Kei woke up in his apartment bed.
The light streaming through the window hit his eyes like burning needles. Everything ached: his arms, his back… even inhaling felt like a titanic effort.
For a moment, his memory failed him. He couldn't remember what had happened.
Dizziness returned like a relentless wave, making his head reel.
He slowly turned to one side.
Yuto was sitting near the bed, brow furrowed, his eyes glued to the paper they had found next to Varyss. His fingers drummed nervously on the table in an almost imperceptible rhythm.
Kei tried to sit up. A piercing pain shot through his head, wrenching a gasp from his lungs.
"Hey… Yuto…" his voice came out dry and shaky. "Where… are the others…?"
Every word felt twice as heavy as usual.
Yuto looked up immediately. His eyes reflected a contained worry—almost a silent fear.
"They're in the living room," he said, carefully placing the paper on the table. "How do you feel? Can you get up yet?"
He moved a bit closer, measuring every gesture as if he feared a sudden movement might break everything.
Kei pressed a hand to his forehead, breathing slowly, feeling every muscle protest. His vision was still blurred.
"I think… yeah…"
He managed to sit all the way up, his joints creaking like old wood.
Fragments of the fight came rushing back: open wounds, dizzy spells, falls… and then… darkness.
His gaze fell upon the paper.
"Is that… it?"
Yuto nodded slowly, with a mix of respect and caution.
"Yeah. I've been reviewing it while you were asleep."
He paused, weighing his words.
"I don't think… it's just an address."
The air in the room grew thick and heavy, as if every molecule held a bated breath.
The silence was almost tangible.
This wasn't just a location. It was the start of something that could change everything.
Kei felt a strange knot in his throat. The uncertainty forced him to stand up, ignoring the throbbing pain. The silence weighed too much on him.
Walking out, he saw Eirene leaning back in a chair, her brow slightly furrowed, concentrated on a book she held delicately.
He approached slowly. I fell like my mindis going to explode... he thought. He clutched his head and sat across from her, still exhausted.
"Ugh… if only that knight wasn't such a pain," Eirene muttered, closing the book with a soft thud that echoed through the room.
Kei looked down. The silver title shimmered softly under a ray of sunlight, barely visible:
"Kimi no Echo… Boku no Kishi…" he whispered.
He looked up, squinting at Eirene. Something about that name felt vaguely familiar, but he chose to ignore it.
"Eirene... are we really going where the paper says?" he asked, his voice trembling slightly, his leg restless.
Eirene looked down and let out a breath, leaning further into her chair, exhausted.
"I get it… I don't want to go either," she said quietly. "But if we don't, we might lose something important."
She closed her eyes for a moment, weighing the risk. She knew it could be a trap, but ignoring it… could be worse.
"Besides…" she added, "since that man appeared, things haven't been 'normal' anymore."
The silence that followed weighed like stones.
A few hours later, Kei and Kael were preparing supplies: flasks of water, dried food, bandages, and the little they could carry without slowing down. No one spoke much. The air was thick with tension—more like unease than excitement or hope.
When they were finally ready, the group gathered at the apartment entrance. None of them seemed truly convinced.
But they set out anyway. Not out of bravery, but because curiosity… and the premonition that something had already begun… outweighed their fear.
They walked through the capital. Silence dominated the streets; some inhabitants watched with fear, others with sadness. The echo of their footsteps rang out between houses damaged by recent conflicts.
"Man… looks like it was rough…" Arata said, observing the collapsed roofs and cracked walls.
Kei kept his head down, fatigued, every step serving as a reminder of the previous fight.
These clues.. I have a bad feelingabout this... he thought, trying to straighten up, but his steps were weak and slightly stumbling.
Yuto held the paper firmly, checking every symbol and letter for clues.
Eirene scanned the shops boarded up with planks, guard patrols watching every corner, and exhausted mages raising walls with unstable spells, fighting against the wear and tear.
Kael walked beside Kei, healing his minor wounds while watching the people who whispered names as they passed, feeling the weight of the capital on his shoulders.
Finally, they arrived at a village that seemed… strange. Familiar in a way.
Kei looked up.
"This village… it feels familiar…" he said, the unease and sense of insecurity taking hold of him again, making him shiver.
"Have you been here before?" Eirene asked, her eyes scanning every corner. "Man… this place… doesn't look very safe."
The wind carried the scents of burnt wood and freshly baked bread. The streets were empty, with some damaged houses, doors creaking in the breeze, and the faint murmurs of villagers echoing in the distance.
The silence was fraught with tension. Every shadow seemed to stretch the fear further.
Kei could feel that something was strangely out of place. Eirene touched her chin, suspecting the same thing.
Suddenly, a hum cut through the stillness: Kei's chronograph marked nine o'clock exactly, with no apparent explanation.
"It's just stuck at nine… doesn't seem to be moving," Arata said, leaning in to examine it. Something in the watch was reacting to… something invisible.
"Maybe it's a detector," Yuto whispered, crossing his arms.
Kei let out a sigh and started walking again.
"We can't get distracted; we have to get to the marked spot," he said, fixing his gaze on a building at the end of the street.
It was old, with small, repeated windows—some broken—rusted chimneys, and a subtle pulse that seemed to emanate from the very air. Without thinking, he began to approach, driven by curiosity and the strange pull of something he could barely comprehend.
Kei approached the house slowly, each step heavy with the uncertainty gnawing at his chest. The wood beneath his feet groaned with a sound that seemed to amplify his own fear.
Finally, with a sigh, he decided to push the door. It moved barely an inch before a prolonged creak resonated through the whole room.
"What is this…?" he whispered, more to himself than the others.
Carefully, he pushed the door all the way open. A gust of damp air and dust hit his face, making him cough.
The interior was organized chaos. Shelves lined up to the ceiling held flasks of brightly colored potions with barely legible labels. Metal and glass tools, some with inscriptions Kei couldn't understand, lay scattered across tables. A large map occupied the back wall, with two red pins stuck in unknown locations. Threads and diagrams connected everything as if someone had tried to decipher the flow of a world Kei barely understood.
With one more step, Kei planted his foot on the floor… and suddenly, a metallic click rang out under his heel. A spike trap erupted from the floorboards, piercing the wood like a steel knife.
"Damn it!" he yelled, pulling his foot back quickly, groaning as he withdrew it from the trap, feeling the sting of pain.
Kael immediately leaned over him, examining the wound.
"Tsk… these are traps designed to keep intruders away," he muttered, frowning. His eyes scanned every corner, searching for more invisible dangers.
The air in the room was dense, laden with the smell of metal, parchment, and residual magic. The shadows from the shelves moved with the light entering through the door, as if the house itself were breathing and watching them. Kei swallowed hard and took another step with extreme care, feeling how every movement could trigger another deadly mechanism.
Yuto entered cautiously, his eyes scanning every shadow and corner of the laboratory. Every shelf, every flask glowing with strange colors, was a potential threat. His hand tensed as he passed a table… just in case.
"It's clear… or it seems to be," he muttered, without lowering his guard. His gaze landed on the map on the wall, and he took a decisive step toward it, quickly examining the pins and the threads connecting them, as if every detail could tell him a secret.
Eirene crossed the threshold behind him, observing the shelves full of potions. She leaned over one, her fingers brushing glass jars containing liquids that seemed to bubble with a life of their own. She evaluated every label, looking for what might be useful… and carefully pushing aside anything that smelled like danger.
Arata advanced toward the tables filled with unknown tools and gadgets. His eyes widened in surprise. Every instrument seemed designed with impossible precision, far more advanced than anything he had ever imagined. His hands moved almost instinctively over the edges, admiring the engineering and wondering what secrets those objects might hide.
Kael remained with his hands over Kei's foot, applying soft spells that made the pain gradually subside. Every tense muscle slowly gave way, and finally, Kei was able to stand. He wasn't completely healed, but his stride was firm enough to keep going.
"Guys, come here," Yuto said, his eyes fixed on the map as he carefully traced every line and mark.
The five of them hesitated for a second, exchanging glances. Uncertainty floated in the air, heavy like the dust rising with their footsteps. Finally, they approached, observing the map that seemed to radiate something more than mere ink.
Yuto pointed to two red pins that stood out on the surface: one in the Northern Spiritual Province, the other in the South. His fingers trembled slightly as he touched them, as if the map itself were reacting to his proximity.
"It's not just geography…" Yuto whispered, more to himself than the others. "He knew what he was doing."
A chill ran down all five of their spines. The stillness of the laboratory, the distant murmur of the villagers, and the pins lit by the light filtering through the window seemed to scream a silent warning: Varyss was no ordinary man.
Kei clenched his fists. Curiosity was still pulling at him, but now there was a thread of fear keeping him alert.
Eirene ran a finger along a thread connecting the pins and noticed it vibrating ever so slightly. A small click echoed through the room, reminding them that this place was alive… and that someone had prepared everything for them to discover it exactly like this.
Arata took a few steps back, examining the tools and artifacts with wide, wandering eyes. Unintentionally, his hand brushed a small metallic panel that emitted a faint click. The wall trembled for a moment and, before their eyes, a section slid slowly away, revealing a hidden door.
Kei approached carefully, limping slightly. His heart hammered in his chest, and every creak of the wood under his feet seemed to amplify his fear.
Behind the door, the secret laboratory unfolded like a forbidden sanctuary. Capsules lined up in rows glowed dimly: some empty, others with small lights indicating they contained lesser spirits, floating in suspension like small orbs of energy. Strange artifacts hummed with residual energy, and glass jars held liquids that changed color, reacting to the presence of the intruders. Papers, scrolls, and files were piled on desks and shelves, covered in symbols Kei couldn't decipher.
Yuto advanced with caution, inspecting the documents and maps. His fingers brushed the edges of the parchments, noticing how some seemed to resonate faintly with Nexus, as if they recognized Kei's presence.
Eirene, approaching the capsules, carefully examined the suspended spirits. Her eyes widened as she noticed patterns in their energy: some seemed unstable, others slept in silence, and one spirit, in particular, seemed to throb stronger than the rest.
Kael stayed by Kei's side, helping him remain steady as they moved forward slowly, every step measuring distance, every gesture full of caution.
At the back of the laboratory, a shelf larger than the others seemed almost sacred. On it sat a file titled in golden letters: Project Zero Resonance. A faint glow emanated from it, and the very room seemed to lean toward that point, as if the entire laboratory were ready to reveal its secret only to the one who managed to reach it.
Kei swallowed hard and took one more step, the pain in his foot completely forgotten in the face of curiosity and tension. Although he couldn't read the golden letters, his eyes wouldn't pull away from the file, and a shiver ran down his spine: right then, in that moment, he knew they had found something that could change everything.