The portal rippled like black oil.
Yuto stepped through, and instantly—
the world shifted.
Gravity twisted sideways. The air grew heavy with ink and whispers. Walls floated. Books bled. Lights hummed in forgotten tongues.
[You have entered: Abyssal Spiral – Layer 2: Forgotten Sanctum]
[Environmental Hazard: Madness Fog]
[Mental Resistance Required: 50+]
[Passive: Threadborn Mind – Resistance granted. Mind stabilized.]
Yuto took in the surroundings.
It looked like a library, but one long devoured by nightmares.
Shelves floated midair, half-melted. Scrolls flickered between languages. Statues watched him with eyes that blinked.
And the floor wasn't stone—it was memories.
Each step he took replayed thoughts from the dead.
"Must not forget the ritual—"
"The Sovereign is waking—"
"Seal the Mirror Gate—"
He paused.
"Nyx," he whispered. "Why does everything fear this 'Sovereign'?"
[Processing… The Void Sovereign was once a failsafe. A god made to erase gods. It was sealed because it couldn't be controlled—even by the System.]
[You are becoming that failsafe.]
Yuto's eyes narrowed.
So he was never meant to live.
He was a bug in the code of fate.
And yet… he had free will.
"Then I'll decide what kind of monster I become."
Something stirred between the aisles.
A figure.
Librarian robes. Blank porcelain mask. Moving slowly, deliberately, with a staff made of bone and runes.
[Entity Detected: Memory Curator | LV16 | Unstable Mind]
[Behavior: Aggressive toward anomalies. Intruder classification: High.]
The Curator saw him. And screamed.
"INTRUSIVE ERROR. THREAD UNWRITTEN. CENSOR REQUIRED."
It raised its staff. Reality twisted.
The books around Yuto exploded—forming script-beasts, monsters made from cursed words and binding seals.
Yuto leapt into the air, activating Warp Skitter midflight, dodging the blast.
[Engaging: Battle Start]
Skills Used:
– Flash Orb (LV1) – temporarily blinded enemies.
– Threadborn Spikes – sharpened legs piercing through hostile glyphs.
– Emotion Sink – draining panic from the battlefield.
As fear rose, so did his strength.
[Passive: Hollow Hunger – Buff +20%]
[Whisperlink Enabled: Extracting combat data from script-beasts.]
His mind drank in their patterns.
He was evolving mid-battle.
Then, from behind the shelves—
a second Curator stepped out.
No face. No robes. Just a cracked mirror for a head.
It didn't attack.
It simply whispered:
"Do you want to see what you become?"
The mirror shimmered—
Yuto saw himself.
But larger. Darker. A colossal, god-sized spider thing… with a humanoid face screaming beneath its shell.
Webs wrapped the sky. Worlds burned beneath his feet.
He wasn't a monster. He was an apocalypse.
[WARNING: Mirror Gate Ritual Detected]
Accept the vision? Y/N
Yuto paused.
His fangs twitched.
He felt the hunger. The thrill. The power.
But also—
the horror.
He whispered, "Not yet."
And shattered the mirror.
[Mirror Gate Denied. Future rejected.]
[Evolution Path altered slightly.]
The Curator wailed in pain and exploded into ink and silence.
Yuto stood panting, victorious.
But deep inside…
the vision still echoed.
He wasn't afraid of becoming a monster anymore.
He was afraid of liking it.