Fall of Innocence (純真の堕落 / Junshin no Daraku)

Hajime, Rei, and Izumi never saw what happened next. At the same time, they rested beneath the leaves of Eryndral, a storm gathered in the distance, one that would someday tear their world apart.

The city of Zebulum never slept. The rain glazed the streets until they shimmered purple beneath the lantern light. Taverns roared with laughter, gamblers argued loudly, and the smells of oil and incense filled the air. The city's noise was its heartbeat, proud and unrepentant.

Naoto Aigami slipped through the crowd unseen. Vendors shouted about Emberwine and prayer stones, soldiers toasted to false victories, and somewhere a woman sang off-key while the world ignored her. No one noticed the small boy weaving between them.

He turned down a narrow alley where the laughter faded. At the end, a crooked door awaited, half-lit by the glow of a street lamp.

“Mom?”

“Come in, Naoto. Close the door behind you, honey.”

Her voice was soft, making the house feel alive. A lamp burned on the table beside a pot of thin stew, and she smiled when she saw him.

Then his father spoke from the corner. “You’re late again.”

Naoto froze. The smell of liquor replaced the warmth of food.

“He was just being a kid,” his mother said. “Please, stop.”

“You always defend him. You love him more than me, don’t you?”

“He’s our son. You’re fucking insane.”

The man started laughing as corrupted Seiki coursed through his veins. The lamp flickered.

He grabbed her by the neck and began choking her. “I try and try, and all you ever do is care about that fucking brat.”

Naoto stood there, frozen in fear of the world and his father, just as he always had. He wanted to help her, but his feet wouldn’t move. 

Naoto's mother turned her head, and with a strained voice, she smiled and said, "Run, Naoto, please... live on."

It was in that moment that the father became consumed with hate. He snapped her head clean from her neck. Blood started gushing all over the wooden floor.

Rain pounded on the roof. Naoto stood in disbelief, staring at his mother's lifeless body. Naoto's father stood up angrily.

“You’re the reason she’s dead,” his father snarled as if the words were a blade. “Now you’re going to fucking die.”

Naoto walked toward him with breath that would not steady. A voice at the back of his skull hissed. He could not make the words out yet. It sounded like someone calling his name from far away.

Naoto stood before his father, who was glowing with corrupted Seiki. He was ready to join his mother and end his life.

That's when he remembered his mother's final words. "Run, Naoto, please... live on."

Suddenly, Naoto grabbed his father's hammer from the table right next to him and plunged it right into the front of his face, knocking him to the ground.

Naoto started screaming hysterically, "Die, Die, Die, Die, you bastard, stop-hurting-me!"

He kept plunging the hammer into his father over and over and over again.

After about five hundred strikes to his father's body. He crawled through the blood and flesh to his mother's corpse, cuddling her, crying, and broken.

When dawn arrived, guards in dark cloaks kicked the door open. They found the boy sitting on the floor between two still figures. The entire interior of the home was covered in blood. 

“Did he kill them both?” one guard asked. 

Naoto whispered, “He hurt her... So, I made sure he wouldn't hurt anyone ever again...” 

The second guard snorted. “We don't have time for a lost cause like him. Forget the scene and leave him to rot.” 

They walked out, letting the rain close the door behind them. 

Naoto sat for hours, staring at the blood-soaked wall. The candlelight faded into ash. Finally, he whispered, “What am I going to do now?” 

A voice answered from nowhere, soft as breathing. 

Don't worry, Naoto, I'm still here for you.

He looked around. “Who’s there?” 

I've always been with you, Naoto. You just couldn't hear me yet.

He closed his eyes. “Will you stay with me, please?” 

Always, my boy.

The warmth of those words felt real, and he believed them. 

No one came for the boy by the next morning. He began living under the chain bridges, learning to steal, survive, and listen to the voice. The voice stayed with him, speaking when the world was silent. 

“Why do you stay with someone as miserable as me?” 

Because I've been alone my entire life, too.

“What are you?” Naoto asked. 

A lost soul, just like you.

He smiled. “Then maybe we can be friends!” 

Of course, we can. 

Years passed. Zebulum grew richer and crueler, while Naoto became quieter and leaner. The voice grew louder now, still gentle, teaching him which alleys were safe, where to hide, and when to move.

You don’t need them.

"I know," he answered, "but I still wish they noticed me."

They will.

"How?" Naoto asked.

Trust me, one day everyone will know your name.

He did trust the voice in his head.

Thunder rolled through the night like drums, followed by the sound of bells ringing from the western gate. The Celestine Order had attacked the Chainbound Doctrine again. Their white banners flashed across the skyline, swords glinting as they descended on Zebulum’s outer wall.

Naoto climbed to a rooftop to get a better view. The soldiers looked like beams of light cutting through the darkness, but that light burned everything it touched. 

They set fires and then pulled back before the Chainbound Legion's army could regroup. From his perch, Naoto watched them retreat down the main road, soaked and angry. 

One of the soldiers threw his helmet aside. "This is pointless. We're losing men for nothing."

Another spat, "Where the hell is Rei?"

"He said he had something more important to tend to," someone shouted. "Where did he run off to this time?"

Lord Hayate Tsubasa barked, "Enough! Mount up. We ride back north before their reinforcements find us." 

Naoto stepped out from behind a broken cart. "Please," he called, "take me with you. I’ll work, or I can be your slave. I’ll clean your weapons. I can fight if you teach me. Just don't leave me here."

Lord Hayate Tsubasa turned his horse to face him. "You from Zebulum, boy?"

Naoto nodded. "Yes, but I hate it here, and—"

"Then die here," Tsubasa replied.

Laughter followed as they rode off into the rain. Naoto fell to his knees, laughing. "I just wanted a chance..."

The voice came softly.

They mocked you for wanting to get help.

“I only wanted out of this hell,” cried Naoto.

The Celestine Order doesn't actually care about helping others. They only care about their damn divinity.

Lightning crawled across the clouds. Chains along the street trembled. A dull red glow crept through the cracks beneath his feet and along his body.

“Oh no, it's happening again,” he panicked.

The air shimmered. A child-shaped shadow stepped from the light, faint and gray, its eyes glowing like dying embers. It looked to be about his age. The rain passed through the silhouette without a sound.

The shadow reached out its hand. “It’s time to claim this power, Naoto. Stop letting them hurt you.”

Naoto stared at the hand, then reached forward. Their fingers touched.

“I trust you.”

The light spread outward, chasing the rain away. 

The ground split beneath him, and a column of pale fire tore through the sky. Every chain in Zebulum rattled, ringing like a thousand voices in mourning.

Naoto’s eyes turned gray as the shadow spoke through him. 

“Light of the Unforgiven.”

A beaming pale light shot out from the sky, and for a moment, everything in the vicinity was consumed by that light.

When the storm ended, the lower ward was silent. Smoke drifted over the blackened stone. Naoto sat in the center, trembling but alive.

“Did I do this?” 

We did.

“Are they all dead?” 

Most of them. I believe Lord Hayate Tsubasa teleported.

“So... no one can hurt us anymore, right?” 

That’s right. You’re safe now.

He smiled faintly. “Thank you.”

Always, Naoto.

The rain began again, gentle and steady. Naoto listened to the voice settle in his thoughts, like warmth spreading through cold water. For the first time, he felt a sense of peace instead of fear.

“Are you a Will?” Naoto asked.

Yes.

“What’s your name?” 

The answer pulsed through the rain, calm and sure.

Naoto whispered it. “Ashen King.”

Somewhere above the clouds, a bell rang once and then stopped. The boy smiled. 

The rain washed the ashes into the gutters. The city kept breathing, unaware that beneath its chains, the child who wanted love had found it in the one being who would end the world.