Chapter 17: Another World's Son
The battlefield seemed to inhale.
Even the chains hanging over the valley fell still.
Kyūsei stared at the unveiled face.
Human.
Not just human-looking.
Human in the way Kazuto was human. In the way Kyūsei was human. The shape of the jaw, the eyes, the hair cut short in a style more familiar to crowded stations and schoolyards than ancient temples.
It felt obscene here.
"We came from the same world."
The words hit harder than any weapon.
Kyūsei's mouth moved before thought.
"Japan…?"
The young man's smile widened faintly.
"So that name survived for you too."
Kazuto's sword remained raised.
"Don't listen to him."
"I'm literally answering a question," the man said.
"You lie recreationally."
"I learned from priests."
Kyūsei's head spun.
Another person from Earth?
How many?
Why?
The man brushed blood from his lip where the cracked mask had cut him.
"My name there was Ren."
He looked at Kyūsei.
"Here, names became less useful."
Kyūsei swallowed.
"How did you get here?"
Ren laughed softly.
"The same way broken things often arrive somewhere strange."
Kazuto attacked again.
Their blades crashed.
"Enough talking."
Ren slid aside smoothly.
"You always hated context."
Kyūsei rushed in from the left, launching a focused burst of flame. Ren swept one hand and the fire bent around him, spiraling harmlessly into the air.
Mana control on a different level.
Ren kicked Kyūsei backward again.
"Still rough around the edges."
"I just met you!"
"And already disappointed."
Kazuto nearly took his head off for that.
Below them, the battle worsened.
Without their controller's direct attention, the undead had become erratic rather than weaker.
Which somehow made them worse.
Garron was now fighting three crystal knights at once while using a broken pillar as a club.
Rufus, hair singed and eyes wild, kept healing anyone who moved and two people who maybe weren't moving enough.
"I need safer friends!" he yelled.
Mira appeared behind an enemy commander, slit the straps holding its armor together, and vanished before it collapsed in embarrassment.
Lena carved upward through the stairs one enemy at a time, never wasting motion.
She glanced once at the summit.
Saw Kyūsei facing someone human.
And frowned.
At the upper platform, Ren stepped back and looked at Kyūsei with unnerving calm.
"You feel it, don't you?"
"That thing under the temple?"
"The Gate."
"It feels hungry."
Ren's expression brightened.
"Good word."
Kazuto lunged.
Ren caught his wrist barehanded.
Black veins flared up his arm.
Kazuto's body jerked as if struck by lightning.
Kyūsei moved instantly, driving wind into Ren's side.
Ren released Kazuto and slid away.
Kazuto staggered, breathing hard.
Kyūsei grabbed him.
"You okay?"
"Seen better mornings."
"What was that?"
"He channels through contact. Don't let him touch you."
Ren sighed.
"I hate explaining my own abilities from the enemy side."
Kyūsei shouted, "Why are you helping these things?"
Ren looked genuinely puzzled.
"Helping?"
He spread his arms toward the valley.
"I am ending it."
Kyūsei stared.
"By killing everyone?"
"By opening what was closed."
"That explains nothing!"
Ren's calm finally cracked.
"It explains everything!"
The force of his voice shook loose dust from the pillars.
He pointed downward, toward the hidden depths beneath the temple.
"This world is a prison built around absence. Kingdoms on chains. Lives fed into systems they don't understand. Gods stealing choice, calling it order."
Kazuto muttered, "Here we go."
Ren ignored him.
"I was dragged here. Alone. Starving. Afraid. Then I learned the truth."
He looked at Kyūsei with fierce intensity.
"They chose you too."
Kyūsei's chest tightened.
"Who?"
"The ones above."
The sky darkened.
Clouds swirled unnaturally over the crater.
Ren smiled bitterly.
"They send us where reality is weakest. Some become heroes. Some become corpses."
His gaze sharpened.
"Some of us refuse."
Kyūsei didn't know what to believe.
Ren sounded mad.
Ren sounded sincere.
Both could be true.
Kazuto stepped beside him.
"He leaves out the part where he murdered villages."
Ren's jaw tightened.
"I broke chains."
"You broke children."
Silence.
Ren looked away for half a second.
Long enough.
Kazuto moved.
His sword flashed low.
Ren twisted back, but not enough.
The blade carved a deep line across his ribs.
Black blood spilled.
Ren touched the wound, surprised.
Then laughed.
"There you are."
Darkness burst outward from him in a sphere.
Kyūsei and Kazuto were thrown backward.
Stone pillars shattered.
The chains above screamed.
From the cracked stairs below, black crystal began spreading rapidly like frost.
Undead soldiers reformed where they had fallen.
Villagers screamed as smoke tried to crawl back into their eyes.
Rufus panicked.
"That seems bad!"
"Insightful!" Lena yelled.
Ren rose into the air a few feet, suspended by spiraling shadow.
"I wanted to persuade you."
He looked at Kyūsei almost regretfully.
"But pain is often faster."
The temple doors beneath the summit groaned open.
A vast darkness yawned below.
No floor visible.
Only depth.
And from that depth—
A pulse.
Kyūsei doubled over.
Something inside him answered.
Cold rushed through his veins.
The abyss within stirred violently.
Kazuto grabbed his shoulders.
"Look at me."
Kyūsei couldn't breathe.
"Kazuto—"
"Listen."
Kazuto's voice cut through the rising scream in his head.
"You are not that thing."
Ren hovered above them.
"You are exactly that thing."
Kyūsei clutched his chest.
Two truths pulling in opposite directions.
One brother.
One stranger from home.
One void below.
One void within.
Then from the open temple came a sound like a giant inhaling.
And every person in the valley began sliding toward the abyss.