The city breathed with a slow, dying pulse. Neon lights flickered, the remnants of a time when this place had life. Now, it was only a graveyard, buildings crumbling like old bones. Smoke curled from Yara's cigarette as she stood motionless among the wreckage, her sniper resting against her shoulder. Blood from the previous battle still stained the cracked pavement.
A shift in the air.
Something was different.
Yara's eyes snapped toward the street ahead. The concrete twisted. Buildings that were once half-destroyed suddenly mended themselves, standing tall and pristine. The streetlights, once shattered and flickering, glowed a soft white. Even the wind itself felt artificial.
Someone was here.
Not a sorcerer. Not a soldier.
Something else entirely.
A Figure stepped into view, their black shoes tapping against the pavement. Their presence alone distorted the very fabric of the city.
A man.
His hair was unkempt, jet-black strands falling over his sharp, ink-stained fingers. He wore a long, dark coat, half unbuttoned, revealing a plain shirt. His eyes gleamed with something unreadable, something unnatural.
In his right hand, he held a pen. In his left, a blank sheet of paper.
Yara remained silent. Watching. Calculating.
The man exhaled, his voice carried by the artificial wind.
"Nightmare Zero… huh?" His tone was casual, almost amused. "Didn't think I'd actually run into you. Feels weird seeing a 'character' outside their pages."
He lifted his pen.
Yara aimed her rifle at his skull.
His grin widened.
"Easy there. I'm not here to fight."
The street warped beneath their feet.
Shadows stretched unnaturally, buildings bending at impossible angles before snapping back to reality. The stars above flickered, replaced by black ink splatters across the sky.
Yara didn't move.
Her silence stretched, suffocating the moment.
The man laughed softly.
"Still not talking? I guess that's fair. You're not exactly… real, after all."
His pen touched the paper.
The world around them trembled.
Reality twisted no.. it rewrote itself.
The ground beneath Yara's feet vanished. For a brief moment, she was falling plummeting into a void of ink. Then, as quickly as it happened, she landed back on solid ground.
Everything was exactly as it was before.
No time had passed.
No bullet had been fired.
But Yara knew.
She had died.
And yet, she still stood.
The man smirked.
"Yeah, that's about right. You're a tough one.. even outside the ink."
His eyes glowed faintly, reflecting the city lights.
"You're not the only one who can break things, Nightmare Zero. But I…" He lifted the paper slightly, letting it flutter.
"I can rewrite them."
A gunshot rang out.
The bullet never landed.
Instead, the man simply erased it.
His fingers flicked the page, and the bullet ceased to exist.
Silence.
The air between them remained charged, yet neither moved.
Yara reloaded, unfazed.
The man laughed.
"Right. Of course, you don't care."
His grin faded slightly, his gaze drifting past her, into the ruined skyline.
"...You're already beyond this world's rules, aren't you?"
His pen hovered over the page once more.
"But even you… still have limits."
The wind howled.
A presence lurked in the distance, watching. Waiting.
The one-handed swordsman.
Golden eyes gleamed from the shadows of a ruined building.
He leaned against a broken pillar, his expression unreadable. The magic in his severed limb pulsed faintly, still recovering from his battle with Yara.
He said nothing.
He simply observed.
The swordsman's gaze flickered between the silent sniper and the manga character rewriting reality.
For a brief moment, he smirked.
This… was getting interesting.
Yara, as always, didn't react.
She simply lifted her rifle.
The man with the pen and paper chuckled.
"Guess we'll see how long you last.. Nightmare Zero."
His ink-stained fingers flicked the page.
The city shifted once more.
And he was gone.
The ruins returned to normal.
Time resumed.
But something had changed.
Somewhere beyond the world they stood in, beyond the battlefield and the ruins of a forgotten city.
Someone else was watching.
The Narrator.
Its form flickered between the screens, its voice dripping with amusement.
"Amusing… although you're just an unfinished fiction, you're still powerful, huh?"
Its shadow twisted, warping into something else.
"I'll remove your ability later on… let's see how far everything will go for Nightmare Zero. Against that man."
It smirked.
Its grin widened.
The static surrounding it grew darker, heavier.
The Narrator began to change.
Its fingers elongated, sharpening into something inhuman. Its silhouette shifted, molding itself into something beyond the confines of existence.
A pen formed in one hand.
An eraser in the other.
It was not simply a watcher.
It was a creator.
A force that dictated what should remain. And what should be removed, One to Create.. and the other to Erase.
Ink dripped from its fingertips as it began to write.
A substitute.
A new antagonist.
Something to push Nightmare Zero further.
Something… different.
It chuckled softly, the sound reverberating through the unseen void.
"Let's create something fun."
And with that, a pen touched the page.
Reality shuddered.
The world prepared for something new.
Something worse.
Something made just for her.