The meeting room felt deliberately small.
Five chairs.
One steel table bolted to the floor.
No screens. No glass. No digital displays.
Just walls.
Viran stood at the far end.
Three elite agents sat opposite Ren and Akira.
No one invited them to sit.
"Start," Viran said.
No preamble.
Akira stepped forward.
"There was a forest fire. Sudden ignition across three sectors. Civilian evacuation was uncoordinated due to communications failure."
Erion's fingers folded neatly beneath his chin.
"So confusion," he said. "and chaos."
"Yes," Akira replied evenly. "And during that environment, a manifestation occurred."
Rico leaned back slightly. "Classification?"
"Type B."
K spoke for the first time. "Dreamer status?"
Akira didn't look at Ren.
"Confirmed deceased. The residential block collapsed during the fire. He didn't survive."
"Then the entity dissolved," Rico said calmly.
Akira met his gaze.
"No."
The word did not echo.
It settled.
Silence tightened.
Erion's eyes sharpened.
"You are aware that what you're suggesting dismantles the core principle of Nightmareisation."
"Yes."
"And yet you say it so casually."
"I'm not being casual." Akira added .
Ren's voice entered quietly.
"It didn't dissolve."
Rico's attention shifted to him.
"Under what anchor?"
Ren didn't blink.
"There wasn't one."
"That is not possible."
"It happened."
Erion leaned forward slightly now.
"You were inside a burning structure. Smoke inhalation causes neurological distortion. Visual hallucinations are common."
Ren stepped closer to the table.
"I was close enough to hear it breathe."
The air changed.
K's tone lowered.
"You are claiming sustained manifestation after dreamer death."
"Yes."
"And then?"
Ren did not hesitate.
"It walked."
No one interrupted.
"It left the structure. It moved through the island."
Erion's eyes narrowed. "Toward what?"
"People."
The word fell heavy.
"How many?" K asked.
"All of them."
No one wrote anything down.
"You're alleging," Erion said carefully, "that an unanchored manifestation which should have dissolved when it's anchor died conducted structured elimination across an island population."
"Yes."
"And you alone survived."
"Yes."
Silence deepened.
Rico's voice shifted — no mockery now.
"Explain."
Ren's throat tightened once.
"It stopped in front of me."
"And?"
"It gave me a condition."
The elites did not move.
"What condition?" K asked.
Ren didn't look away.
"If I killed someone beside me… it would allow me to live."
The room held still.
Erion's voice remained analytical.
"And you complied."
"Yes."
No justification.
No trembling.
Just fact.
"And after that?" Rico asked.
"It let me live."
Ren's pulse pounded in his ears.
"It stayed with me."
The word felt wrong in the room.
Akira stepped in.
"It demonstrated deviation."
Erion's gaze snapped toward him.
"Deviation implies growth."
"Yes."
Rico exhaled slowly.
"You are asking us to consider the possibility that Nightmareisation will not disolved even when the link is cut off."
Akira did not blink.
"Yes."
K's tone sharpened.
"If this is accurate, the core nightmareisation concept has been flawed."
Ren's eyes hardened.
"Then maybe it has."
The temperature in the room dropped a degree.
Erion's stare turned cold.
"Be careful, rookie."
Ren didn't flinch.
"No. You be careful."
For a fraction of a second, something unspoken passed across the table.
Viran stepped forward.
Just one step.
Enough.
He looked at Ren.
"Are you absolutely certain?"
"Yes."
No anger.
No doubt.
He studied Ren.
Then Akira.
Then the silence between them.
"Nightmareisation has deviated before," Viran said quietly.
The room shifted.
Erion's eyes narrowed slightly.
"In what context?"
"Scale," Viran replied. "Never persistence."
Silence.
K spoke carefully.
"If we deploy and find nothing—"
"Then we recalibrate," Viran said.
"And if we find something?"
Viran's voice did not rise.
"Then the law bends."
No drama.
No flourish.
Just acknowledgment.
Erion held Ren's gaze.
"If you're wrong," he said quietly, "you will have shaken the foundation of this organization for nothing."
Ren's voice was steady.
"I'm not wrong."
Silence stretched long enough to feel like a verdict.
Then Viran said:
"Prepare deployment."
The elites did not argue.
They stood.
Decision made.
Ren felt it then—
Not relief.
Not fear.
The weight.
END OF CHAPTER 10