Kaito's body hit solid ground, but there was no pain—just the dull sensation of landing somewhere else entirely.
When he looked up, he was in a different part of the Hollow Crown. The endless void-chamber had shifted into a fragmented battlefield of floating crystal platforms. In the distance, the First Bearer stood, still cloaked in darkness, a long jagged spear of pure Kurai Seiki forming in their skeletal hand.
"To change your fate," the First Bearer's hollow voice rang out, "you must prove you understand what a vow truly is. Fight me, Bearer. Show me your purpose."
Kaito swallowed hard. He could feel the Void inside him stirring again, eager, hungry.
"…I don't want to fight you," he said.
The figure stepped forward, dragging the spear across the platform with a sound like grinding bone.
"Then you have already lost."
The spear lashed out.
Kaito barely dodged as the crystalline surface shattered where he had been standing. The impact sent a wave of Void energy rippling outward, distorting the space around them.
He summoned his own Seiki, the familiar tendrils of black energy writhing from his arms. "Fine. I'll fight. But not because I want to destroy. I'll fight to protect what matters!"
The First Bearer tilted its head slightly. "Then show me."
The Trial of the First Bearer
The battle was unlike anything Kaito had ever faced.
The First Bearer moved like a nightmare—every strike faster than thought, every movement laced with centuries of instinct. The spear would split into multiple shards mid-swing, forcing Kaito to anticipate impossible angles.
Kaito retaliated with controlled Void strikes, tendrils forming shields and counterattacks. But every time he landed a hit, the Bearer's body simply reformed from shadow.
"You can't win by matching me," the Bearer's voice echoed. "I am what you will become if you fail. I am your vow undone."
Kaito gritted his teeth. "Then I'll surpass you!"
He unleashed a focused burst of Void tendrils, wrapping them around the Bearer's spear and pulling it off balance. But the Bearer simply let the weapon dissolve and reformed another instantly.
"Power alone is meaningless without purpose."
A slash grazed Kaito's side, sending a surge of raw Void energy through his body. For a moment, his vision blurred—he saw himself again, that monstrous version from the vision earlier. The hunger whispered: "Just let go… it would be easier…"
"No!" Kaito roared, forcing himself to stay grounded.
He remembered Hina's determined eyes, Riku's calm logic, even Rei's sharp warnings. He remembered the promise he made to himself: to never let the Void take who he was.
Kaito's tendrils shifted—less wild, more refined. They began forming patterns, stabilizing instead of devouring. His Seiki started resonating with a different rhythm.
For the first time, the First Bearer hesitated.
"…Interesting. You're not feeding the hunger. You're shaping it."
Kaito focused, forcing the Void into a new form—a spiraling ring of dark energy circling his arms like twin seals. "My vow isn't just about restraint. It's about choosing who I fight for!"
He lunged forward, using the new control to redirect the Bearer's spear strike back at them. The impact shattered part of the Bearer's form.
The First Bearer staggered, then slowly… laughed. A hollow, echoing laugh that sent chills through the chamber.
"So you've chosen. Then claim it."
The Bearer's shattered form dissolved into a mass of energy, condensing into a new sigil—a glowing Yakusoku symbol unlike any he'd seen. It floated toward Kaito, pulsing with both Void and something else… something pure.
Kaito instinctively reached out. The sigil burned into his palm.
"You have forged your own vow," the Bearer's voice whispered faintly. "But know this—every vow has a cost. Yours will come when you least expect it."
The chamber cracked apart, light flooding the void.
Meanwhile: The Siege Outside
Outside the Hollow Crown door, chaos had erupted.
The entire Archive was now under lockdown, and Academy enforcers had arrived—elite students and instructors clad in black Seiki armor. Their auras burned sharp and controlled, trained for combat.
Hina stood at the front, fists blazing with her fiery Seiki. "Stay back!" she shouted as the enforcers surrounded them.
Riku's threads wove into a defensive lattice, blocking incoming attacks with surgical precision. "They're not here to negotiate," he muttered.
Rei's expression was unreadable as he drew a thin blade of shimmering blue Seiki. "Of course not. The moment we breached the second descent, we became liabilities."
One of the lead enforcers stepped forward—a tall woman with silver hair and cold eyes. "By order of the Director, you are to be detained for breaching restricted archives. Surrender now, or be erased."
Hina smirked defiantly. "Yeah, no thanks."
The battle erupted instantly.
Enforcers unleashed coordinated techniques—chains of light, shockwave strikes, layered illusions. Hina countered with raw explosive power, blasting several back. Riku's threads sliced through their formations, redirecting attacks with perfect timing.
But the enforcers were relentless. They fought with precision born from years of elite training.
Rei moved like a phantom, his blade cutting through weak points in their armor, but his expression remained cold. "They're stalling us. Buying time for something."
Riku nodded grimly. "They're trying to prevent Kaito from returning."
Hina snarled. "Like hell we're letting them!"
She launched a blazing Seiki punch that shattered the floor, forcing the enforcers back temporarily.
But then the silver-haired leader moved.
Her Seiki flared like a razor—Shirabe-level precision that rivaled Riku's. In a single motion, she disabled half of Hina's flames and severed several of Riku's threads.
Riku's eyes widened. "She's beyond even Shirabe mastery. She's a—"
"—a Senka," Rei finished grimly.
The woman's cold gaze fixed on them. "You're delaying the inevitable. The Bearer will not leave this place alive."
Hina's heart pounded. "Then we're really out of time…"
Return from the Hollow Crown
The living door behind them suddenly pulsed violently, cracks of Void energy spiderwebbing across it.
The silver-haired Senka turned toward it sharply.
From the door came a surge of dark energy—violent, overwhelming—before suddenly stabilizing into a controlled wave.
Then the door opened.
Kaito stepped out.
But he wasn't the same.
His aura burned brighter, more controlled. The Void tendrils no longer writhed chaotically—they spiraled in deliberate patterns around him like a living seal. And on his right palm glowed a new vow sigil, faintly shimmering with both black and silver light.
The enforcers froze at the sight. Even the Senka hesitated.
Hina ran to him. "Kaito!"
He met her eyes, breathing steadily. "I'm okay… I think."
Rei's gaze sharpened. "You forged it, didn't you? Your own vow."
Kaito nodded faintly. "Yeah. It's called… Kage no Yakusoku. The Vow of Shadows. I can control the hunger without feeding it—but…"
Riku's eyes narrowed. "But there's a cost."
Kaito didn't answer. He didn't need to. The faint pain behind his calm eyes said enough.
The silver-haired Senka recovered her composure. "So the Bearer has awakened a new vow. That makes you even more dangerous." She raised her blade. "Which means you die here."
Kaito stepped forward, his new vow pulsing with restrained power. "No. I'm done running."
The Void around him shifted, forming a protective barrier around his friends.
"Let's finish this."
The Clash
The Senka moved first, her blade slicing through the air faster than sight. Kaito met her strike with a spiraling Void shield, redirecting the impact.
Hina joined in, fists blazing, striking at the enforcers. Riku's threads reformed into razor lattices, cutting off their formation.
Rei moved like a ghost, targeting weak points. "We need to break their line and get out. The longer we stay, the more will come!"
Kaito nodded. "Then we'll clear a path!"
He focused his new vow. The Void tendrils condensed into sharp, controlled blades that cut through the enforcers' attacks without consuming their energy entirely. It was precise, clean—a completely different style than before.
The Senka lunged again, but Kaito met her strike head-on, their energies clashing in a shockwave that shook the Archive.
"You're no longer just a Bearer," the Senka said coldly. "You're an anomaly."
Kaito smirked faintly. "Guess so."
With a final surge, he unleashed a focused Void burst that shattered the Senka's blade and sent her skidding back.
Rei shouted, "Move! Now!"
The group darted toward the exit as the Archive walls began to collapse completely. The enforcers regrouped but didn't give chase—too shaken by what they had just seen.
Aftermath
They finally emerged into the northern garden, breathing hard under the pale moonlight.
The Academy alarms were already blaring in the distance.
Hina grabbed Kaito's arm. "Are you okay? Really?"
Kaito looked down at his glowing sigil. "…I'm okay. But the First Bearer said there's a cost. I don't know what it is yet."
Riku adjusted his glasses. "And now the Academy knows you've awakened something new. They won't stop coming."
Rei leaned against a tree, his eyes cold. "Welcome to the real war, Kaito. Now you're officially a threat to them."
Kaito clenched his fists.
The path ahead was no longer just about surviving the Void. It was about surviving the Academy itself.
And somewhere deeper in the Undercroft, beyond even the Hollow Crown, lay the core secret that could either free them—or destroy them all.
The next step was inevitable.
They had to go deeper.