Chapter 129: The Voice in the Void
Theme: "Ashes of Divinity" – dark, slow build with eerie strings and tribal drumbeats rising into thunderous echoes
A world of colorless void twisted around Sakamoto. Stars didn't hang here. Time didn't breathe. It was a realm without shape—until he appeared.
A towering figure emerged from the haze: bare-chested, with a regal white sash tied around his waist, muscles marked with ancient spirals. His horns coiled skyward like a cursed crown, and black smoke plumed from his wild hair, rising like incense to the crescent moon suspended above his scalp. His eyes glowed, not with light, but with purpose, and his grin stretched unnaturally wide.
In his hand, he held a katana, its edge humming like a tuning fork of death.
Sakamoto took a cautious step back.
"Who are you? Where am I?" he asked.
The figure didn't move—he simply spoke.
"You can call me Jushin. I've been waiting for this day, Lord Sakamoto."
Sakamoto blinked. "Oh… so you're the Jushin? The spirit? You're different now. Last time I saw you—on Eagle Island—you didn't even have a form."
Jushin chuckled. The sound was deep, layered, and laced with smoke.
"What you saw then was a whisper. A fragment. This… is my true self also I can take any form at which I desire."
He slowly raised his hand and gestured to the vast, endless horizon.
"And this… is our domain. Not yours. Not mine. Ours. But that's not why we're speaking now."
Jushin's smile faded.
"I know you blamed me. For your grandmother. For everything. But I hope Mujin's revelations cleared that. I did not kill her."
Sakamoto nodded, serious now.
"Yeah. I know you're innocent. Mujin proved that, and how the hell do you know this?" He asked
"We share the same body So I am you and you're me"
Jushin stepped forward, the very floor reacting to his presence like water disturbed by thunder.
"Then we move forward. Because something… ancient… has returned."
"Who?" Sakamoto asked.
Jushin's eyes narrowed.
"Arcade."
The name struck like thunder.
"I felt his Shen. It's unmistakable. I fought him before, Sakamoto. And his resurrection stirred me awake inside you."
Sakamoto's jaw tightened.
"So now what? You want me to go tell SUHA?"
"Yes."
"Nope. Not happening. Those people locked me up like a criminal."
Jushin chuckled again, head tilting like a serpent.
"You still don't know what you are, do you? Or what you carry?"
"Enlighten me."
"You house me. And my kind are born from the Originator—beings of endless Shen. The techniques you use?All from the creators source you do not need to fear for I will fight side by side with you like I did with the others". The powers you don't understand yet? They're yours, Sakamoto. But only if you stop running from them."
Sakamoto blinked and spoke,
"How can I run from something, that I do not understand completely it's not running it's lack of understanding "
"Very well then, experience is the best teacher, but first you should use your shadow ability to seoul report this information I have given to you onto Mujin he would know what to do" Jushin said…
"I've never understood my shadow technique that far, I can't just go to Seoul lol are you crazy ."
Jushin chuckled, this ability of yours has been in history long before your existence and it's funny how Jushin understood the technique better than sakamoto just from being inside him during the training session.
" let me show you ."
Jushin raised a finger.
"You've left traces of your shadow in Seoul. Focus. Feel it. Your ability isn't just to command shadows—it's to travel through them. Anywhere your shadow once touched… you can return."
Sakamoto's mind raced.
"Well if that's possible the toll on my Shen is enormous —"he said
"Do not worry about Shen. My essence flows through you now. I bring endless Shen. Enough to rival the gods."
The moment Jushin said it, a surge of power erupted within Sakamoto's chest. His veins glowed. His eyes pulsed. A heat built within him—not burning, but infinite.
Jushin smiled. "Now wake up… and move."
In the real world, Sakamoto's eyes snapped open. Snow dusted his shoulders. Asger was kneeling over him, concern furrowed across her face.
"Saka? You good?"
He stood instantly. There was a new fire in his eyes.
"We need to move."
"To where?"
"Seoul."
He raised his hand.
"Shadow Swap."
The shadows beneath their feet thickened. A vortex of black twisted around them—and in an instant, they vanished.
Meanwhile, at SUHA Headquarters, a crisis was underway.
The upper council had summoned the complete order of Knight Hunters. The world had changed. Surveillance, reports, and energy patterns had all confirmed what many feared—Alcatraz had fallen, and Huey still lived.
Worse… a signature, ancient and incomprehensible, had pulsed across the globe.
Back in Seoul, inside Mujin's private office, the room was quiet—until a vortex of blackness ripped through the air, swirling with shadow.
Sakamoto and Asger emerged, their cloaks fluttering, eyes fierce.
Mujin spun around, nearly knocking over a glass.
"What the—"
Sakamoto took one step forward.
"We need to talk. Now."
End of Chapter 129