Chapter 4: The Word That Burned
The air still shimmered where the beast had vanished.
Ren's chest rose and fell rapidly, the echo of the strange word still buzzing on his tongue. Valthorien. He didn't know what it meant. He just knew… it worked.
The boy stared at him, breathing heavily, one hand over his glowing mark.
They stood in silence, both too overwhelmed to speak.
Eventually, the boy sat down on the cracked stone steps of the old shrine and said, "So… you got dragged here too?"
Ren nodded, finally catching his breath. "Name's Ren. You?"
The boy brushed dust off his torn jeans. "Akio."
They shook hands. Their marks flickered — and for a brief second, Ren felt something strange, like their minds had touched. A soft hum ran through his body, and the mark spoke again.
> "Link established. Survivor 01 and Survivor 02 — synchronized."
A shared glow passed between the symbols on their hands. Then silence.
Ren blinked. "Did you… feel that?"
Akio nodded. "Like... we're connected now."
They sat together as the wind whistled through the broken shrine. The world felt ancient and alive, like it had been asleep for centuries and was just now waking up.
"Where were you before this?" Ren asked.
"Library," Akio muttered. "Studying old Japanese legends. I've always been obsessed with the past. I wanted to be a historian." He looked around. "Guess I got what I wanted."
Ren chuckled faintly. "Yeah… just not how you imagined it, huh?"
Akio's expression darkened a little. "I thought I was going crazy when I saw that thing. I tried shouting, fighting—nothing worked. Until you showed up."
Ren stared at his hand. "That word… it came to me on instinct. Like the mark gave it to me."
Akio tilted his head. "Maybe we each have something like that. A magic word."
Ren nodded slowly. "The 'First Word' the voice talked about."
A silence fell between them as they took in the world again.
Above them, strange bird-like creatures with glowing feathers circled the sky. The trees whispered with wind and magic. This wasn't Earth. Not the one they knew.
Then, the mark glowed again. Another message echoed in their minds — both of them this time:
> "Survivor 03: Signal located. Distance: 3.2 Miles North. Estimated time to contact: 2 days."
Akio raised an eyebrow. "There's a third."
Ren smiled faintly. "Guess we've got a journey ahead of us."
As the sun dipped low, casting long shadows over the forest, the two boys began setting up camp near the shrine. They made a fire with sticks, used what little they had in their bags, and sat close to stay warm.
"Ren," Akio said suddenly, gazing at the stars.
"Do you think we're supposed to be heroes or something?"
Ren looked at his mark, still glowing faintly like a heartbeat.
"…I don't know," he said. "But I think this world is waiting for something. Or someone."
They both sat silently for a while.
In the distance, something howled — not like a wolf, but something older, and sadder.
The Forbidden Era was not going to make things easy.
But at least now… they were two.
---