammed his fist into the ground, molten blood splattering.
Orivun:
"We NEED a weapon. A vessel. Someone who can wield what Akagetsu left behind."
Kurotsuki nodded slowly.
"There is one… a child whose heart is fractured enough to house crimson wrath."
He waved his hand.
A mirror of shadow formed.
Within it—an image appeared.
A boy.
Maybe 12 or 13.
Hair white as washed bone.
Skin pale.
Eyes void of warmth yet burning with hunger.
He sat alone on a broken pier, carving symbols into the wood with a rusted knife.
His name appeared like a whisper.
The Chosen Vessel
Name: Kaien Veish
Race: Umbrasil — a forgotten lineage of shadow-walkers known for amplified emotion and unstable potential.
Their children are rare.
Their prodigies are nightmares.
Kaien stopped carving.
The wood beneath him cracked from a dark pulse leaking out of his palm.
His voice was soft, eerie.
"But I don't want to be alone anymore."
Kurotsuki smirked.
Kurotsuki:
"And you won't be, little one.
Akagetsu's hatred… his missing essence… will fill you well."
Orivun grinned viciously.
"With him… we can make a new calamity."
Kaien looked up toward the sky, eyes gleaming red for the first time.
"Kurotsuki… Orivun…
teach me."
The crimson dust drifting from Akagetsu's death began to stir, drawn across dimensions toward the boy.
A rebirth had begun.