"Even when the soul shatters, chaos still seeks a place to see itself again."
The world was ending.
Everything around Crystal twisted and tore apart—sky folding into sea, sea folding into nothing. The red moon had already fallen, its fragments drifting like dying embers across the collapsing blood ocean.
In front of her, the green screen still floated in midair, untouched by the destruction. Lines of light raced across it in frantic patterns, faster than her eyes could follow.
[Scanning soul for new vessel…]Error.
Unable to find vessel.
Host vessel has been damaged.
Creating new point of view.
Crystal's heartbeat—or what remained of it—stuttered. Her surroundings blurred, the noise of the collapsing world fading to a distant hum.
"New… point of view?" she whispered.
The words pulsed once, and another line appeared.
Would you like to activate the new point of view?
The entire world groaned around her, shaking violently. Great fissures split the sea of blood, swallowing whole pillars of light. The air itself seemed to burn.
She didn't think. She simply reached out and tapped Yes.
A soft chime rang through the chaos.
The green screen brightened, flooding her vision until the world itself vanished behind the light.
Loading...Please wait...
Crystal held her breath. Or maybe she only thought she did—breathing had lost its meaning in this place. The light pressed closer, wrapping around her like a cocoon.
Loading complete.
Finding host's body through time...10 %... 40 %... 70 %...
Error.
Host body is damaged.
The words struck her harder than any blade. Her throat tightened. "Damaged...?"
She remembered.
That day—long before the wars, before the crown, before Noah's betrayal—she had been poisoned.
The memory unfolded like smoke: her wedding robes of white and gold, the faint scent of lotus wine, and the sudden chill that had crawled beneath her skin.
The poison had been slow, patient, the kind that clung to the soul rather than the flesh. Every healer in Asterion had failed to remove it. She had found only one way to suppress it—a cultivation art that locked the poison deep inside her core, trading life for strength.
Each night it burned. Each night she endured.
So I could stand beside him, she thought bitterly. So I could be worthy of him.
And in the end, that same man had left her to die.
Her fists clenched as the memory faded. The green light flickered in response to her anger, rippling like a disturbed lake.
Going backward again to find host vessel...
The text shimmered, running lines of code-like script that curved and bent into symbols she could almost understand.
10 %... 30 %... 60 %... 90 %...
The entire world lurched. The last pieces of sky shattered completely, pouring into the rising sea below. The two great statues had already crumbled; now even their fragments were being pulled upward into the collapsing heavens.
Host found.
Crystal's eyes widened. "Found?"
The screen flashed brighter than ever before. The green glow spread outward in concentric rings, each one pulsing with energy.
The blood ocean roared beneath her feet. The air twisted into a spiral, dragging everything toward the center of the collapse.
Her hair whipped wildly around her face, though she felt no wind. The pressure increased until her form flickered between light and shadow.
"Please," she whispered to the screen. "If you found it, then take me there—now!"
The light pulsed again.
Synchronizing soul fragment with host vessel.
Stabilizing dimensional breach...
A circle of symbols opened beneath her, spinning like a vortex. The world tilted, folding inward as though being devoured by its own reflection.
The roar of the collapsing realm became a single continuous note—a hum so loud it drowned thought.
Her knees buckled. The light beneath her spread up her legs, crawling over her like vines of fire.
Host synchronization – commencing.
The green lines wrapped tighter, lifting her off the ground. The sea of blood stretched upward with her, streams of red following the pull of the vortex.
Crystal looked down. The ocean, the sky, even the moonlight—all of it was being drawn toward the same point, a singularity that bent the horizon itself.
She could barely see the screen through the light now, but she heard its voice—not with her ears, but inside her mind.
Time anchor located.
Initiating transference.
Her body—or soul—shuddered violently. It felt as though every memory she possessed was being peeled away and pulled into the spiral.
Her childhood laughter. The clang of training swords. Her sister's smile. Noah's hand in hers. The betrayal.
All of it flashed before her in fragments, then dissolved into streaks of green and red.
"Don't take them all," she whispered, tears floating away from her like sparks. "Please... leave me something..."
The light responded only with another pulse.
Temporal coordinates unstable.
Adjusting...
The vortex grew wider. The collapsing world bent toward it, drawn like a tide.
Crystal's eyes met the remnants of the blood moon as it fell past her, breaking into dust before being swallowed by the spiral.
She reached out, fingers brushing the light. "If this is chaos... then take me where it leads."
The screen flared, filling her vision.
Host confirmed.
Commencing soul absorption.
Her last thought before the pull took her was of Asterion—the snow, the cold, the crown she had worn with pride.
Then the light consumed her completely.
The sensation wasn't pain or warmth; it was transition—a disassembly of everything she was.
For one heartbeat she thought she heard a whisper inside the light:You still seek him… even here?
Her answer never formed.
The screen's final message flashed before her eyes.
Transfer complete.
Entering new point of view.
The vortex collapsed inward, pulling her with it. The sound, the light, the fragments of the dying world—all vanished into a single, perfect silence.
And then—
She was gone.
As she was falling, a light appeared before her—soft, blinding, and calm amidst the chaos.It touched her, and in that instant, Crystal vanished from where she was.
Only a faint, transparent blue orb remained, hovering in the collapsing world.
It drifted gently through the crimson air until it stopped before the ruins of the first statue—the one of the man in the straw hat.
The statue was completely shattered, its body reduced to broken fragments that still hummed faintly with lightning's echo.
Floating just before it was another screen—different from the one that had taken Crystal's soul.Its glow was pale blue, cold but steady, and words appeared across its surface.
MISSION COMPLETE:Save your soul mate.REWARD:Soul mate's soul saved.PRIZE:Your life.
The blue orb flickered weakly, its light dimming with every pulse. As it began to fall toward the blood ocean below, the screen flickered one last time.
GOOD BYE.HOPE YOU MAKE A BETTER CHOICE THIS TIME.
The orb hit the rising red waves, disappearing into their depths as the world finally collapsed into silence.
"When the vessel breaks, chaos reshapes the soul to see the world anew."