Kaiza's world spun, all sensation blurring into a throbbing ache. Darkness pressed in from all sides, suffocating, impenetrable. His breaths were shallow, ragged gasps, but the world felt distant, as if he were sinking into an endless void.Not like this.The thought was in his mind, desperate and pleading. He could not let it end this way. He could not let Vernon win after all he had been through, not after all that Mina had given.A scream echoed in the quiet. It was a scream from a distance but unmistakable a scream so familiar that it stabbed him in the heart.Mina.Kaiza's chest constricted, fear overwhelming him, and he jerked up as far as he could go, his body acting on autopilot. But the agony was too much. His head pulsed, his limbs lacking strength, and he stumbled backward, falling back to his knees. Darkness surrounded him, swirling across his body like a deadly, enveloping fog."Get up," he muttered to himself, gritting his teeth as he forced his hands to the ground. He h

The air felt heavy with anticipation. Kaiza could feel its weight pressing on him, stifling and almost palpable. His fingers closed around the hilt of the blade: the only friend he had from all those struggles and tortures over the course of centuries. He did not know how long he could pretend to be a man again, because the night was closing around his body just as it seemed to close its noose upon his mind as well.Mina was in danger.She was the one thing that had driven him forward. She was that spark of hope he had held onto for such a long time. And here they were now, stuck inside a maze, which seemed to change with each step they made. Every corner brought them nearer to an enemy they didn't know much about, but there was one thing they knew they had to fight.Kaiza could make out the sound of low and guttural whispers, low enough that even the darkness cannot smother the breath. Others, beyond and before the oldness of eternity, crouch in his own world, threatening to tear up

It is dark, crushing. The world had narrowed for Kaiza to a single point: the throat, fingers crushing it, and the dark around him growing deeper by the moment. His heart pounded out a heavy cadence, beating in time with his impending doom. His lungs screamed as he fought to drag air into them, his body struggling against the pressure that would crush him flat. No. Not like this. His mind screamed in revolt, pleading for clarity, a way out. He could not let it end there. Not when Mina was still outside, not when so much lay at stake. And then one last hit of adrenaline went into his veins. His hand went shooting up to clamp fingers around the wrist of the figure, while that icy feel through its body had black ripples like living shadows inside of them. He did not care; it did burn, after all. But he couldn't stop. This is my fight. He clenched his hand around the figure's wrist and twisted his body, throwing all his strength into a desperate counterattack. The figure snarled, losi

The darkness suffocated everything, shrouding the room in heavy, oppressive silence. Kaiza's senses overload: his body is a searing mass of pain, yet his mind is sharp. He cannot afford to let his guard down now, not with Mina this close. The flash of a face, his mind still reeling from that brief, unholy glimpse, pulsed through his thoughts like an echo he couldn't silence. Tightening his grip on the pendant, the jade still glowing dimly in his palm, whatever was happening now, whatever just broke forth under the shadow of the creature, Kaiza wanted answers. He wanted them right now.But the answers didn't come. Not from the beast before him, nor from the chilly, lifeless walls that surrounded him. All Kaiza could hear was the uneven sound of his breath, the pounding of his heartbeat within his chest. Mina lay beneath him, shallow and fast with her breathing, and Kaiza could feel the weight of her fear pressing against him.Mina…" His voice cracked as he looked down at her. Her face

All at once, the world plunged into darkness for Kaiza. He felt nothing just the choking emptiness suffocating him against his skin, cold and unyielding. His limbs seemed weightless, yet impossibly heavy, as if floating through ink. He tried to get a gasp of air, but it refused to enter his lungs and seemed thick. Next came the sound: distant, whispering, like voices on the wind. They slithered into his ears, hissing his name.Kaiza… you belong to us now.Panic clawed at his mind. He forced himself to move, to fight against the tendrils constricting his body. But it was as if wading through tar. His strength was ebbing out; his mind was slipping away. Somewhere, beyond the void, he could still feel Mina her presence flickering like a dying ember.Then, a jolt of pain snapped through his body.Kaiza's eyes snapped open. He wasn't in the smitten room anymore. He stood barefoot on a sea of glass. It stretched endlessly beneath him, reflecting a churning sky full of storm clouds. Lightnin