After Nora entered her door, the presence of Death Dealer vanished from her memory space.
But inside his consciousness, something far more disturbing unfolded.
He drifted—not physically, not spiritually—but as pure awareness—into his own soul sea.
It was vast beyond comprehension.
Endless black-blue waters stretched in every direction, rippling with sovereign pressure. Floating above it were six sovereign cores, each one burning like a dying sun trapped inside glass.
They rotated slowly.
Each one represented a law he had conquered.
Each one represented his authority over existence itself.
Death Dealer observed them with cold satisfaction.
"I am still here," he thought. "Still complete."
His gaze sharpened.
"That girl… Nora. She almost corrupted me."
A faint irritation flickered in his consciousness.
"I should erase her existence later."
But that thought never reached completion.
Because something answered him.
The soul sea trembled.
At first, it was subtle—like a ripple that shouldn't exist in a world governed by absolute control.
Then it deepened.
The entire soul sea began to distort.
Death Dealer's eyes narrowed internally.
"…What is this?"
For the first time in his existence, he felt something he had never felt before:
Loss of control.
His authority over the soul sea did not respond.
His sovereign will—silent.
His cores—unresponsive.
"No…" he whispered inwardly.
Then it happened.
A crack.
Not physical.
Not illusion.
But fundamental.
One of the sovereign cores split open.
A blinding fracture of light and void erupted from it.
Then another.
And another.
CRACK—CRACK—CRACK!
All six sovereign cores began breaking apart simultaneously, as if an invisible law had decided they no longer deserved to exist.
Death Dealer's consciousness surged violently.
"Impossible!!"
He tried to stabilize them.
He forced his will into the soul sea like a god pressing down on reality itself.
But nothing obeyed.
Instead, his essence began to evaporate.
Not destroyed.
Not dispersed.
Rewritten.
Like ink dissolving in reverse, his sovereign power was being peeled away from existence itself.
His vast authority collapsed into fragments of glowing dust.
Panic—something he had not felt in centuries—flickered within him.
"This shouldn't be happening…"
He immediately reached inward, searching for the anchor that had always defined him.
His origin stabilization point.
The structure that allowed him to survive corruption.
The core that held his identity together.
If that failed…
He would not be injured.
He would be erased from all systems of existence.
Death Dealer clenched his consciousness.
"I refuse."
His remaining will surged.
The soul sea responded—briefly.
A flicker of resistance formed.
But it was already too late.
The broken sovereign cores collapsed completely.
One by one, they turned into ash-like particles of fading authority.
The vast ocean of his soul sea began to shrink.
Reality itself was being rewritten around him.
And then—
A new structure formed.
At the center of the destruction.
From the ruins of six sovereign cores…
A single core was born.
Small.
Dense.
Primitive.
A beast core.
Weak compared to what he once was.
Yet undeniably real.
It pulsed once.
Then twice.
And in that moment—
A voice echoed through the emptiness of his consciousness.
Not his own.
Not Nora's.
Not any sovereign's.
But something deeper.
Older.
Systemic.
"Welcome to the system, initiate…"
A pause.
"…my son."
Death Dealer froze.
"…What?"
The soul sea remained silent except for the voice.
His consciousness tightened.
"No… that's impossible."
His thoughts sharpened rapidly.
"I ascended without the system. I rejected it. I broke beyond its control. I became sovereign through my own laws…"
His voice turned colder.
"So how am I connected now?"
Silence.
Then—
The system spoke again.
"Your sovereignty has been dismantled."
"Your authority has been reset."
"Your existence has been recalibrated."
Death Dealer's expression—within his mind—darkened.
"…Reset?"
A faint pressure built around the beast core.
Then the voice continued.
"Prepare for your appraisal."
A pause.
"You defied corruption."
"You maintained consciousness through forced dissolution."
"You suffered annihilation of sovereign structure… and adapted."
Another pause.
"Trial evaluation: Very good."
Death Dealer scoffed immediately.
"Very good?"
His tone turned sharp, almost venomous.
"That's it? After everything?"
A flicker of irritation rose within him.
"I don't need your evaluation."
"I don't need your system."
"I will leave this place and deal with that girl myself."
But as soon as he finished speaking—
Something appeared.
A projection.
A system interface.
Floating in front of his consciousness like an unbreakable law.
It had no physical form.
Yet it felt more real than anything he had ever touched.
A status screen.
A profile.
A designation.
Death Dealer stared at it in silence.
For the first time in his existence…
He hesitated.
Slowly.
Carefully.
He began to read.
---