---
The figure stood at the edge of the crater.
Reflections danced off its cloak like water in glass. Its face had no features—only Takumi's own outline, mirrored and still.
Every step it took down the slope toward him was silent. Yet each footfall left the world more... defined. Colors sharpened. Shapes stopped twitching. Rules began to solidify.
It was order, incarnate.
And it had come for him.
---
> [Entity Identified: Mirror Apostle]
Designation: S-AXIS.01 – Directive Enforcer
Purpose: Eliminate or integrate rogue axis-class variables.
Threat Level: Undefined
---
Takumi rose to his feet.
The obsidian shard still pulsed behind him, humming with residual resonance.
The Mirror Apostle stopped exactly five meters away.
No further. No closer.
Then it spoke—not with sound, but through internal contradiction.
Takumi heard his own voice, but corrected. Sharper. Balanced. Stripped of nuance.
> "You have reached instability levels beyond safe margins."
"You bend rules. Break cause. Skew logic."
"You are an error that continues to overwrite its checksum."
Takumi didn't blink.
"I'm more stable now than I've ever been."
> "Incorrect. You are coherent, not stable. Coherence without alignment is danger."
The Apostle raised a mirrored hand.
From the sky, runes ignited. Thousands.
Each encoded with reality-layer rules.
Lisette had once told him about Apostles: that the Spiral only sent them when negotiation was no longer viable.
So when the Apostle lowered its hand and the sky shattered into glass—
Takumi was already moving.
---
> [Skill Activated: Rule-Breaker Lv. 1]
World Rule Ignored: "Higher Spiral Entities cannot be struck first."
Duration: 5 seconds
---
He lunged forward and drove his palm into the Apostle's chest—
—shattering the no-contact rule that protected it.
The impact sent a wave of crackling instability through the crater.
But the Apostle didn't fall.
It absorbed the blow—and restructured its frame.
---
> [System Override Detected]
Target adapting to local axis.
Adversary now synchronizing with Fractured Domain.
---
Takumi jumped back.
The Apostle opened its mirrored arms—and from behind it, dozens of floating symbols appeared.
Each one represented a choice Takumi didn't make.
He recognized them instantly.
> "These are your chains," the Apostle said.
"Regret is your vulnerability. We weaponize what you left behind."
And then… they attacked.
---
The first symbol struck him like grief.
He fell to one knee as visions flooded in:
A life he never lived—married, quiet, safe. A small home. No Spiral. No war. Just a simple desk job.
It burned him.
Not physically.
But emotionally.
---
> [Mental Load: 56% → 70%]
Fractal Echo Resurgence: Partial Regression Detected
---
Takumi grit his teeth.
"I chose this."
He reached for the shard behind him.
Not for defense.
For declaration.
> [Skill Activated: System Override (Prototype)]
Permanent Rule Change:
"Choices not taken are not weaknesses."
---
The world stilled.
The regret-shards turned gray.
And shattered.
The Apostle stepped back.
> "That rule... was core Spiral doctrine."
Takumi stood tall.
"I'm not a Spiral."
He walked toward it now.
> "I am not an echo. I am the axis they refused to imagine."
---
> [Fractured Mastery → Fractured Dominion → Axis Divergence Achieved]
Transformation Available
Choose:
🜃 Remain Fractured (Adaptive Human)
Keep all skills and mental limits
Vulnerable to regret, but fully free
🜄 Ascend to Axis-Class Entity
Gain system-altering potential
Abandon humanity and emotion
Or: ???
Forge a new system
---
Takumi didn't hesitate.
He didn't want godhood.
He didn't want fragility.
He wanted something that didn't exist yet.
He chose the third option.
> [Choice Selected: ???]
System Unrecognized.
Defining new path...
---
The crater roared.
Not in anger.
But in accommodation.
Rules bent—not to break, but to reform.
The Apostle dropped to one knee.
> "Name it."
Takumi closed his eyes.
And said, with quiet resolve:
"Axis Null."
---
The world accepted it.
And Takumi Arata changed.
Not into a Spiral.
Not into a god.
But into something the Spiral could no longer categorize.
Something unwritten.
---
🔹 End of Chapter 17