They fell.
Not in chaos.
Not in screams.
In silence.
Levi's 「Fallen Wings」 spread wide—shadow braided with fractured light, feathers unraveling into smoke and dusk. Cold mana currents caught them, carrying their descent past shattered battlefields, past ruined spires, past the last echoes of war.
The ceiling of the Abyss vanished above them.
Violet lightning faded into memory.
Here, there was only true darkness.
And the slow, patient drip of ancient water.
Aria clung to his side.
Her weight was light.
Her breathing was not.
They landed on a fractured platform—an obsidian outcrop suspended over endless black, its surface etched with runes so worn they barely remembered their own meaning.
Ruins.
Old.
Older than the war.
Levi's wings folded.
Dissolved into smoke.
His knees buckled.
Chains flared to life—violet sparks skittering across his arms.
SFX: CRACKLE—
Pain bloomed.
Deep.
Constant.
Aria caught him before he hit the stone. Her good eye searched his face, sharp even through exhaustion.
"You're burning up."
Not fever.
Strain.
⊳ Protocol Strain: 94%
He didn't show her the notification.
Just nodded.
They moved deeper into the ruins.
Columns rose like broken teeth from the abyssal floor. Murals clung to the walls—half-erased by time—depicting figures clad in regal armor, their wings vast and unbroken.
Not blackened.
Proud.
A kingdom.
Before the fall.
Before the cycle.
They found shelter in a narrow chamber. Small. Enclosed. A thin mana vein pulsed beneath cracked stone, its faint glow stirring dust motes into slow, drifting constellations.
Levi lowered himself against the wall.
The spear rested across his knees.
It hummed softly.
Steady.
Familiar.
Aria sat beside him.
Not across.
Close.
She peeled away fragments of shattered armor. Her wings folded tight, feathers matted with dark ichor that had long since dried.
Silence stretched.
Minutes.
Hours.
Maybe days.
The Abyss kept no time.
Only heartbeats.
Aria spoke first. Her voice barely rose above the dripping water.
"These ruins…"
"They're from the Old Empire."
Levi followed her gaze. The murals flickered faintly in the mana glow—thrones, councils, and at their center, a sovereign crowned with wings of pure shadow.
"Before the Monarch came," Aria continued.
"Before we were split into light and dark."
Her fingers traced the stone.
"Shadows weren't slaves then."
Levi's chains shifted.
SFX: CREAK—
He hissed despite himself.
Aria noticed immediately. Her hand hovered over the glowing scars etched into his skin.
"Does it hurt?"
Always.
But it was worse now.
Worse when he thought of freedom.
When he imagined choice.
"Yes."
She pulled back, then reached for her belt. A small mana crystal emerged—fractured, unstable. She crushed it in her palm.
Violet light spilled free.
She pressed it to his chest.
Warmth spread—not healing.
Sharing.
Levi felt her essence seep into him. Corrupted light intertwining with shadow. Not rejecting. Accepting.
The spear thrummed.
Runes ignited.
A memory surfaced.
Not stolen.
His own.
The first time he had held the spear—hands trembling, knees soaked in blood. Kargan's corpse at his feet. The battlefield silent except for his breath.
Thank you.
He spoke aloud.
"There was a master once."
Aria listened. Said nothing.
"He wasn't cruel. Not like the others."
"A Knight-class. He taught me how to parry properly."
Levi's gaze unfocused.
"He said I had potential."
"That Servants could be more."
A pause.
"He died shielding a retreat that didn't matter."
The spear's tip rested against stone. Shadows coiled lazily around it.
"I thanked him."
Aria's eye softened.
"You always do."
He nodded.
"It's all I have left of them."
The spear whispered.
Faint voices.
Kargan's daughter laughing.
A choir singing.
A lullaby murmured by a dying Knight.
They filled the chamber.
Not haunting.
Comforting.
Aria closed her eye. Leaned her head back against the wall.
"I sang once," she said quietly.
"In the choir. Before the fall."
Levi turned toward her.
"Harmony strong enough to shatter mountains."
A small smile touched her lips. Fragile.
"Now I only scream orders."
For the first time—
Levi reached out.
His hand found hers.
She didn't pull away.
Time passed.
The mana vein dimmed.
Brightened.
Dimmed again.
Levi's chains dulled. The pain receded—never gone, but quieter.
Yet the warnings persisted.
⊳ Protocol Strain: 95% — Fracture Imminent
He hid it.
But the spear knew.
It projected a faint veil—illusory warmth wrapping around them, bending perception, masking presence.
Distant sounds filtered through the stone.
SFX: FAR ECHO—
Crystal pings.
Administrator signals.
Scouting drones gliding overhead.
Levi tensed.
Aria's fingers tightened around his.
"They won't find us here."
Not yet.
He tested it.
Small choices.
He didn't rise when instinct screamed guard.
Didn't move to intercept when a distant beast roared.
Each defiance burned.
But something shifted.
⊳ Hidden Achievement Progress:
「One Who Chooses」 4/5 → Nearly Complete
The spear sang.
Louder.
Clearer.
Whispers guided him—paths through the ruins, fractures in ancient wards, places even Administrators had forgotten.
Aria opened her eye.
"You're different," she said.
"Freer."
Levi met her gaze.
"I don't want to go back."
She nodded once.
"Neither do I."
They split the last mana crystal evenly.
No master.
No Servant.
Just two shadows in the dark.
Levi whispered, "Thank you."
Not to a memory.
To her.
"For seeing me."
Their fingers intertwined.
The chains shuddered.
SFX: SOFT CRACK—
Far away—
A sharper ping.
An Administrator's voice, distant and cold.
"Anomalous Servant detected."
"Retrieve or erase."
They stood.
Together.
Hands still linked.
The deep quiet of the Abyss was breaking.
But in the darkness—
They had found something.
Not hope.
Not yet.
But enough.
Levi spread his wings—shadow and light interwoven.
Aria stepped closer.
The ruins watched.
Ancient.
Silent.
The hunt was closing.
But Levi Fang—
No.
Levi.
Was ready.
For the first time—
He would choose his own path.
The spear hummed its approval.
Memories aligned.
The Abyss waited.
But they were no longer alone.