Zekai couldn't take his eyes off the sword.
Zzzzsup!
Then—a crimson, translucent window materialized directly before him.
[ ARCANA STATUS ]
Originless Rare Sword Acquired
Current State: Sealed
Its true power remains locked.
---
Zekai blinked. "An Originless Rare Sword...? Just how rare is something like this?"
His eyes remained fixed on the floating words.
'Is this... Null Reality's acknowledgment?'
Before he could gather his thoughts, another window unfolded before him.
Zzzzsup!
[ ARCANA QUEST ]
Unlock the weapon before the allotted time expires.
Failure Condition: The weapon's true power will be permanently sealed.
Unlock Timer: 00:05:00
---
"...What?" His face twitched. "So now it's threatening to take it away?"
His thoughts raced.
'Is this because of the Fool...? Is Zero trying to prevent me from obtaining this sword?'
The timer continued its relentless countdown.
00:04:22
00:04:21
...
Nearby, Sebastian frowned. To him, Zekai appeared to be staring into empty space, occasionally waving a hand through thin air.
"...What on earth is he looking at?"
Without answering, Zekai began walking toward the sword.
"Wait." Sebastian stepped directly into his path.
"Don't touch it yet." His gaze never left the colossal sapphire eye floating above them.
"Until today... no one has ever touched that eye." His voice lowered.
"And everyone who tried... died."
Blood continued dripping from the wound along his ear. Reaching inside his coat, he retrieved a small glass vial filled with dark crimson liquid. Without hesitation, he drank it.
The Grave Healing Potion flowed through his body.
The bleeding stopped almost instantly. The wound began knitting itself together.
Yet... it refused to close completely.
Sebastian silently stared at the shallow cut.
Grave Healing Potions could restore nearly any ordinary injury.
This one... was different. His expression darkened.
"...Just as I expected."
Zekai glanced toward him.
'What's he talking about...?'
Another glance at the Arcana window.
[ ARCANA STATUS ]
Unlock Timer: 00:03:21
---
Sebastian gently touched the wound.
"A mere scratch... and even a Grave Healing Potion couldn't fully heal it." His voice carried an unfamiliar weight.
"If this is only the aftermath of a graze... then I don't even want to imagine the sword's true power."
Silence settled between them. Yet Sebastian understood something even more important.
Null Reality possessed laws older than history itself. Absolute laws. Once a weapon acknowledged its owner... nothing could sever that bond.
Not strength. Not authority. Not even death.
He turned toward Zekai.
"Zekai." His tone was calm.
"If this weapon has accepted you..."
"This weapon possesses power that cannot be controlled carelessly."
"...then it already belongs to your soul." He stepped aside.
"Draw it."
Zekai nodded. There wasn't any time left to hesitate.
He wrapped his fingers around the hilt. The instant his skin touched the grip—an overwhelming pressure surged straight into his arm.
"...!"
It felt as though an entire mountain rested upon his shoulders.
He pulled. Nothing. The sword remained perfectly still.
His grip tightened.
The Authority of the Fool activated, and invisible energy flowed through his body.
He pulled harder.
Still... nothing.
Sebastian quietly observed him, then spoke.
"You're forcing it. That's why it refuses."
Zekai looked at him.
Sebastian continued.
"Do what you did before. Silence your thoughts."
"Become one with the sword."
"...Then let the blade decide your worth."
Zekai slowly closed his eyes. He inhaled. Then exhaled. Everything disappeared.
When he opened his awareness once more—the world had changed. It was no longer filled with color.
Only black... and white.
The endless grass. The distant horizon. The floating eyes.
Everything had become monochrome. Everything... except two things.
The colossal sapphire eye, and the sword resting in his hand. Both shone vividly against the colorless world.
Then—a voice echoed from the depths of the blade. Ancient. Calm. Timeless.
"What is your desire?"
It wasn't asking. It was judging. A question that permitted no deception, no hesitation, and no falsehood.
Zekai answered immediately.
"...Battle." His voice remained unwavering.
"I want to reclaim everything that was taken from me."
He tightened his grip.
"So... lend me your strength. ...And your will."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ ARCANA WARNING ]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Unlock Timer: 00:00:22
Twenty-two seconds remaining.
Failure will permanently seal Originless Rare Sword.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Silence.
Then—the sword answered.
A violent storm erupted beneath the blade. The endless plains trembled.
Countless blades buried throughout Null Reality vibrated in response.
Aron's face flashed before Zekai.
His smile. His sacrifice. His final moments.
Marcus.
The Graveyard Dimension.
His own helplessness. Every regret. Every failure. Every emotion collided within his heart. Not enough.
Never enough.
The sword responded. It accepted them all.
Zzzzsup!
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ ARCANA WARNING ]
Unlock Timer:
00:00:02
Failure Imminent
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"The real fight hasn't even begun."
CLANG!!
With a deafening metallic roar—
The forgotten blade was drawn for the first time in countless ages.
For one impossible heartbeat...Nothing moved.
The storm ceased.
The endless grass bowed outward in silent circles.
Every ancient weapon buried across Null Reality stood perfectly still.
As though the entire forgotten world...had paused to witness the return of its rightful blade.
Zekai stared at the sword in disbelief.
It didn't feel heavy anymore. It felt...like it had always belonged in his hand.
Then—
His body moved on instinct. He swung.
The instant its dark blade left the earth—Zekai instinctively swung it forward in a wide arc.
SHHHHHK!!
A single slash. Nothing more.
Yet the compressed shockwave ripped through the endless plains. The air itself split apart.
Far behind him—Crack.
Sebastian's glasses shattered into countless fragments. His pupils trembled.
"...Impossible..." His voice barely escaped his lips.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ ARCANA ARSENAL UPDATED ]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
New Weapon Acquired
Name:
Null Drakular
Classification:
Originless Rare Sword
Status:
Unlocked and Registered
Soul Synchronization: Established
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ QUEST COMPLETED ]
Originless Rare Sword Unlocked
Reward:
Authority Synchronization Increased
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Zekai slowly lowered the sword.
Streams of radiant light began spiraling around the blade. Crimson. Azure. Gold. Silver. Emerald. Red. Black.
Dozens of colors intertwined around Null Drakular like living constellations.
The polished steel reflected his face. For a long moment... he simply stared.
His entire life had been spent watching.
Watching tragedy. Watching people die. Watching opportunities slip away.
Always arriving too late. Always powerless.
Never again.
He slowly raised the sword toward the endless sky.
"My name... is Zekai Krystan." His gaze stretched across the infinite horizon of Null Reality.
A quiet smile appeared.
"No longer the Watcher..."
His grip tightened around Null Drakular.
"From now on..."
The blade gleamed. His eyes no longer carried hesitation—
only resolve.
He looked toward the endless horizon.
"...I'm The Hunter."
✦ End of Chapter 47 — The Null Drakular ✦