The Secrets I Forgot

Chaos

Reality bent slightly around Rin, continuing to bend until it stretched across meters, then kilometers. Various phenomena occurred elsewhere as objects moved before falling back down, while cracks appeared in the space around people, leading into the dark void beyond.

It was chaos in Tania.

At least, according to normal people, it was only happening in Tania, but not for certain individuals.

The hooded young boy who had been secretly following Rin stood on a rooftop, observing the surroundings in astonishment as more and more cracks kept opening.

The man in the trench coat appeared beside him, frowning.

"Someone is obtaining the recognition of a Neph. One of the foundations of the universe is offering itself to someone."

The young boy nodded.

"Mine also caused quite a commotion before I obtained it, but this one... it's far more powerful than anything I've ever seen."

The strength a Neph would possess could be recognized by the disorder it caused to the reality it governed. It was even said that a stronger Neph could destroy reality before it was ever obtained or controlled.

"Try to find the one obtaining it, but do nothing to interfere, or we'll all regret it," the man said to the young boy, who nodded before disappearing.

The man then raised his hand, trying to close the cracks opening here and there.

The young boy reappeared in the distance and glanced far away.

He sighed. The chaos was existential, affecting not only Tania, nor only Earth, but extending even farther into other space-times.

The influence of a Neph was not to be underestimated.

As long as it's not a villain who gets this Neph, we're fine... he thought as he continued on his way.

---

The number of cracks continued increasing throughout the entire world, followed by an enormous and utterly superhuman force descending upon the universe, forcing everyone to stop. No one knew whether time itself had stopped, but everything had frozen. Even other space-times had now come to a standstill.

Only those possessing a Neph could still move.

Inside a restaurant in Tania, around ten men wearing trench coats stood up, looked around, exchanged glances, nodded, and disappeared.

Inside a shop, four men looked at one another, smiled, and disappeared.

Inside a police station, several people, both men and women, cast glances far away, beyond the universe itself, before closing their eyes, lowering their heads, looking at each other, and nodding.

In a dark alley, the shadows shifted as an old man appeared out of nowhere.

The very same one who had made a deal with Rin.

He raised his gaze upward before vanishing, only to reappear within the existence of space-time itself.

He swept his gaze across the entirety of space-time, searching for the source of the anomaly, yet found nothing.

Still nothing.

An astonished expression appeared on his face.

---

Similar events were happening with many people all across the world.

Inside Rin's house, Rin's mother suddenly rose from her bed and glanced around. Despite remaining inside her room and despite the walls, she could see everything happening throughout Tania, even events occurring in other countries. In the end, her gaze was drawn toward one particular room inside the house.

She suddenly frown, then stood up and walked toward a certain room.

Rin's room.

Inside the room at the end of the hallway, a dull noise rang out, followed by sounds at the door as though someone were violently touching it.

Meanwhile, countless distant gazes were cast from beyond the entirety of the physical world itself. No one knew to whom they belonged, nor what they wished to see, but after that, the cracks multiplied even further, bearing witness to the strength of those beings.

Reality itself was in danger of being destroyed.

---

Inside his room, Rin stared in confusion at everything happening.

He felt an immense force squeezing him as something slowly began to appear before him.

At first, it was imperceptible, without size, without a fixed position in the space before him, as though it existed everywhere and nowhere at once.

Then, all the chaos ceased, and everyone resumed moving normally, looking around in astonishment. The force weighing upon them had disappeared, and so had the cracks, which gradually vanished.

Meanwhile, the pen "Script Writer" was writing by itself, as though held by an invisible force or as though it had gained consciousness. The more it wrote, the more the destruction and chaos subsided.

The distant gazes all settled upon "Script Writer," then upon Rin, before a masculine voice echoed throughout the entire physical world, making everything tremble and bringing back the cracks that had just begun to disappear, forcing Script Writer to write even faster.

Everyone heard what that voice had just said.

"So... it's you."

That was all they heard.

The distant gazes withdrew, and Script Writer continued writing, sealing the cracks.

Script Writer paused before continuing to write.

Rin's mother, who had been walking toward his door, suddenly stopped.

She had forgotten everything that had just happened. She stared blankly at Rin's door, trying to remember why she had come, before quietly returning to her room, still looking thoughtful.

Suddenly, Charly's voice pulled Rin out of his daze.

[The Neph of History is now at your disposal.]

A pure blue stone now stood before Rin, who could only stare at it in astonishment.