The vat didn't feel like liquid anymore.
It felt like judgment.
Jhonathan's body sank deeper, corrupted energy crawling across his form like it was rewriting him line by line.
His thoughts blurred.
His strength didn't matter here.
"…why did I lose…"
His voice cracked.
Not from pain—
but from realization.
"…I never had a chance."
Memories flickered violently.
The beach war.
Phase 2 mastery.
Grimmy's smile.
Desiree's last stand.
Everything he had done up until now felt distant.
Like it belonged to someone stronger than him.
Fear surfaced.
Then anger.
Then something worse.
Suffering.
His eyes snapped open.
Red light burst from them.
He surged upward from the vat—
melting chains breaking apart as his body reformed mid-motion.
Naked.
Unstable.
But awake.
The air around him began to corrupt.
Reality warped slightly, as if unsure whether it was allowed to exist near him.
"…don't hurt my friends."
His voice wasn't loud.
But it carried weight.
He moved.
Everything slowed.
Attacks came from every direction—
but he dodged them effortlessly now.
Not cleanly.
Not calmly.
But instinctively, like something inside him had stopped hesitating.
Then—
Rey stepped forward.
Slowly removing his cloak.
A blue tattoo spread across his body.
Markings of authority.
Not a soldier.
Not an assassin.
Something higher.
"My name is SMMUH."
A pause.
"One of the Generals of Takobo."
He raised his hand.
"TECHNO DOMAIN: BOOKS OF DEATH."
The world shifted.
Words appeared everywhere.
Invisible pages turning through reality itself.
Every movement became written before it happened.
Every outcome already documented.
Only Takobians could survive it fully.
Jhonathan froze.
And saw it.
His past.
The orphanage.
The people who raised him.
But they weren't kind.
They were wrong.
Twisted.
Hurting his younger self.
His breath shook.
"…this isn't them…"
The vision shifted.
A dragon from his past appeared.
Then collapsed into ink-like pages.
Before the memory could continue—
Jhonathan snapped awake.
He was back.
A room.
Quiet.
Controlled.
Menchie sat nearby.
Ralph leaned against the wall.
The swords were recovering beside them.
Menchie waved casually.
"…how you been, fella?"
Jhonathan blinked.
"…I'm okay, blue haired girl."
Ralph exhaled.
"…You survived the Domain. Barely."
They explained.
The "Books of Death" didn't just attack the body.
It trapped the mind in rewritten history for 24 hours.
A perfect psychological kill system.
Menchie scratched his head.
"…we don't like the Generals either."
Ralph nodded once.
"…so we're in."
Jhonathan sat up slowly.
His expression calm again—but different.
Something had changed in him.
"…sure."
Outside the room—
Tek-Bok alarms continued to echo.
And somewhere in the system…
the next page of the Book of Death quietly turned.