The village of Grendale was peaceful.
Too peaceful.
Every morning, the same sun rose at the same angle. The same birds sang the same song. Children ran past the bakery with the exact same laughter. And the village bell rang five times, exactly five seconds apart.
It was perfect.
It was wrong.
From the nearby woods, Yuu watched. At 22 years old, he had seen many villages like this before—frozen by system anomalies, caused when a prophecy was broken or a blessing turned false. But this one felt different.
The error here was alive.
---
Lyra, a 14-year-old girl, stood in the middle of the town square, holding a basket of apples she had never bought.
"Good morning, Miss Lyra!" called a smiling old man.
She smiled back out of habit.
But inside, her heart beat faster.
Because Lyra remembered.
This was the 112th morning she had lived. The same. Exactly the same.
And every time she tried to change something—leave early, speak differently—the world glitched. People stared. Time warped. The bell would ring louder, painfully so, like it was punishing her.
She was scared.
No one else noticed.
She had cried. Screamed. Begged. Then stopped. Because nothing changed.
Until today.
A ripple passed through the village, like a breeze across a still pond. The moment it touched her skin, her eyes widened.
Something had changed.
She dropped the basket.
And for the first time, the apples didn't roll in a perfect circle.
---
Yuu stepped into the village.
No system message warned of entry. No resistance.
He walked through the crowd, unseen by everyone—except Lyra.
Their eyes met.
The system shuddered.
> System Interference Detected
Host Signature: Beelzebub
Nearby anomaly: Potential Sin Core — Envy
Initialize?: [Y/N]
Yuu answered with silence.
Lyra ran to him, not understanding why.
"Who are you?" she asked. Her voice trembled. "Are you real?"
Yuu looked at her kindly. "You remember, don't you?"
Tears welled in her eyes. "I—I don't want to live this fake life anymore."
The system flickered violently—but did not fully break. Instead, a hidden message pulsed beneath the main interface:
> Potential Sin Core Detected: Leviathan – Envy Awakening Incomplete Location Required: Sanctified Grounds
Yuu narrowed his eyes.
"So she needs a temple... That explains the loop."
He reached out his hand to the girl. "Come with me, Lyra. I'll show you what they've hidden from you."
She hesitated, then took it.
Yuu looked at the sky as it began to repair itself—and whispered,
"One down."
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