Blood dripped from the tip of the spear.
Kairo couldn't feel his hands anymore.
The battlefield around him was quiet—too quiet. Bodies of people he didn't remember lay frozen mid-motion, mid-scream, like someone had paused the world.
The sky glitched. The clouds stuttered left, then rewound right.
And high above, the seven thrones spun slowly, suspended in shattered glass.
One was empty.
The others… were watching.
"System," Kairo whispered, barely able to speak.
[REWRITE PROTOCOL REQUESTED]
[PERMISSION: DENIED]
A soft laugh echoed behind him.
He turned.
A girl with silver eyes and a stitched smile stood barefoot in the blood-soaked grass. Her skin shimmered like broken code. Her voice came from three mouths.
"You broke the loop again, Kairo. That wasn't part of the story."
"I'm done playing your story," he said. "I'll write my own."
She tilted her head.
"Then die one more time for me."
The spear twisted in his hand.
And the world collapsed into white.
---