There was no gate this time.
No announcer.
No crowd.
Only fog.
Kaien and his team stepped onto the pitch—if you could call it that. The ground beneath their cleats was made of stone. Carved into it were thousands of names.
Some faint. Some fresh.
Ash crouched. "These… they're all players."
Nico ran a hand over one. "Clarity Endel. Striker. Died: Mid-third. Cause: Collapse."
Lyra read one aloud. "Marus Vellin. Goalkeeper. 'I couldn't hold the line.'"
Kaien stopped walking.
His own name was there.
Burned into the stone.
But faded… like someone tried to erase it.
Then the fog parted.
And their opponents stepped out.
The Graveborn Eleven.
Every player was translucent. Pale fire in their eyes. Kits shredded by time. Some were missing limbs. Others carried phantom injuries.
But they walked like soldiers.
Not of war.
Of unfinished purpose.
One stepped forward.
Number 00.
Their captain.
A woman with eyes like stormglass and a fractured shin that glowed blue with spirit-thread.
She didn't smile. Didn't speak in challenge.
Only truth.
> "We never got to finish our last match. This is our overtime."
> "Play with honor… or leave as names."
---
📍 [Kickoff – The Weight of the Dead]
The whistle didn't blow.
It rang. Like a funeral bell.
The match began.
Ash darted forward—but his cleats scraped over a name. A shimmer of regret wrapped around his legs.
He stumbled. Looked down.
The name: Kiro Mendez. Position: Left Wing. Cause: Overexertion. Final Words: 'One more sprint.'
Ash's breath shortened.
His steps slowed.
"Kaien—this field—it's alive."
Lyra passed wide—only to feel a pull at her side.
A spectral hand.
It dragged her momentarily into a vision—
Her own potential death.
The moment she would break her promise again.
Kaien's shout cut through: "They don't want to beat us. They want us to remember what they lost!"
---
📍 [The First Goal – The Cost of Forgetting]
Nico tried a feint—then saw a young boy standing in the middle of the pitch.
He blinked.
No one else saw him.
The boy looked up and said, "Tell them I almost made the team."
The ball slipped from Nico's feet.
A Graveborn midfielder took it.
Shot.
Goal. 0 – 1.
Ash gritted his teeth. "How do we fight the dead?"
Kaien: "We don't fight. We finish."
Lyra: "Finish?"
Kaien: "Their game. Their story."
---
📍 [Phantom XI – A New Formation]
They huddled.
Kaien placed his hand on the ground. On a name.
"Rika Elsen. Midfield. Died of collapse. Her team never finished the Cup."
He whispered: "Then we finish it for her."
Ash nodded. "We carry them."
Lyra: "Not with pain. With rhythm."
Kaien rose.
Beat.
Beat.
Pulse.
The pitch responded.
Where once it dragged them into death, now it followed their steps like echoes.
Each pass lit up a name.
Each sprint acknowledged a sacrifice.
They weren't trampling the fallen—
They were playing with them.
Goal. Lyra to Ash. 1 – 1.
The Graveborn Eleven didn't snarl.
They smiled.
---
📍 [Climactic Final Minute – The Last Ghost]
The field began to crack.
Spirits trembled.
Only the Graveborn Captain remained.
Number 00.
She looked at Kaien.
"You died too. Why did you return?"
He stepped forward. "Because I wasn't done."
She nodded. "Then prove it."
She passed.
He received.
But the ball weighed like stone.
His knees buckled under the memories.
> His final game. The betrayal.
The deal he made. The cost he paid.
The choice he nearly regretted.
Then he remembered Lyra's words.
"You don't need saving anymore."
He smiled.
> "No. I don't."
He lifted the ball.
Tapped.
Beat.
Shot.
The ball arced.
Flamed.
Split fog—
And struck the ghost of a net that no one else could see.
Goal. 2 – 1.
Final bell rang.
---
📍 [Aftermath – The Captain's Thanks]
The captain approached him.
Placed a cold hand over his.
"You finished our story. That means we can sleep."
She looked at Lyra.
"At least one team… gets to walk away."
She and the Graveborn vanished into ash and wind.
The pitch fell away—
Only names remained.
Glowing.
Remembered.
---
📍 [Post-Match – Back at the Base]
Ash tossed his kit onto the bench. "Two matches in and I feel like I've been through a hundred lives."
Nico poured water over his head. "We played football with ghosts. Actual ghosts."
Lyra sat quietly, hands clasped.
Kaien walked in.
"Next match," he said, holding up a letter made of folded wind.
"Team name: The Hollow Reign."
He paused.
> "And the letter says: 'One of you will betray the team during the match.'"
They arrived in silence.
Not through a gate this time—but through reflection.
Each Phantom XI player stepped onto a pitch that shimmered like water. The ground shifted beneath their feet, reacting to thoughts. Every pass created ripples. Every doubt bent the lines of the field.
Above them floated a single phrase, spelled in light:
> "Truth corrupts. Lies reveal."
Kaien exhaled slowly.
This wasn't a game.
It was a test.
---
📍 [Hollow Reign Appears – Masters of Deceit]
The opposing team emerged from the mists of mirrored air.
Hollow Reign.
They wore silver-black kits that reflected not light—but fear.
Each player's face was hidden behind glass masks. Not blank—familiar. Disturbingly so.
Kaien stared. "That's… me."
Each Hollow player wore the face of someone on Phantom XI.
Ash whispered, "They're us?"
Lyra's voice dropped. "No. They're what we hide from ourselves."
Then their captain stepped forward.
Not masked.
Not hidden.
A girl.
Maybe fifteen.
She looked like someone none of them knew.
And yet—
Every player froze.
Because her voice wasn't her own.
It was theirs.
> "Welcome, Phantom XI."
"You're not here to win."
"You're here to confess."
---
📍 [Kickoff – The Game Begins]
The whistle didn't blow. Instead—
A confession rang out.
From Lyra.
"I leaked the training footage to Ordo Celestia. I thought I was saving Kaien. I almost doomed us all."
Her mark flared.
And her Hollow copy dashed forward.
Stole the ball.
Shot.
Goal. 0 – 1.
Kaien's jaw clenched. "This field… feeds on truth. But only when it hurts."
Nico stepped back. "So what—lie?"
The Hollow Captain answered for him.
"No. You must tell the truth. Or the pitch will bury you."
Nico's boots began to sink.
He screamed.
"OKAY! I hate football sometimes! I only play because May loved it. And now she's gone and I don't know who I am without her!"
The sinking stopped.
But his Hollow self lashed forward—
Passed.
Another shot.
Goal. 0 – 2.
---
📍 [The Breaking Point – One Betrayal is Missing]
Kaien called a timeout. They huddled on the field of reflections, their own faces staring up at them from below.
Ash: "This match isn't about scoring. It's about enduring."
Lyra: "It punishes secrets. If we all confess—"
Kaien cut in. "Then one of us still hasn't."
He held up the letter again.
"One of us is supposed to betray the team during the match."
Nico's eyes narrowed. "You think it's one of us?"
Ash backed away slightly.
"No," Kaien said slowly. "I think it's someone who hasn't spoken yet."
They turned.
Everyone had spoken.
Except…
Kaien.
---
📍 [Confession – Kaien's Truth Unleashed]
The field began to crack beneath his feet.
A voice from the Hollow Captain echoed:
> "If the Rhythm Bearer lies… the match ends here."
Kaien lowered his head.
Then raised it.
Eyes clear.
> "I lied to all of you."
Lyra's breath caught. "Kaien…?"
Kaien's voice echoed across the pitch.
"I made a deal with the Architects. Years ago. I knew if I won the Arcana Cup, I'd be pulled into this greater game. I didn't tell you because I was afraid."
"I wasn't playing for us. I was playing to rewrite my own fate."
The pitch turned red-hot.
A Hollow Kaien emerged.
Wearing not just his face—
But a crown of glass, and a broken staff across his back.
It ran forward.
Kaien met it head-on.
They clashed.
Ripples exploded.
Glass shattered.
The Hollow Kaien screamed:
"You'll never be free!"
Kaien whispered:
"I don't need to be. I just need to be real."
He passed.
To Ash.
To Lyra.
To Nico.
Ash fired—
GOAL. 1 – 2.
---
📍 [The Mirror Breaks – Final Phase Begins]
The field fractured.
Truths spilled into the air as light.
Each Phantom XI player now glowed with honesty.
Ash shouted, "Let's stop being afraid of our own stories!"
Lyra called, "We're not playing to hide. We're playing to own it!"
They pressed forward.
Nico dribbled past his reflection.
Ash feinted past fear itself.
Kaien spun and found his rhythm.
Beat. Beat. Pulse.
The Hollow players hesitated.
Truth… weakened their cohesion.
They passed forward—
Lyra struck.
Goal. 2 – 2.
---
📍 [Final Move – The Last Lie]
The Hollow Captain stepped into midfield.
Her voice shifted.
And when she spoke—
It was Kaien's mother's voice.
"You think you're free? That this game makes you better? Kaien… you're still running."
Kaien closed his eyes.
"I know."
"But I'm not running away anymore."
He stepped.
Beat.
Ball struck forward—
Nico redirected.
Ash finished.
> GOAL. 3 – 2.
The field shattered.
The Hollow Reign vanished.
---
📍 [Post-Match – The Real Enemy Moves]
As Phantom XI walked off the field, the sky flickered.
And a shadowed figure waited by the exit.
They wore no number.
No crest.
Just an obsidian coat stitched with stars.
He clapped slowly.
"Well done," he said. "Three victories. Three awakenings."
"Tell me, Rhythm Bearer…"
> "What will you do when the next team doesn't want to win…"
> "They want to end the game itself?"
Kaien's fists clenched.
"Then we don't play to finish it."
> "We play to change it."