The sky above Argentinis had not returned to normal.
Even weeks after the global shift, the air carried a strange pressure — like the world was holding its breath.
Kael stood atop the western battlements of the capital, cloak snapping in the cold wind. Below him, the city glittered in fractured calm. Markets were open. Lanterns burned. Guards patrolled.
But the threads of reality above the rooftops trembled.
He could see them now without focusing.
Hairline fractures.
Not chaos. Not destruction.
Absence.
The Ivory Circle had begun calling it the Hollowing.
The Crimson Veil called it divine laughter.
The Obsidian Order called it an opportunity.
Kael called it wrong.
Behind him, footsteps approached.
"Reports from the southern quarter," said Captain Varis quietly. "Another hunter lost his path."
Kael didn't turn. "Lost?"
"He activated his Endurance thread during a skirmish with a low-tier beast. The thread… flickered. Then vanished."
"Vanished," Kael repeated.
"Completely."
No recoil. No backlash.
No corruption.
Just… gone.
Kael's fingers tightened around the stone railing.
This was no longer random instability.
Paths were being erased.
Panic Beneath the Surface
Inside the royal palace, the mood had shifted from concern to fear.
The Royal Family of Argentinis did not show weakness publicly — but behind closed doors, factions fractured.
Some whispered that the Judge had begun cleansing the world.
Some believed the gods were at war.
Some accused the Ivory Circle of tampering with forbidden artifacts.
And a smaller, quieter faction feared something worse.
A Path that was not a Path.
Kael walked through the underground halls of the Ivory Circle headquarters that night.
He was not here officially.
He was not even supposed to know this section existed.
But influence opened doors that rank could not.
A senior archivist had "accidentally" left a vault unsecured.
Kael had noticed.
He stepped inside.
Rows of sealed artifacts lined the chamber. Most pulsed faintly with elemental resonance.
But one display case in the center was empty.
Only a plaque remained.
Designation: Null FragmentStatus: Contained — Breach during Global Shift
Kael's pulse slowed.
Null.
He had heard the word once before.
From Black Crow.
The Survivor
He found the survivor by accident.
Or perhaps not by accident at all.
It was raining when Kael left the archives. The storm carried no thunder, only a strange static in the air.
He felt it before he saw it.
A hollow in the threads.
Like someone had cut a piece out of the world.
In a ruined chapel at the edge of the industrial district, Kael stepped through broken doors and stopped.
A man sat at the altar.
No aura.
No visible path.
No thread connection.
Kael's instincts screamed.
Hunters without threads did not exist.
The man lifted his head slowly.
His eyes were clear.
Too clear.
"You see it," the man said softly. "Don't you?"
Kael did not draw his weapon.
"Who are you?"
The man smiled faintly.
"I used to be a Pathwalker."
Used to be.
"What path?" Kael asked.
The man tilted his head.
"None."
The word felt heavier than it should have.
The Absence
Kael focused.
Normally, when he looked at someone, he saw their thread alignment. The color, the resonance, the faint vibration that tied them to a Path.
This man had nothing.
Not hidden.
Not suppressed.
Nothing.
As if the world refused to acknowledge him.
"You survived the shift," Kael said.
"Yes."
"How?"
The man's gaze sharpened.
"I didn't."
Silence filled the chapel.
Rain struck broken glass like distant applause.
"I was erased," the man continued calmly. "My Path was taken from me. My connection severed."
Kael's mind moved quickly.
"Taken by what?"
The man's fingers trembled slightly on the altar.
"By something that feeds on structure."
Internal Collapse
Elsewhere in Argentinis, panic bloomed quietly.
Reports spread:
Three artificial-path users experienced sudden thread collapse.
A noble heir lost her elemental alignment mid-ceremony.
Two Crimson Veil members vanished entirely.
The Royal Council convened emergency sessions.
The Ivory Circle locked down research wings.
The Obsidian Order began drafting conscription protocols.
No one said it aloud.
But everyone thought it.
If Paths could disappear…
Power meant nothing.
Back in the Chapel
Kael stepped closer.
"Explain."
The man studied him carefully.
"You're Control Path."
It wasn't a question.
"Yes."
"You feel it more than most."
Kael did not deny it.
He had sensed the global shift before anyone else named it.
He had felt the fractures widen.
"You're not chaos," the man said. "You're not order. You're not despair."
He leaned forward.
"You're the only one who might survive what's coming."
Kael's jaw tightened.
"Stop speaking in riddles."
The man's eyes darkened.
"There is a Path beneath all Paths."
Kael felt his heartbeat slow.
"Natural?" he asked.
The man shook his head.
"Not natural. Not artificial."
He whispered the word.
"Null."
The Truth
"The gods built systems," the survivor continued. "Natural Paths are inheritances. Artificial Paths are engineered."
Kael listened.
"But Null," the man said, "is subtraction."
"Subtraction?"
"It doesn't distort like Chaos. It doesn't destroy like Destruction. It doesn't erase souls like Death."
His voice dropped.
"It removes connection."
The rain intensified.
"Why would it exist?" Kael asked.
The man's lips curved bitterly.
"Because something wanted the world quiet."
Panic Within the Palace
At that same moment, in the royal war chamber, an argument erupted.
A young prince slammed his fist onto the table.
"We deploy the Obsidian Order now!"
An elder councilor snapped back, "Against what? An absence?"
The High Priest of the Ivory Circle spoke calmly.
"This is not a military threat."
"It's worse," someone muttered.
The Queen had remained silent until now.
Her gaze was steady.
"Find the source," she ordered. "Before the people do."
Because if hunters began losing their Paths publicly…
Argentinis would fracture.
Kael's Question
Back in the chapel, Kael studied the man carefully.
"Why are you alive?"
The Null survivor hesitated.
"For reasons I don't fully understand."
Kael's mind sharpened.
"Someone let you live."
The man's expression flickered.
"Yes."
"Why?"
The man looked at Kael directly.
"To spread awareness."
"Or fear?"
"Both."
The Hollow Field
Suddenly, Kael felt it.
A tremor.
The threads around them wavered.
Not violently.
Not chaotically.
They simply dimmed.
The survivor exhaled slowly.
"It's close."
Kael's instincts screamed.
His Control threads flared instinctively, stabilizing the immediate space around him.
The air crackled.
But where his threads touched the survivor—
They dissolved.
Like light swallowed by darkness.
Kael staggered half a step.
For the first time in months—
His power had been denied.
The Entity
From the doorway of the chapel, something stood.
Not a monster.
Not a god.
Not even fully visible.
It was a silhouette against the rain.
Edges blurred.
Threads around it snapped silently.
No sound.
No distortion.
Just absence.
Kael felt no hostility.
No rage.
No hatred.
Only… erasure.
The survivor closed his eyes.
"It found me."
Kael stepped forward.
His Control Path flared brighter.
"You don't move," he said calmly to the silhouette.
The air trembled.
For a brief second—
The Null presence paused.
Not repelled.
Not damaged.
Paused.
Kael understood.
It wasn't unstoppable.
It could be slowed.
Measured.
The Choice
The survivor looked at Kael urgently.
"If you fight it head-on, your threads will thin."
"I know."
"If you overextend, you will become like me."
Kael's gaze remained steady.
"I know."
The silhouette shifted slightly.
The chapel walls behind it faded at the edges.
Not destroyed.
Removed.
Kael's mind moved rapidly.
He did not attack.
He did not escalate.
He adjusted.
Instead of reinforcing his own threads, he stabilized the environment.
He strengthened the chapel's structure.
The ground.
The air.
The stone.
He anchored reality itself.
The Null entity hesitated again.
It was designed to remove connections.
But Kael wasn't pushing threads outward.
He was reinforcing the world.
The difference mattered.
Retreat
After a long moment, the silhouette flickered.
Then thinned.
Then vanished.
The rain returned to normal.
The pressure lifted.
Kael exhaled slowly.
The survivor stared at him in disbelief.
"You… adapted."
Kael's voice was calm.
"It was testing."
The man swallowed.
"It doesn't test randomly."
Kael turned toward the doorway.
"Then it wasn't here for you."
Realization
Back in the palace, alarms sounded.
Not physical alarms.
Thread alarms.
An entire archive wing of artificial Path relics had gone dark.
Every artifact.
Gone.
Not broken.
Not stolen.
Disconnected.
The Royal Family panicked.
The Ivory Circle sealed off research.
The Obsidian Order mobilized quietly.
Rumors began spreading through hunter networks.
Something was hunting the systems.
Final Conversation
In the chapel, the survivor stood slowly.
"What will you do?" he asked.
Kael considered the fractured skyline of Argentinis.
If Null spread—
Chaos users would vanish.
Order users would collapse.
Artificial enhancements would fail.
Even elemental paths might flicker.
But Control…
Control interacted with systems.
It did not rely entirely on them.
Kael's eyes sharpened.
"I will not chase it blindly."
The survivor frowned.
"Then?"
Kael's gaze darkened slightly.
"I will find out who allowed it to exist."
Because Null did not feel accidental.
It felt deliberate.
Engineered.
Or summoned.
Final Scene
As Kael walked back toward the palace, rain soaking his cloak, he felt something shift within himself.
Not growth.
Not power.
Awareness.
The world was changing.
Not toward chaos.
Not toward domination.
Toward subtraction.
And somewhere within Argentinis—
Someone knew more than they should.
High above the city, unseen by mortals—
A god watched.
Not intervening.
Not speaking.
Only observing.
Because even gods feared a Path that did not acknowledge them.
And in the dark corridors beneath the royal palace—
A sealed chamber quietly emptied itself.
No explosion.
No tremor.
Just absence.
The Null had begun.
And Argentinis was not ready.