The hearth in the Sharia estate breathed a rhythmic, amber pulse, its light dancing across the mahogany walls of the study. Outside, the Northern winter clawed at the windowpanes with icy talons, but within these walls, the air smelled of aged parchment, sweet herbal tea, and the faint, lingering scent of Roxy's magic books.
Rudeus Greyrat sat steeped in the silence, the weight of a heavy, leather-bound volume resting on his desk like an uncarved monument. He dipped his quill into the inkwell, the black liquid shimmering like the void he had once traversed to reach this world.
He didn't write immediately. Instead, he let his gaze wander to his hands. They were the hands of an eighteen-year-old—strong, calloused from the hilt of a sword, yet sensitive enough to weave the finest threads of mana. They were not the soft, rotted hands of the man who had died in the gray slush of a Tokyo street.
A profound, trembling gratitude swelled in his chest, a feeling so vast it felt like a prayer to an architect he couldn't see—the One True Creator who stood far above the petty, manipulative "gods" of this world.
Thank you, he thought, a silent instinct of the soul, acknowledging the ultimate unknown Masterplanner that had granted him this penance. Thank you for the hardness. Thank you for the grief. Thank you for the chance to feel the weight of it all.
He began to write, his quill scratching a slow, deliberate path across the page.
"I am eighteen today. The snow is deep in Sharia, but the house is warm. As I sit here, I find myself looking back at the road that led to this chair. It was a road paved with blood, dirt, and the terrifying beauty of a second chance."
He paused, his mind drifting back to the beginning. He saw a blue-haired tutor standing in the rain. He remembered the smell of the Roa plains and the jagged realization that he was both just a flawed man trying to find his way home. And finally, the Labyrinth—the moment Paul had pushed him out of the way, trading his life for his son's.
"If there is a GOD, the true Masterplanner beyond the stars, I offer this breath to You. I am not just surviving. For the first time across two lifetimes, I am happy. I am whole."
Rudeus set the quill down. The warmth of the fire was like a blanket. His head grew heavy, the emotional exhaustion of his reflections pulling him down into a soft, velvet sleep.
The Fracture
The transition was not a dream. It was a violent, metaphysical intrusion.
Suddenly, he was standing in the blinding white void—the domain of the False God. Hitogami stood there, his featureless form glowing with that sickening, artificial warmth.
"Hey there, Rudeus!" the Hitogami chirped, his voice dripping with mock-friendship. "You look so peaceful. Listen, I have a little advice for you. You know that basement you never go into? There's a small problem down there. You should go open the door and check on it tomorrow morning. Trust me, it'll save you a lot of trouble later."
Rudeus nodded in the dream, his mind clouded by the Hitogami 's suggestion. "The basement... okay. I'll check it."
"That's my boy," Hitogami grinned.
But then, the white void shattered.
A rift tore through the center of the Hitogami 's domain. It wasn't a smooth opening, but a jagged, splintering crack. Out of the fracture stepped a man—haggard, draped in tattered grey robes, his face lined with the scars of a thousand losses.
Rudeus blinked, his heart leaping. "Paul? Dad, is that you?"
The man looked like his father—the same weary eyes, the same build—but as he drew closer, the illusion broke. This man had both arms, his skin was etched with complex magical seals, and his aura was thick with the scent of ozone and ancient blood.
"Hitogami..." the Old Man rasped. As he spoke the name of the False God, his face contorted into an expression so ghastly and malevolent it seemed to darken the white void itself. It was a mask of pure, unadulterated loathing.
Hitogami's smile vanished. "You! How are you here? This is impossible!"
"A miscalculation," the Old Man whispered, his voice cracking. He lunged Rudeus, not the Hitogami. "I meant to only leave a warning... but the bridge... it's collapsing! Rudeus, I'm falling into you!"..