---
A chill wind swept through the dim, humming corridors of the strange prison they were trapped in.
Ren opened his eyes slowly. The air felt wrong—thick with pressure, dense with silence. He was chained, not by steel, but by glowing bands of energy that pulsed with a rhythmic beat, like a heart not his own. Next to him, Himari stirred, her aura flickering faintly in defiance. Aiko remained unconscious, curled like a flame struggling to stay lit.
"Where…?" Himari's voice came out hoarse. She touched the restraints, frowning. "This place isn't normal."
Ren closed his eyes again briefly. "It's not physical. This prison's alive… watching us."
Footsteps echoed in the distance.
Haru groaned nearby, lying on his side. "Void-crafted bindings. They're messing with my senses. I can't feel Yuki's aura. I can't feel anything."
Aiko stirred, her breath sharp as she shot upright. Her eyes glowed faintly—whatever she saw inside the void still lingered behind them.
"Yuki…" she whispered.
Ren looked at her sharply. "You saw something."
"I saw everything," she said, her voice trembling. "Not just his power. I saw what he might become… what they want him to become."
A silence fell. Even the air seemed to hold its breath.
Then the sound returned—an eerie hum from above as a figure emerged, their face hidden beneath a hood of light and void. A being neither man nor creature, radiating authority.
"You will train," it said in a voice that didn't echo—but commanded.
"Train?" Ren asked, already tensing his aura. "You kidnap us and expect us to listen?"
The entity didn't flinch. "Because if you do not grow, you will perish before your purpose is fulfilled. Each of you is tethered to the kitsune's path. Whether by fate or chaos, your survival is no longer personal—it is necessary."
Aiko's eyes hardened. "Where is Yuki?"
The figure simply pointed toward the wall—where an image flickered like a tear in space. Yuki, surrounded by fragments of himself, was battling in silence. Time around him moved faster—each second here felt like an hour for him.
"He is in the Core," the figure said. "Where time flows as it must. Where power is forged or devoured."
The bindings faded.
"Now," the voice said, "it is your turn."
The chamber shifted, opening into a vast arena of floating platforms, shifting gravity, and elemental chaos. Training would not be given—it had to be survived.
---
---
Yuki stood alone.
The Core was silent now. A boundless expanse of shifting space where time refused to move in a straight line. Shadows danced around him—echoes of past selves, of battles fought and memories lost. Here, the void wasn't just a power. It was alive.
And it was watching him.
His body floated, suspended in nothing and everything at once. Every second in this realm felt like years outside. The energy here was raw—volatile. Pure reality warped and folded around him like an endless ocean.
He'd trained endlessly. Failing, breaking, rebuilding.
The void manipulation that once tore away at his mind… now curled around him like a second skin. Controlled. Patient.
But the other half—the reality warping—remained unstable.
He reached forward with both hands, feeling the power spark between his palms. One dark, one glowing faintly blue-white. Two forces clashing inside him, each trying to dominate the other.
His voice cracked through the silence. "I don't want control... I want balance."
The moment he said it, the Core trembled.
A vision spiraled around him—memories of Aiko's aura, Ren's words, Himari's presence… even Nogitsune's cryptic guidance. And something else—a thread, golden and thin, connecting all of them to him.
Yuki narrowed his eyes and opened his palms.
The void swirled up from the floor, while a second wave—his inner reality bending light—spilled from his chest. He pushed both forces together, feeling them tear at him, trying to unravel him.
But he held them.
Fought them.
Unified them.
His body screamed. His vision blurred. Blood trickled from his nose. The realm shattered and stitched itself back together around him.
And then—silence.
In that stillness, a new form emerged. Not kitsune, not human. Something in-between. Ethereal markings stretched across his body, and a new tail of shifting light and darkness formed behind him. The void around him no longer swallowed the light. It reflected it.
Yuki collapsed to his knees, breathing heavily.
"I'm not done," he muttered. "Not until I bring them back."
The Core pulsed once—like it approved.
Then, in the distance, something stirred. A doorway, forged from woven time and reality, began to open.
Yuki stood tall again.
He was ready.
---
Yuki stares at a floating number above his head.
"What the… 40 power stones?! Are those edible? No? Whatever they are, thanks!"
Ren shakes his head. "You're hopeless."