Satellite Zone, Deep Within.
The candlewick convulsed in a pool of hardened wax tears, casting a sickly yellow halo that licked at the room’s outline like a dying firefly. Beneath the peeling wallpaper, patterns of mold were exposed, and cracks oozed with a damp chill.
Figures cloaked in black burlap hoods sat around a worm-eaten wooden table. Shadows beneath their hoods were so dense they seemed to consume their entire faces, leaving only hands as withered as dry branches extending from the sleeves, casting trembling web-like shadows in the candlelight.
The owner of one such hand bore a disturbing mark on his forearm.
It was a purple-black tattoo, drawn in thick, simplistic lines, forming a pattern reminiscent of the Nazca Lines.
Dark Signers.
Chosen as emissaries of the Netherworld by fate across 5,000 years, they were destined to battle the Signers—those marked by the Crimson Dragon. When the Dark Signers achieved victory, it would mark the moment the gates of the Netherworld opened and its king returned to reign over the living.
The world of the living would be overturned, and the dead would rule all. That was the very purpose of the Dark Signers’ existence.
"It seems like it’s almost time."
One of the Dark Signers spoke in a deep voice under the flickering candlelight.
He exposed his arm, and the mark on it glowed with a violet radiance.
"The mark of God is thirsting for battle... thirsting for the blood of Signers!"
A female Dark Signer interjected, "But aren’t we still missing a few people? The timing is soon, but it’s not just yet."
Across the candlelit table, a blue-haired Dark Signer drummed his fingers and said in a slightly sharp tone, "Doesn’t matter.
Mission, fate, five thousand years—whatever, it’s all the same to me.
But every one of you, remember this: Fudo Yusei—he’s mine! Only I will deal with him!"
The earlier two said nothing in response.
The blue-haired Dark Signer then turned towards the last figure at the end of the table: the one who had called them together, and had been there the longest—the leader of the Dark Signers.
"Fudo Yusei is my prey. I’ll let him taste the pain of a traitor, the despair of a living hell. No objections, right?"
But the leader offered no reply.
Frowning, the blue-haired Dark Signer waved a hand in front of the leader.
"Hey? Still with us?"
Only then did the leader seem to snap back to reality, glancing up at him.
After a pause, he spoke in a sinister tone, "Do as you please."
With that, he stood up, ignored the others, and walked straight out the door.
The remaining Dark Signers watched his back until he vanished. After a moment, the blue-haired one frowned and said, "Don’t you guys think the boss has been acting weird these days?"
No one replied.
...
The leader walked to an empty corridor, took a few steps, and then as if finally unable to hold on, collapsed to his knees, clutching his head.
"Ugh..."
Under his hood, he gritted his teeth as though a splitting headache was tearing his skull apart.
"No, something’s wrong... something’s very wrong."
Once again, the battle between Signers and Dark Signers was about to begin. But this time, something felt off.
It was as if some unknown hand had intervened in this fated conflict, throwing both sides’ futures into chaos.
And the Dark Signer leader felt, faintly, that he was at the very center of it.


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