The ruins still clung to him.
Even after leaving the battlefield where Raga had risen, Rei felt the Elder's grip crushing his skull, the words etched into him like an iron seal.
"The Black Sun occurs once a year. Only then do we step forward with our full weight."
The phrase stalked him. It would not fade.
By the time he stumbled into a village tucked into the mountain's shadow, his body was failing him. He had not eaten in days. His blade dragged. His eyes burned with sleepless haze. A kind woman, worn from years of labor, took pity and pulled him inside. She pressed rough bread into his palm before he collapsed on her floor.
For the first time in days, Rei slept.
But sleep was no kindness. The Elder's eyes watched him in his dreams. Calm. Merciless. Waiting. And behind them, Raga's grin, splitting the void. Rei woke choking on his own breath.
Outside, voices stirred. The square buzzed low with tension.
Rei wrapped his cloak close and walked into the street, his hood shadowing his eyes. He didn't need to ask questions. The answers were already spilling into the air.
"They say it will be soon," a man whispered at the well. His hands shook as he pulled the rope.
Another woman snapped, "Don't speak of it aloud. Don't call it here."
But a boy nearby pressed. "Is it true? Will the sun really turn black?"
The old man at the well spat into the dirt, but his voice cracked with fear.
"It isn't the sun that turns black. It's the world that forgets the sun exists."
Rei froze mid-step. His chest tightened.
A younger man muttered, "When the moon swallows the light, when the sky goes blind… they say the rivers still, the winds die, and not even fire will burn."
An elder woman crossed herself with trembling hands. "It is the day of the Hollow Sky. The day the world resets its breath."
Others chimed in.
"They say if you stare at it, your eyes will bleed."
"No crops survive the next morning. Animals refuse to move. Even shadows vanish."
"They say the dead walk freer than the living when the Black Sun rises."
Each rumor dug deeper, sharpening the picture.
Rei's knuckles whitened around his cloak.
Sun and moon as one. A false star. The earth itself silenced.
And then the old man spoke again, softer, as though speaking to memory.
"It comes once every year, but not always at the same hour. It is when the sun and moon meet, yet the light is swallowed instead of shared. That moment—the Black Sun—is when the veil thins. When power is not bound by balance, but… excess."
Rei's breath hitched. His heart pounded like it wanted to rip through his chest. The Elder's words came back, cold and merciless.
"Only then do we step forward with our full weight."
So that was it. That was what they were waiting for. That was the day the real hunt would begin.
He stood frozen as the villagers muttered their prayers, each whisper adding another chain to his chest.
Someone muttered, "It happens in three nights' time. The sky will turn, and whatever breathes will not rest easy."
Three nights.
Rei turned away, his face hidden under the hood, but his fingers clenched against the hilt of the Blade of Resolve.
The villagers' voices still rang as he left the square.
"It is the day when even gods avert their eyes."
"It is the day no life should wander."
Rei walked alone, his steps heavy, but his voice came low, almost a growl.
"I don't care if it's the sun, the moon, or the whole sky itself… I'll cut through it."
The words fell like a vow. But inside, Rei knew: this wasn't just a promise of strength. It was the beginning of war.