The echoes of battle faded, but the air remained heavy, weighed down by blood and ash.
The sky above the transformed gate looked gray and distorted, as if the very light itself was suffocating.
Kaido was kneeling, his slender body covered in dust and blood, his hand trembling as it gripped Yume's white ribbon, now stiffened with black and red stains.
His eyes were wide open, staring into nothingness. He could no longer see. He could no longer hear. It was as if his soul remained suspended at the moment Yume died and left him alone.
The only sound was his ragged breaths, mixed with sobs that did not come from his mouth, but from something deeper within him… a silent breaking.
Minato, who survived miraculously, stood behind him. Half of his pants leg was torn, and blood dripped from a cut on his eyebrow, but he paid no mind to his wounds.
He just watched Kaido in silence, unsure if it was wise to speak. He had seen what happened, witnessed the transformation, saw how Kaido faced the giant beast alone and defeated it with a power no one understood.
"Kaido?" he said softly, almost pleading.
No answer came.
Kaido remained silent.
The silence was like an open grave, inhaling sorrow and exhaling regret.
Even the gate, which had screamed moments before, was completely still, as if it respected the mourning.
Moments passed that felt like hours, until Kaido's body suddenly trembled.
He slowly lifted his head. His eyes, once dark, now glowed with a faint crimson light.
That light was strange… inhuman.
Blood still dripped from the corner of his mouth, but his features were not pained.
They were cold. Determined. And… strange.
He whispered in a husky, low voice, as if his words were born from the ashes of his heart:
"You weren't supposed to die…"
He pressed the ribbon tightly until its edges tore.
"I was going to protect them all."
Minato stepped forward, his voice hesitant but sincere:
"You did what no one else did. You saved me… saved everyone."
But Kaido shook his head.
"Not everyone."
The sentence was simple… but carried the weight of a corpse, blood, and a broken promise.
Suddenly, the rubble shook with heavy footsteps.
Minato immediately turned and gripped his cracked weapon.
Through the dense fog appeared the figure of a tall man, his dark cloak fluttering in the wind.
His steps were steady, and a sash hung from his shoulder bearing an unfamiliar emblem, like a twisted thorn inside a bloody ring.
"So, this is the boy who survived… a transformed gate?"
He said coldly, without a trace of sympathy.
Kaido didn't respond. He wasn't in the mood for riddles or displays.
But his eyes kept staring at the man, alert… despite exhaustion, despite everything.
The man continued approaching, his steps neither quickening nor slowing:
"Kaido Shin, right? You have awakened the echo of an Oath. We feel it. All the major guilds have felt it."
He raised an eyebrow with inappropriate amusement, as if the situation was just an entertaining game for him.
"A rare thing… to have an Oath born inside a transformed gate. Rare, and dangerous."
As he got closer, he stepped into the remaining light of the gate.
He was relatively young, in his late twenties, but his eyes were much older.
They carried a kind of wisdom… mixed with cunning.
"My name is Kentaro. A messenger from the Black Thorn Order."
He stopped two steps from Kaido and smiled:
"I came to offer you something… you won't be able to refuse."
Minato muttered softly, "What exactly is this guild? We haven't heard of them in the Eastern region."
But Kaido didn't raise his voice. Didn't show surprise. He just looked.
It wasn't a look of fear.
Nor anger.
There was something else.
A new pulse… rising from his veins, from something awakened within him.
Not of this world.
A voice from inside him, from his blood, from his Oath, whispered in his heart:
"This is not the last thing you will lose, Kaido… but now you have begun to understand."
Kaido finally parted his lips, his voice low but sharp:
"Continue."
Kentaro smiled as if waiting for those words.
"Excellent… then listen well. What you have now, this echo… it won't go unnoticed. Our Order is watching, but we're not alone. There will be those who want to kill you. Those who want to use you. And those who want to tear you apart to find what's in your blood."
He pulled from his coat something like a black crystal, but it pulsed with an inner red light:
"But if you join us, you'll understand. We will protect you. And show you the true path… beyond the gates. Beyond the Oaths."
Kaido didn't take the crystal.
But his eyes didn't leave it.
"Why me?" he asked quietly.
Kentaro responded with a wider smile:
"Because you are no longer just a hunter, Kaido Shin.
You are… one who has taken an Oath.
And people like you are never left alone."
Kaido looked again at Yume's corpse.
The ribbon was still in his hand. His heart still screamed, but his eyes… they weren't crying.
They were changing.
Here, amid the rubble, he stood for the first time not as a victim, but as something new.
He thought of Aiko. Of those who would come. Of those who made this world.
Then he looked again at Kentaro, and said:
"If you're going to take me where I find answers… I'm ready."
And thus, a new game began.
Not with monsters this time… but with the hunters themselves.