“Where did they all go…?” the goblin girl murmured under her breath, stepping cautiously forward as her eyes searched the cavern in every direction.

  The vast space that should have been crawling with monsters now lay in unnatural silence.

  Empty.

  Still.

  Wrong.

  But before she could take another step, Haruto’s arm shot out in front of her, stopping her path.

  She looked up at him, confusion filling her expression.

  “Master…?” she called softly, unsure what he had sensed.

  Haruto didn’t respond.

  His gaze had already hardened, fixed on something far ahead in the dim glow of moss and crystal.

  The girl followed his line of sight, yet saw nothing except uneven rock and faint green light stretching into the distance.

  But Haruto’s eyes were tracking something.

  A shape too precise to be natural.

  Too deliberate to ignore.

  His pupils flickered as the wind carried a subtle disturbance toward him.

  This time… it was moving.

  To the others, nothing had changed.

  “Haruto, are you—”

  His eyes pulsed blue.

  In the next instant, a metallic flash split the air—

  a blade aimed directly for her.

  Hana flinched violently, clinging to his head on pure instinct.

  Haruto had caught the weapon in his bare hand.

  Steel bit into flesh.

  Blood spilled instantly down his palm, warm and vivid, but he twisted his wrist and hurled the blade away before it could slice deeper.

  His footing slipped from the sudden force, nearly sending him crashing down, yet he forced himself steady.

  The thrown sword did not fall.

  It hovered above the ground.

  For a heartbeat, confusion lingered.

  Is it a sentient sword?

  Wait…

  No.

  “Watch out! It’s invisible!” Haruto shouted.

  The warning came just in time.

  The goblin girl leaned backward, the unseen strike grazing past where her skull had been a fraction of a second earlier.

  Clicking her tongue, she jumped away to create distance.

  The blood-stained blade swung again through empty air, scattering crimson droplets that shimmered briefly in the cavern light before fading into darkness.

  “Coward! Why don’t you show yourself and fight like a true warrior?!” she shouted, fury overpowering fear.

  The unseen enemy ignored her challenge.

  Instead, it chose her.

  The sword surged forward, slicing through the air itself as it raced toward the weakened goblin.

  Her body refused to move in time.

  Strength—already drained—would not answer her call.

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  All she could do… was watch death approach.

  The blade pierced straight through her chest.

  A wet sound followed.

  Blood burst from her lips as her body jerked violently.

  Her eyes widened in raw terror, turning desperately toward Haruto—

  who stood frozen, stunned by the reality unfolding before him.

  Still trembling, she reached back and grabbed the invisible arm behind the sword.

  With fading strength, she locked her legs and arms around the unseen enemy, forcing it to stay in place.

  Swallowing the metallic taste flooding her mouth, she screamed with everything she had left—

  “RUN! NOW! I’LL HOLD IT OFF!”

  Haruto hesitated.

  Trapped between saving her…

  or saving himself.

  Everything had happened too fast.

  And now he stood at the edge of a choice that would become regret no matter which path he chose.

  Hana and Haruki were silent.

  Speechless witnesses to a girl sacrificing herself for him.

  He wanted to ask them what to do.

  But no words came.

  From them… or from him.

  He had to decide.

  Risk his life for a fragile, uncertain chance to save her—

  or run, and protect the only family he had left.

  He didn’t want her to die in vain.

  He didn’t want them to die either.

  Emotion and instinct clashed violently inside his chest.

  His teeth clenched.

  A crushing pressure tightened around his heart—

  a feeling he had only known twice before in his entire life.

  His legs trembled.

  “RUN AWAY, MASTER—!” she cried again, coughing more blood as her grip tightened desperately.

  The sword twisted, burying itself deeper into her chest.

  Pain exploded through her body.

  Haruto still couldn’t move.

  Hana and Haruki remained silent.

  Powerless.

  They were never meant to witness something like this.

  Never meant to be dragged into a world of blood and war.

  Peace had shaped their lives.

  But war…

  war did not care.

  And then—

  “What will it be, Zero?”

  A soft feminine voice echoed inside his mind.

  Time stopped.

  His ability activated instantly, freezing the entire world into absolute stillness.

  “…What… happened?”

  His gaze shifted.

  Everything had halted.

  Even his own body refused to obey him.

  Then the voice returned.

  “It seems you still cannot control yourself.

  Perhaps… she was wrong about you.”

  A playful pause followed.

  “…No. Of course not. She’s never wrong.”

  “Who are you? How do you know my—” he thought, unsure whether she could even hear him.

  “Does it really matter?” she replied calmly, untouched by the horror surrounding him.

  “You’re still such an adorable little thing…”

  Her tone softened.

  “In one hand… a son who failed to protect his mother, desperate not to lose what remains.

  In the other… a man born from the morals she cherished, trying to protect the last thing she left behind.”

  His eyes widened in stunned silence.

  “…What are you talking about…?”

  She continued gently, almost kindly.

  “Every time… you become a slave to your past.

  Why not follow your own will?

  Why not choose your own way?

  Isn’t that what you are…

  an Author?”

  Her words struck like blades—

  yet wrapped him in strange warmth.

  His gaze drifted to the frozen girl, still dying for him.

  “…Do you know,” the voice whispered softly,

  “a wise woman once told me…”

  “You can only call yourself a true author

  the day you learn to write your own story.”

  The words echoed endlessly through his mind.

  His racing thoughts… stilled.

  The same words his mother once told him.

  The same words his teacher spoke just the night before.

  And now—

  this unknown voice repeated them again.

  As if it were fate.

  As if it were truth.

  The voice faded gently, leaving one final whisper behind:

  “As expected from the brightest fragment…" she muttered to herself before leaving one last message,

  "Find your own path.

  Gain the power to walk it.

  Use the tools of an author…

  to shape that path.”

  Time resumed.

  But Haruto’s eyes were no longer shaken.

  They were calm.

  The girl’s strength faded.

  Her grip loosened.

  The invisible enemy forced the blade deeper, intent on finishing her.

  She closed her eyes, clinging to the last image of her loved ones—

  ready to die for the man she had sworn to serve.

  Then—

  the sword stopped.

  It tried to move.

  It couldn’t.

  She opened her eyes weakly.

  And saw—

  Haruto.

  One hand gripping the invisible creature’s head.

  The other locking its arm in place.

  His blue eyes glowed through strands of shadowed hair.

  Cold.

  Merciless.

  Unshaken.

  He clenched a fist in the thing’s hair and ripped it away from her body, tearing the blade free.

  Then he hurled the unseen enemy into the cavern wall with brutal force, leaving a deep dent in stone.

  The creature revealed itself at last.

  A massive, dark-purple male goblin.

  A hobgoblin.

  Red eyes gleaming with madness as it slowly licked blood from its sword like a psychopathic killer.

  Haruto walked toward it.

  Slow.

  Steady.

  Unfazed.

  “You place no value… on the life given to you.”

  Bloodlust ignited in his eyes as memory resurfaced—

  The man who murdered his mother.

  That same twisted grin.

  Those same cruel eyes.

  Back then, he had cried.

  Broken.

  Helpless.

  But now—

  a quiet chuckle escaped his lips.

  “Fate really does love to repeat itself…”

  His eyes pulsed blue, "... write my own story, huh?" rage condensing into a devilish smile.

  “… Perhaps, it IS time for a little change.”

  ...