The cathedral of bone and blood convulsed like a dying beast. Chains rattled, pillars collapsed, rivers of ichor poured from cracks in the skull floor.
And in the middle of the chaos, Argon could only stare.
The outsider — this fragile woman dragged through the fracture of light — knelt on trembling hands, eyes wide with pain and wonder. She shouldn't have been here. She couldn't have been here. Yet her voice still echoed through his head.
"Argon."
His name, spoken as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
Vanessa's Jealous Fury
Vanessa froze for the briefest moment. Her lips parted, and then curved into a sharp smile that was more like a blade than an expression.
"Oh," she purred, stepping forward slowly, hips swaying, her chains dragging like serpents across the bone floor. "She knows your name, darling."
Her smile twisted into something venomous. "And here I thought I was the only one who could whisper it like that."
Her crimson gaze slashed toward the outsider, dripping with murderous hunger. "Tell me, lamb—who taught you to speak his name?"
The outsider flinched, breath hitching, but did not answer.
Selene's Weak Insight
Selene stirred weakly in Argon's arms, her once-flowing shadows guttering like dying candles. Her voice was barely a whisper, yet it cut through the tension.
"Argon… listen."
Her trembling fingers clutched at his sleeve, her grey eyes meeting his. "That woman—she doesn't just know you. She remembers you."
Her lips parted, blood trickling at the corner. "Be careful… she could be the key… or the knife."
Her body sagged again, her voice fading into ragged silence.
The Will's Rage
The chained giant writhed, its laughter gone, replaced with a roar of raw fury.
"OUTSIDER! OUTSIDER! YOU BRING RUIN WITH YOU!"
Its mask tilted toward the fracture, its chains stretching to breaking point. The cathedral shuddered under its rage.
"THIS WORLD IS MINE! YOUR MEMORY IS FORBIDDEN HERE!"
The outsider shivered, clutching her ears as if the voice was drilling into her skull. Still, her wide eyes never left Argon.
The Outsider Speaks
Her lips trembled, her throat tight, but she forced the words out.
"I… I came here for you."
Argon's blood froze.
Vanessa's expression darkened instantly. Her chains lashed violently across the floor, gouging deep scars into the skulls beneath them.
"You what?" she hissed. "For him? You dare to step into my abyss, into my darling's Game, and claim you came for him?"
The outsider swallowed hard, tears brimming in her eyes. She pressed a shaking hand to her chest, voice cracking.
"I don't understand all of this. I don't know how I got here. But I know you, Argon. I remember you. From before this place."
Argon's Cracked Reality
Her words drove a spike straight into Argon's skull.
From before?
That wasn't possible. His entire existence was the Game. He was a player. He had always been here, fighting, bleeding, killing to survive. That was the rule. That was the truth.
And yet—her eyes held something raw, something unshakable. Recognition.
He staggered back a step, his crimson blade trembling in his grip.
"You're lying," he growled. His voice was rough, dangerous. "There is no before. Not for me."
The outsider shook her head, desperate. "There is. And I know because—"
The Forbidden Truth
She leaned forward, her broken body trembling under the abyss's crushing air. Her lips parted, and she spoke a truth that shattered the silence of the collapsing cathedral.
"You… were never supposed to be a player."
The words slammed into him like a hammer.
The cathedral stilled. Even the chained will froze for a single heartbeat.
Selene's grey eyes widened. Vanessa's chains stopped mid-whip. Argon's crimson blade pulsed, flickering violently with unstable light.
The outsider's voice broke, tears running freely now.
"You were forced into this. I—I don't know how, but I know it. You don't belong to this Game, Argon."
Cliffhanger
The will erupted in an earth-splitting roar, its chains snapping in showers of sparks.
"SILENCE!"
Vanessa's face twisted into a snarl, her chains surging toward the outsider to silence her forever.
Selene gasped out a final warning.
And Argon stood frozen, his world fracturing in two—his existence called a lie by a woman who shouldn't even know his name.
The fracture pulsed brighter, the abyss shook, and the outsider's trembling hand reached toward him.
"Please… remember."
Next Chapter Preview
The outsider's revelation shakes the abyss to its core. Vanessa's fury, Selene's last strength, and the chained will's rage all converge as Argon confronts the possibility that his entire existence has been a lie.