The silence wasn't natural.
It clung to the world like smoke. Not from fear. From acknowledgment.
Everyone present — Ren, Aki, Yumi, Rei, Kael — could feel it in their core Spiral Threads: the being before them wasn't a threat.
It was an inevitability.
Minister One, the Spiral Reaper, stood motionless in the ash-slicked field just outside Sector Echo-Fold. His cracked spiral insignia shimmered, and one of the twenty shards embedded in his cloak pulsed with hollow light.
Ren gripped his pen. "It's not moving."
Kael raised his chrono-rifle. "Yeah? Then maybe I'll—"
The moment his finger neared the trigger, time broke.
Kael was thrown fifty meters back — mid-blink. No sound. No explosion. Just a sudden shift, like time decided it was done with him.
He landed hard, coughing blood. Rei sprinted over.
Yumi's fingers clenched around her glowing scroll. "He didn't move."
"No," Aki said quietly. "He just removed that moment from reality."
The Spiral Reaper tilted its head.
And then it spoke—not aloud, but into their threads.
> "One shard resonates. One Minister wakes. Divergence is unacceptable. Spiral resonance must return to Zero."
Its voice felt like being submerged underwater. Too loud and too far at the same time. And behind it… something else.
Laughter. Soft. Curious.
Aki twitched.
Not from fear—but reaction.
The Prime Echo, the divine being that shared his body, stirred.
Aki felt its cold whisper slide into his mind.
> "That one… was my executioner."
---
Ren stepped forward.
He summoned a spiral — erratic, flickering. His Form wasn't stable enough, but it was now or never.
"I won't let you delete anyone else."
The Reaper didn't reply.
It lifted one hand — two fingers extended.
Ren's Spiral Form collapsed instantly. His thread shattered in places, causing him to drop to a knee, coughing.
Yumi let out a cry and released a barrage of ink threads, trying to wrap the Reaper's body.
They touched its cloak…
…and unraveled into flowers.
Yumi froze. "It changed my attack into… a memory I forgot?"
The Spiral Reaper walked forward.
Each step crushed Spiral stability in a 5-meter radius. The very code of Yūgen's core reality rejected his presence — but obeyed out of fear.
> "One truth remains: All power borrowed must return."
Suddenly, Aki's Spiral thread ignited.
A dark flame ran down his arm.
He grunted, stepping forward.
"You erased my life before I even knew it started," he said. "But I'm not just a vessel anymore. I'm a voice."
He extended his hand, and a glyph formed midair — one shaped not by Spiral Form, but by Divine Art.
> "Awaken, Hollow Divine: Pale God Roar."
The Reaper paused.
The air cracked as Aki's shadow extended, forming a demonic silhouette — massive horns, tendrils of cursed light. A grin twisted through space.
A voice echoed through Aki, low and smug.
> "Took you long enough, you dumb monkey."
The Reaper stepped back for the first time.
Kael sat up from afar, eyes widening. "What the hell is THAT?"
Rei watched in silence, her blade twitching in resonance.
Aki's eyes glowed pale red. "He's awake. The Hollow God. The one who devours light itself."
Ren tried to stand. "I thought you said you weren't losing control…"
Aki smirked. "I'm not. This bastard just knows how to share."
The Hollow God's Divine Art swept forward like ink turned to lightning. It didn't strike the Reaper directly — it rewrote the air around him.
For a moment, the Reaper froze. The cloak glitched.
Its Spiral shard flickered dark.
> "Correction… Required."
Suddenly, the Reaper lifted his other hand and drew a reverse Spiral in the air — one that spun inward infinitely.
Time folded.
The battlefield reset.
The crater vanished.
Kael was back where he started.
Yumi's scroll was whole.
Ren's thread was healed.
But only one thing remained unchanged.
Aki.
Still possessed. Still glowing.
Still smiling like a lunatic.
> "Try that again, you rotten antique. I've seen gods that walk straighter than you."
The Reaper lunged.
It was fast.
Not like teleportation — more like skipping entire events.
It passed Aki.
Then sliced the space behind him.
Blood sprayed.
Not Aki's.
Rei.
She had tried to counter the attack mid-dash, and took the hit instead.
She dropped instantly.
Yumi screamed.
Ren's eyes went wide. "Rei!!"
Aki didn't hesitate.
His form snapped.
> "Divine Art: Endless Thread – Echo Whip."
A dark lash of divine energy exploded from his hand, catching the Reaper and flinging it sideways. The air cracked with every twist.
Ren rushed to Rei, grabbing her trembling hand.
Her Spiral was fading.
"No—no, stay with me."
Kael appeared next to them, eyes wild. "That hit… it bypassed defense. It unmade her movement."
Rei whispered, barely conscious. "Don't… stop…"
Yumi began chanting—her ink thread glowing. "I'll stall him. Just stabilize her!"
But the Reaper stood again.
The shard in his chest was darker now.
He was learning.
Adapting.
Aki stepped forward, wiping his mouth.
"You're not built for chaos," he growled.
"You're built for order."
"And buddy, I'm the worst kind of mess."