April 18, 2059 — Depth-Shadow District, Subsector 99
Lightning howled through the chamber like a beast unchained.
Lin—no, the Black Reaper—moved in fluid silence. Each motion bled with lethal intent. His blade, Dendōzan (電導斬, "Conductive Severance"), surged with pure voltage, coursing atomic current through its obsidian edge. A trail of light followed his arc like a comet tearing through night.
Hirukushi met him with nothing but his palms.
The moment the blades clashed, vines exploded from the floor—living tendrils of twisted copper and root. Jumokushi no Ne (樹木死の根, "Roots of the Death Tree"). They burst like serpents, trying to pierce Lin's armor. He leapt, twisting midair. Atomic Crescent!—a slash of neon light cut through the roots, burning them to ash.
"You've changed, Reaper," Hirukushi muttered, his cloak fluttering in the wind of kinetic bursts.
"And you've gotten bolder," Lin growled. He drove his blade down like a judge's gavel. Sparks flew. Hirukushi vanished in a blink.
Seed Step. A teleportation technique fueled by terra-psionic seeds embedded beneath the district.
He reappeared behind Lin, palm glowing with green fire. "Tane no Kōrei!" (種の恒霊 — Eternal Spirit of the Seed)—a violent bloom of energy erupted like an orchid of death.
Lin spun, absorbing the shock with his cybernetic arm. Wires snapped. Electricity screamed across his visor. "You think plants can stop me?" he spat.
"No," Hirukushi smiled. "But she can."
Suddenly—pain.
A wave of anguish, raw and psychic, pierced the battlefield.
Eri.
Lin dropped to one knee, clutching his head. His HUD flickered red: Emotive Spike – Asseter Emergence Detected.
" Lin .....
" Nel ..... A girl stilling watching in stars....
" You have to save , Eri ..... Save her , Eri .... "
Lin was shocked because ... Spiriter cannot make order or wish or desire .... With Nel 's work Lin left ...
Elsewhere—in SSRC Facility, Subsurface Level 7—alarms wailed.
Eri's eyes shot open.
Her body arched off the cot, glowing with blue fire. The electro-stabilizers shattered. Rika Maezono stumbled back, shielding her face.
"Eri?!"
But Eri wasn't there anymore.
Her scream cracked the walls—inhuman, divine, hollow. Stardust bled from her pores as a sigil branded itself onto her chest, pulsing like a heartbeat.
She rose, hair floating like in water. Her voice was not her own.
"GATE: OPEN."
A portal, pure white, shattered reality above her. Energy poured into her core. Her body fractured and reformed. Armor of light cloaked her form. Wings—not feathered, but crystalline—erupted from her back.
She had become one of them.
An Asseter.
Her teacher, Hayama, had come to check on her recovery—an act born not of concern but obsession. But Eri remembered everything. The way he touched her. The things he said when no one listened.
When he saw her ascend, he backed away, trembling.
"E-Eri… I didn't mean—"
She didn't speak. She extended her hand.
A blade formed, not of metal, but pure psionic grief—shaped from every sleepless night, every moment she swallowed pain.
She stepped forward.
Zanshou no Himei. (残傷の悲鳴 — Scream of Scars)
One swing.
The walls were painted red.
Hayama died screaming.
SSRC Command — Hours Later
"She's gone," Rika whispered, staring at the shattered room.
Rin stood at the edge, her fingers trembling. The cameras had caught the whole thing—Eri's transformation, the execution, her disappearance.
"She wasn't herself," Rin muttered, though part of her knew—it was her. Every bit of her pain, finally freed.
"She called the Gate," Rika whispered. "Do you know what that means?"
Rin turned, face pale. "Tell me."
"She made a wish. A powerful one. And the Gate answered."
"But what wish?"
Rika stared into the static footage. "To never be hurt again."
Unknown Location — The Garden of Husk
Hirukushi stood before a massive tree of bones and light, its trunk pulsing with veins of silver. At its base sat Eri, knees to chest, cloak wrapped around her.
"You did well," he whispered.
She said nothing.
"You killed the man who hurt you. That pain doesn't own you anymore."
"...Will it ever stop hurting?"
"No," he said, stroking her hair like a doting parent. "But with me, you'll never be weak again."
Her fingers curled around the crystal shard embedded in her chest—the price of her wish.
"Am I still human?"
"No," Hirukushi said with a smile. "You're something better."
Neon Alley, Sector 21
Rain fell.
Rin met Lin beneath a cracked neon sign. He wore a new coat, burns still fresh on his arm. Her voice was sharp:
"She's missing."
"I know."
"She killed Hayama."
"I know that too."
"Where were you?!"
Lin's jaw clenched. "Fighting the monster that gave her the power to do it."
She paused, looking into his eyes. "...Hirukushi has her."
He nodded.
"And he's going to break her."
"No," Lin said coldly. "He's going to use her."
Elsewhere — Garden of Husk
Hirukushi stared into the sky, watching rifts open and close like blinking eyes.
"She's one of the Asseters now. And when the time comes…" he smiled, "she'll open the Second Gate for me."
The petals fell from the bone tree.
And the world tilted closer to ruin.
To Be Continued.