WEEE-OOO! WEEE-OOO! WEEE-OOO!
Red alarm lights turned the mansion's corridors into a grotesque disco.That shrill, ear-splitting siren sliced through the sweet intoxication of victory like a blade. Just moments ago, the team had been laughing, dividing loot. Now they were sprinting for their lives toward the exit.
"There's no need to panic this much!" Deniz shouted as he ran, his heavy armor clanking loudly with every step. "Vargo is dead! We took down the biggest problem in this city. Who's even left to come after us? A few more berserk guards? Hope eats those for breakfast!"
Kai, carrying Bianca on his back, bounced off the wall and kicked open a door that blocked their path. The wooden door exploded into fragments."Don't be an idiot, big guy!" Kai shouted back. His voice lacked its usual sarcasm; it was tense. "The Collector doesn't take revenge with armies. He sends cleaners. And trust me, they're not flashy show-offs like Vargo."
When they burst out of the building and reached the edge of the forest, they understood exactly what Kai meant.
The forest… was not breathing.
From between the trees flowed hundreds, maybe thousands of shadows. They had no eyes. No voices. They were not animated by Vargo's vile purple magic, but by something darker, more mechanical. Puppets. Even the branches bent aside for them, as if nature itself recoiled from this artificial army.
"The road is blocked!" Lypin shouted, raising her staff and forming a barrier of light.
The first wave lunged out of the darkness. Zombie-like creatures reinforced with metal parts. They didn't snarl. They advanced like machines programmed for one purpose only.
Hope stepped forward.
Green flames ignited in his eyes. He called upon the power he had used before on Yaat.
[Soul of the Flame Tyrant: Active]
He swung his scythe in a wide arc.
"Fall back!"
A wave of green fire erupted from the blade, instantly reducing the front ten creatures to ash. The stench of burned flesh overpowered the smell of rain.
"Nice shot, Architect!" Deniz yelled as he crushed another enemy with his new gauntlets. "We can carve a path!"
"No!" Bianca shouted, dropping down from Kai's back, daggers drawn. "Look!"
Before the ashes of the ten creatures even hit the ground, twenty more emerged from the darkness. They cut them down. Forty followed.
This wasn't a battle.
It was a flood smashing against a dam.
And swinging a sword at a flood was pointless.
No matter how strong Hope was, his mana wasn't infinite. And Mira, perched on his shoulder, had turned gray, trembling in fear.
"The land route is completely surrounded!" Kai shouted as he dropped down from a tree. "They're herding us inward. Drawing a circle."
Hope scanned the area. For a brief moment, his mathematical mind kicked in.
The circle was tightening.Escape vectors: North (Blocked). East (Blocked). West (Blocked).South…
"Water," Hope said. "The harbor. It's more open. The creatures are coming from the forest, not the sea."
"The pier!" Deniz roared, punching the ground apart to clear a path. "Run! We'll find a boat and cross to the other shore!"
The Harbor – Dawn
When they reached the harbor, breathless, the rain had stopped. In its place hung a dense, milky-white fog that swallowed every color in the world. The sea seemed fused with the sky. There was no horizon. Only endless whiteness and the rhythmic slap of gray waves against the pier.
At the far end of the dock, a weathered wooden fishing boat rocked gently. Its paint was peeling, but the hull looked solid. An old-style sailboat, large enough to carry both the team and all their loot.
"This is it," Kai said, checking the ropes. "It'll take us to the other shore. From there, we disappear."
Everyone boarded quickly. Lypin and Bianca loaded supply sacks. Deniz took position at the oars with his massive arms. Hope placed Mira in the safest corner of the boat, on a dry blanket.
Everyone was ready.
Everyone except one.
Yaat stood on the wooden pier.
He wasn't stepping onto the boat.
His eyes were locked on the sea. Veins bulged on his forehead. His face had gone pale as chalk.
"Yaat!" Hope shouted, reaching out. "Come on! The creatures are out of the forest, I can hear them! What are you waiting for?"
Yaat shook his head. It was as if an invisible wall kept him from the boat.
"I can't," he said, his voice trembling. "I see it… Water… Darkness… Everywhere is water… I can't breathe…"
"Another vision?" Lypin asked anxiously. "Is the boat going to sink? An ambush?"
"I don't know!" Yaat grabbed his hair, eyes wide with terror. "I only see death. Cold. Wet death. If I step on that wood… I die. The water swallows me."
Metallic footsteps echoed from the forest. Shadows began to form within the fog.
"We don't have time!" Deniz shouted. "Yaat, get on the damn boat! I can swim, I'll save you!"
Yaat stepped back. "No. You go. I'll… I'll find another way on land. I'll use the shadows. I can't do water. Please."
Hope was about to jump back onto the pier when Deniz grabbed him.
"Leave him," Deniz said harshly. "If we force him, he'll panic. He could sink us all. He's good at hiding in shadows. He'll manage. We'll regroup later."
Hope hesitated. He didn't want to leave his friend behind.
"Don't be stupid, Yaat!" Hope yelled.
Suddenly, Yaat started patting his pockets. A fake look of panic crossed his face.
"Damn it!" Yaat said. "The map and the communication crystal I took from Vargo's office! I dropped them! Must've fallen near the harbor entrance!"
It was an obvious lie.
Even Yaat knew it.
He just needed an excuse. Any excuse not to board that boat. To escape that terrifying DEATH BY WATER.
"I'll grab them and come right back!" Yaat said, already running toward land, into the fog. "Get ready! I'll be back!"
"YAAT, STOP!" Hope shouted.
But Yaat had already vanished into the mist.
Hope didn't board the boat. He waited at the edge of the pier.
"One minute," Hope said. "Just one minute. He'll be right back."
One Minute Later – Harbor Entrance
Yaat was hiding behind a small shack near the harbor entrance, gasping for breath.
He had lied. He hadn't dropped anything. He just wanted to get away from that cursed boat.
The vision had been crystal clear.
Water. Darkness. Suffocation. Death.
"I'm not boarding," he whispered to himself. "I'll hide here. When the creatures leave, I'll continue on land. Yes… that's the plan."
He relaxed.
He grabbed a sack and stuffed it with whatever he could find. He thought he had escaped death.
Then—
No sound came from the fog.
The opposite.
All sound ceased.
The growls of the forest creatures.The waves hitting the pier.The cries of seabirds.
Everything stopped, as if someone had muted the universe.
The world sank into absolute, terrifying silence.
Yaat looked up.
A silhouette emerged from the fog.
A tall man wearing ceremonial white garments. He had a face… but it was so blurred, so indistinct, that no feature lingered in the mind. As if a painter had forgotten to finish it.
The man walked forward.
No footsteps. No disturbed dust.
His existence was built on nonexistence.
Yaat saw him.
He narrowed his eyes. Veins bulged on his forehead.See the future. I need to see it. What will he do? Where will he strike?
Nothing.
There was no future there.
It was a void.
"You…" Yaat said, his voice shaking as he backed away. "Who are you?"
The man didn't answer.
He didn't speak.
He kept walking.
Yaat grabbed the sack and ran toward the pier.
"HOPE! DENIZ! KAI!"
He tried to scream.
No sound came out. His voice was erased before it could exist.
He reached the pier and saw Hope's worried face.
"HOPE, WE HAVE TO RUN! TAKE THE SACK, IT'S HEAVY! THERE'S A STRANGE GUY BEHIND ME!"
No sound.
Hope clearly didn't understand.
Yaat threw the sack toward the boat and ran with all his strength.
Hope's gaze suddenly locked onto something else. He wasn't looking at Yaat anymore.
He was looking behind him.
Yaat turned in terror.
The silhouette had stopped.
The man raised his hand.
Index and middle fingers pointed at Yaat, like a gun.
At the tips of his fingers gathered a blinding, pure white light. It wasn't an explosion. It wasn't energy.
It was an order.
A command that erased the universe's mistakes.
Yaat stared at the massive white brilliance.
And then he remembered the mask deep in his bag.
Protects against a single catastrophe.
It was too late.
If he had worn it… If fear hadn't distracted him… If he had put it on his face…
Maybe the mask would have shattered. Maybe he would have gone blind.
But everything would have been different.
"It wasn't the water," Yaat whispered, tears streaming down his face. "It was the fear."
This time, his voice existed.
A single tear slid down his cheek.
White flash.
VUUUP.
The white light passed through Yaat's chest.
He collapsed where he stood. No blood spilled. He couldn't even scream.
There was only—
A perfect circular hole in the center of his chest.
Just like the hole in that mask.
Flesh, bone, heart, clothing… all erased.
The fog was visible through the hole.
Yaat felt no pain.
Only cold.
And lightness.
He lifted his head and looked toward the boat waiting at the pier.
He saw Hope.
A bitter, ironic smile touched his lips as his future-seeing eyes dimmed.
"This…" he said, his voice fading into the wind, "…is what I couldn't see."
Yaat's face hit the ground.
From his backpack, the white porcelain mask rolled out.
Its empty, blind eyes stared at the sky.
"YAAT!"
Hope's scream tore through the silence.
His vision was sharp. He had seen Yaat fall through the fog.
Hope leapt toward the edge of the boat, muscles tensing to jump back onto the pier.
"No!" Lypin cried, grabbing Hope's arm. "Don't go! You can't save him!"
"Let go of me, Lypin! He's not dead yet! You can heal him!"
"He has no heart!" Lypin screamed, eyes wide with horror. "I saw it, Hope! That man erased Yaat's heart! There's nothing left to heal!"
Hope froze.
The man walked out of the fog.
He stepped over Yaat's body.
He raised two fingers again.
This time, the target wasn't Yaat.
It was the boat.
White light gathered again.
"WE'RE GOING TO DIE!" Bianca screamed, collapsing to the bottom of the boat. That sensation of being targeted awakened her most primal fear.
Deniz raised his axe, tears streaming down his face.
This was the hardest decision of his life.
Leaving a friend behind. Running away like a coward.
But leadership wasn't heroism.
It was responsibility.
"Forgive me," Deniz said.
He cut the thick rope binding the boat to the pier with a single swing.
"We're leaving!" Deniz roared.
He drove the oars into the water. With the power of Goliath's Fists, the boat shot forward like an arrow.
VUUUP.
The second white beam pierced the spot where the boat had been moments ago. The wooden pillars of the pier vanished silently. The dock collapsed into the sea.
The current and Deniz's inhuman rowing carried the boat deep into the fog.
Hope stood at the stern, staring at the receding shore.
"That man…" Bianca whispered, eyes wide with terror. "The Eraser."
The Eraser did not fire a third time.
They were out of range.
Or perhaps… the mission was complete.
One corpse.
And one team, fleeing with shattered souls.
Hope looked at Yaat's lifeless body, disappearing into the fog.
That mask.
That fear.
That lie.
All of it had been a mistake.
Yaat had feared the water.
But water wasn't what killed him.
What killed him was his inability to surrender to its flow.
His own fear had delivered him to his executioner.
Hope fell to his knees.
His eyes burned, filling with something he didn't understand.
His voice wouldn't come.
Mira crawled into his lap.
Her color turned pitch black with mourning.
The fog swallowed Greenhollow, the cursed town, and Yaat.
Only the sound of the sea remained.
And the silent scream of guilt.