While the jungle air vibrated with the sounds of combat, the clearing around the Stone felt like a pocket of frozen time. Xiaolong kept his hand pressed against the humming surface, his mind linked to the digital ghost of the world's end.
Transparent screens of light projected from the Stone, reflecting in Dr. Ishimiya's wide eyes. Xiaolong tapped the first option.
"Doctor... there are ten locations where Exclusive Stones have fallen," Xiaolong whispered, his voice trembling slightly.
"Where?" the doctor urged, leaning in to commit every word to memory.
"Two are here in China and Japan," Xiaolong read, his eyes scanning the glowing coordinates. "The others are scattered across the globe: America, Portugal, Israel, Russia, Pakistan, Argentina, Greenland, and Canada."
Dr. Ishimiya exhaled a long, heavy breath. "A global network. They've seeded the entire planet. We are far more isolated than I feared."
"We don't have much time," Xiaolong noted, glancing toward the treeline where flashes of blue lightning and shockwaves of earth-shattering force signaled the ongoing battle. "Takashi and Kento are holding the line, but the swarm is endless. We need to move."
A short distance away, the forest was a graveyard of black ash. Takashi moved with the efficiency of a machine, leaping into the air and bringing his heavy staff down with such velocity that the air itself screamed. Two Fourth-Grade Reapers were pulverized instantly.
"Thirty-one kills," Takashi said, his voice flat and calm. "Kento, what's your tally?"
Kento didn't look back. He swung his Thunder Sword in a wide, horizontal arc. A crescent of blue electricity tore through the brush, disintegrating four Reapers in a single flash.
"That makes thirty for me," Kento grunted, his breathing finally starting to heavy.
Takashi smirked, already diving toward the next target. "Keep trying, kid. I'm still ahead by one."
"Shut up!" Kento snapped, though a competitive fire burned in his eyes.
Back at the Stone, Xiaolong switched tabs to the "Soul Hunter" database. His expression shifted from focus to sheer confusion.
"There are ten types of Phore," Xiaolong reported.
"Only ten?" Ishimiya asked. "Who has awakened so far?"
"Only five are confirmed," Xiaolong listed them off:
Superhuman Speed & Strength — Takashi
Thunder Manipulation — Kento
Water Manipulation — Xiaolong
Telekinesis — Sami
Wind Manipulation — Sung Ji-Won Naa
"Another Hunter..." Dr. Ishimiya mused. "We'll need to find this Sung Ji-Won Naa. If he is in America, the distance is a problem, but his power is essential."
"The others..." Xiaolong continued, scrolling down. "The sixth is Fire, seventh is Explosion, eighth is Healing & Protection, and the ninth is Teleportation. But the tenth..."
He trailed off, staring at the screen. The text there wasn't stable—it shimmered with a strange, cosmic light that seemed to defy the system itself.
"What about the tenth?" Ishimiya frowned.
"It's listed as '???'—just three question marks," Xiaolong said, his voice dropping to a whisper. "And the user name field... it's incomplete. It only shows 'Ni...' and nothing else."
Dr. Ishimiya narrowed his eyes. "A hidden variable. If the system itself can't identify him, he is either our greatest hope or our ultimate undoing."
"Oi! Xiaolong! Are you done yet?!" Kento's roar echoed from the trees, followed by a massive electrical discharge.
"Almost!" Xiaolong shouted back.
The frontline was a chaotic symphony of fire and steel. While the wave of 4th Grade Soul Reapers had thinned, their lethality remained absolute. Nanami worked with mechanical efficiency, slamming a fresh round into his RPG launcher. He took aim, the recoil jolting his shoulder as the missile streaked through the smoke.
The projectile struck a Soul Reaper dead center. The creature staggered back, its dark form flickering, but it managed to stabilize itself in mid-air. Its throat glowed with a sickening violet light as it prepared to fire a lethal laser beam directly at Nanami.
Before the beam could discharge—BOOM.
A second missile, fired by Sajato, the 2nd Division commander, slammed into the creature's side. The Soul Reaper didn't just fall; it disintegrated into a cloud of black particles.
"Well done, Sajato," Nanami said, his eyes never leaving the treeline.
Sajato offered a grim grin. "Just doing my job, sir."
At that moment, a shimmering silver light cut through the grey haze of the battlefield. Sami descended, her feet barely touching the churned earth as her silver aura pulsed with a soft, rhythmic glow.
"That side is clear, sir," she reported, though her voice lacked its usual brightness. "All fifteen 3rd Grade Soul Reapers are eliminated." She paused, her expression darkening as she looked back toward the medical tents. "…But we lost some soldiers. Others are badly injured. I've moved the survivors to the ambulances for treatment."
Nanami fell silent. He looked at the smoking barrel of his weapon, then at the young girl who had seen more death in fifteen days than most soldiers see in a lifetime.
"Sami," he said, his voice dropping to a low, firm vibration. "We must win this—for those who sacrificed their lives. For those who fought until their last breath." He locked a fresh rocket into place. "Don't let their sacrifice be wasted."
Sami felt a lump form in her throat, her chest tightening with the weight of her responsibility. But as she looked at Nanami's unshakable resolve, the sorrow transformed into a cold, diamond-hard determination. She smiled—a sharp, resolute expression.
"Yes, sir. We will not lose this battle."
Nanami fired once more, the explosion lighting up the dark woods. "Check on the 3rd and 4th Divisions. We can manage the frontline here."
"Roger!"
Sami didn't waste a single second. She propelled herself into the sky, a streak of silver light cutting through the battlefield like a needle through silk.
As Sami flew toward the flank, the ground beneath the entire jungle began to vibrate. It wasn't the rhythmic tremor of marching Reapers; it was a deep, tectonic groan that made the ancient trees sway.
Back to Nitsuki
The white door opened, and for a moment, the world was nothing but a roar of silence. Then, the scent of fresh grass and the sound of rushing water pulled Nitsuki into a new reality.
He stood on a sun-drenched riverbank. The water sparkled like diamonds, and the air was sweet—a stark contrast to the metallic, bloody scent of the Soul Apocalypse. Nearby, he saw them: Variant Nitsuki and Sami. They were younger, their faces unlined by the terror of the world, laughing as they batted a shuttlecock back and forth.
"Try hitting that!" Variant Nitsuki yelled, smashing the shuttlecock with an awkward, boyish strength.
Real Nitsuki watched from the shadows of his own invisibility. It was a memory—or a version of one. He saw the shuttlecock fly wide, saw Sami pout, and saw a group of older boys led by a sneering teenager named Akuto intervene.
The scene turned ugly fast. Akuto's words were oily and predatory, directed at a visibly uncomfortable Sami.
"...Who are these guys?" Real Nitsuki hissed, his fingers twitching. "Nitsuki—do something!"
To his surprise, his variant did. Despite the obvious power difference, the younger Nitsuki stepped forward, his voice cracking but firm. "Oi! You idiots! Give Sami back the shuttlecock! What do you think you're doing?!"
The confrontation was brutal. Akuto delivered a sickening punch to the variant's stomach. Nitsuki collapsed, gasping for air on the grass.
"Stay quiet and let us do what we want," Akuto sneered.
Real Nitsuki felt a wave of nausea. This was the cycle of his life—weakness, humiliation, and pain.
Real Nitsuki watched the scene unfold with a hollow ache in his chest. Watching his variant get beaten was like feeling the phantom pains of a thousand past humiliations.
"...Why does this keep happening to me?" he whispered, his voice trembling. "No matter where I go... no matter what world I'm in... am I always just the victim?"
But then, the CRACK of the badminton racket hitting Akuto's leg shattered his self-pity. He watched his variant—bruised, bleeding, and trembling—stand up for Sami.
"Do whatever you want to me," the variant shouted through a mouthful of blood, "but I won't let you touch them!"
The brutality that followed was hard to watch. Akuto's punches were relentless, painting the green grass with crimson splatters. It only ended when Sami, screaming in terror and rage, shoved Akuto away with everything she had.
As the bullies retreated with one final, ominous promise to "see them again," Sami knelt by the river. She used the cool water to wipe the blood from Nitsuki's face, her voice shaking with unshed tears.
"Nitsuki... why did you argue with them for me?"
The variant Nitsuki looked up, a weak but genuine smile on his battered face. "They were treating you badly. How could I just stand there and watch?"
Sami gave him a light, tearful punch to the stomach. "You're such an idiot."
Standing in the shadows, the real Nitsuki felt a strange sense of clarity.
"...I became like this because I fought strong enemies for her," he realized. "And she was always the one who worried for me. She was the one who cared when the rest of the world looked away." A small, bittersweet smile appeared on his face. "At least... she's not the one doing anything bad to me. She's the reason I keep standing up."
The riverbank began to dissolve as a white door materialized in front of him.
Nitsuki didn't hesitate. The memories were precious, but he was tired of being a spectator in a ghost world. He wanted the real Sami. He wanted to stand beside Takashi and Kento again.
"When will I finally see my Sami again?" he asked the door. "Takashi too... I miss you all so much."
He gripped the handle and pulled it open. But as he stepped through the threshold, the warmth of the sun and the sound of the river were instantly snuffed out.
The light died. The air became freezing, smelling of copper and sulfur.
Nitsuki's boots hit something soft and uneven. He looked down, and his mind went completely blank. His breath hitched in his throat, and the world seemed to stop spinning.
"...What... is this?"
He wasn't in the jungle. He wasn't back at the base.
He was standing atop a massive, silent mountain of rubble and corpses. The sky above was a bruised, swirling purple, torn apart by cosmic rifts. And there, at his feet, lay the people he had just been longing for.
Takashi lay sprawled on his back, his legendary strength gone, his eyes staring at nothing. Kento's hand was still gripped around a shattered hilt, his body scorched black. Xiaolong was half-buried under stone.
And right in front of him lay Sami. Her silver aura was gone. Her hand was outstretched toward him, cold and still.
Nitsuki fell to his knees, his hands hovering over the faces of his dead friends. The silence was deafening. He reached out to touch Sami's hand, but as he did, a massive shadow fell over the mountain of bodies.
He looked up.
Standing amidst the ruins was a figure draped in darkness, its three eyes burning with a terrifying, ancient light. It held a blade that looked like a shard of the void itself.
This wasn't a memory. It was a Vision of the Future—the absolute end of their journey.
But then, the variant moved. With a desperate cry, he swung his badminton racket into Akuto's leg.
"Do whatever you want to me!" the variant shouted through a mouthful of blood. "But I won't let you touch her!"
The beating that followed was savage. Real Nitsuki watched his other self become a blur of bruises and crimson. Eventually, it was Sami who ended it, shoving Akuto away with a strength born of pure desperation. As the bullies retreated, laughing and promising future pain, Sami knelt by the river to wash Nitsuki's wounds.
"Nitsuki... why did you argue with them for me?" she whispered, her voice trembling.
The variant smiled—a bloody, broken, but beautiful expression. "They were treating you badly. How could I just stand there?"
Real Nitsuki felt a strange warmth bloom in his chest. I became like this because I fought for her, he realized. And she was always there to pick up the pieces. A small, genuine smile touched his lips. "At least... she's the one constant."
A new white door manifested in the air, glowing with a pulsing, urgent light. Nitsuki didn't hesitate. The nostalgia was over; he wanted his reality back. He wanted his friends.
"When will I finally see my Sami again?" he asked the void. "Takashi too... I miss you all so much."
He gripped the handle and pulled. But what he saw left him literally confused.