The city looked intact.
That was the lie.
Buildings stood upright. Streets were unbroken. Neon lights flickered in distant windows as if life had resumed normally. But beneath it all, the air felt thin—stretched, unstable, like reality hadn't fully recovered from what Null had done.
They moved across the upper levels, rooftops and broken skybridges, avoiding the streets below. Sirens wailed in the distance, then died one by one, swallowed by something unseen.
Hyung slowed, scanning the horizon.
"You feel that?"
Null nodded.
"It's like the world hasn't decided what to do with us yet."
Ahead of them walked D U—hands in his jacket pockets, posture relaxed, expression unreadable. He looked calm, almost bored, but his eyes were sharp, constantly tracking shifts in the air.
"That's because it hasn't," D U said. "Residual zones don't settle fast. And when they don't… they attract attention."
Hyung glanced at him.
"What kind of attention?"
D U stopped.
Not abruptly.Deliberately.
"The old kind."
The air above the street below them folded inward.
Not torn.Folded—like reality was being creased by an invisible hand.
Sound dulled. Light bent. The city seemed to hold its breath.
Null felt it instantly.
A presence.
Controlled. Ancient. Balanced.
A man stepped out of the fold.
He looked ordinary at first glance—mid-forties, long coat worn thin at the edges, silver streaks in his hair that felt earned rather than aged. His eyes were calm, alert, and deeply tired.
A survivor's eyes.
D U straightened slightly.
Recognition.
"…Didn't think you were still walking this world," D U said.
The man smiled faintly.
"Neither did most people."
Hyung shifted, instinctively placing himself closer to Null.
"And you are?" he asked.
The man's gaze slid to Null, lingering with quiet intensity.
"Someone who remembers the last time the world broke," he replied. "Name's Kael Veridian."
D U clicked his tongue.
"Old Generation," he muttered. "Same tier as me."
Kael chuckled.
"Careful. You make it sound like a compliment."
Null met Kael's gaze.
"You didn't come here by accident."
"No," Kael agreed. "I came because the signal finally confirmed."
"Signal?" Null asked.
Kael's eyes narrowed slightly.
"The Third Fragment waking inside you," he said. "That wasn't subtle."
Hyung tensed.
"So others felt it."
Kael nodded.
"The Constants. The survivors. The ones who enforce corrections when worlds destabilize."
Null felt something stir deep inside him—not anger, not fear, but awareness.
"And what happens to variables?" he asked.
Kael didn't answer immediately.
D U did.
"They usually get erased."
Silence fell.
Kael looked back at Null.
"You're different," he said. "You didn't shatter. You adapted."
The fold behind him began to reopen.
"I'm not here to fight," Kael continued. "I'm here to warn you."
He paused.
"The next ones won't talk."
With that, he stepped backward into the folded seam. Reality smoothed itself shut behind him.
The city's noise rushed back all at once.
Hyung exhaled slowly.
"I don't like him."
D U nodded.
"You shouldn't. He's honest."
Null stared at the empty space Kael had left behind.
For the first time since the Door opened, he understood the truth clearly:
He wasn't just fighting enemies anymore.
He had entered the attention of an older system.
And it had started watching him closely.