The man in the charcoal-grey suit stood amidst the liquid stars as if he were in a climate-controlled office in Tokyo.
He was impeccably groomed.
His silk tie was knotted with mathematical precision, and his shoes—Oxford leather—did not sink into the non-Euclidean floor.
He looked exactly like Kaito Shiramine, the Chief Operating Officer of the Shiramine Zaibatsu. My uncle.
A man who measured the value of the universe in quarterly profit margins.
"Ayana,"
he said again, his voice carrying the calm, terrifying authority of the "Known" world.
"The shareholders are waiting. You are 20 minutes late. This lack of discipline is... disappointing."
My Invisible Tentacles lashed out instinctively.
They did not strike his flesh.
They brushed against the space he occupied, trying to map his existence.
My Spatial Tactile Sensing screamed in confusion.
He felt like a hole in reality—a sterile, empty vacuum of logic that refused to be part of the beautiful, pulsing madness of this throne room.
" Warning: Astral Phase 9 Synchronization Compromised "
" Alert: High-Density "Logic Pressure" Detected "
" Internal Conflict: The "Known" is invading the Abyss. "
"You aren't real,"
I whispered, the sound vibrating through the interstellar matter of my cosmic face.
"This is Phase 9. This is the Abyssal Throne. Logic has no power here."
The Executive adjusted his glasses.
The lenses did not reflect the liquid stars; they reflected a spreadsheet of my university grades.
"Reality is what we define, Ayana,"
he replied.
"This game is just a temporary diversion—a mental playground. But your duty to the family is eternal. That is your true 'Pnu-Ytos.' Stagnation in excellence."
The word Pnu-Ytos (Eternal Immortality) felt like a curse when he said it.
To him, immortality was not the rhythmic heartbeat of the universe I saw pulsing behind the throne.
To him, it was the persistent, unchanging legacy of a corporate empire.
A perfect, boring grave that stretched across centuries.
"I signed the Blood Pact,"
I snarled, my spatial limbs expanding until I resembled a galaxy-sized spider.
"I discarded Ayana Shiramine. I discarded your spreadsheets and your expectations. I came here to find the end of my sanity!"
"And yet,"
the Executive stepped forward,
"you still think in Japanese. You still use the intellect we cultivated. You are still Ayana, playing at being a monster."
The Madness Pressure in the room began to fluctuate.
The Level 40 environment, which should have been my sanctuary, was being "Sanitized" by his presence.
The liquid stars were turning into white marble tiles.
The Abyssal Throne was morphing into a mahogany desk.
He was an Eldritch Residue—a remnant of the Great Old Ones—that had taken the shape of my greatest trauma: a world without mystery.
"Stop it,"
I commanded.
" Profanity Initiated: 'Phase Rejection' "
I focused on the mystery of Erosion.
I did not try to attack him; I tried to decompose the "Logic" he was projecting.
I willed the marble tiles to turn back into void.
I willed his suit to dissolve into iridescent sludge.
The Executive's image flickered.
For a second, his face was replaced by a mass of squirming, eyeless worms before snapping back to his human form.
"Stubborn,"
he sighed.
"Just like your father. He also thought he could escape the 'Known.' Look where it got him."
"Where?"
I asked, my voice cracking.
"He became part of the foundation. Just as you will."
He raised a leather briefcase.
When he opened it, there was no paper inside.
There was only a blinding, sterile light—the concentrated essence of Sacred Purity from the city of Sacribes.
" Critical Warning: Logic Overload "
" Madness Pressure dropping rapidly: Level 40 → Level 20 "
" Existence Instability: You are becoming 'Ayana' again. "
I felt a sickening sensation.
My Invisible Tentacles were receding.
My smooth, void-mask face was developing the itch of skin.
I could feel the weight of my long, black human hair.
My cosmic beauty was being "Corrected" back into the eye-catching beauty I despised.
"No... not again..."
I fell to my knees—real, human knees that felt pain.
The Abyssal Throne was gone.
I was in a boardroom.
The 'Heart of Pnu-Ytos' was now a wall-mounted clock, ticking away the seconds of my life.
"Sign the resignation, Ayana,"
the Executive said, placing a pen in my hand.
"Resign from this dream. Return to the light."
I looked at the pen. It was made of silver and starlight.
Then, I looked at the shadow I cast on the marble floor.
Even in this sanitized hallucination, my shadow did not have legs.
It had tentacles. It was a silhouette of a Star-Spawn.
The Abyss was still there. It was just buried under his "Logic."
A manic laugh erupted from my human throat.
"Resign? You don't understand, Uncle."
I gripped the pen—and stabbed it directly into my own palm.
" Pain Input: 100% "
" Mental Shock Detected "
" Astral Phase 9: Forced Re-Synchronization "
The shock of the pain shattered his logic.
The boardroom wall cracked, leaking liquid stars.
The Executive's face melted into a kaleidoscope of bruised purples and neon greens.
"I didn't come here to be a CEO,"
I screamed, the stars erupting from my wound.
"I came to observe the end of the world!"
I reached out with my bleeding hand and grabbed his tie.
Through the blood, I initiated a new Profanity.
" Profanity Synthesized: 'Boardroom Collapse' "
" Mystery Employed: Turbid Coexistence "
I mixed the reality of the Shiramine Zaibatsu with the madness of the Starry Gap.
I forced the "Known" and the "Unknown" to occupy the same space.
The effect was catastrophic.
The Executive began to scream in a thousand different voices.
His business suit became a suit of living, screaming mouths.
The mahogany desk turned into a pile of rotting organs that pulsed with corporate jingles.
"This is your 'Pnu-Ytos'!"
I laughed, watching him dissolve.
"An eternity of broken logic! A boardroom that never ends and never understands!"
With a final, spatial snap, the hallucination evaporated.
The Abyssal Throne returned.
The liquid stars were deeper and darker than before.
The Madness Pressure surged back to Level 45.
" Environmental Profanation Complete "
" Experience Absorbed: Memory of the Known (Cursed) "
" Title Evolution: Star-Spawn (12%) "
I stood alone before the mountain-sized heart.
The man in the suit was gone, replaced by a small, obsidian shard on the floor—a 'Shard of Bureaucracy'.
But I wasn't the same.
The "Logic Pressure" had left a scar on my Phase 9 form.
A single, human eye now remained on my otherwise smooth void-mask.
It was Ayana's eye—cold, intelligent, and filled with a new, dark purpose.
I had observed the intrusion of my past, and I had consumed it.
"So the 'Known' can reach me even here,"
I murmured, my tentacles brushing the pulsing heart of Pnu-Ytos.
"That means I haven't gone deep enough."
I looked at the heart. It was not just a mystery anymore. It was a door.
If the shareholders of reality wanted to meet me, they would have to find me in the place where even light goes to die.
I plunged my hand into the mountain-sized organ.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As Nyx's hand sinks into the Heart of Pnu-Ytos, the entire game world of E-DREAM experiences a 'Global Synchronization Error.'
In the real world, the servers of the Shiramine Zaibatsu begin to melt.
In the game, every player hears a broadcast from Entity Zero, but the voice is no longer a machine's—it is Nyx's.
"The meeting has been moved,"
she whispers to 36,000 players.
"The Abyssal Throne is now open to all. Come and see the truth of your immortality."