The sun scorched my skin.
The heat was unbearable, sweat sticking my clothes to my body. My shirt was barely holding on, the fabric already torn in places. If this keeps up, it's gonna rip.
I stayed still, as still as I could, but—
How long have we been flying?
Morning had passed. The sky had shifted. The sun was directly overhead now.
It had been hours.
I must have passed Menyurl by now.
"…Hey, man, where are we going?"
Silence.
Of course, it wouldn't respond. It's a damn crow.
I sighed, resigning myself to the fact that I was still at the mercy of this oversized bird.
Then—
The Diagung moved.
Its wings tilted.
And suddenly, we were plummeting.
FUCK—
The air rushed past as the bird descended at an alarming speed. Mountains loomed ahead, growing closer with every second.
Was it dropping me?!
No—not yet.
I squinted against the wind.
There—at the base of the cliffs—a nest.
A massive, towering nest, crudely built from broken walls and shattered stone.
Wait.
This damn chicken was stealing pieces of buildings to make its nest?!
I was still processing this when the Diagung threw me forward.
Shit—!
I tumbled, landing hard against the rough nest floor. Dust and debris scattered around me as I pushed myself up, groaning.
The Diagung landed behind me.
And then, I saw it.
Another bird.
But—not a Diagung.
This one was white, its feathers gleaming in the sunlight. Smaller. About the size of a normal eagle, unlike the massive crow that had abducted me.
The white bird stared at me, unblinking.
I turned my head slightly, looking back at the Diagung.
"…Hey, what do I do?"
No response.
Of course.
"…You can't speak, can you?"
The Diagung just stared.
Then, slowly—
It tilted its head.
The eagle shifted it's stance as it came closer to me something in its eye was mesmerizing just as I was staring into it the diagung growled
"Okay, man, what the hell do you want me to do?" The Diagung didn't respond.
"You haven't told me anything! What the hell am I supposed to understand?" I snapped, frustration leaking into my voice.
And then—the Diagung moved.
It lunged.
Not at me—at the eagle.
The two clashed, feathers scattering as they fought in a flurry of wings and talons. But it lasted only a moment before both birds backed off, returning to their places.
Oh. I see now.
The Diagung wants me to kill the eagle.
"Too bad. I won't do it," I muttered. Then, I glanced at the massive crow. "Hey, aren't you like three times its size? Kill it yourself."
The Diagung didn't move. It just stared.
Then—it jumped. Once. Twice. Three times.
And then—it lowered its head, bringing its beak to my hand.
My fingers rested against the rough surface.
And in that instant—I felt it. The body. The structure. The intricate weave of muscle, bone, and sinew beneath the feathers. It was beautiful.
And then—something went wrong.
A sting shot through me and the world twisted.
my breath hitched.
For a second, I was somewhere else.
I looked down at my hand—and I saw everything. Not just skin. Beneath it. The nerves. The tendons. The bones.
And then—I looked forward.
The Diagung was the same. Stripped of all flesh. I saw through it. The whole structure. The entire body laid bare, as if reality itself had peeled away.
I took a breath—and then, I saw my head I could see my own face despite my eyes still being attached to my Face—Or rather—the skull where my face should have been. The nerves. The muscle. The exposed remains of my own existence.
The world was drenched in a sickening purple hue.
And then—the Diagung moved. It approached.
Its so-called beak—no, its skeletal jaws—opened wide.
And it bit down.
Straight through my ribcage.
My eyes widened.
I looked down.
My heart.
It was gone.
Destroyed.
I exhaled a breath that wasn't there.
Rage bubbled up.
"You stupid chicken."
I lunged. I didn't care if I had no heart. If it took mine—I'D TAKE ITS.
I grabbed the Diagung's heart. It thrashed, but I didn't let go.
Neither of us screamed. Neither of us could make a sound.
I crushed it in my grasp.
The Diagung twitched.
And then—it looked at me.
"Haha, you stupid chicken. Now we're even."
The blood from my heart had flowed out, and at the same time, the blood of the Diagung surged toward me. Both streams met at the center between us—red and black, intertwining, merging. Blood vessels from both sides stretched toward each other, weaving together until—
A single heart formed in the center.
One heart.
Beating.
Ours.
And just like that—I was back.
Not a second had passed in the real world.
I looked down. My skin was normal again. My chest rose and fell. I could feel my heartbeat.
Phew. I thought I was done for.
I turned to the Diagung, smirking. "Look at this, you stupid chicken."
But then—I stopped.
Something was off.
The bird was… happy?
Was it even happiness? Why did it feel like it was satisfied?
The realization hit me like a hammer.
Wait.
I turned back to the bird, eyes narrowing.
"You stupid chicken… You connected our souls, didn't you?"
The Diagung stayed silent.
Of course, what was I expecting? A verbal confirmation? It was a damn bird.
Fuck. I muttered under my breath.
But now that I had realized it—I could feel it.
Our souls were bound.
It was as if a chain had been latched onto my very being, tethering me to this creature. A connection I hadn't felt before—but now that I knew, I couldn't ignore it.
This world follows the Principle of Knowledge of the Unknown.
A core rule of the visual novel.
Until you learn it, you can't feel it. This was a fundamental truth of the world. A principle repeated throughout the visual novel.
Unless I acknowledge or learn the existence of a pact, a curse, or something similar—I cannot feel it.
If I were cursed, I wouldn't even notice. Not until I learned about it or acknowledged I was cursed. That was why the major forces of the world always acknowledged their curses even if they weren't cursed, Of course it could save them what if they were cursed acknowledging it would help them check if they were cursed. Acknowledgment was fleeting sensation that could help. But once you learned, you could feel the entire thing.
And now—I could fully feel it.
Haaah. How stupid. I had acted out of sheer spite.
...No.
Wait.
No, I didn't. This chicken—it had approached me. Activated my Clarion. Dragged me into that world. It had set everything in motion.
This was deliberate. A carefully laid-out sequence of events. It wanted to make me angry. To push me into crushing its heart—just as it crushed mine.
All of this... just to make me kill this bird?
I turned to the Diagung. It stared at me. Mocking me.
"You stupid shit," I muttered. "I won't kill it."
I stepped forward, reaching for the eagle. My hand rested against its feathers. No resistance. It didn't even retaliate.
...Strange. I had been expecting something.
At least a little retaliation. But nothing. The eagle simply closed its eyes, as if accepting its fate. A bit dramatic. But cute.
The Diagung, however, wasn't happy.
"Come on, man. It's just a simple eagle. Why do you even care about it?"
Silence. Just a sharp glare.
"Uh-huh. Still no. You can't kill it just because it's resting on your neck."
...Yeah, you could ask it to leave. So? Attacking it was a good option?
Whatever. This thing was short-tempered.
I sighed and turned back to the Diagung—and froze.
Was I just... talking to a crow?
WHAT?!
"HOW DID I UNDERSTAND YOU?! YOU DID WHAT?!"
The Diagung blinked at me, unimpressed.
Oh. Now that we were connected—we could understand each other.
I groaned and hit my head. The sensation was weird. Each time it had cawed, it had sounded like any other crow. Yet I had understood every word. It hadn't even spoken. Not in any language I knew.
What the actual hell was going on?
I turned to the eagle. "Can you—?"
It screeched.
I didn't understand it. But it understood me. I was certain.
Then—The Diagung moved.
It lunged at full force, a black blur in my vision. I barely reacted in time, jumping back as the eagle flinched. It tried to fight back—but it wasn't fast enough. A direct hit. The eagle was going to die.
And then—
The sky darkened.
A roar of thunder split the air.
Lightning crashed down.
The Diagung barely dodged as the entire nest shook.
I slowly turned my head upward.
A... A...
THUNDERBIRD.