The sky cracked.
It didn't thunder.It didn't roar.It simply split, as if reality itself was a sheet of paper being torn by invisible hands.
Ryosen froze mid-step.Aegis instinctively shielded Ketsuki.Rokuro grabbed Kentarō's shoulder.
And Shichiro's heart stopped.
Because he knew this feeling.
No wind.No warmth.No sound.
Just that crushing, suffocating emptiness.
The same emptiness that preceded Kentarō's death in his first nightmare.
"Get ready," Shichiro whispered hoarsely."He's here."
A silhouette descended from the crack in the sky, the world folding around him like fabric being tugged. Space distorted. Snow evaporated. Time slowed.
Bellerophon stepped through the crack in the sky.
Silver hair drifting behind him.Eyes hollow.Expression calm.
The elites loomed behind him.
Minotaur.Scylla.Medusa.Echidna.
Katsu frowned, confused but trying to hide it with attitude.
"…Uh, who the hell are YOU supposed to be?"
Bellerophon raised a hand.
"No introductions needed."
Katsu scoffed."Bro, you appear with four monsters behind you and expect me not to talk? At least tell me what you want-"
A thread of black starlight pierced his chest.
Not like a sword.More like a concept.A rule.A command.
His body jerked violently, but he didn't bleed.
Instead, glowing motes lifted from his heart, swirling upward like fireflies trapped in reverse gravity.
Katsu dropped to his knees.
"Katsu!" Shichiro sprinted toward him.
Rokuro followed, but Minotaur stepped in front of them, slamming the ground with its massive axe. The earth split, forcing them back.
Katsu's breathing hitched.
"What… what did you…?"
Bellerophon spoke softly.
"You laughed in the face of monsters. Mocked death. Mocked the world.A fitting irony."
He extended his hand.
"Rise… God of Irony."
Katsu's scream was silent, swallowed by the void.
His body dissolved into smoke and starlight, swirling upward as Bellerophon shaped the fragments into a new form.
A grin stretched across the forming face.A blade materialized in its hand.Chains of mockery and paradox wrapped its limbs.
The second God opened its new eyes.
Katsu was gone.
Shichiro felt something inside him tear.
"KATSU!!!"
He lunged, flames bursting from his arms, hotter and wilder than ever.Rage sharpened every edge of Shichiro's power.
But Bellerophon didn't move.
Not an inch.
Shichiro was an inferno.
Bellerophon was a statue.
And then.
A hand touched Shichiro's shoulder.
"Katsu?" Shichiro blinked.
Katsu stepped in front of him, arms casually open.
"Hit me," he said. "Come on."
Shichiro's fire-tipped whip cracked through the air, screaming toward Katsu.
SNAP!
The whip broke clean in half before it even touched him.
"What!?"
Katsu looked down, eyebrows raised like he genuinely didn't expect that.
"That is one weak ahh whip, huh."
The broken whip suddenly coiled back together,even stronger, heavier, blazing with amplified fire.
Irony twisted reality.
Katsu calmly picked it up.
He swung it with one hand.
WHOOOOSH, BOOOOM!!
The group was flung off their feet, blasted through trees, tumbling all the way into the forest.
"WHAT THE-?!" Ryosen hit the ground rolling.
Aegis slammed into a boulder, shield-first.
Rokuro bounced through three bushes.
Ketsuki tumbled like a thrown pillow screaming, "WHYYYYYY—"
Shichiro shot back into the sky, refusing to stay down.
No.
Not again.
Not Kentarō.
Not Katsu.
Not ANYONE.
He gathered flames into a sphere above his palms.Bigger than the one he dreamt.Bigger than anything he'd formed awake.
A miniature sun.
It roared and twisted, swallowing the clouds around it.
Shichiro glared down.
"This time— YOU BURN!"
He hurled it.
A falling star.
A world-ending meteor.
And—
Bellerophon was suddenly behind him.
No sound.
No blur.
Just there.
Close enough for Shichiro to feel cold fingers on the back of his neck.
Bellerophon leaned in.
And whispered:
"Sleep."
The word wasn't loud.
It wasn't angry.
But it carried the weight of a collapsing universe.
Shichiro's vision fractured.The sky folded.The ground inverted.His fire extinguished instantly.
The world cracked like glass.
And then—
It shattered.
Shichiro's flames vanished.The elites vanished.Ketsuki's scream vanished.The God of Irony vanished.
Even the cold air vanished.
Everything twisted into a tunnel of darkness.
And Shichiro gasped as he shot upright in his bed.
Sweat drenched his clothes.His chest burned.His breath trembled.
It was his room again.
Morning.
Quiet.
Safe.
Katsu snored in the room next door.
Kentarō mumbled something in his sleep.Rokuro's soft footsteps passed the hallway.
Aegis and Ketsuki whispered about breakfast.
Everything was normal.
Way too normal.
Shichiro pressed a shaking hand to his face.
He could still feel Katsu dying.Still hear Bellerophon's voice.Still see the new God's face.
And for the second time…
It wasn't a dream.
Because his hands still smelled faintly of smoke.