Fragments of Yugen

Rei's blood soaked the shattered ground.

Her Fracture Blade flickered next to her—unstable, no longer tethered to her Spiral thread. She breathed shallowly, each inhale coated in static. She wasn't just injured. Her timeline was unraveling.

Ren knelt beside her, pressing both hands against her chest. "Come on… stay with me."

Kael looked to Aki. "Can't your Hollow God do something?"

Aki's eyes flickered. The grin from before was gone. His pupils glowed red as the entity inside stirred again.

> "Heal? What do I look like, your damn spiral doctor, piglet?"

Aki clenched his jaw. "Shut up."

The Hollow God laughed in his mind.

> "She's not dying. She's being forgotten. That blade wasn't a wound—it was deletion. You need Divine Thread to pull her back."

Yumi suddenly slammed her sketch scroll into the ground. "I can stall the Reaper. Thirty seconds. Get her Spiral stabilized!"

Ink spiraled from her page, forming a three-eyed guardian beast that leapt toward the cloaked Reaper.

It clashed—just once—before dissolving. But the delay was real.

The Reaper paused, analyzing her construct. "Non-ministerial memory resonance. Origin: Sketch-Soul. Delay: Acceptable."

Ren closed his eyes.

The pen in his hand trembled.

"Give me one second," he whispered. "One real second…"

He focused—not on Spiral Force, not on willpower. On Rei.

> Her voice in missions. Her sarcasm. Her steadiness. The way she trained like it was life or death. The way she stood in front of him… every single time.

His Spiral flared.

But not like before.

This time, it spun backward—a loop, then a bend, then a fracture.

> "Spiral Form Complete: Dual-Paradox Weave – Stage II." "Trait: Recursive Creation — Anchor Through Memory."

His pen glowed gold.

He placed it on Rei's heart.

And drew a single line.

It curved once—then vanished into her chest.

Rei gasped.

Her eyes snapped open.

Not healed—but restored.

Yumi looked back. "You did it?!"

"Barely."

Kael helped Rei up. She was shaky, but alive.

Ren stood slowly.

"Alright," he said, stepping forward. "Let's end this."

The Reaper didn't react.

But something else did.

The sky ripped open.

A new voice slipped through—not loud. Just… amused.

> "He really used Divine Thread for a mortal girl? Hah. How poetic."

A single eye appeared in the sky—spinning like a spiral star. It blinked once.

A signal.

The Reaper stopped moving.

> "Minister Two confirms divergence. Activation of Protocol Divide granted."

Kael's gun reloaded itself.

"Who the hell is that?"

Aki's voice came, deeper this time—laced with Divine resonance.

"That wasn't a person."

"That was a command."

The sky burned. Spiral energy swirled into a massive glyph.

From it descended a glowing fragment — a red shard.

Rei grabbed Ren's arm. "That's not a Minister. That's a burn fragment. It erases everything in a zone if left unchecked."

The Reaper raised its arm and spoke one final phrase.

> "We leave this fragment. If you survive, the next will not warn you."

It vanished.

The Reaper just… disappeared. Not teleported. Not faded.

It was like he was never there.

But the shard remained.

It pulsed.

A countdown.

60.

61.

Ren shouted. "Scatter! Get out of the field!"

Aki didn't move. He just stared.

> "It's learning. They're all learning. Every time we survive, they grow."

Kael shouted, "We'll figure it out later! MOVE!"

Yumi grabbed Rei.

Ren dragged Aki.

They ran.

The sky bent. The field of Spiral code shattered behind them.

The shard detonated.

Not with sound—but forgetting.

The entire battlefield—names, terrain, trees, weather—was wiped.

Behind them, there was now just blank space. As if that part of the world had never existed.

Ren stared in horror. "That… that was just one."

Aki exhaled sharply. "One of twenty."

Kael cursed. "And we only wounded one."

Yumi looked up at the sky, where the spiral eye had vanished.

"Then we better get stronger."