I stood in the center of the restaurant with the panoramic view of Dino Park, surveying my surroundings.
Outside the window, the blue Earth was no longer visible. Instead, only endless darkness stretched out.
The breathtaking view that once reflected the park’s entirety alongside the blue Earth was nowhere to be seen.
The survivors of the Dino Park terror attack were paralyzed with fear.
The sound of their terrified screams echoed throughout the restaurant.
“Everyone, back to where they were.”
I muttered quietly and waved my hand.
Imdiately, the endless darkness outside the window began pulling the people in.
“Ahhh!”
“No! Please!”
Despite their desperate cries, they were helplessly drawn toward the void and vanished into the darkness.
And just like that, silence once again settled over the restaurant.
Now, the only ones left were the people I’d co here with.
Ember stared at with a shocked expression.
“Did you... throw them all into that darkness?”
She asked with a pale face.
“No? I sent them all back to Babel. More precisely, to the spaceport they used when they ca to Dino Park...”
I shrugged.
Relief flickered across Ember’s face.
She must have thought I’d just slaughtered all the civilians in so horrific act of mass murder...
I stood in the center of the restaurant and slowly spread my arms.
The shadows around began to dance in sync with my movents.
“This station is now completely under my control.”
I said with satisfaction.
“I can manipulate everything here like I do with the shadows. I can even fix broken parts using the shadows.”
I snapped my fingers, and the restaurant lights brightened. Dinosaur holograms began dancing atop the tables once again.
“This massive resort facility is now all mine. Soft beds, luxurious furniture, and best of all, the Triceratopses! All of it is mine!”
Overwheld with joy, I jumped up and down like a child.
Owning the entire station felt like having secured my own ho—one that no one could ever take from .
Unlike the flimsy, insecure housing rights in Babel, this was a place that belonged solely to .
But Ember didn’t share my excitent.
‘Does Ember not like Triceratopses? Or maybe she prefers T-Rexes? But there aren’t any T-Rexes here...’
As I was mulling it over, Ember calmly asked a series of questions.
“How does soone enter or exit this space?”
“Only people I authorize.”
“Can anyone outside attack the station?”
“Nope. Impossible.”
“Can you create exits anywhere?”
“Mm-hmm. Anywhere I can see from where the station was.”
Having heard all my answers, Ember’s eyes sparkled.
“A fortress that no one can invade and a transport system that can appear anywhere...”
Ember suddenly lunged at and wrapped in a hug.
“That’s... incredible!”
Pressed against Ember’s chest, I shrugged my shoulders.
Well, I am pretty incredible, aren’t I?
Hehe.
****
Ember let out a deep sigh without even realizing it.
Only now did she beco aware of how tense she had been living all this ti.
Listening to A’s words brought a strange sense of relief.
A feeling of emptiness yet also profound reassurance.
After all, she had faked her death and escaped from Nexus Node, but not once had she ever felt truly safe.
Nexus Node was the epito of “eyes and ears everywhere,” the ultimate gacorp surveillance state.
Even after planting backdoors inside the Node and setting up multiple contingency plans, she had never felt at ease.
“Since the first ti we t...”
Ember muttered, watching as A spun cha-Agu by its short arms before tossing it away.
“Kyuuuu!”
cha-Agu whined in midair, clearly annoyed.
Hearing its grumbling sound, Ember recalled the first ti she had t A.
Eyes brimming with pure curiosity and reckless fearlessness.
A face devoid of any complicated thoughts or sches.
And behind that innocent deanor—a terrifying power.
Ember recalled that image and murmured softly to herself.
“When I’m with you, all those worries feel so trivial.”
Sowhere along the way, A had beco that kind of presence to Ember.
In Babel, where life was a suffocating tangle of conspiracies, calculations, fear, and paranoia, A felt like a gust of fresh wind that blew all that heaviness away.
Ember shifted her gaze with a lightened heart.
Iris was chattering away to A while Daniel and Victor stood nearby, listening.
Scarlet lay sprawled out on the table, utterly exhausted, while Aria stood beside her, fanning her expressionlessly.
Ember smiled softly at the sight.
Then, her eyes caught sight of the Golden Child, playing with sothing invisible in the air.
As if holding onto an invisible friend.
Could it be...?
Was there another Child?
[Coating!]
[Coating?]
The Golden Child bead brightly and extended its hand, covered in so sort of coating, toward the empty air.
‘!’
Then, out of nowhere, another Child began to materialize in the empty air.
The Golden Child sared the coating from its hands onto the newly appearing Child, slathering it all over.
The new Child was covered in a patchwork of colors—gold, blue, red, and more.
The coated Child touched the surrounding objects and wore an expression of surprise.
Just like the first ti the original Child had been coated, it seed fascinated by the sensation of touching things.
When the Rainbow-Colored Child t Ember’s eyes, it let out a giggle and ran over to her.
It placed its tiny palm on the back of Ember’s hand.
[Touch!]
Ember gently patted the Child’s head as it smiled up at her.
“Kyu!”
“Kiwikiki.”
“Kiwikiki.”
While they were playing, a strange scene unfolded in the corner of the station.
One of the Kiwis, the injured one, was engulfed in flas, and the other Kiwis, along with Agu, were circling around it.
‘Are they... disposing of the injured one?’
Shocked by the apparent brutality, Ember ran toward the burning Kiwi.
But when she got closer, she realized the scene was different from what she had imagined.
The Kiwi in the center was surrounded by flas, but the flas weren’t consuming its body.
Instead, it was the shadows around it that were burning.
It was as though the Kiwi’s body acted as the wick of a candle, using the surrounding shadows as fuel to burn.
And the mont the flas extinguished with a pop—
“Kii... Wii!!!”
The Kiwi, which had been lying motionless, rose to its feet, its eyes now glowing bright blue.
The only remaining mark was a scar on its side.
Its appearance now resembled cha-Agu, but with a shadowy texture.
You could call it a Shadow-cha-Kiwi.
Ember watched the scene unfold with a faint smile.
‘Sohow, I feel like weird things like this will keep happening in this station...’
For so reason, she felt that way.
And amidst that feeling, she felt a profound sense of safety for the first ti in a very long while.
A place where no one could ever find her.
A place where she could finally rest.
An escape from constant fear, anxiety, and relentless vigilance.
Ember moved closer to the station’s window and gazed into the endless darkness outside.
That darkness was no longer frightening.
If anything, it now felt like a shield protecting her.
“I think... I can finally rest.”
She whispered softly.
****
Babel’s Western District, outskirts of Neo Japan Zone.
In the middle of a street flashing with neon signs, I surveyed my surroundings.
Around lay the battered bodies of gang mbers.
So had broken limbs; others were missing heads.
I quietly reached into the pocket of one of the fallen gangsters and pulled out a small chip.
The target of the mission.
“Ember, I’ve secured the target.”
I transmitted the ssage through the shadow at my feet.
[Confird, A. Mission accomplished.]
Ember’s reply echoed back through the shadows.
It had been months since the Space Dino Park incident.
We had been expanding our influence, using the station as our operational base to freely roam across all of Babel.
We had started in the western district of Babel, the Neo Japan Zone.
A place notorious for its insular, closed-off atmosphere, where even Ember’s information network had struggled to penetrate.
But by using the Shadow Station, our presence was gradually becoming known, spreading bit by bit.
Though, at this point, not many people recognized .
I no longer heard people calling the “Pizza Lunatic,” which was nice, but it was also slightly annoying that no gang mbers feared yet.
“Well then, I’m heading back.”
With that, I sank into the shadows.
My destination was beyond the stars.
Into the empty void of shadows—the station.
We had beco a rcenary group that moved through all of Babel as if it were our personal playground.
****
A new rumor was spreading across Babel.
A story about rcenaries who road all of Babel, moving through the shadows.
At first, it was just talk of a new rcenary group with a surprisingly wide range of operations, but after the testimonies of the Dino Park survivors, the rumors began to evolve.
[They appear from the walls, kill their targets, and vanish back into the shadows. It all happens in the blink of an eye.]
[I heard they were the ones behind the Space Dino Park terror attack. And they swallowed the entire station with zombies and shadows.]
[They co and go without a trace, like demons.]
The rumors grew and grew until they beca tales of demons that offered to fulfill requests in exchange «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» for souls.
“If you’re trapped on all sides but the sky is open, draw a magic circle that looks like a pizza, and the demons will co to you.”
An absurd story.
But in the slums of Babel, where hope was scarce, people clung to such ridiculous rumors, performing the so-called demon summoning ritual out of sheer desperation.
Babel’s Eastern Slum District, a dark alleyway.
On the rooftop of a leaking, decrepit apartnt, a young girl stood.
She was drawing sothing on the ground.
It was a crude circle, divided into segnts like pizza slices.
“Demon...”
The girl muttered.
“They said... if you’re trapped on all sides but the sky is open, draw a magic circle that looks like a pizza, and the demon will co.”
She clasped her hands together and began to pray.
Praying for the demon to appear.
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