Riku's feet never touched the ground.
With each step through the air, the world distorted—time blurred, wind reversed, and divine law fractured. His body was no longer simply reacting. It was anticipating.
Ahead, the fused Celestial Sentinel loomed—wings outstretched, sword of judgment burning like a star, its voice layered with thousands of coded chants.
"Final Writ Executed: ORIGIN MUST NOT EXIST."
Chains of reality descended—golden, rune-bound, formed from pure concept. Not metal. Not magic. Meaning itself tried to bind him.
But Riku smiled.
"Too slow."
He pulsed forward, not through space, but around it. The Sealed Core's energy whispered possibilities into his blood, showing him movement not yet invented.
The Sentinel slashed—its blade ripping through gravity and time zones. A wave of destruction exploded across the battlefield.
Riku dove into the wave—and passed through it.
The Origin mark unlocked another function.
🔓 "Conceptual Phase-Tread: Immune to defined forces for 0.7 seconds."
He emerged behind the Sentinel. His blade spun with a new sigil—the Unwritten Rune, representing ideas not yet made.
He drove it into the Sentinel's core.
For a moment, the fused god-form screamed—not in pain, but in data loss. It couldn't comprehend what had struck it.
It began to break down. First into light. Then into questions. Then nothing.
All fell silent.
Riku hovered alone now in the sky. The Origin mark no longer glowed—it burned like a second sun beneath his skin.
Below, Valen slowly stood, wide-eyed.
"You just erased a divine being."
Riku lowered himself beside her. "No. I did something worse."
"What's worse than erasing?"
He looked at his hand. "I changed it. I made it… free."
Suddenly, the sky bent.
The sun vanished. The moon cracked. The stars spiraled unnaturally.
A rift opened—not a portal, but a tear in existence.
From it, voices rose. Not gods. Not mortals.
But everything in between.
A platform appeared beneath Riku's feet, formed from ancient stone and flowing starlight. A whisper echoed in his mind again.
"You have awakened the Core's Eye."
"Step forward, Origin-bearer. Enter the Threshold."
Valen reached for him, panicked. "Wait! You don't know what's inside!"
Riku turned to her with calm, resolute eyes.
"I don't need to know."
"I was made to break what's inside."
He stepped into the light—
—and vanished.
[INNER CORE ZONE – Location Unknown]
Darkness.
Weightlessness.
Then—stars. Not in the sky, but embedded in the walls.
Riku landed in a chamber filled with spirals, floating keys, and ghostlike fragments of other souls. Each one flickered with a familiar energy.
"These are… other Origin echoes."
He stepped forward—and a massive eye opened in the void.
Not evil. Not good. Just aware.
"You have entered the Sealed Core."
"You are the first to survive twelve cycles."
"You are not bound by power. You are bound by choice."
"Make your choice."
Before Riku, three floating doors appeared.
🔥 Absolute Flame – A power that burns soul, not just matter.
⚔️ Law of Unmaking – A sword that deletes meaning from enemies.
🌌 Memory of All Lives – The ability to borrow knowledge from any soul ever erased.
But a fourth path shimmered behind them.
🌀 ????? – No name. No definition. Just a single line of text:
"This path will reveal what you truly are."
Riku stood silent for a long time.
Then he stepped past the first three.
He reached for the unknown.
And the world shattered again.
End of Chapter 12
Chapter 13(Preview)
---Riku unlocks a reality-breaking truth about the origin of the gods—and possibly… himself?
END of SEASON 0.