Kazuki didn't wake up screaming.
That's how everyone knew something was wrong.
For months, he'd bolted upright every morning in a cold sweat, whispering things like "Why was the sky screaming?" or "I think my blood is talking again." But today?
Today, he just sat up. Calm. Quiet.
And smiling.
That scared Vera more than any shrine explosion ever had.
"You okay?" she asked, eyeing him like a bomb that had decided to be polite.
Kazuki stretched. "Better than usual."
Kaelith narrowed her eyes. "You didn't have a vision?"
Kazuki shrugged. "I think the visions are waiting to see what I do now."
That wasn't ominous at all.
[System Alert: Echo Density Stable][Mental Noise: 0%][Suggested Action: None](That's... weird.)
Darin greeted him with a cheerful, "Hey man, you look way less haunted!"
Kazuki smiled. "Thanks. I think I finally stopped running."
"From what?"
"From what I'm supposed to do."
Darin looked nervous. "That's... vague."
Kazuki patted his shoulder. "Don't worry. I'll explain later. Probably."
He did not explain later.
That day, while the others scouted supplies, Kazuki walked to a cliff overlooking the ruined lands below.
Mistral sat beside him in total silence. No sarcastic comments. No dramatic sighs.
He just watched Kazuki breathe in the air like it didn't taste like smoke anymore.
"You're different," Mistral finally said.
Kazuki nodded.
"I've stopped waiting for the right path. I'm going to make the one that ends this."
Mistral narrowed his eyes. "And if it breaks the world?"
Kazuki looked down at his hand. The echo sigil flickered. Glitched.
"Then the world can break."
That night, a village nearby asked for help.
Shrine sickness. Static in the air. A sky that blinked like a dying lantern.
Kazuki went alone.
He told no one.
In the morning, the shrine was gone.
Just a crater.
No sickness. No sky blink. No shrine.
The system simply said:
[Shrine #17: Resolved][Method: Manual Rewrite][Kazuki Alignment Drift: +9%]
He returned to camp at sunrise.
The others stared at him.
He looked fine. Too fine.
Like he'd finally put the burden down—but no one knew where.
Kaelith stepped forward. "Kazuki. What did you do?"
Kazuki looked at the horizon.
Smiled.
"I made a decision."