Before Yyvone could finish speaking…
The world betrayed them.
A single black tentacle burst from the darkness behind her, silent—too silent—and wrapped itself around her ankle with terrifying precision.
"Osei—!"
She reached toward him.
Too late.
WHAM!
The force ripped her across the labyrinth like a leaf caught in a hurricane.
"OSEIIII!"
Her voice echoed into nothingness.
Then...
Silence.
Osei's hand remained frozen where hers had been.
His breathing became uneven.
"...Y...Yyvone..."
No answer.
The darkness swallowed her voice as though she had never existed.
His instincts screamed.
Run.
Fight.
Search.
Think.
But there was no direction.
No scent.
No sound.
No heartbeat.
Nothing.
Only the oppressive red-and-black emptiness stretching forever.
Then...
Footsteps.
Soft.
Measured.
Unhurried.
Someone was approaching.
Osei immediately shifted into a defensive stance, every muscle tightening.
His instincts couldn't identify the presence.
That alone terrified him.
Out of the darkness emerged...
...a woman.
Tall.
Elegant.
Something about her proportions felt subtly wrong, as though reality had guessed what a human looked like but missed several details.
Yet...
Her smile was warm.
Almost motherly.
Her eyes carried an impossible gentleness.
The longer Osei looked...
...the more beautiful she became.
Her skin slowly healed itself before his eyes.
Cracks disappeared.
Bruises faded.
Her face softened.
Like she was becoming exactly what someone longing for comfort wished to see.
Osei narrowed his eyes.
"...Who are you?"
The woman tilted her head.
A tiny giggle escaped her lips.
"I am harmless, Jerry..."
She paused.
"...or am I?"
"Hehehe..."
Her laughter wasn't loud.
It was intimate.
Like someone enjoying a private joke.
"My name..."
She placed a hand over her chest.
"...is Jeen."
Another step.
"I've come to free you."
One more.
"Just like..."
Her smile widened ever so slightly.
"...I freed your mother."
Everything stopped.
Even time seemed reluctant to move.
Osei blinked.
Once.
Twice.
His pupils shrank.
His breathing halted.
"..."
His fingers slowly curled into fists.
"...What..."
Blood began dripping from between his fingers as his nails dug into his own palms.
"...did..."
His voice cracked.
"...you..."
Another drop of blood struck the invisible floor.
"...say?"
Jeen answered as casually as someone commenting on the weather.
"I said..."
"I helped free your mother."
Something inside Osei snapped.
Not his sanity.
His restraint.
His Avian aura exploded around him like white lightning wrapped in instinct.
"You..."
His voice trembled.
"You..."
Trembled harder.
"...YOU DID THIS?!"
The scream tore through the labyrinth.
Every instinct inside him ignited simultaneously.
For one horrifying moment...
there was no fear.
Only rage.
Pure.
Focused.
Rage.
"You killed her!"
He vanished.
AVIAN BURST!
His body launched forward with explosive acceleration.
Instinct guided every movement.
No hesitation.
No wasted motion.
His fist became coated in compressed Avian force.
"AVIAN PUNCH!"
BOOOOOOOM!!
The strike obliterated the space where Jeen stood.
Shockwaves erupted in every direction.
Fragments of darkness shattered like broken mirrors.
But...
Nothing.
His fist met only empty air.
No resistance.
No impact.
No enemy.
"...Impossible."
A voice floated behind him.
"So predictable."
Osei spun instantly.
Jeen stood several meters away, hands folded behind her back as if they were simply having a conversation.
She looked...
Almost disappointed.
"Osei."
Her voice softened.
"Be honest."
She took another step.
"Did you really think..."
"...your mother would've understood you..."
"...even if she had lived?"
Silence.
"I looked inside her psyche before she died."
Jeen's expression became thoughtful.
"She loved you."
Another pause.
"But love..."
"...isn't the same as understanding."
She circled him slowly.
"To her..."
"...you were still a little boy."
"A child."
"Someone who needed correcting."
"Someone who needed control."
"Someone who needed to stop questioning everything."
She looked directly into his eyes.
"Wasn't that true?"
Osei's breathing grew heavier.
"..."
He didn't answer.
Because...
Part of it...
Was.
His mother had loved him.
He never doubted that.
But...
She had never truly understood why he saw the world differently.
Why conversations exhausted him.
Why friendships confused him.
Why pretending to be "normal" hurt more than isolation.
Why silence was comfort instead of punishment.
Jeen smiled.
"You see?"
"I didn't need to lie."
Osei's fists clenched again.
"You..."
His voice became steadier.
"...have no right..."
"...to decide whether someone deserves to live..."
"...just because they couldn't understand."
His aura flared violently.
"You hear me?!"
Jeen shrugged.
"I never decided."
She looked almost amused.
"I simply..."
"...showed her."
Her eyes darkened.
"I revealed truths."
"Truths about reality."
"Truths about systems."
"Truths about purpose."
"Truths she could never integrate."
"I didn't shatter her."
"I merely opened the door."
"She walked through it herself."
A long silence followed.
"Hegroth finished the rest."
"He allowed her own despair..."
"...to become the weapon."
"...until she killed herself."
Osei's body froze.
Every word felt like broken glass entering his chest.
Jeen continued.
"You know what fascinated me?"
She leaned closer.
"You."
"Unlike your mother..."
"...you didn't break."
"You've encountered uncomfortable truths before."
"You've questioned society."
"You've questioned people."
"You've questioned yourself."
"And every time..."
"...you endured."
She smiled warmly.
"Because deep down..."
"...you've always known."
"The system wasn't built for someone like you."
"It rewards conformity."
"It praises imitation."
"It fears minds that refuse simple answers."
"You've always seen that."
Haven't you... Jerry?"
Osei looked away.
His jaw tightened.
He hated admitting it.
But...
She had found the wound.
He had seen those flaws.
He had lived them.
He had experienced people misunderstanding him because he was autistic.
He had wondered why existing honestly sometimes felt harder than pretending.
He had questioned systems others accepted without thought.
His silence...
was answer enough.
Jeen smiled.
"I knew it."
"...No."
The word escaped quietly.
Jeen blinked.
"No?"
Osei slowly raised his head.
His eyes were wet.
Not with surrender.
With fury.
"It doesn't matter."
He took one step forward.
"My mother wasn't perfect."
"Neither am I."
"Maybe she misunderstood me."
"Maybe she wanted to change me."
"Maybe the world wasn't built for people like me."
His aura steadied.
"But misunderstanding someone..."
"...isn't the same..."
"...as deserving death."
His voice shook.
"You don't get to call that liberation."
For the first time...
Jeen stopped smiling.
Only for a second.
Then...
"Hehehe..."
"Interesting."
"Very interesting."
Elsewhere...
Yyvone slammed violently across a flooded hallway.
Her body rolled against cold hospital tiles before finally stopping.
Water splashed around her knees.
"...Where..."
She slowly looked up.
Her breathing caught.
No.
No...
Not here.
Anything...
But here.
She recognized every wall.
Every flickering light.
Every worn-out bench.
Every cracked window.
Every smell.
The hospital.
The place where weakness had become her identity.
The place where hope had slowly learned how to die.
The corridors stretched endlessly ahead.
Longer than they should.
Every few seconds...
A door creaked open.
Then closed.
Then another.
Then another.
The sound echoed forever.
No nurses.
No doctors.
No patients.
Only...
Waiting.
Yyvone swallowed.
"...You're not real."
The hallway answered with silence.
Then...
A metallic squeak.
Slow.
Rhythmic.
She turned.
A wheelchair.
Rolling by itself.
It stopped directly before her.
Seated within it...
...was herself.
Thin.
Fragile.
Broken.
The girl who had once believed nobody would ever choose her.
Wheelchair Yyvone slowly lifted her head.
Eyes filled with tears.
"...Why..."
"...didn't you choose liberation?"
Her voice cracked.
"...Yyvone..."
"...Why?"
Yyvone stared quietly.
Her heartbeat quickened.
"I know who you are."
She straightened.
"You aren't me."
"So stop pretending."
"Show me your real face."
For a brief moment...
Nothing happened.
Then...
The wheelchair version smiled.
Too wide.
Too wrong.
"I was still suffering here..."
"...you know..."
"They abandoned us."
"The orphanage..."
"The caretakers..."
"No one came."
"No one chose us."
"You left me behind."
Her fingers gripped the wheelchair.
Harder.
Harder.
"FREE ME..."
Her eyes bulged unnaturally.
"FREE MEEEEEEEEEEE!!"
The scream exploded through the corridor.
The hospital itself twisted.
Walls bent sideways.
The ceiling rotated.
Gravity folded.
The water beneath Yyvone's feet surged upward like a tidal wave.
The corridor tilted almost vertically.
She lost her footing.
The entire hospital shifted into something impossible.
And somewhere...
Hidden within the echoes...
Something laughed.
The Free Abyss had only just begun introducing itself.