Laughter shattered the eerie silence like a blade through fog.
Daigo slung an arm over Yeaga's shoulder, blood still wet on his knuckles. "Man, I swear, if that last fight didn't kill me, your ugly-ass face might."
Yeaga didn't even blink. "Move your arm or I'll snap it in half."
Ishigo, wiping blood off his cracked glasses, sighed. "Can you two not be idiots for one minute?"
Daigo flashed a grin. "Come on, lighten up! We just cleared an entire level. Feels like a win to me."
Yeaga turned his head slowly, voice laced with ice. "Celebrating while standing on corpses is for children."
Daigo gasped, clutching his chest. "Damn. So cruel. And here I thought we were brothers in arms."
Yeaga shook him off. His voice dropped, quiet and cold. "I don't have brothers. I have burdens."
Silence settled like ash. Ishigo pinched the bridge of his nose. "We're entering Level 3. Can we focus?"
The battlefield ahead twisted like a nightmare—dead winds howling, shadows twitching too fast for the eye, clouds snarling in the sky like beasts chained in the heavens. The ground cracked and whimpered beneath their boots.
Daigo's bravado faded. He cracked his knuckles slowly. "Okay… yeah. This place might actually kill us."
Yeaga exhaled. Not annoyed. Not afraid. Just… peaceful. "Finally. Some quiet."
But Ishigo didn't speak. He stared forward, body locked.
Because something was watching.
Not a beast.
Not a human.
Something else.
A voice slithered through the wind, quiet as death, clear as glass.
"Three little mortals. Three little worms. How long will you last?"
Daigo grinned darkly. "Depends. How long can you scream?"
The world bent.
Air twisted. The wind fell silent. Then—like a scream through static—
It arrived.
A ripple tore through the landscape. A presence. Heavy. Ancient. Wrong.
Yeaga's eyes flicked. "There," he murmured. "Ahead."
Ishigo's breath caught. "It's not human."
Reika stepped into the heart of Level 3.
A frozen expanse swallowed the horizon. The air itself seemed to cut into her lungs, and her first breath crystallized instantly. Ice clung to her lashes, her skin stinging beneath layers of frostbitten pain.
But it wasn't the cold.
It was the stillness.
The kind of stillness that meant something terrible was waiting. Watching. Holding its breath.
The ice beneath her boots was pristine. Not cracked. Not worn. As if nothing had ever lived here. As if even death didn't dare linger.
And then she saw them.
Shikibans.
At first, she thought they were statues—tall, elegant beings frozen mid-motion, sculpted from glass and moonlight. But their eyes moved. Blue. Hollow. Dead.
Then their bodies followed. Effortless. Unnatural. Their glide over the ice wasn't walking—it was possession. As though the land obeyed them.
Reika's heart slammed against her ribs. She couldn't breathe. Couldn't blink.
They weren't alive.
They were something worse.
They were memory.
Of what the world used to fear.
Her knees weakened. The wind died completely. The silence pressed down on her, heavy as judgment.
She had fought beasts. She had faced monsters.
But this?
This was the universe staring back at her with no empathy. No care. No mercy.
Tears formed without permission, freezing instantly against her skin.
"I'm going to die," she whispered. Not loud. Just honest.
The Shikibans glided forward. No sound. No expression. Just absolute, suffocating pressure.
They were beautiful.
And they were going to erase her.
Her hand trembled toward her weapon, but even steel felt meaningless against this ancient force. Her body screamed to run. Her soul whispered to give in.
And then—
In the center of that spiraling, bottomless fear—
A flicker.
A spark.
A fire.
"Am I really going to die like this?"
She blinked through the blur. Her fingers clenched.
"No," she said. Her voice was small. But real. "Not here."
The Shikiban closest to her twitched—then lunged, its crystalline limbs cutting through the air like razors.
Reika moved.
The ice cracked beneath her boots as she dodged, barely, and slid low under its blade. Her heart thundered, her breath ragged.
"You think you can freeze me?"
She twisted, rising, blood rushing to her limbs.
"You think you can control me with fear?"
Another Shikiban charged. Reika's feet slammed into the ice, launching her forward. Her fists clenched, frost searing into her bones.
The first hit shattered its arm like brittle glass.
A shriek echoed across the void.
Behind her, a hundred more eyes turned.
They weren't mindless. They weren't slow.
They were aware.
And now—they were angry.
But Reika was already moving, each step faster, each strike harder. Ice shattered beneath her fury. Her breath became fire in the cold. Every beat of fear became fuel, pumping raw energy into her veins.
The Shikiban surrounded her.
One reached for her throat.
Too slow.
She twisted, slamming her elbow into its chest, breaking its core into shards that scattered like stars. Another came from behind. She ducked, spun, uppercut—its head exploded in a burst of blue light.
She was dancing through death.
She was becoming rage given shape.
Yeaga stood perfectly still, arms folded.
Daigo glanced at him, eyes narrowed. "You're awfully calm."
Yeaga didn't look away. "She'll be fine."
Ishigo blinked. "You're sure?"
Yeaga's voice was quiet, like snow falling. "She's not like us."
Daigo scoffed. "Oh yeah? She bleeds just like we do."
Yeaga's gaze hardened. "No. She burns. Even in this cold."
Reika's knuckles bled. Her breath came in clouds. The air was ice—but she felt fire.
The Shikibans kept coming.
She welcomed them.
One slammed into her ribs—pain exploded through her, but she spun with it, wrapped an arm around its neck, and drove it down—ice shattered like thunder beneath the impact.
Another lashed out.
She caught its arm and tore.
Their beauty meant nothing now.
Their silence was broken.
The ground cracked with each step she took. Power radiated from her skin like heat through a glacier.
"I am not your prey," she hissed.
The last Shikiban lunged, taller than the others, its blade arm glowing a deep, ghostly blue.
Reika's body screamed to run.
She didn't.
She met it head-on.
Her fists collided with its core—
BOOM.
The shockwave split the battlefield.
Ice cracked for miles.
The Shikiban shattered—core first—into a million glittering pieces.
And when the storm cleared, Reika stood at the center, panting, bloodied, alive.
Victorious.
Yeaga closed his eyes.
"She's done it," he said softly.
Daigo stared, jaw slack. "What the hell is she?"
Yeaga gave the faintest of smirks. "The one thing Shikiban were never prepared for."
Ishigo looked at him, brows furrowed. "And what's that?"
Yeaga's voice dropped to a whisper.
"A survivor who refuses to break."