Elsewhere, in a place forgotten by all, where rain fell in dark curtains over moss-covered stones, a figure sat in front of the entrance of a cave. The wind and the tumult of the downpour seemed to glide around her without truly touching her, as if space itself bowed before her presence.
She wore a black mask, smooth and expressionless, betraying no emotion or thought. Her long white hair, soaked by the rain, clung to her shoulders and flowed down to the bottom of her back, forming a ghostly train on the damp ground. Her entire body, dressed wholly in black, blended into the shadows of the stones and mist, making her silhouette almost unreal.
In her mind, the voice of Mü Thanatos echoed, clear and icy, overlaying the whispers of the wind:
— You must go see this up close... The worst is inevitable. Whatever I do, I will only slow down what must already happen. We have all agreed with the other gods... This must be fought before the thing fully takes possession of itself.
She did not answer aloud. Her silence was armor. Each breath seemed to measure the weight of the inevitable.
This girl with the mask was none other than Erasa, daughter of Lucifer. But she was no longer simply human or even divine; she had reached the level of the Ineffables.
The Ineffables. These entities were legends in the Dream and beyond. Born from the dream but transcended by it, they had completely detached from it. They existed in the true outside, beyond all zones and layers, beyond the first purity and even the hors-rêve. No domain of the dream could contain them any longer.
The Ineffables were sometimes called the Exuviae. For they had shed everything that could define, contain, or name them. They had no more role, no more form, no more name. They had broken their identity, their narratives, their personifications, their conceptualization down to the very heart of their existence.
They had disembodied themselves beyond possibility. They had extinguished their own transcendence to free themselves not only from the Dream but also from all unconscious traces that the Dream could leave even on the most powerful transcendants.
Erasa, like all Ineffables, was no longer a thinkable entity. No hostility, no force, even divine or meta-conceptual, could touch her.
The gods, the great mythical beings of the pure zones of the Dream, everything existing from the first to the fourth zone — nothing could still touch her. The attacks from others remained, for them, concepts too defined, too limited, forms of energy or will still trapped in the thinkable, in the narrative, in the tiniest conceptualization... which was no longer the case for the Ineffables.
Sitting before the cave, Erasa did not move. Her expressionless mask reflected only the rain, but in her invisible eyes, in the space she occupied, and in the silence that surrounded her, resonated a simple and terrifying truth: she was already beyond everything.
A whisper swept through her consciousness, like an ancient breath:
— They are coming... and only you can see what must be faced.
She tilted her head slightly, as if to accept a truth no one could understand.
"I never thought we would get to this point..." murmured Erasa, her voice muffled behind the black mask, almost swallowed by the continuous roll of the rain.
In her mind, Mü Thanatos remained silent for a moment before speaking coldly sharply:
— There is no longer time for questions... Focus instead on the boy I told you about. Watch, analyze... and act if necessary. On my side, I watch over the My0x. If they can still interfere inadvertently, I make sure they cross no boundaries.
The connection broke immediately, leaving Erasa alone in the downpour. The rain struck steadily, hammering the ground and her black cloak, while her silence gave her the appearance of a silent threat ready to explode. But she had no choice anymore: if chaos was inevitable, fleeing made no sense. It had to be confronted... and attempted to be mastered.
She raised her head to the gray sky, letting a few drops run down her face, and said with a voice that cleaved the air:
— This rain isn't going to stop anytime soon! Ixlongue, come to me!
A pulse of mana tore through the air, and before her appeared a man-dragon with an indigo gleam, draped in black. It was Ixlongue, heir dragon, former guardian of the portals and laws governing passage between mythical worlds.
— So, Thanatia, why this strange expression? asked Ixlongue, with a tone half curious, half threatening.
Thanatia… her mythological name. Erasa bore it as an apostle of Mü Thanatos; she was its avatar, its embodied ego. "The Demon of the End," some whispered, for she had already left her mark on the chronicles long before reaching the rank of the Ineffables.
As an apostle of Mü Thanatos, she enjoyed all the blessings of the entity. Their bond had grown so strong that as long as Mü Thanatos existed, Erasa, as an apostle, would also exist and continue to receive the goddess's favors.
By her side, Ixlongue was no longer merely an ally: he too had become an Ineffable, merging his will with hers.
Erasa fixed the ground for a moment, drops streaming down her mask, before raising her eyes:
— Ixlongue, I must go to Zar'Khan's domain...
The indigo dragon widened his eyes, stunned:
— What? But everything has been scrambled there for some time!
— Zar'Khan has become an Ineffable again, without my father's help. Or maybe they are linked... I don't know. It doesn't matter. I must know his position in what is coming. The goddess Mü Thanatos also locked a potential human "bug" there; I intend to retrieve it.
Ixlongue nodded gravely:
— It makes sense. For everything to be scrambled there is necessarily Zar'Khan's work. As an Ineffable, he can manipulate or scramble laws even of primordial gods, render them inoperative, and appropriate a domain by his sole will.
Erasa lowered her head slightly, letting her long white hair get wetter:
— That's exactly why I have to meet him. To appropriate an entire domain... he's preparing something. And I must know on which side he stands before the situation completely slips from us.
The rain continued falling, cold and insistent, as if the sky itself measured what was coming. Erasa clenched her fists, feeling the raw energy of the Ineffables pulsing around her, and murmured:
— Very well... Zar'Khan. It's time to discover your intentions.
Ixlongue, at her side, stared at her with unwavering loyalty. The world, in its complexity and fragility, had never hung by a thinner thread.
Back in the routine of classes, something subtly but dangerously changed in the high school air: Jack had decided to escalate.
As if he had set himself a precise goal, he began to make Hinata's life miserable with almost methodical regularity.
It was no longer just arrogance: it became a campaign of provocations, carefully calculated, repeated, and above all... executed in front of Mayohi, as if Jack sought to test Hinata's limits or make her lose control.
Day 1....
The hallway was crowded as usual, students returning from lunch, chatting loudly.
Hinata and Mayohi walked side by side, rather calm, when Jack appeared behind them.
He did not even slow down.
BAM.
His shoulder slammed brutally into Hinata's.
She stepped aside but remained upright, unfazed.
Jack raised his hands, feigning innocence:
— Oops.
Then he added, without looking at her:
— You have to watch where you're walking, brute.
He walked past them as if nothing happened.
Mayohi clutched her bag tightly, eyes fixed on the ground.
— Hinata... I'm sorry...
Hinata exhaled softly:
— It's nothing. We move on.
But her fingers tightened around her bag strap.
Day 2.
In the morning, everything was calm. Hinata was opening her locker, Mayohi talking about a math exercise...
When suddenly BANG!
Jack slammed Hinata's locker door violently just in front of her, the metal clanging a centimeter from her face.
He sneered:
— Oh... I thought you were done.
Hinata stayed still.
A muscle in her cheek twitched.
She said nothing, but Mayohi could feel the tension in the air like a rope about to snap.
Jack walked away whistling.
Day 3.
During recess, Mayohi and Hinata sat in the courtyard.
Jack passed by with two of his friends.
Seeing them, he leaned towards his buddies and said loudly enough for Hinata to hear:
— Watch out, the brute might eat people when she's hungry.
The friends burst out laughing.
Mayohi paled, lowered her head, ashamed.
Hinata stared at Jack from afar. Her gaze was not angry...
It was cold.
Jack noticed and immediately looked away.
Day 4.
Hinata and Mayohi left class.
Jack walked in the opposite direction, head down as if looking at his phone...
As he passed beside Hinata, he "accidentally" bumped her bag, making it fall to the ground.
Notebooks slid on the tiles.
— Ah damn... sorry.
He said it with that same mean smile.
Hinata, silent, bent down to pick them up.
Mayohi helped, trembling.
Jack continued walking, stomping his heel as if marking territory.
Day 5.
In the stairs, the two girls climbed the steps.
Jack arrived behind them.
He slowed just enough to get close to Hinata, almost ear to ear.
And in a low voice, that only she could hear:
— You're a loser. A worthless nobody.
Then he sped up, disappearing at the top of the stairs.
Hinata stopped abruptly.
Mayohi immediately turned to her, worried.
— Hinata? Are you okay?
Hinata did not answer.
She clenched her fist so hard her knuckles whitened.
Her gaze fixed on the stairs as if she was going to destroy them with her stare.
Day 6.
Hinata and Mayohi left after the last class.
Jack was already waiting at the door.
A smile, hands in pockets.
He deliberately blocked their way.
— Let Mayohi pass, brute. She did nothing.
Mayohi lowered her head as she passed.
Hinata moved forward to pass too, but Jack moved just enough to make her step aside again.
A way to assert "I control this space."
Hinata finally passed.
She said nothing.
Jack chuckled behind her back.
Day 7.
In the courtyard, at the end of the day, students poured out en masse.
Hinata and Mayohi walked.
Jack appeared between two groups.
He deliberately charged at Hinata.
The impact was stronger than other times.
Hinata took a step back.
Jack, with a predator's smile:
— Oops. Ah, I always forget you're there.
Then, turning to Mayohi:
— Your friend should learn to get out of the way, don't you think?
Mayohi shivered.
A mix of fear and anger rose to her eyes.
Hinata did not move.
Her eyes were dark, very dark.
She said nothing.
But something inside her broke silently. It had to stop.