"No… I didn't," he replied, eyes scanning the shadow-drenched island.
Together, they stepped forward into the oppressive darkness, their silhouettes swallowed by Emka's cursed wind.
The deeper they walked, the heavier the air became—thick, damp, almost breathing.
They entered the forest.
A blood-red moon ruled the sky, its glow dripping through gnarled branches like spilled wine.
Strange voices slithered between the trees—whispers that didn't sound fully human.
Orimo's heartbeat pounded like war drums.
Rae clung tighter to his back, her breath trembling against his shoulder.
He stepped forward—
Shhhnghh!
A swarm of bats burst from the tall grass, exploding into the sky in a black storm.
Orimo gripped his chest. "It gave me heartache for a second…"
Rae nodded. "Same… baka."
He pushed forward again—and suddenly, a booming laughter erupted from the abyss of the island.
"Rehahhahahahahahahah!"
It echoed like a demon mocking the moon.
Orimo broke out of the treeline and stepped into an open clearing.
There, under the bloody moon, stood a man draped in a feathered cloak, red glasses glinting, black shorts fluttering in the wind.
The man turned. Their eyes met.
"Rehahahahahahahah!"
He raised his hand to the sky—deranged, triumphant.
A second figure rose from the earth itself as if the island spat him out.
"Kill them, Ryuta," the red-glasses man ordered calmly.
"Who are you?!" Orimo demanded.
He smirked. "Diamante Tempest."
Then his body dissolved into drifting feathers, vanishing without a trace.
The man who emerged from the ground whispered, voice rough like sand scraping bone:
"I'm Ryuta Konan… the Devil King."
An obsidian blade forged of pure night—Ragyor—gleamed in his hand under the red moon.
Orimo's eyes widened. "He's alive…?"
Ryuta's decayed lips curled.
"Infernal Monarch Slash."
He swung.
A tidal wave of flames roared forward like a dragon's breath.
Orimo launched into the sky, twisting past the flames.
Aegis Mantra—activate.
His arms turned black like hardened shadow.
THUD!
He collided with Ryuta's sword, shockwaves ripping through the clearing.
"Hehe…" Ryuta grinned, eyes pitch-black, body half-rotted like a corpse still moving.
Boom!
Ryuta kicked Orimo in the gut, sending him crashing into the dirt.
"Give it up, kid," the Devil King said, voice cold, hollow.
Orimo growled, forcing himself up. "You're in my way."
Ryuta's shadow suddenly twisted—
sharpened—
and stabbed through Ryuta's back.
Ryuta exploded into sand the next second, disintegrating like an illusion.
Orimo staggered. "His eyes… why were they black? And his body—rotten."
Rae pushed herself up, wincing. "Ah!"
Orimo rushed to her. "You aren't hurt, are you!?"
"I'm good," she breathed, brushing dirt off.
But she stared at the fading sand with shaking eyes.
Something on this island was very wrong.