High above the tangled sprawl of the Crimson Canopy, the Silver Moon shined like a pale coin tossed into an ocean of ink.

Its light was thin and cold, filtering down through the spaces between the green leaves and branches in narrow, reluctant beams.

The forest stretched endlessly like a living maze of gnarled trunks, thorn-choked undergrowth, and shadows that moved with hungry intent.

Somewhere in the darkness of Crimson Canopy... two humans and a demon stood, frozen in shock.

Yuki's face was smeared with blood, which was not her own. And more continued to drop from the hand of the demon that was shaped like a lance.

She lay broken among the roots with her body like a canvas of ruin. Her white armor was scored with deep gouges, several plates were cracked and hung loose where the Demon's claws had found purchase.

Her breathing came in shallow, hitching gasps that rattled faintly in her chest. Her pink eyes shook as they stared upward at the nightmare suspended above her.

The Demon's hand which was covered by howling gales—should have descended and pierced her in one terrible strike.

But it hadn't.

It was stopped mid way.

Ishiki stood over her with his legs braced wide against the blood-soaked earth, his body was acting like a defiant shield between her and oblivion.

The Demon's arm was buried deep in his midsection, and punched straight through his abdomen and out his back. The invisible wind-blade extended from the exit wound, its tip hovering mere inches from Yuki's throat, close enough that she could feel the pressure of displaced air brushing her skin.

Blood ran down Ishiki's stomach, soaked into his torn clothes, and dripped steadily onto the girl beneath him.

Ishiki's eyes were locked into the demon's yellow pupils... they were as wide as they could get.

The [Berserker's Effigy] had already dissolved into motes of light that drifted away like dying embers.

'What... did I just do?'

In a final, desperate gambit—Ishiki had reached deep into the shadowed recesses of his skill [Soul Archive] and there he had seized hold of something he barely understood... actually he didn't understood it at all.

[Soul Chain]... the ability had always been a mystery and right now, Ishiki had used it without even knowing it.

'How...'

"How? how did you move... so fast?" The demon asked as it looked at Ishiki with wide eyes.

Then it grinned and twisted its wrist, yanking its arm free with a visceral, wet sound of parting meat and suctioned air. A bright arterial spray from Ishiki's ruined core, painted the grass in abstract splashes.

Ishiki wanted to scream... but he didn't.

His knees gave out and he collapsed beside Yuki in a controlled fall, hands instinctively clamping over the gaping wound in his stomach. Blood squirted between his splayed fingers, soaking into the dirt beneath him and turning it into dark, sticky mud.

'No... No... This, no!'

He couldn't think straight... his mind was slowly shutting down and this time... this wasn't an illusion... he was really dying.

He opened his mouth, trying to pull in air, but his lungs refused to cooperate. Instead of breath, what came was just a wet, rattling wheeze.

'Am I? Am I really dying?'

He slowly tried to move his head and managed to look up at the sky a small space between the thick leaves.

The silver moon was slowly fading... no, it was turning black. Slowly the darkness spread across it and then the Crimson flames erupted from a singular point and spread in a perimeter. leaving a circular area in between.

The darkness receded and the Crimson Light took reign. The world was illuminated by the Crimson Light.

A mad smile appeared on Ishiki's face. 'Ahh... so this is how it happens.'

He had finally witnessed how the Silver Moon turned into the Crimson Moon... and it was terrifying.

The demon was trying to attack Yuki again... but it stopped and jumped back with a wince. "Fucking Bugs" It spewed. "I can't believe its day already. I will kill you during next night."

With that the demon dissolved into wind and disappeared.

The Crimson Night had started and the trees around them stirred from their predatory vigil. Massive branches creaked and uncoiled from the canopy like serpents waking from slumber.

Leaves rustled in rhythmic anticipation and synchronizing with each other in forming a beautiful music. The trees surged forward, limbs reaching for the fallen pair of humans.

For a long, horrible moment, Yuki felt nothing. Her mind was blank and unable to process the grotesque tableau of Ishiki's blood dripping onto her face.

She didn't want to believe what was happening... or rather she was not ready to accept it. How could she?

Then, all at once, everything came rushing back... jolting her back to her senses. Her hand twitched against the dirt.

She pushed herself up and placed both her hands on the ground.

Frost bloomed outward from her hands in a perfect hemisphere and a dome of ice twenty paces across started forming out of thin air. The walls thickened in an instant, veined with crackling lines of deeper blue that turned solid as stone.

Incoming vines shattered against it in explosions of splinters. Thorns lodged harmlessly in the barrier, quivering like arrows in a castle wall.

In almost an instant, a dome made up of ice covered them. No branch was able to breach it... they attacked it fruitlessly.

Ishiki heard none of it.

The sounds of the forest, the cracking branches, the hissing leaves, even Yuki's frantic whispers—faded into a low, underwater hum. His vision tunneled, going soft and gray.

His body slowly fell back and he saw a beautiful thing. The dome of Ice caught the faint crimson light and then reflected it inwardly making ethereal patters.

Yuki cradled his head in her lap, hands glowing with frantic azure light as she pressed them to the impossible wound. Her voice was a ragged whisper, breaking on every syllable.

"Ishiki... stay with me. Please. Don't—don't you dare."

'Why did I do that?'

The question crystallized in his fading mind, sharp and clear despite the chaos.

He had always hated heroes. They were naive idiots who threw their lives away for hollow ideals, like the greater good, camaraderie, honor, glory.

They were fools who bartered their existence like cheap currency.

He hated that part of the comics and fiction works he had read. What he believed was that self-preservation was the most important thing and it wasn't cowardice. It was the only sane response a human should do.

Yet... what he did just now was against his ideals.

For what? For the girl from the floating heavens, for the princess to whom he would have been nothing to but another face in the endless parade of the doomed.

'Wait... what does it matter now?'

In stories, they talked about the hero's journey and about protagonists who faced impossible odds and emerged victorious through courage, friendship, and destiny.

Actually... there existed nothing like that, those stories were simply comforting lies for the weak-willed and those who couldn't stomach the truth.

Reality was much more messier, crueler and it utterly broke the ones who faced against their fate.

Most people who faced impossible odds simply died. Their lives ended quietly and without a fanfare. Their stories ended without ever reaching the conclusion they had dreamed of.

They were simply forgotten.

But sometimes—rarely, someone survived through pure stubborn refusal to die.

Ishiki didn't know if he was a protagonist or a side character. He didn't know if his story would end in triumph or tragedy.

He didn't even knew if "story" was the right word for what he was living through.

What he did know was much simpler and darker.

He was still alive and breathing... maybe not breathing.

And it didn't matter if fate wanted him dead... it would have to work a hell of a lot harder, because he was not yet done writing his destiny.

Tears carved hot furrows down Yuki's cheeks, falling onto his face and mixing with his blood. She didn't notice them.

The Princess, who never cried, who had been trained from birth to suppress her emotions and be perfect, wept freely for the boy who had thrown himself onto a blade for her.

"I'm useless," she sobbed. "I am such a failure... I couldn't save anyone. All who depended on me are dead and now even you..."

Trees battered her icy bulwark, hammering it with relentless fury... but she didn't pay them any attention.

She gritted her teeth and focused on sealing the hole in Ishiki's stomach... it was horrible.

Ishiki's vision dimmed further and Yuki's voice became a distant echo. He actually didn't hate the way he was dying... in the lap of a beautiful girl. A princess no less.

Who could have thought that he... the boy whom no one knew would die like that?

Actually... still, no one knew him. All who did were dead.

He chuckled inwardly at the thought, and then slowly oblivion swallowed him whole.

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