Yuto staggered to his feet amid the scattering fragments of bone. The blood running down his cheek was congealing in the cold air, but the fire raging in his chest showed no sign of cooling.

His gaze naturally turned to the tenth crystal, towering skyward in the center of the square. Five or six Black Mages were still there, their human-bone staves raised as they chanted frenzied incantations.

He gritted his teeth.

Yuto bit his lower lip again, having long since lost count of how many times he had done so. Sensing his fury, Flokai unleashed an enormous roar.

BOOOOM!

Concentrated, pure-white flames shot from Flokai's mouth in a gigantic fireball. The Black Mages hurriedly erected layer upon layer of barriers, but the evolved Flokai's strike tore through their paltry magic like paper.

BOOOM!

The flames exploded, engulfing the Black Mages, and the shock sent spiderweb cracks spreading across the enormous crystal. Yuto seized the opening and leaped.

CRUNCH!

Behind Yuto, the enormous scythe formed from the merged hands of Void Touch cleaved through the Black Mages floundering in the flames. Their screams were swallowed by the roaring blaze.

Yuto did not stop. The scythe rose high and slammed into the crystal.

CRACK! CRUNCH!

Already cracked by Flokai's attack, the crystal could not withstand Yuto's blow and finally shattered.

The crystal collapsed into purple mist. At the same moment, countless restless spirits poured out from within it.

If only they could all pass on. But the spirits had merely been freed from the crystal; they still could not find rest. A terrible curse had settled over this land long before Dark Star's magic.

A curse laid by the constellations. Destroying the entire Kingdom of Belkain had not been enough for them. They would not even allow the city's restless spirits to pass on. Clutching his chest, Yuto felt a rage that threatened to drive him mad.

"Hah... Hah..."

Even if he killed every last Black Mage lurking inside the castle, the city's curse would remain. Unless he did something about the curse itself, the people of Belkain would continue to suffer.

But even so.

He could not allow them to suffer still more. Yuto strode across the square.

'My Void Skills have changed.'

Yuto opened his Status Window to check.

Name: Yuto.

Level: 9

Stamina: 60

Aether: 60

Strength: 45

Agility: 35

Charm: 30

Remaining Points: 0

He had thought all the relentless fighting on his journey to Belkain would have earned him a level, but he was still stuck at nine. Given how long he had remained at this level, reaching level ten apparently required some other condition.

Void Skills:

Void Step LV4.

Void Touch LV5.

┕Void Scythe unlocked.

Yuto narrowed his eyes as he checked the Void Skills in his Status Window. His character level had not risen, but his Void Skills had leveled up. Over two years of experience, he had learned that Void Skills developed separately from his stats.

'I've been using them nonstop since coming to Belkain.'

Void Scythe, formed by merging the hands of Void Touch into one, was more than merely the combined power of two hands. It was the strongest offensive skill Yuto could currently unleash.

'Though it consumes an incredible amount of aether in return...'

Steadying his breathing, Yuto took out an aether potion. Destroying the two crystals and then the final crystal in the square had consumed a great deal of aether.

He had two potions left. Under most circumstances, that would have been ample reserves... But he had no idea how many Black Mages were inside the royal castle or what traps they had laid. Even two whole aether potions offered little reassurance.

"Flokai. If you have enough aether to spare, can you evolve into a higher form?"

"The aether in a potion wouldn't come close."

Flokai replied dejectedly, still carrying Levian on his back.

"What? W-wait a moment. Flokiro... can evolve even further?"

Levian looked bewildered as she asked. Evomon contracted with humans in order to evolve, but they could only evolve into a single form. That was common knowledge. Yet, judging by Yuto and Flokai's conversation, he could evolve into another form beyond this one—a higher form.

That was impossible. With everything she knew contradicted outright, Levian could only gape.

"Flokiro can evolve three stages beyond his base form."

Yuto spoke as he drank the aether potion. Levian swayed at his answer.

"Th-three stages? No, wait. What do you mean, base form?"

"The Flokiro you've always seen is his base form."

How could that possibly make sense? Levian looked down at Flokai in disbelief. Ordinary Evomon could evolve only once, and that was the end of it. Even if they disliked their evolved appearance, they could not return to their previous form.

No. There was one way. They could die and become an Evostone. But then they would lose all the bonds and aether they had accumulated to evolve, and there was no guarantee anyone would revive them afterward.

"As if evolving three stages weren't enough, you can return to your base form, too...? How is that even possible...?"

At Levian's dazed muttering, Flokai's steps grew a little lighter. He liked hearing her astonishment at him from his back.

"I'm a special Evomon."

His voice was smug. Yet there was not a trace of exaggeration in the word "special." Flokiro had originally been an Evomon passed down in the legends of Belkain's royal family. His Evostone had remained dormant for generations, until Yuto awakened it.

Just as Yuto had become someone who had never existed in this world he had regressed to, Flokiro, too, must have become an Evomon that did not exist. Yet Flokiro—Flokai—loved Belkain every bit as much as Yuto did.

He could not forgive those who had dared defile this land, this kingdom so precious to Yuto. Laden with those feelings, Flokai's steps grew heavy once more, and hostility flashed in his eyes.

The three crossed the square and reached the castle gates. Like the royal castle, reduced to ruins by the catastrophe, only half of the gates remained.

CREAAAK...

That remaining half swung open with a ponderous groan. As though it had been waiting for its master. Or perhaps welcoming an intruder—an enemy.

Beyond the gates lay a scene of oppressive silence. Biting his lower lip hard once again, Yuto stepped inside. This had once been a beautiful garden. On fine days, he had come here as a child to enjoy tea and sweets with his father and mother.

He had carried on those precious, warm memories after becoming a husband and father himself. On fine days—he had shared tea and sweets in this garden with his wife and daughter.

But not all his memories were sweet. This garden was where Shiro had dealt him that fatal betrayal. His daughter's birthday party. Shiro had brought Yuto out to the banquet venue, saying he had prepared a special gift, then pierced him with a blade far colder than the night air.

'Ah... '

With every step, Yuto trembled with an agonizing sense of déjà vu. Beneath his feet was no longer fragrant grass, but crumbling stone and the bones of unidentifiable beasts. Statues that had once gleamed silvery white stood abandoned throughout the garden, their noses smashed and limbs severed, like the suffering dead.

'It was right there... '

Yuto's gaze lingered on the half-collapsed pavilion in the center of the garden. The place where he had lain with his head in his mother's lap as a child, gazing at the sky. Where his wife, Erin, had held their newborn daughter Lia and smiled at him like sunshine.

Now, poisonous purple mist lay coiled there, giving off nothing but the cold smell of death.

"Yuto... Are you all right? You're trembling."

Levian had dismounted from Flokai at some point and was following him. Her voice was worried. Instead of answering, Yuto clenched his fists. His nails dug into his palms, drawing beads of blood, but the pain was nothing beside the shards of memory tearing through his mind.

'Shiro. Shiro Ristal.'

Every time he repeated that name to himself, searing heat engulfed his heart. The warmth of Shiro's hand gripping his shoulder as he approached to wish his daughter a happy birthday. The blade colder than ice that had pierced his body in the middle of the garden.

The air of that terrible night was painfully similar to the air that now hung over this ruined castle.

"Yuto."

Flokai spoke in a low voice and stepped in front of him. The flames pouring from his mane drove back the surrounding darkness, but they could not dispel the ominous presence emanating from deep within the garden.

Across the garden, before the massive marble stairs leading to the castle's main building—

CREAAAAK!

The huge doors of the banquet hall opened their maw toward Yuto and his companions like a living creature. Pitch-black darkness spilled through the gap.

This was no ordinary darkness. It carried the stench of concentrated malice, wrung from countless souls. Yuto grimaced as he regarded the wide-open doors. Though they stood fully open, the darkness seeping out was so thick that he could not see anything inside.

If he wanted to know what lay within, he would have to enter himself. Without lowering his guard, Yuto passed through the banquet hall's doors.

Once, thousands of candles had shone here like the Milky Way, and the banquet hall had rung with the laughter of nobles. Now it had become a vision of hell.

The fallen chandelier lay grotesquely twisted on the floor. Instead of dust, scraps of unidentified, rotting flesh clung to it.

Beyond it, in the center of the hall, ominous purple flames floated through the darkness like will-o'-the-wisps, forming a bizarre circle.

A magic circle. Yuto stared into the center of the flames, his eyes wide. Despite the fire flickering right beside it, the darkness was too thick for him to immediately make out what lay beyond.

"Show yourselves."

BANG!

Yuto stamped his foot against the floor. As if answering him, Flokai slammed down a great paw and raised a blaze.

WHOOSH!

Pure-white flames pushed back the darkness.

Only then did the figures among the ghostly flames reveal themselves. Ten Black Mages clad in pitch-black robes. Yuto could sense it at once. Compared to them, the Black Mages in the square had been utterly insignificant.

"I am curious to know who you are."

The Black Mage at the center of the group spoke.

THUD!

Just as Yuto and Flokai had stamped their feet, the Black Mage struck the floor with a great human-bone staff. His arrogant tone and manner all but proclaimed that he was the castle's true master.

"Who are you, to come to this wretched land and interfere with us?"

An eerie purple light flashed beneath his hood. Contaminated aether surged like a wave and crashed over Yuto. Levian paled and clapped a hand over her mouth, but Yuto and Flokai stared down the Black Mage without retreating a single step.

"I watched your rampage. You wield a very, very strange power. I do not know every constellation in this world, but your power is unlike that of any constellation I have encountered in all my life."

Another Black Mage spoke. He raised a finger as withered as a mummy's and pointed at Flokai.

"And that Evomon. Most mysterious. It does not seem to be an ordinary Evomon. Where in the world did beings like you descend from?"

"And you've even brought House Marigold's young lady along."

A different Black Mage let out a chilling laugh as he looked at Levian. His gaze alone was revolting.

"I..."

Before Levian could answer, Yuto spoke.

"...am the master of this castle."

His eyes darkened into a pitch-black abyss. Behind him, two hands of Void Touch surged upward.

"What?"

"The master of the castle?"

The Black Mages broke into derisive cackles.

"You're mad."