In the courtyard of the Kaatoumo house, Flint sparred with his father, Nayako.
A jagged black scar marred Nayako's left cheek, its edges rough and unmistakably real. Flint bore only two thin, sharp black lines on the left side of his forehead no large scar, just those precise marks.
A small boy clung to Flint's right hand, staring up with wide, curious eyes.
"Brother," the child asked, "why don't I have cool powers like you and Father?"
Flint smiled down at him.
"Because…"
The smile vanished.
A sword flashed.
It sliced clean through the boy's neck.
Noyu's small body remained upright for a single heartbeat, fingers still wrapped around Flint's hand, before it crumpled. Blood sprayed in a bright arc. The child's mind hadn't yet caught up with his own death.
Nayako froze. His knees buckled. Trembling hands reached out.
"Noyu… my son…"
A cold voice cut through from the boundary wall.
"Let your son sleep."
Flint's teeth ground together. His fist clenched until the knuckles whitened.
"You… you'll pay for this."
Another figure dropped silently into the courtyard.
"We're here for the Ghost Vault," the newcomer said, calm and measured. "Hand it over, or the Kaatoumo line ends today."
Nayako rose, fury burning away the shock.
"You Darkens won't leave this place alive."
The man on the wall smirked.
"Violence, then."
He leaped down.
Nayako charged the first. Flint lunged at the second.
Moments later Nayako lay dead in the dirt, both arms severed at the shoulders, dark blood pooling from his mouth. The black outline of his scar had faded to nothing.
One Darken hung pinned to the wall, a sword driven through his chest.
Flint collapsed near the entrance, vision blurring in and out.
The second Darken stood swaying ear and mouth leaking vivid blue blood, clothes shredded. His hand clamped around a woman's throat, lifting her effortlessly. She dangled, gasping, nails clawing uselessly at his wrist.
The Darken leered.
"Asami Kaatoumo… let's see if you carry a Divine Scar."
He drew a knife and dragged its edge toward her collar, ready to cut.
A sharp sonic pulse slammed into the back of his skull. The Darken flew backward, crashing into the house wall.
Asami dropped free. She stumbled to Flint the one who had unleashed the wave.
"Stay away from my mother," he rasped.
Asami reached him, trembling, terrified.
"Flint…"
"Go," he said. "I'll handle him."
She hesitated.
"For my sake," he added softly.
Tears brimmed in her eyes. She nodded.
"Son… come back to me."
She fled toward the trees.
The Darken rose, clutching his skull, fury twisting his features.
"Why won't you just die?"
Flint stepped forward, fists raised.
Asami stopped beneath a distant tree, chest heaving. She glanced back, praying Flint would follow.
"Why today… why?" she whispered. Tears fell freely. "Flint…"
Flint burst into the house and emerged clutching the Ghost Vault a barrier-like box with a swirling black portal embedded in its front face.
The Darken waited, blue blood still pouring, yet somehow standing. Faint pulses of light moved beneath his skin as the glowing cells gathered power.
"Give me the Vault, you bastard."
Flint ignored him. Clutching the box to his chest, he sprinted and scaled the boundary wall.
The Darken snarled. Blue light surged through his arms; the veins beneath his skin ignited.
"Water Drive!"
Wakeboards materialized in mid-air before him. Massive spinning orbs of water hovered beside them, reflecting the eerie glow of his blood.
"Take this!"
Flint leaped from the wall just as the attack hit. The stone exploded into mist and vapor.
"I won't let you escape," the Darken growled, blue blood dripping from his lips.
Flint raced toward the only house still standing nearby.
His eyes found Asami in the distance.
"Why did you stop?" he muttered through clenched teeth.
A single water droplet hissed past his ear.
He spun.
The Darken stood behind himnstill alive, still advancing blue blood streaming from every wound.
A man stepped out of the house, drawn by the constant noise.
"Water Shower."
The Darken's vision blurred as his glowing blue cells shattered inside his veins.
Countless water droplets spawned around the newcomer. They pierced muscle and bone before he could react. He gasped; crimson blood poured from the wounds.
"Akarum…" The name escaped his lips as his body finally gave out and collapsed.
"Did… did he…" Flint struggled to speak, eyes wide.
The Darken wasn't finished. Even half-blind, he lunged, driving a desperate kick into Flint's waist.
The Ghost Vault flew from Flint's grasp.
The Darken's final burst of strength spent, he crumpled, breath rattling to a stop.
Flint tried to rise, but shattered ribs screamed with every movement. He collapsed again.
Asami saw him and started forward no longer running, only walking.
Then a voice rang out.
"I'm back."
Akarum smiled as his house came into view.
"What's this?"
He bent and picked up the Ghost Vault.
"Stop him!" Flint shouted.
The effort tore a cough of blood from his lungs.
Asami rushed toward Akarum.
But his hand had already reached the core the swirling portal.
The instant his fingers touched it, black energy surged into his palm, absorbing like smoke into skin.
"It hurts!"
He yanked his hand away and hurled the Vault aside.
"What have you done?" Asami seized his shoulders. "You absorbed all the soul energy!"
"Leave me!" He shoved her off and staggered toward the house.
He glanced at Flint unconscious now, slumped beside a tree.
Asami hurried to her son and lifted his limp body. Sorrow carved deep lines into her face. It was too much.
Suddenly a raw, throat-tearing scream split the air.
Akarum stood frozen, staring at his father's mutilated corpse.
He whipped his head back, dropped to the ground, and clutched his skull with both hands.
"This person isn't my Sinu," he whispered, voice cracking. "He isn't. He isn't. No… that looks disgusting. Not him. Not possible."
His eyes shook violently with shock.
Akarum stood frozen, his mind spinning violently.
The sight before him refused to settle into reality. His brain clawed for any escape any explanation that wasn't this and finding none, it simply shut down.
His knees gave out.
He collapsed in a boneless heap, unconscious before he hit the ground.
Time slipped past in cruel silence. The horror lingered like smoke that refused to dissipate.
Later, how much later, no one could say, they reached Village of Queens. Asami gently draped a thin blanket over Akarum's still form. He lay on the narrow bed inside the house, chest rising and falling in shallow, even breaths.
Above his head hovered a small, faintly luminous sphere, no larger than an apple. It drifted slowly, casting soft violet light across his closed eyelids.
Asami paused at the doorway, one hand resting on the frame.
"Flint will be fine," she whispered to herself as much as to the sleeping boy. "Don't stress yourself."
She gave a small, determined nod, as though the words could become truth if spoken firmly enough.
Then she turned and walked left down the dim hallway, footsteps fading into shadow.
The sphere remained, silently watching over Akarum's dreams
A girl sat cross-legged on the floor beside an unconscious Flint.
Her right hand rested lightly on his forehead. The entire hand appeared scorched a deep, ashen brown every visible inch of skin darkened to near-black yet its edges were sharply outlined in pure, glowing white, like molten light traced along the seams.
White energy drifted upward from Flint's body in thin, wavering threads, drawn inexorably toward her palm.
With each pulse, the white outline around her hand flared brighter, as though feeding on the extracted light.
Her expression remained calm, almost serene, eyes fixed on Flint's pale face.
She did not speak.
She did not hurry.
Only the soft hum of the draining energy filled the hut, steady and unceasing.