No System.
No red static.
No voice.
Only—
footsteps.
Bare feet met cold stone.
Slow.
Even.
Precise.
Ryuzen didn't stumble.
Didn't hesitate.
Each step landed perfectly.
Not human.
Certain.
Like something that had already decided the outcome.
Shapes shifted in the dark.
Low.
Hungry.
Watching.
Prowlers.
They saw him.
They didn't attack.
Didn't growl.
Didn't move.
They lowered themselves.
Bodies pressed against the ground.
Heads bowed.
Limbs folded inward.
Submission.
Not fear.
Recognition.
The walls of the Trench moved.
Not violently.
Not suddenly.
They leaned.
Closer.
Like something vast was trying to reach him.
Trying to feel him.
Trying to welcome him.
A vibration spread through him.
Not sound.
Not thought.
Something deeper.
A voice without direction.
Without origin.
"You finally stopped resisting."
Silence followed.
Then—
"Good."
No emotion.
No judgment.
Only certainty.
It wasn't the System.
It wasn't the Architect.
It felt older.
Like the Abyss itself had found a way to speak.
A flicker passed through his mind.
Fire.
Figures sitting around it.
Voices that didn't exist.
He reached.
A face.
A girl.
Static.
There was nothing there.
Only distortion.
A broken image that refused to form.
Another fragment surfaced.
A boy.
Standing.
Smiling.
A name tried to exist.
Heavy.
Wrong.
"Ryu—"
It stopped.
A thin line cut across the image.
Clean.
Precise.
The boy split.
And dissolved.
Like burning film.
Gone.
No trace remained.
No meaning followed.
Only absence.
He didn't reach for it again.
The tremors stopped.
Completely.
No twitch.
No delay.
No distortion.
The bone-blade shifted.
Not violently.
Smooth.
Silent.
A quiet realignment.
Click.
It settled into place.
Perfect.
His skin followed.
Gray.
Flat.
Unmoving.
Not flesh.
Not stone.
Something in between.
His chest remained still.
No breath.
No heartbeat.
Nothing unnecessary remained.
The glitches were gone.
Because the error—
had become the standard.
Far above—
light.
Machines hummed.
Screens flickered.
"…Signal 0-9 is flatlining."
A pause.
"…Did the subject die?"
Another voice answered.
Lower.
Uncertain.
"No."
Silence stretched.
"It didn't disappear."
A flicker crossed the monitor.
"It expanded."
Another pause.
Longer this time.
"…It's not registering as biological anymore."
No one spoke after that.
Stillness returned.
A pool of black ichor lay before him.
Unmoving.
Ryuzen stood at its edge.
He looked down.
No curiosity.
No reaction.
Only observation.
The surface reflected him.
A figure.
Tall.
Unfamiliar.
Incomplete.
Then—
It moved.
The reflection's mouth curved.
Slowly.
Stretching wider than it should.
Jagged.
Wrong.
A smile.
Ryuzen didn't move.
His face remained still.
Empty.
But the reflection—
kept smiling.
And then—
it whispered.
"…Requiem."
The sound never reached his ears.
But something inside him—
answered.
He didn't lose his body.
He didn't get taken.
He didn't fight.
He didn't break.
He gave it permission.
[ END OF VOLUME 1 ]