CHAPTER 15: THE SCARLET GAUNTLET
Ren stood in the center of his dorm room, the familiar confines feeling like a dollhouse after the vast landscapes of myth. His fingers traced the scabbard at his hip. This is it. The proof. Not a dream, not a simulation. This is the weapon that will carve my path to peace. With a slow, deliberate pull, he drew the Kusanagi. The blade didn't gleam; it was a shard of absolute nothingness that drank the light from the room. A slow, cracked smile spread across his lips. It's real. The power to unmake is mine. This is the grammar of erasure.
He took a single step forward, intending to walk to the window and look upon the world he was destined to cleanse.
The world twisted.
It wasn't a teleportation spell he recognized. It was a violent, spatial yank, as if
