Someone knocked on his door. Not the sound Nicholas expected after sending his Obsidian Beast to massacre everyone. He stepped up to the door, trying to understand how anyone could be knocking right now.
His first guess was Yuki herself. Maybe the Obsidian Beast hadn't gotten her yet and had moved on to someone else.
Backing away from the door, he dragged a chair into the middle of his room and sat down, watching as the knock kept going and going with no end in sight. Then it finally stopped. Nicholas waited, eyes fixed on the door.
A sudden breeze brushed the back of his neck.
He tried to look over his shoulder, but chains whipped around his throat and hauled him back, cutting off his breath.
He clawed at the chain with his fingers, desperate to keep it from choking him, but it was useless.
Still, he kept scraping at it, fighting to catch even a bit of air as the pressure tightened.
He forced his head back as far as he could, trying to see the culprit. For a second, he caught a blurry image of Yuki standing behind him, choking him to death.
Glyphs on the back of his black gloves flared with a dark glow.
He gritted his teeth, putting everything he had into it. In his desperation, knowing it was the only way to survive, he let go of the chains and clapped his hands together.
A warm wetness hit his back. Blood trickled down his neck and soaked into his collar. The chain around his throat loosened as air rushed back into his lungs.
He turned his head back only to witness Yuki lying flat on her stomach, her back slashed open by his Obsidian Beast's shadow sword.
Agh...that was close...
His Obsidian Beast appeared right on time. But summoning it had been a complete gamble. If he hadn't let go of the chains and clapped his hands when he did, she would have choked him to death. There was no second chance.
But it paid off. In truth, the creature was a cursed spirit from the unseen realm somehow bound to his relic item. He never understood how the creature appeared less than a second after he clapped his hands.
It was one of the few things that didn't make sense to him. There should have been some type of portal between the two worlds to allow his Obsidian Beast to travel to his location. But instead it just spawned wherever he was, instantly.
In the past, he tried to understand the origins of his relic item but came up empty. The only things he knew came from the gloves themselves.
The moment he first put on his relic item, the creature's name and nature flooded into his mind. Its true name was the Obsidian Shadow Wraith. A relentless fighter-type cursed spirit.
"Well, Yuki Ayano, It seems fate is on my side. However, do not worry i will make your death swift so you do not suffer."
The Obsidian Beast raised its shadow sword above Yuki's exposed back and drove it down.
However, The shadow blade stopped right above Yuki's skin as a distorted command ripped through the room. Both Nicholas and the Obsidian Beast turned toward the source.
"Fall." A distorted voice came from the dark portal.
Nicholas's eyes widened.
"What—!"
Before he could finish, an invisible force crushed him face first into the floor. His stomach hit the ground so hard the air left his lungs.
Beside him, the Obsidian Beast's shadow blade dissolved into nothing as the creature collapsed under the same weight.
Neither of them could move. No matter how hard he pushed against the floor, his body refused to lift.
"The Sorcerer King has returned?! No. Wait. The bone-tooth necklace should no longer be in the King's possession."
Slowly, two people stepped out of the dark portal, and Nicholas' eyes widened.
"You two?!"
Two figures stepped out of the dark portal. Riko was one of them, which he had suspected earlier as she was the one who made the portal to begin with.
But the other made his blood run cold. It was Yuki Ayano. Another one. Standing right there while the first one lay bleeding on the floor behind him.
How? th-that can't be possible?!
Riko lowered her hand toward Nicholas, the bone-tooth necklace hanging against her neck, glowing with a bright white light.
"It's finally over. You will pay for your crimes against the Hoshigiri Family."
Yuki crouched down and lifted her injured look-alike, taking the girl's arm around her shoulder.
Her eyes were closed and her breath was shallow. Yuki carried her into the bed and laid her down, then removed her clothes to check her wounds.
"How can there be two Yuki's in the same room? Huh? Explain yourself!" Nichoasl said.
A laugh broke from Yuki's lips.
"I didn't realize how dumb you were, maybe I should have killed you the first chance I had."
Nicholas' eyes widened.
"What?!"
Yuki glanced his way and sighed.
"Weren't you the one who told me about demons shapeshifting? And yet you still fell for it? Pretty embarrassing, i must say."
Nicholas turned his head to see Yuki's look-alike slowly transform back into Sayuri, her blonde ponytail darkening into jet-black, silky hair. Her body grew in size, and she opened her left eye while keeping her right eye closed.
***
Some time had past as they tied Nicholas to a chair and tore off his relic gloves, leaving his wrinkled hands bare.
Shame flickered across his face. Then, without warning, Riko seized his throat, his eyes bulging.
"You killed my mother. You think I'm going to let you live? Think again."
Yuki caught Riko's arm.
"No. I have a better idea. Let's use my 'Deathmark' instead. This way we'll know why these disappearances are happening in the first place. Plus, I'm sure you want to know why he killed your mother. Right?"
Riko, with a heavy heart, agreed and stepped aside.
At this moment, Yuki held the power to end this man who had caused so much grief to so many people, including her best friend Riko.
She remembered the last time she used her 'Deathmark', how her paranoia and hallucinations had swallowed her whole.
They still did. But she had learned to live with them, to manage them.
She realized certain emotions fed her trait, pushing her past the edge, and when that happened her eyes hollowed out and her thoughts twisted into something she barely recognized.
Even so, she pushed that aside. All because she would gain a new trait, maybe one worse than the one she carried. She accepted that fact all for a chance to help Riko and to find out the truth.
Loud footsteps pounded toward the room before a knock hit the door.
"Hey! Open the door!"
Riko opened it and saw Koji, his eyes widening in joy. He crushed her in a hug.
"Y-you're alive… Are you alright?"
Riko smiled, a small chuckle escaping her lips.
"Yeah. This scumbag captured me and dumped me in the basement to rot. But I'm fine otherwise."
Koji took a few steps into the room and saw Yuki standing in front of Nicholas, who was tied to a chair.
A chain lay on the floor beneath them. When he looked toward the bed, he found Sayuri lying there, with Yuki's clothes.
"It's clear now. You bent the crystal shard's vision in your favor, didn't you?"
Yuki narrowed her eyes.
"I wouldn't say that.."
Koji covered part of his face, barely hiding his excitement.
"See, the thing is, Yuki, my relic crystal shard was never clear on the details. However, I taught myself how to read and predict the outcome of the fragmented visions. And the funny thing is, once I used my relic crystal long enough, I realized clarity was never a necessity, at least in my case."
Koji closed the distance between them, as he leaned down.
"At some point, I predicted many deaths to such a level you would never comprehend. Like how it happened. Who'd be there. All from those fragmented visions. And all of them with one hundred percent accuracy. With that being said, I must confess. You have exceeded my expectations."
Yuki grinned as she aimed her finger at Nicholas.
"Well, actually… I don't think I've done anything special..."
Confusion crossed Koji's face as he grabbed her shoulder.
"Why is that? And what are you planning to do with him?"
A violet glow flared from Yuki's chest.
"Something I should have done a long time ago."