The watchtower was quiet again.
Too quiet.
Violet lightning still flickered across the ceiling of the Abyss, but the thunder had retreated—dragging itself away like a wounded beast unwilling to roar anymore.
Levi sat with his back against the shattered parapet.
Aria sat beside him.
Not across.
Not distant.
Her wings—blackened feathers ragged and torn from the last battle—were folded loosely behind her. Shadow ichor seeped from rents in the membrane, dripping in slow, patient drops onto the stone.
She didn't bother wiping it away.
Levi's own wounds had already closed.
Shadows stitched faster when you carried enough regrets.
The shadow spear rested across his lap.
Its runes pulsed faintly—Kargan's name entwined with newer scars, brands left by corrupted light. When Levi touched it, the weapon hummed softly.
As if listening.
Aria broke the silence.
"You're changing."
Her voice was low. Raw—whether from screaming orders or simply breathing this poisoned air, Levi couldn't tell.
He didn't answer at once.
Instead, he traced a rune with his thumb.
Felt the echo of a choir.
Beautiful voices.
Gone.
"I don't have a choice," he said finally.
Aria turned toward him.
Her mask lay discarded nearby—no longer merely cracked, but shattered completely. Fragments glinted faintly in the mana crystal's glow.
Her face was fully exposed now.
One empty socket.
One storm-gray eye fixed on him.
"You do," she said quietly.
"That's what scares them."
The chains stirred.
SFX: CREAK—
Faint violet light traced lines across Levi's arms.
Visible now.
Not just pain.
Manifestation.
⊳ Protocol Strain: 68%
He hid the notification instinctively.
But Aria saw the glow.
Her hand rose. Hovered just above the chains. She didn't touch them.
"They weren't always this tight," she murmured.
"Were they?"
Levi shook his head.
"At first… they were loose. Almost invisible."
A memory surfaced.
The first master.
A kind Soldier-class shadow who taught him how to hold a spear properly. Who died shielding civilians that didn't exist in the Abyss.
Levi had whispered thank you then.
That was when the habit began.
Aria leaned closer.
"Tell me about her."
She meant the girl.
Kargan's daughter.
Levi's voice was barely sound.
"She waited. Every time."
A pause.
"He never came back."
Aria closed her good eye.
"I waited too," she said.
"My brother. He was supposed to follow me when I questioned the Monarch."
Her fingers curled.
"He didn't."
Silence settled heavily between them.
Wind screamed through the hollow ribs of the tower.
Then—
Horns.
Deep.
Resonant.
Bone-shaking.
Aria stood.
Levi rose beside her.
The horizon burned.
Not with knights.
With something worse.
The Herald descended.
SS-Rank.
Twelve wings of blinding white unfurled, each beat crushing the air beneath it. Armor like condensed starlight reflected nothing—only judgment.
Shadows below withered simply from its presence.
The Fracture Line screamed as it widened, leaking raw holy light that burned anything dark on contact.
Aria drew her greatsword.
Its edge drank the leaking radiance, turning it black.
Levi tightened his grip on the spear.
It thrummed eagerly.
Runes flared.
New voices whispered.
The choir.
Kargan's daughter laughing.
The Herald's voice rolled like divine thunder.
"Ariael.
Lost saint.
Return to the light."
"Or be purified."
Aria spat shadow ichor onto the stone.
"Too late for that."
The assault began.
Not waves.
A tide.
Elite Seraphs poured through the widened Fracture, singing hymns that weakened shadow with every note. The northern flank buckled—collapsed—vanished beneath holy pressure.
Levi and Aria stood alone on the tower's edge.
Back to back.
Literally.
The spear elongated—shadow wings unfurling from its haft.
A stolen evolution.
「Fallen Wings」 — nascent.
They leapt.
Into hell.
Aria's corrupted smites detonated into black novas, ripping choirs apart mid-song. Levi's spear carved through wings and armor alike, shadow storms erupting with every strike.
They moved as one.
Her blade cleared the way.
His spear ended it.
A full Seraph choir encircled them mid-air.
They sang.
The sound burned.
Levi felt his memories strain—fraying, unraveling, threatening to vanish.
He roared.
The spear spun.
SFX: SHRRIIIEEEEKK—
Echoes answered.
Stolen voices.
Fallen hymns.
The choir faltered—hearing their own dead sing back.
Aria seized the opening.
Her sword cleaved three Seraphs in a single arc.
Then—
The Herald advanced.
Unhurried.
A holy domain expanded outward, suppressing all shadow mana.
Aria's wings shredded further.
She faltered mid-dive.
Levi caught her.
An arm around her waist.
They crashed onto a floating obsidian shard.
The Herald loomed above them.
A lance of pure judgment formed.
"Ariael," it intoned.
"Your betrayal ends."
The lance fired.
The Protocol screamed.
PROTECT. DIE.
Chains erupted into full visibility—whipping around Levi's body, burning, dragging him forward.
His body lunged.
Old instinct.
Sacrifice.
Then—
Aria's hand closed around his arm.
"No."
Her voice broke.
"Not again."
Time fractured.
Levi twisted.
Pulled her—not in front.
Beside.
The spear met the lance.
SFX: CATACLYSMIC CLASH—
Light crashed against regret.
The spear held.
Barely.
Runes shattered—then reformed.
All stolen power fused.
「Blood Rage」
「Reckless Charge」
「Corrupted Radiance」
Shadow essence
The spear became a maelstrom.
Levi charged.
Not defensively.
Offensively.
Shadow wings erupted from his back—full manifestation.
He struck the Herald.
Again.
Again.
Aria joined him—bleeding, limping, unbroken.
Her blade found every opening his spear created.
The Herald bled light.
Wings dimmed.
It staggered.
"The cycle," it whispered, voice cracking,
"claims all."
Final strike.
Together.
The Herald shattered—retreating in a storm of fleeing luminescence.
Memory flooded Levi.
The Monarch's own.
A throne of endless light.
Regret.
A prison disguised as ascension.
"We were all meant to rise… not rot here."
The war.
A punishment.
For everyone.
⊳ Skills Acquired:
「Domain Suppression (Partial)」
「Fallen Wings (Awakened)」
⊳ Unique Memory Fragment Obtained:
The Monarch's Doubt
Levi collapsed.
The chains cracked—audibly.
SFX: CRRRAACK—
Splinters of violet light sprayed outward.
Pain consumed everything.
Aria knelt beside him.
Her hand closed around the breaking chains.
They burned her skin.
She didn't let go.
"They're breaking," she whispered.
Not fear.
Hope.
Levi gasped.
Notifications cascaded.
⊳ Protocol Strain: 92% — CRITICAL
⊳ Hidden Achievement:
「One Who Chooses」 4 / 5
⊳ Rank: C (Hidden)
⊳ New Title:
「Bearer of Fractured Light」
In the distance—
New presences stirred.
Administrator-class.
Multiple.
Crystals flaring.
Reports flooding the system.
An E-rank Servant wounding an SS-Herald?
Impossible.
They were coming.
For him.
Aria stood and helped Levi up.
Her storm-gray eye met his.
"We can't stay."
Levi tightened his grip on the spear.
It sang now.
A full chorus.
Regrets united.
He nodded.
For the first time—
He chose.
Not obedience.
Not survival.
Freedom.
The chains groaned.
One link snapped.
SFX: SNAP—
The Fracture Line widened further.
Light and shadow bled together.
The war raged on.
But something fundamental had shifted.
Levi spread his wings—shadow laced with fractured light.
Aria took his hand.
Together—
They leapt into the abyss.
Not as master and Servant.
As equals.
The hunt would begin.
The chains were unraveling.
And Levi—
For the first time in one hundred and fourteen lives—
Was ready to fight for his own memories.