The temple gates opened before dawn.
Master Ryou carried Kanji on his back, the boy's small hands limp, his face pale as moonlight. Rin and Seiji rushed at his sides, blood still drying on their robes from the earlier fight.
As they stepped inside, every lantern flickered.
Every prayer scroll trembled.
Every ward etched into the stone walls pulsed with a faint, uneasy glow.
The monks inside sensed it immediately.
Whispers filled the hall:
"His aura… too strong…"
"Half-demon… no, something more…"
"Why does he disrupt the sacred barriers?"
Ryou silenced them with a glare.
"He is under our protection."
But even he felt it—the temple itself was reacting.
Repelling.
Shivering.
Recognizing the blood of a royal demon.
Kanji stirred weakly.
"I'm… sorry… I didn't mean to…"
"Save your strength," Ryou said, though his voice was tight.
They brought him to the Inner Sanctum, a chamber used only for cursed children, unstable warriors, and spirits who needed purification.
The moment Kanji crossed the threshold—
BOOM.
All the candles blew out at once.
Rin gasped. "Master… the seals—look!"
Ancient symbols across the chamber walls began to flare and distort, changing shape like they were alive. Lines bent. Circles warped. Some talismans ripped themselves from the walls and burned to ash mid-air.
Seiji swallowed hard. "His presence alone… is rewriting the barriers…"
Kanji hugged himself, trembling.
"I don't… want to break anything…"
Ryou touched Kanji's head gently. "You broke nothing, child. The temple has never met someone like you."
But in truth, even Ryou's heart shook.
Kanji's power was raw—monstrous—and growing faster than any prophecy had predicted.
They laid him on the sanctum bed, surrounded by glowing sigils meant to stabilize unstable spirits.
At first, the sigils lit up normally.
Then… cracks appeared in the floor beneath Kanji. Small at first. Then spreading in sharp, branching lines like a spiderweb of dark lightning.
Rin backed away quickly.
"He's generating demonic pressure even while unconscious!"
The sigils flickered—gold, then red, then black.
Kanji arched suddenly, gasping like he couldn't breathe.
His eyes shot open—glowing molten gold.
And the shadows in the room moved.
Every monk froze.
Shapes peeled off the walls—long, thin, clawed shadows—hovering above Kanji like smoke given hunger.
Ryou's blood ran cold.
"Shadow phantoms… they're drawn to a demon heir."
Kanji reached weakly toward one.
"I… I see them… They're whispering…"
"Kanji, don't listen!" Rin warned.
But the whispers grew clearer.
"Your throne waits."
"Your father's blood calls you."
"You are the storm that ends the realms."
Kanji clamped his hands over his ears.
"Stop! Please stop!"
The shadows lunged forward—
Ryou slammed his staff into the ground.
A blinding pillar of white light erupted, shattering the phantoms like smoke torn apart by wind.
Kanji collapsed back onto the bed, breathing fast, clutching the sheets.
Ryou knelt beside him.
"We must strengthen the temple barriers. Immediately."
But Seiji's eyes were fixed on the window, his voice trembling.
"Master… strengthening them won't matter."
The others turned.
Outside the temple walls, beyond the trees and mist—
A massive shadow towered in the distance.
Tall as a mountain.
Horns twisting like jagged obsidian.
Eyes burning red through the fog.
Rin whispered, horrified:
"That… that's not a demon."
Ryou's grip tightened around his staff.
"No. That is something far worse."
The shadow raised its head.
And the entire forest bowed to it.
A deep, ancient voice rumbled across the land:
"My son awakens. The realms tremble.
The hunt begins here."
Kanji shivered violently, even in his sleep.
Ryou's face darkened.
The temple was no longer a sanctuary.
It had become a battlefield waiting to happen .
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