The hunter forced himself upward through sheer will, fragments of broken sigils cutting into his skin.
"Kaito! Break connection now!"
The pressure was unbearable. The air itself had turned heavy, thick like liquid iron.
Azrath's chains were dissolving—not from external force, but because the existence they were sealing no longer recognized imprisonment.
The eye widened.
The hunter reached Kaito and slammed a forbidden mark onto his back.
A sealing glyph burned into his flesh.
"I swore to protect humanity," the hunter growled. "Even if that means stopping you."
The glyph activated.
Kaito's compression faltered for a moment.
The spiral reversed direction.
The eye pulsed once—
And reality trembled so violently that entire mountain ranges below fractured.
The hunter coughed blood.
"Choose humanity," he whispered.
Kaito's jaw tightened.
"I am."