Jhonathan's blade burned red.
His mana armor cracked across his body like glass under pressure, but he didn't step back.
Not anymore.
The swords collided again.
The impact wasn't just physical—it carved tremors through the ground itself. The battlefield split into fractured plates, hovering for a moment before collapsing inward.
Jhonathan raised his arm.
Mana surged instinctively, forming a shield around it.
He smiled.
"…I'm not alone anymore."
He swung.
But the strike never reached.
A single touch landed on his blade.
And everything stopped.
Mana isolation.
The world didn't remove his power.
It removed his ability to express it.
No spells formed.
No aura responded.
Even intent struggled to become action.
Jhonathan's eyes widened slightly.
"…What is this…"
He tried again.
Nothing.
Not resistance.
Not defense.
Just absolute cancellation.
Behind him, Sylviana and the others moved—but even their abilities faltered in the same space.
The entire party froze under the same rule.
Two figures stood ahead.
Both calm.
Both aligned.
Together, their combined presence formed a 7-star threshold ability.
Not overwhelming through force—
but through nullification.
One of them tilted their head.
"…That's enough."
The second stepped forward.
A hand reached out and rested lightly on Jhonathan's shoulder.
The pressure vanished for a moment.
Then—
a voice spoke softly.
"Let me in your party."
Jhonathan blinked.
"…What?"
The figure shifted.
Their form dissolved and reformed—
until a new presence stood there.
An 18-year-old girl with calm eyes and an unnervingly familiar aura.
She smiled slightly.
"…Call me Grimmy."
Silence.
The battlefield didn't react.
It simply accepted the change like it had always been true.
Jhonathan exhaled slowly.
Then nodded.
"…Fine."
A new presence joined the party.
And somewhere far away—
something watching the world quietly noted:
The system had changed again.