The world didn't feel real anymore.
The plaza had been shattered, but not destroyed. It hung suspended, fragments of stone stitched together by threads of shadow and pale mist.
To the west stretched the Crimson Beastlands, sky the color of burning coals, mountains of bone jutting upward like fangs. The roar of distant monsters shook the air.
To the east lay Murim, serene on the surface, forests swaying with impossible harmony. But even from here, I felt the weight of countless swords, the suffocating discipline of warriors who lived to kill.
And in the middle—our middle—was a fragile strip of reality. A Neutral Zone.
The system's voice pressed into my skull.
[ Faction Status: Neutral. ][ Warning: Zone Instability: High. ][ Failure Condition: Collapse of Neutrality. ]
The words burned. The choice I had forced carved itself into the script.
The survivors staggered around the plaza's remains, staring into the rifts. No one spoke at first.
Then the old man broke.
"You damned fool!" His voice cracked with rage, spittle flying. He jabbed his crooked staff toward me. "You've killed us all! Neutrality? That's not survival—it's suicide!"
Kavya's laugh was sharp, bitter. "Finally, something we agree on." Her silver blades gleamed as she spun them restlessly. "You really think standing in the middle will save us? Both sides will tear us apart."
The mother said nothing, arms wrapped tight around Arjun. The boy was pale but awake, his staff across his knees. He hadn't looked away from me since the barrier had flared in his hands.
Dev was the last to speak. His voice was steady, but his eyes burned. "You've forced our road, Reed. Neutrality means fighting everyone. Are you ready for that?"
I tightened my grip on the Inkblade. The shadows twitched, restless. "I didn't come here to be anyone's pawn."
✦
Hours passed, though time felt warped. The sky overhead was wrong—half crimson, half pale, both bleeding into each other in jagged streaks.
The survivors gathered what little they had. Supplies from the plaza were scarce; water trickled from a cracked fountain, stale but drinkable. The old man muttered curses as he filled skins. Kavya sharpened her blades until sparks leapt, every scrape a warning.
Arjun sat near his mother, staff across his lap. He kept glancing at me, then down at the wood as if afraid it might flare again without warning.
Dev stayed close, watchful. Not hostile. Not supportive. Just… watchful.
I kept to myself at the edge of the plaza, Inkblade across my knees. Its whispers were constant, gnawing at the edges of my thoughts.
"…no sides… all prey… devour… rewrite…"
I ignored it. Barely.
✦
The first test came sooner than I expected.
Shadows shifted at the Beastlands rift. A pack of smaller beast-born slipped through—hyena-headed things with jagged spears, their eyes gleaming like coals. They prowled to the edge of the Neutral Zone, snarling, testing.
At the same time, two cultivators appeared in the pale gate. Their robes marked them as outer disciples—low rank, but still deadly. They watched us with the dispassionate calm of men studying livestock.
Both factions stopped at the edge of the Zone. Neither crossed. But both smiled.
The cultivators bowed mockingly. "Neutrality. Brave, but foolish. This Zone will not last. When it collapses, we will be waiting."
The hyenas barked laughter, slamming their spears against stone. One pointed at me with a clawed hand. "Prey hiding between fangs. When the bubble pops, we feed first."
They withdrew, but their eyes lingered.
The message was clear.
We weren't safe. Just… tolerated.
For now.
✦
The survivors broke again that night.
The old man slammed his staff into the ground, his voice shrill. "They're circling! Waiting for the Zone to fall! You've damned us all!"
Kavya didn't argue this time. She just stared at me, her blades gleaming in firelight. "When it happens—and it will—you better have more than shadows to keep us alive."
The mother pulled Arjun closer, whispering soft comforts. But her eyes… her eyes were on me too.
Dev sharpened his sword slowly, steel hissing against stone. He didn't speak, but the weight of his silence pressed harder than words.
Only Arjun finally broke it, his voice quiet.
"I believe him."
The survivors turned, stunned.
Arjun swallowed hard, clutching his staff. "He saved us. Again and again. Maybe the Zone will break. Maybe it won't. But without him, we'd already be dead."
His mother's hand tightened on his shoulder, but she didn't silence him.
Kavya spat to the side. "Children believe in fairy tales."
Arjun's chin lifted, trembling but firm. "And cowards die believing in nothing."
The plaza fell silent.
Even the Inkblade's whispers quieted, just for a moment.
✦
The system pulsed in my vision.
[ Warning: Neutral Zone Instability Increasing. ][ Incoming scenario adjustment. ]
The words chilled me.
Instability wasn't a threat. It was a promise.
The Zone would be tested again. And soon.
The sky cracked like glass.
Light tore across the Neutral Zone, burning through the fractured plaza. The system's voice followed, jagged and distorted.
[ Neutral Zone Instability: Critical. ][ Adjustment: Initiating Survival Scenario. ]
The words reformed, sharp and merciless:
[ Mission: Sustain Neutrality for 7 days. ][ Condition: Survive invasion attempts. ][ Reward: Zone Stability +1. ][ Failure: Collapse. Death. ]
The survivors froze.
Seven days.
Seven days of this fractured world holding, while two realms clawed at our walls.
The old man laughed bitterly, a sound closer to a sob. "We'll be corpses before dawn, let alone seven days."
Kavya's daggers gleamed as she spun them, her eyes never leaving me. "Then it's on him. He forced this road. He keeps us alive—or we cut him loose."
Dev didn't argue. He just lifted his reforged sword, gaze steady. "Then we fight."
✦
The first attack came with the sunset.
The hyena-thing scouts returned, spears rattling against stone. They prowled the edge of the Zone, snapping their jaws, laughing with voices too human to be natural.
Then they charged.
The barrier of neutrality pulsed faintly, a thin shimmer of light marking the line between realms. The first beast struck it—and burst through.
The Zone wasn't absolute. Instability let enemies in.
The hyenas poured through, snarling, jaws dripping flame.
The survivors screamed. The old man stumbled back, staff shaking too much to cast. Kavya leapt forward, silver blades flashing, cutting down one beast with a desperate strike. Dev met another head-on, his reforged sword clanging as it locked against jagged steel.
And me—
The Inkblade shrieked in my hand, shadows bursting outward to impale the third beast. It screamed as the tendrils wrapped around its chest, crushing bone. The blade drank its fire, sucking the life from its body until it fell limp.
"…more… devour… feast…"
The whispers rattled my skull.
I forced them down. Barely.
✦
A fourth beast lunged—not at me, not at Dev or Kavya—
At Arjun.
The boy froze, staff raised, eyes wide. His mother screamed, shoving him behind her, but the beast's claw arced down—
The staff flared.
Light exploded outward, a barrier forming between claw and child. The impact cracked the air, sparks raining like stars. The beast staggered back, snarling in fury.
Arjun gasped, trembling, but the staff hummed in his grip, runes glowing brighter this time.
Not luck. Not chance.
Chosen.
I saw it again—faint, blurred, impossible. A shadow of wings above him, vast and terrible, watching through him.
The gods weren't just watching me.
They had their eyes on him too.
✦
The survivors rallied. Dev cut down his foe with a brutal slash. Kavya slit another's throat, silver blades slick with black blood. I drove the Inkblade into the last, shadows swallowing its scream until nothing remained.
Silence returned, broken only by ragged breaths.
The beasts lay dead. Their blood smoked where it touched stone, burning holes into reality itself.
The Zone trembled.
The system spoke again.
[ Neutral Zone Stability +1. ][ Time Remaining: 6 days. ]
✦
The survivors gathered in the flickering light of fire. Fear clung to them like a second skin.
The old man whispered, his voice cracked. "Seven days… it'll never last. Never…"
Kavya stared at me, eyes hard. "You've painted a target on all of us. Both sides want us dead now. And neutrality? It's just another word for execution."
Dev said nothing. Just sharpened his blade, each scrape like thunder in the silence.
Arjun, though… Arjun looked at me differently. Not as prey. Not as cursed. But as something else.
Hope.
It burned in his young eyes, fragile but fierce.
✦
The system pulsed again, but this time it was different.
Not an announcement.
A recognition.
[ Title Earned: The One Who Breaks the Script. ][ Condition Met: Rejection of predetermined allegiance. Creation of unauthorized faction. ][ Effect: You exist outside the intended story. ][ Warning: Divine Attention Acquired. ]
My breath caught.
The air thickened, heavy as if unseen eyes pressed down on me.
Then—
[ A nameless god laughs with delight. ][ An ancient gaze lingers on you far too long. ][ Warning: Multiple divine gazes detected. ]
The plaza seemed colder. The Inkblade pulsed violently, shadows writhing in agitation.
The gods had noticed.
And once they noticed, they never looked away.