Sayuri had moved before Yuki could even register. One moment she was still, the next she shot forward in a blur, the earth cracking under her heeled loafers. Chunks of dirt sprayed up in her wake, hitting Yuki's face.
Yuki didn't even have a chance to breathe before the Sorcerer King's eyes flicked to Sayuri. Just a glance. That's all it took. His bone tooth necklace shimmered with a pale white glow as he raised his right hand.
"Kneel."
The word snapped through the air like thunder. Gravity slammed down around them so fast it felt like the world had turned upside down. Yuki's knees buckled instantly, pain lancing up her thighs as she crashed into the wet grass.
Ahead of her, Sayuri tried to rise, her shoulders trembling as she pressed her hands against the dirt. However, her body couldn't move.
What… what is he? To put us down with just a word…
The thought was cut off by the taste of dirt on Yuki's tongue. She tried to spit it out, but her jaw wouldn't unclench.
This wasn't just power. This was dominance – the kind she had never seen before.
Somewhere ahead, Sayuri's shoulders shifted again, just barely. Her right eyelid twitched, hidden behind the curtain of her hair. For a moment, Yuki thought she saw a faint red flicker pulse out from that side, but it was hard to tell.
Come to think of it, she'd never seen Sayuri open her right eye. Not once. It was always hidden behind her hair. From where she lay, forced down by the Sorcerer King's command, it almost looked like that same eye was half-open.
A voice cut through the crushing silence. Sasaki's voice.
"Don't… open that eye!"
His words were ragged, desperate. It sounded like he'd had to rip out a piece of himself just to say them. Sasaki never sounded afraid. Never really sounded human, to be honest. But at that moment… His voice carried a hint of fear and dread. She couldn't understand why he would act like that.
Sayuri instantly stopped moving as the faint glow from her right eye vanished as quickly as it appeared. Her head dropped lower, hair falling like a heavy curtain to hide her face. It seemed like whatever she was about to do… she gave up on it.
A hint of disgust crossed his face before he spat on her.
"You would expect even a brainless demon would know to bow down before a king."
His gaze shifted to Sasaki, narrowing with quiet contempt.
"And you… you spoke as if we've met before? Speak. Now."
Fingers dug deeper into Sasaki's throat, lifting him high enough that his feet dangled above the grass.
"You don't feel like a demon. Or a spirit. Or even a sorcerer for that matter," the Sorcerer King said, his gaze narrowing. "And yet you're not human either."
His voice dropped lower.
"So tell me… what are you?"
"I can't. If I reveal my true form here… it'll only draw attention I'm not ready to deal with. But I assure you, we've met a long time ago."
Slowly, with trembling fingers, Sasaki lifted his sleeve just enough to show a black upside-down crescent moon on his forearm.
It wasn't just a tattoo; there was something wrong about it, something that made Yuki pause. That's when her Deathmark began to glow faintly under her shirt. She glanced down, a sudden chill running through her as recognition sparked at the edge of her mind. And for a split second, an image flashed before her – that same crescent moon etched into something… somewhere – but the memory slipped away before she could grab hold of it.
Sasaki murmured, his eyes half-lidded.
"Look closely… this should jog your memory."