A few moments earlier, inside the building over Zero’s Terminal, a group of Kratos members was fumbling about over new orders being sent out.

“What the hell is going on?” One man asked as he helped carry a crate of weapons, materials, data disks, and Turs, the only currency from the System capable of being brought into Zero in a physical state. “Why do we have to empty our storage all of a sudden?”

“Beats me,” another replied with a shrug. He dropped what he was carrying on the floor of a room specifically meant for System transfers; ones that work solely for Plateau Zero’s isolated network and which can send anything to any set Plateau in the System from a backdoor.

“Things are getting weird outside, so maybe there’s a bit of that. Apparently, one of the higher-ups decided that we should desert Zero because it’s not useful anymore. So, now, everything is being wiped out. I heard that the Grafted were all evacuated earlier this morning already.”

The man who asked the question first stayed silent as a third person joined the conversation.

“I heard that asshole Bora got assassinated by one of the girls he had his eyes on. Heh, serves him right. That probably means someone’s onto us, right? That’s why we’re moving?”

“Maybe. Bora might have been a useless scumbag but it’s true that he was the guy who originally became the link with Zero’s Terminal. Now there’s a gap in the System that Eva is probably dying to make use of. Heck, she might have sent some undercover Host into here, so keep your eyes open until we’re in the clear.”

“Aye, aye,” everyone agreed nonchalantly as they let the newly deposited materials get teleported out. Meanwhile, the man from the beginning gradually separated from the main group under the guise of going to fetch leftover equipment.

He eventually arrived in empty corridors and looked around. He inched toward a certain wall and knocked on it a few times. “Here?” He muttered and slid his hand down until he heard a click and a hidden passage revealed itself to him.

“Most pleasing to see,” the man smiled and walked in. His appearance then slowly crumbled and he transformed into an azure-haired boy wearing formal attire fitting his age.

Hans grunted as he fixed his bow tie and ambled down the passage that strikingly reminded him of the backrooms of a Pavilion. “How stuffy. I will never get used to rewriting my identity,” he said to himself. “That particular note aside, Kratos is certainly retreating from Zero. And if we consider the Grafted to be this organization’s primary objective in this Plateau; it would imply they reached completion in their research and goal… a cursed army, is it? But what for?”

The author mused on his own and finally stepped into the room at the end of the tunnel. A circular area in which the Terminal was elevated on a central platform. Hans had no time to waste, so he rapidly made his way up.

He walked over the blank monitor that constituted the floor and pressed his hand on the access stake that protruded in the middle. Immediately, he felt the familiar presence of System envelop him, but not to the extent he regained his status.

All around him, holographic screens began to appear with incomprehensible data, formulas, and inputs of all sorts. That even included the large display he was standing on. The not-so-young boy’s eyes alternated a few times between all of them and he opened his mouth, “[Rewrite.]”

He once again invoked his skill on himself, and this time, he added adeptness to pseudo-magical technology, programming, and extreme information compilation. In the blink of an eye, he began to understand everything that was being shown to him except a few details.

With a nod, he checked that this was the real Terminal and reached for the inside of his jacket. He fished out a small cube releasing a yellow glow. It was the item Rakna had received from Eva and which had been given to him by the former.

Hans pushed the cube into the admin tower that he had his hand on and all screens shut down. In their place, scrolling lines of text began to flood his vision along with at least a hundred different loading counters; from the simplest of charging bars, percentages, and countdowns, to full-blown magic circle decryptions.

“If I understand this right… it is going to take at least six minutes,” he muttered after taking a step back. “Eva will establish a link afterward and within three more minutes, the System will reboot and re-establish its influence. Six, no, five minutes and forty-six seconds. This should… be…”

The azure-haired boy lowered his voice until it was completely silent. “But of course…” He huffed jeeringly and calmly turned his back to the now frozen loading screen. Instead, he looked up at the abomination standing at the entrance of the room. “It was you, was it not? The one who has been stalking me.”

A wide insidious grin answered him.

* * *

Rakna and Nyx stealthily entered the building thanks to the latter’s shadows and similarly reached the same hidden passage as Hans. Most of the guards had already vacated the premises before they arrived for some reason, so they had an easy time.

“A gimmick wall?” The therian muttered as he used Founding Intuition and Crystal Sight to find the way to open it. Before he could complete the motion to trigger the mechanism, his connection to Egregore flared up like never before and his instinct flooded him with wariness.

“…is it that bad?” Nyx asked after she saw him stiffen and resist the urge to step back.

“…” Silently, Rakna slid his hand down and the wall slid open. “We’re trapped,” he uttered and he walked forward, closing his soul circuits. “And we have been for several days now.”

The goddess quietly stood still as she watched him go inside. She looked behind her one last time before following after him, the passage closing at the same time.

They marched in muteness until they reached the Terminal room where they were greeted by a figure sitting on the stairs leading up to the elevated platform. Rakna immediately gritted his teeth after he saw it.

It was a creature with skin and flesh akin to granite, with two pairs of yellow-gold eyes vertically aligned with each other. Its torso was bare whilst its lower half was dressed in loose white cloth that resembled a Gi, tied at the waist by a black band.

The unknown being was also barefooted and intimidatingly tall, reaching well over three meters in height while also being terribly lean, with muscles that bordered on skinny in nature. Several horn-like protrusions grew on its head and coiled down to its shoulders like hair, and somewhat concealed the lack of visible ears.

But the most unnerving thing was that grin. Wider than most living beings, somehow managing to divide its perceivable face into two parts by drawing a perfect line of pearly white teeth.

Nyx’s expression fell once she recognized what this creature was and her eyes eventually landed on something placed on the same step, innocuously posed there until one noticed it. Once she had the proper focus to see what it was, she couldn’t hold back a gasp that was heard by both the ‘thing’ and Rakna.

The latter also glanced at what she had seen and his face stiffened.

A severed head. It was sitting there as if it was normal. A headless corpse could be seen collapsed on the floor behind the creature as well.

“Hans…” Nyx whispered with widened eyes at the head of the boy. His facial features were just as taciturn as if he was alive; eyes full of condescension and hatred. But the thing that made it awfully disconcerting was how frozen it was.

“This boy was your ally?” The creature suddenly spoke up and placed its hand on top of the head. Its voice was rough but somehow deeply soothing. “Not that I ever doubted it, of course. It’s just that it’s my first time encountering one such as him and I genuinely have to praise it,” it said and grabbed Hans’ head, tossing it into the air and catching it again.

“To die with that kind of expression on his face is nothing but impressive. And he even survived a short but commendable minute. He had the wit to preemptively develop a skill meant to resist the attacks of a Téras before I even revealed myself. How fascinating that was.”

Rakna’s eyes emptied once the thing’s identity was directly confirmed.

“Oh, but where are my manners,” the Téras abruptly exclaimed and placed the severed head down before standing up. The creature’s stature shadowed both its listeners before he once again gave a smile that split his face, “My name is Baziq Vaberum Roias. One of the three Rulers of The Abyss and the one who punished Verias for his treachery. I suppose I should thank you for finishing that particular responsibility in my stead… Rakna Xiorra Blade.”