They left the room in silence, having entered a door that led not to a historical site, but to a grave that had been dug for them. The air inside was colder than the previous room. The ruined city of Borreal above seemed to vibrate beneath their feet, as if mirroring the trembling in their hearts as they looked upon the desolate land, a vast graveyard with a cathedral that seemed to be fighting against collapse, a bell still hanging above it.

  As they passed through the door, the wind howled and hissed like a chuckling wolf. Suddenly, creatures more horrifying than the Varnished rose from cracks in the graves; their flesh was veined with black, their bones fused with rusted armor and long-dead roots, and dozens of their faces were hollow and sunken, some with skin stitched onto their backs. From the eyes on these stitched-on faces, blood wept as if mourning something they should not have done, but it was too late for all of that. Their screams were enough to shatter the eardrums of anyone who heard them.

  Kaelith nocked her bow and said, "Those aren't just beasts. They are the dead, forced to live again, though they are reluctant to rise." Sora saw the same thing Kaelith did, immediately drawing his sword and preparing his stance. His eyes were fixed on one thing that caught his attention upon arriving. These were not the protectors who had sacrificed their souls for Borreal, but the dissenters of the kingdom, sentenced by someone to resume their duty when their resting place was threatened. From the shadows atop the cathedral, right where the bell was, a figure laughed with a threatening tone that echoed throughout the empty space, filled with hidden intent.

  A figure appeared atop the cathedral in a long-tattered, ash-colored robe. A cracked porcelain mask shaped into a sewn smile presented a very real threat, a nightmare for anyone who defied it. "You found that room, did you?" the figure hissed at Sora and Kaelith, a threatening welcome with a voice that held a sneer, hoarse and heavy, yet pleased with their discovery. "Did it whisper sweet truths to you? Or did it offer the hope what we desired? Do you think the gods punished the Borreal kingdom? No... we begged for it to remain this way," the figure added, its tone changing like a venomous snake trying to draw in its prey.

  Black lightning split the red sky. The army of risen undead began to walk slowly toward them, ready to charge. The ruined kingdom would now speak its truth... with blood. The streets of Borreal burned once more, filled again with blood. Not by fire, but by the bloodshed of the undead army, their hymn the clash of their rusty swords against stone and steel, their war cry. Seeing that there was no room for discussion or sarcasm to avoid this uneven fight, Kaelith quickly released her arrows with devastating precision, each one seeming to carry a scream from her soul and the soul of the bow itself. Sora, meanwhile, moved like a ghost amidst the chaos; no war cry came from his mouth, no sound at all, only the slash of his sword singing like the wind in a graveyard, a melody to lull the dead back to their slumber. However, the undead army was vast and continued to emerge from the ground.

  Ten to one? No, the ratio was even greater than that.

  Unrecognizable undead creatures poured out of the ruined cathedral like lions released from their cage as the main event of a circus show. Some of them were giants clad in massive royal armor, while others crawled on all fours like a pack of hyenas, baring long, sharp fangs, their eyes fixed on Sora and Kaelith as their tender prey for the day. They were the echoes of a kingdom born from its own sins.

  Kaelith, firing her arrows, tried to reach a collapsed pillar whose ruins provided a good vantage point. She ran fast, dodging several attacks from the undead. Suddenly, an attack flew from the horde, and Kaelith grunted as a spear grazed her shoulder, its movement unpredictable. Her bow was nearly hit as well, but showed no significant damage. Kaelith rolled to the side and fired an arrow right into the eye of the undead that had tried to kill her with the spear. But the more they fought, the more undead came from the ground to replace those they defeated.

  And Sora... He was bleeding heavily after fighting the horde at close range, letting their attacks hit him. Yet, Sora did not lose focus, instead delivering powerful counter-attacks that felled several of them. As Sora continued to fight, he was unknowingly cornered. The undead had intentionally separated him from Kaelith, cornering one of them with their superior numbers. With his back to a large, collapsed wall, Sora's movement was minimal, unable to maneuver as the horde surrounded him. Suddenly, an undead knight with rusted armor and a broken sword, twice as large and strong as Sora, appeared. The knight's rusty sword pierced his side, and dark-colored blood, a curse that coated the blade, flowed from within. Sora tried to push the undead knight back and rise from the cursed attack, but the knight drove its blade deeper into his chest, giving him no chance to fight back. Kaelith, also cornered, managed to see Sora being overwhelmed by the horde and screamed his name. "Sora!" Kaelith tried with all her might to clear a path to help him, but the horde swarmed her, leaving no opening for her to get to him, just as they had planned. Realizing she was completely surrounded, Kaelith was forced to retreat slowly, firing her arrows until she ran out. She could only smile bitterly, knowing she had no arrows left, and finally resorted to fighting the horde with the staff she had made until her inevitable end.

  But. In the midst of the dire situation, things changed drastically when Sora's hand gripped the rusty sword that the undead knight had stabbed into his chest. A low hum pulsed from Sora's heart, like something that had been awakened but should have remained dormant. Instantly, Sora's grip tightened, and he tried to pull the sword from his chest. The knight, of course, tried to push the blade deeper with all its might, but Sora managed to free himself from the impalement and threw the knight's sword far behind him. Sora's stature now resembled a symbol long faded, now burning anew from within his chest. A fiery light burned like a blazing sigil, glowing red like an ember. His eyes opened wide, not from the wounds he received, but because the awakened power now flowed through his blood like a massive adrenaline shot. He gripped his fallen sword... and began to slash at the undead knight, giving it no opportunity to attack. The undead knight staggered back from Sora's relentless assault, unable to do anything but defend and watch as it was continuously struck. In one motion, Sora did not miss his chance; he swooped in like an eagle on its prey, his sword in hand and his tattered cloak like a burning shadow. Sora moved as fast as lightning, a speed no one had ever seen before. The knight tried to counter-attack from its defensive stance, but Sora vanished before its eyes and instantly reappeared behind it. His sword sliced through the knight's spine in a single, clean arc, putting the undead creature back to rest.

  Then Sora turned to the undead horde and charged at those who tried to surround and finish him. Kaelith, who had been trying to survive, saw something unnatural amidst the horde, as if a path was opening up in their midst. She watched as long as she could while dodging attacks and saw Sora in his unusual state, tearing through the undead with increasingly brutal and fast slashes. Kaelith could only freeze, her eyes wide. "What... are... you...?" Kaelith muttered as she tried to focus on the fight and understand who Sora truly was. Sora continued to slash his way through, opening a path for Kaelith to escape the encirclement. He ran to her to help her as she fought desperately with her jagged staff. With the tide turned in their favor, they charged into the dozens of undead that continued to appear. With the sword in his grasp, Sora cut them down like harvesting ripe wheat. The arc of his sword was red, like an ember that burned with every slash. The limbs of the undead were scattered across the dry, broken ground, along with the armor of undead knights. The bones of the undead cracked under Sora's slashes, sounding like he was felling a tree with a single blow. An undead beast tried to charge Sora with its dark, curse-laden fangs. However, Sora easily caught its jaw and crushed it with his bare hands, then threw the carcass into the crowd of the undead horde. Dark-colored blood soaked the surrounding stones.

  Kaelith saw the opportunity created by Sora's resurgence and re-entered the battlefield, her spirit ignited like a chaotic melody. When the immediate undead were cleared, Kaelith quickly collected her remaining arrows from the bodies, both the ones she had shot and old, worn ones. She managed to gather about 50 arrows and moved towards Sora, conserving them by using her staff for defense. The two of them were like a raging storm as they fought side-by-side, one silent and the other continuously striking with the jagged staff to open a path to the cathedral.

  But then. A bell tolled loudly from the cathedral, its low tone echoing around the area, a sign of impending doom. The undead army stopped instantly and turned towards the cathedral. Interestingly, when the bell rang, they all stopped what they were doing and walked towards the cathedral behind them. Once in front of the cathedral, they formed a circle, creating an arena of undead bodies for the intensive fight that was to come. The figure controlling the undead descended from the top of the cathedral, gliding down like ash. It was cloaked in a tower of bone created from the undead he controlled and crowned with a circle of bone and flesh, dripping with the dark blood of the undead. The figure wore a mask depicting a smiling mouth with stitches all over it and raised its hand to summon a magic staff made from the roots of a dead tree, with a black magic orb at its tip. "Now... let us see what you have found from the truth you saw earlier." After saying that, he vanished into the smoke he created around the arena in front of the cathedral. The figure had arrived not as a test, but as a being who had deviated from what he had once learned, becoming a king of the undead he now controlled. The real nightmare... had just begun. The cathedral gate behind the figure creaked open slowly, releasing a cold and unpleasant gust of wind, as if the figure's hand was calling upon a power to fight Sora and Kaelith. The figure stepped forward, its form changing like smoke, with a robe made from dead and rotting skins.

  Its staff glowed as its magic orb now emitted a deep black light; the orb seemed to be made of a cursed stone, and inside it, the flesh of the undead could be seen. The tip of its staff scraped against the stones and earth, leaving a trail of runes burned by the figure's dark fire. The air around him felt strangely thick, heavy, and foul with the screams of every soul bound to him as his undead army. A hoarse voice came from behind his mask. "You came to uncover what was lost from this kingdom. Allow me to offer... to tell you everything I know." He slammed the end of his staff on the ground, and the sky, previously a mix of red and purple, turned completely black and dark, without clouds, stars, or even a moon for light. The cathedral now appeared in its true form, blood-red, as the figure's magic took hold, and from the earth and stones around them, undead far stronger than before rose up. There were not dozens of them now, but hundreds of undead rising from the land of the dead. The figure resurrected men, women, soldiers, royal officers, monks, and even children. Their resurrected faces looked torn by time, their hands still gripping their weapons or bones, and their mouths were wide open as if seeing delectable prey. They readied their stances and then attacked Sora and Kaelith.

  Sora just stood still, watching the horde approach him, but he made no hasty moves. Instead, he walked slowly towards them with his sword ready at his side, then moved quickly as they came within his attack range. Kaelith gritted her teeth, seeing Sora's actions as beyond reason; he was not the ordinary human she had imagined, and a sense of regret from their first meeting haunted her as she witnessed his true power. "There's no way out of this fight. Not without a plan. But that's useless when things are like this." Kaelith said softly, readying her bow again and nocking an arrow, preparing to shoot with high accuracy and intuition, as she only had 50 arrows left. Kaelith moved quickly to the side to find a good spot to fire her arrows. When she reached a ruined building that offered a good vantage point for archery, Kaelith immediately shot the arrows she had collected from the undead. She also tried to shoot at the figure, but was blocked by the horde he had summoned. Sora did not look at the figure; he only looked ahead at the horde of undead summoned from the ground, which were much stronger than before.

  Then. After fighting for a long time and still being unable to reach the figure controlling the undead, Sora noticed something very strange about the cathedral bell. Wanting to test his theory, Sora immediately fell back to tell Kaelith, who was firing her arrows. Sora cleared a path through the surrounding undead, and when they were gone, his finger pointed to inform Kaelith of something, which made her follow his gesture. Sora pointed at the bell hanging above the cathedral. Kaelith, initially confused, tried to process Sora's meaning. She then realized something as the figure tried to revive its undead and the cathedral bell had just rung again. Kaelith blinked and looked at Sora. "Disrupt his summoning... with the bell?" Sora nodded, but the figure moved faster to raise its undead army. The figure chanted its summoning spell again as the cathedral bell echoed. Its tongue, split into three parts, uttered a curse that darkened the stone beneath their feet, from which the hands of the undead emerged. The hands, creeping like plants, wrapped around their legs a curse that tried to absorb the souls of the living, lock their movements, and pull them into the ground like quicksand.

  Kaelith was the first to be caught by the figure's curse, feeling her life being slowly drained. "I-I can't move!" Sora, seeing Kaelith's condition, immediately looked up at the bell and threw his sword at it with all his might. The bell rang loudly as it was struck by Sora's thrown sword. The curse's spell faltered instantly, and the undead raised by the figure screamed as the sound of the bell was tied to their minds. Some of the undead fell to the ground mid-fight, their minds too weak, while the movements of others slowed as they tried to endure the sound. Kaelith gasped for breath as the hands that had crept up her legs retreated back into the ground, and she now understood what Sora meant. "Smart and silent bastard." However, the figure did not stop its assault, chanting its resounding spell once more. He raised his staff and created a black fireball, a dark light of the cursed. The figure threw it at Kaelith, who was momentarily off-guard after being freed from the curse. Seeing this, Sora acted quickly, having just enough time to do something about the attack, and leaped in front of Kaelith to shield her from the fire, which then exploded against him. Sora was thrown back, almost hitting Kaelith, smoke billowing from his body. His cloak and clothes were burned by the black fire on his skin, and Sora writhed on the ground in agony, without making a sound.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  Kaelith, seeing this happen before her eyes, was filled with frustration and rage towards the figure. "Then I will scream for the both of us now." Kaelith swiftly drew the bow given to her in the previous room. The bow now shimmered with a silver light, bound by the memory threads of its previous owner's spirit. Kaelith aimed at the figure, but it just laughed and summoned more undead from the ground near it to use as a shield. "You think you have a power to defeat me? You are nothing instead an insect biting at my neck right now," the figure said arrogantly to the enraged Kaelith. Then the figure raised its hand to summon the same spell as before, the black fireball that had hit Sora. Kaelith, seeing this, was undaunted by the spell and continued to fire her arrow, but she did not aim at the figure. Instead, she aimed at the sky, and the cathedral bell rang once more. The arrow shot swiftly through the air, hitting the bell repeatedly as Kaelith fired in quick succession. The sound became a deafening chorus, and each arrow Kaelith released seemed to find its own resonant wave as it struck the cathedral bell. The undead army froze upon hearing the repeated ringing, and the curse still clinging to Sora was finally lifted completely. Sora, no longer feeling the pain from the black fireball, tried to rise again. And this time, he once again gripped his sword, which had been lying beside him. The same sigil that still burned in his chest now ignited in every limb and every step, which was exhausting enough on the broken ground below. The shadows that tried to cling to Sora burned away as if from an inner fire.

  Sora moved quickly towards the figure, allowing no opportunity for a counter-attack. The figure conjured a dark spear spell on its staff to fight Sora at close range as he approached, its undead army frozen by Kaelith's disruption. When the figure launched a wide-sweeping attack with the dark spear, Sora dodged it as quickly as possible and found an opening. With that opportunity, he slashed his sword at the figure, but its spear attack shifted to parry Sora's. The dark spear spell cracked, unable to withstand Sora's blazing sigil-powered slash, and shattered. The moment was like watching a battle between a survivor defending his life against a long-dead sorcerer resurrected to take the life of anyone before him. Magic against a silence born from a broken soul in a broken world. Kaelith moved to the side to find an archery spot that could injure the figure. When she reached it, she fired her arrows at the figure as additional support for Sora. She also watched the figure's movements in case it tried another summoning, ready to disrupt it with the ringing of the cathedral bell. As Kaelith was firing her arrows and helping Sora from behind, an idea came to her. Kaelith shouted at Sora, holding an arrow aimed at the figure. "DUCK NOW YOU IDIOT, AND TRY THROWING YOUR SWORD AT THE BELL AGAIN!" Sora, hearing her, immediately dodged to the side without needing to know what Kaelith meant, and Kaelith continued to rapidly fire her remaining arrows at the figure. The success of this plan was a gamble between life and death. While Kaelith kept the figure busy, Sora immediately threw his sword at the bell again.

  And instantly, the sound echoed again. Kaelith's plan worked as she suspected: the figure was distracted and momentarily froze because Kaelith sensed that all its power came from the cathedral, and the bell was channeling that energy into it. When the figure's power exceeded its limit, it couldn't control it. Seeing this moment, Sora quickly retrieved his fallen sword and charged at the figure. Sora unleashed an attack that shattered the figure's magic staff, destroying the black orb at its tip to prevent it from casting more spells. The orb shattered into pieces on the ground with the sound of breaking glass. The figure staggered and appeared weakened after its staff was rendered useless, and its mask cracked as if its own magic had overloaded and exploded. Sora reappeared before the figure, the sigil now blazing all over his body, and gripped the figure's decaying neck, pushing it against the cathedral's front door. To conclude their fight, Kaelith approached Sora, before whom stood the now-powerless figure, defeated by its own strength and Kaelith's idea. Seeing this, Kaelith drew her bow again with an arrow and shot it right into the figure's heart, killing it for the second time without a final word.

  The surrounding area, once a sky full of oppressive blackness from the figure's immense magic, vanished completely, returning to a twilight red with hints of purple at the horizon. The cathedral bell, which had been ringing during their fight, collapsed to the floor, signifying the end of their battle. The frozen undead fell to the ground one by one, the summoning magic no longer animating their bodies. And for the last time, the dead could finally rest in peace. Silence once again enveloped Borreal's deepest secrets. When the fight was over, Kaelith, who had exhausted all her energy fighting an impossibly large army, walked slowly towards Sora and said, "That... was impossible to survive, let alone win with such small odds. But, the result wasn't bad." Sora, hearing Kaelith's statement beside him, did nothing, not even answering her. Kaelith could only sigh from her physical and mental exhaustion. She suddenly sat on the ground right next to Sora, placing her bow behind her. "You never talk, but I think I'm finally beginning to understand the burden you carry, from seeing how you fought just now," Kaelith said after looking at the undead bodies scattered everywhere and then at Sora, who was still burning with the power of his sigil. Sora turned to her and could only see the exhaustion on her face from the fight.

  Then. The cathedral gate, which had been closed, slowly creaked open, and it sounded like someone was whispering to them.

  'One sin leads to another...'

  The cathedral bell was no longer ringing. But who was whispering that to them as the door opened before them? What was certain was that the echo of their battle still hung in the air of the ruined and blackened cathedral. Sora stood for a moment, after the undead figure that controlled the army did not rise again from its death. Then, without him realizing it, Sora's sigil slowly faded and returned to its original state, where he was a human without its power again. And now, the physical pain slowly returned and spread throughout his body. His knees slowly buckled to the ground, Sora's vision began to blur, and his hand reached out instinctively... his body then collapsed to the ground, accompanied by heavy bleeding from his previous chest wound. Now, Sora's life hung on the edge between death and life. Kaelith, who was looking around, turned back to Sora just in time to see him fall face down hard on the ground, covered in his own blood. "Sora?!"

  Kaelith jumped up from her seat and rushed to him. The unconscious Sora was now on the ground with scraped knees, his hands full of wounds and sword cuts, as well as claw marks on his arms, and his chest had a stab wound from the rusty sword that could cause infection in an instant if not treated, and he was still bleeding profusely. As quickly as possible, Kaelith tore the remaining cloth she had to stop the bleeding in his chest first. As Kaelith was applying pressure to Sora's wound, the smell of something burning filled her nostrils, raising a question for herself when she smelled it coming from Sora. "A rune? What did you activate to end up like this, idiot?" Her voice broke, her fingers trembled as she held the wound that was still bleeding, and she didn't realize that she was helping him without a second thought. Kaelith had not known Sora for long, but seeing him fall like that made her worry about losing him, especially since without Sora, she might have died when they first arrived in Borreal and become prey for the Varnished. And the silence of the place now felt heavier than impending death. "Damn it! Don't you dare die after all this. You haven't said anything this whole time. Don't make that your goodbye, you idiot!" Kaelith said, frustrated as she looked at the still-prone Sora and tried to stop his bleeding. She lightly slapped his cheek to wake him from his unconsciousness. His eyes barely opened, his face was deathly pale, and what's more, there was no breath coming from his nose or mouth, his lips dry. Only the sound of his heart was beating slowly before it was time for it to stop. Kaelith bit her lip to calm herself as she looked at Sora and his chances of surviving from the brink of death, as his wounds were so fatal and numerous. Kaelith tried to look around the ruined cathedral area to find something that might help him. But unfortunately, there were no healing potions and no one to help Kaelith save the dying Sora, only piles of resting undead around them. Only the corpses of the undead were everywhere, dry bones on the barren ground, and a silence so profound only the sound of the wind could be heard.

  Then. From a great distance, the sound of footsteps was heard, accompanied by the clinking of bottles and a cart rolling over uneven ground. When Kaelith heard it, she released her hand from Sora's wound, picked up her bow, and prepared to face another threat. However, what stepped through the large cathedral gate was a figure with a round hat tilted to the side, a neatly sewn coat of greenish-white fur, and a creaking pushcart behind him, full of accessories for a wanderer, potion bottles, and some weapons like daggers, throwing knives, and arrows. As the figure stepped out of the cathedral gate, whistling, he saw the ground covered in undead bodies and, in the distance, someone aiming a bow at him, which made him raise both hands with a lazy grin. Kaelith saw the figure raise his hands in a gesture of surrender and gestured with her bow for him to approach. Reluctantly, the figure sighed lazily, pulled his cart, and walked towards Kaelith until they met face-to-face. "Alright now... I'm not one to disturb a sunset moment decorated with undead as a poetic metaphor, didn’t i? However, I see someone who seems to be asking for help in a way I could never have imagined, and it also doesn't look like there's any profit in it for me."

  Kaelith stood up, her bow aimed at the figure, and her arrow creaked tightly again as she heard the figure's sarcasm adding fuel to her fire. "You have the nerve to say something like that when you're threatened. But don't misunderstand, because I don't trust anyone in this world, and right now I need you to help save him!" Kaelith said in a threatening tone, mixed with her anger at the words of the figure, who looked like a wandering merchant but had a mouth as venomous as a snake. The merchant's eyes immediately glanced at Sora and he was quite surprised, wondering to himself what had happened to the boy, in a mock-joking tone. "Hmmm. This one is badly cursed i guess. bleeding from a ruptured rune that couldn't withstand the total damage its owner received. This seems to be some kind of ancient magic? Or a very dangerous one?" Kaelith lunged at him, unable to tolerate the merchant's long-winded behavior. "I don't care what it is, do something or this arrow will answer your question!"

  The wandering merchant clicked his tongue, annoyed by Kaelith's actions but replied with his signature sarcasm and a hint of teasing. "Panic doesn't make you prettier, Darling. But I have an ointment that might treat his physical wounds, a potion brewed from a cursed valley to counteract the poison in his body and his wound infections, a kit for sewing cuts, tears, and leaks made from the bones of a fallen saint, and ah, yes," the merchant took out a small bottle that shone with a bluish-purple light. "A soul-binding potion. It hurts like hell going down, but it will stabilize the mark... if you're lucky enough to survive what is called dancing on a tightrope between life and death."

  Kaelith didn't wait for him to finish and immediately snatched the potion bottle from the wandering merchant's hand. Kaelith quickly went to Sora and checked his heartbeat first before putting the potion into his mouth. When she heard his slow but steady heartbeat, she knelt beside him and gently tilted his head. Her eyes saw Sora's face, covered in black bloodstains and dust. "You fool, you don't know how precious life is to be guarded in every creature's life," Kaelith murmured softly as she opened the soul-binding potion bottle and poured it into Sora's mouth. After the potion was poured into Sora's mouth, his body suddenly trembled slowly as if groaning from the pain of his wounds. The blood vessels around his chest stopped bleeding, and all his wounds quickly dried up, even the sword puncture in his chest. Sora tried to scream with his mouth wide open, his eyes still closed, but remembered he was mute and no sound could possibly come out. His mouth opened and was followed by his jaw clamping shut so tightly his teeth gritted. Not long after, Sora became calm again after the healing from the soul-binding potion succeeded, but he still had not woken up. His heartbeat now returned to a normal rhythm.

  Kaelith, not expecting the potion's effect, could finally rest her body again, moving Sora's head from her lap onto the ground beside her, her tired eyes finally able to relax. "Next time, you'd better tell me before you try to kill yourself," Kaelith added after seeing Sora's improved condition. The merchant whistled, seeing the medicine work instantly for the first time without waiting for days, a rare moment to witness firsthand. The merchant tried to start a conversation with Kaelith regarding the potion she took from him. "Very touching and very poetic to be immortalized. Now, for the price-" Before he could finish, Kaelith immediately stood up, knowing what the wandering merchant meant. She immediately grabbed her bow from beside her, took an arrow, and aimed it right at him, her clothes still stained with the blood of the undead. Her eyes stared at the merchant as cold as ice and said, "Say the word 'price' one more time again and I will shoot this arrow through your spine via your teeth."

  Not surprised by her reaction, the merchant could only smile widely and replied with another tease, "Ahhh... I like your type of woman. A very wild taste." Feeling his task was done and he had gained no profit but had been robbed, he could only push his cart while sighing at the lack of income and the loss he incurred today. "Alright, you lovers of destruction. Enjoy your rest for now. However, the next storm awaits you there later. See you another time, i guess." After saying his farewell, the merchant decided to go to the other side of the cathedral, whistling a random tune as he walked. Kaelith, watching the merchant until his whistling could no longer be heard, sat beside the still-lying Sora, his sword on the ground next to him. She wiped the sweat from her forehead, her face calm again but still worried about the unconscious Sora, and for a long time, they did not move from their spot outside the cathedral. Kaelith couldn't sleep, still thinking about what happened when she fought alongside Sora. She kept replaying Sora's actions to protect her; even Kaelith herself had not been wounded by a single sword cut or scratch while she fought with him. She decided to gather firewood and build a campfire to watch over him during the hours that became fragments of fate, waiting to see him open his eyes again.

  And then. Sora's fingers began to twitch as the night wind blew past him, his brow furrowed from a dream perhaps, and the sound of breath leaving his mouth was sharp, as if drawn from a bottomless depth, and so hurried. He had not yet woken from his unconsciousness, but within him, something was waiting, even in his sleep.