A single crimson eye opened.
Everything stopped.
Dark pupils reflected the descending sea of molten fire.
For one impossible moment...
Everything became silent.
The roar of the flames.
Sebastian's ragged breathing.
The fanatical laughter.
Even Zekai's heartbeat. Everything slowed. His fingers twitched. His body moved on instinct.
The flaming blade crashed into the floor.
BOOOOOOM!!
The reinforced tiles exploded apart, magma tearing a deep trench through the interrogation chamber.
But...
It hit nothing.
The fanatic's smile vanished.
"...What?"
His eyes darted around the room.
"He disappeared?!"
A calm voice came from behind him.
"I'm over here."
The fanatic spun around.
Several meters away, Zekai stood motionless. His clothes were torn. Blood still stained his chest.
Yet somehow...
He was standing. His own expression looked even more confused than the attacker's.
"..."
"What..."
He looked around the ruined chamber.
Broken walls. Collapsed ceiling.
Sebastian covered in blood.
Iris lying unconscious beside the shattered doorway.
"...What happened...?"
His voice sounded distant. Like someone waking from a nightmare.
Then—
Zzzzsup!...
A crimson screen flickered into existence before his eyes.
Unlike before...
It didn't fracture.
It stabilized.
---
[ ARCANA STATUS ]
REBOOTED
Limited Control Authority Activated
---
Zekai blinked.
"...Rebooted?"
Before he could think further—
Another screen appeared.
---
[ ARCANA ]
Authority : Fool
Status : Unstable
Progression : 0 / 21
---
His eyebrows furrowed.
"Twenty-one..."
"Wasn't that the same number..."
"...as the years the system wanted to take from me?"
"What exactly am I progressing toward?"
No answer came.
The windows dissolved.
For a brief, impossible moment, the entire world looked different.
The crimson stains on the shattered floor appeared unnaturally vivid. Every crack in the concrete stood out with impossible clarity. Even the drifting dust carried its own distinct path through the air.
His body felt strangely light.
Not stronger.
Lighter.
The crushing exhaustion that had weighed down every muscle moments ago hadn't disappeared, but it no longer dictated his movements.
His breathing slowed. His thoughts became... quiet.
Not empty.
Calm.
The panic. The confusion. The desperation that had consumed him since the palace faded into the background, replaced by a frightening sense of certainty he couldn't explain.
"...What is happening to me again?"
"That Fool each time something doing with me through this system!"
The fanatic roared.
"I DON'T CARE WHAT THAT IS!"
"Magma Severance!!"
The enormous flaming sword swept horizontally.
Instead of reacting—
Zekai simply...
Stepped.
One small movement.
The blade missed by centimeters.
Another slash.
Another step.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Every swing missed by the narrowest possible margin.
The fanatic's breathing became uneven. Sweat rolled beneath the fractured mask.
His attacks gradually lost their rhythm.
The clean, disciplined arcs of molten steel became wider.
Sloppier.
He swung harder.
Faster.
Angrier.
Yet somehow...
Every strike arrived exactly where Zekai was no longer standing.
"...No..."
The certainty inside the fanatic's mind began collapsing.
'That's impossible.'
'He shouldn't be able to move like this.'
'The prophecy never mentioned this.'
'Then... what exactly awakened...?'
The fanatic's breathing grew heavier.
"...No..."
"...You're predicting me."
Zekai frowned.
"...I'm not."
"I just..."
His eyes remained fixed on the sword.
"...know."
He couldn't explain it. His body simply moved before his thoughts did.
Almost like another instinct had awakened inside him.
The fanatic screamed and unleashed dozens of blazing arcs.
The interrogation room became a storm of molten destruction.
Zekai vanished from one safe space to another.
Not teleportation.
Perfect movement.
Every collapsing beam. Every wave of fire. Every explosion.
His body threaded between them without a single burn.
Sebastian watched with disbelief.
"...Impossible..."
His breathing caught.
"He's not faster..."
"...he's choosing the only path that exists."
Every movement was exactly where danger wasn't.
Not once did he hesitate. Not once did he stumble.
The fanatic's confidence began crumbling.
"What are you?!"
Without answering—
Zekai suddenly disappeared from his sight.
The fanatic's eyes widened.
"Where?!"
A hand gently lifted Iris from the floor.
Zekai carried her effortlessly.
Within another heartbeat—
He placed her safely beyond the doorway. Far from the collapsing chamber.
Iris's heavy eyelids fluttered open. Her vision remained blurred by blood and exhaustion.
Through the haze, she saw Zekai standing.
Alive.
For one fragile second, she wondered if the illusion from her own Grave Art had somehow returned.
"...You..."
Her voice barely escaped. Disbelief slowly gave way to quiet relief.
"...You actually got back up..."
Before she could say anything more, darkness reclaimed her consciousness once again.
He returned instantly.
This time beside Sebastian.
The captain tried forcing himself to stand. Pain shot through every bone in his body.
"...Leave me."
"We have to stop—"
"No."
Zekai calmly supported him.
"We're leaving."
Sebastian grabbed his sleeve.
His expression hardened.
"...Listen carefully."
He pointed weakly toward the shattered outer wall.
"There's another enemy."
"The one who sealed Captain Aldric."
Zekai looked outside.
A distant silhouette stood among the rubble.
Long rifle. Crystal pendants hanging from his waist.
"...Who is he?"
Sebastian swallowed blood.
"We never confirmed his identity..."
"But investigators called him..."
"...The Relic Collector."
"He doesn't kill."
"He collects."
Every word felt heavier than the last.
"Those pendants..."
"They're prisons."
"If one of those bullets touches you..."
"...don't let him retrieve it."
Zekai looked toward the shooter.
The man simply stood there.
Watching.
Waiting.
The fanatic suddenly erupted forward again.
"LOOK AT ME!!"
His flaming sword descended.
Zekai gently set Sebastian against the corridor wall.
"I'll be back."
He turned.
The blade reached him.
His body shifted sideways. His left hand caught the attacker's ankle.
"..."
The fanatic's eyes widened.
"Wha—"
With a single motion—
Zekai rotated.
The attacker's entire body lifted from the ground.
BOOOOOOM!!
He was hurled straight through the shattered wall.
Concrete exploded outward.
His body vanished into the smoke outside.
The distant shooter calmly watched him fly.
For the first time...
His expression changed.
One eyebrow lifted.
"...Interesting."
Zekai slowly stepped through the ruined opening.
His breathing remained steady. His heartbeat echoed quietly inside his ears.
He still didn't understand what had happened to him.
He only knew one thing.
No one else...
...was going to protect them.
For the first time since awakening—
Zekai looked directly at the man holding the pendant rifle.
Neither of them moved. Neither of them spoke.
The ruined battlefield suddenly felt very far away.
Zekai's eyes drifted toward the crystal pendants hanging from the rifle.
Tiny prisons.
Each one held something impossible.
His gaze lingered on the pendant containing swirling darkness.
It almost felt...
alive.
Across the ruins, the Relic Collector quietly studied him in return.
Not his face. Not his wounds.
His crimson eye.
His expression remained unreadable, but something inside that single emerald eye sharpened with unmistakable interest.
For several silent seconds—
Neither hunter nor prey knew which one they were looking at.
The man smiled faintly. Then calmly reached for another crystal round.
His fingers paused.
One of the pendants hanging from the rifle suddenly trembled.
Not from movement.
From recognition.
Inside the crystal prison, the tiny wolf slowly lifted its head.
Another pendant followed.
The imprisoned raven opened one glowing eye.
Neither creature struggled. Neither made a sound.
Yet both stared toward Zekai.
The Relic Collector noticed.
For the first time...
His faint smile disappeared.
"..."
He said nothing.
Quietly loading the relic round into his rifle—
his emerald eye never left the young man standing across the ruins.
End of chapter 37 - Reboot