The air in the room was sterile and heavy, smelling faintly of old wood and the metallic tang of dried blood. Akos lay motionless on the bed, his chest rising and falling in shallow, jagged rhythms. Slowly, painfully, his eyelids flickered.
The first thing he saw was the ceiling—cracked plaster that looked like a map of a broken world. He groaned, his body feeling as though it had been crushed by a mountain and poorly glued back together. He tilted his head to the right, the movement sending a sharp bolt of lightning through his neck.
There, sitting in a mismatched wooden chair, was a girl with her feet kicked up. She was casually munching on a bag of potato chips, the crunching sound deafening in the quiet room.
— "Who... who are you?" Akos managed to whisper, his voice sounding like sandpaper on stone.
Sora froze, a chip halfway to her mouth. Her eyes widened into saucers, and she nearly choked as she scrambled to sit upright.
— "Aaaah! You're alive!" she shrieked, her voice a mix of disbelief and pure shock. "I don't believe it! I seriously thought you were a goner. I thought Tenshi didn't manage to heal you well enough, and even after I showed up to help save you... man, you looked like a human charcoal briquette!"
Akos blinked slowly, trying to process the frantic energy radiating from her. His mind was a fog of red fire and yellow eyes, but none of it made sense.
— "Whoa, whoa... slow down," Akos groaned, closing his eyes for a second to stop the room from spinning. "Who is Tenshi? And more importantly... who are you?"
Sora's jaw dropped. She looked at him as if he had just sprouted a second head. She leaned forward, pointing a salt-covered finger at her own chest.
— "Eh? Are you serious right now? I'm Sora! Ronika's best friend! Don't tell me you forgot?"
Akos stared at her, his expression blank and hauntingly empty. The name triggered a faint ache in his skull, but no image followed. He looked at her with a strange, distant gaze—the gaze of a boy who had looked into the "Universe of the End" and left a piece of his soul behind.
The silence that followed was uncomfortable. Sora's playful excitement vanished, replaced by a sudden, chilling realization: the Akos who went into that battle wasn't the same one who woke up.
Sora:
"Akos... it's been two whole days since the explosion. Two days since you were hovering between life and death."
(Akos's body jerks. His pupils dilate in total shock, his breathing turning shallow.
Akos:
"Two... days? What do you mean? Where is Sakoura? Where is—"
Sora (cutting him off, her voice low and grave):
"Quiet. Sakoura vanished after the blast, but the chaos he left behind... it's beyond words. Sinish doesn't exist the way you knew it anymore. The city has plunged into absolute darkness. No one knows what to do, the authorities have collapsed, and people are terrified to even step onto their balconies."
(Akos looks down at his trembling hands. His face pales as the realization hits him.
Akos:
"So many people... died because of me?"
Sora (bowing her head, her voice trembling slightly):
"Many died, Akos. Far too many. For these past two days, we've been pulling bodies from the rubble. The air still smells like ash and ozone. Everyone is trying to help, but the wound is too deep. The city is in a state of total paralysis."
(A heavy, tense silence fills the room. Sora lifts her gaze, her eyes burning with a sudden, sharp resolve.)
Sora:
"But listen to me. We don't have time to mourn. Our gang, ALPHA, has called an emergency council. In a few hours, we are meeting with the other two major gangs of the city. It's the first time in history the 'Big Three' will sit at the same table."
Akos:
"A council... for what?"
Sora:
"To plan the next move. We have to understand exactly what happened and how to defend ourselves against what's coming next. Tenshi says that was just a warning shot. This was only the beginning."
(Sora reaches out, gripping Akos's hand tightly, her nails digging slightly into his skin.)
Sora:
"Akos, look at me. The city is falling apart, and enemies are closing in from every border. The world sees you as a 'weapon' or a 'target,' but to us, you're just Akos. We need you. Without you, this council has no weight. You have to stand up."
Suddenly, Tenshi kicks the door open. Her wings are slightly tattered, and her aura is jagged with tension. She looks at Akos with sharp, urgent eyes.
Tenshi: "Akos, we don't have time. We have to move. Now!"
Sora (interjecting, shocked): "How do you expect him to move? He just opened his eyes! He's barely a person right now!"
Tenshi (teeth gritted, snapping back): "This world doesn't want your rest! Rest in this world is just another word for your END. Ronika is already out there, throwing herself into the fray just to stop the devils from spreading further into the city. We are losing ground every second!"
Akos slowly turns his head toward the wall. He sinks his face back into the pillow, his eyes glazed with a profound, hollow sadness.
Tenshi:
"Listen to me, Akos. Something happened that no one predicted. The Fake World and the Real World... they didn't just clash. They merged. They have become one single, distorted reality. There is no 'safety' to go back to."
Akos (whispering into the pillow, his voice cracking):
"And the people who died? Is that a lie too? Is everything a lie? Am I a lie? Who am I?! Why can't anyone just give me an answer?"
Tenshi (losing her patience, grabbing his arm): "What are you talking about?! Are you serious right now, Akos? I don't care about your existential crisis! We have to leave this city. IBARAKI sent me to bring you back. Now, stand up!"
But Sora moves faster. She takes a deep breath and firmly brushes Tenshi's hand away from Akos. She sits on the edge of the bed, leaning close to him.
Sora said, "Akos... we are sorcerers."
Akos turns his head back toward her, his eyes searching hers for a spark of truth.
Akos:
"What... what is a sorcerer?"
Sora:
"Sorcerers are the ones who hunt the devils. We are the ones who protect this world from the rot. Me, you, Jin, and Ronika... we are all sorcerers. They trapped us in that fake world, hoping we would slaughter each other. They wanted us to tear ourselves apart... but our will was stronger than their design. We survived because we chose to."
Enshi (teeth clenched, eyes flashing with anger): "Sora, stop! What exactly are you trying to do? Are you trying to force him to remember the darkness of his past? Do you have any idea what that will do to him?"
Akos (lifting his head toward the ceiling, his voice hollow): "If my life right now is this full of pain... then how much worse could my past possibly be?"
He rests his head against the cold concrete wall beside the bed. As his skin touches the stone, the room around him begins to dissolve. The warmth of the sunlight vanishes, replaced by a sudden, biting chill.
[FLASHBACK: THE CEMETERY OF RAIN]
The rain is violent, lashing down with a fury that drowns out all sound. Thunder shakes the very earth. Akos stands alone in the middle of a wasteland.
Before him, lined up in the mud, are seventeen heavy, black body bags. Seventeen corpses. Seventeen lives extinguished. Akos stands over them in absolute silence, his gaze heavy with a grief so deep it transcends tears.
Suddenly, a voice echoes from the void, surrounding him:
"Akos... a man without a purpose, without a goal, has a soul and existence that hold no meaning. But when someone has a target, they find the will to live."
Akos (whispering to the wind): "I failed... I failed to save my friends."
Another voice, sharper and more philosophical, cuts through the thunder:
"Are you strong because you chose to be strong? Or were you born to be strong? Or does this world simply demand that you be born strong?"
Akos clutches his head, the pain searing through his skull like a white-hot needle.
[THE BRIDGE OF REALITY]
Akos snaps his eyes open. He isn't in the room with Tenshi and Sora anymore. He hasn't woken up in the "real" world yet—he is somewhere in between.
He finds himself in a derelict building. To his right, the sun is setting over a beautiful, calm sea, but the air feels wrong. The "reality" of it is darker, heavier. Akos rushes down the stairs, his heart hammering against his ribs. He reaches a long, concrete bridge stretching over the water.
In the distance, a figure is walking away.
Akos (screaming): "Wait! Hey, you!"
The figure doesn't stop. Akos's lungs burn as he calls out a name he didn't know he remembered:
Akos: "MIKARO!"
The man stops. Slowly, Mikaro turns his head. His expression is unreadable, distant.
Mikaro: "Akos... this world doesn't want to survive. Is it our fault they don't make it? Or is it our fault that the cycle of blood never stops? Listen to me... the stronger you become, the more certain your end becomes. And that end... is always death."
Akos stands frozen, the words hitting him like physical blows. He tries to speak, but his throat is constricted by a sudden, terrifying realization. Mikaro doesn't wait for an answer; he turns back and continues walking into the golden horizon, leaving Akos alone on the bridge.