The sound that erupted the moment those black snowflakes touched Ren's hand wasn't the sound of snow melting; it was like red-hot iron searing flesh. Ren's scream was swallowed by the new, heavy hum of the forest. As his eyes rolled back into a stark white void, his body stiffened like a puppet's and he collapsed.
"Ren!" I shouted, lunging toward him.
"Don't touch him!" Kagetsu said. His voice didn't explode in my mind this time, but like a frantic cry right next to my ear. "If you touch him in this state, you'll be directly linked to that 'Reset' wave. The system will erase you too!"
"Let it!" I roared. "Weren't you saying everything was over anyway?"
I didn't stop. I grabbed Ren's trembling shoulders. In that instant, my world turned upside down.
The black snowflakes weren't just physical matter; each one was a data fragment, a 'cancel' command for a thousand-year-old sealing system. The moment I touched Ren's skin, it wasn't an electric shock that climbed up my fingertips, but a sensation of pure void. My right-hand seal glowed like an ember, reacting to this foreign invasion. My veins swelled beneath my skin like glass tubes filled with black ink.
Then something happened. That whiteness inside Ren—that 'erasure' process—began to flow toward my seal. I wasn't a shield; I was a sponge. While the rest of the world was being deleted, I was imprisoning those deleted fragments within myself.
"Hyoga, stop... It's too much... You can't carry this!" Kagetsu's voice sounded desperate for the first time.
I closed my eyes. But I didn't see darkness.
A Vision: Day Zero
My consciousness tore away from the forest floor and fell into a timeless void. I was no longer Hyoga. I wasn't a name. I was merely a witness, an observer.
Before me stood a massive tower, but it wasn't the Academy's tower. This was a time before stone and magic were even invented, when everything was made of pure energy. Three figures stood at the top of the tower. I couldn't see their faces, but the immense mana they radiated made my bones vibrate.
"The error is too great," said one of them. His voice was like the wind eroding rocks over thousands of years. "The human mind is not ready for this. The pure Grid is driving them mad."
"Then let us put them in a cage," said the second. When he extended his hand, a black sphere appeared in his palm. "Let us call this 'Order.' Let us teach them their limits so they do not drown in infinity."
The third was silent. He simply stared at the vast sea beneath the tower—a chaos where black and white constantly devoured each other. "One day," he said finally. "This cage will become too small. And on that day, the one who breaks the cage will be both the key and the lock."
That third figure slowly turned toward me. He had no face. In its place was a mirror. And in that mirror, I saw myself. He extended his sealed hand toward me.
"Save," he said. The same voice from beneath the Academy. "Not all of them. Only those who remember."
When I opened my eyes, cold, rusty water splashed onto my face.
I sat up, coughing. I wasn't in the forest. The sky wasn't covered in black snow. I was in a damp, narrow stone room lit only by the flickering light of a single torch.
"Finally," a voice said.
I turned my head and saw Ren. But this wasn't the Ren I knew. The whiteness in his eyes was gone, replaced by a strange, dull gray. On the right side of his face were faint black veins, just like mine.
"What happened? Where are we?" I asked, my throat burning like a dried-up well.
"I carried you here from the forest, Hyoga. Or rather, you carried me," Ren said. He showed his hand; it was still shaking. "That snow didn't kill us. But it... turned us into something. This is the 'Misty Mountains' sanctuary. An old mine entrance."
"Kagetsu?" I whispered internally.
"I'm here," Kagetsu said. His voice was more tired and deeper than ever. "That vision... what you saw was real, Hyoga. You aren't just a runaway student. You are the 'spare part' of this world. And that spare part is now stuck inside a broken machine."
I tried to stand up, but my legs wouldn't hold me. I leaned against the wall and slowly straightened. That was when I heard the voices coming from outside the room. People were arguing—metallic sounds, growls, and muffled groans that didn't sound human.
"Who is out there?" I asked Ren.
Ren's face darkened. "Those in the sanctuary. But most of them are 'Changed.' The black snow reached here before we did, Hyoga. Some lost their minds, and others... turned into something worse. They call them 'The Rusted.' The mana flow in their bodies is as if it's oxidized. They are in a constant state of hunger."
"Hungry for what?"
Ren took a step toward the door and pressed his ear to the wood. "For us. For those like us who can still think, who can still control their seals. To them, we are energy depots."
At that moment, the door shook violently. Someone, or something, seemed to be clawing at the wood. "Hyooogaaaa..." a whisper leaked from under the door. The voice was very similar to the one from beneath the ruins at the Academy, but hungrier, more primal.
"We have to run," I said, looking at the seal on my hand. It was no longer just black; small purple sparks were flickering over it. The 'First Deviation' fragment inside me was resonating with those creatures outside. I could feel them—their pain, their hunger, and that never-ending void.
"Where?" Ren asked desperately. "The outside is under black snow. That giant eye in the sky is watching us. The world is being erased, Hyoga!"
"The world isn't being erased, Ren," I said, walking toward the door. "The world is just shedding its skin. And if we're going to survive in this new world, we first have to face the monsters in this sanctuary."
I placed my right hand on the door. The black energy radiating from the seal seeped into the wood like acid. The growling behind the door ceased for a moment, replaced by a silence of pure terror.
I opened the door with a single motion.
The main hall of the sanctuary was a massive cavern. The crystals hanging from the ceiling no longer emitted light; they only absorbed the gray smoke around them. In the center of the cave, gathered around a fire, were dozens of figures. They looked human, but their skin was pale as marble and their eyes were entirely pitch-black.
When they saw us, they all stood up at once. Their movements were synchronized, as if controlled by a single mind.
"Anomaly..." said one of them. The only sign that she had once been a woman was an old necklace around her neck. "Bring... Bring the void..."
They all began to rush toward us at once. This wasn't an attack; it was an attempt to 'swallow.'
"Ren, stay behind me!" I shouted.
The old Hyoga would have run. The old Hyoga would have been afraid. But the calmness of that 'third figure' from the vision still lingered in my soul. I spread my hands to my sides.
I didn't ask for Kagetsu's power. I didn't use the rage of the First Deviation. I simply called upon the pure void from that tower I saw.
"Go," I whispered.
All the light in the room vanished for a second. A black ring radiating from my seal expanded, hitting the walls of the cavern. The 'Rusted' charging at us didn't turn to dust when they hit this ring; they simply froze where they stood. Time had stopped for them.
"What did you do to them?" Ren asked, walking among the frozen figures in horror.
"I didn't seal them," I said, wiping the sweat from my forehead. "I just changed their frequency. They are no longer on the same plane as this world."
From the dark corner at the very end of the cave, the sound of applause rose. A slow, mocking, heavy applause.
Out of the shadow stepped a tall man wearing a cloak similar to the Dean's, but with blood-red embroidery. He wore an iron mask, but the light leaking from the eye-slits was neither silver nor black. It was gold.
"Impressive," the man said. His voice echoed everywhere in the cavern. "For a spare part, your way of using the system is quite creative."
"Who are you?" I asked, pointing my seal at him.
"Me?" The man touched his mask. "I am the third person who remained silent in that tower a thousand years ago, Hyoga. Or rather, I am the testament he left behind. You can call me 'The Herald'."
The Herald struck his staff against the ground. The crystal at the tip of the staff glowed like a miniature copy of that giant eye in the sky.
"The Reset process has begun, Hyoga. And your mission is not to save this world. Your mission is to carry the last 'pure' energy remaining from this world back to that tower. That is, to give yourself up."
"Never," I said, gritting my teeth.
"Never say never," The Herald said, smiling faintly. "Because that black snow won't stop. Towns, forests, and eventually all humans will become like those 'Rusted.' The only way to save them is for you to return to the void within that seal."
The Herald walked slowly toward us. With every step, the ceiling of the cavern creaked as if it were about to collapse.
"The choice is yours, Hyoga. You can either be the god of this rotting world, or the sacrifice that will restart it."
Just then, a massive explosion sounded from the sanctuary entrance. Elian and a handful of "Silver Knights" burst in, brushing the black snow off themselves. But Elian's armor was no longer silver; it was pitch-black.
"Hyoga!" Elian shouted. "The guards... they've all changed! It's hell out there!"
The Herald didn't even look at Elian. His eyes were still on me. "See? Even your enemies seek refuge with you. Because you are the only sanctuary in this storm."
Kagetsu screamed inside me: "Don't trust him! He's just another face of the system!"
But the sound of the storm outside was drowning out Kagetsu's voice. The black snow was now leaking through the door. And I could see every stone it touched turning to dust.
Our time was running out.