The Nexus Seven tracked the unique scent until they reached the base of the colossal outer wall, where a makeshift shelter was hidden amongst the rubble.
Tanjiro confirmed the smell of unrealized destiny was strongest here. "The survivor is close. He carries a scent of profound importance, like a turning point that never happened."
Kazuma peeked into the shelter. "Found him! He's just a terrified guy with a notebook!"
Inside, curled up and shaking, was a young man, perhaps nineteen, with intensely focused eyes and hands stained with ink. This was Elias. His notebook was covered in complex, sprawling anatomical diagrams and engineering sketches of the walls—critical, suppressed knowledge that would have allowed humanity to understand and potentially defeat the Titans years sooner.
Elias looked at the seven bizarre figures—the bald hero, the man in the purple sunglasses, the stoic monarch, the grim author, and the terrified boy—and instantly went into shock.
"Don't move! Who are you?! Are you the new government guards?" Elias whispered, clutching a rusty spear.
Malak's voice returned to the Nexus link, urgent and stressed:
"Elias must be extracted immediately! He has acquired knowledge that will prematurely stabilize this timeline, which will shatter the Nexus. Extract him and bring him through the door! You have sixty seconds!"
"Hurry up, idiot!" Gojo yelled. "We're saving your timeline!"
Elias mistook their panic for the chaos of a Titan breach. He scrambled out of the shelter and sprinted along the wall, heading for a narrow, hidden gap he knew led back toward the interior.
"He's running toward the interior, where the walls are still intact!" Jin-Woo commanded. "We need to cut him off and force him back toward the door!"
They pursued Elias, but the young man was driven by pure, local terror, running with an urgency that defied their superhuman speed.
Suddenly, a massive, muscular hand slammed down, flattening a nearby ruin. It was a 10-meter Aberrant Titan, attracted by the scent of so much Ki and concentrated human fear. It was lumbering directly toward Elias, who was too focused on his escape to see the danger.
"He is heading straight for the Aberrant! Stop him!" Malak screamed in their minds. "You must force him toward the Obsidian Door!"
Tanjiro, driven by his natural heroism and the absolute belief in the Arbiter's mission to save this life, acted first. He was the fastest, most determined moral compass of the group.
"I will stop him!" Tanjiro yelled. "Hinokami Kagura: Burning Bones, Summer Sun!"
Tanjiro didn't draw his sword. He used the explosive, conceptual momentum of his technique to generate a blinding flash of speed. He caught Elias just before the survivor rounded a crucial corner.
Tanjiro grabbed Elias by the shoulder and, using the forward momentum of his run, didn't stop—he violently pivoted, throwing Elias in the opposite direction he was running, back toward the Nexus Seven and the open Obsidian Door.
"Go! Go to the light! It is safety!" Tanjiro screamed, pointing toward the door.
Elias, disoriented by the abrupt, conceptual velocity and the flash of light, tumbled through the air—and landed directly in the immense, open maw of the Aberrant Titan, which had simply been standing still, waiting for its prey.
The Titan let out a satisfying crunch. Elias, the key to the timeline's survival, was instantly consumed.
A beat of absolute, horrified silence descended.
Tanjiro stood frozen, his Hinokami aura dissipating. He stared at the Titan, which was now happily turning to pursue the Demon Slayer.
"I... I saved him..." Tanjiro whispered, watching the Titan chew.
Malak's voice, however, was no longer urgent. It was slow, cold, and saturated with grotesque delight.
"Conceptual anomaly Elias successfully neutralized. Timeline stabilized. Excellent work, Demon Slayer. The original, dark narrative is now locked in. Mission complete."
Tanjiro spun around, facing the Obsidian Door. His eyes were no longer those of a hero, but of someone who had just committed the gravest sin.
"You lied! You used me! You wanted him to die!" Tanjiro roared, rage and guilt burning his heart.
Jin-Woo, Gojo, and the others looked at the Arbiter's open door with sudden, profound betrayal. The Obsidian Door remained open, mocking them.
"This entire universe required that boy's death to maintain its theme of terror," Jin-Woo concluded, his face stone cold. "Malak manipulated our morality."
Tanjiro drew his Nichirin blade, tears of guilt streaming down his face, and charged toward the open door.
"You will pay for this, Arbiter! I will not be your murderer!"
Tanjiro dove through the Obsidian Door. The others immediately followed.
They rematerialized in the sterile white void of the Nexus Core.
Malak was waiting for them. He wore his white suit, and his face was the full, terrifying split mask. His aura was no longer passive; it pulsed with a sublime, terrifying power that dwarfed Gojo's Ki or Jin-Woo's Mana.
Tanjiro charged, his Nichirin blade aimed for the Arbiter's hideous face. "Hinokami Kagura: Solar Heat Haze!"
The attack was a blur of righteous fury, but when the blade met the Arbiter, it hit nothing. Malak simply stood there, absorbing the attack.
"A brave attempt, Architect," Malak said, his smile stretching wider. "But against the true ruler of this space, your blade is merely a philosophical objection."
He raised a single finger, and Tanjiro was instantly pinned to the white floor, not by gravity, but by the weight of Conceptual Impossibility.
"Why?" Tanjiro choked out, tears of frustration and guilt burning his cheeks. "Why this cruelty?"
Malak's golden eye wept, and his obsidian eye burned. "Cruelty is stability. That universe required its terror. And you have proven you are willing to break your own morality to follow my mission."
He looked at the devastated Nexus Seven.
"You believe yourselves safe now that you've 'stabilized' my glitches," Malak continued, his voice echoing with absolute authority. "But you are not. You are merely assets."
He waved his hand, and seven horrific holograms appeared above their heads. They showed their home worlds:
Jujutsu Kaisen: Gojo saw the Limitless barrier around Tokyo shatter like glass.
Solo Leveling: Jin-Woo saw a Red Gate open directly over Seoul, a new, cosmic-level entity emerging.
Demon Slayer: Tanjiro saw his sister Nezuko struggling against a new, conceptually evolved Demon who was immune to the Sun.
"Your home world's walls are just as vulnerable as Wall Maria," Malak declared. "They break when I decree it. If you refuse to be my Architects—my agents of controlled, necessary chaos—I will unleash my power on your timelines. Your failures here will become your reality there."
Malak lowered his hand, releasing Tanjiro. The Arbiter's smile was the most terrifying thing they had ever seen.
"The deal is simple: Become my seven Architects of the Unified Multiverse. Continue to execute Phase Two of the Reset Game, and I will maintain the integrity of your worlds. Your people live if you fight for me."
He pointed to the next Obsidian Door that materialized—even larger, even more terrifying.
"Refuse, and watch your realities collapse into the meaningless chaos you just witnessed."
The Nexus Seven were now faced with the ultimate moral and existential choice: become the villains to save their homes, or stand on principle and condemn their worlds. The game was no longer about survival; it was about moral compromise.