Silence.
Not empty.
Watching.
Ryuzen stood still.
His hand—cracked.
Gray.
Unstable.
The trench pressed against him.
Heavy.
Wrong.
Then—
That sound.
Grinding.
Like glass breaking slowly.
It echoed.
Closer.
He didn't move.
He waited.
Something flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Then—
It was there.
A shape.
Long.
Segmented.
A centipede.
But not connected.
Each segment floated.
Separated by gaps of distorted space.
Held together by something unseen.
It didn't crawl.
It existed—
in pieces.
Three positions at once.
Flicker.
Flicker.
Flicker.
Gone—
Closer.
Gone—
Behind.
Gone—
Above.
Ryuzen's eye widened.
The world changed.
Lines.
Broken.
Everything became lines.
Grids.
Fragments.
The creature split across them.
Not moving—
Lagging.
"…Not speed."
A pause.
"…Delay."
The System flickered.
『 LOGIC INTERPRETATION: 12% SYNCED 』
『 IDENTIFYING WEAK POINT… 』
『 …ANCHOR FRAME DETECTED 』
Ryuzen moved.
Void-Step.
He vanished—
Reappeared—
Struck.
Miss.
His hand passed through empty space.
CRACK.
His wrist twisted.
Wrong timing.
The creature didn't react.
It simply existed somewhere else.
Closer.
The sound returned—
louder.
Grinding.
Ryuzen stepped again.
Adjusted.
Struck—
Contact.
For a moment.
Then—
nothing.
His arm shook.
Not enough.
The creature flickered.
Its segments aligned—
Attack.
No wind-up.
No motion.
Just—
there.
Impact.
Ryuzen's body flew.
Stone shattered behind him.
His ribs cracked.
He stood.
Slowly.
His body didn't recover.
It adapted.
His leg shifted—
bone grinding into a new angle.
Stable.
Functional.
His eye didn't blink.
"…Anchor."
A pause.
"…Behind."
The creature flickered again.
Three positions.
But one—
lingered.
A fraction longer.
The delay.
Ryuzen moved.
Not faster.
Earlier.
His muscles twitched before the movement existed.
Red Sync activated—
for a moment.
His shins cracked.
His body lagged—
like the creature.
Two broken things—
sharing the same flaw.
He appeared—
not at it—
Behind it.
At nothing.
His hand thrust forward—
Into empty space.
Impact.
A sound exploded—
like a thousand mirrors shattering at once.
The world fractured—
for a moment.
The creature froze.
All segments—
stopped.
Then—
collapsed.
Gray.
Ash.
Pulled inward.
Into his arm.
『 TARGET… ELIMINATED 』
『 CONSUMING… HIGH-TIER BIOMASS… 』
『 …ERROR… STABILIZING… 』
Ryuzen didn't move.
Then—
pain.
Not sharp.
Heavy.
Molten.
Something spread through his veins.
Slow.
Burning.
His arm twitched.
The gray spread.
Bone shifted—
Pushed outward.
Skin stretched—
Tore.
A jagged structure formed.
Black.
Sharp.
Like a blade—
grown.
Not made.
His forearm changed.
No longer human.
No longer temporary.
Permanent.
He looked at it.
Silent.
It was heavy.
Alive.
Useful.
But wrong.
A pause.
"…Not just eating."
His fingers moved.
The bone responded.
Like it belonged.
"…Becoming."
The trench remained still.
But deeper—
something shifted.
Not reacting.
Observing.
Waiting.
Ryuzen didn't look.
He stepped forward.
The weight didn't slow him.
It aligned.
"…I'm becoming the Trench."
Silence accepted him.
[ END OF CHAPTER 7 ]