The halls of the academy dripped crimson.

Bodies of teachers and elite Veinwalkers lay crumpled across the tiles, their Shinrei leaking into the air like smoke. The scent was heavy burnt lightning, broken stone, blood.

The Eclipse of Lust walked calmly through the ruin, her heels echoing with each step. Her crimson eyes glowed faintly, lips curved in a satisfied smile.

She dragged her fingers across the wall, leaving trails of black Shinrei that pulsed like veins.

Behind her, April's body slumped lifeless to the ground, chest pierced straight through.

"Your heart is mine now," Lust whispered, licking the blood from her hand as April's Shinrei dissolved into her.

The silence of the hallway returned.

Until a low, steady voice cut through.

"What did you do?"

Lust turned.

A man stood at the far end of the corridor.

His long, dark robes swayed, absorbing the faint light. His shinrei pressed like a storm before thunder, steady yet suffocating. His hair was streaked with silver, tied back loosely. One eye gleamed like tempered silver; the other, clouded white, stared blankly—yet pierced as if it could see everything.

It was Sensei Kurozawa.

Lust tilted her head, grinning. "Having fun."

Kurozawa didn't return the smile. In a single step, he was in front of her. The shift was so fast it wasn't sound that carried him, but the bending of Shinrei itself.

His presence crashed against her like a wall.

"Having fun, huh…" His voice was soft, but every syllable struck like a blade. His eyes sharpened, killing intent flashing. "…Then let's go have some fun."

The floor beneath them cracked. The air stilled.

For the first time since she had appeared, Lust's grin faltered.

Her instincts screamed. The black Shinrei around her rippled uncontrollably.

"W–who are you?" she hissed, stepping back. "How can you… radiate like that…?"

Kurozawa's hand rested lightly on the hilt of the long, black-forged blade at his side. His silver eye gleamed.

"I'm just a teacher." His voice was calm, measured.

Then, the weight of his words dropped like an executioner's axe.

"…But I was once an Eclipse Vanguard."

The words hit Lust harder than any blade.

Her smile broke, replaced by panic.

"E–Eclipse Vanguard…?" Her breath quickened. The memory of whispered legends surfaced hunters who fought thousands of voidborn, the pinnacle of the Veinwalker order. She stumbled back, sweat dripping cold across her temple.

Her thoughts raced, fracturing:

(No… no no no. If he's really Vanguard, then… I can't win. I can't even run—his Shinrei has already wrapped this place in a cage!)

Kurozawa's Shinrei expanded further, a tidal wave of Shinrei pressure that pinned the air itself in place.

His voice cut through her panic, steady and merciless:

"You killed our people... You won't leave this hall alive."

Kurozawa's Shinrei surged, swallowing the corridor. The walls groaned, floor tiles cracked. Even the shadows seemed crushed under the weight of his Shinrei.

Lust staggered back, her grin gone. "Tsk… what is this pressure—?! My body… won't move properly."

Kurozawa drew his blade with one hand. It rang once, a deep sound that carried finality. His stance was relaxed, almost lazy but in that calm was a killing edge sharper than any steel.

"Your tricks won't work on me."

Lust snarled, chains of black Shinrei erupting from her arms. "Void Charm!" Her eyes glowed, tendrils of compulsion flooding the air.

But Kurozawa's silver eye flared. His Shinrei cut through hers like a storm carving open clouds.

"Your will bends the weak," he said coldly. "But I am not weak."

He moved.

One step and he was already in front of her.

His blade arced in a horizontal slash. Lust barely raised her arms, chains hardening into shields. Sparks screamed as steel tore through shadow. The impact blasted her backwards, slamming her against the wall hard enough to splinter stone.

She coughed blood.

"H–he cut through my charm and my defense in one strike?!" Her mind reeled, panic flooding her veins.

Kurozawa lowered his blade, voice like ice. "You rely on fear. On desire. On weakness. Against a Vanguard… that's nothing."

Lust's eyes widened. Then her lips curled into a desperate grin.

"Don't underestimate me!"

She raised both hands. A hundred chains burst from the ground, ceiling, and walls, each tipped with black hooks. They lunged like a storm of serpents, aiming to shred him from all directions.

For a moment, Kurozawa didn't move.

Then—

His blade vanished into motion.

He spun once, the air igniting with arcs of silver Shinrei. Every chain that touched his aura was sliced apart. The hallway became a blizzard of severed shadows.

Kurozawa appeared behind her, blade already at her neck.

Lust froze.

"W–what speed—?!" She gasped. "I couldn't even—"

The tip of his blade grazed her skin. A single bead of blood rolled down.

"If you value your existence, leave now," Kurozawa said, his voice low but commanding. "But you've taken lives that cannot be returned. And that… I cannot forgive."

Lust's fury boiled over.

"I am SIN itself! You think a mortal can frighten me?!"

She screamed, unleashing her full Shinrei. The corridor warped, space cracking with violet fissures as her Shinrei flooded outward. Her body twisted, skin shimmering with void-like scales. Her form became monstrous half woman, half writhing mass of chains and hunger.

"I'll devour you, Eclipse Vanguard!"

Kurozawa didn't flinch. His silver eye narrowed, and his blade rose.

"Try."

They clashed.

Chains lashed like a tidal wave, each carrying enough force to pulverize stone. Kurozawa stepped through them, blade flashing in precise arcs. Every swing was final, cutting not just through matter but through intent. For every chain that lunged, three fell to the ground severed.

Lust hissed, retreating, only for Kurozawa to be there already—slashing across her shoulder. She shrieked, shadows knitting to heal, but his Shinrei burned her wound, slowing the regeneration.

"His attacks… they linger! I can't heal as fast—damn him!"

Kurozawa pressed forward, his movements ruthless yet measured. No wasted motion. No hesitation. Only inevitability.

"You fight like a beast thrashing in its own hunger," he said, eyes hard. "That is why you will always lose."

Lust screamed, gathering her power for one final desperate strike. "VOID CONSUMPTION!!!"

The entire corridor collapsed into darkness. A dome of pure void closed around them, chains erupting in every direction, aiming to bind his limbs, pierce his heart, swallow him whole.

For an instant, it seemed Kurozawa vanished within it.

Then—light.

His silver eye blazed. His Shinrei exploded outward in a tidal wave that shattered the void-dome like glass.

The chains disintegrated. The walls of the academy split, stone flying outward.

Kurozawa's blade pierced through Lust's chest.

Her eyes went wide.

"I–Impossible… An Eclipse Vanguard… I never imagined the gap between us could be this vast…"

Kurozawa's gaze never wavered.

"I retired." His voice was quiet, merciless. "Doesn't mean I am weak."

He twisted the blade. Lust screamed, her Shinrei fracturing, body convulsing.

She tried to retreat into shadow

But Kurozawa's shinrei locked her in place.

"Your end is here."

Lust's body writhed, shadows crawling to escape. But Kurozawa's Shinrei pressed down like an ocean of stone, sealing every escape route, every shadow-step, every flicker of her void-born chains.

"N–no… this pressure—! My body won't respond!" she screamed, eyes wild. Her beauty twisted into panic, her charm dissolving into raw terror.

Kurozawa's silver eye burned like a star. His blade gleamed brighter, Shinrei wreathing the steel until it became something greater something absolute.

"You killed April." His voice was quiet, but it carried like thunder. "For that, you will vanish from this world."

Lust thrashed. Chains erupted in every direction, clawing for the ceiling, the floor, anything that could pull her free. "WAIT—!! I am SIN! I am eternal! You can't—!"

The blade fell.

It wasn't speed. It wasn't technique. It was inevitability.

Kurozawa's strike cleaved through every chain, through every defense, through Lust herself. For a heartbeat, she stood frozen expression locked between disbelief and horror. Then her body split, shadows screaming as they were ripped apart.

The corridor erupted in light.

Her Shinrei howled, black fire spilling like blood. Lust's scream echoed once, long and shrill, before it was drowned beneath the tide of Kurozawa's will. The void-born corruption writhed, but his Shinrei burned it to ash.

She reached a trembling hand toward him, lips quivering. "I… I can't… die… I'm… Lust…"

Kurozawa's eye narrowed. His blade twisted.

"You already have."

The light devoured her. In one blinding surge, Lust disintegrated chains, body, Shinrei, all consumed until only drifting motes of shadow remained, scattering into nothing.

Silence.

The corridor was wrecked, walls shattered, floor split. And at its center, Kurozawa stood,

blade lowered, breath steady. His robes whispered in the settling dust, untouched.

For a long moment, he said nothing. Then his gaze fell on the bloodstains where April and the others had died.

His grip on the sword tightened.

"Rest now. Your murderer is gone."

He turned, coat trailing behind him, silver eye gleaming faintly in the dim light. A reminder not all legends had faded. Some still walked the world.

A Former Eclipse Vanguard.

To be continue