The world is ending, but not all at once. It's unraveling at the seams—cracks in reality where past and future bleed through, warping everything they touch. Yoiyami Ren wakes in a city of rubble with nothing but his name and a burn scar on his palm. He remembers nothing. Not who he is, not what he's done, not why the people of this broken city flinch away when they see his face.
Then a woman named Hisame Setsuna finds him, carrying a cloth-wrapped staff and a proposition: become the world's las
Waiting for You at the Seam of the End - The Nameless Hands of Ash
The wind had stopped.
Yoiyami Ren stood before the final fault, gripping the seam-staff with both hands. The exposed surface of the staff was covered in countless fine grooves. Their ridges bit into his palms. Cold. So cold, so heavy, so quiet that it was hard to believe this thing could ever birth flame.
The sky overhead was no longer a sky.
Giant fissures ran in every direction across the gray heavens. Rifts that pierced the clouds and stretched to the very edge of the sky. What lay beyond them was neither black nor red. It was a color that made the core of your skull tingle when you looked at it—the color of nothing. The world's wound had spread across the entire sky.
The ground beneath his feet was the same.
The center of the Legret Sphere. The central ruins of a crumbling magical city. The wreckage of broken towers jutted from the ashen earth. Threading between them ran countless cracks. The largest fault, over twenty meters wide, gaped before him like a mouth of deep darkness.
The surrounding buildings showed both their half-built and their collapsed forms at once. Steel beams sprouted from walls that shouldn't exist. Stone paving cut off in midair. Time itself was broken.
*I'll burn this place.*
Ren thought.
*Burn it, and seal it. Remake the world.*
The memories from two days ago still barely remained. No—only the memories from two days ago remained, with a cruel clarity. What he had done. Who he had burned. Who he had lost.
Mina's hand. A small hand reaching out from beneath the rubble. The moment he grasped it, it turned to ash. Warm ash spilling through the gaps between his fingers.
Kanata's back. Inside the flames. The back that had shoved him aside and been swallowed by fire. New burns layered over the old scars on his right arm.
*I burned again.*
*With the flame meant to seal, I tore the world open.*
Ren tightened his grip on the staff.
—That was when it happened.
"Ren."
A voice came from behind him.
He turned. Hisame Setsuna stood there. Her long red hair swayed in the ash-laden wind. The ends were singed and curled, and her waist-length hair looked almost painfully vivid against the ruined world. An old burn scar, left by a seam-staff, ran across her left cheek. When she smiled, it twisted.
But Setsuna wasn't smiling now.
Her amber eyes looked straight at Ren. Eyes so clear they were unreadable. And now, somehow, they looked sad.
"The final fault, huh."
Setsuna's voice was quiet.
"If you burn this place, you'll forget everything. Me. Mina. Kanata. What you did. What you lost. All of it."
Ren said nothing.
The wind blew. Ash danced. The fissures in the sky groaned.
"And you're still okay with that?"
Setsuna's question settled into Ren's chest, quiet and heavy.
Ren looked at his left hand.
The old burn scar on his palm. A warped shape, as if he'd crushed something in his grip. He didn't know why it had burned. He didn't know what he'd crushed. Without knowing, only the mark remained, all this time.
*Remembering my sins—*
*There's something more important than that.*
Ren raised his head.
"It's fine if I forget."
His voice was hoarse. Ash was still lodged in the back of his throat. The smoke from two days ago. The scorched air. A throat screamed raw. Even so, the words came out clear.
"More important than remembering my sins is building a world where no one gets erased."
Setsuna's expression changed.
It was the first time. The first time Ren had ever seen Setsuna's smile vanish completely. Expressionless. No—not expressionless. Her lips were trembling, just slightly.
"...You."
Setsuna's voice wavered faintly.
"Do you really mean that?"
"I mean it."
Ren looked straight at her.
"I don't want to erase anyone anymore. Not Mina, not Kanata, not you. I don't want to burn anyone. So I'll burn. Burn it all, and remake it. A world where no one gets hurt."
Setsuna stared at him for a long time.
The wind caught her red hair. Ash swirled between them. The fissures in the sky groaned again.
"...I see."
Setsuna murmured softly.
Then, quietly, she took one step back.
"Go on, then."
She never took her eyes off him.
"I'll watch. The burning. The erasing. All of it. I'll remember it for you."
Ren nodded.
He turned his back on her and stood before the fault.
The cracks at his feet ran deep and dark, endless. Cold wind blew up from their depths. The distortion of time brushed against his skin. The sensation of past and future bleeding together.
"Ren!!"
A shout rang out.
He turned. Haihara Kanata was running toward him from beyond the collapsed rubble. His short brown hair was caked with ash, his bedhead even worse than usual. His dark brown eyes were bloodshot. Soot clung to his face, his lips were cracked. From elbow to wrist, his right arm bore new burns layered over old scars. The skin was peeling, raw red-black flesh showing through.
"Stop it! You—you can't still be—!"
Kanata shouted at him.
"I'll find a way to use the staff without losing your memories—I swear I will! So you don't have to burn anymore! There's no need to burn anything—!"
Kanata's voice was nearly drowned out by the sounds of the collapsing world. Still, he kept shouting.
"Even if you forget, I won't! What you did—I remember all of it! So you don't have to forget anything!"
Ren looked at Kanata.
A face wet with tears. A face twisted and mangled with anger, grief, and frustration. And yet those eyes looked straight at Ren.
"Kanata."
Ren's voice was quiet.
"That you tried to stop me. I won't forget that."
"You're gonna forget! If you burn, you'll forget everything!"
"Even if I forget, you'll remember. That's enough."
Kanata's face contorted.
"Don't give me that... don't give me that, you bastard...!"
Kanata punched the ground. His fist sank into the ashen earth. Blood welled up. Still, he kept punching.
"I just wanted you to live! That's all! Why do you always—!"
Ren looked away from him.
There was no more time. The fissures in the sky were widening. The final fault was howling. The world was screaming.
Ren raised the seam-staff.
With both hands, high, toward the sky.
"Big brother!!"
A voice.
He turned. Tomoshibi Mina stood there. Her brown braid whipped violently in the wind. Her green eyes gazed straight at him. Thin shoes. Dirty cheeks. A small burn scar on the nape of her neck.
"Big brother, don't go anywhere!"
Mina's voice broke through the roar of collapse and reached Ren's ears.
"I won't forget you, big brother! Not in the last world, not in this one—I'll always remember you! So—!"
Mina reached out her hand toward Ren.
"So you don't forget me either, big brother—!"
Something deep in Ren's chest creaked.
*Mina.*
*I'm going to forget you.*
*If I burn, I'll forget everything.*
Ren smiled at her.
"Mina."
"I won't forget you."
It was a lie.
If he burned, he would forget. He knew that. Even so, he couldn't help saying it.
Mina's face crumpled.
"Big brother—!"
Her scream was swallowed by the sounds of the world.
Ren faced forward.
The final fault. The fissures in the sky. The crumbling world.
*This is the end.*
*Burn it all, and remake it.*
*A world where no one is erased.*
Ren swung the staff down.
—In that instant.
The world burst white.
Flame was born.
From the tip of the staff, white fire raced outward in every direction. It swallowed the ground, the sky, the world in an instant. Hot. Painful. His vision was painted over in pure white.
The flame spread soundlessly from the final fault to the ends of the world.
The fissures in the sky were wrapped in fire. The cracks in the ground were sealed by fire. The half-collapsed buildings crumbled quietly within the flames. Ash became finer ash. The world, once, returned entirely to ash.
Ren stood within the fire.
He felt no heat. He felt no pain. He only felt something inside him burning away.
His memories were burning.
His mother's face.
The name of the town where he grew up.
His own age.
Setsuna's smile.
Kanata's shouts.
Mina's voice.
Everything turned to ash, soundlessly.
*I—*
*Who was I again?*
Ren's consciousness receded.
The flame wrapped around the world.
—And then, everything went quiet.
...
He didn't know how much time had passed.
When he came to, Ren was standing on ash.
A sea of ash.
White ash. Fine ash. A gray world stretching endlessly. Sky and ground were indistinguishable. Everything was covered in ash.
The wind blew.
Ash rose into the air.
*Where is this?*
Ren thought.
*Who am I?*
There was no answer.
His head was empty. He couldn't remember anything. Not his own name, not why he was here, not what he'd been doing. Everything was buried in the white ash.
—That was when it happened.
The ash at his feet moved.
No—the ash didn't move. Something was growing from beneath it.
The ground swelled.
The gray earth layered itself, stacking up. As if something were pushing it up from below.
Ren's eyes widened.
*What is this?*
The ashen earth was changing shape.
The swollen ground became walls. The walls became buildings. The towers that should have been broken rose slowly from the ash. Stone paving laid itself down. A city was taking form.
The land of Legret was regenerating.
The collapsed buildings rose one after another in new forms. Broken towers stretched straight up. Ruined walls were restored. The ashen wasteland became cobblestone streets.
The cracks of the fault were gone.
The countless fissures that had run through the ground closed, one after another. The fissures in the sky were the same. The giant rifts that had torn across the gray heavens sealed quietly shut.
The world was being remade.
A world where no one was erased, no one was burned, no one was hurt, was being born from the ash.
Ren stared at the sight, dumbfounded.
*Beautiful.*
That was what he thought.
He didn't know why. He only thought that the sight of the world being reborn before his eyes was terribly, terribly beautiful.
—The world was complete.
That was the moment.
Something inside Ren burst.
Eight times' worth of memories erupted all at once.
His mother's face.
The name of the town where he grew up.
His own age.
Setsuna's smile.
Kanata's shouts.
Mina's voice.
Everything turned to ash, soundlessly.
*Ah.*
*I'm disappearing.*
Ren felt his memories vanish, one after another. He didn't know what he was losing. Without knowing, something inside him was certainly turning to ash.
*I—*
*Who am I?*
Ren stood motionless atop the rubble.
At the edge of the new world's rubble-strewn city. In a corner of a soot-stained alley.
He didn't know his own name.
He didn't know why he was here.
He didn't know why the burn scar on his left hand was there.
Ren looked at his left hand.
The old burn scar on his palm. A warped shape, as if he'd crushed something in his grip.
*What is this?*
Ren stared at the scar.
Then he noticed that the scar was shaped like someone's hand being held.
He had held someone's hand.
Someone's hand had turned to ash.
—He didn't understand.
But deep in his chest, something ached.
A pain like nostalgia, for reasons he didn't know. As if he'd lost something. As if he could never get something back. That kind of pain squeezed slowly at the center of his chest.
Ren pressed a hand to his chest.
*It hurts.*
*Why?*
There was no answer.
From somewhere far off, the bustle of the new city reached him. The crowd of the market. The calls of merchants. The laughter of children. Lively, warm sounds.
Ren raised his head.
A new city in a new world.
*Where is this?*
*Who am I?*
Nameless, Ren nonetheless tried to take a step forward.
—Elsewhere in the rubble-strewn city.
Setsuna stood before a well.
The morning light reflected off the water's surface, glittering. Setsuna stared at her own face reflected in the well water.
There was no burn scar on her left cheek.
No trace of flame.
Setsuna touched her cheek softly.
Smooth skin. An unmarred, smooth cheek.
"...Huh?"
Set
Novelia is an AI-powered platform to read original light novels and fan fiction, create your own in just a few taps, and chat with the characters. New, illustrated episodes arrive daily — free to start.