Allen woke up in a hospital bed, and the moment he moved, he nearly screamed. An unbearable, white-hot agony surged through his legs.

  Motionless, he opened his right palm. A blue crystal stone appeared, pulsing with a rhythmic azure light. Allen squeezed it, and a stream of crystal-clear water began to flow from the gem. He drank a few drops, his expression grim.

  “This is going to hurt.”

  A few seconds later, his stomach lurched. Below his waist, the pristine white sheets began to bloom with a sickening, spreading red. Allen pressed a pillow over his face to muffle a groan as he pulled back the covers.

  The doctors had put both of his legs in casts, but now the plaster was fracturing from the inside. Jagged shards of bone and thin rivulets of blood were being forced out of his skin, clattering against the bedframe.

  After several grueling minutes, the pain began to recede. Allen let out a long, ragged breath of relief.

  “Expelling the fragments was the hard part. Now, the bone has to knit itself back together.”

  He straightened up in bed, feeling a strange, cold tingling in his legs. He stared at the blue stone in his hand.

  “You’re finally awake?”

  Allen’s fist tightened around the sapphire as he looked toward the window. A man stood there, bearing a striking resemblance to Shinobi, though his gear was a deep, blood-red. He held a stack of files in his left hand.

  “It’s poor etiquette to enter through a window, sir.”

  The man chuckled, pulling a chair over to the side of the bed and sitting down.

  “My apologies. But if I’d walked through the front door, I’d have a SWAT team and a hero squad on my tail. Honestly, I didn't want to cause a scene. I just wanted to talk.”

  “And what does a man like you want with me? I’d offer you a drink, but I’m afraid my hospitality is limited in a hospital ward.”

  “Let’s start with introductions. I am—”

  “Crimson Shadow. A-Rank Villain. Shinobi’s archnemesis. Fifty confirmed skirmishes, and you’ve evaded hero capture on ten different occasions... or so the media says.”

  Crimson Shadow nodded, flipping through the papers in his hand. “Correct. You made quite an impact with that Uncontrolled today, by the way. No one believes you’re actually an F-Rank.”

  Allen smiled, idly rolling the blue stone between his fingers—an act that didn't escape the villain’s sharp eyes.

  “Can you be honest with me?” Crimson Shadow asked. “In exchange, I’ll return the favor.”

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  “Depends on the question, Mr. Villain.”

  Crimson Shadow pulled a photograph from his files and handed it to Allen. Allen’s face went stone-cold the moment he saw it.

  “I want to ask you about the Gigax Leo incident,” the villain said. “This person in the yellow suit is you. But I don't understand one thing: you were the only one who saw that monster appear. You killed it before a rift was even detected. What was it? An Uncontrolled?”

  Allen sighed, holding the blue stone up as the moonlight caught its facets.

  “Answer me this, Shadow. Do you believe in fairy tales? Do you believe there’s a princess waiting to be rescued from a wicked warlock or a terrifying dragon?”

  Crimson Shadow shook his head, his eyes fixed on the gem. “Those are stories. Real life is a hell of a lot harder and uglier than that.”

  “Wrong answer,” Allen whispered. “Every story is built on a foundation of truth. Something that actually happened. But tell me... do you believe in Knights?”

  Shadow tried to interject, but Allen kept talking.

  “To this day, I try to forget what happened with the Gigax Leo. Why? You’re asking the wrong question. I’ve already given you the answer, but you weren't listening.”

  With a flick of his wrist, Allen sent the blue stone into the air. Four other gems materialized around it: the Prism of Emotion, the Ruby of Passion, an emerald, and a yellow crystal.

  “These are my powers. The red crystal is the Ruby of Passion. The blue is the Sapphire of Honesty. The green is the Emerald of Truth. The transparent one is the Prism of Emotion. And the one I used against the Gigax Leo... the yellow one... is the Topaz of Will.”

  Except for the Prism, the gems were of such high purity they seemed to glow with their own internal life.

  “The Prism is the catalyst—the shell. The other four are projectors of power. Put simply, the Prism is the vessel that holds the weight of the other four.”

  “Where are you going with this, Allen?”

  Allen smiled as the stones floated above the bed, bathing the room in a kaleidoscope of colors.

  “They are the crystallization of a Knight’s code. The passion one must possess, the truth one must defend, the honesty with which one must speak, and the will with which one must act.”

  Crimson Shadow finally began to grasp the meaning behind Allen’s riddles. “Then you’re the Knight. If that’s true... then who are the Princess, the Warlock, and the Dragon?”

  “The Warlock... no, the Sorcerer... is Calibur. As for the Princess, there was never a real one—only a person who lost control. And the Dragon? That one has become untouchable.”

  Crimson Shadow’s hands trembled. These words were enough to bury Calibur for life if the theory held. “What are you trying to say?”

  “Gigax Leo... that’s the name they gave it,” Allen said softly. “To me, she was always Seira.”

  Allen reached out toward the floating stones.

  “A Knight must never make a woman cry. And that day, when she became the Gigax Leo, her roars sounded like an endless sob to me. She was begging me to do it. Begging me to use my strength to... well, you know the rest.”

  Crimson Shadow listened intently. “What kind of ability did Seira have to turn into a Category 5 of that magnitude?”

  Allen let out a sad, hollow laugh.

  “Her ability was unique. She had the power to make people smile when they were at their lowest. She could make you forget your burdens just by looking at her. Most importantly... she had a heart that was pure and clean.”

  Crimson Shadow stood up, looking at Allen and then back at the remaining papers in his hand.

  “A strange ability. Almost like she was just... a normal human.”

  “A human is still normal, even with an ability. I have only one request, Shadow: Do not trust the Federation.”

  Without another word, Crimson Shadow walked to the window and leaped into the night. Allen watched the gems drift in the air, a thousand thoughts racing through his mind.

  “Gigax Leo... they’re still obsessed with that incident, yet they refuse to look deeper. Even Shinobi and Crimson Shadow haven't found the real event yet.”

  Allen smiled as the stones settled back into his palm, their inner light fading into a faint, haunting glow.