Night settled over the desert like a heavy cloak.
Not peaceful night—no stars, no moon.
Just a vast, suffocating darkness that pressed against the skin, thick enough to taste.
The Whispering Obelisk glowed faintly at its peak, a thin pulse of violet light, like a slow heartbeat. The sand around it shifted in circular patterns, almost ritualistic, as if the desert were bowing to it.
Ayo broke the silence first.
"I hate this place."
Kasai grinned. "Congratulations. You finally developed taste."
Reina rolled her eyes. "Focus."
But even she couldn't hide her unease. None of them could. The closer they got, the more the air vibrated—like invisible fingers running across the bones beneath their skin.
Kaito stepped ahead, calm as always. "Stay close. Do not respond to anything you hear."
Kasai blinked. "Anything?"
Kaito's gaze hardened. "Yes. Anything."
They reached the base of the obelisk. The stone was blacker than night, smooth as polished glass. The runes along its surface glowed softly, shifting like flames trapped underwater.
A whisper drifted across the air.
Soft.
Cold.
Too close.
Ayo stiffened. "Did you hear that?"
"No," Reina said immediately.
Kasai smirked. "I think it just insulted my haircut."
Kaito ignored them. He traced his hand along a barely visible seam in the obsidian stone. The sand at their feet trembled, and a small rectangular doorway formed—like the obelisk carved it out of itself.
The darkness inside was absolute.
Kaito stepped in first.
One by one, they followed.
Only Kairo hesitated.
The whispers grew louder around him—like dozens of voices speaking in a language that shouldn't exist. They pressed into his ears, into his head, into the space behind his heart.
"Blood of the Hollow Star…
The lie lives beside you…
The thief walks ahead of you…"
He swallowed hard and stepped inside.
The chamber was nothing like what the outside promised.
It wasn't ancient.
It wasn't crumbled.
It wasn't abandoned.
It was alive.
Walls pulsed with faint light—deep purple veins running through black stone like the circulatory system of a giant beast. The air hummed with restrained Aether, enough to make the hair on their arms rise.
Reina whispered, "This place feels… conscious."
Kasai snapped his fingers. "So, alive-alive? Or creepy-alive?"
"Both," Reina said.
Ayo walked beside Kairo, watching him out of the corner of his eye. "You good, bro? You zoned out."
"I'm fine."
He wasn't.
The walls whispered again.
Ayo heard nothing.
Reina heard echoes of forgotten warnings.
Kasai heard laughter—mocking and familiar.
Kaito heard silence, and that worried him more than sound.
Then—
The hallway shifted.
Literally.
The walls rippled like liquid, doors appearing and disappearing in waves. The floor rearranged itself, guiding them deeper. No one questioned it. No one dared.
Until they reached the central chamber.
The room was enormous—circular, with a ceiling so high it vanished into shadow. Floating in the center was a crystalline sphere the size of a human head, held in place by chains of pure energy.
The relic.
It pulsed softly, like a sleeping heart.
Ayo whistled. "We doing this the easy way or the dramatic way?"
Kasai: "Dramatic."
Reina: "Safe."
Kairo: "Quick."
Kaito: "Quiet."
They all looked at each other.
Kasai shrugged. "Four-way tie. Let's go with dramatic."
Ayo: "Bet."
They stepped forward.
That's when the obelisk spoke.
Not through whispers.
Through reality.
The floor beneath their feet lit up with a giant, pulsating sigil. The chains around the relic rattled violently, and the sphere flared with blinding light.
"Kaito!" Reina shouted. "What is happening?!"
Kaito's expression finally cracked.
"This relic wasn't guarded by a creature…"
The ground split.
"…it's guarded by a memory."
The room exploded with light.
Images appeared in the walls like reflections in fractured mirrors—moments stolen from time.
A battlefield littered with bodies.
A temple collapsing.
A child crying beside a burning house.
A figure cloaked in shadows raising a hand over a dying man.
Kairo froze.
He knew that voice.
He knew that silhouette.
He knew that power.
But the memory collapsed before his mind could grasp it.
Reina grabbed him. "Kairo! Snap out of—"
The relic flared.
A blast of force threw them all backward.
Ayo slammed into the wall.
Kasai rolled across the floor.
Reina hit a pillar and coughed blood.
Kaito landed on his feet but slid several meters back, expression grim.
Kairo didn't fall.
The Mark on his skin ignited.
Aether flooded the room, bending toward him like dust drawn to gravity.
Kasai stared, wide-eyed. "Bro what—"
Reina whispered, "Kairo… your Mark…"
Kaito's voice rose sharply. "Kairo! Control your breathing!"
But Kairo didn't hear them.
He was staring at the memory still flickering against the far wall.
A lonely figure.
Walking away from a burning clan.
The same figure whose silhouette burned into Kairo's nightmares.
The one responsible.
The murderer.
And the obelisk whispered again—
Not lies.
Not illusions.
Truth.
"The thief is closer than you think…
…the power was stolen by the hand you call master…"
Kairo's heart stopped.
Kaito saw his expression shift—calm breaking, rage rising, grief twisting.
"Kairo—!"
Too late.
The relic shattered.
A wave of Aether blasted the entire chamber apart.
Sand poured in from the outside.
The obelisk groaned like a dying god.
The ceiling cracked.
Light exploded everywhere.
When the dust settled—
Kairo was gone.
Outside, under the dark desert sky, Kairo stood alone—breathing hard, trembling, fists clenched so tightly his nails drew blood.
The whispers were gone.
The truth remained.
He looked back at the collapsing obelisk.
"Sensi…" he whispered.
"…what did you steal from my father?"
His Mark glowed violently, lighting up the desert like a second moon.
For the first time—
Kairo did not return to the group.
He walked alone into the desert night, toward the truth that would shatter everything.
And behind him, the obelisk crumbled into dust.