From the shadows of the ruined street, a figure descended silent, precise, predatory. Silver mist curled around their boots as they landed, the air around them bending with pressure.
The young warrior stepped forward, obsidian armor gleaming with faint blue sigils. Their silver hair swayed gently in the cold wind, but their expression carried no warmth only purpose.
Their crystalline eyes locked onto Ryzen's barely moving body.
"…So it's true," the stranger said quietly. "The Phantom has awakened."
Umatsume stood, tense.
"Who are you?"
The warrior didn't look at her at first his gaze remained fixed on Ryzen like a target.
"My name is Voss," he said finally. "Vanguard of Voidnara. And I've come to retrieve something that does not belong to your dimension."
Ryzen stirred weakly, Konoke's aura flickering under his skin.
Konoke's voice sharpened in Ryzen's mind.
"No. No. Not him… Ryzen, you need to stand up now."
Umatsume frowned.
"Retrieve what? Ryzen isn't going anywhere."
Voss finally turned to her, expression cold and unbothered.
"You misunderstand. I'm not here for him."
His gaze sharpened.
"I'm here for what's inside him."
Umatsume's blood ran cold.
"You mean… Konoke?"
For the first time, Voss's voice carried emotion icy hatred.
"Yes. The Guardian Spirit of the First Crystorian. The power your vessel is stealing. It was never meant for a mortal body."
He stepped forward, each footstep cracking the ground with controlled force.
Konoke's tone grew tense, almost trembling with memory.
"Ryzen… Voss is not a protector. He is an extractor. A hunter. His only purpose is to retrieve powerful spirits by force."
Ryzen's breath hitched.
"So… he's after you."
"And he will rip me out of you," Konoke said, "even if it kills you."
Lightning flashed across the sky again, but this time it felt colder like the world itself sensed Voss's arrival.
Umatsume spread her arms instinctively, placing herself between Ryzen and Voss.
"You're not touching him."
Voss raised a hand lazily.
"You're brave. Or ignorant."
Blue sigils along his armor pulsed, and a long, spear-like weapon formed from swirling void energy.
"That spirit was never yours to claim. And I will tear it from this vessel before the Shattered One reaches him."
Ryzen tried to stand, but his body collapsed again.
Konoke whispered urgently:
"Ryzen… you must move. If Voss extracts me, your soul will go with me."
Voss slowly leveled his spear toward Ryzen's chest.
"The Zero Vessel must remain intact. The spirit inside, however…"
His eyes narrowed.
"is mine to take."
The air trembled as Voss leveled his void-spear toward Ryzen's chest.
Umatsume didn't wait.
She launched herself forward, purple neon energy flaring around her arms, the ground cracking beneath her feet.
Her fist shot toward Voss's jaw
He caught it with two fingers.
His expression didn't change.
"You're quick," he said calmly. "But not quick enough."
He twisted her wrist and flung her aside with a single motion. She crashed into a broken wall, dust exploding around her.
"UMATSUME!" Ryzen shouted weakly, trying to stand.
Voss didn't even look at him.
He walked toward her slowly, spear dissolving into particles before reforming behind him like a hovering blade.
"You shouldn't interrupt," he said, voice low. "This extraction is delicate."
Umatsume pushed herself up, teeth clenched. Her eyes pulsed with purple arcs, neon veins running down her arms.
"Touch him," she growled, "and I swear I'll tear you apart."
Voss blinked once.
"That emotion… interesting. But pointless."
He vanished.
Umatsume's eyes widened
He was already behind her.
His hand pressed against her back, a pulsing sigil forming under his palm.
"Stay."
A shockwave erupted.
She collapsed forward, but before she hit the ground, she spun and hurled a burst of neon light.
Voss batted it aside like dust.
"You're persistent," he said. "But persistence isn't strength."
He raised his spear again
But Ryzen choked out,
"Konoke...help… her"
Konoke's voice echoed like thunder in Ryzen's mind, distressed, forceful.
"I CAN'T… I'm sealed
His extraction sigils suppress me
Ryzen, I can't break through"
Voss approached Ryzen's body again, kneeling beside him.
"There it is… the First Crystorian. Still resisting."
He placed two fingers on Ryzen's chest.
A void symbol ignited black, blue, violent.
Ryzen screamed. His back arched.
Konoke's voice twisted with pain:
"NOO!!!, HE'S TEARING OUR LINK !!"
Voss whispered,
"Now… come out."
The symbol glowed brighter
Then Konoke snapped.
A sound like a rupturing universe cracked through Ryzen's mind.
"…I warned you."
Konoke's voice deepened older, ancient, furious.
"I am bound… but not helpless."
A forbidden sigil ignited across Ryzen's skin, glowing white-hot. Voss froze, eyes widening the first crack in his composure.
"What? That's impossible. That sigil was..."
"FORBIDDEN!," Konoke roared from within Ryzen.
"And now… released."
Ryzen's eyes flared with pure white fire. His shadow stretched behind him, expanding like a beast waking from chains.
The air detonated outward.
Voss skidded back, boots carving trenches in the pavement.
"This… energy…" he muttered, stunned.
"This is not Crystorian… this is something older."
Konoke's voice echoed from Ryzen, layered and resonant.
"You touch my vessel again… I break you."
Voss tightened his grip on the void-spear.
"So the Guardian still has fangs," he said, expression sharpening.
"Good."
His aura exploded upward.
"Show me the extent of your forbidden power."
The night shook.
The street cracked beneath the weight of Konoke's unleashed power. White fire pulsed through Ryzen's veins, his shadow stretching like a living creature.
Voss steadied himself, void energy swirling at his feet.
"So," he said quietly, "the Guardian spirit awakens… even sealed, even fragmented."
Konoke's voice thundered from inside Ryzen:
"You will not touch him again, extractor."
Voss gave a thin, cold smile.
"Oh, I won't touch him."
He raised a hand.
"But this will..."
A circular ripple burst behind him like a mirror made of obsidian and blue flame. From its center, a long cylindrical weapon drifted outward, floating into his grasp.
A staff.
Carved from something ancient and not entirely physical, its surface shifting like liquid shadow. At its tip gleamed a jagged crystal core dark, cracked, and hungry.
Umatsume froze, her heart sinking.
"What… is that?"
Voss spun the staff, the crystal humming with deep, predatory resonance.
"This," he said, "is the Rift Extractor. A device crafted from the remnants of the Shattered One's first prison."
Konoke's tone sharpened with real fear.
"Ryzen...MOVE...NOW!"
Ryzen tried to get up, but his legs buckled; his body was still broken from the previous battle.
"Konoke… I can't"
"No. I cant let him"
Before Konoke could finish, Voss slammed the staff into the ground.
A shockwave erupted.
But it wasn't physical.
It hit the soul.
Ryzen shouted in agony, clutching his chest as white cracks of energy split across his body like shattered glass.
Umatsume screamed, "STOP! YOU'LL KILL HIM!"
"No," Voss said calmly.
"I won't kill him."
The Rift Extractor glowed brighter its crystal core spinning like a vortex.
"But I will remove the parasite inside him."
A phantom silhouette Konoke's spectral form began to rip free from Ryzen's body, pulled upward like smoke being vacuumed toward the staff.
Konoke roared:
"RYZEEEEN!!"
Ryzen's body convulsed, eyes rolling back.
White fire streamed out of his chest, sucked toward Voss's weapon.
Umatsume sprinted forward
But Voss flicked two fingers.
A ring of void energy exploded outward, slamming her back into the debris and pinning her in place.
"You're in the way."
Umatsume clawed at the invisible force crushing her.
"LET HIM GO!!"
Ryzen gasped, trying desperately to anchor Konoke.
"K-Konoke...stay...stay with me!"
Konoke's spectral arm slipped, pulled farther out of Ryzen's torso.
"I...cannot hold...! He's using an extraction core...you have to..."
Suddenly, Voss twisted the staff sharply.
Konoke's entire upper body ripped free from Ryzen half extracted.
Ryzen screamed, collapsing, blood spraying from his lips.
Voss's eyes gleamed with victory.
"At last," he whispered.
"The First Guardian… reclaimed."
The Rift Extractor pulsed, pulling Konoke closer
Just inches from sealing him.
Konoke strained, grabbing the edge of Ryzen's body with flickering hands.
"I won't leave him!"
Voss twisted the staff again.
Konoke screamed.
The bond began to SNAP.
Ryzen's vision blurred darkening.
He could barely breathe.
He could barely think
But one thing cut through everything:
Umatsume's voice.
"RYZEN, GET UP!! FIGHT!!"
Ryzen's fingers twitched.
A spark of white light flickered under his skin
And something inside him answered.
Not Konoke.
Not the forbidden power.
Something else.
Something deeper.
Something Ryzen's.
The extraction paused.
Voss's eyes narrowed.
"…Impossible."
The cracks of light across Ryzen's body began to pulse then glow brighter.
The forbidden sigil reactivated
Konoke's voice, fading and shaking, whispered:
"Ryzen… what are you…?"
And Ryzen slowly slowly began to stand.
Even with his soul half-torn out.
Even with agony ripping through every nerve.
He rose.
A faint voice escaped him weak but steady.
"I'm not… letting you take him."
Voss stepped back, grip tightening on the staff.
"What… are you?"
Ryzen raised his head, eyes burning white.
"Phantom Vessel… or not… Im still a human..."
He clenched his fist.
"I'm still me."
The ground trembled.
The extraction stalled.
The staff began to crack.
Konoke's spectral form flickered violently, suspended between freedom and destruction.
Voss hissed in frustration.
"This fight isn't over. I will return for the Guardian."
He ripped the staff free from the extraction field, the void energy collapsing instantly.
Konoke's spirit snapped back inside Ryzen, slamming them both to the ground in a burst of white smoke.
Voss vanished in a swirl of black mist.
Silence fell.
Ryzen collapsed, unmoving.
Umatsume broke free and rushed to him, shaking.
"Ryzen...RYZEN...!!"
Konoke's weak voice whispered from within him:
"He's alive… but the extraction… damaged him."
Umatsume trembled, tears forming.
"What do we do…?"
Konoke hesitated afraid.
"Hope he wakes up…"
He paused.
"…before Voss returns."