The news spread across Runiya like wildfire in drought-stricken grass. ssengers rode day and night, magical communications flashed between towers, and within a week, there wasn't a corner of the continent where people weren't discussing the sa impossible event—Northwatch was gone. The Eternal Rift, that wound in reality that had endured for over a century, had vanished completely.
In taverns and royal courts alike, the sa questions circulated. What power could possibly erase a city and seal an Eternal Rift? What did it an for the continent's stability? And perhaps most urgently—would other rifts follow suit, or was this a singular event?
At the Crimson Owl headquarters, Nicholas Davoss sat alone in the archives, poring over the official report that had been distributed to all ard groups. Unlike the grand libraries of more prestigious forces like Éclair or White Lion, the Crimson Owl's collection was modest but specialized—focused on historical anomalies and unusual magical phenona. The solitude suited Nicholas perfectly, allowing him to process the information without distraction.
The official report was frustratingly vague. White Lion squad teams 55 and 27 had been dispatched to investigate a communication disruption at Northwatch. Sothing catastrophic had occurred, resulting in the complete destruction of the city and the disappearance of the Eternal Rift. Only two survivors had been recovered: Lady Alexandra Lionhart and her young cousin Klaus Lionhart, both found wandering a perfect circle of ash where the city had once stood. Klaus remained unconscious at the Lionhart Estate, while Alexandra was recovering and had provided testimony to White Lion command.
No details of that testimony were included in the official report.
Nicholas's eyes narrowed as he reread the docunt for the third ti. Sothing wasn't right. The sanitized language, the careful omissions—this was a docunt designed to inform without actually revealing anything of substance.
More troubling was what this ant for the future he had witnessed across multiple lifetis. The Northwatch Catastrophe had been a fixed point in every tiline Nicholas had experienced—a constant calamity that occurred regardless of his interventions. But it was supposed to happen three years from now, not today. The Eternal Rift was supposed to expand into a festering corruption zone, not vanish entirely.
"It doesn't make sense," he whispered to the empty archives.
Another thought struck him. Alexandra Lionhart had survived. In every single one of his previous lives, Alexandra died along with her entire squad on a mission approximately two years after joining White Lion. It was a fixed point, just like the Northwatch Catastrophe—an event that happened without fail across every tiline he had lived through.
Could these two fixed points be connected sohow? Had the alteration of one affected the other?
Nicholas rubbed his temples, trying to align the fragnts of knowledge from his past lives with these new, unprecedented events. Sothing fundantal had changed in the fabric of causality itself. And at the center of it all was Klaus Lionhart—a person who had never existed in any of Nicholas's previous lives.
His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the archive door opening. Captain ros entered, his usually cheerful face drawn with concern. He carried a sealed folder under his arm, marked with the emblem of the White Lion.
"Davoss," the captain acknowledged. "Still at it, I see."
"Just trying to make sense of the Northwatch incident, sir," Nicholas replied carefully, straightening the docunts on his desk.
ros glanced at the official report Nicholas had been studying. "That won't tell you much. Sanitized garbage, carefully crafted to say nothing while appearing to say sothing."
He settled into a chair across from Nicholas, placing the sealed folder on the table between them. For a mont, he simply stared at it, as if debating whether to share its contents.
"The council of ard groups t today," ros finally said. "As expected, the Crimson Owl's input wasn't particularly valued among the elite forces. But we were granted access to the actual field report." He tapped the folder. "I thought you might find it... illuminating."
Nicholas kept his expression neutral, though his curiosity was imdiately piqued. "Thank you, sir. May I ask why you're sharing this with specifically?"
ros studied him thoughtfully. "Because you've always had an unusual insight into matters that others find incomprehensible. Because you joined the Crimson Owl when you could have chosen a more prestigious ard group. And because what's in this report..." He paused, choosing his words carefully. "Let's just say it challenges everything we thought we knew about rifts and the nature of reality itself."
He pushed the folder toward Nicholas. "Read it. Then tell what you think."
Nicholas carefully broke the seal and opened the folder. Inside was Alexandra Lionhart's full testimony, transcribed by White Lion scribes and certified by her own signature. As he began to read, the blood slowly drained from his face.
Alexandra's account detailed how Northwatch had been compromised—not by external forces, but from within. The entire population had been replaced by artificial beings called homunculi. The Duke himself had transford into so kind of hybrid creature, part machine and part alchemical construct. He had been attempting to use the Eternal Rift for sothing called "the Convergence"—a process ant to open a gateway between worlds.
But what truly made Nicholas's heart stop was the description of what had happened to Klaus. According to Alexandra, Klaus had appeared at the barrier control station with midnight-black hair and abyssal eyes that reflected no light. He had called himself "Gluttony" and demonstrated power that consud rather than destroyed, sohow redirecting the Eternal Rift before erasing the entire city from existence.
Nicholas carefully controlled his reaction, but inside, his mind was racing. Gluttony. One of the seven Arkdieu—ancient entities existing outside conventional reality, each selecting human vessels called Apostles to serve as their anchors in the world. In all his previous lives, Nicholas had studied the ergence of these Apostles, morizing their patterns. Pride always awakened first, followed by Envy, then Greed. Gluttony was always one of the last to appear, manifesting only after the continental war had begun.
For Gluttony to appear now, through Klaus Lionhart—a person who had never existed in any previous tiline—shattered everything Nicholas thought he knew about the fixed points of fate.
"Well?" ros prompted after Nicholas finished reading. "What do you make of it?"
Nicholas carefully closed the folder, buying himself a mont to compose his thoughts. "It's... difficult to reconcile with conventional understanding of rifts," he said cautiously.
ros snorted. "That's putting it mildly. Artificial beings replacing an entire city's population? A Duke transforming into so kind of monster? And a twelve-year-old boy possessed by an entity called 'Gluttony' that sohow erased the Eternal Rift from existence?" He shook his head. "Most of the council dismissed it as trauma-induced delusion. But Lady Alexandra was quite insistent, and her account never wavered under questioning."
"What does the Lionhart family say?" Nicholas asked, his voice carefully neutral.
"Nothing officially," ros replied. "But unofficially? They've summoned healers from across the continent to attend to the boy. The patriach himself has ordered a complete lockdown of information regarding Klaus's condition." He leaned forward, lowering his voice. "And there are rumors that the dragon—the one bonded to Klaus—has been inconsolable, crying out day and night since the incident."
Nicholas nodded slowly, processing this information. The ister bond between Klaus and his dragon would naturally be affected by whatever had happened to the boy.
"Do you believe it?" he asked, watching ros carefully. "Lady Alexandra's account?"
ros was silent for a long mont. "I've been a soldier for thirty years, Davoss. I've seen rifts spawn creatures that defied description. I've witnessed magic that bent reality itself. But this..." He gestured to the report. "This suggests forces beyond anything in our records or understanding."
He stood, signaling the end of their conversation. "Keep this to yourself. The official story remains a catastrophic barrier failure. The council doesn't want panic spreading about homunculi infiltrators or city-erasing entities called 'Gluttony.'"
As ros turned to leave, he paused. "Strange days, Davoss. The world feels... different sohow. As if sothing fundantal has shifted." With that, he departed, leaving Nicholas alone with the report.
When the door closed, Nicholas released the carefully controlled tension in his body. His hands trembled slightly as he reopened the folder, rereading the description of Klaus's transformation. The black hair. The abyssal eyes. The na: Gluttony.
It confird what Nicholas had begun to suspect—Klaus Lionhart was almost certainly an Apostle, a human vessel chosen by one of the seven Arkdieu. His unprecedented skills, his rise to beco the youngest Swordmaster in history, his very existence in this tiline when he had never appeared in any previous ones Nicholas had lived—it all made sense now.
But Gluttony's premature awakening violated everything Nicholas thought he knew about the sequence of events that led to the continental war and the Lionhart family's downfall. In every previous lifeti, these catastrophes had been inevitable, fixed points in the flow of causality that no intervention could change.
Now, for the first ti, a major fixed point had been completely altered. If one fixed point could change, perhaps others could too. Perhaps the inevitable tragedies Nicholas had witnessed across countless lives were not so inevitable after all.
Or perhaps sothing worse awaited them all.
Nicholas carefully replaced the report in its folder. Tomorrow, he would need to find a way to visit the Lionhart Estate. He needed to see Klaus for himself, to confirm his suspicions about the young Swordmaster's true nature.
As he extinguished the lamp and left the archives, a single question haunted his thoughts: If Klaus Lionhart was indeed Gluttony's Apostle, what would happen when he awakened?
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