The thick fog that enveloped the earth brought silence—yet that silence was soon shattered by a voice that did not belong to the human world. A whisper, not from mouth or tongue, but directly penetrating the depths of the soul.
The voice of Beelzebub. Every human, angel, samurai, even children who had yet to learn words, felt it. In their sleep, in their daydreams, in the pauses of fearful breaths, the voice echoed:
"I am the dragon of a thousand regrets, the crown of a world that has cracked. Your memories are my body, your sins are the breath that awakens me."
The people of Sanctuary awoke in the middle of the night, gasping for breath, cold sweat soaking their bodies. Children cried for no reason; mothers tried to soothe them, but Beelzebub's voice had already invaded their minds, planting images of destruction behind every gentle whisper.
"Calm down, dear. Mother is here," said one mother, holding her trembling little daughter's hand. However, the dark shadows dancing behind her closed eyelids left no room for tranquility.
The adult men saw their reflections in water that had turned to blood—faces transformed, filled with wounds and tears. They began to relive all the regrets they had ignored: the child left behind, the promises broken, the love killed by vengeance. "This is all my fault," murmured one man, his voice hoarse. "I should have protected them."
In an instant, the entire population of Sanctuary seemed to relive the sins they had long cast aside. Each felt the weight of buried history, as if Beelzebub were retelling their old stories with fingers full of wounds.
Babies born since the leyline crack began to carry small "spiral eyes" on their foreheads or chests, and every night they cried in a language that no one could understand—an ancient language that seemed to connect them with the dragon sleeping beneath the earth. Their cries echoed in the silent night, creating a chilling atmosphere that seemed to inform everyone that a new era had arrived. Among the crowd, a young mother gazed at her newborn, tears streaming down her cheeks. "What has happened to you, dear?" she whispered, as if hoping to receive an answer from the small creature who did not understand.
Mitsuyori dreamed of dancing on a sea of blood with two glowing spiral babies, but each step was accompanied by cries and Beelzebub's whispers. As she raised her hands, as if reaching for an unattainable hope, Beelzebub's voice vibrated in her ears, "What do you desire, oh Queen?" She saw herself as a queen without a kingdom, a mother without children, and a lover separated from all the love she had ever known. Each whisper from Beelzebub shook her body, making her forget who she was—only pain, guilt, and the fear of losing the two lives growing within her remained. She screamed, "No! I will not let this despair take everything from me!"
Fitran, meanwhile, repeatedly dreamed of defeat and betrayal. In his dreams, he saw the Oda army burning, cities collapsing, and himself walking without a shadow, without a name. As he stepped forward, shadows from his past emerged, accusing him. "Why didn't you fight?" they asked. Sometimes he saw Mitsuyori standing in the distance, her back turned to him, while Beelzebub's voice continued to repeat:
"There is no father in this world without wounds. There is no child born without blood."
Each time he awoke, Fitran felt an excruciating pain in his stomach, as if the contents of his body were twisting, digested by something invisible. In the darkness of the night, he remembered Mitsuyori's words, "We must endure, Fitran. We cannot let fear control us." But the question was, how long could they endure? He sank back down, hoping that hope still lay behind every nightmare that haunted him.
Mitsuyori Aketsu, weary of maintaining illusions and hiding, was now chased by nightmares. In her sleep, she encountered Beelzebub in the form of a woman with seven eyes—each eye revealing a shattered world, every word spoken a mirror of her deepest regrets. Mitsuyori saw the faces of those she had once saved now pleading, "Why did you save us if you were ultimately to surrender to the dragon?" In the panic that consumed her, she screamed, "I do not want to be trapped in this mistake!" Her heart seemed to whisper among the shadows, but Beelzebub only smiled menacingly, as if relishing the suffering she inflicted.
Joanna herself began to lose the boundary between herself and Michael. Beelzebub's voice gnawed at her heart, repeatedly questioning her existence, her identity as an angel, her blood as the daughter of Fitran. "Michael, will you let me perish?" she cried, holding back tears that flowed like rivers down her cheeks. Every song of Beelzebub was a voice of judgment—and Joanna had to bear the weight of all the past sins of Sanctuary, even though she had never chosen that burden. The feeling of helplessness made it nearly impossible for her to breathe, as if that burden had solidified in her chest.
Gabriel, the angels, and other ex-paladins dreamed of falling from the sky, losing their wings one by one. In that dream, Beelzebub drank their light, turning it into a whirlpool of darkness that grew larger from night to night. "We cannot continue like this!" Gabriel shouted in his dream, his voice filled with despair. "We must fight! Even if it means fighting against ourselves." Yet, other voices from the shadows replied, "What is the point of fighting if we are already cursed?" Trapped in that noise, their spirits seemed to wane, as if being sucked away by the shadows of darkness that continued to approach.
The sky above Sanctuary changed: the deep blue now shimmered with veins of purple and black, sometimes forming spiral patterns or the shapes of giant dragons that could only be seen when lightning struck the horizon. The rivers became murky, flowing in the wrong direction, sometimes bubbling with blood. Wild animals hid or rampaged for no reason.
In the midst of this chaos, a vibrating voice came from a distant corner, sending waves of fear spreading among the people of Sanctuary. A young girl, with eyes full of curiosity, whispered to her friend, "Do you believe we will survive all of this?" Her friend could only shake her head, her face pale, while they held on tightly to each other.
Old rituals and spells no longer worked. The wizards tried to write new glyphs, but each symbol immediately morphed into claw marks or dragon eyes. One older wizard, with a white beard and a desperate gaze, shouted, "We must find another way! The old ways are no longer effective!" in a tone of despair, hoping someone would hear him.
Across Gaia and Oda, the people began to burn their homes and old talismans, believing that only fire could drive away the dragon's curse. "Only by incinerating the old can we give birth to the new," shouted an elderly bald man, angry at his son who hesitated to follow. But every fire only brought a bitter aroma, and within its smoke, shadows of dragon heads occasionally appeared—mocking humanity's futile efforts to fight against fate.
At the peak of the night, Beelzebub's voice reached every corner of the world. This time it was not just a whisper, but a great echo that shook the foundations of the earth:
"Rise, all who have ever regretted. The old world of yours has been destroyed. From blood, new children shall be born—and you will remember me as the mother of all destruction!"
The people of Sanctuary knelt, crying or screaming in silence. Some among them exchanged glances, deep fear reflected in their eyes. "What will happen to us?" whispered one man, his voice barely audible amidst the empty cries. Mitsuyori and Fitran could only hold each other tightly behind their hiding place, trying to find strength in one another. The moment of silence filled with tension felt heavy, hanging in the air.
Meanwhile, Joanna stood before the empty altar, holding back tears and unspoken feelings of loss. "I cannot… I cannot let this happen," she murmured, as if speaking to herself. She grasped the cold altar stone, hoping to feel the spirit of her ancestors within it.
Beneath the earth, the leyline cracks widened, forming a deep blue-purple whirlpool. And in the midst of that whirlpool, dragon eyes began to open, one by one, gazing at the world with expressions of regret and eternal hunger. Fear seemed to seep into every corner of the people's hearts, and Beelzebub's thunderous voice created an unspeakable terror. "Will they come here?" Fitran asked quietly, his face pale. Mitsuyori bit her lip, trying to calm her trembling soul. "We must believe, there is hope even in the darkness," she replied with a trembling voice, trying to ignite a spark of faith amidst the encroaching gloom.