Chapter 140: “The Temple of Eyes”
The wind outside howled like it remembered something.
Not a storm.A warning.
Inside Ryuki's old safehouse, everything was silent.
Eri lay in the corner, breathing shallow.Her spiral mark had faded—but only because something worse had taken its place.
A second mark.
Right over her left eye.
An imprint.
Burned.Twisted.
Hunter's seal.
Ryuki ran his hand along her forehead.
His palm trembled.
He'd fought gods.Warped time.Killed Kurashiki.
But this?
This was older.
Something he couldn't erase—because it didn't exist inside chakra.
It existed beneath it.
Like a curse buried in the blueprint of being.
Souta sat by the window.
Knees to his chest.Silent.
He hadn't slept.He hadn't blinked.
His spirals were still.But the space around him warped just slightly.
As if even the air feared him now.
"She protected me," he finally whispered.
Ryuki didn't respond.
Souta looked up.
Eyes dull.Not broken.Empty.
"She took the seal because the Hunter tried to mark me."
Ryuki stood.
"We need to leave."
"To where?"
"The Temple of Eyes."
Souta blinked.
"You said that place was sealed."
"It was."
"By you."
Ryuki nodded.
"And now I'm going to unseal it."
Later—
The two walked through a ravine of silent statues.
Dozens of blind monks carved in stone.Each one reaching toward the sky.Each one with no face.
The deeper they went, the colder the wind grew.
Until sound itself vanished.
The Temple was buried beneath time—
Literally.
Ryuki stopped before a stone gate.
He bit his thumb.Made the seal.
Pressed it to the door.
The stone wept.
And opened.
Inside, the Temple of Eyes wasn't made of walls.
It was made of watching.
Thousands of preserved eyes—
Hung like stars.Floating in slow orbits.Each one twitching. Watching. Remembering.
This was where the Spiral Clan once locked the first Dojutsu.
Before the Byakugan.Before the Sharingan.
Before chakra had names.
Souta stepped in and immediately heard whispers.
"Not a child.""Not a seed.""Not spiral.""Something worse.""Something... missing."
Ryuki ignored them.
He walked to the center.
Where a stone coffin waited.
Unopened.
Even now.
He turned to Souta.
"Do you know what's inside?"
Souta shook his head.
"Then don't look."
Ryuki removed the last seal.
Stone cracked.
And inside—was not a body.
But a mask.
Carved from bone.Marked with dozens of spirals.Eyes in every direction.
Ryuki picked it up slowly.
"This belonged to the first Spiral Hunter."
Souta frowned.
"You said there was only one."
"There is."
He turned.
And handed the mask to Souta.
"And now he's chasing you."
Elsewhere.
In the dark between seconds, the Hunter walked across a sea of white paper.
Each step folded reality.
Each breath twisted fate.
He no longer whispered.
Now he sang.
"The Spiral broke.The Seed woke.The Eye wept.Now I choke."
A laugh.Sharp. Dry.
He held a mirror.
Souta's reflection stared back.
But the eyes?
Weren't his.
End of Chapter 140.