[The mountain wind felt wrong.]
[Too loud.]
[Too distant.]
[Abaksa stood at the summit, staring at the corpse of Fissarn.]
[Victory should have felt better.]
[Instead—]
[His vision blurred.]
Abaksa Einsro— "...Strange."
[The wound on his shoulder throbbed.]
[The bite mark.]
[Fissarn's fangs.]
[Dark veins pulsed beneath the skin.]
[Warning...]
[Foreign toxin detected...]
Abaksa Einsro— "You couldn't have mentioned that earlier?"
[The System remained silent.]
[His legs suddenly weakened.]
[The mountain tilted.]
[No.]
[The mountain didn't tilt.]
[He did.]
Abaksa Einsro— "...Damn it."
[His breathing became uneven.]
[His heartbeat accelerated.]
[Then the world shattered.]
[The summit vanished.]
[He stood somewhere else.]
[A battlefield.]
[Burning.]
[Endless.]
[Corpses stretched to the horizon.]
Abaksa Einsro— "...Not again."
[Footsteps.]
[Slow.]
[Heavy.]
[Someone approached.]
[A familiar silhouette.]
[Tall.]
[Armored.]
[Carrying a broken sword.]
[Tirvan Godran.]
[His old self.]
Tirvan Godran— "You stole my life."
[Abaksa froze.]
Abaksa Einsro— "...What?"
Tirvan Godran— "My body."
Tirvan Godran— "My future."
Tirvan Godran— "My death."
[The figure stopped.]
Tirvan Godran— "Tell me."
[His eyes glowed crimson.]
Tirvan Godran— "Are you still me?"
[The question lingered.]
[Abaksa couldn't answer.]
[Because he wasn't sure.]
[He had been Tirvan.]
[But every day—]
[That truth felt further away.]
[The battlefield trembled.]
[The hallucination smiled.]
Tirvan Godran— "Exactly."
[Then everything changed again.]
[Reality.]
[For one brief moment.]
[Stone.]
[Sky.]
[The edge of the mountain.]
[Abaksa stumbled.]
[His foot missed.]
[Empty air.]
Abaksa Einsro— "...!"
[He fell.]
[The world spun.]
[Cliffs rushed past.]
[Stone blurred.]
[Wind screamed.]
[Then darkness swallowed him.]
???
[Silence.]
[Warmth.]
[A different voice.]
??? — "Interesting."
[Soft footsteps.]
[Someone stood beside the broken body lying among rocks.]
[A hooded traveler.]
[Their face hidden.]
[Their presence calm.]
[They knelt.]
[Examining the wounds.]
??? — "Mountain serpent venom."
[A pause.]
??? — "And yet he's alive."
[The traveler touched the bite mark.]
[Blue light appeared.]
[Gentle.]
[Ancient.]
[The poison reacted immediately.]
[Dark veins retreated.]
[The traveler remained silent.]
[Then suddenly—]
[A faint symbol appeared in their eyes.]
[A number.]
IX
[The mark vanished instantly.]
??? — "...So you're the eleventh."
[The wind carried the words away.]
[No one heard them.]
[The traveler sighed.]
??? — "Master always finds troublesome people."
[They lifted Abaksa effortlessly.]
[Despite his size.]
[Despite the injuries.]
[Then began walking.]
[Down the mountain.]
[Through forests.]
[Across forgotten paths.]
[Into civilization.]
Three Days Later
[Rain fell lightly.]
[A small town.]
[Nothing special.]
[Wooden buildings.]
[Market stalls.]
[Travelers.]
[Ordinary.]
[Which made it perfect.]
[Inside a small inn room—]
[Abaksa opened his eyes.]
[Slowly.]
[His head pounded.]
Abaksa Einsro— "...Where..."
[Wooden ceiling.]
[Unknown room.]
[His shoulder was bandaged.]
[The poison gone.]
[He immediately sat up.]
[Too fast.]
[Pain exploded through his body.]
Abaksa Einsro— "Tch."
[A folded note rested on the nearby table.]
[His eyes narrowed.]
[He grabbed it.]
[Opened it.]
Only a single sentence was written.
"Be careful who you trust, Eleventh."
[No name.]
[No signature.]
[Just one symbol at the bottom.]
IX
[Silence.]
[Abaksa stared at it.]
Abaksa Einsro— "...Nine?"
[His heartbeat slowed.]
[The Ninth Regressor.]
[Or someone connected to them.]
[The first proof that the others were real.]
[Not myths.]
[Not theories.]
[Real.]
[And apparently watching.]
[Outside the inn, the town bustled with life.]
[Merchants shouted.]
[Children laughed.]
[Wagons rolled across muddy streets.]
[Normal.]
[But Abaksa knew better now.]
[The game was bigger than he thought.]
[Far bigger.]
[And somewhere—]
[Very far away—]
[A hooded traveler entered an abandoned shrine.]
[A voice echoed from the darkness.]
Voice — "Did you find him?"
Traveler — "Yes."
[A pause.]
Voice — "And?"
[The traveler remembered the boy lying unconscious among broken stone.]
[The impossible survival.]
[The scent of fate clinging to him.]
Traveler — "He's dangerous."
[Silence followed.]
Then—
Laughter.
Voice — "Good."
"The Ninth has been waiting a very long time for someone dangerous."
[Elsewhere, in a small town at the foot of the mountain, Abaksa folded the note and slipped it into his pocket.]
[For the first time since his regression—]
[He had proof.]
[He was not alone.]