Chapter 2: The Voice Beneath the Skin
Riku's body burned.
Not with pain—but with power. A terrifying, alien heat that pulsed beneath his skin like something alive. As he stumbled through the flickering corridor, his breath came ragged, his hands still shaking from what he'd done. Or rather, what it had done.
The dead soldier's blood still stained his claws.
Only… he didn't have claws anymore.
His arm was normal again. No blackened armor. No burning red lines. Just pale skin, trembling from the shock.
"What the hell is happening to me?" Riku whispered, clutching his head.
That's when he heard it.
"Ah… so you can feel me now."
A voice—inside him.
Not a hallucination. Not a memory. A living presence, slithering through his mind like smoke through cracks.
"W-What are you?"
"The better question, Riku Aozora, is what we are now."
The voice was deep and ancient, neither man nor monster. It pulsed through his veins like a second heartbeat, filled with amusement and hunger.
"You broke the seal. You awakened me. So now, we share this shell."
Riku stumbled backward until he hit the wall. "I didn't ask for this."
"No one ever does." The voice sighed. "But you endured the ritual. Your body didn't reject me. That makes you… interesting."
Riku's heart pounded. "Get out of me!"
"Too late."
The lights flickered overhead. One by one, they buzzed out, swallowing the hallway in darkness—until only a faint red glow remained from the emergency beacons. And in that red glow, Riku saw it.
A shadow standing at the end of the hall.
Human-shaped. Motionless. Wearing a mask with no eyes, just a blackened symbol etched across it—a twisted eye with three slashes.
Another one.
Riku backed away. "No… not again."
The creature tilted its head, twitching.
Then it screamed.
A high-pitched, inhuman screech that shook the air.
It charged.
"LET ME HELP," the voice growled inside him. "UNLEASH ME."
Riku froze. Panic screamed at him to run, but instinct—something deeper—rose inside his chest.
And then the world snapped.
Black veins burst across his right arm. His skin cracked open like porcelain, revealing dark bone and glowing sinew underneath. Red light burned through his fingers as his hand warped into a clawed weapon—elegant and monstrous.
His eye turned black, with a single red slit.
The transformation was instant—and violent.
He didn't think.
He lunged.
The creature swiped at him with a jagged blade of bone, but Riku's claw caught it mid-swing. He twisted, slashing across the Revenant's chest. Black blood sprayed the walls.
Another strike. Then another.
Until the Revenant collapsed in a heap of twitching limbs and broken mask.
Riku stood over it, chest heaving, arm still glowing with crimson light.
Silence returned.
And then, the voice laughed.
"That, little vessel… was just the beginning."
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End of Chapter 2