The air around Yuta Okkotsu didn't just feel heavy; it felt thick, like trying to breathe while buried in cold sand. Behind him, the Special Grade vengeful spirit, Rika, loomed like a mountain of white bandages and jagged teeth. Her one visible eye—huge, bloodshot, and chaotic—stared directly at my chest. It felt like she was looking at my soul, deciding which part to bite first.
"Ren, get back!" Maki shouted, pushing past me with her green sword raised. Her voice was shaking, which I had never heard before. "Yuta, stop this! You've known us for years! You know Gojo-sensei wouldn't want you hunting down students like they're monsters!"
"Gojo is gone, Maki," Yuta said softly. He looked at her with a deep, quiet sadness that hurt more than anger. "The System showed me the data. It showed me a future where the 'Void' grows until it eats the entire world. I can't let that happen. I promised to protect everyone... even if it means killing one person to save a million. Rika... don't hurt the others. Just the boy."
Rika let out a scream that sounded like a thousand metal pipes grinding together. She moved faster than anything I had ever seen. One moment she was ten feet away; the next, her giant, clawed hand was slamming into the asphalt where I had been standing a millisecond before.
The Survival Struggle
[WARNING: SOUL PRESSURE CRITICAL]
[OPPONENT STRENGTH: IMMEASURABLE]
[SYSTEM STATUS: GLITCH DETECTED]
I used [Phantom Step] to dodge, but I wasn't fast enough to escape the shockwave. The force of her hit sent me flying backward like a ragdoll. I crashed into a parked car, the metal folding around my spine with a sickening crunch. I coughed up a spray of crimson, the [Soul Link] vibrating with a sharp, white-hot pain. Because of the link, Nobara and Toge winced, feeling the ghost of the impact in their own ribs.
"Ren!" Nobara cried. She threw a handful of sharpened nails at Rika, but the spirit simply swatted them away with a flick of her finger as if they were annoying flies.
Megumi tried to summon his Divine Dog again, but his hands were shaking too hard. He was still too weak from the Puppet Master's control. Toge opened his mouth to shout a command, but only a dry, bloody wheeze came out. His voice was completely gone. We were broken, exhausted, and a Special Grade sorcerer was just getting started.
"Please, stay down," Yuta said, walking toward the wreckage of the car. He didn't even have his sword out yet. He was just using his bare hands, which were covered in a terrifying amount of blue cursed energy. "If you fight, Rika will get excited. I don't want you to suffer."
The Truth in the Void
As Yuta reached for my throat, I didn't try to punch him. I knew I couldn't win a physical fight. Instead, I reached out and grabbed his wrist with both hands. I closed my eyes and reached deep into the [Soul Link], pulling on every bit of "Void" energy I had left.
"Show him, Ren," Valthazar whispered. The demon sounded almost impressed. "Show the White Knight what his 'precious' System is really made of."
I didn't use gravity. I used [Void Resonance].
For a split second, the dark street of Ikebukuro vanished. The sounds of Rika's growling and Nobara's shouting went silent. We were standing in a white, endless space filled with billions of lines of scrolling blue code. It was the "back end" of the Culling Game.
"Look at the screen, Yuta!" I yelled, pointing at the air between us.
Floating in front of Yuta were the 'Quests' the System had given him. But now, because my Void power acted like a magnifying glass, the blue "official" light was peeling away like old paint. Underneath the blue, there was a jagged, angry red text.
> QUEST: KILL THE VOID-WALKER
> TRUE GOAL: DELETE THE ONLY USER CAPABLE OF BREAKING THE ARCHITECT'S SOURCE CODE.
> SOURCE: THE ARCHITECT (HIDDEN ADMIN)
> STATUS: MANIPULATION ACTIVE
>
Yuta froze. His hand, which had been tight around my wrist, began to tremble. He looked at the red text, his eyes widening in horror. He saw the math. He saw that his "Mandatory Quest" wasn't about saving the world—it was about protecting the man who had created this nightmare.
The Broken Contract
The white space shattered like a mirror. We were back on the dark, rainy street. Yuta let go of my wrist and stepped back, his face pale and sweating.
Rika stopped mid-lunge, her giant head tilting in confusion. She could feel her master's heart rate changing. She could feel his doubt.
"The Quest..." Yuta whispered, looking at his own hands as if they were covered in blood. "It wasn't a warning. it was a lie. I was being used as an eraser."
Suddenly, the sky above Ikebukuro turned a dark, bruised red. A loud, buzzing sound filled the air—the sound of a billion digital insects. It was the sound of the System getting angry.
[WARNING: PLAYER 'YUTA OKKOTSU' HAS DISOBEYED A MANDATORY QUEST]
[PENALTY: SYSTEM EXTERMINATION INITIATED]
"No!" I shouted, looking up.
A massive bolt of red lightning—the Architect's "Delete" key—shot down from the clouds, heading straight for Yuta's head. But Yuta didn't even move. He was too shocked to react.
Before the bolt could hit him, Rika leaped into the air. She let out a roar that shook the earth, her giant body taking the full force of the red lightning. She screamed in pain, her white form beginning to flicker and break apart into blue pixels.
"RIKA!" Yuta screamed, reaching out for her.
"We have to go! Now!" Maki grabbed Yuta's arm and pulled him toward the subway entrance. "The Architect is trying to delete the whole area because he lost his best soldier! If we stay here, we all get erased!"
I looked at my friends. We were beaten, bleeding, and surrounded by a world that was literally disappearing around us. But we had Yuta now. The strongest sorcerer was on our side.
"To the subway!" I commanded, the violet light in my eyes burning with a new, sharp purpose. "We're going to find the center of this game, and we're going to pull the plug."
Author's Note: Ren's collection of allies is growing! But can they reach the Architect before the "Deletion" catches them?