"Let's bring back the world?"
The words still echoed like a ghost in Yuri's mind. At first they sounded like empty bravado — the kind of thing only someone delusional or desperate would say at the edge of oblivion. Yet… that's exactly what it was. Wishful thinking. A flame sparked from the ashes.
But for Yuri, that ember had been enough. Just hearing it lit something inside him — a stubborn, reckless fire that refused to die.
Weeks passed.
Long, grinding, mind-splintering weeks inside the Palace of Pillars, an endless sky of floating monoliths suspended in a void without horizon. There was no sun. No night. Just a cosmic silence broken only by the hum of ancient stone and Zeek's annoying, incessant sarcasm.
Yuri trained on his own pillar — far from Zeek's — trying to avoid the masked man's constant jabs. He honed the strange new abilities that clung to him like a second skin, pushing his body to adapt to the unnatural flow of power beneath it. Every day was sweat, bruises, and the faint ringing of "not enough… not yet."
But today…
Yuri's patience cracked.
He jumped to his feet, glaring up at Zeek's massive pillar — the one with a throne carved into its peak like some dark monarch's resting place.
Yuri: "Hey!"
Silence.
Zeek didn't even twitch. He lay back across the throne like a lazy deity, arms dangling, head tilted, aura barely flickering.
Yuri: "I know you can hear me! What happened to: Let's bring back the world!?"
Finally, Zeek sat up — slowly, like he was being forced by some cosmic boredom — and stared down at Yuri with that detached, soul-empty look.
Zeek:sighs "…You never get tired of talking, do you."
Yuri's jaw dropped. He blinked, astonished and insulted, thinking:
What the hell is this dude's problem…?
Zeek rose from the throne, scratching the back of his neck like he'd just woken from a nap. And without warning—
BOOM.
He dropped off his pillar.
The impact cracked Yuri's entire pillar, blowing him a full step back as dust rolled across the stone.
Zeek walked through the settling haze with his hands in his pockets — casual, unbothered, almost bored.
Zeek: "Look. I wasn't joking when I said we'd bring back our world. But to do that, we'll have to face obstacles far beyond anything we've ever known. Things that don't even fit inside normal comprehension. We need to be strong enough to survive all that."
Zeek stopped in front of Yuri.
His tone sharpened.
Zeek: "Now tell me — why do you think I chose you, out of anyone else?"
Yuri tilted his head, genuinely confused.
Yuri: "Uhm… you mean… there was a reason?"
Zeek: "Of course there was. I didn't choose you randomly. I've been searching for you for a while."A beat."It's because we match."
Yuri: "Uh—what? In search? And you're just telling me now? What do you mean match?"
Zeek paused. A deep, quiet breath.
A rare moment of honesty cracked through.
Zeek: "I don't know for sure. But something about you… or maybe it's not you at all. There's this force around you… something that resonates with my shadows. Like a moth drawn to flame."
Yuri's face distorted — horror, discomfort, confusion — all mixing together.
Zeek blinked.Zeek: "…What?"
Yuri: "Do you… like… have a crush on me or something? I–I mean, I'm flattered but I don't—"
CRACK.
Zeek smacked him on the head.
Zeek: "Quit talking nonsense! That's not even close to what I meant."
Yuri groaned, rubbing the fresh ache.
Zeek ran a hand through his hair, clearly regretting trying to explain anything at all.
Zeek: "Forget it. Moving on. The reason we've stayed here this long is because I thought being around me might awaken something in you — a skill, a trait, anything. But so far? No luck. So we're leaving."
Yuri lit up instantly.
Yuri: "Yes! Finally! So where do we go? And… uh… how do we go?"He glanced around the void, remembering there were no doors, no paths, no sky.
Zeek: "Right now, we're still on the First Level. So we need to progress."
Yuri: "Hold on — first level? What do you mean?"
Zeek gave him a flat look — the kind you give someone who missed the entire plot.
Zeek: "Try to keep up. Remember when I told you this world works like a game? Well, like any game, there are multiple levels. Or so people think. Nobody has a real explanation. Some say the levels are stacked like layers. Others say they're rifts, connected by invisible paths."
He looked off into the void.
Zeek: "Either way, most survivors have already gone beyond this level. And we need to as well."
Yuri scratched his cheek.
Yuri: "I mean… that kinda makes sense, I guess. So how do we move forward?"
Zeek: "That's the thing. To progress, we need to defeat the final boss of this level. And apparently, everyone's final boss is different. There's no way to predict it. You'll just… know."
A chill crawled down Yuri's spine.A personal final boss? Something shaped for him?
Yuri: "Zeek… how do you know so much about all this…?"
Zeek didn't answer.
He turned away, and with a flicker of shadow, jumped back to his throne — leaving only a whisper of dark air behind him.
Zeek: "Get ready. We move tomorrow."
Yuri stared.
Yuri: "…He… he ignored me."