"The First Shadow-Born Demon..."
The whisper curled through Asuma's mind like cold breath over glass.
They stood before the Noctyrix in stunned horror.
A Seven-Star.
A rank whispered only in history books and war hymns.
There was no strategy for this. No formation. No clever trick.
This was a calamity.
Then—
Her many red eyes locked with Asuma's.
And the world vanished.
Within His Consciousness
He stood once more in that fractured, endless void.
Before him floated the woman with the broken crown—her long dark hair drifting as though submerged in water, her presence both regal and suffocating.
"You brought me here again?" Asuma demanded.
"No," she replied calmly. "She did."
She tilted her chin.
At a distance within his mindscape stood another presence—vast, distorted, layered in shadow.
The Noctyrix.
Even here, she towered.
"How is she here?" Asuma asked.
"A demon of her rank can invade lesser minds at will," the crowned woman said. "But it seems my mere presence has unsettled her."
The Noctyrix shifted.
Her red eyes narrowed.
"She sensed something abnormal," the woman continued. "Pure instinct. She did not know what she sensed. Now she does."
"And?" Asuma pressed.
"And when you return to reality," the witch said flatly, "she will try to kill you first."
A chill ran down his spine.
"She's afraid of you," he muttered.
A faint, humorless smile touched the witch's lips.
"Fear is a strong word. Let us say... she recognizes hierarchy."
Then she pointed.
Floating in the void between them was an orb.
It pulsed like a heart.
Deep crimson.
Dripping.
Bleeding into nothingness.
It felt wrong. Heavy. Violent.
"I cannot lend you more of my power right now," she said. "Another entity is contesting me."
"What entity?" Asuma asked, though he already knew.
"That," she replied, indicating the orb.
He swallowed.
"That's from the Blood Primordial, isn't it?"
"Yes."
The word echoed.
"That power fights for dominance within you. You've only brushed against it."
He stared at the orb.
It pulsed harder, as if aware of his gaze.
"If you consume a fragment of it," she continued, "you may reach a state capable of immobilizing the Noctyrix."
"May?" he snapped.
"You are attempting to stand before a Seven-Star calamity," she replied coldly. "There are no guarantees."
"And the cost?" he asked.
She did not hesitate.
"You will lose a piece of your humanity."
Silence.
Far away in the mindscape, the Noctyrix shifted violently, testing the edges of this mental plane.
Black fractures spider-webbed through the void.
"She is breaking out," the witch said calmly. "You have little time."
"There has to be another way."
"There is a way to reseal her," the witch replied. "But you must immobilize her first. I will take control and complete the seal."
"You?" he shot back. "Why would I let you take control?"
"Because," she said softly, her presence swelling for a brief moment into something ancient and terrifying, "you cannot do it alone."
The cracks widened.
The Noctyrix roared inside his mind.
The sound fractured the sky.
"If she fully manifests in your consciousness," the witch added, "you will die before your body hits the ground."
Asuma looked at the orb.
Then at the distant, writhing form of Lyra.
He remembered the lake.
Anami laughing.
Latriys chasing dragonflies.
He clenched his fists.
"Damn it..."
He stepped toward the orb.
It throbbed violently in anticipation.
"This is a risk," he muttered.
"The demon outside is a certainty," the witch replied.
He closed his eyes.
And bit into it.
The orb ruptured.
Blood—thick, scorching—flooded his mouth.
It wasn't liquid.
It was power.
It forced itself into him.
His veins ignited.
He screamed.
Agony unlike anything he had ever known tore through him. His eyes turned blood-red. Veins bulged violently along his neck and arms, glowing faintly beneath his skin.
It felt as if something clawed at his soul from the inside.
He collapsed to one knee within the mindscape.
"What is happening to me?!" he roared.
"The Blood Primordial does not grant," the witch said. "It devours."
The void around them shattered further.
The Noctyrix broke one of the invisible boundaries.
She lunged.
"Not yet," the witch whispered.
Black chains erupted from the darkness, wrapping around the Noctyrix's limbs and horns, binding her in place.
She screamed.
Reality itself trembled.
The witch turned her gaze back to Asuma.
"Let the beast take half," she said quietly.
"What—?"
"You cannot dominate it. You must coexist."
His heartbeat thundered.
The red aura within him stabilized—barely.
One of his pupils split vertically.
Like a predator's.
His breathing slowed.
But his presence changed.
It deepened.
Darkened.
Something ancient awakened behind his eyes.
The witch watched him carefully.
"Yes..." she murmured. "This will do."
Back to Reality
Outside—
Asuma's body convulsed violently.
Black and crimson aura spiraled around him in clashing currents.
Amira turned sharply.
"Asuma?!"
Leon took a step back.
"What the hell is happening to him?!"
Urillia's Draak Eyes widened.
Two powers warred inside him.
One ancient.
One primordial.
The Noctyrix paused mid-movement.
Her many red eyes flicked toward Asuma again.
This time—
She hesitated.
Because what stood before her was no longer merely human.
Asuma slowly rose to his feet.
Blood dripped from the corner of his mouth.
His eyes glowed crimson.
The ground cracked beneath him.
The sea of shadow around the garden recoiled slightly.
He lifted his sword.
Black flames mixed with blood-red energy coiled along the blade.
When he spoke, his voice carried two tones layered together.
"Now..."
His gaze locked onto the Noctyrix.
"...try."