Zekai's expression remained empty.
Lucien released his throat.
Zekai collapsed. His knees struck the stone. He coughed violently, one hand gripping his neck.
Lucien stood above him. "Now." His gaze shifted toward Null Drakular.
"Let's see what happens when I take the other thing you believe makes you special."
Zekai's eyes slowly followed his gaze. Null Drakular lay several meters away.
Lucien walked toward Null Drakular.
Zekai remained where he had fallen, too exhausted to stop him.
Lucien reached the sword and looked down at it. He extended one hand. His fingers closed around the hilt. Nothing happened.
Null Drakular didn't move. Lucien pulled harder. The sword remained embedded in the stone. A faint crease appeared between his brows.
"So physical force is meaningless."
He released the hilt. Then he raised one hand. The stone beneath Null Drakular groaned. A deep crack raced outward from the blade.
The entire slab of stone surrounding the sword tore itself from the ground and rose several inches into the air. Dust exploded outward.
Null Drakular came with it.
Lucien's telekinetic force tightened around the stone, lifting the sword without ever touching its hilt.
The black-red blade rotated slowly in the air. Lucien turned it once. Then again.
He studied the edge, the strange veins running along its surface, and the faint pressure emanating from the weapon.
For a moment, he simply examined it. Then his fingers shifted. The stone shattered.
Null Drakular remained suspended in front of him.
Lucien looked at the sword with quiet interest. "It doesn't obey strength."
His eyes moved toward Zekai.
"It obeys recognition."
Zekai barely lifted his head.
Lucien's expression became colder.
"Then let's see what happens when its recognized bearer dies."
Zekai remained on the floor. He barely understood the words.
Lucien returned to him. "Then I'll simply remove the owner."
Zekai's eyes widened. He tried to move. His body refused.
Lucien approached.
"Do you know what the Fool is, Zekai?"
Zekai's vision was almost gone. He could barely hear him.
Lucien continued. "The beginning."
Zekai's eyes moved toward him.
"And the ending."
Lucien's golden eyes glowed. "So I'm going to break your beginning..."
He raised his hand. "...before you ever reach your ending."
Lucien's hand turned slightly. Null Drakular disappeared.
It crossed the distance between them in an instant. Zekai saw only a black-red flash.
THOOM!
The blade punched through his chest. It entered through his heart and emerged from his back.
Zekai's body jerked violently. His knees struck the stone.
Null Drakular remained lodged through his chest, its blade extending behind him and holding his collapsing body upright for one terrible moment.
Blood ran down the black-red steel. Zekai looked down at the sword. His fingers trembled.
"...Null..." His voice disappeared.
Lucien stood several meters away, his hand still raised. With another small movement, he released the telekinetic force.
Zekai's body sagged against the sword. His knees finally gave way.
He fell sideways, dragging the blade with him until he collapsed onto the stone.
Zekai waited for the familiar cold. It never came. His mind finally understood what his body already knew.
This time, there would be no recovery. His mind went strangely quiet.
So this is it.
He couldn't feel his legs. His arms became numb. His heartbeat stumbled.
Once.
Twice.
Then barely at all.
Lucien watched him collapse.
Silence. For one impossible moment, Zekai felt nothing.
No pain. No fear. No anger. Nothing.
His consciousness began slipping away. Images surfaced without order.
His parents, standing together before the tragedy that took them.
Marcus beneath the circus lights, alive, smiling, calling out to him as though tomorrow were guaranteed.
Aron behind the convenience-store counter, his usual expression hiding the simple kindness he never admitted to.
Zekai tried to hold onto the memories. Not because he wanted to die with them.
Because he was afraid this would be the last time he remembered their faces.
His eyes trembled. "I'm sorry..." The words barely existed.
"I couldn't protect everyone."
The world began disappearing.
The darkness should have taken him. Instead, something crimson flickered before his fading vision. A translucent interface appeared.
It was fractured, unstable, and barely holding its shape.
[BEARER TERMINATION DETECTED.]
Zekai's fading consciousness stirred.
[FOOL AUTHORITY — CRITICAL RESPONSE]
The crimson letters distorted.
[PATH COLLAPSE DETECTED.]
[ARCANA SEQUENCE INTERVENTION.]
Then the final notification appeared.
[QUEST FAILED.]
Zekai's pupils contracted.
[FAILURE PENALTY:]
[LIFESPAN — 1 YEAR REDUCED.]
For a moment, he couldn't understand what he was reading.
Then the meaning reached him.
One year. Gone.
My life is really about to end.
The thought came with frightening clarity.
And now I've lost a year of it too. What is going to happen to me after this?
His consciousness began slipping away again. Then something inside him refused. Not Zekai. Not his body.
The Fool.
The crimson interface shattered.
[FOOL AUTHORITY — EMERGENCY RESPONSE.]
[REALITY COLLAPSE — FORCED.]
The sanctuary cracked.
A black-red fracture tore through the space beneath Zekai.
It did not open like a door. It tore reality apart.
For the first time, genuine attention entered Lucien's golden eyes.
The fracture widened. Zekai's body began sliding toward it. His fingers scraped uselessly against the floor. "What..."
He couldn't understand what was happening.
The Witnesses moved almost simultaneously.
Hella's chains erupted first and wrapped around Zekai's arm.
The fracture pulled harder.
The chains stretched until they screamed beneath the strain, then shattered.
Jerom stepped into the collapsing boundary next. Crimson force surged forward, but the fracture swallowed it before it could reach Zekai.
The Beast lunged. It stopped at the boundary. Not because it hesitated. Because the space between them had ceased to behave like space.
Its claws remained suspended inches from Zekai's body. Yet those inches were no longer measurable.
The Beast pulled back. For the first time, its expression showed something close to uncertainty.
Nihil opened his Grimoire. The moment his pen touched the page, the letters began to distort.
He tried again. The words appeared for less than a second before collapsing into meaningless symbols.
Nihil's expression hardened. For the first time, even his Grimoire had encountered something it could not properly describe.
Astrael raised one hand. His Authority reached toward Zekai.For a brief instant, the fracture seemed to acknowledge it.
Then—it rejected him.
Astrael's golden eyes narrowed. He lowered his hand without saying a word.
None of them could cross. The fracture had become something more fundamental than distance.
It was a separation between realities.
Lucien stepped forward.
The fracture rippled.
He stopped. For the first time since Zekai had entered the sanctuary, Lucien did not immediately get what he wanted.
His golden eyes studied the boundary. Then he extended one hand.
The space between his fingers and Zekai's body warped violently. For a moment, it looked as though the distance might collapse.
Then— the fracture rejected the connection.
Lucien slowly lowered his hand. His expression remained calm. But his eyes had changed.
He understood something.
Zekai didn't.
And Lucien wasn't going to explain it.
Whatever lay beyond that boundary was no longer within his reach.
Zekai's body was dragged deeper into the fracture. Null Drakular remained lodged through his chest.
The black-red blade moved with him, still buried through his heart. Every movement sent another wave of pain through his fading body.
He couldn't pull it free. He couldn't even release his grip from the stone.
The fracture continued dragging him backward.
Lucien watched in silence. For the first time, there was nothing he could reach.
Zekai looked down at the sword protruding from his chest. Blood ran along the blade and disappeared into the distortion.
Somehow, even now, he was still carrying it with him.
Lucien's eyes narrowed. "So it chose you again."
The fracture widened.
Zekai's body was pulled deeper. He couldn't control anything.
He thought he was dying. Maybe he already was.
He looked toward Lucien one last time. His vision was almost completely black.
A strange smile touched his lips. Not his old cynical smile.
Something colder.
"I don't know..." Zekai's voice trembled. "...if I'm going to live."
Lucien said nothing.
Zekai tightened his grip around Null Drakular.
He couldn't tell whether he was escaping or dying. Perhaps there was no difference anymore.
His vision was almost gone, but Lucien's figure remained visible through the fracture. Something inside Zekai was still burning.
Not hope. Not courage.
Only Anger.
'You took everything from me.'
His fingers tightened around Null Drakular.
'You broke my body.'
The fracture dragged him deeper.
'You made me believe I was powerless.'
His eyes opened one last time.
'But you made one mistake.'
His gaze locked onto Lucien.
'You let me survive.'
Zekai's voice was barely audible.
"If I live..." His eyes opened. "...remember this."
The fracture swallowed half his body. His expression became cold. "I'll find you."
The final distance collapsed. "Wherever you are..." His voice disappeared into the distortion.
"I'll kill you. Bastard" A faint smile remained.
The fracture closed. Zekai vanished.
The sanctuary became silent again.
Lucien stood before the place where he had disappeared. The six Witnesses remained behind him.
None followed. None could. Whatever lay beyond that fracture had closed itself to them.
Lucien looked at the empty space for a long moment. Then his expression returned to its usual calm.
"Run, Fool." He turned away. "But remember..."
His golden eyes briefly glanced back. "An ending doesn't disappear simply because you escaped it."
The sanctuary fell silent.
The fracture sealed behind him.
For one heartbeat, there was nothing. Then Zekai was thrown out of the collapsing distortion.
His body struck the asphalt and rolled several meters before coming to a stop.
The impact barely registered.He had already endured worse. What frightened him was the silence that followed.
No Arcana response. No Frost. No healing. Nothing.
The evening swallowed the sound of his impact. For several seconds, he didn't move.
Blood spread beneath him, slowly forming a dark pool across the main road.
Null Drakular was still lodged through his chest.
The black-red blade protruded from his back, keeping his body twisted against the asphalt.
His fingers remained locked around the hilt.
The sword had become the only thing still holding his body together.
He couldn't feel his hands anymore. He couldn't feel his legs.
He couldn't tell whether his heart was still beating beneath the blade.
Instinctively, he waited for the familiar cold. Nothing came.
Zekai waited another second. Still nothing. For the first time since receiving the Snow Monarch's blessing...
he was completely alone inside his own body.
Did I really survive...?
Above Zekai, crows circled him like vultures gathered around a corpse.
They didn't descend.They didn't flee. They simply watched the body lying beneath them.
Whether they had mistaken him for a corpse...
or were waiting for him to become one...
even Zekai no longer knew.
The road remained silent. Zekai gave no response.
Then—
[FOOL AUTHORITY — UNRESOLVED]
The interface flickered once. And disappeared.
✦ End of Chapter 72 — The Fool's Last Breath ✦