The forest was calm—too calm.
Laive and Ruby walked side by side, sunlight breaking through the canopy in thin, golden beams. Ruby watched Laive from the corner of her eye. He had only awakened minutes ago, yet his eyes carried a weight that did not belong to someone who had just risen from decades of slumber.
Finally, Ruby spoke.
"Where are you planning to go?"
Laive didn't answer.
"You know I can tell," Ruby added, her voice just slightly sharp. "You've been walking ahead of me the whole time. You want to leave."
Laive stopped.
Ruby folded her arms. "You just woke up, Laive. Can't you… stay a little longer?"
Laive scratched his head, avoiding her gaze.
"No, it's not like that. I just—there's something I need to check."
"Like what?"
"I… can't explain it."
Ruby stared at him quietly. Her expression softened for only a moment before she forced it back into a pout.
"Fine. Go. If you want to leave, leave."
Laive gave her a small, apologetic smile.
"Sorry, Ruby. I really need to see something."
"Yeah, yeah. Just go," she muttered, annoyed.
And the next second—
Laive vanished.
Above the Ship
Laive appeared floating above the volunteers' ship, high in the sky. The wind curled around him, but he barely felt it.
His heartbeat quickened.
This feeling… death, hatred, and an intent to erase something.
Maria… she's in danger.
He closed his eyes, reaching into old memories of the ship's layout—rooms, hallways, restricted sectors. His thoughts aligned like pieces of a puzzle.
There.
Maria's room.
A presence inside it—dark, ancient, and wrong—pulled at him like a hook.
Laive teleported.
Inside Maria's Room
Smoke.
Pressure.
A chilling aura wrapping around the air itself.
And Maria—
—backed into the corner, eyes wide, breath trembling. Sweat clung to her skin, her pupils shaking violently.
She had been crying.
The entity looming over her was no longer a shape—it was a hunger with form.
Then—
"Hello, Maria."
Her head snapped toward the voice.
"Laive! You're—you're alive?! How—"
Her words choked off when she saw it:
Laive stood atop the creature's skull, his foot crushing it slowly as if it were brittle glass.
The body beneath him dissolved, smoke rising like a reversed waterfall. The smoke gathered behind him, taking a humanoid form.
The entity's voice echoed like a thousand whispers.
"If I touch your neck, your life will end completely. Everything I touch turns to ash."
Laive closed his eyes.
So… you again.
He teleported behind the figure in a blink.
The smoke shot upward, reforming near the ceiling. For the first time—
it recoiled.
"Laive… you're awake already," it said, its voice trembling. "That explains why your presence felt familiar."
Laive stared up at him, expression cold and tired.
"So what? Are we doing this?"
The creature let out a dry, shaking laugh.
"No. I don't have time to waste… not on someone like you."
It fled, dissolving through the walls.
Maria collapsed to her knees. Her breath shuddered. Her body shook violently, like someone who had been drowning for minutes.
"Laive… is that really you? Please… please tell me it's you…"
She stood and threw herself toward him, hugging him tightly. Her hands clutched his shirt, desperate, trembling.
"I don't know what's happening anymore… I keep dreaming of something. Something calling me. Something inside a black hole. Something saying I'm the heart of this world…"
Her voice cracked as tears rolled down her cheeks.
But then—
Black smoke—thin and silent—wrapped around her neck and back.
Maria's eyes widened, but she couldn't move.
She couldn't speak.
She couldn't even scream.
It was Death.
The true entity.
The one who cremates every human.
The guardian of Black Cores.
Death whispered through the smoke:
"You are not meant to exist."
Laive's eyes narrowed.
Something was wrong with Maria's aura—something that didn't belong to her.
The room filled with green smoke, leaking in from vents and cracks. It shimmered like poison.
Laive's body locked up instantly—paralyzed.
A masked man stepped into view, muttering to himself:
"This smoke paralyzes the body by contact alone. Breathing it doesn't matter."
He moved fast—unnaturally fast—grabbing Maria's arms.
Maria's eyes widened in terror.
"No—no—Laive—"
Her voice was stolen by the smoke.
The masked man sprinted toward the ceiling. His hand pierced the metal like it was soft cloth. Half of his body phased through.
Laive forced his muscles to break the paralysis, body trembling violently as he reached out—
His hand passed through the man's leg.
The masked man smirked behind the mask.
"Too slow."
He vanished through the ceiling, taking Maria.
The masked man reappeared in a dark chamber, Maria unconscious in his arms.
He tightened his grip.
The Heart… finally.
Gluttony will be pleased.
Across the hall, the bandaged man sat calmly, surrounded by faintly glowing souls.
On his back, the emblem of a skull with the word GLUTTONY glowed faintly.
Parasite-infected bodies twitched around him.
The masked man bowed slightly.
"I have retrieved the girl."
Gluttony grinned, revealing teeth sharpened like fangs.
"Good. The feast begins."
Laive looks outside the ship, scanning the surroundings. He still can't sense Maria, which worries him, though he remains outwardly calm while floating in the air above the ship under the sunlight.
Then the scene shifts, showing thousands of tiny parasites in a glass. These are eaten by a person with bandages. There is a woman tied up, and after the bandaged person eats the parasites, they transfer them into the tied woman's mouth using their own mouth—the woman is naked. The woman's mouth overflows with the number of parasites being given to her, and you can see her crying. After the bandaged person finishes transferring the parasites with their mouth, they suddenly smile, and you can see fangs in their mouth.
Meanwhile, Maria remains unconscious inside a cell, guarded by the masked person who abducted her earlier.