I can't move…
Arianne found herself staring at the girl in front of her. Kyle, Noah. Everything else. Had turned a pale, lifeless grey, as though the world itself had been frozen in place.
What's happening…?
Her surroundings began to peel away.
Not vanish,
peel.
Walls flaked like drying paint. Tables frayed at the edges, unraveling into nothing. The restaurant, the people, the light itself. All of it slowly disintegrated as though the world were being quietly unmade around her.
?!
Arianne tried to think, but even that felt wrong. Her thoughts were sluggish, muffled, as though something had wrapped itself around her mind and begun to tighten.
Then everything was gone.
An endless white space replaced what had once been reality.
Arianne could no longer feel anything.
No warmth.
No cold.
No air.
No sound.
It was as if every sensory pathway had been cut at once, her connection to the world severed cleanly at its source. And yet… she was still here.
Still aware.
Still alive.
Then, slowly, thought returned.
But her body did not.
Arianne realized she no longer had one. There was no weight. No breath. No heartbeat. Only her consciousness remained, suspended within the empty white expanse.
"What… is this place…?"
She tried to take a step.
Nothing happened.
There was no resistance. No ground. No sensation at all.
Her gaze drifted downward, instinctively searching for her feet.
They're still there…
Her legs. Her hands. Her form, it all looked intact.
Then why…?
Why couldn't she feel anything touching them?
Why did her own existence feel like an image projected onto nothing?
Arianne stood alone in a space with no edges, no depth, no sound—
a consciousness still running after its world had been shut off.
—
From outside the white void
The world itself had become… frozen.
Everything was suspended mid-motion. A glass about to tip never spilled. A laugh never finished. People walking, talking, living. All of it halted, locked in a single unmoving instant.
Even accidents were paused.
Somewhere in the distance, a collision that should have happened in seconds was now trapped forever in the moment before impact.
Inside the same restaurant, Anathasia stood with her index finger gently pressed against Arianne's forehead while Kyle watched.
"You mentioned erasing a memory," Kyle said quietly, "but now you're saying you're making it… lighter?"
"Mhm." Anathasia nodded, her fingertip still hovering a hair's breadth from Arianne's skin. "A constrained version of my First Outer God will be enough. Once I remove the specific memory she has of that form…"
She glanced at him, a faint smile curving her lips.
"Her consciousness will remember without remembering. It'll instinctively warn her not to dig too deeply into me, or you. That should be enough to make her stop."
"I see…" Kyle murmured, his gaze drifting down to the untouched food on the table. "So it's not really about protecting ourselves."
"But protecting her, yes," Anathasia replied. "You know the cost of seeing the incomprehensible."
Her voice was gentle, almost casual.
"Some things simply aren't meant for mortal perception."
Kyle let out a quiet sigh, a small weight lifting from his chest.
She scared me a bit back there… but it's for Arianne's sake. I get where Anathasia's coming from…
His gaze drifted to the food in front of him, the memory of seeing Anathasia's true nature seven months ago bleeding back into his thoughts. A memory she herself had once erased at the last possible moment, to save him.
I can't really blame her… humans are fragile, after all…
He looked back up at her, then slowly around them. At the restaurant, the people, the glasses frozen mid-motion.
"Say…" he murmured, "was stopping the entire timeline really necessary?"
Anathasia hesitated. Her eyes drifted away, as if she were actually thinking about it.
A small silence.
Then she spoke.
"I just… wanted to look cool?"
"Hah…?"
Anathasia stiffened, letting out a quiet groan.
"I just did it because I thought it was cool, okay?"
"So in other words, it was completely unnecessary?" Kyle shot back, his expression flattening.
She's still the same… even while doing something like…
His eyes drifted around the frozen restaurant.
This.
"What kind of Outer God even are you?" he asked quietly.
Anathasia flinched.
"That…" She hesitated.
"The 'tired of pretending that being a stuck-up, pretentious god with a superiority complex actually matters' kind, I guess?"
She glanced at him with a forced smile.
Kyle didn't return it.
"Oh, come on," she said, lifting one hand while the other remained a hair's breadth from Arianne's forehead. "What, do you want me to speak in riddles like some lunatic who thinks the universe owes her something?"
Kyle rested his cheek in his palm, studying her.
"I didn't say it was a problem," he muttered. "I just… like you better this way. Though either way, you're still you."
"Flirting now?" she teased.
"No. Do I sound like I am?"
"A little."
Then she turned her attention back to Arianne.
"Hey," she said softly. "Wanna know something about the future?"
Kyle's eyes widened.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
A quiet fell between them.
Anathasia weighed her words, her expression gentling as she looked at him.
"We're bound to—"
The world lurched.
Sound, motion, color, everything snapped back into place as time resumed.
Anathasia's words faded into the background as the sound of people talking filled the establishment.
—
Moments Before Time Restoration
In the space where Arianne's consciousness was pulled into
I can't feel anything… but I can move…
Arianne turned slowly within the white void. There was no ground, no sky. Only a depthless, featureless expanse stretching in every direction. Still, she walked, each step taken out of instinct rather than sensation.
I don't understand what this place is…
She stopped, glancing behind her.
Panicking won't help… but—
Something shifted in front of her.
Light thickened.
Form gathered.
A figure began to grow out of the emptiness. Pale hair, red eyes, a familiar silhouette.
Anathasia…?
Arianne staggered back, raising an arm in reflex.
Why is she here—
"Yeah," Anathasia said, cutting straight through her thoughts. "I figured you'd be wondering where you are."
She smiled lightly.
Behind her, something else began to manifest.
Not a body, not quite.
More like a presence pressing against reality, distorting the white around it. The void itself seemed to recoil.
Arianne's breath caught.
What… what is that…?
Anathasia tilted her head, almost fondly.
"What you're seeing is just a fraction of what I am," she said.
"But that's not why I brought you here."
What is she even saying…? Was Mei right all along…?
Behind her, the formless presence writhed. Shape bled into shape as something vast pressed against the white void, pushing itself forward. Tendrils emerged. Not quite matter, not quite light, creeping toward Arianne.
By the time they reached her, they had become hands.
Countless hands.
Every single one mimicked Anathasia's gesture, lifting an index finger to their lips.
"Shh," Anathasia said softly, her voice still warm.
"Keep quiet, okay?"
She stepped closer.
"You'll be fine. Just… don't try to look too deeply into things that are beyond you."
"That way, we can keep each other safe."
She smiled.
The hands slowly withdrew, melting back into the writhing mass behind her. And as they did, it opened eyes, too many to count, blooming across its surface.
Every one of them locked onto Arianne.
Understanding slammed into her all at once.
Not knowledge.
Not images.
But the sheer wrongness of trying to understand Anathasia at all.
Arianne collapsed, clutching her head as she curled into herself in the endless white.
Don't think. Don't think. Don't think—
Her thoughts fragmented. Reality warped. Reflections of Anathasia's true nature flashed through her mind like broken glass.
Stop. Stop. Stop—
Before Arianne could finish the thought, she was suddenly back in the restaurant.
Kyle and Noah were still talking. Anathasia was still eating, completely casual, as if nothing had happened.
A cold sweat slid down Arianne's cheek.
"Is something wrong?" Anathasia asked, glancing at her.
Arianne hesitated, then gently shook her head.
"No… I'm fine. Maybe I was just a little extra hungry."
She looked down at her plate and slowly cut into her food, her movements absent, her mind drifting.
Did something happen…?