The Soulreaver erupted from the rubble, charging Zekai with furious intensity. Then, it abruptly stopped. It wasn't a retreat; it was aiming. Its pure white gaze locked onto Zekai's core, and its shadow palm rose slowly.
Zekai felt the anomaly trigger instantly. A sudden mutation occurred deep within his core—not in his physical tissue, but inside his soul.
Zzzzsup!
[ WARNING ]
Integrity: Failing
Soul Extraction: In Progress
Layer Breach Detected
A thin, iridescent, smoke-like essence began to stretch out from Zekai's chest.
An invisible, undeniable force tore through his rib cage. It wasn't pulling his physical ; it was forcefully extracting him.
Zekai's vision fractured as his identity was slowly dragged forward, as if he were being manually pulled out of his own flesh and into a void.
His respiration hitched in his throat. "...What—?"
This wasn't pain. This was the terrifying sensation of being forcefully which he might never return. His very existence was being unraveled.
Zekai's knees buckled, nearly slamming into the concrete.
'...So this is what Aron felt...'
It wasn't a wound. It was an extraction.
Two choices manifested within Zekai's mind. One was the human instinct to give in; the other was a terrifying, unknown mechanism of the Arcana. His thoughts didn't slow down under the pressure.
'If I chose wrong… there won't be anything left of my soul to regret it.'
The extraction pull tightened. For a fraction of a second, his torso leaned forward into the vacuum. Giving in to the deletion felt infinitely easier than fighting.
But Aron's bloody, determined face. Imagination flashed across his consciousness—struggling through five loops of execution, still reaching for a weapon even when the Aron knew he couldn't win.
"He endured this hell?"
Zekai's jaw clenched into solid iron. "…Then there is no choice." His fingers tightened into fists.
His voice came out low, unsteady, but completely unbroken.
"…Then what the hell am I doing kneeling here?!"
The extraction intensified. The invisible hook dug deeper into his core, deliberately finding the ancient, unmapped parts of his soul that he didn't fully control yet—the fragments of [The Fool]—and trying to rip those out first. The cosmic friction threatened to tear his mind in two.
Zzzzsup! Zzzzsup! Zzzzsup!
The red interface shattered into a dozen overlapping error windows, flickering frantically between life and death.
[ ARCANA SYSTEM — INTERVENTION ]
Condition: Soul Integrity Collapse
Status: TERMINAL
— Continuation is not guaranteed —
[ AUTHORITY INVOKED: THE FOOL ]
Deviation is possible. Cost is mandatory.
[ WARNING ]
Selection cannot be undone.
Refusal is equivalent to immediate erasure.
Select your price:
> [ OPTION I — TEMPORAL SACRIFICE ]
21 Years of Lifespan will be erased instantly.
— Stable continuation granted —
[ OPTION II — HIDDEN ROLE ]
A concealed system function will be permanently assigned.
Survival Probability: Unknown
Identity Stability: Unknown
Authority Compatibility: Unknown
Control Guarantee: None
Future Consequences: Unrecorded
[ NOTE ]
The Fool does not guarantee survival.
Only outcomes you are willing to lose yourself for.
---
Zekai forced his left boot forward. Each step felt incredibly heavy, as if the floor itself was applying an inverse gravitational force to push him back into submission.
He fought against the fate, forcing his spiritual essence was being violently reamed out of his chest.
'Damn it… That bastard Zero said this power would help me, but it's doing nothing but taking my life piece by piece!'
[ FINAL WARNING ]
Soul Integrity: 5%
00:00:04
The Fool does not guarantee survival.
Only outcomes you are willing to lose yourself for.
---
But there was no alternative route. The interface was clear: if he didn't select a price within the next four seconds, his soul would be completely digested by the Soulreaver.
"Option one… or option two… " Zekai rasped out.
If he surrendered twenty-one years on top of the year Zero had already extracted, his remaining clock would be dangerously low.
Anything was better than a guaranteed expiration date.
Then option two.
He took a sharp, unstable breath.
Even if the function is a hidden anomaly. Even if the system warned him that control wasn't assured and the danger was absolute.
This was a gamble do or die.
"…There is nothing worse than dying like an insect in this room."
Zekai glared at the flashing red interface.
He stabilized his breathing, his eyes flashing with raw, untameable fury.
"I choose Option Two."
Zzzzsup!
[ ANOMALY DETECTED ]
Expected Outcome: Collapse
Actual Outcome: Absolute Resistance
Recalibrating system parameters...
"I will not break here!" Zekai growled.
Something answered.
It wasn't his body. It wasn't the system interface. It was something infinitely deeper—an unregistered anomaly that shouldn't have existed in the reality.
BOOM!
A strange, overwhelming sensation erupted from within his body, his cells vibrating as if his chest was about to physically explode from the inside.
Then—a violent, red electric force burst out from his core and slammed directly into the Soulreaver.
Shatter!
The spiritual extraction pull snapped instantly. It was like he refused to surrender was no longer allowed to be taken by the laws of the universe.
[ OVERRIDE CONFIRMED ]
Authority Deviation Accepted
Soul Extraction: Denied
[ HIDDEN FUNCTION ASSIGNED : THE UNBROKEN LEDGER ]
The exact moment the red lightning hit, the Soulreaver's entire shadow body distorted erratically. It groaned, its compressing as if it was being crushed by an invisible gravity from the inside out.
[ ANOMALY DETECTED ]
But… it didn't die.
An elite enforcer of the dungeon layer couldn't be wiped out by a single burst of unawakened authority. It still had life left within its fractured core. Even after taking the conceptual weight of [The Fool] head-on, the creature anchored its shifting limbs and remained standing among the debris.
But its calculation was broken. It no longer understood what was happening.
Its baseline rules had been overridden by a mortal.
Yet, even after experiencing a terminal counter-surge, the Soulreaver didn't retreat.
An extraction-type entity didn't know what backing down meant. It simply stood there in the wreckage of the interrogation room, staring at Zekai with its hollow, white eyes. Pure, concentrated killing intent radiated from its void—a silent declaration that it wouldn't leave until Zekai was dead.
But this was the moment Zekai needed to show it who he really was.
"Try that again…"
Zekai lifted his head slowly, his eyes flashing with a dangerous, predatory glare.
"…and I will erase you."
Zero hesitation. Zero fear.
"No mercy... anymore."
A heavy, pause hung in the suffocating air.
"…and this time, I won't leave a single trace of you behind."
He stepped forward, the red and black electricity crackling around his boots.
"Not for things like you."
✦ End of Chapter 19 — No Mercy ✦