---
They returned to the inn at dusk.
Splitmoor was quieter than usual—not in a peaceful way, but in the way that a crowd goes silent when someone dangerous walks past. Whispers trailed behind Takumi like static. Doors closed just a little faster as he walked by.
The Spiral Church had already begun its work.
The word had spread:
> "The Infinite One has denied the Spiral."
"He walked through corruption and did not break."
"He's begun to cleanse the city."
Takumi didn't acknowledge any of it.
He simply climbed the stairs to their rented room.
And the moment he stepped inside—
He stopped.
---
It took Lisette five seconds longer to realize.
Then she gasped.
"The room's been… touched."
It looked the same at first glance. The bed. The table. The closed window. But Takumi's eyes moved faster than most. He noticed immediately:
The curtain's center seam had shifted by three centimeters.
The floorboard beneath the table now slanted.
The wall sconce flickered in a rhythm just slightly out of phase with his heartbeat.
And worst of all—
His satchel, carefully placed at a forty-five-degree angle, now sat askew.
By two degrees.
It was subtle. Surgical.
Deliberate.
---
Takumi stepped inside without speaking.
Lisette didn't follow.
She knew the signs.
His breathing slowed.
His eyes narrowed.
He walked the perimeter of the room twice, hands behind his back. Every corner. Every creak in the wood. Every shadow cast by the waning torchlight.
He touched nothing.
But inside, the numbers were building.
He could feel the Fractal Echo rising.
---
> [Mental Load: 49% → 58%]
[Fractal Echo Active]
Next Threshold: 60% — Perceptual Distortions Imminent
---
Lisette finally broke the silence.
"They knew this would hit you harder than a knife."
Takumi sat on the edge of the bed. Stiff. Controlled.
"This isn't a warning," he said. "It's a test. They're gauging how far I'll go before I snap."
He opened his Status Menu.
---
> Level: 30
Unassigned Stat Points: 300
Skills: Structured Mind, Inner Silence, Spatial Anchor
Special: Infinite Leveling Path — [Branches Locked: 4/5]
---
"I should assign points," he muttered. "It's… illogical not to."
Lisette raised an eyebrow. "But you won't."
"No."
"Because it has to be perfect."
He didn't answer.
Instead, he stood up and began repositioning the curtain. One centimeter at a time. Re-leveling the candle holder. Checking the bed legs for unevenness. Realigning the satchel strap.
Lisette watched.
And for the first time since entering this world, she saw Takumi's hands shaking.
Not from anger.
But from the sheer effort it took to not collapse.
---
She approached him carefully.
Then, softly: "What were you before this world?"
He froze.
"…What do you mean?"
"Before the dungeon. Before the chaos. Before the system. What were you?"
He closed his eyes.
The answer took time.
"I was a systems architect," he whispered. "Data structures. Logic gates. Code patterns. I lived in a world of rules."
Lisette sat beside him.
"And?"
"And one day… my team rewrote the foundation of the system I built. Without telling me. They said my standards were 'too rigid.' That I 'couldn't adapt.' So they introduced randomization. Unpredictability. Optimization by disorder."
"And you?"
"I… broke."
He opened his eyes again.
"The next morning, I woke up in the dungeon."
---
Silence.
Lisette's voice was gentle. "So you were sent here because your mind couldn't survive your old world anymore?"
He didn't respond.
But that silence was answer enough.
---
Outside, a bell rang in the distance.
Not just any bell.
The Tri-Tone Spiral.
A citywide announcement system used only by the Spiral Church.
They ran to the window.
On the distant wall across from the Spire of Flux, glowing symbols began etching themselves in flickering violet fire.
A public decree.
Lisette read aloud:
> "The Spiral names the one called Takumi Arata as a Disruptive Element."
"All order-bearers, lawkeepers, or structure-users are now enemies of the Spiral."
"Let him be hunted—not for his death, but for his collapse."
"Reward: Fragments of Order. Redeemable only within the Spiral."
Takumi didn't flinch.
But he did whisper something she'd never heard from him before.
"…They want me to fall to pieces."
---
He turned away from the window.
Lisette followed.
"What now?" she asked.
"We leave," he said.
"Where?"
"To the edge of the Spiral's reach. To where their logic ends. I need to find Branch Five."
Lisette frowned. "The next part of your Infinite Leveling Path?"
"Yes."
She opened the map scroll on the desk.
"There's one place Spiral influence hasn't reached. Not yet."
She pointed to the edge of the continent, past the jagged mountains and ash coast.
A place marked only with a single word, written in ink that refused to smudge:
> Halrion: The City That Never Aligned
Takumi nodded.
"Then that's where we go."
---
That night, they left Splitmoor under cloak of fog.
And far above, the mirror at the top of the Spire cracked.
One line down the center.
As if something clean had touched it.
---
🔹 End of Chapter 10