Silence settled over the chamber.

Where the wraith had vanished, only purple mist drifted forlornly, bereft of its master. Yuto dismissed Void Scythe and sank weakly to the floor.

The sense of duty that had gripped his heart was gone. Into its place swept cold emptiness and an indescribable sorrow.

"Ah... Aaah..."

Yuto clutched his chest. The tears running down his cheeks were still red with blood. The words the wraith's lips had formed in that final moment circled through his mind.

["My son."]

Those words took on the wraith's voice, haunting his ears like an auditory hallucination and tearing his soul to pieces.

The son who had never existed in this world had finally had his existence acknowledged—but only after executing his father with his own hands. The cruelty of it left Yuto gasping.

"Ah... Aaah..."

After lamenting for a long while, Yuto squeezed his eyes shut.

It had to be done.

Someone had to judge the wraith.

And that someone could only have been Yuto himself. He clenched his molars hard, putting his feelings in order.

He pitied the wraith. But he could neither condone nor understand the choices he had made.

He did not recognize the wraith as Belkain's last king. The man had forsaken his duty as a ruler.

He did not think of the wraith as his father.

But the wraith had called Yuto his son.

And that was the end of it. The wraith had been annihilated, and Yuto... remained here. Suppressing the feelings he had sorted through, he staggered to his feet.

His vision was blurred, yet he could clearly see the Precious Sword of Belkain glowing softly upon the altar.

The Precious Sword of Belkain.

Its name was Gloria. Belkain's... glory. A sword that only the king was permitted to possess. As though entranced, Yuto approached the altar.

"I am..."

Clutching his chest, Yuto spoke as though engraving the words upon himself.

"Belkain's last... and true king."

The one who had slain the wraith of a man who could have been his father, who had judged the benighted king responsible for the kingdom's destruction. Both spectator and actor, returned to end this hellish play directed by the constellations. Staggering up to the altar, Yuto reached for Gloria.

His trembling fingers closed around its hilt.

WHOOSH!

The instant he grasped the sword, a violent wave of aether pierced his entire body. Though the precious sword bore a name meaning glory, the wave boring into him was nothing like the brilliant, warm radiance its name suggested.

The screams of tens of thousands of people, and the weight of the kingdom the wraith had clung to until the very end—that burden which had become his madness, his obsession, and his guilt—flowed through Yuto's wrist in their entirety.

THUMP, THUMP, THUMP.

Yuto's heart raced wildly. The Void aether amassed in his chest howled as if answering the screams flowing from the sword, and jet-black tattoos spread across his entire body.

THUMP, THUMP, THUMP.

Amid the violent pounding, Yuto's eyes wavered. A quest window appeared in the center of his blackening vision.

[Quest: The Stirring of Life.]

[Objective: Reach Level 10 and ???]

A Status Window appeared beside the quest window. The number that had remained at Level 9 distorted, then changed to 10.

[Level 10 reached.]

The text in the quest window grew bold, then vanished, revealing the words concealed behind the ???.

[Proof of existence, achieved.]

With every objective fulfilled, the screen changed to display the rewards.

[Rewards: Egg hatching, ???]

The ??? flickered and changed into legible text.

[Class change.]

A wave of aether surged from Gloria and seeped into Yuto's body. He forced strength into his buckling legs and held firm.

'Hatching...? A class change?'

The screen disappeared, filled with words that were too much to take in just then. Gritting his teeth, Yuto pulled Gloria free from where it was embedded in the floor.

Gloria released one last burst of aether, then fell silent. The screams were gone, and his heart no longer thundered. Panting, Yuto staggered backward.

THUMP, THUMP, THUMP.

His heart had settled, but a different sort of pulse had begun. Startled, Yuto opened Void Storage. As though it had been waiting for him, the egg stored within materialized and floated into the air.

It hung motionless there, emitting an alien vibration.

CRACK!

Soon, with a sharp cracking sound, a web of fractures spread across its shell. Pitch-black radiance and pure-white flashes poured alternately through the gaps, so intense they threatened to blind him.

"Ugh...!"

Yuto groaned and shielded his eyes with his arm, but the Void aether burned hotter still, as though responding to the light.

CRACKLE!

The eggshell shattered like shards of glass. And from within—a small girl slowly descended to the floor.

"You..."

Yuto's lips trembled faintly. Hair like long strands of pitch-black darkness. Unreadable eyes resembling an unfathomably deep abyss.

The girl he had first seen back when he had forgotten even who he was, in a nightmare of writhing despair—the girl who called herself the Void's agent—stood before him.

"Mmm."

The girl, who had been standing blankly, blinked several times, then moved her little lips and made a sound.

"Ah, aah. Aaah..."

She stroked her throat, testing her voice, then tapped her bare white feet against the floor and rubbed her soles over it. After moving like that for a while, as though confirming her own existence, she ran her pale hands over her body.

"..."

Yuto watched her with his mouth hanging open. Even under his unwavering stare, she acted as though he were beneath her notice. She spent a long time opening and closing her hands, then tilted her head while stroking the pitch-black dress she wore.

"Hmm."

At last, as though every inspection were complete, she raised her head and stared straight at Yuto.

Their gazes met in the silence. Her eyes remained as still as a deep abyss, but instead of the unfathomable distance he had felt at their previous meetings, she now possessed a vivid presence.

"Is there really any need to stare so witlessly?"

Her lips parted. This was no echo from a dream, but a clear voice carried through the air. As she studied his dumbfounded face, the faintest curve touched her lips—whether a sneer or a smile, he could not tell.

"W-were you inside that egg?"

Yuto barely managed to force out the question. The girl shrugged indifferently.

"It was more a prison than an egg. Had you failed to prove your existence in this world, I would have remained trapped in that shell forever, with nothing to do but enjoy your despair and screams."

With light steps, she passed Yuto and surveyed the traces of battle left on the floor.

"But you... you, who had never existed in this world, passed judgment on the benighted king's sins and declared yourself Belkain's true king. Thus you slew the benighted king and took glory into your hands."

"..."

"And thus you proved your own existence. Thanks to you, I escaped that prison and can now stand in reality."

The girl turned in a little circle, took her skirt between the fingers of both hands, and bowed her head to Yuto.

"Therefore, I offer you my thanks. Consider yourself honored."

The silhouette of her curtsying figure pierced Yuto's eyes.

A memory from before his regression overlapped it: his daughter in a pretty dress on a festival day, awkwardly offering a greeting. The girl's cool eyes and imperious manner were clearly unlike his daughter's—yet those small, slender shoulders and that peculiar air of trying hard to appear confident kept stirring something deep in his chest.

"..."

Yuto shook his head hard, clearing away the distracting thoughts. The stress must have been too much. To think he was seeing memories of his daughter in an entirely different girl. The being before him now—was not his daughter. She was merely the Void's agent, drawn to his despair, an alien guide who led him onward while wishing for the constellations' destruction.

He roughly wiped the bloody tears from his cheeks with his sleeve, planted Gloria—which he still held—into the floor, and leaned against it.

"There's no need to thank me. I had help myself."

"Oh? So you do remember your debt properly. Though I suppose it happened only last night. I was the one who lifted you up when self-loathing and despair threatened to break you. And when you were on the verge of madness, forgetting even your vengeance and your duty, I was the one who reminded you of all you must never forget."

The girl released her skirt and folded her arms.

"So you ought to thank me. Had I not raised you up last night, despair would have devoured you, and you would have lost yourself."

"You want to hear me say thank you, do you?"

Yuto gave a faint chuckle.

"You didn't help me out of pure kindness. You lifted me up because you... because the Void needed me."

"You seem reluctant to express your gratitude. Does bowing your head to a girl like me wound your pride after all?"

"That isn't the issue. I'm asking whether you... whether the Void is using me, just as the constellations did."

"Hmm."

The girl's eyes narrowed.

"It seems being used has left you traumatized. Understandably so."

"Of course it's understandable. I was used and exploited my entire life, then thrown away."

"That is not something I owe you an apology for. Nor, I am sure, would the Void think otherwise. It was the constellations who used you, not the Void."

"And now?"

Yuto narrowed his eyes in turn and stared at her. Their gazes clashed sharply in the darkness.

"Using you..."

She muttered the words as though chewing on her lip, then began slowly circling him.

"First, we must correct your choice of words. The Void does not 'use' you. It 'needs' you."

"What's the difference?"

"The constellations using you and the Void 'needing' you are fundamentally different things. Those arrogant, glittering stars put you on a stage and made you dance, savoring your despair for their amusement. But the Void is different."

The girl stopped abruptly. Standing right before him, she looked up into his face with cool eyes.

"The Void wants no stage. It wishes only to tear every stage down entirely and return this world, filled with false light, to its original still silence. You simply happened to be the only 'vessel' capable of fulfilling that desire."

Her hand seized Yuto's wrist.

"We are accomplices, Yuto Belkain. If you wish to take revenge on the constellations, you must borrow the Void's power. If the Void wishes to destroy this world's laws, it needs you as its vessel. If you wish to call that 'using' you, then do as you please."

"..."

"But remember this. In this contract, the Void will never betray you. Though if you wished to betray the Void... you could, of course."

Yuto stared into her cold eyes. He sensed no falsehood.

"I understand."

He spoke, then continued as he grasped the wrist of the hand holding his own.

"In any case... there's no turning back now. Suspicion would only wear us both out."

"I'm glad you can see reason."

With a faint smile, the girl released him first. Watching her retreat with light steps, Yuto asked,

"By the way, what should I call you now? Am I supposed to keep calling you the agent?"

She tilted her head at his question and seemed to consider it for a moment, then gave a peculiar smile.

"A name... I have no such thing, but now that I have manifested like this, I suppose I need something to be called. Call me Elun."

"Elun...?"