Zero

One tightened his arm around Nino's neck.

The pressure increased until every attempt to breathe took effort. Nino gripped his forearm with his right hand and tried to create some space, but One's body had become something else. The Pulse stolen from hundreds of soldiers coursed through his muscles and spread beneath his skin in violet and golden veins, sustaining a strength that Nino, wounded and exhausted, couldn't break.

Ahead of them, the Queen disappeared into the palace ruins, accompanied by the soldiers the King had placed under his control.

Nino looked back at Alicia.

"Let her go."

The King remained atop the Primordial's hand.

"You're in no position to demand anything."

Raysa pulled Alicia by the arm.

"Stay behind me."

Tenshi stepped beside his mother.

"We won't let you touch her."

The King shifted his gaze toward them.

Violet flashed. Raysa and Tenshi stopped. Alicia felt her mother's fingers loosen around her arm.

"Mom?"

Raysa stepped away.

When she turned, her eyes were violet. Alicia looked at her brother.

"Tenshi..."

The same color filled his eyes. The two walked in opposite directions, leaving Alicia alone between the pillars.

"No..." Nino pulled against One's arm again. "Don't touch them!"

One tightened his hold.

"Still giving orders?"

A stone shifted a few yards away. Three opened her eyes.

The first thing she saw was Nino trapped in One's arms. Then she found Alicia standing before the Primordial and tried to get up.

Pain shot through her leg. Three fell to her knees.

She looked down. Her leg had been injured when One threw her into the rubble, and it could barely support her weight. Even so, she planted one hand against the ground and searched for her sai with the other.

The King noticed the movement.

"Always the same."

Three raised her head.

"Go to hell."

The King let out a brief laugh.

"That's exactly why you needed to disappear."

Nino stopped struggling for a moment. Three went still as well.

"What did you say?"

The King turned his attention back to Nino.

"Did you really think I erased people from everyone's memories just to protect the Shadows?"

Nino felt One loosen his hold slightly, interested in the answer.

"What did you do to her?"

"What was necessary."

Three tightened her grip around the sai she had finally found.

"Answer me!"

"You were a distraction to each other. At the academy, that could still be tolerated. Once I realized what he could become, it couldn't."

Nino looked at Three. The memory didn't come.

No image of the two of them together. No conversation. No moment that could confirm the drawing she had found.

Only an emptiness where all of it should have been.

"You took her from me."

"I took away what made you weak."

Three lowered her eyes for a moment.

The King continued.

"Friends. Affection. Hesitation. Everything that made you stop before carrying out an order. You had more Pulse than any child I'd ever seen, but power without direction was useless."

Nino clenched his teeth.

"So you created one."

"I gave you a purpose."

The King looked across the ruined battlefield around them.

"And it worked. The others were given numbers because they needed to know where they stood. You were given Zero because you stood above all of them. I made you Zero."

Nino kept his eye on the King.

"And look where that brought us," he continued. "The man who moved mountains can barely stand because he decided to carry children, slaves, and entire nations on his back. You call that a choice. I call it a waste."

Nino tried to move forward again. One kept him trapped.

"And yet you needed all of this to stop me."

The King's smile disappeared.

Behind him, movement emerged from the palace ruins.

The Queen was returning.

Four soldiers came with her. Two of them carried a stone box between their arms. Nino felt his entire body tense.

"No."

The King raised a finger.

"One more step and the little girl won't survive."

Nino stopped. One smiled beside his ear.

Three tried to stand again. This time, she managed to get one foot beneath her. When she shifted her weight onto the other leg, it gave out.

"Damn it..."

She fell, but kept her eyes on Alicia.

The Queen reached the edge of the rubble.

"Open it," the King ordered.

One of the soldiers removed the lid. Both Primordial Stones were inside.

Even from a distance, Nino recognized the first. The light that had once coursed through its interior had almost completely faded after the wish that had given Alicia her sight.

Beside it rested the other.

Untouched.

Veins of light ran through the dark stone as though they were alive. The King's eyes fixed on it.

"Finally!..." His gaze moved between the two Stones before settling on Nino. "You left yours behind, didn't you?"

Nino frowned. The King's smile widened.

"So you didn't know. Once a Stone has been used, it must remain with the one who made the wish. Stay away from it for too long and your Pulse will continue to drain away... until there's nothing left." His eyes moved over Nino's wounded body. "Now I understand why you've grown so weak since the last time I saw you."

Nino pulled against One's arm.

Nothing.

"You already have what you wanted," he said. "Let them go."

The King looked at Alicia.

"Is that what you did with the other one?"

Nino didn't answer. Alicia noticed his gaze moving between her eye and the faded Stone.

The smile returned to the King's face.

"You used a Primordial Stone... for that?"

Alicia brought one hand to her eye.

"You never deserved the power you were born with," the King said.

Nino raised his head.

"Maybe."

The Queen picked up the container holding the untouched Stone. The King extended his hand.

"Bring it to me."

She began to walk. Alicia followed the Stone with her eye.

One Stone. One wish.

She didn't know every rule Nino had learned in that place, but she knew enough. She knew what the King had done with the others. She knew what would happen if that one reached his hands.

The Queen passed beside her.

Alicia closed her eye. Almost nothing remained inside her. Even so, she searched.

A thread of Pulse responded.

The Stone slipped from the Queen's hands.

The King turned his head.

Alicia lunged forward. Her fingers reached the Stone before it touched the ground.

"Alicia, don't!" Nino shouted.

She pulled it against her chest. The King extended his hand, and Pulse exploded.

Nino tried to move.

One held him back.

"NO!"

The impact struck Alicia.

Her small body left the ground and was thrown backward, disappearing behind the dust for an instant before falling near the base of one of the pillars.

The Stone slipped from her hands and rolled several feet away.

Silence.

Nino stopped.

Raysa blinked. The violet in her eyes flickered.

"Alicia...?"

Tenshi slowly turned his head.

"Alicia!"

They both ran.

Nino heard nothing else.

The battle continued around them. Stones were still collapsing. The Primordial remained before the palace. Soldiers screamed somewhere in the city.

None of it reached him.

Alicia lay on the ground.

Raysa dropped beside her daughter and took her into her arms.

"Alicia. Alicia, look at me."

No response.

Tenshi fell to his knees beside them. Three drove her sai into the ground and tried to stand again.

Her leg gave out.

"Nino..."

He didn't answer. One tightened his arm around his neck.

"Look at you."

Nino kept staring at Alicia.

"All those years hearing that you were the strongest. Zero. The man none of us could ever reach."

One pulled Nino tighter against his chest.

"I was always stronger than you. I just never received what you were given."

Nino remained still. One smiled.

"And now it's over. It's finally clear which one of us—"

"Shut up."

One stopped. Nino lowered his head.

"What?"

"I spent years not knowing who I was." Nino's voice was low. "And you spent those same years worrying about a number."

One clenched his jaw.

"That number was everything."

Nino slowly raised his head. His only seeing eye found One.

"You wanted to fight Zero?"

One smiled.

"More than anything."

Nino looked at Alicia one more time.

"To hell with it."

Violet ignited beneath his eyelid. One felt it first. The body he had trapped stopped yielding to the pressure.

Veins of Pulse emerged along Nino's arms and climbed his neck. The energy coursed through his wounds, wrapped around his shoulders, and spread across the ground beneath his feet.

One tightened the chokehold with all the strength he possessed. Nino brought his hands to One's arms.

And pulled.

One's eyes widened. His arms began to separate.

"What...?"

Nino broke the hold. Through sheer strength.

One tried to retreat, but Nino caught his wrist before he could. For an instant, they stood face-to-face.

One carried the Pulse of hundreds. Nino carried only what remained of his own.

It was enough.

Nino's fist disappeared beneath a mass of violet Pulse. The impact exploded across the battlefield.

One was launched dozens of yards backward. He tore through the remains of a barricade, struck the ground, and continued rolling until he disappeared among shattered stone and twisted metal.

When he finally stopped, he didn't get back up. The Pulse surrounding his body faded away.

Nino remained still, his fist still clenched.

The King watched him. Then he smiled.

"There he is. The strongest. The one who could sacrifice every single one all over the world. My biggest creation and my biggest treat."

Nino turned his head.

"Zero."

Violet continued burning in his eye. The King spread his arms.

"You can pretend all you want. Use another name. Carry that girl around. Protect villages. Fall in love all over again with the same people I already took from you. In the end, when everything else is stripped away, this is always what's left."

Nino looked at Three. She was still trying to stand. Then he looked at Raysa and Tenshi kneeling beside Alicia. At the girl who had once asked him if he had a name.

Nino turned back to the King.

"You made Zero."

The King's smile faded. Nino picked up the black sword from the ground.

"Nino was my choice."