For several breaths, nothing happened.
The creature stood where it had last circled, its vast shadow trembling as if unsure of its own shape. Then its form wavered. The limbs softened, losing structure, collapsing inward like melting wax. Its body rippled once twice and then splashed into the ground beneath it, dissolving into a pool of dark liquid that spread thin across the Void.
In the next moment, it was gone.
No sound, No echo, No trace.
Izumi did not move.
He stood there, breath shallow, muscles locked, waiting. He half-expected the monster to surge back out of the darkness at any second, to punish him for stillness, for daring to stop. He did not trust the silence. Silence, he had learned, was never empty.
So he waited.
Minutes passed.
Nothing returned.
Izumi remained where he was, refusing to move even a step. He did not want to run again not by accident, not by instinct. He feared that even the smallest panic might leak an echo, might announce his presence once more. And so he stood, motionless, letting the Void pass over him without resistance.
Still, nothing came.
Then—
A voice surfaced.
It did not tear through him like before. It did not rattle his bones or split his thoughts. This voice felt… closer. Almost human. As if someone stood nearby, speaking calmly into the dark.
"Congratulations."
Izumi flinched despite himself.
"You who stood still in the chaos," the voice continued, steady and composed,"you have met the condition to become *******"
"What?" Izumi blurted out.
The final word never reached him.
It slipped away mid-thought, dissolving before it could take shape in his mind just as it had before.
The voice did not pause.
"You have been selected by an ancient weave to restore ******"
Again, the meaning fractured.
Izumi clenched his teeth. The important word vanished, leaving behind only a hollow space where understanding should have been. He felt the same strange resistance as before, as if something within him or around him refused to let the knowledge settle.
Maybe it isn't meant for a human, he thought.Or maybe something doesn't want me to hear it.
Either way, there was nothing he could do. So he stopped trying.
The voice continued, unbothered.
"You have completed the first challenge: 'to merge with the Void'.""You are granted the first mark."
Before Izumi could respond, pain bloomed across his forearm.
He gasped, dropping to one knee as a sharp, searing burn spread beneath his skin. It wasn't the pain of a wound, nor the agony of torn flesh. It felt deliberate measured like something carving itself into him with absolute precision.
Light bled through his skin.
A thin line formed along his forearm, glowing faintly violet. It was incomplete, unfinished, like the beginning of a symbol rather than its whole. The light pulsed once, twice mirroring the rhythm he had followed earlier through the darkness.
Then it faded.
The glow vanished as suddenly as it had appeared, leaving behind only the faint mark. Even in the complete absence of light, the line was visible, etched into his skin as if it had always been there.
Izumi stared at it.
"…What?" he murmured again, softer this time.
Nothing answered.
Exhaustion crashed into him all at once. Now that the running was over, his body reminded him of everything it had endured. Pain spread through his legs, his chest, his back. His arms trembled as he lowered himself to the ground.
He knew his body was lean. Too lean. His limbs were thin, almost fragile, ribs faintly visible beneath his skin. This body was not built for endurance or battle. It was weak. Starved. Unprepared.
Whose body is this?Why am I here?
He had no answers.
No history of this place, No explanation for his arrival.
The questions piled up until they blurred together, losing meaning under their own weight. So Izumi did the only thing he could.
He sat.
Minutes passed. Then more. His breathing slowed. The pain dulled to a distant ache. The Void remained quiet, neither hostile nor welcoming simply present.
Time lost its shape.
After more than an hour, Izumi pushed himself back to his feet. His muscles protested, but they obeyed. He brushed the dust from his clothes and glanced once more at the faint mark on his arm. It did not hurt anymore. Ahead of him, far in the distance, a familiar glow flickered.
Violet.
The same light that had guided him before.
Izumi exhaled slowly.
He still did not understand what had happened. He did not know what he had become or what he was meant to restore. But standing still forever would not give him answers. So, with tired legs and a body that barely felt like his own, Izumi turned toward the fading violet glow.
And once again, he began to walk.