No one spoke.
The Faceless One stood still, hand outstretched.
Waiting for a name.
Rin's lips parted, but nothing came. Sora looked at her, furious and afraid. Matthew's eyes flicked between them—he couldn't choose. Not again. Not after the last betrayal.
The system waited three seconds.
Then two.
Then—
INPUT TIME EXCEEDED
FAILURE TO OFFER A SACRIFICE
STABILITY BREACH: CRITICAL
The corridor screamed.
It wasn't sound. It was pressure. Bone-cracking, soul-folding pressure.
The floor beneath Matthew's feet rippled like water. The masks began to melt, their features running like wax, revealing nothing beneath.
Sora stumbled back as the ceiling fractured into pure black code, dripping like ink.
CORRECTION PROTOCOL ENGAGED
ENEMY FLAGGED: ALL PLAYERS
GAME RULES: NULLIFIED
NO EXIT. NO WIN. NO FORGIVENESS.
The Faceless One's hand dropped.
And then it began to change.
Not violently. Not suddenly. Systematically.
Its form twisted—one arm became three.
Its blank face shimmered—and for a second, it wore Matthew's face. Then Rin's. Then Sora's.
Then no one's again.
It stepped toward them.
"RUN!" Matthew shouted—but there was no place to run.
Sora lunged for the corridor door behind them—it was gone.
Rin turned to the wall and screamed, "We'll give you a name!"
The figure stopped.
A single heartbeat.
Then—
"TOO LATE."
The ground dropped.
They fell.
All three—spinning, spiraling—ripped from the corridor like broken code being force-deleted.
And somewhere far above, the system shrieked:
OVERRIDE FAILED
NEXT ENVIRONMENT: LIMINAL CORE
FORCED RESET ENGAGED
Darkness swallowed them.
Again.
But this time, there was no transition sequence.
No corridor.
No masks.
Only the sound of distant breathing.
Slow.
Massive.
Inhuman.
The King… was waking up.