A moment ago...
C was in shock. His thoughts waged war against each other, trying to make sense of what he was seeing—Zero was now the enemy they had to face.
Why? Why was Zero doing this? Had he truly become a villain? Or had he always been this way, and they just never noticed?
C looked at his brothers and the rest of the group. A wooden stick—or whatever it was—pierced through every one of them. He could hear their voices, weak and desperate, calling out to Zero for help. But then came the realization—the crushing weight of it.
You can't ask for help from someone who needs it more.
Maybe that was the problem all along. Maybe Zero had needed their help but didn't know how to ask for it. Instead, they buried him under their own struggles, using him for support until he lost himself completely.
"What the hell is going on?" C muttered. "First K… then the twister… and now this?"
Wait. Where was K?
K had disappeared, and yet Zero was now thriving with power. Did K do something to Zero? Or was it the other way around?
Now that he thought about it… When they were younger, they imagined so many things together. Even though the age gap between them was only a matter of days, Zero had always treated C like he was older—no, like he was his father. His word had been absolute, respected more than anyone else's.
And yet, I still didn't understand who Zero really was.
It didn't feel right. Something was wrong.
Back in the therapy session, when we entered, the lights had been on. But when Zero stepped inside, the lights went out. And no one knew who had turned them off.
Then, just before they teleported, Zero had spoken the exact words I had been thinking.
With a single word, Zero had deactivated the soldiers' abilities.
He could fly.
He could summon a head from nowhere to create a tornado.
He spoke directly into my mind, telling what he was doing.
And finally, he attacked them with something from Earth itself.
None of it made sense. There was no common thread between these abilities.
even i can't say for sure this is his power?
Power????????... Why hadn't I thought about it before?
They had always said our power came from the door, reacting with emotion to create abilities. That was why I had light-based powers. But if that was true, how could I move as fast as fire or water when light was supposed to be the fastest thing in the universe?
Shadow had powers, too—a weird black flames, that has nothing to do with shadows.
It all felt... unreal. Like everything is imagined...It felt like...
[Illusion.]
A voice cut through C's thoughts.
He turned sharply. Zero stood before him, silently signaling him to come closer.
C hesitated but stepped forward, approaching Zero.
But when he turned his head back toward the battlefield, his breath caught.
Zero was still there—standing in the exact same spot, facing Jun, preparing to fight.
And then, his eyes widened.
He saw himself. Standing still. Unmoving.
His mind reeled. How?
Heart pounding, he turned to the Zero beside him.
"How?"
Zero met his gaze, calm and unreadable.
"Wait," he said. "Just watch, and I'll explain."
......................________________________________________...
No one knows what Zero told C to this day......
.......................________________________________________
But the 28 saw another C in front of them, telling them he dealt with Zero.
They all looked confused, not knowing what they were seeing. Had something gone wrong with their eyes?
They saw two Cs—one in front of them, embracing Zero and crying because of his death, and another behind them, claiming he had dealt with him.
They were ready to fight the new C. How could they deny that Zero was dead when his corpse was right in front of them?
So D stepped forward and asked him what he meant.
C started to explain with just one word:
"Unveil."
The atmosphere changed drastically. They all felt something inside them twisting or disappearing. It didn't matter what was happening—something definitely was.
Outside, they saw sparks everywhere, and the scenes around them started glitching as if something was about to restart.
Everyone watched as everything returned to normal—the village, once destroyed in the battle against K, now stood intact, not a single broken thing in sight, as if nothing had ever happened.
The 28 watched in awe, but that wasn't the most outrageous part. What shocked them even more was what happened next—one disappeared, and two people appeared.
S was nowhere to be found.
.....to....be... ConTInue