"No.. NO!"

In blind desperation, I began to crawl toward where the black box had fallen. My broken ribs burned with pain as I dragged myself through the mud, leaves began sticking to the blood on my uniform. It couldn't end like this. Not like this.

My hand struck something solid beneath the fallen leaves.

It wasn't wood nor metal, it felt warm.

A choking wet cough burst out from beneath the leaves. I felt the breath's warmth as I clawed at the ground, shoving foliage aside. There was a man barely alive laying there half-buried within the leaves.

Then I saw the uniform. It was a rider.

Myers.

I began to clear the leaves from him with my shaking hands, and that was when I saw it. His legs were gone, parts of his femur bone clung on to whatever skin was left near his knees. Springs of blood shot out from an artery which soaked the mud beneath him, leaving a dark and thick puddle of blood.

His face was smeared with muck and debris, with blood pulsing out of his missing eye. His vision seemed unfocused, most likely hollowed out by shock. However, I noticed that he was still blinking slowly as he stared up at the grey sky.

How the hell was he still alive?

"Myers," I said, my voice breaking. I grabbed his shoulders and shook him lightly. "Hey—look at me." He acted as if I wasn't there. "We have to recover the black box!"

I slapped his cheek, just enough to jolt him. "Hey!"

He coughed violently, spitting thick wells of blood that stained his chin as I tried to lift his face. His breath rattled, shallow and uneven.

"Grim…What the hell man." he whispered. "Is that you? I—I can't see anything right now."

"Yeah," I said quickly. "It's me. I'm here."

"Great," he murmured, a weak smile tugging at his lips. "At least I won't die alone."

"I don't plan to die here," I snapped, more to convince myself than him. "Maybe you shouldn't either. We still have a mission to accomplish."

He tried to laugh, but it collapsed into another coughing fit with blood bubbling from his mouth. When it finally stopped, he swallowed hard.

"No… I think this is it for me. My body's beyond repair plus that bitch shot me in the head…" He tried to chuckle. "Heh, couldn't even do that right. T-tell that sonovabitch I'll be haunting her in her nightmares."

His breathing hitched. "But how's the black box? Is it intact?"

I looked away from him, my gaze was towards the black box on the ground which from here I could tell was unmistakably destroyed.

"…Seems fine to me."

A faint huff escaped him. "You're a really bad liar. You know that?"

He coughed weaker this time, and slowly lifted his hand toward the sky with trembling fingers as if he was trying to grab onto something that wasn't there.

"You gotta promise me something, Grim."

His eyes somehow found mine. "You have to answer my question someday. I want it to matter. I want to—"

His hand fell before he could finish.

Life drained from his face in an instant, his body going completely slack beneath my grip.

He was gone.

I tapped the device in his ear twice to shut it off but as I was about to leave until I noticed something near his fallen hand, my gaze traced towards the pistol lying in the mud beside him. I snatched it up with my bloodied fingers, and stumbled toward the shattered black box.

I crouched over the wreckage, my heart hammering, in hopes that the artifact inside was still intact. Without a second thought I peered into the gaping hole on the box's side. Nothing obvious met my eyes but a faint metallic clink echoed as I shook the box. Something slid out and struck the ground.

I quickly picked it up, and examined it in the pale, grey light.

It was a strangely shaped necklace. Its pendant was a strange fusion of an eye and a skull melded into one and carved into the back of the charm was a single word.

Seele.

As I lifted the pendant to inspect it, a deafening noise tore through the air behind me. Pain erupted across my skull and I realized with horror that blood was streaming from my own head.

My body went limp as I collapsed into the cold, muddy ground. The world tilted and blinded me with bright colors bleeding together, sounds muffled to a distant roar.

So this was really the end. Oh well…

I just wished—

I wished I could have seen you one last time.

Through the haze of pain, I saw someone

returning with the same eerie-

he didn't hesitate

His gloved hand reached

, and with a quiet, almost reverent ,

he lifted the artifact from my lifeless fingers.

<Rider Vital Sign Lost>

<Manual Hollow Override Detected>

** Initiating Hollow Unit Activation Sequence**

<Administrator Key: Verified>

<User: Memo>

<WARNING: ACCESSING RESTRICTED MEMORY LOG>

"And so it could be theorized that—"

"Luden?"

"So shields, therefore—"

"LUDEN!"

I jolted back into reality, heart hammering. What was I—

What was I doing?

"Hey," a familiar stern voice cut through the fog, "you've been completely out of it all day. Are you okay?"

"A–Anya?!" I shouted as I shot to my feet.

The room went dead silent.

Every pair of eyes in the room locked onto me at once. A few seconds passed before muffled laughter rippled through the classroom. Heat rushed to my face as embarrassment set in.

"Luden! Sit down!" my teacher barked. "We're discussing something here!"

"I—I—uh, yes sir. Yes…" I muttered, sinking back into my seat.

What the hell was wrong with me?

Why did I just yell Anya's name?

I glanced to my side.

Anya was already looking away, pretending I didn't exist. Her maroon hair fell neatly over her shoulders, her black eyes hidden behind round glasses as she focused far too intently on her book.

She was definitely ignoring me.

"Luden," the teacher continued, his voice sharp with irritation, "you're not off the hook just yet, little man. Since you were so desperate to interrupt my class, you can explain how runic barriers work."

He tapped his book once for emphasis.

"Page fifty-eight could you explain it to us?"

"Y-yes sir… r-runic barriers stop the, um… the right—uh—scripted…"

Sir Castern stared at me, unimpressed with my answer, his expression became flat with bored annoyance.

"Look," he said evenly, "if you didn't read beforehand, you can just say so. Sit down and stay quiet, okay?"

"Yes sir." The class was filled with muffled laughs as I sat down, sir soon turned towards us, with a clap to regain our attention.

"Now listen. I'll only explain this once. rune shields, only stop what they're commanded to. It's the same principle for any scripted item, understood?"

The room stayed quiet.

"Remember class resonance with a purpose is the core of all connections to the Pathos. When we inscribe a command in runes, we bind it to a single intent and that intent becomes its power. It may not be as intricate as a mage's resonant connection, but it is still magic nonetheless."

Sir Castern clears his throat.

"In other words runes only do what they're told to do," he continued. "For example, the military uses runic barriers to stop high-velocity objects like bullets, shrapnel or shells but they lack the capability to stop slow-moving objects."

He paused, scanning the room. "Is that clear, class?"

"Yes," the class answered in unison.

A hand shot up from the front row.

"But sir," Earl asked, "why doesn't the shield just stop everything from piercing through?"

Sir Castern nodded, as if he was waiting for the question.

"As I said in the last chapter, there are limits to what runes can do. Now, if you can recall, what happens when there are too many commands placed on a single item?"

"Overload," the class replied together.

"Very good," Sir Castern said. "Now turn your page to 59—"

Before I knew it, class was already over and I barely listened to anything, well it's fine I bet Ben's got notes he can share with me. With a clouded mind, I began to sluggishly pack my books, shoving them into my bag when a shadow fell over my desk. I looked up.

Anya was standing right in front of me.

"Yes, yes," I said, forcing a bored tone. "What do you want?"

She frowned. "Why did you call my name earlier?"

"Wha dunno what you're talking about." I slung my bag over my shoulder and pushed past her toward the door.

"Were you trying to get back at me or is being a complete weirdo your thing now?"

I stopped and turned to face her.

"Well," I said flatly, "I was going to tell you the reason—but now you've suddenly pissed me off."

I stepped closer and flicked her forehead as hard as I could.

"Screw you!" she yelled, immediately lunging forward and grabbing my cheek, yanking it painfully.

"Ow—what the hell is wrong with you?!"

A familiar voice cut in from the side.

"What the hell is wrong with both of you?" Earl stood there with his arms crossed, watching like this was free entertainment.

"It's because of Luden!" Anya snapped. "He started it!"

"No I didn't!"

"Yes you did!"

From what I could recall we started inches from each other, but after all the tugging and pulling, it was a blurry mess, so much so that we began to completely ignore everything else in the room. We continued fighting until Earl waddled his chubby body between us as he noticed that a crowd was gathering as the other kids began staring at us.

"Okay, okay!" he said, forcing us apart. "That's enough! Both of you—cool it!"

After that whole mess, we still had to head home together anyway. We ended up sitting at opposite ends of the bench under the waiting shed, rain hammering down on the roof above us. The downpour was relentless, pinning us there whether we liked it or not.

I gazed down to avoid her gaze but my eyes rested on a glowing bracelet on Anya's hand. "...Nice flare light you got there, is it new?"

I tried to make things less awkward but she wouldn't budge at all, as I slid farther away from her she seemed to take notice.

"We couldn't pay our electric fee this month, so we don't have lights at night. Mom got us these so we don't suddenly turn into monsters." She spoke frankly enough for her irritation to pierce through.

At this point it felt like any reply would just further bury myself in her anger. "I– uh, I didn't mean to… sorry."

"So…" She cut me off. "Were you really mad about what I said?"

"Nah," I answered with my eyes fixed on the rain spilling off the edge of the roof. "Not really."

"Then what was that whole thing back there about?"

I hesitated. "It was… I dunno. A weird dream, I guess."

It seemed like she was waiting for an explanation, so I kept going.

"There were these… metal terrors. Gunfire. Explosions…and you were there too. I remember that part for some reason, we were fighting…and uh."

The rain suddenly sounded louder.

"I don't really remember how it ended though," I added quietly.

Anya shifted towards me on the bench. "You should really stop thinking about the war all the time," she said gently.

"Yeah," I muttered. "Maybe I should. Honestly, it's all just… grim."

She looked up at the gray sky, then back at me. "All adults do these days is fight. I wonder if they even think fighting is bad like we do."

Silence settled between us again, but this time it didn't feel as suffocating.

"Well, they fight for important things like freedom…or something, I guess. Delvut was the one who started the war in the first place anyway we're just defending our border." I replied uncertainly, I still didn't know if I was trying to convince myself as much as her.

"We fight over stupid stuff all the time. So if they're fighting this much… It must mean it's something really important. Right?"

"Is that what you really think?" Anya leaned closer. Her voice sharpened. "Because if you ask me, I don't want to be stupid like the grownups."

Her eyes bore into mine as I tried to meet her gaze.

My fingers curled instinctively, as if they were still wrapped around a rifle that wasn't there but I clenched my fist to force it still.

She huffed. "You know what? I've really had enough of you." Crossing her arms, she looked away. Then, suddenly, she turned back. "And I'm sick of fighting like the adults."

She paused, then continued as if she'd already decided on something.

"So I think we should have a code word. For when we need to stop fighting each other."

Well… that was an unexpected idea. A code word? Sounds dumb.

"What the heck is that for?" I asked, feigning confusion.

"I mean… we always get into fights," she said, crossing her arms. "So we might as well have a way to get out of them too."

I couldn't argue with that. We always needed Earl to step in, and one day a teacher might too. It was a nice idea, but honestly, something in me kind of wanted to piss her off a bit more first.

"Pshh… like you're going to stop beating me up. That's a stupid idea," I said, smirking.

She clicked her tongue, annoyed. "Fine! Whatever! Don't listen to me again!"

"I-I'm joking! So… what's our truce word then?"

"...Eden"

The moment the word left her lips, the dream had been shattered. The rain, the waiting shed, the soft hum of the school.

Everything had been consumed by a void of darkness, however blood shot eyes began to–

<ERROR: MEMORY LOG CORRUPTED>

<EMERGENCY FORCE-LAUNCH PROTOCOL INITIATED>

<Hollow Status: ACTIVE>