The Savior's Descent
"Please... kill me..."
A transparent tear rolled down from her silver eyes. Tsuki's true feelings spilled out, replacing the false smile she'd worn just moments before.
"So that's how it is..."
"L-Leon. Is this really true?"
Leon was known for despising emotional approaches to ghost stories. But even he couldn't ignore her.
"This is a first for me..."
Tears streaming down her face as she begged for death—Leon couldn't turn a blind eye, no matter who he was.
She seems unable to control the eclipse herself. That's why she's asking us to kill her.
"Tsuki. You're unable to stop the eclipse right now, aren't you?"
"Y-Yes...? H-How did you...?"
"My guess was right. Ren, Tsuki can't control this phenomenon. That's why she's begging us to kill her."
"I knew that much, Leon."
"Then let me ask one thing. It's a bit late to be asking now, but... it doesn't seem like you caused all this just to see her. What's your real goal?"
Leon already had a firm conviction about why Ren had done this.
It has to be... because of Phantom.
Ren always lost his composure whenever that name came up.
"Tsuki... there is a way to save you."
"W-What...? What do you mean...?"
"Phantom. That being might be able to do it."
"Phan... tom?"
"I don't know its exact identity, but it has a pitch-black form, eyes like abyssal depths, and it's always cloaked in darkness."
Upon hearing that description, Tsuki felt a sharp pang in her chest. A faint sensation, like something from a distant memory she'd glimpsed long ago. A longing, like reaching for flower petals carried on the wind—close enough to touch, yet always just out of grasp.
Why does this feel so familiar...?
She was a ghost story who'd lost most of her memories, after all.
Is this nostalgia... just an illusion?
"Tsuki, I know I did something stupid. But I... I just couldn't give up on you... I'm sorry."
"Ren..."
His gaze was so warm. Ren, who called her 'Tsuki' instead of treating her like a mere ghost story. His red eyes were enough to plant a tiny seed of hope in her heart.
...Is there really a path for me to live as a human...?
The moment that thought crossed her mind—
A dark, viscous voice echoed through the Netherworld.
"Wh-What was that? A ghost story rule?"
"No, it's different. There's emotion in it. Ghost story rules aren't like this."
"Everyone, be careful! This is the Eclipse I was talking about. The real ghost story controlling the eclipse and turning Tsuki into this—it's this bastard!"
Ren recognized it instantly from the voice. The hateful tone, the arrogant drawl that saw humans as mere toys.
"Eclipse! Show yourself right now. Hiding like a coward again?"
『Eclipse's Second Stage: Annular Eclipse Complete.』
The icy message of the Netherworld rang out in the air, and at the same moment—
"Aaaah... No...! Please...!"
Tsuki's body began to tremble violently. Black-red energy enveloped her entirely.
"Please stop... Ah, I don't want to hurt anyone...!"
Despair? What does that...?
With that question unanswered, Tsuki's consciousness sank into the void.
* * *
—BOOM!
Having lost consciousness, Tsuki became a mere puppet controlled by Eclipse, relentlessly attacking everyone.
"Damn it. That's why I told you, Ren! Tsuki is just a ghost story!"
"Everyone, shut up. This isn't the time to argue that."
"But Leon...!"
"I'll beat that red-eyed bastard half to death after this is over, so focus on dodging attacks for now."
"...Suddenly feeling bad for Ren..."
—Clang!
Ren was desperately blocking Tsuki's attacks.
I can't let it hit. Even a graze, and the black stain will erode me bit by bit.
"Leon, I'll deflect all the attacks. So you go for Tsuki...!"
"I know without you saying."
Thwack!
Leon, cloaked in golden energy, charged at the possessed Tsuki.
—BOOM!
His strike was incomparably more powerful than before. It scattered the black-red energy enveloping her in an instant.
"......"
"Still not enough, huh?"
It wasn't sufficient to fully restore her.
"Let's see just how strong Eclipse really is."
—Rumble...
Was even blocking his full-powered attacks too much for Tsuki? At first her arms and legs, then gradually her torso—she began taking hits from Leon.
"Nice. Leon's pushing hard."
"Worthy of Eternal Guardians' representative... He's on another level from us."
The guild members all predicted his victory.
But.
"Tch... So it wasn't about taking hits. The goal was to keep touching the energy continuously?"
Leon's hands were slowly being eroded by the black-red shadow. Like the moon gradually covering the sun, Eclipse's energy spread slowly but surely.
"Ren, what's the situation there?"
"Same here, Leon... It's subtle, but even grazing it erodes me."
"...Looks like we've fallen for Eclipse's trick."
At that moment, the final rule that would plunge them deeper into despair was declared.
『Eclipse's Final Stage: Total Eclipse Begins.』
"Ev... Everyone, run... qui... ckly..."
Tsuki's silver eyes regained a faint focus, but her body still trembled like a leaf. The black-red shadow grew denser, now extending outward.
"Please... No... I hate this!!"
—Splash!
"Urgh... My body won't move..."
"Leon! We need to retreat right—"
"Too late... I can't even twitch a finger."
Black-red tentacles sprouted from the shadows of Ren, Leon, and all the guild members, binding them in place.
"Kyaaaaah!!"
"Tsuki! What's wrong?!"
"Again... My body is moving on its own...!"
Excruciating pain crushed Tsuki's entire body. It felt like a foreign entity burrowing into her skin, seizing control of her flesh and mind. She resisted desperately, but she couldn't stop her hands from moving of their own accord.
"No... Stop...! Please...!"
But her hand was already gripping an agent's throat.
"Guh... Urk...!"
"N-No...!!!"
She struggled to resist, but the sensation at her fingertips was utter despair. The human body crumbling away slowly.
"S-Save... me......"
Poof—
The agent she held turned to black ash and vanished in an instant.
"N-No...! Stop it...!! Just kill me! Why...!"
Tsuki screamed, clawing at her own hand as if to tear it apart, but it was futile. Her hand reached for another victim.
"Am I... ultimately just a horrific ghost story...?"
The eclipse. Its essence was to devour light and plunge everything beneath into darkness. As long as she existed, the light would fade, and humans would vanish.
A cruel but absolute law of the story.
From the beginning... I was never meant to be alive...
She felt foolish for briefly hoping after Ren's words. It would have been better not to know.
God... Why give me hope only to shove me back into despair...?
Why. Why on earth.
Tsuki gazed at the sky with blurred vision. The blood-red moon poised to swallow everything. People being eroded by black ripples.
If only... I had just died... Because I exist...
She wanted to end it all. To take her own life. But Eclipse wouldn't even allow that. It bound her, forcing her to witness the despair without respite.
"Someone... please save everyone from this hell... Please..."
Knowing it was futile, she still prayed to the moon until the end.
But no one, nothing heard her desperate plea.
Or rather, exactly five seconds ago.
—Crack!
Just as she thought even her last hope was extinguishing—
—BOOM!!
A sudden roar shook the entire city, unleashing a massive storm.
"Urgh, what the hell? What's happening?"
"Leon! Th-The sky...!"
The black-red Netherworld sky dominated by Eclipse—it was splitting apart like thin fabric being torn from both sides.
Perfect darkness poured in through the gap. A pitch-black darkness incomparable to the one Eclipse had summoned with its eclipse.
"Something's forcing its way in..."
"Into Eclipse's Netherworld...? How?"
Then, a man's silhouette emerged from the darkness.
"Th-That... no way...?"
"A being cloaked in black energy... It has to be 'him'...!"
Hair like a dark ocean transplanted. Translucent, snow-white skin. Obsidian-black eyes gleaming.
The supreme ghost story, presumed to overpower even mengmang-grade—Phantom.
The overwhelming presence finally revealed itself before them.
"Phantom... So that's him...?"
As everyone assumed the pitch-black man was Phantom, Tsuki knew otherwise.
That person's name isn't Phantom.
Despite losing countless memories, how could she forget him?
He looked so dark and cold, but he possessed a warmer heart and kindness than anyone—
"The Savior... Lu... cifer..."
* * *
And the man in charge(?) of Phantom and the Savior, Si-hyun, was currently.
Fuck. This shit again? Again!!!
Busy cursing the situation he'd been forcibly dragged into.
That's right. The story, the world itself, wanted him here!
Please normalize the trashy genre with this abrupt pull.