Tara's body dissolved into particles of light.
And then—
she was gone.
Rin's trembling hand remained stretched in the empty air, as if refusing to accept reality.
"No..."
His voice broke.
He collapsed onto his knees.
For the first time since everything began, Rin cried without restraint.
Not the silent tears of someone trying to stay strong.
Not the hidden grief buried behind clenched teeth.
This was raw.
Ugly.
Hopeless.
He screamed until his throat burned.
He struck the ground until his fists bled.
He begged for an answer from a world that had never once shown him mercy.
But the cave remained silent.
Cold.
Uncaring.
Hours passed.
Eventually, Rin's body had no tears left to give.
His breathing slowed.
His eyes became hollow.
He pushed himself upward with exhausted limbs.
His entire body felt numb, as if the pain had gone so deep that even suffering itself had died.
That was when he noticed it.
The darkness around the cavern was moving.
No—
it was gathering.
From every crack, every shadow, every unseen corner, black streams of mist were being pulled toward a single point deeper inside.
Rin stared blankly.
Something inside him stirred.
Without thinking, he began to walk.
Step.
Step.
Step.
The deeper he went, the colder the air became.
The shadows thickened like liquid night.
At the center of the chamber, floating above the stone floor, was a crystal.
A dark crystal.
Pitch black.
Yet somehow glowing from within.
The moment Rin saw it, fragments of memory flashed inside his mind.
An underground temple.
A suffocating darkness.
A crystal exactly like this one piercing into the deepest part of his being—
into the place where a soul should have existed.
Rin clutched his head.
"I remember..."
Only vaguely.
Only pieces.
But his body remembered far more than his mind.
The crystal called to him.
Not with words.
Not with sound.
But with something far more ancient.
A pull.
A hunger.
A familiarity.
Rin took one step forward.
Then another.
There was no hesitation this time.
No fear.
No questioning.
He broke into a run.
As if he had finally found the only thing left in this world that still belonged to him.
Rin grabbed the crystal with both hands.
The instant his skin touched it—
SHHHHHK!
The crystal melted into black energy and pierced straight through his chest.
Agony exploded inside him.
It felt as though thousands of blades were ripping apart the deepest darkness within him—
digging into the empty void where his soul should have been.
His veins burned.
His bones screamed.
His vision turned red.
Any normal human would have collapsed.
Would have screamed.
Would have begged for death.
Rin did none of those things.
He stood motionless.
Silent.
His face expressionless.
Because this pain...
was nothing.
Compared to watching everyone he loved disappear.
Compared to the emptiness left behind by Tara's fading smile.
Compared to a life where every hand he tried to hold turned cold.
This pain was small.
This pain was manageable.
This pain was familiar.
Rin slowly lifted his head.
His eyes no longer carried tears.
Only darkness.
The black energy swirled around him like a living storm before sinking into his body.
Deep.
Deeper.
Into that forbidden hollow where no soul existed.
Something answered from within.
Something ancient.
Something hungry.
The cavern trembled.
Cracks spread across the walls.
But Rin simply turned away.
Without a word—
he began walking toward the path that led back to the surface.
Each footstep echoed like the march of something no longer human.
The boy who had entered this cave seeking warmth...
was not the one leaving it.
From the shadows,
a monster was beginning to rise.