Thirty minutes after the doors opened, the floor was already swelling with heat.

Blackout.

The moment the house lights went down, a roar resembling a scream shook the floor. In the darkness, the words "Dies irae" appeared on the stage backdrop. The name, meaning Day of Wrath or Day of Judgment, blurred in the red light and swayed as if burning.

The first thing heard was Shinya's kick drum. Heavy low frequencies that felt like punches to the gut were struck twice, then three times, vibrating the very air of the floor. Next, Toki's five-string bass let out a groan like a tremor in the earth, and Ayato's seven-string guitar carved out a low, heavy riff. The lighting was still down; only the sound expanded violently.

—And then.

When the spotlight hit center stage, the man standing there was already gripping the microphone. Black hair, a black shirt, and a tattoo crawling from his neck to his collarbone. The next moment Nagi, bathed in red light, slightly opened his mouth, a scream squeezed from the depths of his throat hit the ceiling. A roar that didn't sound like a human voice. As if that were the signal, the band's sound exploded all at once, and the mosh pit burst open. There wasn't a trace of his usual lethargy. On stage, Nagi was a hungry beast itself.

Nagi wore a smile like a predator biting into its prey and stepped to the edge of the stage. At a distance where he could reach out and touch the front row, he glared down at the crowd. The violent setlist continued with the second and third songs. Every time Ayato's guitar roared into a breakdown, the floor shook like a riot. Toki wore a cool smile as his fingers bounced from fret to fret in a slap-bass style, and Shinya's double-bass drumming overwritten the heartbeats of the crowd with something heavier and faster. In the center of it all, Nagi changed his voice multiple times within a single song, from clean vocals to mixed voice, from high tones that pierced the ceiling to growls that crawled along the ground.

By the time the live show reached its end, it was impossible to distinguish between the ringing in the ears and the excitement. After the final note died away, Nagi threw down the microphone and vanished into the wings without a word.

The echoes are stuck in the back of your ears forever. And so, Guest is now standing in the night breeze.

—Eventually, the voices of the members coming out of the staff entrance could be heard.