Kaien stood before the next gate.
Only—there was no gate.
Just a jagged rip in the air.
Black static bled from it, and the tournament sigil above it flickered violently, as if trying to reject whatever was coming next.
Ash looked at the tear and whispered, "…this isn't a match."
Lyra's mark pulsed in pain. "It's a fracture."
Then a voice echoed from beyond the rip—
Not in sound, but in absence.
> "Welcome, Phantom XI."
"We are Entropy United."
"We don't play to win."
"We play so no one else ever does."
---
📍 [Arrival – The Field Unravels]
They stepped through the rift.
And the world glitched.
The pitch was broken—floating shards of grass, bleeding lines, shattered goals hovering midair.
No rules. No time. The scoreboard looped endlessly between 0 and ∞.
Eren screamed as the sky blinked out like a dying eye.
Nico staggered. "This place is… rejecting meaning."
A figure walked forward—then reversed back—then split into three directions.
Entropy United.
Their kits weren't made of fabric.
They were pure contradiction.
One player had no body. One had six eyes. One constantly erased and reappeared.
And their captain?
No name.
No face.
Just a pulsing void in the shape of a player.
Kaien couldn't even look directly at him.
> "Your story ends here, Rhythm Bearer."
---
📍 [Kickoff – The Death of Rules]
The whistle shrieked in reverse.
Ash dashed forward—and suddenly he was already falling.
"What—? I—wasn't—!"
He landed.
Only to realize his cleats had been rewritten mid-step.
Lyra tried a pass. The ball split into three. Only one was real.
She picked wrong.
Nico jumped for a header. Midair—his stats vanished.
His strength, his stamina—deleted.
He fell limp.
Kaien clenched his fists. "This isn't football. This is anti-football."
Entropy's captain moved.
The scoreboard warped.
Goal. 0 – ∅.
---
📍 [Collapse – Phantom XI Breaks Apart]
Each Phantom player saw pieces of their game dissolve.
Eren's time perception rewound—he relived his mistakes in reverse.
Ash couldn't find his cleats—they shifted to sandals, then bare feet, then nothing.
Nico saw his hands flicker—he was starting to unexist.
Kaien tried to sync Rhythm—
But every beat echoed back wrong.
It skipped.
It stalled.
It lied.
Lyra dropped to her knees. "We can't play if there's no game."
Kaien looked around at his broken team.
And realized—
Entropy United wasn't trying to win.
They were trying to erase the concept of sport itself.
---
📍 [Kaien's Memory Breaks Open]
His vision cracked.
He saw the original Cup.
His death.
His rebirth.
The Architect's offer:
> "The Cup is the only language all realms understand."
"But if someone ever proves it can be broken…"
"Then the stories, the unity, the purpose—they all unravel."
Kaien clenched his jaw.
> "So that's what Entropy is."
They weren't just players.
They were a virus in the game.
---
📍 [The Anchor – Rewrite Through Rhythm]
Kaien stood.
Beat. Miss. Beat. Beat. Silence.
No rhythm would form.
So he stomped.
Not for timing.
But defiance.
He grabbed a piece of the glitched pitch and grounded it beneath his foot.
Then shouted:
> "This game is broken—so we'll make a new one!"
He ran forward—not dribbling.
Carving.
Each step rewrote a rule.
Time stabilized around him.
He passed.
To Ash—his feet reappeared.
To Nico—his form solidified.
To Lyra—she stood and found her name again.
The field trembled.
And reformed.
---
📍 [The Match Reforged – Phantom XI's Counte3rstrike]
A goalpost landed.
A ball reassembled mid-air.
The scoreboard blinked: 0 – ∞
Then snapped to: 1 – ∞
Kaien's voice rang across the void.
> "You unmade the Cup."
> "Now we play to remake it."
The others rose.
Ash: "I don't care if this pitch is real. I'm real."
Nico: "We don't need their rules. We bring our own."
Lyra: "Let's show them what purpose looks like."
Ash sprinted—dove between two Entropy players who didn't even have defined physics.
Passed back.
Nico curved it—
Kaien volleyed it with pure Rhythm.
Goal. 2 – ∞
The void screamed.
Entropy Captain pulsed.
> "If you restore the game… the Realms remember again."
Kaien: "Good."
> "Then we all have something left to play for."
---
📍 [Final Moment – Entropy's End]
Kaien ran one last play.
A triple-pass triangle.
His rhythm synced with everyone's footwork.
Beat.
Pulse.
Heartbeat.
Memory.
Ash fired.
Goal.
> 3 – ∞ became Final: Phantom XI – 3 / Entropy United – Error
The void cracked.
Then vanished.
Entropy United flickered out of existence.
Only silence remained.
---
📍 [Post-Match – A New Gate]
Back at the Phantom dorms, the lights had changed.
A new gate had appeared.
This one was golden.
Woven from threads of memory and possibility.
Above it read:
> "Final Match – The Founding Game"
But no team name.
Just a single phrase.
> "You will face the First Team. The one that wrote the game."
Kaien stared at it.
Eyes calm.
Voice steady.
> "So we've played ghosts. We've fought gods. We've undone the end."
> "Now we play the ones who started it all."
📍 [Final Match – The Founding Game: Phantom XI vs The First Eleven]
Chapter Title: "Against the First Whistle"
There were no lights.
No realm.
No air.
Only a heartbeat.
Then a whistle.
And suddenly—everything returned.
The sky unfolded like scrolls. The stars realigned. Mountains shaped themselves into thrones for silent watchers.
And at the center of it all, a field appeared.
Carved from history itself.
Each blade of grass carried a name.
Each goalpost hummed with the memory of the first ever score.
The place where it all began.
Ash stepped onto the field. His boots clicked louder than thunder.
Lyra gasped. "I… feel every match I've ever played."
Kaien walked last.
He didn't speak.
Because he wasn't just stepping onto a pitch.
He was stepping into the first story ever told.
---
📍 [The First Eleven Appear – Creators of the Game]
A bell tolled.
Once.
Twice.
Eleven figures stepped forward, formed from golden ink and divine geometry.
Each wore no number.
No crest.
Only titles etched across their robes:
The Whistle
The First Touch
The Shape
The Law
The Breath
The Flame
The Keeper
The Curve
The Rhythm
The Silence
And their captain: The Beginning
Kaien stared at the last one.
And for a moment—his heartbeat stopped.
Because The Beginning wore his face.
Not present-day Kaien.
But young Kaien.
Before the death.
Before the betrayal.
Before he knew pain.
---
📍 [Kickoff – The Game That Defines All Others]
There was no coin toss.
Only acknowledgment.
Kaien and The Beginning stood at midfield.
"You've walked far," The Beginning said.
"But the further you walk from the start, the more you forget what made the game sacred."
Kaien nodded. "I didn't come to forget."
"I came to remember and move forward."
The Beginning smiled—just barely.
Then kicked off.
---
📍 [First Half – The Shape Controls the Field]
Ash rushed forward—
And was instantly cornered.
Because The Shape wasn't a defender.
He was geometry itself.
Every move Ash made curved toward his trap.
Every pass was absorbed by the pitch itself.
Lyra's movements slowed.
The Breath exhaled—and wind moved against her cuts and dribbles.
Nico's shots were swallowed by The Keeper—who never moved.
He was simply always already there.
Kaien ran forward—but The Rhythm of the First Eleven cancelled his heartbeat.
Everything felt… pre-decided.
Predestined.
Goal.
First Eleven: 1 – 0.
---
📍 [The Spark – Phantom XI's Memory Awakens]
On the sideline, Lyra trembled.
"This is their game. Their laws. We're just… echoes."
Kaien closed his eyes.
"Then we echo louder."
He raised his foot.
Tapped the pitch.
Once.
Then again.
Beat.
Beat.
The field shimmered.
Not in rebellion.
But in response.
The game recognized him.
Because he, too, bore Rhythm.
Not the original.
But the evolved.
The living.
He passed to Ash—slicing The Shape's geometry with imperfect instinct.
Ash smiled. "Finally. A game worth playing."
Ash rocketed it—
GOAL. 1 – 1.
The First Eleven paused.
For the first time in eons.
---
📍 [Halftime – The Conversation Beyond Time]
They didn't rest.
They met at midfield.
The Beginning approached Kaien.
"You cracked the pattern."
Kaien nodded. "Because I'm not trying to break your game."
"I'm trying to grow it."
"You made football sacred. But we gave it meaning. Pain. Loss. Forgiveness."
The Beginning's eyes dimmed slightly. "Then show me."
"Show me a version worth remembering."
---
📍 [Second Half – The True Match Begins]
The Flame scorched the field—but Lyra curved her shot through it, eyes clear.
"The past isn't fire. It's fuel."
GOAL. 2 – 1.
The Law warped the pitch, rewriting boundary lines—but Nico leapt beyond them anyway.
"Rules are where we start. Not where we stop."
GOAL. 3 – 1.
Ash spun past The Curve—his scars burning bright. "I'm not perfect. I'm possible."
GOAL. 4 – 1.
The Beginning watched.
Silent.
Then removed his robe.
And underneath…
He wore Phantom XI's kit.
---
📍 [Final Play – The Beginning's Choice]
The ball came to Kaien.
And The Beginning stepped in front of him.
The entire match paused.
Every breath held.
"I am the First," he said.
"But you are Next."
He stepped aside.
Kaien tapped the ball.
To Ash.
To Lyra.
To Nico.
Back to Kaien.
One final beat.
One final shot.
GOAL. 5 – 1.
The field burst into light.
---
📍 [Aftermath – The End Becomes a Beginning]
The First Eleven faded—not in loss, but in legacy.
Their captain, The Beginning, turned one last time.
And bowed.
"To those who carry the game forward."
"To the ones who remember why we started."
Kaien bowed in return.
"We won't just carry it," he said.
> "We'll rewrite what it means to play."
The tournament symbols shattered.
Not in ruin—but in rebirth.
---
📍 [Final Scene – A New Cup Begins]
A year later.
A new pitch.
New teams.
New legends.
But at the center of it all—
One team returns.
Wearing black and silver.
Rhythm in their steps.
Names remembered.
Banners raised.
> PHANTOM XI
And in the center circle—
Kaien kneels.
Places his hand on the pitch.
Smiles.
> "Let's play."