The Blaze of Despair

The creature rose until it nearly touched the ceiling of the Dome, its grotesque mass blotting out the last rays of light filtering through the structure.

Rei and Aoi stood side by side, their powers crackling around them—silver and gold intertwined, ready to fuse. The Resonance pulsed between them, warm, alive, waiting to be unleashed.

The newborn god watched them with dozens of red eyes.

“You’re planning to use your Resonance?”
Its voice echoed from everywhere at once, amused, condescending.
“Don’t dream!”

It raised a hand—if that writhing mass of screens and glowing wires could be called a hand—and struck.

The impact pulverized the floor between Rei and Aoi, hurling chunks of concrete in every direction. A shockwave sent them flying apart, thrown to opposite sides of the arena.

The Resonance faltered.

Distance. It had separated them on purpose.

“You thought I didn’t understand?” The newborn god’s laughter made the walls tremble.
“Your strength comes from your bond. Separated, you are nothing.”

Rei got back to his feet, spitting blood. Across the devastated Dome, he saw Aoi doing the same—fifty meters away.

Too far. The Resonance was still there, but weakened by the distance. Not enough for a full fusion.

The creature attacked again.

Tentacles of emotional threads burst from its mass, lashing through the air at impossible speed. Rei dodged the first, sliced the second with his silver flames. The third slammed into his side.

Pain exploded—not only physical.

Each thread carried emotions. Hatred. Despair. Obsession. Jealousy. Rage. They seeped into him like poison, trying to drown him in an ocean of suffering that was not his own.

He gritted his teeth and tore the tentacle from his flesh, but the damage was done. His body shook. His vision blurred at the edges.

On the other side of the Dome, Aoi hurled waves of golden light. They struck the creature, made it stagger for an instant—no more than a heartbeat—but caused no lasting damage.

Every attack was absorbed.
Every offense, useless.

“Don’t you understand yet?” The god’s voice was almost gentle.
“I am being fed by millions of people right now. Every notification. Every hateful comment. Every toxic obsession. I am invincible.”

Rei refused to give up.

He leapt toward the ceiling, bounding off metal structures to gain height. His flames intensified, focused, forming a spear of pure fire—everything he had, condensed into a single strike.

He hurled it into the center of the creature.

The impact was spectacular.

An explosion of silver light flooded the entire Dome. For a fraction of a second—a miraculous fraction of a second—the creature seemed to freeze. Luminous cracks spread across its surface.

Then it absorbed the attack as if nothing had happened.

The cracks closed. The light died.

“Pathetic.”

A massive fist smashed into Rei midair.

He had no time to dodge. The blow caught him square in the chest, sending him flying across the Dome. He crashed through three rows of seats—metal twisting, plastic exploding—before slamming into the wall with a force that made the whole structure shudder.

Something cracked in his chest. Several things, in fact. Blood burst from his mouth.

“REI!”

Aoi ran toward him, ignoring the tentacles whipping through the air around her. Her golden light formed an unstable shield—flickering, fragile—that deflected the first assaults. One tentacle slipped through, raking her shoulder. Another grazed her cheek.

She didn’t stop.

She reached Rei and dropped to her knees beside him.

“Rei! Rei, look at me!”

He coughed, blood running down his chin. But his golden eyes found hers.

“I… I’m fine…”
An obvious lie. Even through the weakened Resonance, she felt his pain. His broken ribs. His bruised organs.

“We have to fall back,” she said. “Find another—”

“No.” Rei’s voice was hoarse but firm. “There is no other strategy. We have to fight.”

He pushed himself upright with her help. His eyes fixed on the creature watching them, patient, amused by their despair.

“Kitsune have a special power,” he said slowly. “A forbidden one.”

Aoi felt her blood turn to ice.

“Rei…”

“Kitsune no Honō. The Fox’s Blaze.” His voice was calm—too calm.
“I burn my vital essence—everything I am, everything I’ve been for four centuries—to create a devastating attack. Powerful enough to destroy anything.”

“And ?”

“I die.” He held her gaze. “Just… the end.”

“No.” Aoi shook her head. “No, I don’t want—”

She never finished her sentence.

In that hell, something materialized. A spear. Made of condensed emotional threads, glowing blood-red, hurtling toward them at impossible speed.

Rei saw it coming.

No time to think. No time to calculate. Only instinct—an instinct screaming at him to protect her, to save her, to do anything so that she would live.

He shoved Aoi.

With all his strength, he threw her aside.

And the spear pierced him.

Time seemed to stop.

Rei looked down at his chest. The spear had gone straight through him, bursting out his back. Blood—his blood, silver rather than red—ran down the shaft.

His legs gave way.

“REI!”

Aoi’s scream tore through the Dome. She rushed to him, catching him before he hit the ground. Her hands trembled as she touched his face, searching for any sign of life.

His eyes were glassy. Fixed. Empty.

No. No, no, no.

She reached for the Resonance—desperately. That thread that bound them, that warmth pulsing between their essences.

Nothing.

Emptiness.

“Rei…” Her voice broke. “Rei, please…”

Tears streamed down her cheeks. She didn’t even notice. All she saw was his still face. All she felt was the silence where their bond should have been.

He was dead.

He had died to save her.

He was—

A beat.

Weak. Almost imperceptible. But there.

The Resonance. Not dead. Just… dying.

Aoi closed her eyes, focused with all her strength. And she felt him. Rei was still there, somewhere. His essence flickered like a flame in a storm, but it was not out.

Not yet.

She opened her eyes. Tears still fell, but something else now shone in her gaze.

Determination.

She gently laid Rei on the ground, smoothing his hair, wiping the blood from his chin. Then she stood and faced the creature.

The Kageyama-ōyurei watched her, its dozens of eyes gleaming with cruel satisfaction.

“Touching. Truly touching,” its voice echoed through the Dome.
“The little fox sacrificed himself for you. And now you are alone.”

Aoi didn’t answer.

She was thinking. Calculating. With Rei like this, fusion was impossible. They could no longer release the Resonance together. Their original plan was dead.

But there was one option left.

A desperate option. Probably suicidal. But an option.

She could dive inside the creature. Use her purification powers not from the outside—where they were useless—but from within. Find Kageyama—or what was left of him—and undo the fusion from the inside.

Harmonize the chaos.

She had done it before.

But this time, it was different. This was a god. A mass of emotions from millions of people. If she failed, if she got lost in there…

She looked at Rei one last time.

His pale face. His closed eyes. The spear that had pierced him had already dissolved.

He had sacrificed himself for her. Without hesitation. Without regret.

She could do the same.

She ran toward the god.

Tentacles whipped through the air, trying to intercept her. She dodged the first—spin to the left. Slid under the second—forward roll. Leapt over the third—using a broken seat as a springboard.

Her golden light blazed around her, brighter than it had ever been. Not to attack. To protect. To pierce.

“WHAT ARE YOU—”

She reached the writhing mass of screens and wires.

And she dove in.

The contact was like plunging into an океan of ice and fire at once. Millions of voices screamed in her head. Millions of emotions tried to drown her.

But she held on.

To her light.
To her identity.
To the dying echo of the Resonance that still bound her to Rei.

I will save you, she thought. I will save all of us.

Then the outer world vanished, and she found herself alone in the heart of the monster.