Yuto stood in stunned silence, Aya’s words still hanging in the air like a curse.

“Your mother… she’s here.”

A thousand memories flashed through his mind—her laugh, the way she tucked his collar when he forgot, her smile that never faded, even when money was tight or nights were cold.

He had buried her three years ago.

She’d died of illness.

Hadn’t she?

✧ ✧ ✧

Aya spoke, her voice cracking. “Renji found her grave. Used the same ritual that brought us. But the cost… the soul wasn’t whole.”

Yuto’s stomach twisted. “What does that mean?”

“She’s alive,” Aya whispered. “But not as you knew her.”

Kael entered the room then, holding an old book, its cover sealed by fire-forged chains.

“It’s true,” Kael said. “There are forbidden resurrection rituals—ones that pull more than just memory. They reshape identity. If Renji used this, your mother may not even remember you.”

Yuto turned, face pale.

“She’s with him, isn’t she?”

Aya nodded.

“She’s his shield now.”
“His guardian.”

✧ ✧ ✧

That night, Yuto stood alone on the cliffs above Ashmark, his sword plunged into the ground.

He felt the Blood Sigil pulse.

Not with rage.

But with grief.

Lyra joined him, watching from a distance before finally asking, “What are you going to do?”

He answered without looking at her.

“Bring her back.”

✧ ✧ ✧

Elsewhere, deep in the Drazan citadel, Renji stood before a crystal basin, watching flickering visions of Yuto’s face.

Beside him, cloaked in obsidian armor, stood a woman with long black hair and silver eyes—calm, serene, and silent.

She moved with deadly grace, her hand resting on a curved blade pulsing with holy light twisted into shadow.

Renji turned to her and whispered, “He’ll come for you. You remember him… don’t you?”

The woman stared at the basin for a long time.

“I remember… warmth,” she murmured.

Then she blinked, and her expression hardened.

“But warmth fades.”

Renji smiled. “Good.”

✧ ✧ ✧

Back in Ashmark, the Exiles prepared for war.

Seris led Yuto, Kael, and Lyra into the hidden vault beneath the city—the Arx Primordium, a lost chamber of first-era relics.

“This is where we prepare for the final descent,” Seris said. “To face Renji… and whatever he’s become.”

Inside, Yuto’s blade absorbed a new enchantment: a sigil of binding, designed to shatter divine contracts.

Kael uncovered a map leading through the Hollow Spine mountains—where Renji was building a gate to tear open the barrier between worlds.

And on the final page of an old prophecy, Lyra found words that chilled them all:

“Only the betrayed may sever the pact.”
“Only blood may break blood.”

✧ ✧ ✧

That night, Yuto dreamt.

He stood in a garden of white sakura trees.

His mother sat on a bench, humming a lullaby from their world.

He stepped forward, but the petals turned to ash, and her face faded into shadow.

“Yuto…” her voice whispered.
“Don’t hate him… even if he becomes the devil.”

Yuto reached out—

—and awoke, sword gripped in hand, tears burning down his cheeks.