Chapter 9 – Embers in the Wake
The path out of the ruins twisted like a dying serpent, its jagged edges crumbling underfoot. Dust clung to Lucian's shoulders, and the faint hum of residual mana still stirred in the cracked stones around him. But the pressure—the weight of Shuten-dōji's memory—had faded.
What remained was quieter. But deeper.
Lucian didn't speak much as they walked.
Kaiser didn't either—not at first.
The silence wasn't heavy, but it was alive. The kind of quiet that hung between two people who'd seen something that couldn't be un-seen.
It was Lucian who finally broke it. "That voice at the end… it wasn't really him, was it?"
Kaiser rolled a shoulder. "If it was, then he's got great timing. Ghosts tend to show up right when they're least wanted."
Lucian glanced at him. "You didn't hear it, did you?"
"Nope." Kaiser grinned, biting into a strip of dried meat like nothing in the world could bother him. "But I saw you freeze up like a deer staring down a divine hammer. So I figured something spooky happened."
Lucian exhaled through his nose. "He called you a fracture. Said you weren't a child of this world either."
Kaiser's steps didn't slow, but his next words came with less flair. "And you believed him?"
Lucian didn't answer.
Kaiser chuckled softly. "You really think I'm like you? One of those pulled-from-another-world types? Wearing the skin of a local?"
Lucian stayed silent.
"Lucian," Kaiser said, voice light but edged, "if I was from another world, don't you think I'd remember?"
Lucian finally looked at him. "Maybe you do remember. And maybe you're just the kind of person who'd lie about it."
Kaiser stopped walking.
For the first time in hours, his eyes lost that usual smirk. "Is that what you think of me?"
Lucian opened his mouth, then closed it.
"…I don't know what I think," he admitted. "That thing—echo, ghost, whatever it was—it saw something in you. Something outside the world's design."
Kaiser looked at him for a long moment.
Then, just as quickly as the tension rose, it vanished. He slapped Lucian on the back. "Well, if I'm some kind of cosmic accident, at least I'm a charming one."
Lucian stumbled forward slightly and gave him a glare, but didn't push him away.
"Where to next?" he asked after a moment.
Kaiser looked up at the distant skyline, where the mountains framed the edges of the Demon Region like jagged fangs. "There's a port town a few days from here. Quiet place. Good food. Decent sake. I figured we could head there, get some supplies, maybe beat the crap out of a few bounty hunters along the way."
Lucian raised an eyebrow. "Bounty hunters?"
Kaiser grinned. "You absorbed the legacy of a man who made the world tremble, Lucian. You really think no one noticed?"
Lucian sighed. "Great."
"Relax." Kaiser pulled out another popsicle from seemingly nowhere. "We'll lay low. You, me, maybe a couple broken ribs. Classic bonding experience."
Lucian didn't laugh, but he shook his head. "You're unbelievable."
"That's what my wife says. Usually right before she tries to stab me with a fork."
Lucian stopped mid-step. "Wait—you have a wife?"
Kaiser didn't miss a beat. "Yeah."
"Since when?!"
Kaiser tilted his head. "Since always?"
Lucian blinked. "You mean to tell me that 'you, of all people' managed to get a girl—the same person that has a stupid smile and a shitty personality—has a wife?"
Kaisers face darkened for a moment before he got his trademark smirk back. "Her name's Lira. She's terrifying. I love her dearly."
"…Are you actually serious."
"Dead serious. She'd kill me if I wasn't."
Lucian blinked again, then muttered, "I don't know what's more surprising—that you're married, or that someone willingly married you."
Kaiser grinned wider. "How is it suprising, im literally the hottest guy in the world," Kaiser said with a smirk and his hand in his chin in a '✔️' form.
Lucian just sighed
They kept walking, but the mood had lightened slightly.
Lucian glanced back once, at the fog-choked ruins slowly vanishing behind the ridge.
"Do you think there are more… legacies like that? Hidden across the world?"
Kaiser's voice was thoughtful this time. "Probably. Power like that doesn't just disappear. It sinks. It buries itself in places people forget. Waiting."
Lucian looked forward again. "Then I should be ready."
"You're already better than most," Kaiser said, his voice casual—but grounded. "You're learning to carry it. The weight. The fear. That's more than half the battle."
Lucian didn't reply.
But his steps grew steadier.
As the sun dipped lower and the light softened, they vanished down the ridge—two figures walking into a world that was already beginning to turn its eyes toward them.
The Rankings would shift.
The whispers would grow.
And somewhere… in the darkest corners of the earth…
A pair of red eyes blinked open.
Watching.
Waiting.
Hunting.