The air inside the sanctuary was thick with tension. A fragile quiet lay draped over the halls, a silence not born of peace but of gathering momentum. Kazenari Rei sat cross-legged at the heart of the Spirit Chamber, eyes closed, the fragments of flame and void swirling around him like orbiting moons. Each fragment pulsed with ancient echoes—memories, regrets, unspoken truths. But today, they carried something else: expectation.
Outside, the sky churned with violet thunderclouds, unnatural in their formation. Rei could feel it. Something was pushing against the boundaries of his sanctuary, clawing at the veil of space with the subtlety of a whisper but the weight of an oncoming calamity.
Eirenne stepped through the chamber doors. She had dressed more simply today, no regal ornamentation or heavy bindings of formal spiritwear. Only the light of her presence shimmered.
"You felt it too," she said, voice low.
Rei nodded. "Someone is testing the edge of our realm. Not attacking. Probing."
Karasu stirred in his mind. "Not someone. Someones. And they're coordinated. This isn't curiosity—it's prelude."
Mireille joined them moments later, her steps silent, but her presence grounding. She held an old scroll, one that bore the sigil of the fallen Angel Grigori—an artifact she'd recovered decades ago.
"It's begun," she said, spreading the scroll across the chamber floor. Arcane diagrams flared to life. "They're activating a convergence ritual—designed to force Spirit Realms into alignment with physical planes. If they succeed, our sanctuary could be dragged into a dimensional knot. Everyone here would become exposed."
Rei's eyes narrowed. "Who's doing it?"
Noira entered from the shadows, her tone clipped and sharp. "The remnants of the Ashen Choir. And…" she paused, her voice tightening, "…the Sitri Household."
Rei's gaze turned to steel. "Sona?"
"No," Noira replied quickly. "Not her. But a radical offshoot—those who believe that control over spiritual convergence should be the next evolution of the three factions. They're acting independently. And worse, they've learned to harness artificial fragments."
For the first time in weeks, Rei stood.
"If they're using artificial fragments, that means the real ones are waking up faster than we anticipated. This changes everything."
He stepped to the altar at the center of the room and placed his hand on the Flame Core. It pulsed once, and then again, stronger.
> [System Synchronization: Spirit Convergence Module – UNLOCKED]
Karasu's voice echoed deeper than before. "If you proceed, the next steps will no longer be reversible. The moment you activate convergence, the veil separating Spirit and Reality will thin. And the factions will see you for what you've become."
Rei's answer came like water over stone. "Then let them see."
---
In the city of Kuoh, the Sitri manor flickered with controlled panic. Sona Sitri reviewed reports, her mind racing.
"Unauthorized spirit energy spikes from the west. Unaligned power signatures."
She tapped the map with trembling fingers. "Kazenari Rei... you were supposed to stay quiet."
Behind her, Serafall Leviathan appeared, arms crossed, uncharacteristically serious.
"You knew this would happen," Serafall said softly. "You just didn't want to believe he'd move this soon."
Sona didn't reply. She simply stared out the window.
And far beyond the horizon, thunder rippled across a violet sky.