Hoshimi pressed his back against the wall, forcing himself to breathe. The creature hadn't moved from the doorway, but it didn't need to. Its presence alone was enough to compress the space, to make every inch of the room feel like it was closing in.
[The pathway. It's about distance, but I can't see it.]
"Hoshimi…are you okay?" Kira's fingers ran across the surface of the invisible wall, looking at Hoshimi from the other side.
"Don't worry too much, I'm fine."
He looked at the creature's arm, still extended toward him but frozen mid-lunge.
[You can't skip steps, that applies to this thing too. That's the rule. The pathway has to be followed in order.]
[I couldn't touch Kira but you could touch me, that means that you are the bridge, the middle between me and Kira, that explains why her gas worked against you]
He looked at the creature's face, that smooth white surface with those black-ringed eyes. It was waiting.
"Kira," he called out, not turning from the creature. "Can you hear me?"
A moment of silence. Then her voice, small and trembling but *there*: "Y-yes. I can hear you."
"The barrier around you. Can you feel it?"
"I... I think so. It's like... like something's pushing me away from everything. Like I'm in a bubble."
[Well that doesn't help]
He turned to look at Kira fully. She was still huddled in the corner, but her eyes had focused slightly, tracking his movements.
The creature's face remained smooth and white. Black-ringed eyes watching. Waiting.
"The creature," he said. "When it first appeared in here with us. Where was it standing?"
Kira's brow furrowed. "I... by the door. No, wait. It was by the window. Then it moved to the door. Then—"
"Then it attacked me."
"Yes."
"It followed a path. Even within the same room, it had to reposition." He looked back at the creature in his doorway. It hadn't moved. Still watching. Still waiting.
"The pathway exists everywhere. The creature can't break its own rules. It has to follow the sequence too. But when I'm alone, the rules don't apply. Maybe only when two or more of us are being observed by each other."
"So what do we do?"
Hoshimi pushed off from the wall. Ignored the scream of protest from his ribs. The creature's scattered eyes tracked him, but it didn't advance.
"Okay," he said quietly. "Let's play your game."
He took a step toward the creature. It didn't move. He took another.
"Kira. When I give the signal, release your gas. Full output."
"But—"
"This is going to be a risky play, but trust me, will you?" He stared back and smiled at her.
Another step. The creature's arm twitched.
"You said it was by the window first. Then the door. Then it attacked. That's three positions."
"I think so."
"The pathway has steps. It can't skip. So if I can predict its next position..."
He was five feet from the creature now. Its white face stared down at him. The black-ringed eyes didn't blink.
"Here's the signal," he said. "Now."
Kira's chest expanded. The skin at the base of her neck opened wider.
The creature's arm shot toward Hoshimi. He didn't dodge. He watched. Tracked its trajectory.
It didn't come straight. It went right first. Toward the wall. Then up. Then left. Then down. Then..
He moved. Grabbing onto its fingers to block its movements.
A truck.
That was what it felt like to block the attack, an attack with the force of a moving semi.
[The hell!? This hurts like hell!]
Its fingers twitched.
The creature's arm retracted. Recoiled. Its scattered eyes blinked in sequence.
"I watched you. Every time you moved. You never go straight. You always take a path. A specific path. I don't know how you see it. But you follow it."
The gas reached them. The creature's form shuddered. Its white face contorted.
"You're the bridge," Hoshimi continued. "That's your role. You connect the marked ones. But you're also bound by the same rules you enforce."
The creature's arm shot out again. Same pattern. Right, up, left, down, then.
Hoshimi stepped into its path. The flesh was cold. Wrong. But solid.
"The pathway works both ways, doesn't it?"
He dashed between its legs, into the hallway.
[Since I made it past the creature, that means that the carbon monoxide is closer to me than it is to it]
His feet started to vanish into thin air, his entire body became see through, until what was left of him vanished.
[Except for the fact that your ability doesn't work when I'm not being perceived]
Smoke.
[I was hesitant on using my ability since I couldn't see with my mana but your ability doesn't restrict me now]
The creature backed away from the door, the lights above it flickered, the walls started to shudder, its arms gripped onto the doorframe, taking a single step backwards.
A blade pierced through its foot, blood oozed outwards and pooled beneath the creature, a crimson red rippling from beneath it.
[I placed some blades beneath it, since external factos can still damage you]
The creature screamed with a deafening screech, it was more of a little girl's cry than anything monsterlike.
Its knees collapsed and dropped to the ground with a thud, its spindly body twitched from the poisonous gas, it gasped, reaching out for air.
"Kira! That's enough!" Hoshimi's body reappeared above the fallen creature, his hand glowing with a glowing purple energy. "I'm getting you out, we've won."
He turned around.
The world lurched. The hallway vanished. The classroom vanished. Kira's terrified face vanished.
They were in nothing. White void stretching infinite in all directions. The creature stood before him, no longer monstrous. Just a shape. A silhouette.
"Where is this?" Hoshimi asked.
"The between." The creature spoke with the voice of a little girl, its head turning. More childlike. "The space between steps, you managed to set me free after all."
"By setting you free, I think you're referring to how you're dead." Hoshimi's eyes narrowed. "How did you pull me here?"
"No."
"By that, are you referring to the former or latter?"
"I didn't pull you here, you did." The creature spoke, its voice echoing the empty void.
"What?"
The creature got closer, its long black finger pointed towards Hoshimi's chest.
"Your reincarnation, rather than the king of legend, your soul is an arsenal of the king's. That spear inside you had pulled in here, a microsecond before my soul had completely faded."
"You're trapped here until my spear lets you go then."
The silhouette was silent for a long moment. Then: "Yes."
Hoshimi released its wrist. The creature didn't move.
"Everyone else, how many are trapped in the loops?"
"Thirteen."
"Who are they?"
"Kira Aamon, Neila Shaw, Seraphina Shaw, Dominic Walker, Lucy Walker, Sarah Williams, Aya Lin, Akari Clover, Aiden Smith, Siri Smith, Kako Miller, Sophia Miller and Hoshimi Shirogane.:
[Members of the student council? I didn't know they lived with us]
"How do I free them?"
The creature's form shifted. For a moment, Hoshimi saw something almost human beneath the distortion. A girl. Young. Scared.
"End the Zenith. Kill the caster."
"Who is it?"
"I don't know. I never saw their face. I only felt their will. Their command."
"Then how do I find them?"
The creature pointed. In the white void, a single thread of light extended into infinity. Pulses of energy traveled along it. Slow. Rhythmic.
"You've got the game wrong, follow the line, the spear inside you is the pillar of the world, a weapon that is far too old to be even considered a weapon, a creation that has existed since the ages of the Primordials. Let it guide you, let it show you fate, once you see an anomaly, turn back, don't fight it."
Hoshimi looked at the thread. Then back at the creature.
"What happens to you when I end it?"
The silhouette was silent. Then: "I don't know."
"Can you help me?"
"I'm dead. I can't attack the caster. I can't directly help you fight."
"What's happening to the world outside?"
"Your school, it's being attacked."
The creature's form wavered. For a brief moment, Hoshimi saw her clearly. Brown hair. Green eyes. A face that could have been anyone's. Could have been no one's.
Hoshimi stepped toward the thread. Reached out. Touched the light.
The world dissolved.
He was back in the hallway. But different now. The fluorescent lights were gone. The chrome doors were gone. Just the thread, stretching forward into darkness, pulsing with that slow rhythm.
He began to walk.