Cassie stood in the hollow silence of the room.
Her mind was a storm of words she could not speak.
She wanted to ridicule him for treating her like a pet. She wanted to show him his place and defeat him at his own game.
But the silver runes of the Vow were cooling on her skin. Everything had changed.
By making this Vow, Kiyotaka had taken the burden of her survival onto his own shoulders.
He was the strongest in the academy.
She bit her lip until the iron taste of blood filled her mouth.
"I vow."
The words felt like a closing gate.
This was not just an apology.
It was a deeper trap.
The Vow made the person who held onto life a slave to the one who did not care.
Cassie had a family and a future. Kiyotaka had nothing but the void.
She looked at him and felt a physical sickness.
Her mind was moving without a stop.
She was forced to measure his breaths and weigh his words.
She hated looking at the world this way. She was once a girl who lived naturally. Now she was a ghost trying to look through everything and everyone.
"Do not call this a trick, Cassie. A trick is just a matter of perception. I can find a trick in the way water drops if I look long enough."
It was the natural order of their world. She was gaining a shield, but the cost was absolute. If he died, she would simply vanish. Her life was no longer her own property.
Cassie tried to smile, but it looked like a wound. She looked at his soul core. It was a flat grey void that never changed.
"So this is the equality you promised. An equality of misery. You are dragging me down into your darkness just so you do not have to be alone in the deep."
She picked up the blue silk. She tied the blindfold over her eyes to shut the world out.
"I am just keeping things as they were. We helped each other until now. Why should we not keep doing it in the future?"
Cassie did not answer. She wanted to remind him she was a dog during that time. But another part of her did not want to deny the truth.
Some of it had been genuine. The greed she felt when they first met was real. The comfort of him being her eyes was real.
He had turned her into a pet, but now he had given his heartbeat to keep her alive.
Her fury was trapped. She could not ridicule a man who had put his neck in a noose for her.
If she continued bashing him, It would be nothing but over exaggeration now.
She had gained so much from this Vow that she might have lost as herself. It made her hate him even more.
"I am sorry for everything that happened until now."
Kiyotaka spoke the words with no emotion.
Cassie gripped her own arms so hard her nails left marks.
She felt like she was standing on the edge of a cliff. One part of her wanted to lean into the warmth of that voice.
He had offered his life for hers.
It was an anchor in a storm. She wanted to reach out and find the boy she once trusted. She wanted to laugh with him and believe the sound was not a lie.
But the coldness in her gut would not leave.
Every time she felt a spark, her mind flashed a warning. Was this just another path he had paved? If she smiled back, would it be her own joy or a reaction he had triggered?
She was a bird that had been broken and then given a golden cage.
"I need time. I need to be in a place where your voice does not reach. A lot has happened and I cannot tell what is real and what is you."
She turned toward the door. She wanted to walk away to find a corner where she could cry without him observing her grief.
She needed to be alone to see if she still existed without his influence. Yet, as she walked, her steps slowed. She waited for a second. She wanted him to fight for her presence. She wanted him to ask her to stay.
Kiyotaka stood still. He respected her choice to leave. He watched her back but did not move to stop her.
"I am sorry for what happened. And I am sorry for what might happen in the future. But I wish to walk with you until the cafeteria at least."
She froze at the door. Her hand stayed on the wood. She hated that she wanted to say yes.
She hated the way she felt a pull toward him that was not just the attribute.
For the past twenty seven days he was her everything, Her body cried to be with him. But she was herself now.
She could decline but she remembered the times again.
She was terrified of the dependency to him, but the silence of the room was worse.
"Just to the cafeteria. Then leave me alone."
***
"Actually leave me to my room."
Cassie spoke the words and turned away. I followed her.
Because she is blind, her navigation relied on the internal map she had constructed over the last twenty seven days.
She had learned the entire layout of the academy in less than a month. It was an impressive feat of spatial memorization.
In reality, It was far less than twenty seven days, More like six or seven.
The walk to her room took several minutes. I walked behind her, watching the way she navigated the corridors.
Her movements were stiff.
She had regained total control of her physical body after nearly a month of being a spectator, and the transition was clearly taxing.
On top of the physical adjustment, she had just finished a mental battle against me.
That level of psychological strain would leave any person exhausted.
We reached her door. She found the handle without hesitation, stepped inside, and closed it. There was no thank you or even a final glance in my direction.
I stood in the hallway and listened to the click of the latch.
I stood there for a moment, analyzing the variables.
I am fortunate that she comes from a loving family. Those bonds are a weakness. If she had come from a background like mine, or even like Sunless, she would have been a terrifying opponent to face right now.
Because she is still emotional and probably remembers the time we spent together, I can still cloud her judgment. I can rely on her instincts to hesitate based on those memories.
But that window is closing. The moment she gains experience and breaks past the chains of her relationships, she will become something to fear.
Usually, I would have killed someone like her. Anyone who risks my existence is a variable that needs to be removed. Instead, I did the opposite. I connected our life spans.
It is a risky move. When she improves, she will be able to exploit that link.
That is exactly what I want.
Exploit it, Cassie. Show me that you are exactly the same as me. When that happens, we will revisit what occurred here.
Show me that the only way for a human to be in control is to go past every limit that controls them.
I refuse to live in a world without you. A world without a challenge is boring. You have the tools in your arsenal now. You have your visions. You might even have a way to look into my runes.
And... The theory I have about the way your aspect will progress, You will have even more tools in the future.
Make my life difficult. Force me to see through everything. Make me analyze every minor detail and control the entire environment only to still lose. Do it, Cassie.
I thought about my own history. I am not undefeated. I have been defeated a few times in the past. But there is a pattern to those defeats.
The moment I defeat an opponent once, they can never defeat me again. They hit a ceiling while I continue to move.
Don't turn out to be like them, Cassie.
I will personally ensure that you do not.
I will build a new fate for you.
If the world will not provide me with an equal, I will manufacture one myself.
***
I spent the last twenty seven days constructing a web of schemes that now covers this entire institution.
I walked into the library and looked at the rows of shelving.
Every book in this building has been read and processed by me. I have consumed every scrap of knowledge the sleepers department has to offer.
There is nothing left for me to learn here.
I stepped out of the and went down the corridor. I walked past the staff room without stopping.
I have memorized the data of every sleeper in this academy. I know their strengths and their combat utility. I know which ones are useless.
I moved past the security room. This was the same room the government used to monitor me.
In this small space I had interrogated and broken many of the elite sleepers.
I had forced them to make Vows after making them drink filthy water. It was a simple method to strip away their legacy pride.
When a person is forced into a state of physical disgust their sense of superiority vanishes.
It is a brilliant way to gain absolute compliance.
I wondered where Kane was hiding.
I also noted that Caster had not approached me yet.
His avoidance is a disappointment.
Problems are the only things that provide growth. By running away he is ensuring his own mental decay.
I wondered if he was waiting for me to initiate the contact. He is mistaken if he thinks I will move according to his desires when I don't plan to.
I finally reached the cafeteria.
It was nearly empty. It was not even afternoon but the atmosphere was heavy with the coming solstice.
Most students had already retreated to their rooms to prepare for the transition to the dream realm.
A few small groups remained to discuss their fears.
I considered joining them but I decided against it.
Socializing now would appear as a mockery of their genuine terror.
I took a tray of food and sat down to eat. Sunless was nowhere to be found.
I have spent twenty seven days experimenting on the mind of Sunless.
I have mapped every corner of his psyche.
I have watched him from front of his own eyes and analyzed his every reflex.
I know him better than he will ever know himself.
Sunless is a genius of survival. He is a creature born from the dirt who has managed to keep his soul intact while everyone else is rotting.
He possesses a cunning that is natural and a level of paranoia that borders on prophecy.
He is the only variable in this entire academy that does not follow a predictable path, I had to make it predictable for him.
He is a beautiful anomaly in a world of boring constants. He is a king of the gutters who thinks he is free because he has no master.
I finished my meal and looked at the empty chair across from me.
The world is about to change for everyone else but for me it is simply the next phase of a plan that is already finished.
I have already decided how the pieces will move.
Today Sunless will lose his freedom. I will be the one who takes it.
***
Night had fallen over the academy.
Sunless walked out of the dojo.
The building was empty. He had used the isolation to train until his muscles burned.
He stood in the silence and felt a rare sense of satisfaction.
In twenty seven days he had transformed. He looked down at his hands and realized they no longer shook from malnutrition.
'Now I can at least look a bit intimidating. Or maybe just like a slightly more athletic corpse.'
His shadow seemed to move in a way that suggested a sigh even though it possessed no lungs.
When he had first arrived at this place his posture was a physical record of his misery.
He had been tilted and frail with dark circles under his eyes that never seemed to fade. Every step had been a reminder of his own weakness.
Now things were different.
He had eaten three meals every day.
He had stretched and exercised until his hollow body began to fill out.
The dark circles were gone.
He still looked like a beggar but he was a beggar who knew how to strike!
He felt a surge of genuine determination. He was ready for the winter solstice.
'I wonder what kind of spectacular disaster [Fated] has planned for me tomorrow. Knowing my luck it will involve something with too many teeth.'
Sunless began to walk. He moved with the silent footsteps of Kiyotaka.
He was exhausted but his mind was sharp.
He passed the dark facilities of the academy and headed toward the cafeteria.
He expected to find a few sleepers there grabbing a final meal but as he approached the entrance the atmosphere changed.
The cafeteria was a void. The lights were off. It looked like the set of a horror film where the victims had already been cleared away.
It was only nine PM but there were no students and no workers.
Sunless stopped at the threshold. He shifted his perception to his shadow vision to cut through the gloom.
He saw a single figure.
The sound of a spoon hitting a ceramic plate echoed through the empty hall.
It was a sharp and repetitive noise.
A man sat alone at a table in the center of the darkness.
He was eating quietly as if he were sitting in a crowded room under bright lights.
The man paused and looked directly at the spot where Sunless stood. He did not say a word. He simply went back to his food.
'The hell is Kiyotaka doing eating in the dark? Is he trying to save on the electric bill or is he just that much of a freak?'
Sunless walked to the wall and flicked the light switch.
The overhead lights hummed to life and revealed the rows of empty tables.
The sight made the room look normal enough.
Sunless had known Kiyotaka for nearly a month and he had learned to loathe the man.
'He manipulates people like they are pieces on a board just because he can. Most people want a quiet life but this guy invites a goddamn hurricane into his house every morning for fun.'
Sunless walked to the counter and took a tray. He began to pile cold food onto the plastic surface.
He felt a deep sense of irritation.
He had seen how the man handled people without a second thought. He had watched him interact with that blind girl until she seemed entirely different.
'He is busy messing with everyone's head while I am just trying to survive the week. Wonderful. [Fated] didn't even have the decency to wait for the actual solstice to put me at the same table as this guy alone.'
Despite the hatred he felt a cold spark of respect. Kiyotaka had nothing in this world just like him.
Yet while Sunless struggled to survive the day Kiyotaka made the powerful legacies dance in his palm.
'I hate his guts but I would give anything to see the world the way he does. If I could look into the future I would actually have a chance to tell [Fated] to go fuck itself.'
Sunless walked toward the center table.
He moved toward the only other person in the room as if it were the most natural thing to do.
He slid a chair back.
The sound of metal screeching against the floor was loud in the empty room.
He sat down beside the man.
They sat in silence for a long time. The only sound was themovement of their spoons.
Sunless focused on his food and enjoyed the meal.
Kiyotaka spoke without turning his head.
"Tomorrow is Winter Solstice. Are you nervous?"
Sunless did not stop chewing his cold rice. He swallowed slowly and looked towards Kiyotaka.
"Who wouldn't be nervous when they can possibly die. I am just a little less than I would be."
If he allowed himself to panic now, it would be a slap in the face to every hour he had spent sweating in the dojo.
He remembered one of their practice sessions where Kiyotaka had told him to trust himself more and to stop underestimating his own growth.
It was strange advice coming from a man who seemed to calculate the worth of everyone like they were raw materials.
"Sunless. What is your goal?"
Sunless stopped eating for a moment.
He remembered what Jet had told them about refining a goal and never letting it change.
Right now, he did not have a grand strategy. He was just a rat trying to find a way out of a burning building.
"Right now I just want to thrive and no longer barely live."
Kiyotaka nodded once.
He took another bite of his food before looking back at Sunless.
"What about you Kiyotaka. What is your goal?"
Kiyotaka did not hesitate. His voice was flat, devoid of the passion a normal person would have when speaking of their dreams.
"There are so many things I want to do. I want to stand in the middle of an amusement park and feel the purposeless joy of the crowd. I want to hang out with others without calculating the debt of their loyalty. I want to live a life surrounded by whatever forces me to exhaust every ounce of my potential. And then, once every debt is paid and I have forgotten about my time with others, I just want to live peacefully. Away from the eyes. Away from the strings. Just me and the silence of my own existence."
Sunless felt a cold shiver crawl down his spine.
If anyone else had said those words, Sunless might have seen a hero or a dreamer. But sitting next to this boy, the words felt like a death sentence.
'He sounds like he is planning his own funeral. Or everyone else's.'
It was a vision of a world where everyone got exactly what they needed, but only because Kiyotaka had decided it for them.
Kiyotaka was not looking for rest. He was looking for a way to fix the world so thoroughly that it would never have a reason to call on him again.
He was ready to rearrange every fate and break every soul in his path to build a reality that functioned perfectly without him.
It was the ultimate act of ego masked as a service.
He would engineer a future where humanity was safe and stable, yet completely stripped of the freedom to make their own mistakes, all so he could finally slip into the shadows and be forgotten.
Kiyotaka set his spoon down.
He turned his body fully toward Sunless, and the air in the room suddenly felt heavy, as if the oxygen had been sucked out.
"You and I have spent twenty seven days together, Sunless. We have trained. We have observed. I have seen the way you move and the way you hide everything from me."
Sunless felt his shadow grow restless and hiss against his shadow sense.
The feeling of being watched intensified until it was unbearable.
It felt as if Kiyotaka was stripping him down layer by layer until only the core remained.
Sunless did not blink. He kept his hands steady on the table and met that empty gaze without a word.
"The dreams I have cannot be accomplished by me alone. I will need friends who I can trust with my life. To master the spell you must master your own soul first. I have thought of everyone but you. Only you remain as a variable. Let us change it."
The tension reached a breaking point. Sunless felt like he was standing on the edge of a cliff with Kiyotaka as the wind pushing at his back.
He tightened his grip on the plastic tray. He had stopped asking himself why Kiyotaka chose to eat in the dark long ago. He simply waited for the inevitable.
Kiyotaka leaned in until his face was inches from Sunless. His gaze locked on with a terrifying and absolute focus.
"Tell me, Sunless. If I am to ensure my plans not backfiring on me, I need someone like you who can work from the shadows. I do not care about excuses or pride. I just need the one thing that gives me total certainty."
The room went quiet. The lights hummed overhead but the space between them felt like a void.
Sunless didn't feel scared, He wasn't worried he just stared back with a monontous face.
"What is your True Name?"
***
The question dropped into the quiet cafeteria and the only sound was the hum of the cooling units.
Sunless froze as his eyes moved frantically across the room.
He was locked in a quiet battle.
He wondered how Kiyotaka possessed such confidence in the existence of his Flaw. He wondered how the freak knew about the shadow bond.
His heart began to pulse with a violent rhythm as the Flaw began to pressure him to answer.
Sunless augmented his legs with shadows and leaped from his chair.
He landed a few meters away on another table.
His mouth began vibrating and he felt his tongue rubbing against his teeth to form words. His mouth almost opened but he closed it desperately. His gums began to bleed from the force.
Sunless covered his lips with his hand and pressured them to stay closed.
Kiyotaka stood up and gathered both trays. He walked to the counter and put them down.
Drip.
Blood began to fall from Sunless's nose. His eyes shook and turned a deep blood red.
He felt the iron taste of fluid filling his entire mouth.
The Spell was forcing him to answer.
His mouth forced itself open despite his hand.
Sunless used all his will to stop the syllables from forming. His jaw vibrated with a terrifying energy but he did not allow the sound to escape.
He had countless questions.
Just then the shadow from his leg detached. It ran outside the cafeteria door and vanished into the night.
Kiyotaka watched it run out and then looked back at Sunless. The boy's entire face was becoming a mask of blood.
For a moment Sunless wondered what would happen if he let the words form.
He wondered if the struggle to avoid slavery was worth the agony.
He stared directly into Kiyotaka's eyes and a manic smile reached his face.
He was not afraid. He was not worried about the consequences.
He had hated this person since the first day they met in the police station.
Sunless had always assumed the worst of him.
He looked into those empty eyes. He could have let the words form but he had a different thought.
He thought about killing Kiyotaka and feeding his remains to the dogs he loved so much.
Sunless pushed his tongue forward between his teeth and let his mouth closed.
Kiyotaka's eyes widened at the sight.
The muscle was severed and it fell cruelly to the floor with a wet thud.
Sunless did not stop. His clothes were wet with crimson blood and saliva.
He was alone without his shadow or his aspect. The treacherous lost from light fought against the Spell.
He mangled the shape of his lips to prevent any lip reading. Without a tongue and in a world of pain he spoke.
"Ey eeue eeme es eeet eeem eeeet ees eeets ey eeue eeme. Eh."
The voice was inaudible and impossible to understand.
Sunless staggered as his vision turned blurry. Tears formed as a reflex of the intense pain. His mouth remained open and he huffed. Blood and saliva came out like puke and connected his mouth to the floor in a long trail.
His mouth was essentially destroyed but he looked Kiyotaka dead in the eyes.
"HHAHAHAHHAHAHA!"
He laughed like a maniac.
His teeth were covered in blood and his eyes held nothing but hatred. The sound echoed through the entire cafeteria.
He laughed and laughed.
He laughed because the motherfucker had underestimated him.
He laughed because Kiyotaka believed he could be enslaved.
He laughed because he knew today was the day Kiyotaka was fated to die.
His body shook as he laughed painfully. His mouth remained open yet his movements suddenly became steady.
The laughter stopped and he rushed toward Kiyotaka.
***
Sunless did not activate the [Puppeteer's Shroud] He knew Kiyotaka had no intention of killing him, And if anything Sunless really needed this mental fatigue right now.
This was a race against a ticking clock where Sunless had to kill the freak before the garbled syllables of his True Name were deciphered.
Sunless surged forward and grabbed a heavy metal chair by its legs.
He swung the massive object in a wide and violent arc meant to crush bone.
Kiyotaka did not flinch. He stepped inside the swing and the metal whistled past his back.
Kiyotaka drove a flat palm into Sunless's sternum.
Sunless felt his ribs groan as he was sent skidding across the slick tiles.
His vision was a red smear of blood and tears. He scrambled to his feet and grabbed a ceramic bowl from a nearby table.
He smashed it against the counter to create a edge and lunged at Kiyotaka's throat.
Kiyotaka moved just enough that Sunless could barely track.
He caught Sunless's wrist and squeezed a nerve cluster with terrifying precision.
Sunless felt his hand go numb and the ceramic shard clattered to the floor. Before Sunless could recoil Kiyotaka struck him twice in the shoulder and once in the side of the neck.
Sunless collapsed to one knee and his body almost gave up. He huffed and spat a thick glob of crimson onto the tile as his chest heaved.
He was broken and mangled but his eyes remained locked on his target through the gore.
Kiyotaka walked toward him and stood in front of the kneeling wreck.
He looked down at the ruined face of Sunless. Sunless did not blink back. He simply stared up through the gore and his eyes remained fixed.
Kiyotaka looked back toward the tongue resting on the floor. He wondered why Sunless had not used his shadow to defend himself.
Then his eyes widened. He understood why the shadow had never intended to attack. He understood why it ran.
Sunless had been observing the bond between Kiyotaka and Cassie for weeks.
He never questioned them because he was waiting for this day. The shadow had not gone to hide.
It had rushed to Cassie.
Kiyotaka was alive so the girl was not dead yet but she could be dying.
He believed that Sunless might have slipped his shadow in Cassie's shadow and heard to their Vow.
He hadnt.
[Fated] was just showing [Embraced by Fate] it's place.
In a moment of desperation Sunless would kill anyone to win.
Kiyotaka turned to run toward the door.
Sunless did not care about his broken body. He lunged forward and grabbed Kiyotaka's leg in a death grip.
Kiyotaka had no idea that the shadow could not physically hurt others. Sunless had spent weeks manipulating Kiyotaka into believing his shadow was a lethal force.
Kiyotaka looked down at the bloody face laughing at his misery.
The sounds coming from the boy were inaudible. Kiyotaka spoke and forced the Flaw to activate.
"Is Cassie injured."
He could not see into the red void of Sunless's mouth. The boy had mangled his lips and cheeks to destroy any hope of phonetic recognition.
"eh."
Kiyotaka had no way of understanding the sound. It was two syllables that could mean anything.
Sunless continued to laugh.
Kiyotaka kicked his face hard to get him off. The nose of Sunless broke with a sharp crack but he did not let go.
"EEEEHEEEHEEE"
Kiyotaka kicked him again.
Every strike landed on a pressure point meant to paralyze the nervous system.
Sunless felt his muscles seize and his tendons scream but he ignored the biological commands to collapse.
"EEEEEHEHEHEEEE"
Each strike made the laughter more unhinged. Kiyotaka's legs slowed. The thought of an injured Cassie triggered his own Flaw. He was losing focus.
Sunless saw the change in the freak's expression. His shadow slithered out from under the tables and surged into his leg.
Sunless jumped.
The sudden movement tore through the paralyzed muscles and snapped fibers in his calf but he did not flinch.
He wrapped his hand behind Kiyotaka's neck. The shadow moved to his knee and he drove it directly into Kiyotaka's head.
Kiyotaka was lifted off his feet by the force. Sunless did not stop. His laughter died and was replaced by unfathomable hatred.
The shadow jumped to his hand. He grabbed Kiyotaka's shirt and slammed him back into the ground.
Kiyotaka began to come down but Sunless did not wait. His nerves were misfiring and his shoulder joint was grinding against itself because of the previous strikes.
He ignored the feeling of his own body breaking apart.
His shadow went to his leg to give him force and then to his shoulder. He used the magical weight to slam Kiyotaka into the floor.
He climbed over Kiyotaka.
Sunless had planned to use Kiyotaka's Flaw against him since the day they met.
Anyone else in the academy with Kiyotaka's Flaw would have been paralyzed by the grief.
Nephis or Caster would have lost control with his flaw.
Sunless would have killed them in the worst way possible.
But... The plan backfired in the most beautiful way.
Sunless wound up a punch and funneled his shadow into his fist to end it once and for all.
Kiyotaka reached up and caught the punch with one hand.
Sunless felt chills run down his spine. It was not a sad Kiyotaka looking back at him from the floor.
It was a Kiyotaka that laughs.
He was not broken by the thought of Cassie's pain. He was impressed by the depth of the plan.
He looked at Sunless with a terrifying spark of genuine respect.
The machine was showing a soul and it was more horrific than the silence.
He laughed because he had finally found something that could make him feel a challenge.
***
Sunless had calculated every variable. This was perhaps the best plan he had ever conceived to kill Kiyotaka and it had the highest success rate.
He had seen the vulnerability in the police station back then. He had seen how the weight of a Flaw could make even a monster like Kiyotaka look sad and exposed.
But the reality was a nightmare.
The plan had not just failed but it had inverted. The freak did not feel the crushing grief of a dying comrade.
When Sunless had made him believe Cassie was being slaughtered, Kiyotaka had not broken. He looked happy.
Sunless hated this. He had bled and plotted for a moment that was now dissolving into a cruel joke.
Kiyotaka increased the pressure on Sunless's trapped fist and the bones in the hand began to groan. He leaned in and his smile widened.
"Do you wanna know how I got to know what your Flaw was for sureeeeee?"
Sunless did not answer.
He surged his shadow into his leg and lashed out with a desperate kick. Before the blow could connect, Kiyotaka released him with a mocking lightness.
Sunless rolled back across the tiles and staggered to his feet.
His vision was a fractured mess of red. His nose was shattered and his breathing was a wet whistle through a throat filled with blood.
He did not want to be a slave. He would rather be nothing.
A dark thought clawed at his mind.
If he ended it now, the bond would never form. He could die free.
"You did really well hiding your Flaw from me," Kiyotaka said as he paced a slow circle. "But you know when those other Sleepers approached you? The ones I sent to ask those questions? I just made a Vow with them and used [Divine Ledger]."
Sunless did not care about the logic of his defeat.
The answer came to him through the haze of pain.
No. He would not die. He wanted to live to spite everyone and specifically the monster standing in front of him.
Kiyotaka stopped pacing. He moved forward suddenly and Sunless swung a shadow augmented arm in a desperate arc.
Kiyotaka caught the wrist easily and twisted it just enough to send Sunless back to the floor.
"Sunless you bastard, Why am I feeling desperation and hatred from your attacks."
Kiyotaka twisted the hand more as the joints began to pop. Sunless muffled a scream; he couldn't even make the sound anymore.
"I hate this desperation and hatred bullshit. They say it makes geniuses. No. That is wrong. It is just adrenaline and luck. All it does is bind you to your emotions. Like you are right now."
Kiyotaka kneed Sunless in his broken nose. More blood sprayed across the floor.
"What you get using those isn't skill. It is just an illusion of it. What you get by being conscious is what is called skill."
Kiyotaka left the hand and kicked Sunless into the stomach.
Sunless slid across the floor and curled into a ball, clutching his torso. The pain was blinding.
Kiyotaka walked over and grabbed Sunless by the hair, forcing him into a sitting position. He clamped his hand over Sunless's mouth.
"Sunless, what is three plus four?"
The pressure of the Flaw began to build in Sunless's throat.
It was a physical weight, amplifying the agony already racking his body. Suddenly, the augmentation became undone.
The shadow slipped away from his limbs and returned to the floor.
Sunless looked at it through the haze.
The shadow was his only friend, usually so expressive and mirroring his every move. But right now, it felt detached.
It was trying to tell him something that his panicked mind could not yet grasp.
As his eyes began to shut, he felt he was going to die. But he focused on that one sensation. The detached feeling of the shadow.
Why was it detached?
Kiyotaka was detached, and the one laughing was only his Flaw.
Laughing Kiyotaka was not a stronger person, he was a the Flawed one.
Why was the shadow not feeling the same as Sunless?
Why had he been trying to find himself in the heat of desperation and hatred?
Why had he searched for himself in his emotions instead of finding himself within himself?
Why was his shadow slightly different?
...
..
.
Why did it have its own battle style?
The questions swirled as his consciousness flickered. Sunless fell into the dark, and Kiyotaka's eyes widened.
He tried to strike, tried to finish it before the moment slipped away.
But the segment was the battle, not the execution. As Sunless lost consciousness, the air in the cafeteria grew still.
The segment ended.
Kiyotaka's Flaw turned off, and the laughter died instantly, leaving only the hum of the cooling units in the silence.
***
I removed my hand from the space where Sunless had been trying to speak. As he collapsed onto the floor, a single broken syllable escaped his ruined lips.
"Eeeen."
Seven. Even at the brink of death, the Spell forced the answer from him.
I sat back on the blood-slicked floor my palms stained a deep and sticky crimson.
I did not feel the need to stand just yet.
The [Binding Vow] was within my reach now, but the realization of the win felt secondary.
Enslaving him was never the true objective.
I had pushed him to the edge for three reasons.
One was the Vow, the second was to force the evolution of his potential, and the third was the final verification of my own Flaw.
The Spell had been playing a long and intricate game with me. It had masked the truth in the language of simple emotions, but the reality was far more structural.
I activated my runes. They shimmered into existence against the dim light of the cafeteria, glowing with a cold and ethereal light.
Name: Kiyotaka.
True Name: [Untold Ruin].
Rank: Dreamer.
Class: Monster.
Ink Cores: [2/7]
Ink Fragments: [92/2000]
Memories: [Vow of Life & Death].
Attributes: [Embraced by Fate], [Seeker of Reflection], [Witness of Fate].
Aspect: [False Prophet]
Aspect Rank: Divine.
Aspect Ability: [Binding Vow]
My eyes drifted to the bottom, where the description of my Flaw had shifted. The ink twisted into a new and honest shape.
Flaw: [Ruined Heart]
Flaw Description: [Your heart is broken apart in three three different parts.]
The doubt that had been festering since Cassie first explained her vision finally crystallized.
She had seen the white and she had seen the black. She had seen someone else within the same skin.
If my Flaw was merely emotional volatility, that vision would have been impossible.
I would have still been a single entity.
The logic was finally clear. Whenever I was shocked or surprised, the reaction was delayed.
It was as if the signal had to travel through a long filter before a personality claimed it, So I could cut the emotion before it took shape.
I was not feeling different things. I was being different people.
The three parts of the [Ruined Heart].
I looked at the words [Embraced by Fate]. Fate was no longer my enemy or my master.
It was a gambler that had just shown its hand too early. It had given me the tools of a Prophet, hoping I would play the role written for me.
A ridiculous thought came to my mind.
...
..
.
I am sorry, Fate, but you have made a catastrophic error. You gave me a power that was meant to bind me, but you forgot that I have no sentiment for the things I own, not even my own soul. I will strip this Flaw from my chest and cast it back into the void.
I already have a plan. I always do.
The heavy doors of the cafeteria groaned open.
The academy staff filed in like ghosts, their faces impassive as they began the process of scrubbing the blood from the tiles.
Kath arrived with a team of nurses, lifting the broken form of Sunless onto a stretcher without a single word.
They moved with a practiced silence that suggested this was nothing more than routine.
By the time the sun rose, the floor would be polished and the air would be clear.
In the eyes of the academy, nothing happened today.
I looked down the floor and remember how Sunless stared back at me from there.
Cassie, in your last vision where I looked down the void and the void stared back... I believe you confused a vast shadow for the void.
***
It was the day of the solstice. A heavy, dreadful silence permeated the cafeteria.
Every sleeper wore an expression of suppressed terror, but Kiyotaka and Sunless were nowhere to be seen.
Kiyotaka had chosen to remain in the medical wing. He sat in a chair beside the bed, watching the rise and fall of Sunless's chest until the light slowly returned to the other boy's eyes.
Sunless blinked. The first thing he saw was Kiyotaka's impassive face.
He instinctively moved his mouth and felt his tongue, whole and functional, anchored behind his teeth. The shattered bones and ruptured skin had been mended.
He looked around the sterile environment of the medical wing, his gaze lingering on the corners of the ceiling.
"Am I being recorded right now?"
Kiyotaka shook his head once. Sunless let out a long, weary sigh.
"Why did you not enslave me after figuring out my true name?"
Sunless knew he was not a slave. He could feel the boundaries of his own soul, yet he was certain Kiyotaka had deciphered the mangled syllables he had uttered in the cafeteria.
He did not enjoy being a piece on a board he couldn't see.
"Because I wouldn't want to be a slave to someone else myself, A deal of mutual interest is enough for me."
Sunless stared at him, the memories of the brutality flooding back. He looked toward the corner of the room where his shadow stood.
The dark silhouette offered a small, mocking wave.
Sunless reached for a cup of water on the bedside table and drank deeply, his throat still feeling the phantom ghost of the pressure points.
"How did you even know I had a true name, or what it does?"
Kiyotaka poured a glass for himself.
"My true name is [Untold Ruin], and my aspect is divine. I recognized the weight of your presence. The disparity between us and the others was too great to be a coincidence. You are a divine rank too. I simply used your established personality to bridge the gaps in your runes, and your runes to explain the rest of your personality. The incident with the PTV was the first piece of the equation."
Sunless had expected as much. The similarity in their capabilities was a silent admission of their shared status.
He went quiet, processing the logic. If the First Nightmare was a trial tailored specifically to the individual, then the runes were not just data; they were a manifestation of the soul.
He realized that one could predict the trajectory of a person's entire path if they understood the core of their being.
Kiyotaka had mastered a form of cold, analytical empathy that allowed him to see through the skin and into the mechanism of the person.
Sunless closed his eyes. He thought of the question, what would you feel if someone truly understood you?
He felt an unprecedented, burning hatred. It was not the frantic panic, but a cold, solidified loathing.
He did not want to be understood by this creature.
He wanted to surpass him. He wanted to win at the game Kiyotaka had designed.
The true name [Untold Ruin] echoed in his mind, a title that carried the weight of a catastrophe.
Two ethereal chains manifested in the air, shimmering with a faint, ghostly light.
One end anchored itself to the essence of Kiyotaka, while the other hovered before Sunless. Their souls were connecting again, forming a bridge across the void.
Sunless accepted the weight, Read the chant and spoke.
"I vow."
Sunless spoke first, his voice steady.
Sunless: He must not tell my true name to anyone in any given form.
Sunless waited. He watched Kiyotaka, wondering what kind of anchor the boy would place upon him.
Kiyotaka spoke his half of the contract.
"Sunless will fulfill three of my wishes in the dream realm. They will not be unreasonable, nor will they put him in unnecessary risk."
"I vow."
The chains tightened, glowing momentarily before sinking into their skin and vanishing.
"Now get away from my sight."
Kiyotaka nodded and started walking away as Sunless looked to his side towards a interesting rune.
[You have received an Aspect Legacy, Shadow Dance.]
'So... This is the so called skill I achieved by myself and not through luck.'
***
I walked down the corridor toward the cafeteria, my footsteps echoing in the hollow space.
I have broken all the ties that I once intended to save.
Jet no longer considers me someone honest. Cassie has asked me for time, her presence retreating behind a wall of silence.
Even Sunless has stopped using his humor with me. The talk we had in the medical wing was monotonous.
It was his way of stating, without words, that he no longer wants to be associated with me.
I made multiple ties and I cut them all.
I truly have no one left now.
Sunless has already improved in a single night.
He did not ask for the other methods I used to learn his True Name, he probably knows them by now. He just needed guidance.
He did not act shocked when he saw me. He did not have his usual wit. He simply let whatever I wanted happen so he could get over with it and leave my presence.
He likely understood that I manipulated him over the last twenty seven days.
I invited him into my plans, I trained him, and I let him see through the outer layers of my designs.
I did it to make him comfortable with me. Comfortable enough that he believed he could see through me.
He surely understands now that the time my Flaw activated in the police station was only because I allowed it to happen, Letting him think that he can use it to defeat me.
The moment he woke up today, he realized everything.
I sighed.
This is the way things are supposed to be. The likes of me do not deserve genuine friendship from anyone.
The silence of this corridor is heavy.
I find myself thinking about the nature of this conclusion.
I have spent so much time calculating every move, yet I find myself standing at the end of a segment that feels fundamentally wrong.
This is an undesirable note to finish on.
I have achieved the tactical goals, I have secured the Vow, and I have mapped the truth of my [Ruined Heart], yet the victory tastes like ash.
I reached the cafeteria and walked toward where Cassie was sitting.
"So... Your answer?"
Cassie did not turn her head fully. She just looked toward the sound of my voice.
"I will tell you once we meet in the dream realm."
The warmth she once carried was gone. Her voice just carried a hint of coldness.
I nodded and walked away from her toward the area where we were going to sleep for the Winter Solstice.
Even Kath will probably disappear from the face of the earth tomorrow. I made sure of it.
I sighed once again.
This is a particular ending that I did not like.
I had thought through this possibility before, I had weighed the cost of isolation against the gain of control, but going through it is different. The air feels thinner. The colors have disappeared from my life.
Is this really what I wanted? Power over everything else?
I searched for the truth and I found it, but the truth has left me in a vacuum.
I am the architect of my own desert. I have built a fortress so perfect that no one else can fit inside it.
I looked at my hand. I was using [Divine Ledger] to write all of this. It is a good way to record something important.
If somewhere in the future you are reading my records through the [Divine Ledger], I welcome you to a journey.
This journey is a story where I made the mistake of putting power over genuine connection in my time at the academy and paid for it with a silence that screams.
I have won the battle against my peers, and perhaps I have even begun my war against fate, but I have lost the person I was when I started.
And I am afraid I will keep losing myself as Time goes on.
I looked up at the ceiling. It was white.
No matter where I go, no matter how many miles or realms I put between myself and that facility, the color follows me.
In the end, I am still running away from that place, yet I am standing still.
I tell myself that I want to change.
I tell myself that I want to experience the world as others do, through the messy, uncalculated lens of emotion. But I am not able to.
When the moment comes, when the soft knock of vulnerability finally hits the door, my heart does not flutter. It does not skip a beat. Instead, my instincts take over like a cold machine starting up in a dark room.
I start analyzing every single minor detail. I look at the dilation of a pupil, the twitch of a finger, the slight hesitation in a voice. I look for the leverage. I look for the exit.
I don't want to be this way. I want to be able to look at Cassie and see a girl, not a collection of prophetic data points.
I want to look at Sunless and see a friend, not a divine variable to be balanced.
But I have no choice but to remain like this.
I want to change, but my body recognizes peace as a threat. It views genuine connection as an opening for an attack.
To the instructors in that white room, a human heart was a weakness that needed to be purged. They succeeded. They replaced it with a processor that values survival above all else.
This way of living is a quiet, sterile prison. I can calculate the trajectory of the stars and the hidden names of gods, yet I cannot calculate how to simply exist without a purpose.
I am the masterpiece of a legacy I despise, trapped in a loop of my own efficiency.
I looked at the white ceiling again, It is the color of my beginning, and I fear it will be the color of my end.
Nothing happened today. Nothing ever happens except the continuation of the plan.
I got up to the bed and laid down as they put oxygen masks on me.
To whoever is reading my records, Don't turn out like me, Living in control isn't worth it.
I am losing myself and I will continue to lose myself.
I just want to forget everything and go back, This world is changing me to the version I never wanted.
I felt myself sinking in sleep as I left the waking world and entered dream realm.
To you, Who is reading...
I welcome you... to a story of inevitability.
𓁹𓁹
Main story - [Trapped In Chains of Fate] Volume 1 End.
******
I am not really good with endings, I guess.
I find myself staring at the finality of these words and wondering if they carry the weight they should.
It is hard to find a stopping point when the journey itself feels like an endless loop.
Did you all like this volume?
The question feels hollow as I type it, but I find myself needing to know.
Was the ending undesirable? Yeah. I did not want such an ending either. I wanted the ties to remain unbroken. I wanted the colors to stay in the world a little longer. But that is just how life is.
Actions have consequences that no amount of planning can outrun.
Even a masterpiece of strategy cannot negotiate with the cold reality of a bridge burned.
I do not know what else to write here. I will just make an author note and publish it in a few days. There, I will explain what is to come in the future and when the next segment begins.
I will explain the mechanics behind the curtain, like how Sunless reaching aspect legacy in academy actually makes a little sense...
I will address the plot holes that appeared in the heat of the struggle.
I do not want to break the vibe of the ending.
I hope you liked this volume. I hope you liked this story. Most of all, I hope you liked me as an author, even if I am the one who had to turn the lights out on these connections.
Peace.