The gray water of Stillpond swayed faintly at their feet. Minato knelt on one knee in the shallows, gripping a device made from scrap materials in both hands. His left arm was still immobilized. Beneath the cloth wrapped around the splint, the broken bone throbbed dully with every breath. The reverse-connection device Rin carried on her back looked larger than her small frame. "[whispers]...Over thirty subordinates. Lect and Ark are at the center." Two hundred meters ahead. Illuminated by the weak phosphorescence of the substrate light, Vanagloria's formation came into view. Subordinates in metal armor were deployed in a semicircle across the shallows of Stillpond. At their center, a tall figure with silver hair—Lect Orphas—stood with arms folded, gazing up at the sky. The fissure of absorption scars running across his left eye stood out in the dim light. Beside him stood Ark Valheit. His long platinum hair shimmered hazily, reflecting the light of the golden gate now manifesting into existence. Minato felt a chill deep in his chest. The memory of his left arm being shattered in that gate's graveyard still lingered in his bones. Rin's voice sounded close to his ear. "[whispers]Listen up. I'm connecting the device to the nuclear reaction furnace at the waste generation hole. Ninety seconds—that's all the time I need." She raised the multi-function goggles hanging from her neck to eye level and fixed her amber eyes on Minato. "[serious]You activate the jamming transmitter and throw them into chaos. A diversion. Make it flashy." Minato swallowed hard. A diversion. Deliberately drawing the enemy's attention. Something he had never, ever done in his entire life. Erasing his presence, hiding in shadows, surviving without anyone noticing—that was the survival instinct of a ★2 coward. But— Deep in his chest, he felt the fragments of Shigure's measuring device stir faintly. "...Ninety seconds, then." Minato murmured quietly and rose to his feet. His left arm throbbed sharply. His heart pounded against his ribs from the inside. But there was no turning back now. He placed his finger on the activation button of the jamming transmitter. A deep breath. Once. Twice. On the third, he pressed it down. —*Whirr.* The moment the device activated, the air changed. Vanagloria's subordinates stirred all at once. The nuclear-output communication they constantly maintained—a faint signal for sharing each other's positions—had suddenly gone silent. Their coordination was severed. From a formation of over thirty, all cohesion vanished. "Wh-what the—?!" "We can't communicate!" "Jamming? Where's it coming from—" A murmur spread. The subordinates' gazes scattered, their eyes darting around as they tried to confirm each other's positions by sight. The formation had completely collapsed. In that opening, Rin sprinted forward. Still carrying the device on her back, she ran in a straight line across the shallows of Stillpond, heading for the nuclear reaction furnace at the waste generation hole. Water splashed, and the gray surface rippled into waves. "...For a ★2." A low voice sounded right beside Minato. Before he could turn, a silver blade flashed in a horizontal sweep. Lect Orphas. His movements were too fast. He had instantly pinpointed Minato's location from the jamming transmitter's activation point. The sword tore through the air, arcing toward Minato's neck to sever it. —*That voice.* The cold voice from the gate's graveyard, when he had crushed Shigure's research underfoot. A voice without anger or contempt, only confirmation born of experience. The moment Shigure's measuring device was shattered flashed through Minato's mind. His body froze. Fear coiled around his legs. The usual Minato would have simply curled up and accepted death. But. "—!" Minato's right foot moved sideways. One step. Just one step. But it was a step taken by his own will, shifting him out of the blade's trajectory. Not running. Not taking the blow. Simply stepping, by his own choice, to where he needed to stand—the first active evasion of his life. The sword cut through empty air. A few strands of his hair were severed and danced in the air. Lect's left eye widened slightly. "[cold]...You evaded." It was not contempt. A ★2 dodging a ★5's strike was statistically impossible. And yet, it had happened. "[cold]Are you different from the ★2 who merely groveled in the gate's graveyard?" For the first time, a faint trace of interest mingled in Lect's voice. —That was the moment. The sky over Stillpond turned gold. *Dzoon.* A deep, heavy sound reverberated from the depths of the earth. From beyond the horizon, a pillar of light rose. Gold. A ten-pull summon. The gate was opening. At the same time, Rin's shout rang out. "Connection complete!! Activating now!!!" The reverse-connection device she had attached to the nuclear reaction furnace blazed with dazzling light. The gate's light scattered in chaotic reflections. The pillar of light, which should have stretched straight toward the player-side world, warped and twisted, shattering like fragments and scattering in all directions. That wave became a tsunami of light, crashing over everyone on the shore. —Then. Ark Valheit suddenly dropped to his knees. "...!?" His golden eyes flew wide open. The wave of the reverse connection had touched the deepest part of his core. Limit Break. The final memories of countless copies—absorbed into him, their egos layered upon his own, sealed within him. They— —Flooded in, like a tsunami. The searing pain of having their cores shattered. Wordless screams just before their egos vanished. The weeping faces of comrades they had cherished like family, in their final moments. "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" A scream that didn't sound human erupted from Ark's mouth. His platinum hair stood on end, and his golden eyes flickered violently. The self-inflicted scar on his right cheek split open with a soft *rip*, blood seeping through. He slammed his forehead against the ground and clawed at his own head with both hands. The mold of a noble hero. The mask of how a ★5 ought to be. The conviction to protect the weak. All of it crumbled from within. "Stop... stop it... please, forgive... forgive me..." His voice trembled like a child's. Lect stared at the sight, momentarily stunned. Even for the man who had returned from three Limit Breaks—the most dangerous ★5 in the Summoning Sphere—this madness was beyond imagination. "...What is the meaning of this." The sword nearly slipped from Lect's hand. Someone seized that opening. From inside the golden gate, light spilled forth. —No. Someone was walking *out* from inside the gate. Long emerald hair swayed, bathed in the gate's light. Odd eyes, different colors on each side. The right, a calm silver. The left—emitting a deep violet phosphorescence, glowing white. Shigure. "...I'm back." Her voice was hoarse. But her left eye unmistakably held the light of one who had gazed into the depths of the system. She placed her right hand on the gate's edge and, just like that, connected her consciousness to the selection logic. The gate's mechanisms—which she had continued to analyze in the second layer, Mediaram. Now, she rewrote them from the outside. "[serious]Coordinate logic, rewrite complete. Converting spawn coordinates from fixed values to random values." Her left eye shone even brighter. Immediately after— Among Vanagloria's subordinates, the bodies of low-rarity members—★3 and below—began to be enveloped in light, one after another. "Wh-what is—" "Stop, I'm being pulled in—!" "Help me!!" The gate was drawing them in. As a legitimate summon. Shigure, having rewritten the selection logic, had forcibly chosen them. The low-rarity members vanished into the gate, one by one. The expression drained from Lect's face. "[cold]...Coordinates... randomized...?" The moment he murmured those words, it was conveyed: all the coordinate data Vanagloria's gate-reading team had been sending from the Igzelion Fortress had become meaningless. Predicting the gate's spawn locations and monopolizing them—that was the very premise upon which Vanagloria had functioned as an organization of four thousand. That premise—had now been destroyed. For the first time, Lect's face turned pale. He glanced at Minato for a single moment. A mere ★2 who had groveled in the gate's graveyard. Now, Lect was searing him into his memory as a variable he could no longer ignore. "...We withdraw." Short, and only that. Lect sheathed his sword. The remaining subordinates, shaken but obedient, retreated westward, following him. Ark Valheit still lay collapsed on the ground. With a trembling hand, he grasped the ground at Minato's feet. "[crying]...I... wasn't chosen..." It was the last fragment of the true feelings he had kept locked inside all along. The pressure of being chosen. Loneliness. The price of never being able to show weakness to anyone. And then, he stopped moving. His platinum hair, sprawled on the ground, began to soak in the gray water. Shigure staggered. The glow in her left eye weakened rapidly. Directly interfacing with the system was placing a severe burden on her core. She dropped to her knees, breathing raggedly, her shoulders heaving. "[whispers]...There are things... I saw in the second layer. But for now... just let me rest a little." Minato rushed to her side and supported her shoulders. With only his right arm, he held her slender body. His left arm still wouldn't move. "[gentle]...I'm sorry, Shigure-san. But please, rest now." Shigure smiled faintly and closed her eyes. Rin came running back, still carrying the device on her back. "You idiot! Randomizing the coordinates means gates are gonna start spawning randomly all over this area right now! Let's get the hell out of here!" Just as she said, small gate lights had begun flickering irregularly across the sky of Stillpond. Supporting Shigure, Minato started walking. Following Rin's back, they crossed the shallows of Stillpond and headed for the path to Greyhaven. Behind them, Ark's fallen form grew distant. —Around that time. Deep within the third layer's development level. A vast data space where countless lights ran vertically and horizontally. At its center, a single developer operated a terminal. "Anomaly detected. Unauthorized rewrite intervention in the gate generation logic of Layer 1, Firde. Origin... a backflow signal from Layer 2, Mediaram." Expressionless, the developer's fingers flew across the keyboard. "Bug fix program, preparing to launch. Target—the entire Summoning Sphere. Identification of the intervention source and isolation of the relevant copy recommended." Shigure's code appeared on the screen. The developer, with a doll-like face, continued inputting commands. —The victory was real. But it was also a declaration of war against the very system of the Summoning Sphere. A new threat, still unknown to anyone, was beginning to stir. At a spot a short distance from Stillpond, Minato stopped walking. Rin turned back. "What's up?" "...Shigure-san said it. That there was a developer in the third layer." The lightheartedness vanished from Rin's expression. "[serious]...Is that so." The phosphorescence, nearly extinguished in Shigure's left eye, still flickered faintly. What she had seen in the second layer—surely, it was a truth connected to the very foundation of this world. But now was not yet the time to speak of it. The three began walking again. The gray canopy above remained unchanged. The substrate light continued to seep up from beneath their feet. But the color of that light reflected in Minato's eyes, for the first time, felt not like mere dim phosphorescence—but something carrying a faint warmth. The traces of victory, wrought by the hands of those who had not been chosen, were quietly etched beneath the sky of the Summoning