The letter was unsigned.
It had no seal. No crest. Just a single black envelope left quietly on her apartment floor while she was away. Reika stood by her door, fingers tightening around the smooth, matte paper. The room behind her remained still walls cracked, windows fogged from cold, and Kuro watching silently from the shadows. She opened the envelope slowly.
Inside was a folded slip of white paper. A single line, handwritten in neat black ink: "We know what you became. You're not alone." That was it. No name. No date. No threat. But somehow, it chilled her more than the goblin lord's axe ever could. Kuro stepped closer. "You were watched."
"I felt it," she whispered.
"A shadow passed over you while we were in the dungeon."
She turned the letter in her hands. "Someone saw everything. And they knew what I did." Kuro didn't blink. "They were not guild. They were something older." Reika looked out the foggy window. "They said… I'm not alone."
In the central guild tower, panic bloomed quietly like ink in water. A blacklisted bounty had just hit the internal forums. Reika Aizora. No price. No rank. No instructions.
Just a tag: Do not engage. Observe and report.
The fact that an E-rank had appeared on the blacklist sent waves across the hunter world. She hadn't done anything wrong. No crimes. No betrayals. But she'd survived something she shouldn't. And now? She was being watched by people far more dangerous than monsters.
That night, Reika dreamt of fire. Not normal fire. Blue. Cold. Alive. She stood in the center of a ruined battlefield stone shattered, the sky a red tear above. Shadow corpses lay all around her, still twitching. The air reeked of magic. She was alone. No. Not alone. Something behind her… breathing.
Slow. Raspy. Alive. She turned and froze.
There, crouched at the edge of the dreamworld, was a beast made of broken armor, flames flickering inside its chest like a dying furnace. Its eyes glowed orange not wild, but bound. Caged rage. And it spoke.
Not with words. But with pain. Her pain
The moment she opened her mouth — the dream exploded.
Reika woke gasping. Kuro stood beside her bed, shadow blade half-drawn. "You were screaming." She wiped sweat from her brow. "There's… another one." He nodded slowly. "They come from within you. Your Pact is a living bond. Your summons… are echoes." "Echoes of what?"
"Of who you've been. And what you refuse to forget." She sat up, heart still pounding. "This one… he burned. He was in chains."
Kuro closed his eyes. "Then he waits to be unbound."
Elsewhere in the city, the man in the black coat lit a cigarette, standing on a rooftop overlooking the Eastern District. Another report filed. Another agent moved. He stared into the misty skyline. "She has two now," he murmured. "She's moving faster than expected."
Guild missions didn't usually come by envelope. But this one did. A plain, grey letter dropped outside her door. No wax seal, no emblem. Just one line in the header:
"Solo Assignment Classified. Rank Override Approved."
Reika narrowed her eyes. It didn't smell right.nThe assignment was simple on paper
"A newly formed gate has appeared in the Northern Ruins sector. Suspected D-rank threat. Your clearance is approved for solo raid. Investigate and clear. Report back. Reward doubled for discretion." It wasn't the words that bothered her. It was the signature. Or rather, the lack of one.
A few hours later, Reika stood before the Northern Ruins gate a spiral crack suspended between two collapsed pillars, flickering faint red, like dried blood under light. The ruins were abandoned. No hunters around. No guild backup. No observers. Only silence. Kuro stood beside her. "This is bait," he said. "I know." "You still want to enter?"
Reika took a breath. Her fingers brushed the hilt of her blade. "If they're testing me… then I'll give them results." Without hesitation, she stepped in.
The dungeon was nothing like before. No beasts waited in the shadows. No corrupted goblins. Just… silence. And heat.
The deeper she walked, the more the air burned. Not from flames, but from pressure the kind that made your skin crawl and bones sweat. And then she saw it.
A massive, scorched coliseum buried beneath layers of stone half-melted walls, shattered arena floors, and in the center…A chained knight kneeling in the ashes. His armor was twisted black metal, scorched beyond recognition. His helm was horned. In place of eyes, two faint orange lights flickered like dying embers. Around him, glyphs pulsed. Seals. And at his feet a broken summoning ring. Reika froze.
Kuro emerged slowly behind her. "I know this place," he whispered. eika glanced at him. "What is it?"
"A prison. For one of us. One of the Old Pact-born. Bound by fear. Locked away by the guild… long ago." Reika stepped closer. The knight didn't move. But something inside her burned. As if her blood was heating. He's part of me, she thought suddenly. Like Kuro. Another echo. Another pain. he chains rattled. And then the knight moved. Just a little. His head rose slow, mechanical. And then a whisper entered her mind. "You… carry the flame of betrayal."
She stopped. "What?" The voice returned, louder now. "You were cast aside… and yet you burn. I see it. Let me burn with you." Kuro stepped forward, shadows rising in alarm. "Reika. Be careful. He's not like me. He's older. His rage is not silent. It screams." But Reika didn't back down. he looked into the knight's ember eyes.
"You were locked away. Why?"
"Because I would not bow," he growled. "They feared the fire I carried. The truth I knew. So they chained me… and forgot."
Reika clenched her fists. "Do you still serve the Pact?" The knight lifted his head fully. "I serve the one who unchains me." The seal at his feet began to crack. And Reika without knowing why raised her hand. She didn't say any spell. No chant. No summoning word. She simply spoke from the soul. "Then rise, if your fire answers to me." The world screamed.
The seals exploded in flame blue fire, cold and screaming, rushing outward like a storm. The chained knight howled, flames pouring from the cracks in his armor, rising into a column of cursed light. Reika stood firm. Kuro stepped back. And the knight now free walked through the fire and knelt before her. "Name me, flame-bearer."
Reika looked down at him the heat making her coat flutter, her shadow stretching behind her like a cloak. She whispered:
"Enkai. You are Enkai now." The fire died instantly. And the knight stood taller now, fully formed. A blade of blue steel formed at his side shaped like a furnace shard. Enkai bowed low. "Your flame is mine. Your enemy, ash."
Outside the dungeon, two hidden agents watched from a high observation tower. "She awakened another," one of them muttered. "She's not stabilizing. She's evolving."
The report hit the table with a hard thud. Guildmaster Jun Takasora didn't even flinch as his assistant laid down the file. His office, perched atop the Central Tower, was lined with ancient relics and digital scrolls glowing faintly. Behind him, the entire skyline of the city spread like a grid of blinking lights and brewing storms. He opened the file. Three words printed across the header in red:
"Kill Order Proposed."
He scanned the contents.nTarget: Reika Aizora. Former rank: E. Current: Unknown.
Estimated power class: Unstable Summoner Shadow and Fire Affinity.
New Code Tag: "WILD CLASS."
"No official crime committed," his assistant said hesitantly. "But… she's drawing attention."
Jun didn't respond. He stared at the attached surveillance image. A still-frame of Reika stepping out of a burning dungeon.
Behind her, two figures one cloaked in shadow. One glowing in blue fire.
The caption read: "Two summoned entities. Both bound. Unconfirmed classification. Witnesses report psychic feedback and core absorption." Jun tapped the desk once.
"Send a message." "To her?"
He looked up, eyes cold. "No. To those who are watching her."
In the slums, Reika stood by the cracked mirror above her sink. She hadn't slept. Couldn't. Kuro stood beside the door. Enkai, now fully formed, rested against the window, one armored knee up, blade laid flat across his lap like a ritual. She looked at herself. The girl in the reflection didn't look like an E-rank hunter anymore.
Her eyes were sharper. Shoulders straighter. There was a tension in her jaw that hadn't been there before not fear… but control. She didn't feel powerful. She felt awake. Like someone had pulled back a veil she didn't know she'd been wearing all her life.
Then she heard it.
KNOCK. KNOCK.
Not loud. Not fast. Deliberate. She opened the door cautiously. No one stood there. Just a small package wrapped in black velvet. She opened it slowly. Inside a hunter's identification shard, snapped clean in two. And below it, a small paper note.
Five words.
"You're now outside the law."
She stared at it. Didn't flinch. Didn't blink. She folded the note, turned to Kuro and Enkai. "They're moving against me." Enkai stood, eyes glowing faintly. "Then let them come. I burn what I must." Kuro added, "And I silence what remains."
Meanwhile, on the rooftops of Eastern Sector 6…Three hunters clad in silver cloaks watched a glowing map. Reika's icon blinked softly. One of them turned to the squad leader. "Orders?" The leader tall, armored, face hidden behind a black visor responded without turning:"Observe. Report. Engage only if she attacks."
"And if she doesn't?" "…Then we provoke."
That night, as Reika walked the lower district alleys to buy supplies, she noticed it. The silence. Too clean. Too still. She turned a corner and three cloaked hunters stepped into view. Their hands were not on weapons. Not yet. But their formation screamed trap. Reika stopped. Her eyes flicked once to the rooftops. One above. Two behind her. Classic five-point circle. They weren't amateurs. One of them spoke. "Reika Aizora?" She didn't answer.
The speaker continued, "You've triggered three danger protocols in under 72 hours. Two summons unregistered. One dungeon core unreported. You've been marked WILD." Reika's hand dropped slowly to her side. "I don't belong to your ranks anymore," she said. "No," he replied. "But you belong to this world. And the world has laws."
Kuro formed behind her, blade glinting. Enkai's fire flickered to life. The lead agent stiffened. "You're outnumbered." Reika tilted her head. "You're outmatched."
What happened next… was never reported. But when the guild scavengers arrived the next morning, they found four broken masks, one burned rooftop, and no body trace of Reika Aizora. Only this scorched message on the wall, written in fire:
"Don't send dogs to catch wolves."