The room didn't feel silent. It felt… paused. Like something had already happened—and the sound just hadn't arrived yet.
Zekai stood still, staring at the Grave Lens placed in front of him. His throat felt dry as he swallowed slowly. This object was supposed to reveal what kind of resonance existed inside him. But deep inside, he felt something else.
Uncertainty. If they discovered what was truly inside him… he wouldn't be treated like a human anymore.
'If they find out… I'll just become another lab rat to them.'
He closed his eyes for a moment and slowly raised his hand.
Then he placed it on the sphere. For a few seconds, nothing happened.
No light. No sound. The sphere remained still. For a moment, nothing touched the sphere.
Then something arrived. Not through the door.
Not through the air.
It didn't enter. It was already there.
A point in space collapsed just above the Grave Lens. A thin line of heat appeared—no larger than a thread.
The wall behind it split a second later.
Then the front wall followed—like both had already been pierced and were only now realizing it.
The damage didn't occur when the line appeared. It had already happened. The line was just the world catching up to it.
The line reached the sphere—and stopped. For a fraction of a second, everything held.
Then the Grave Lens reacted. Not to impact—but to intrusion.
It wasn't built to detect force. It reacted to presence—anything that didn't belong to this layer.
The darkness inside it twisted violently, as if something foreign had entered its domain.
Then it burst. The shockwave came after. The second wall didn't break from the strike.
It collapsed from what followed. By the time the sound reached them, the damage had already been done.
A deafening blast tore through the room.
The Grave Lens erupted, releasing a violent shockwave that shook the entire building. The walls cracked, the floor trembled, and Zekai, Sebastian, and Iris were thrown backward.
The sphere itself didn't fully shatter—but everything around it collapsed. One side of the interrogation room wall burst open, sunlight cutting through the dust-filled air.
But something felt wrong. That destruction didn't come from the inside alone.
Someone else had interfered.
Smoke flooded the room instantly, thick enough to erase all visibility. The air turned heavy—suffocating.
For a few seconds—no one could tell who was where.
Iris groaned as she slowly regained consciousness.
"Ah… what… what happened… Captain…?"
No answer. Instead a sharp, pained cry echoed through the smoke.
"ACK—!"
Iris forced herself up, her vision still blurred. She covered one eye against the dust and tried to focus.
Then she saw it.
Something stood in the smoke. Not hidden. Just… not fully acknowledged yet.
Zekai was on the ground. A figure stood over him. A man wearing a white mask and a red-toned outfit.
Across his chest, a large scissor symbol was carved into the fabric, sharp and deliberate… like something meant to cut more than just flesh.
But something was wrong. The smoke was avoiding him with pressure. The air rippled, like heat trapped in a form that refused to show itself.
His hand was wrapped around Zekai's throat, squeezing tightly.
Zekai's body struggled violently. His eyes widened as his breathing stopped. His hands instinctively grabbed the attacker's wrist, trying to break free.
But he couldn't. Something was wrong. The power he had used earlier It wasn't responding.
"…It's not gone. I'm just not connected to it anymore."
'Why…?'
'I can't use it…'
The pressure increased. His vision started to darken.
'Who is this…?'
'Why is he trying to kill me…?'
Iris froze for a second. This wasn't normal because this was BSA headquarters. No outsider and public should have been able to enter this easily.
"Zekai—!" she shouted.
She quickly turned, searching for Sebastian.
He lay collapsed in a corner, unconscious. Blood stained the side of his neck.
Iris rushed toward him, checking his condition.
"…No… Captain…"
A deep burn mark was visible near the wall behind him.
It had missed his head by inches and struck his neck instead. The impact from the earlier blast had thrown him off balance just enough to save his life.
Which meant the attacker had already tried to kill him.
Iris clenched her teeth.
"No time to think."
She grabbed a broken chair from the floor and hurled it toward the attacker.
The chair crashed into him. But it didn't even slow him down.
The masked man didn't move. His grip on Zekai tightened further. He wanted to finish this quickly.
Iris understood immediately. Brute force wouldn't work. So She changed tactics.
Iris moved before fear could decide for her.
She slipped behind him and locked her arms around his neck, her grip tightening as Grave Energy surged through her palms.
"Don't… move."
Dark energy surged from her palms. An illusion formed. 'Perception fracture.'
It didn't affect the outside world.
Inside the attacker's perception, For a fraction of a second the world around the attacker fractured. Not visually.
Internally depth collapsed. Distance overlapped. Direction lost meaning.
Inside his vision everything turned black. darkness of absence. Like sight itself had been cut. From the outside—nothing changed.
The mask hid everything. No distortion. No visible reaction. But inside His perception had been severed.
His sense of space… delayed and movement—misaligned. For the first time He hesitated.
For a brief moment—
His movement faltered. That opening was enough. His grip loosened.
Zekai dropped to the ground, gasping as air rushed back into his lungs. His hands clutched his throat as he struggled to breathe.
Zekai didn't move. Because for a second—he had already seen this happen.
'I… can't feel anything…'
'I can't even sense my own power…'
Zekai forced himself up.
'If I can't use it… then something is blocking it.' Not suppressing—disconnecting.
His eyes fell on the shattered remains of the Grave Lens scattered across the floor. Broken glass shards lay everywhere—each edge razor-sharp, like makeshift weapons.
Zekai's thoughts sharpened along with them.
'For now… if I don't have my powers—then whatever I can get my hands on… becomes my weapon.'
He grabbed one and lunged forward. the shard aimed straight for the attacker's throat.
But the attacker reacted instantly. Even without sight, his Grave Energy compensated—sharpening his perception beyond vision. The incoming glass shard appeared like a blade in his senses.
The man didn't try to block. Instead, he moved at the last possible moment, his hand shooting out to catch Iris by the shoulder.
Before either of them could react. He pulled Iris. For a split second. He had rewritten the position—forcing her into the path of the attack.
Then the shard drove into her.
A wet sound followed as it pierced through her body, blood spraying across Zekai's hand as his movement came to a sudden stop.
"No—!" Too late.
He caught her before she collapsed completely and lowered her carefully to the ground. Her hands trembled as she pressed against the wound.
"Sorry… just rest," Zekai said quickly. "I'll handle this."
But Iris grabbed his wrist. Her eyes met his.
"No… this is our territory. He can't just walk in here and leave that easily. Backup will soon."
Zekai shook his head.
"You can't fight anymore. I'll handle him. For some reason… He's here for me."
But Iris refused to step back. Even through the pain, she forced herself to stand.
"Stay back… if you get any closer right now—I won't be able to tell if you're the problem or the solution."
The moment he heard that, His grip tightened. A cold surge ran through him.
But it wasn't anger. It was something else— a reflection of who he used to be.
"…That's right."
For a brief second—
The image of his mother and father appeared in his mind… Along with Aron.
"Before this… I kept wondering what kind of person I really am…"
Those memories didn't comfort him. They dragged him back into everything painful he had tried to bury. Tightening around his chest like chains.
Something didn't come back with him.
"I'm not the same person anymore."
For the first time, the masked attacker spoke. His voice was distorted.
"BSA… built a system to protect this world…" he said coldly. "With a useless government organization."
"And still couldn't stop it."
"So tell me—what exactly do you protect?"
Iris refused to accept it because she knew how much they had fought to protect people—and this wasn't normal. She didn't hesitate.
"Maybe we can't stop everything," she replied, steady despite the blood loss. "But we can stop monsters like you."
The attacker laughed softly.
"Try all you want. You were finished the moment we noticed you."
Zekai watched them both. His thoughts sharpened.
'Why are they after me…?'
Something tried to respond—then failed. Then forced itself through.
A screen flickered in front of him—unstable, breaking apart before it could fully form.
Struggling, Not activating to show His Arcana status.
✦ End of Chapter 26 — The Intrusion ✦