Brush's consciousness began to slip.
The world blurred—not because of pain, not because of damage—but because too much fate was pressing in at once.
The wagon, the wood, the motion of wheels faded.
All he could feel was pressure.
Warmth. Closeness. Too close.
His breath caught as the kisses overlapped—not violent, not malicious—but overwhelming, stacking sensations faster than his mind could process.
I'm… drowning…
Not in water.
In connection.
In attention.
In fate pulling at him from every direction.
The Seed of the Internet flared in panic—
—and then everything went dark.
He fell.
Downward, endlessly, into a black ocean of code, symbols drifting like bubbles. Each breath he tried to take filled his lungs with glowing data instead of air.
This isn't death…
This is a summon state.
Seven lights appeared above him.
Not avatars. Not units. Not gods.
Fates.
Each one a silhouette, unfinished, undefined—yet impossibly heavy.
A voice echoed from nowhere and everywhere at once:
"Seven more answer your call."
"Names: UNKNOWN."
"Forms: UNDECIDED."
"Alignment: BOUND TO YOU."
Brush reached out.
The ocean surged.
Each fate reacted differently:
One burned like a star about to collapse
One felt ancient, older than the System
One flickered between existence and deletion
One laughed without a mouth
One watched silently
One resisted him
One… felt familiar, like a promise already broken
"I don't know who you are…" Brush thought, lungs screaming as the data-water pulled him under,
"but I can feel you."
The pressure increased.
The kisses above—back in the real world—became echoes, anchors, keeping him from sinking completely.
"You are not ready," the voice continued.
"But they have been registered."
"When the time comes—"
The ocean collapsed inward.Brush jolted awake.
Gasping.
Air rushed back into his lungs as the wagon came into focus again. Hikaru, Crunchyroller, and Equinox pulled back in surprise.
"He's awake!" Equinox said quickly.
Brush stared at the ceiling of the wagon, chest rising and falling.
Seven faint symbols burned behind his eyes.
Unlabeled. Unresolved. Waiting.
"I… saw them," he whispered.
"Seven more summons."
Crunchyroller's expression changed instantly—no teasing now, only concern.
"That's not normal," she said quietly.
Hikaru tightened her grip on her katana.
"Fate-class entities," she murmured.
"Those don't appear unless the system is preparing for something catastrophic."
The wagon rolled on.
And somewhere deep in the unseen layers of the Internet—
seven unknown destinies stirred.