The swirling black portal pulsed in the air, emitting a sound too low to hear — more like a pressure that throbbed behind their eyes.
No one spoke.
No one moved.
A shape began to form within the dark mist — tall, cloaked, gliding rather than walking. The mist twisted unnaturally around it, drawn to its form like smoke to flame.
The figure stopped just beyond the archway, and beneath the deep hood, there was no face — only a black void, and in it, two white, glowing eyes opened slowly.
"You have crossed into the realm of the forgotten," the figure said, its voice layered — many voices in one.
"You do not belong here. But your presence has already disturbed the balance."
"You have awakened your power in a land that punishes the gifted.
Now the Veiled will hunt you.
The Hollow will follow.
And Valoria will test your every breath."
It lifted one skeletal hand and pointed to the ground. A burning symbol scorched itself into the stone — a broken circle, a jagged line splitting it down the middle, and three glowing dots spiraling outward.
But just as the figure began to turn away…
It stopped.
The glowing eyes shifted — and locked onto Shoto.
"…And you, Shoto," it said, its voice dropping into a deeper, darker tone.
"There is something inside you that should not exist."
The temperature dropped. Everyone stiffened.
"You are not like the others.
Not just awakened… but chosen by something older than this world.
Even I cannot see what you will become.
But they will fear you.
And they will try to break you before you understand what you are."
Then — in one fluid motion — the figure vanished into the collapsing portal.
A flash of light. A deafening crack.
And it was gone.
⸻
The group stood in stunned silence, staring at the glowing mark left behind.
"…What the hell just happened?" KJ finally whispered.
Shoto didn't answer. He couldn't.
Because deep down, something in him had stirred at those words.
And it wasn't afraid.