The Unreachable Layer

While Zekai's soul was wandering somewhere else, Aron was still standing inside the palace.

A thin line of blood slowly ran from Zekai's nose. Seeing this, Aron said, "Oh no... Your nose is bleeding."

Aron's voice broke as he said those words. "You don't seem to be conscious. Mr. Zekai, wake up."

Aron was scared and didn't know what to do. His body was shaking. He kept shaking Zekai again and again, but there was no response from his body at all.

"You are really scaring me."

The black stone cube inside Aron's pocket slowly started to pulse. Something that had been lying quietly in the darkness for a long time was waiting for a reason to wake up.

"What... is this?"

Aron muttered to himself as he slowly pulled it halfway out of his pocket. That's when a sound suddenly made him freeze.

A faint scream.

Fear took over. Without even thinking, Aron quickly shoved the cube back into his pocket.

Boom!

The ground cracked open. A huge figure fell from the smoke-covered sky. The impact shook the air around Aron.

Aron's whole body froze.

In front of him stood a strange knight, something that looked like a king from a fallen kingdom. It wore blue and white armor. Its helmet had a shape that looked like a broken crown. There were no eyes behind the helmet. There was nothing. That was even worse.

A long, blunt sword hung from its hand.

Aron swallowed hard. "Things... can't get any worse than this...!" Not knowing what else to do, his instincts made him turn toward the only person he trusted.

"Mr. Zekai, what am I supposed to do?"

Before Aron's brain could even understand the danger, the King Knight's long sword suddenly swung toward him. The blade passed just above Aron's head at a speed he couldn't even react to.

"Ah!"

Those were the last words that reached his mind. Then his body collapsed. As he fell toward the edge of death, his head hit the ground. Through his fallen head, he could still see his headless body standing there.

Before he could even understand what he was seeing through his own severed head, darkness swallowed everything.

(----)

"...Huh?!"

Aron was standing there again, with his whole body intact and completely alive. His heart was pounding so hard that it hurt. His body still remembered the pain.

He quickly grabbed his throat with both hands. He checked it again and again, just to make sure it was really there.

"No... I saw myself. I died here and saw my own body."

He couldn't even finish the thought. His eyes moved toward the pocket where the cube was.

The cube was hot now. Much hotter than it should have been.

Zekai was still standing in the exact same spot. He hadn't moved even an inch, as if he were lifeless.

Then the same sound echoed through the palace again, louder than before. But nothing appeared in front of him.

The sound made Aron's head hurt. This time, though, his body moved before his mind could even figure out what was happening.

His feet shifted. His body turned on its own. He didn't even think about it. But his Muscle Memory kicked in. Once he performed an action even one time, his body remembered it as if he had done it many times before.

He didn't understand what kind of rule this was. But the animal instinct inside him had already understood one thing. He couldn't wait to learn the same lesson for the third time. He moved first and grabbed Zekai's wrist.

"Run."

This time, there was no hesitation in Aron's voice. Only urgency. "We need to get out of here."

Aron pulled Zekai along and started running. He forced Zekai's lifeless body to move with him. But it didn't help. The King Knight was already behind them, hidden in the darkness.

This time, it didn't attack right away. It just watched. For a few seconds, nothing moved. Its empty eyes stayed fixed on Aron, as if it was deciding something.

Then the sword passed through his throat. A wet sound filled the air.

"...Again?"

"This isn't real..."

His vision went dark again.

(----)

Again, he was standing there with his whole body intact. His hands wouldn't stop shaking. "I've already... died twice..."

The pain was still there where the sword had passed through him. Even though there was no wound, his nerves still remembered it. His brain kept screaming that this shouldn't be happening.

But his heart didn't care what his brain believed. It felt like the whole world was leaning forward to watch him. A chill ran through Aron's body.

The King Knight appeared again. This time, there was no sound before it appeared.

The sound came from behind him.

A deep cut suddenly opened across Aron's chest before the sword had even fully come out from its side.

It was as if the attack had already been decided before the sword even moved.

Aron's breath caught in his chest. He didn't expect this at all. "...It got faster. It attacked me without even coming near me."

This time, he understood. The two deaths before this had already burned the lesson into him.

The Knight closed the distance between them. Its sword came down toward his head. He moved purely on instinct. Before his brain could even give the order, he ducked.

The first swing cut through the empty air above his head. For one heartbeat, he thought he had escaped.

But the sword didn't stop. It changed direction in midair, adjusting its path and following him.

The second slash cut straight through his body, from his waist up to his shoulder. "No... It's predicting me..."

His vision went dark again.

(....)

"Third time..."

"The sound came before I even moved."

He remembered that it had already happened before the attack even touched him. That truth hit him hard in the chest. "Is this... some kind of loop?" Saying it out loud didn't make it sound any less crazy.

He still had another chance to escape. But for a strange moment, his running thoughts slowed down.

Not because he was calm. Something that had been buried inside him for a long time had finally started to come back up.

He remembered how he had always been someone nobody ever looked back at. The one nobody called for. The one nobody needed.

In every group. Every retreat. Every important moment.

He was always the child left behind. Even when he stood there bravely, nobody noticed him. And even when he walked away, nobody noticed.

But no one could change the kind of person he was. He knew what it felt like to be left behind. His hands slowly tightened at his sides.

"...Again."

But this time, his eyes found Zekai. He still hadn't woken up. Something inside Aron tightened, sharper than fear. He shook his head. "No."

"Even if I disappear without leaving anything behind, that's fine."

"At least this time, someone will know that I was here."

Because this time, he wasn't the one being left behind.

It was Zekai.

Aron knew what that felt like better than anyone. His fingers reached for Zekai's hand. He grabbed it tightly, like iron. "...I won't let that happen to you."

"I won't leave you here either."

"I don't care if this loop resets a hundred times."

Even if it killed him a hundred times, he didn't care. Even if it tore his body apart again in the next second, and again after that, until there was nothing left inside him to break.

"Mr. Zekai is still like this..." He clenched his teeth.

"How am I supposed to get you out of here?"

He muttered quietly, "Right now, there's only one thing that matters to me."

Under all that fear, there was still something small but stubborn inside him. Something that refused to die with him.

This was a loop. Death was no longer the end. It was another chance to change things.

Somewhere inside this loop, there was a door. He just had to figure out the right order to open it before his mind broke first.

He didn't loosen his grip. If he let go of Zekai now, there was no guarantee that Zekai would come back with him the next time.

"It's fine."

"I'll find a way."

He pulled Zekai's lifeless body forward and planted his feet firmly on the ground.

Then he ran again. Behind him—

The world reset again without waiting for his permission.

(......)

Outside, in Greyhaven, a signal called "Opalbrook" had marked off a 500-meter area as a restricted zone. Barricade tape with "CAUTION" signs was placed all around it.

A few officials in black coats were gathered around the area, as if some incident had happened. Other than them, there were no civilians around.

An officer with a badge spotted a man approaching from a distance. He raised his hand and called out.

"Captain Orlan. Come take a look at this!"

Orlan came with three others. One of them was a 15-year-old boy wearing a collar device around his neck, along with two other young people.

When Orlan came closer, he looked at the road crossing the signal. Various things were scattered across the ground—chocolates, fruits, jasmine flowers, and all kinds of other items.

Orlan looked at the scattered things. "How many people are missing in total?"

The officer looked at the tablet screen in his hand.

"Based on the CCTV cameras around here and reports from the families of the missing people, a total of forty-five people are missing."

"The Everlight Unit is included in this. An eleven-person squad under Helmith's command is part of it."

"Other than our people, do any of the remaining thirty-four have Grave Energy?"

"We checked them. None of the civilians had even a trace of Grave energy!"

The boy who came with Orlan was checking something on the smartwatch on his wrist. Green, yellow, orange, blue, red, and black lights lit up one after another, changing colors each time. Then suddenly his watch completely stopped working.

"Captain Orlan. Could this be a Reality Fracture we've never seen before?"

The boy started to sweat a little. "Captain Orlan, I've read through the BSA case histories, but I've never seen anything like this before! What does this mean?"

Orlan thought about all the Reality Fractures he had seen in his life. Nothing like this had ever happened before.

"Andy, don't panic. Whatever happens, we'll deal with it."

Orlan kept his voice steady. But he knew the truth. The situation was already beyond their control.

Andy said in shock, "But Captain Helmith needs our help!"

Max spoke. "Whatever it is, we'll know once we open the Reality Scar and take a look. That's my job, after all."

He tapped the other person's shoulder. "What are you talking about, Karter?"

Karter, the young man who couldn't speak, gave a thumbs-up with his finger to say 'OK.'

Orlan said with a confused look, "Max, open it now. Everyone else, get ready."

Everyone except the officer who gave the report lifted the caution tape by hand and went inside.

Then, in the middle of the signal, Max raised both his hands. He focused his Grave Energy and gathered it inside himself. A black energy came out from his hands. The air in front of the signal cracked open, forming a fracture in the Reality Layer.

But as soon as it opened, it suddenly pulled itself shut again. It didn't even stay open for a few seconds. And not only that, an indescribable shockwave suddenly came out of it and knocked them all back, completely catching them off guard.

They were all thrown back. Only Orlan managed to stay on his feet, though he stumbled. He quickly reached out and caught Andy who had been caught in the shockwave, holding him up as the force threw him toward Orlan.

Max and Karter were thrown back and fell some distance away.

Max pushed himself up, clutching his shoulder. He stared at the place where the fracture had closed.

"...That wasn't supposed to happen."

✦ End of Chapter 5 — The Unreachable Layer ✦