The scream from the Second Gate wasn't meant for them.
That was the first thing Lucas realized.
As the thing finished descending—its many limbs scraping against reality itself—the pressure in the gym shifted. Not away, not weaker… just elsewhere.
The Architect wasn't watching here.
The invisible gaze Lucas had felt tightening around Leon like a noose abruptly slid past them, drifting outward—toward the city, toward the larger clusters of fear, chaos, and spectacle forming as Earth and Elnor finished stitching themselves together.
The Gods wanted scale.
They wanted screams that echoed across continents.
The creature emerging from the Gate twisted its eyeless head, not locking onto Leon's golden presence, not reacting to the Emperor-class anomaly standing right beneath it.
Instead, it turned toward the far side of the gym.
Toward the stairwells.
Toward the mass of fleeing students.
Lucas's breath caught.
"…It's ignoring us," Elena whispered.
Leon felt it too—the strange hollowness where attention should have been. The Emperor class stirred uneasily, like a blade left sheathed during a battle it was born for.
For the first time since awakening, Leon felt something unfamiliar.
Being insignificant.
The System chimed again—but not for Leon.
[Priority Target Updated]
[Threat Focus: Population Density Zones]
[Administrator Attention: Redirected]
Lucas didn't hesitate.
"This is our chance," he said sharply. "Now. We run."
Leon blinked. "Run? But that thing—"
"Isn't here for us," Lucas snapped. "And if the Architect isn't looking, we don't exist to it. That's the only advantage we're ever going to get."
The Gate Warden let out another shriek and surged forward—not toward Leon, not toward Lucas—but crashing through the opposite wall in an explosion of concrete and screaming metal.
The gym shook violently as it vanished into the school's depths, drawn by panic like a predator to blood.
Silence followed.
Not peace.
Just absence.
Lucas grabbed Leon's wrist and pulled hard. "Move!"
They ran.
The hallway beyond the gym no longer resembled a school corridor. Half of it had collapsed into a sloping stone ramp, the lockers fused with gnarled roots as thick as trucks. Through shattered walls, Lucas glimpsed the outside world—and his stomach clenched.
The city was stretching.
Buildings elongated into impossible angles, roads splitting and reconnecting as forests erupted between them. Medieval towers phased into existence beside apartment blocks. Floating landmasses drifted slowly overhead, casting massive shadows.
The world was still merging.
And the Architect was busy enjoying it.
A distant System broadcast boomed across the sky—global, theatrical.
[World Integration: 62% Complete]
[New Zones Unlocked: Plains of Elnor / Ashfall Coast / Verdant Ruins]
[Viewer Engagement: Rising]
Leon stumbled as the ground lurched beneath his feet. Elena collided into him, arms wrapping around his torso as she clung on instinctively.
"Leon—!" she cried.
He caught her without thinking.
She didn't let go.
Her grip was desperate, fingers digging into his jacket like she was afraid he'd disappear if she loosened them. Her face was buried against his chest, her body shaking violently now that the immediate terror had passed.
"I thought—" she choked. "I thought I was going to die."
Leon froze.
"It's okay," he said quietly, one hand hovering before settling awkwardly on her back. "You're okay. I've got you."
Lucas glanced over his shoulder, saw the way Elena held Leon like an anchor, and felt something twist painfully in his chest.
She hugged him like that last time too, he remembered.
Right before the Shadow Legion took her.
"Don't stop!" Lucas shouted as the ground ahead split, revealing a yawning chasm filled with glowing mist. A fallen staircase bridged it—barely.
They crossed just as another roar thundered through the distance, followed by a wave of heat that scorched the air.
Not near.
But not far.
When they finally reached what used to be the far end of the school grounds, Lucas slammed them behind a half-intact stone wall grown over with roots. He leaned against it, gasping, every muscle screaming.
For a moment—just a moment—the world forgot them.
Leon looked around, chest rising and falling, golden eyes scanning the warped horizon.
"They didn't notice," he said slowly. "Whatever controls this… it didn't even look at me."
Lucas nodded, jaw tight. "Good."
Leon turned sharply. "Good?"
"Yes," Lucas said. "Because the moment it does—this stops being survival and starts being execution."
Elena tightened her grip on Leon unconsciously.
"…I don't like this game," she whispered.
Leon stared out at the broken skyline, at the double moons hanging unnaturally in the sky. Somewhere out there, monsters were slaughtering cities for entertainment. Somewhere higher still, Gods were watching.
And he—Emperor or not—had just been ignored.
For reasons he didn't yet understand, that frightened him more than being hunted.
Far above, beyond sight, the Architect's attention swept across continents, tallying destruction, rating spectacle.
It did not pause on a white-haired boy hiding behind roots.
Not yet.
Leon swallowed.
"I don't know why," he said softly, "but it feels like this world just blinked… and missed me."
Lucas didn't answer.
He was too busy praying that it stayed that way.