The desert winds were no longer dry—they screamed.
Yukio and Shigure barely made it back to the surface before the sands erupted again, not with tendrils this time, but with shadows. Swirling, flapping, unnatural shadows.
Feathers—black, burnt at the tips—began to rain from the sky. Each feather hit the ground like a dagger, slicing into the sand with a hiss.
Shigure's eyes narrowed.
"They've sent the Revenant Crows," he muttered.
Yukio looked at him. "Who are they?"
Shigure didn't respond immediately. Instead, he unsheathed his blade, its edge glowing faintly with a violet aura.
"They're not just enemies," he said finally. "They're messages."
Yukio felt the temperature drop. The pendant around his neck pulsed erratically, as if trying to warn him.
Arrival of the Crows
The sky cracked open, revealing six cloaked figures descending in eerie silence. Their bodies were slender, wings protruding from their backs—some feathered, some metallic. But none of them had faces.
Instead, their heads were crowned with crow skulls, bound by black flame.
One of them, the tallest, pointed at Yukio with a jagged claw.
"Ryouji Kurobane... rise or fall, the chain begins anew."
Yukio clenched his fists. That name again.
"I'm not him," Yukio growled. "I'm Yukio, and I make my own path!"
But the Revenant Crows did not argue. They attacked.
The Test of Ash and Feather
The battle that followed was like nothing Yukio had seen before.
The first Crow flicked its wings, sending a wave of corrupted wind that shattered the ground. Shigure intercepted with his blade, his every move surgical and precise—but he was outnumbered.
A second Crow teleported behind Yukio, its claws reaching for his spine.
Yukio ducked, spun, and for the first time—his hand burned with a strange sigil.
He didn't know how, but instinct took over. The ground beneath him surged, forming metallic spikes from sand, which impaled the approaching Crow mid-air.
Shigure glanced at him with shock.
"You've awakened your Core Technique…"
"What?"
But there was no time to explain. Three Crows circled above, chanting in an ancient language. A black sigil formed in the air.
Shigure's eyes widened.
"They're summoning the Gate of Withering Memory—we can't let that open!"
The Past Bleeds In
The sigil opened.
For a moment, Yukio stood not in the present, but in a war-torn past.
He saw Ryouji Kurobane again—this time surrounded by corpses, kneeling, his armor cracked, hands soaked in blood. He wept. And above him, the Crows circled, just like now.
One of them descended and whispered in Ryouji's ear:
"Power is the lie that fools the heart. You are no savior. You are the catalyst."
And Ryouji... laughed. Bitterly.
"I'll burn the heavens if that's what it takes," he replied.
Return to Battle
Yukio snapped out of the vision and let out a cry—not of fear, but of fury.
"Enough!"
His body reacted.
The Ironblood Core within his chest pulsed, and his arms glowed with silver lines. Metallic plates formed on his skin like armor. His eyes turned steel-grey.
He leapt into the air, catching a Crow mid-flight, and slammed it into the ground. The earth exploded beneath the impact.
Shigure, seeing the tide shift, dashed between the remaining foes with precise elegance. He whispered a name:
"Kagekiri no Sanzen – Shadowcut Thousand Flash."
In three seconds, three Crows fell.
Only the leader remained.
The Crow's True Voice
The last Revenant Crow removed its skull helm.
Underneath was not a monster, but a young woman—pale skin, eyes like black glass.
She looked at Yukio with something like sadness.
"You think this is a battle," she said, voice hauntingly calm. "But this… is your reminder. You are not the hero. You are the echo of a forgotten mistake."
Then she turned to Shigure.
"And you, watcher… how long will you delay the truth?"
Before either could reply, she crumbled into feathers, which scattered into the wind.
The storm ended. Silence fell.
Aftermath and a Name Forgotten
Yukio dropped to his knees.
He was exhausted—not physically, but mentally. The visions, the voices, the names that weren't his but felt like memories. He touched the pendant.
"Who was Ryouji Kurobane…?" he asked aloud.
Shigure looked away.
And in a rare moment of hesitation, said only:
"Someone I once called… friend."
Yukio's eyes widened. "You knew him?"
Shigure nodded.
"And if your awakening continues, you may come to hate me for it."
Yukio stood, fists clenched.
"No more running. If I'm tied to this… I want the truth."
Elsewhere… the Master Watches
Far from the desert, in a hall of obsidian mirrors, the shadowed villain watched.
He smiled for the first time.
"He resists. Good. Let the chain tighten."
A woman in white stepped forward, her eyes covered in cloth.
"Shall we prepare the next stage, my lord?"
The villain stood, his body tall and lithe, horns curving from his temples, eyes burning like twin suns.
"Let him believe he's chosen," he said. "Soon, his memories will return. And with them… the world shall burn once more."