The guard never saw the third motion.
He moved like everyone else in Chain Sector 7—predictable, rigid, bones in a borrowed uniform. His hand came down for the restraint clasp—
But Raifu's body didn't follow the script.
His arms, still loosely bound, spiraled with a flow not taught in drills or camps. They remembered. They broke timing. They danced between reflex and death.
One. Two. Pivot.
The guard's wrist twisted unnaturally as Raifu's elbow intercepted the pressure point. The man stumbled—
Three.
Raifu's knee came up in a crushing arc, connecting beneath the chin.
For a fraction of a second, the guard hovered in midair—slack-jawed, stunned, disconnected from gravity.
Then the sound came.
Not a strike. Not a scream.
A pulse.
The world cracked.
It was small at first—like someone shaking a wet canvas from the edge of vision. The color bled sideways. The ground beneath Raifu warped, rubberized by the Skill-Weave he didn't know he'd executed.
Time skipped.
Just once.
A blink dragged too long.
The guards behind him stuttered mid-step, caught between frames of motion.
Kassian blinked slowly, as if underwater.
Raifu stood motionless, arms falling back to his sides like ribbons cut from the sky.
The guard he'd struck hit the ground—and didn't rise.
Neck broken.
But that wasn't what the others stared at.
They stared at the air.
Where the strike had landed, the space now shimmered. Light pooled there unnaturally, folding in on itself like a thread loop caught in stasis. A single floating pulse hung above the body, then dissolved into the floor like a dropped heartbeat.
Kassian took one step forward.
"…You," he whispered. "You did it."
Raifu didn't move. His eyes were open, but his mind was gone.
He could still feel Anaka's fingers, twitching in that rhythm.
Still hear the broken combo.
Still taste copper in his mouth from screaming without sound.
"He's breached Thread Law."
That came from a higher-ranking enforcer, stepping into the scene. Robed in black-veined gold. Soul Path branded on both cheeks.
"He didn't activate a system," another spat. "There's no Soulflare reading. This is—"
"This is worse."
They were all speaking around Raifu like he wasn't there. Like he hadn't just killed with motion alone. Like he wasn't already becoming the thing they feared.
Kassian sheathed his blade slowly.
"Was it grief, little brother?" he asked. "Or instinct?"
Raifu finally turned to face him.
"Was it loyalty," he said quietly, "or cowardice?"
Kassian flinched—but only slightly.
"I serve so the rest don't burn."
"You kill so the rest won't live."
Their eyes locked. Two broken paths facing opposite directions.
The command came too quickly for Raifu to react.
"Kill him," the enforcer snapped.
The remaining guards lunged—this time in formation, trained, angry.
Raifu exhaled once.
His body was already burning.
The system screen didn't appear to him. But something inside him felt it. A tightening. A coiling.
He moved again.
But this time, the rhythm didn't obey.
Too many enemies. Too many angles. The combo broke before the second beat. A spear cracked against his spine.
He dropped.
Another followed. And another.
Steel met bone. Blood hit the stone like rain.
Kassian stood and watched, face unreadable, as the guards beat his brother into silence.
But the rhythm never stopped.
It echoed in Raifu's last breath. Not a scream. Not a plea.
One… two… three.
And then—
Thread Count Increased.
The guards didn't see it.
The readers did.
The reality around Raifu's broken body twisted once more—just a shimmer—and then sealed shut like a book closing before its last word.
His corpse bled out. But something within it remained suspended.
Chapter: 0XX-B
Level: 1
Thread Count: 1
Stat Points Earned: 0
Points Allocated: N/A
New Combo: 3-Step Dissonance Break
Combat Style Used: Grapple Flow + Soul Lag Rhythm
Notable Event: First unintentional Skill-Weave triggered