Under twin moons, this city hides a thirst no one else can see.
Kuyou has always been different. Since he was seven, he's needed a strange drink just to function—without it, his throat burns with an unbearable thirst he can't explain. A faded cloth band on his wrist that he can never remove. Streetlamps that sway with no wind. Canal water tinged red with something like blood. Fish made of iron, swimming unseen beneath the surface.
To everyone else in Noxveil, none of this exists. His classmate
City of the Twin Moons - The Sinking Altar — Light Sinking into the Left Eye, a Hand That Won't Let Go
Something was calling from the bottom of the water.
No—it wasn't calling anymore. What called wasn't the water. It was something inside him.
Kuyou descended the stairs toward the Sunken Altar one step at a time. His left eye had already lost its light; only the right groped through the dark. A red-black glow seeped along the walls. The exudate of the Slumbering Axis. It ran deeper and deeper down the stairwell, like a trail of markers.
"...Hey, Kiriha."
"What."
Kiriha walked half a step behind him, guarding her badly wounded right arm, her bare feet making no sound. Even so, Kuyou knew. He knew she was right there.
"You don't regret it?"
"Regret what, exactly?"
"Coming with me."
He didn't turn around. Without his left eye, moving his neck threw his balance slightly off.
"I want to be by your side. That is all."
Kiriha's voice rang strangely clear in the darkness.
"...I see."
Kuyou let out a small breath.
Something pricked deep in his chest. Not pain, exactly—more like something snagging. Kuyou felt his own emotions sitting on the far side of a thin membrane. The price of Resonance Level 3. Emotional flattening. And right now it was unmistakably wrapped around his heart.
But her voice, at least, came through clearly. Of all things, Kiriha's words reached him more distinctly than anything else.
"...Your hand's cold."
At some point, Kiriha had taken his left hand.
"Yours is colder."
"This is normal for me. Your hands used to be warmer."
Kuyou didn't answer. His own hands were growing cold. The emotional flattening, and the resonance—that had to be it. He squeezed her hand back. Her fingers were cold as ice. But somehow, that cold was the only thing that felt real right now.
"...Let's go."
"Mm."
They started down the stairs again.
The stairwell was long. No telling how far it went. The red-black glow on the walls grew steadily stronger. The air was heavy—iron, rot, and something older, more primal. Kuyou's throat burned with thirst.
The paper carton was gone. Kuyou pressed a hand to his throat. His fingers trembled faintly.
"...The thirst is bad?"
"Yeah. But I'm not drinking anymore."
"I cannot heal your thirst."
"You don't need to."
Kuyou gave a small laugh.
"This is my fight."
Kiriha said nothing, and gripped his hand tighter.
At last, the stairs ended.
The Sunken Altar. It was a vast hollow. The ceiling soared high, and the light of the twin moons poured in from somewhere. No—not moonlight. The entire wall pulsed, thick with red-black light. The exudate of the Slumbering Axis. It dyed the whole cavern an eerie color.
The altar stood at the center. A massive stone pedestal, its surface carved with countless grooves. A dark, viscous liquid crawled slowly through the channels.
And around the altar—dozens of them. The Rinkashuu. Countless figures in gray waterproof coats. All of them faced Kuyou and Kiriha. Their faces were lost in shadow. Only their eyes glowed with a strange light.
"You're late."
Haitin stood atop the altar. Gray waterproof coat. Pale face. The man who had first heard the voice of the Slumbering Axis. The de facto leader of the Rinkashuu. He looked at Kuyou's left eye and twisted his mouth.
"Oh? The left eye has already sunk. Quick. For the price of Resonance Level 3, that's impressive."
Kuyou glared at him. A world seen through one eye. His sense of distance was slightly off. But Haitin's figure was clear enough.
"Your left eye was offered to the Slumbering Axis. Your resonance is no longer your own. You are being completed—as a terminal of the Slumbering Axis."
Haitin approached him slowly.
"And now your resonance will reverse. The moment you step into Level 4, your body will merge with the water and become part of the Slumbering Axis. That is my spell."
Kuyou listened in silence.
"What's wrong? Afraid? Of course you are. You cannot remain human. You never were human to begin with."
Haitin's voice echoed cloyingly through the hollow.
Kuyou glanced at Kiriha. She was already looking at him. Blood-red eyes. Vertically slit pupils. No fear in them. Only absolute trust in him.
Kuyou gave a small nod. Kiriha nodded back. No words needed. Their roles were set. Kiriha draws the Rinkashuu's attention. Kuyou closes on Haitin's spell. That was all.
"...What are you plotting? It's useless. You have no chance of winning."
Haitin raised his right hand. In that instant, the Rinkashuu moved as one.
"—Begone!!"
Kiriha kicked off the ground.
DOGOOOON!!
The concrete floor caved in. Even guarding her ruined right arm, her movement was inhumanly fast. Kiriha plowed into the swarm of Rinkashuu.
"W-what the hell is this one!"
"Uwaaaaa!"
Screams echoed through the hollow. Kiriha's left hand sent one Rinkashuu flying into the wall. The sound of shattering bone. Blood spraying. She cut down the Rinkashuu without mercy.
"...Insolent."
Haitin began chanting something atop the altar. In that instant, the liquid flowing through the channels began to reverse.
"—Gah, aaaaaah!"
Kuyou's body felt like it was being torn apart from the inside. The reverse resonance. Haitin's spell was forcing Kuyou's resonance to connect to the Slumbering Axis. The water raged inside his body.
At this rate, I won't last. Kuyou gritted his teeth. But this was fine. By his own will, Kuyou began raising himself toward Resonance Level 4. Knowing full well it was Haitin's trap. Even so.
"Yes. That's it. Come closer to the Slumbering Axis."
Haitin's voice echoed inside his head. Kuyou's body began to synchronize with the water.
Then.
Bzzt.
A sound. Beneath the torn band on his left wrist. The pattern raced across his whole body.
"—Gah, aaaaaaah!"
Agony. Something crawled out from inside him. The pattern spread over his arm, his chest, his neck, his face. Red-black light coursed through his entire body like a pulse.
Deep behind his left eye, something burned. His vision sank completely into darkness.
My left eye... Kuyou felt the loss not as pain, but as silence. The emotional flattening advanced further. Anger, fear, sorrow—all of it sank to the bottom of the water.
But not yet. Kuyou opened his right eye. He could see. Haitin's figure. The liquid flowing through the altar's channels. And Kiriha.
"...Perfect. You are now part of the Slumbering Axis. Your resonance will devour you."
Haitin laughed.
"...Serves you right."
Kuyou curled the corner of his mouth.
"What?"
"Your spell's mine now."
Kuyou drove his right hand into the ground.
In that instant.
DOOOOON!!
The altar's water level reversed. The flow of the entire channel network obeyed Kuyou's will and began to run backward. The sacrificial ritual circuit Haitin had assembled was being destroyed from the inside.
"W-what are you doing!"
For the first time, Haitin's face twisted in terror.
"Your spell uses reverse resonance to link me to the Slumbering Axis. But put the other way—through that spell, I can seize control of the entire channel network."
Kuyou rose slowly. His left eye showed nothing anymore. But his right eye had Haitin fixed dead to rights.
"...Clever little tricks."
Haitin thrust his hand toward Kuyou.
"But your body already belongs to the Slumbering Axis. Your will will vanish soon enough."
Black water burst from Haitin's palm.
"Kuyou!"
Kiriha lunged in front of him. But the black water swerved around her and closed on Kuyou.
"...Too slow."
Kuyou swept his right hand. The water in the channels rose as a wall and deflected the black water back.
"What!?"
"Your spell's under my control now. You walked right into your own trap."
Kuyou's voice was quiet. The emotional flattening had stripped the warmth from it. Ah—so that's it. Kuyou noticed how unnaturally flat his own voice sounded. So this is what it means to hand over your humanity. Even so, he kept his right eye fixed on Haitin.
"...D-damn you."
Haitin fell back.
Then.
"—Haitin!!"
Kiriha closed in on him, scattering the Rinkashuu as she came.
"W-what is this one!"
Haitin tried to flee. Kiriha didn't let him.
"—Break."
Kiriha's left hand seized Haitin's right arm.
Crunch.
The sound of bone snapping.
"Gyaaaaaaah!!"
Haitin's scream tore through the hollow. Kiriha wrenched his right arm back, bone and all.
"Y-you—how dare you break my arm—"
Haitin glared at her through a face contorted with pain. Kiriha brought her face close to his. And she twitched her nose.
"...You smell the worst."
Her voice was cold.
"W-what are you—"
"I can hear the Slumbering Axis's voice coming straight off you. You're the man who heard it first. Of all the Rinkashuu, you're the closest to it."
Kiriha was sorting out the scents drifting from Haitin's body.
"You're using the Rinkashuu as sacrifices to the Slumbering Axis. You're trying to become one with it—alone."
Those words exposed Haitin's true nature in front of the entire Rinkashuu.
"W-what... Lord Haitin is using us as sacrifices?"
"That can't be..."
Unease rippled through the Rinkashuu.
"W-wrong! I'm only trying to remake the city into a new city! You are the necessary sacrifices for that!"
Haitin shouted.
"...Sacrifices, you say."
One of the Rinkashuu looked at Haitin with cold eyes.
"You thought of us as nothing but tools!"
"N-no, I—"
Just as Haitin started to speak—
DOOOOON!!
The altar's water level reversed again. Kuyou had seized complete control of the channel network.
"W-what's happening!"
"Your spell's completely mine now. You lose, Haitin."
Kuyou looked down at him.
"D-damn, damn, damn youuuu!!"
Haitin flew into a rage.
"You worthless rabble! My plan! My city! My Slumbering Axis!"
Cradling his broken right arm, Haitin ran for the edge of the altar.
"Remember this! The Slumbering Axis will devour you all! Your resonance will strip away your humanity! You will never be human again!"
With that scream, Haitin threw himself off the altar. The channel swallowed him.
"Lord Haitin!"
One of the Rinkashuu moved to follow. But the channel's flow was under Kuyou's command. Haitin's figure vanished into the black water.
"...He ran."
Kuyou murmured. He hadn't finished him completely. But the Rinkashuu had crumbled.
"W-what are we supposed to do now..."
"Was Lord Haitin really going to sacrifice us..."
The Rinkashuu stood frozen, stunned. Kuyou swept his gaze over them.
"...The ritual's over. The Slumbering Axis's awakening has been delayed. For now, that's enough."
Kuyou's voice was quiet. The Rinkashuu exchanged glances, and then, one by one, they drifted away from the altar.
Silence returned to the hollow. The red-black light still pulsed along the walls. But the liquid in the altar's channels no longer ran backward.
The Slumbering Axis's awakening had been delayed from forty-three days to sixty. Not a complete halt.
We won, but it's not over. Kuyou quietly absorbed that fact.
"...Kuyou."
Kiriha stood beside him.
"Your left eye..."
"Yeah. I can't see."
Kuyou pressed a hand over his left eye. The pain was gone. There was simply nothing there.
"...Forgive me."
Kiriha's voice trembled.
"It's not your fault."
"If I had defeated Haitin sooner..."
"You did well. You held off the entire Rinkashuu, didn't you?"
Kuyou placed his hand on Kiriha's head.
"...Your hand is cold."
Kiriha pressed his hand against her cheek.
"I know your warmth. Your hands were always warm."
Her voice was hoarse.
"...They might not be warm anymore."
"Even so, you are still you."
Kiriha buried her face in his chest. And she sobbed, quietly.
"...I don't want to lose you. Even if you're not human, even if you become something else—I want to be by your side."
Kuyou held her. Her cold body heat. Her trembling shoulders.
Ah. So that's it. Kuyou thought. I gave up part of my humanity. But the bond with her—that alone hasn't been lost.
Deep in his chest, something warmed, slowly. A small heat that still existed, unmistakably, inside the emotional flattening.
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