The ruins were quiet.
Not peaceful—emptied.
What remained of the chamber lay in collapsed layers of stone and twisted metal, the place where the Door once stood now nothing more than scorched ground and fractured symbols fading into dust.
Null sat against a broken slab, breathing slow.
His body was intact.His mind was not.
The Third Fragment was dormant, but not gone. He could feel it like a scar beneath thought—present even when untouched. Every blink carried a delay, as if reality needed a moment to confirm he was still there.
Hyung stood a few steps away, scanning the horizon.
"No pursuit," he said. "No pressure. Nothing watching us directly."
Null gave a quiet laugh.
"That's worse."
Hyung didn't disagree.
D U crouched near the center of the ruins, poking at the cracked ground with one finger. Her threads were gone—fully retracted, invisible—but her posture was tense in a way Null hadn't seen before.
"They didn't retreat," she said. "They archived."
Null looked up.
"Meaning?"
"Meaning what you did got recorded," she replied. "Your refusal changed a variable. Systems like that don't get angry. They get curious."
Silence followed.
The sky above them looked normal now, but the light felt thinner—as if something fundamental had been removed and not replaced.
Null pushed himself to his feet.
"My head feels… quieter," he said. "And louder at the same time."
D U stood, brushing dust from her clothes.
"Congratulations," she said dryly. "You're officially desynced from reality."
Hyung turned toward Null, expression serious.
"What do you remember?"
Null closed his eyes.
Fragments surfaced—the throne, the mark, the split, the Door's voice.
And something else.
A presence watching from behind Aizeno's actions.Not commanding.Waiting.
"I remember enough," Null said. "And that's the problem."
The ground trembled—light, distant, but real.
Not from the ruins.
From far away.
Hyung's jaw tightened.
"That wasn't an aftershock."
D U's eyes narrowed.
"No," she said. "That was a response."
Null opened his eyes.
Whatever he had refused at the Door…had begun moving anyway.
And Volume II had truly begun.