1

Shiki stood in place, his gaze never leaving the intimidating person. He kept the slowly approaching person within his sights, struggling with picking his focus between this person and the upperclassman in the middle of breaking down.

I cannot move.

His hand trembled, yet he fought to keep it gently pressed against Amamiya's nape. Was this uncomfortable feeling all because of that strange person?

The thought of that amazed and horrified Shiki.

"Answer me. If I mutilate you right now and leave bits and pieces of your body, would that lead Kazuki Arata to me? Would I get to see Miki Amagi again? Setsura and I have been waiting for far too long."

Shiki barely had the chance to make sense of what the person was saying, but he knew that whatever it was, it cannot be good.

He had heard jokes and playful banter as brutal and morbid as those, but this place and time was not the time for any sarcasm. This man meant it, and he had no intention of making this man's wish a reality.

Move. Move!

Shiki's eyes remained glued on the strange man while silently lamenting his weakness.

"Time's up."

As the man raised his right arm, or what was supposed to be his right arm, Shiki felt the air being sucked thin. From where his arm was supposed to be came an unraveling set of tentacles. Each moved independently from one another.

"You're so pitiful that it looks like Setsura and I can take time playing with you."

The pale woman behind him reared back and let out a blood-curdling yell in response, and Shiki felt his heart beat in resonance.

A sense of renewed urgency. It was as if the obstacle freezing his body up was shattered. Grabbing Amamiya tightly, he took in a deep breath.

"Roaaarrrgghh!"

Like glass, the emotions holding him back were shattered with that shout.

Shifting his grip from Amamiya's back to her hand, he pulled back before breaking into a run towards the other direction. Making sure that he had the girl with him, he put his all on running into one of the hallways opposite the man's direction.

His sudden movements probably did little to faze the attacker, but the element of surprise was enough to buy them just enough time to try an escape. The sound of the tentacles cracking the ground was enough indication of a missed attack.

He just won't stop talking about Arata or Amagi. Come to think of it, I wonder what happened to those two?

"It's more fun if they run... I shall savor that look of fear in your eyes."

The roar of the assailant shook him to the core, but he tried his best to not show any of that as the two of them traversed the hallways.

"Hang on, Amamiya!"

Sensing something, he pulled the girl by the shoulder, barely avoiding a tentacle that went flying all the way past their direction. He shivered upon seeing part of the wall crumble as the tentacle sank deep into it like a spear.

"Hah! Keep running, weak humans. You'll only prolong the inevitable."

With the ground shaking from the attack, Shiki caught a premonition and grabbed Amamiya by the hand before jumping forward. He released a relieved sigh to see some rubble crashing down to where he used to stand.

Barely made it in time to avoid being crushed.

The crashing sound of concrete likewise followed, yet the two ran on ran on, Shiki paying no heed to where the sounds were coming from.

Having entered a tunnel with Amamiya in tow, he slowed his pace out of necessity. His leg muscles, having gone through the sports festival, were at their limit. It was as if his body complained to him through palpitations and a strong, throbbing pain in his legs.

He fell and leaned against the wall.

Uncharacteristic tranquility settled in. Hearing no more of the man, Shiki's ears were instead filled with a combination of his own panting, Amamiya's whimpers, and some buzzing sound coming from the walls.

"Did we lose him?"

That can't be it. He was clearly having fun with them. There's no way that he, in his current state and supporting another person, could have outrun that person nor dodge that many attacks.

That man is toying with us.

He turned to see that the panting girl, while stable on her feet, was still too shaken to answer.

"Don't you worry. I'll keep you safe, Amamiya."

The girl stopped and looked at him with wide eyes. In his discomfort, Shiki resorted to scratching his hair while averting his eyes.

"Oops. That sounded awkward as hell."

Shaking her head, Amamiya instead grinned. "It's fine. I didn't expect you to be so brave a while ago. That would have been the end of me."

"A man's gotta do what he's gotta do."

"So, where are we going now?"

"Good question! I myself have been running from those hands so much that I never got a chance to think about it. I don't hear that man, too, so I think we're in the right path. Seriously, what's up with those edgy words? That tentacle arm, that lady behind him, and a mask. He's a teenager's dream character!"

"Ironic, coming from you," mischievously sneered Amamiya. "By the way, there's something cool that I discovered. See those things on the walls?"

Shiki narrowed his eyes to more clearly see the markings that the girl pointed to.

"It seems that they respond to touch. In my run, I touched some of them, and I nearly dropped into a hole. It's probably a bad idea to touch them, but..."

"We can use them to our advantage when that man shows up again. Want to give this one a try?"

Both of them looked at the ground. While there were more runes scribbled, there didn't seem to be any cracks or lines that indicate floor division.

"Better stand back, Amamiya."

When the girl moved a good few meters away, Shiki nervously looked at the runes on the wall. His heartbeat quickened with each step he made towards it.

"Here goes nothing."

He squinted his eyes shut right before touching it, and a whole line of runes lit up in bright green colors. One by one, the runes sparkled as Shiki's heart continued throbbing along with the rumbling sound of pulses.

Now, he began regretting it.

It was as if he had touched something he shouldn't have.

"What are these?" he asked himself, taking in the scenery that manifested in front of him. One by one, the markings had lit up, eventually having created a complicated web of glyphs. Neon lights interlocked with one another, and the moment Shiki felt the hair on his body stand up, he slowly looked down.

His worst fears had been confirmed.

The glyphs on the ground started lighting up one by one in a neat pattern stretching all the way to where Amamiya stood. The steadily increasing floor temperature was enough clue that something was amiss, and that was all he needed to see before bouncing over to the girl.

"Oh shit, I think I tripped something! Mayday, mayday!"

"What did you do?!" Amamiya shrieked. Her eyes, already red from the tears and the stress, widened, and she started waving her hands around, running towards Shiki.

"Get away from the markings on the ground!"

A loud sound followed, and heat grazed Shiki's cheeks just as he got to Amamiya. The two continued running amidst the consecutive banging sounds and the assault of the heat waves.

In yet another close call, the two had avoided pillars of energy that shot up from where the markings were.

"So these runes correspond to a trap..." Shiki thought, looking onto the abyss that was the rest of the tunnel. "Good to know. That was close."

Catching her breath, Amamiya finally eased her shoulders. "I think it would pay to look at them next time. Or check for the markings on the ground."

"Yeah. I wonder what else the place had in store."

The end to the tunnel was nowhere in sight, but going there was better than heading back to danger.

Shiki's thoughts raced the moment he heard a voice echo behind him. He immediately recognized the voice that was followed by a crashing sound.

"Had your fun?"

It was a whimsical, nearly playful tone that rattled Shiki to his very core. From the shadows of where they came from, the masked man slowly came into view.

"Run for it!"

Without even waiting for him to get in any closer, the two of them ran forward.

Exiting the tunnel took about a few seconds, but awaiting them was more interlocked hallways in this intricate web of a dungeon.

Shiki and Amamiya soon lost all sense of direction, the former failing to count how many arcs or passages they passed in this hellish labyrinth.

With his legs flailed uncontrollably, collision into one of the towering pillars or the walls would come sooner than later.

And indeed it did.

Not long after he entered a large, open clearing, he lost control of his body and was sent soaring back first before rolling away to the far end of the room.

"Whaaaaa!" yelled the high-pitched voice at the same time as his shout of surprise.

Talk about déjà vu.

It seemed that the other person also fell the same time as he did.

"Misawa?!" wondered Amamiya, who just caught up.

"Ehh?! T-the two of you... together?!"

The two girls stared at each other in shock. Before anything else can come out of it, another voice called out from the direction in which Misawa came from.

"Aren't you supposed to be glad to find some more survivors?"

Bloomenfled, carrying a large sack, walked in, having trailed Misawa. She and Amamiya briefly locked eyes before the latter spoke up.

"It's great that you're fine and all, but what do we do now?"

"Fine? That's one way of putting it. Along the way, we saw all those creepy hand things that tried to catch us."

Misawa then took a break before pointing her thumb at her companion.

"Thankfully, none of them are any match for these fireworks! We accidentally dropped some of them. I accidentally hit a wall, and boom!"

"That gets the point across, at least," commented Bloomenfled.

"See what I told you about having those things! And you just had to confiscate them after the match was done. Imagine if we didn't have them. We'll be toast!"

"Okay, you win this time," conceded Bloomenfled.

In the midst of the conversation among girls, Shiki slowly tried to get up, but his head wouldn't leave the ground. With his ear firmly planted on the floor and his head not a hundred percent, he heard little more out of the three girls' conversation. Instead, what he heard was the echoing footsteps coming from one of the many paths that led to the room.

He cannot confirm anything, but knowing their luck, he just knew who it was.

Each footstep sounded like the notes to a chorus of impending doom. Sweat dripped furiously past his bandana with each step.

He knew the direction where it was coming from, and his eyes darted back and forth from one wall to another. There had to be some of those runic markings somewhere or they're screwed.

None on the walls. None that he can see, at least.

Something had to be there to help them stall for time. He can tell that Amamiya had been spent, and a glance at the two student council girls showed that they looked completely worse for wear.

They can't keep running anymore. What do we do?

Eventually, he slowly pushed himself off the floor and turned to the three girls huddled together.

"R-run away!" he shouted, almost stumbling and collapsing onto them.

"Huh?" asked the girls in chorus.

"H-he's coming. That masked man!"

Amamiya's face turned white as sheet while the other two girls looked on in more confused expressions.

"W-what masked man?" asked Misawa, but her question would be answered in seconds.

"There's more of them? Ain't that a feast, Setsura? I told you keeping them alive would pay off. We'll take our time and savor every moment."

Everyone turned to the direction of the voice before Shiki felt his body getting launched into the air. The pain in his stomach finally registered as his back slid across the ground, the friction on his back alone eliciting a groan.

Screams in chorus followed, and to his horror, he focused his eyes to see the three girls firmly in the grasp of the masked man's tentacle arms.

Struggle as they might, they were all too spent to offer anything more than feeble resistance against those tight bonds.

Instincts kicked in for Shiki as he focused on the sack that Bloomenfled dropped. One that conveniently rolled to the far back of the room, way behind where the masked man stood.

Move. Move, dammit!

He felt his consciousness fading in and out as his vision shifted between focused and blurred.

He punched the ground in frustration while trying to force his body to cooperate.

One more time. One last time was all he asked for.

However, his body refused to give him the chance, causing him to cry out.

How could he be this useless when three schoolmates are in such danger? Will he just lie down as the three of them die in front of his eyes?

So much for my big talk with Amamiya.

He lamented his fate and the reassuring words that he gave the girl. For all the big talk he did, he was just as helpless as they were now.

This is my big chance, and I'll blow it...! Why am I just no good when it comes to big moments like this?

Shiki's muscles and joints squealed in agony as he fought their limits with his willpower. Just when he started to lose all hope, an image appeared in his mind.

Three familiar silhouettes.

They reached out to him as if cheering him on.

"How dare I face them if I fail here?!" he screamed at himself, finally finding the resolve to stand up. Slamming his hand to the ground, he saw the runes on the ground light up and start spreading across the floor of the room.

They were headed towards the masked man, and she smiled.

As he made his desperate charge, he recognized the images in his mind. They should be somewhere inside this temple, fighting for their lives, too. Shiki wanted to reunite with them, and he wanted to do so with his head held up high.

He had always found himself to be the least of the childhood trio.

Amagi always had that heartwarming and reassuring smile, while Arata always remained unfazed by whatever life threw at him.

One was friends with everyone and exceled at sports, academics, and pretty much everything. Meanwhile, the other trounced him at every turn and had conspicuous luck with girls for some reason.

Then, Uehara came into the picture, and he just found himself even more overshadowed by the cool beauty.

It was finally time to say goodbye to his inferiority complex. This was his time to shine. He wanted to save everyone and carry his load.

If he let these three girls down, how could he face his childhood friends and Uehara?

For once, he will be the hero.

Exerting the last of his energy onto his charge, he managed to crash onto the tentacle arms, causing them to release their grip.

"Run!" urged Shiki as the girls fell down.

They desperately crawled away from the lighted floor just as flames exploded, gifting all four of them the harrowing sight of shining pillars of heat.

Shiki breathed a sigh of relief while waiting for the flames to subside. He gazed back at the three girls to see them in a huddle. All of a sudden, he choked as Amamiya leapt forward and gave him a personal embrace.

"You saved me again. Thanks for being awesome, Shiki!"

"Ohhh!" said the wide-eyed Misawa, her hands covering her mouth.

Before they had a chance for celebration, a mighty roar resounded from beyond the flames. They collectively gasped as they saw through the subsiding flames the shape of a man.

"Aw come on!" complained Shiki. "Let me have this moment for once!"

The monster of a man had dodged the flames, and now, his eyes stared daggers at them from behind the mask.

Now, they're really out of options.

This man looked all sort of serious now, and they would not be able to run. Meanwhile, the sack of explosives was so far back.

"We're told not to kill the civilians, Satoru. Our only target is the Magna Arbiter. Save your energy for that and let them go."

The calm, collected voice came from a new person who walked into the scene. From Shiki's blurred vision, he barely made out a white coat and a thing that looked more like a giant VR headset strapped over the person's eyes.

One thing was for sure, though. He was not an ally.

"Haven't you heard the wailing sound? The temple is feeding itself and growing through the hands. Those arms don't appear in areas filled with runic markings," he said, tapping the ground. "If the temple continues to grow, the sooner the Magna Arbiter comes out if our calculations are correct."

"To hell with that! That maggot nearly embarrassed me!"

"Satoru, we have to obey our orders."

"What difference will a few meals make?! I want to see them weep, curse their weakness, and beg for their swift end!"

In sync with the swinging of the masked man's hand, the pale woman called Setsura sprang out from his back. Releasing an ear-shattering wail, she spread her blade arms out and reared back.

"You're not getting to them without getting past me!"

Shiki belted out his statement of defiance as he stood between the man and the girls.

He spread his arms as wide as possible. He knew that he wouldn't last a second against the arms of the pale woman, but he's not going to give this man the satisfaction of seeing him fall to despair.

He shut his eyes and expected the blades to cut him apart. Hopefully, it would be a swift end. At least he gave it his all to last this long.

The sound of explosions, instead of the expected smell of blood and sound of flesh being torn, caused his eyes to swing open. The pale woman, battered by the explosions, recoiled in pain before retreating back into her master's body.

"Shiki!"

Shiki could not believe his eyes even as he saw the idol run into the area. He was not sure whether his bottled up emotions would finally burst out. Regardless, he felt goosebumps to see the girl wielding a microphone-looking staff that he thought only existed in games or anime.

"Kimura... As a magical girl?"

"Magical...? A-a-ah... I-I'll explain!" stammered her.

"N-no, it's fine. Carry on, Kimura! I'm sure you can beat those bad guys!"

Kimura winked before turning her attention back to the two opponents. "Thanks for the compliment, but someone else is going to fight with me."

"Someone else?"

In response to his question, bolts of light shot out from where Kimura ran from, striking the ground and forcing both the visor man and the masked man back.

"Shiki! You okay?!" called a voice that Shiki didn't think he would hear this soon.

"A-arata!"

This time, it was Kazuki coming in with some contraption on his arm. It looked like a crossbow with a high-tech shield underneath. He knew that his friend had a repressed side that dreamed of getting those cool anime weapons, but to see him actually have one?

What's going on?

"Shiki, do me a favor and take cover with those girls. I'm counting on you."

"Y-yes!" he immediately replied as he ran for cover along with the three girls.

He was ready to give up, but seeing his friend and Kimura seemed to have lit a new fire within him. As much as he wanted to help, he knew that he's nothing but baggage at this point.

Or was he?

For now, he just silently prayed for the two saviors' safety, something that he felt the three girls with him did as well.

2

The Temple of Recollection.

It was just like what that being described.

An enormous castle, accessible only through someone who has inherited the powers of an Ascended One. Thankfully, he had found the perfect catalyst to test it out.

And it came back a stunning success.

After all, that was what his Armament's ability, Yasakani, was for. Its second ability that allowed him to store the powers of this world and Nullities within his blade.

No, not just store them.

He could extract the essence of those and pass it to those with the capability to handle it. It was how he managed to create Awakeners out of people with potential. It allowed such a profane act without costing him part of his powers, not that he minded it.

After all, the reservoir of someone who had contact with the god of this world was incomprehensible. You had to feel it within, and besides him, only one other person can lay claim to that.

He did not gift Reijy Ishida the power to summon an Armament or freely access Mu, but his tumultuous emotions made him the perfect vessel to invoke the gate to this world.

Izaya felt awful that the entire population of the school had to be caught in the crossfire, but it further proved how powerful that young heir was. The event at the Chronodome did not even compare.

He paced around the large room shrouded in complete silence. Recalling the views that he had scene moments ago, he cannot held but succumb to a sense of awe.

This was a place sealed off from the rest of the Mu, and it was a completely different level. Its only possible link to any of the worlds would be the essence of a super Nullity, an Ascended One, as that being called the three of them. That was why the power of the Render of Bounds had to be obtained.

Guren Izaya brandished the rapier that had already cut through countless shadow hands. Looking around, he cannot help but be amazed at the room he had found himself in.

From the ornate structures, the pillars that seemed to stretch to the great beyond, the glyphs on the walls and the floor, and the sheer vastness of the temple, it was the most apt structure that can be the dwelling of the second of the three Super Nullities: the Magna Arbiter.

He found his mind caught up with imagining what it looked like.

Whatever it was, the only option would be to defeat it, obtain its power, and use it to push forth to the next part of his plan.

He would reunite with that being, and he would force it to its knees.

Failure was not an option, not when the fate of the world was at stake.

Slowly shutting his eyes, his allowed his mind to drift away. The ability to survey the surroundings for signs of life was one of the biggest blessings given to an Awakener.

What he sensed was a complete contrast to the tranquility that he immersed in. Multiple readings of people, both weak and strong, faded and shone with each passing moment. They were spread thin, with the two familiar readings, those of his Euphoria allies Dr. Shin Kagami and Touya Satoru, being near one of the larger clumps of people.

They must have encountered each other already.

Those two can handle themselves. No longer were they the same people they were before, and he very clearly instructed them not to hurt any of the civilians.

Now, where are you?

Normally, something like a Class S Nullity would be triggering all sorts of reactions. An Awakener who had the slightest amount of sensitivity would find their bodies assaulted by the feelings of unease the moment one appeared. He cannot be mistaken. Somewhere in this temple was the dwelling of the Magna Arbiter.

He focused his thoughts on sensing the readings once again, and the hair on the back of his neck stiffened. A chill ran down his spine in conjugation, making his rapier rattle with how firm he now held it.

However, it was a reaction not due to the excitement of finally finding the Nullity. It was due to a person that approached him, one that carried a nostalgic presence.

"How poetic that our first real reunion would be in this world. Three years is far too long," he called to the darkness.

The sound of footsteps harkened the arrival of another person.

"Why are you doing this, Guren?" asked the sultry female voice.

"You of all people should know the answer, Miyuko," replied Izaya as he slowly turned around. "How else would I get the power to right the wrongs of this world?"

Out of the shadows stepped a blast from the past. Her gray hair, now twice as long and thick, remained wavy, and her penchant for otherwise seductive outfits underneath a lab coat had not changed.

What had changed, however, was her disposition. Miyuko Sadohara now wore a frown that he had rarely seen prior to three years ago.

"The Great Tower holds the answer, and the only way I can re-enter would be using the power of the other two great Nullities. You know salvation lies on the top of that tower."

"Guren, that place is dangerous. The Temple of Recollection is nothing compared to what you can bring forth by toying with powers not meant to be touched. There's a reason Mu itself was set apart from the real world."

"Easy for you to say when you have lost nothing," interrupted Izaya. "You lost nothing, benefited from the status quo, and never saw the extent of fate's cruelty in our world. Unlike you, I will not stand for such injustice."

"Do you know what you're trying to do, Guren? Talk all you want about fate, but do you honestly think that those students and visitors deserved this?"

Izaya shook his head. "I don't. But I know that they will be safe here. As long as they never encounter the Magna Arbiter, their lives will not be in any threat. Even then, all that happens here will be remedied once I defeat the Absolute Order – when I save Kiyone."

"Kiyone..."

"For three years, I have been filled with nothing but suffering and longing. I have seen the worst of humanity, and I have seen the cruelty of fate, the futility of human justice. I shall grab the ultimate power of Mu with my own hands, and I will break mankind from this chain of suffering."

"You've become mad, Guren. You can guess what would happen if you were to break the balance of the great Nullities even further, right? This world and ours cannot afford to merge, and humanity is not ready to learn about the existence of Mu."

"No matter the sacrifice, a bright paradise awaits mankind at the end of this trial. Are you going to try to stop me again, Miyuko? Like you did three years ago?"

"I will not allow you to get to the Magna Arbiter. Your ambitions end here, Guren Izaya."

She grabbed the glowing necklace around her neck, eliciting laughter from Izaya.

"Try me," answered Izaya, pointing his rapier at the woman as he charged.

As he eyed his opponent, he could sense multiple battles breaking out all over the temple, but none came as close as this one in terms of significance.

He was ready, and he knew that this trial would determine the fate of the world he dreamed of.