Hounds of the Abyss: The Last Choice to Protect Paradise - The Girl of the Hill of Oblivion: The Vessel of the Key and the Gap Between Sisters

The pale blue glow of the luminous moss cast a quiet light across the cave walls. Narva's Gate—in one corner of the cavern network that spread from the entrance to the Abyss, the White Hollow. The home base of Fuwawa Abyssgard and Mococo Abyssgard. The light from the moss growing on the walls was the only illumination in this underground place where day and night blurred into one. Fuwawa stood near the cave entrance, feeling the outside air. Northern Verdian Mountains, roughly twenty-five hundred meters above sea level. The surface air was cold and clear, mingling with the faint presence of the Void that seeped up from the Abyss. Her long white hair swayed gently in the wind blowing down from the peaks. The pale blue at its tips caught the morning light and reflected it softly. *Lily...* The scene from last night was seared into the back of her eyelids. Mococo had been holding Lily as they slept. Her little sister had already accepted that girl as family. Mococo didn't know that Fuwawa had once pointed a spear of light at Lily's throat. She didn't need to know. She must never know. A small prickle of pain ran across the back of her left hand. The Brand of the Contract's Fang. The mark of the Hound, inherited from their mother. "Big Sister!" A bright voice flew in from the depths of the cave. Fuwawa turned. Mococo came running. Her fluffy white short hair bounced, the pink at its tips swaying in the light of the glowing moss. Her large dog ears stood perked, and her pink eyes sparkled. The little bell ornament at the tip of her right ear gave a light, chiming ring. "Good morning! It's another beautiful day!" "...Good morning, Mococo." Fuwawa's voice was quiet, as always. Mococo hopped up beside her sister and looked out of the cave. The sky above was a cloudless blue. "Hey, Big Sister. Can I go play outside today?" "Did you finish the seal patrol?" "Yep! I checked everything from the first layer all the way to the third! The goblins and orcs all felt us coming and hid!" Mococo puffed out her chest. Pride at having done her duty as a Hound of the Abyss overflowed from every inch of her. Fuwawa gently stroked her sister's head. Her white hair was warm to the touch. "...I see. Then just for a little while." "Yay! Thanks, Big Sister!" Mococo bounded out of the cave, hopping with every step. Watching her go, Fuwawa's fingers trembled without her realizing it. *Just a little distance from Mococo, and...* She stared at her own fingers and exhaled quietly. She knew she was overprotective. She knew, and yet she couldn't help it. Their mother's dying words, the memory of that rainy day—they kept her heart in chains. Fuwawa returned inside the cave and picked up the spear of light leaning against the wall. A weapon generated from a Hound's soul. When she gripped it, a faint pale blue light leaked from between her fingers. Today, too, she had to check the seal on the Terminal Door. —But that was when it happened. "Big Sister! Big Sister!!" Mococo's voice came flying into the cave with a different ring than before. Fuwawa's heart leaped in an instant. She regripped her spear and ran to the entrance. Outside the cave, Mococo came running from beyond the rocky stretch. In her arms, she carried something. Something like a white cloth fluttered in the wind. "What's wrong, Mococo!" When Fuwawa ran over, there was a girl in Mococo's arms. Pale blonde hair, close to silver. Shoulder-length, with a luster like it had been soaked in rain. Her deep purple eyes were closed, and her face was white as paper. She looked about fifteen. Her slender body was covered in wounds, and an old burn scar was visible on her left shoulder. At her chest, a small stone faintly glowed. "I found her collapsed on the Hill of Oblivion! I couldn't just leave her!" Mococo's voice was shaking. Tears welled in her pink eyes. The girl hung limp in her arms. Fuwawa's expression froze in an instant. "...Mococo. Where do you intend to carry that girl?" "Where else? To our cave! We have to treat her wounds!" "No." Fuwawa's voice was cold as ice. Her pale blue eyes fixed on Mococo, all emotion erased. "Have you forgotten the laws of the Abyss? We do not show mercy to outsiders. That is the law of the Hounds." "But Big Sister! This girl looks like she's about to die!" "Exactly. Outsiders die outside. That is the order of nature." Fuwawa's words were sharp as blades. Mococo stared hard at her sister's face. Her pink eyes gradually began to waver with anger and sorrow. "...Big Sister, do you really mean that?" "I do." "Who decided these laws, anyway? Mom never said anything like that!" At those words, Fuwawa's fingers stopped. Mother. The mother who, on that day when Fuwawa was twelve, was swallowed by the hand of the Void. The mother who transferred the Brand of the Contract's Fang to Fuwawa's left hand and vanished protecting her little sister. "Mom said that if you see someone in trouble, you help them! I remember!" Mococo's voice echoed off the cave walls. A single tear spilled from her eye. She hugged the girl in her arms tight. "The person collapsed in front of me matters more than some law! Big Sister, please! Let me save her!" Fuwawa looked at her sister's face. The sister born on the same day, twenty years ago. Innocent, emotional, and ready to charge ahead the moment she saw someone in trouble. That kindness was something she had inherited from their mother. The warmth of their mother that Fuwawa had lost. *...I suppose there's no helping it.* Fuwawa slowly closed her eyes. "...Carry her inside. But once she's been treated, she goes back outside immediately." "Big Sister...!" Mococo's face lit up. With her tear-streaked cheeks still wet, she broke into a beaming smile. "Thank you! Hehe, I knew you were kind, Big Sister!" "...Hurry and carry her in. Lay her on the bed and wipe her forehead with a wet cloth." "Okay!" Still holding the girl, Mococo ran off toward the back of the cave. Fuwawa watched her retreating figure and let out a small sigh. *I broke the law. I broke it.* The laws of the Abyss passed down through the Hound clan. One: Do not show mercy to outsiders. Two: Protecting the Terminal Door is the highest priority. Three: If you find a Vessel of the Key, dispose of it. Four: Anyone who breaks the laws is exiled from the clan. Fuwawa stared at the brand on her left hand. This was the first time she had ever broken a law. Deep in the cave, in the sleeping alcove of the White Hollow, the girl lay on her back. Mococo took off her own jacket and draped it over the girl's body. The fluffy white jacket wrapped completely around the girl's slender frame. Mococo quickly wet a cloth with water and began wiping the girl's forehead. Her movements were surprisingly careful. "Are you okay? Hey, stay with me..." When Mococo spoke, the girl's eyelids moved faintly. Her deep purple eyes opened a sliver. They weren't focused. "...Where is this..." "Thank goodness, you're awake! I'm Mococo! Mococo, Hound of the Abyss!" "Hound of the... Abyss..." The girl repeated Mococo's words. Her voice was hoarse and small, on the verge of fading. "What about you? What's your name? Why were you collapsed in a place like that?" "I'm... Lily..." Lily. Fuwawa was watching from the cave entrance. The girl who called herself Lily closed her eyes again, as if losing consciousness once more. "So your name's Lily! What a cute name!" Mococo said it happily and gently stroked Lily's hair. Watching her sister's profile, Fuwawa quietly approached. "...I'll treat her wounds. Mococo, bring bandages and herbs." "You will, Big Sister?! Okay, got it!" Mococo pattered off. Fuwawa knelt beside Lily. The girl's breathing was shallow, her skin cold. Some of the wounds were deep, but none were life-threatening. Fuwawa gently opened Lily's jacket. That was the moment. At Lily's chest, the small stone flickered pale blue. Fuwawa's fingers stopped. Arca Fragment. The key to the Terminal Door. The stone she had seen at Lily's throat last night. Back then, it had only been glowing quietly. But now it was different. Like a pulse, like breathing, the pale blue light flickered on and off. The instant Fuwawa's hand touched it, the stone shone brightly, as if responding to her. *This is...* Fuwawa's pupils froze. The pale blue light reflected in her water-colored eyes. *It's resonating. With my Brand of the Contract...* The brand on the back of her left hand began to burn with a slow heat. The flickering of the stone and the ache of the brand pulsed in the same rhythm. This was no coincidence. This girl was unmistakably a Vessel of the Key. *Why. Of all people, why did Mococo have to find her?* Deep inside Fuwawa's heart, despair spread quietly. A being born by chance roughly once every five hundred years, carrying the key to the Terminal Door within its body. Often unaware, not knowing that it itself is the key. When a Vessel draws near the Abyss, the seal becomes unstable. Every Vessel in the past had been disposed of by the Hounds. Fuwawa, too, had disposed of her first Vessel when she was fourteen. A boy who kept repeating that he wanted to go home, crying—she had devoured him with the Contract's Fang. The sensation came back to her left hand. The boy's memories had mingled with her own, becoming nightmares that tormented her still. *This girl will meet the same fate...* Keeping her expression blank, Fuwawa began treating Lily's wounds. She ground herbs and applied them to the cuts. She wrapped bandages. Her hands did not tremble in the slightest. "Big Sister, I brought the bandages!" Mococo came back. Fuwawa quietly steadied her breathing so her sister wouldn't notice. "Thank you. ...The treatment's done. She'll sleep for a while." "Really?! Big Sister, you're amazing! I knew you could do anything!" Mococo sat down beside Lily and took the girl's hand. It was a little warmer now than when Fuwawa had been treating her. "Lily, thank goodness. Big Sister saved you." Mococo spoke to the sleeping Lily. Her voice sounded genuinely happy. "Hey, Big Sister." "...What?" "Her name's Lily. She doesn't seem to have any memories. I'm going to protect her!" Mococo declared it with a beaming smile. Her pink eyes looked straight at Fuwawa. Fuwawa looked back at her sister's smile. *Protect her, you say. That's what you say.* "...Outsiders go back outside immediately. That is the law." "Who decided these laws, anyway? Mom never said anything like that!" For the first time, Mococo's voice defied her sister. Tears rose in her eyes again. "Mom said that if you see someone in trouble, you help them! I remember it perfectly! You remember too, don't you, Big Sister?!" Fuwawa was at a loss for words. Their mother's dying wish. Protect Mococo. And the kindness their mother had taught them. The law and their mother's teachings had been quietly colliding inside Fuwawa for a long time. "I'm going to protect Lily. Even if you won't allow it, Big Sister, I'll protect her no matter what." Mococo stood as if to hide Lily behind her. A twenty-year-old sister standing up to her twenty-year-old twin. There was something about her stance that resembled the way their mother had once protected Fuwawa. Fuwawa simply watched her sister's resolve in silence. *...Mococo. You don't know anything.* That Lily was a Vessel of the Key. That protecting Lily would put the world in danger. And that Fuwawa was already being forced to choose whether to dispose of her. "...Fine. For today, do as you like." With that, Fuwawa stood. "Big Sister..." "But tomorrow, she goes back outside. No exceptions." Without waiting for Mococo's answer, Fuwawa disappeared into the depths of the cave. Night came. In the cavern network deep underground, there was no distinction between day and night. But a Hound's body could sense the surface's time with perfect accuracy. After confirming that Mococo and Lily had fa

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Episode 2

Name: Hounds of the Abyss: The Last Choice to Protect Paradise
Author: Novelia

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