CHAPTER 40: CHAPTER 40 - BACK AGAIN

The clock showed it was almost midnight. At this hour, most people were already fast asleep in their beds, lost in dreams or the comfort of silence. Most people... But not Mikail, Moona, and Melisa.

The three of them sat tensely in the dimly lit living room, their eyes fixed on the wall clock as its second hand ticked ever closer to midnight. A faint hum of magic lingered in the air, almost unnoticeable, like a whisper waiting to rise.

"...Is Grandma not joining us?" Melisa asked, breaking the silence. Her voice was light, an attempt to lift the heavy tension clinging to the room. "I feel like our chances of surviving this would be higher with her here"

Mikail shook his head, his gaze never leaving the clock. "No. She said she used too much of her power last night. She needs to recover"

"What a shame," Melisa muttered with a small sigh. "I wanted to see her magic again. It’s... Something new for me. Right, Mon?"

"Eh? Um, yeah," Moona replied, blinking as if pulled from a deep thought. "I’ve never seen anything like it before. I’m really curious about the path she’s taken"

"Isn’t it Mage? Just like you?" Melisa tilted her head.

"Similar," Moona said slowly, her brow furrowing in thought. "But there’s something different about the way she handles Mana. It’s not just her technique... It’s like her Mana responds to her will in a way I’ve never seen. More fluid, more alive. Unlike Mikail, who makes it feel like Mana bends to his command, with her... It’s more like she’s befriended it, somehow. Strange as it sounds"

"Pfft~ Befriending Mana? What is this, a sho*nen anime?" Melisa snorted, trying not to laugh. "Next thing you’ll tell me, Grandma’s the chosen one with a secret power of friendship"

"I’m not trying to joke, Lisa," Moona said, frowning slightly. "I’m just saying what I fe-"

"Guys," Mikail cut in sharply, his voice low but firm. His eyes narrowed, fixed on the clock as it ticked closer to midnight. "Prepare your weapons. They’re here"

The room fell silent in an instant. The air shifted, denser, colder as if the world itself were holding its breath. Beyond the front door, something scraped against the floorboards, slow and deliberate, followed by a faint, unnatural whisper that curled like smoke through the air.

Then-

*Click*

A sound, subtle yet final, like the turning of an unseen lock.

In that moment, reality warped. The color drained from the world around them, and the comforting hum of life vanished.

They had crossed over... Into the Zero Zone Area again.

--------

[DING]

[New Quest: Survive the Night]

[Rewerd: Light Affinity Increased]

The system window faded just as quickly as it appeared, but the message burned itself into my mind.

Survive the night.

Easier said than done.

The living room was no longer the same. Everything looked drained, colors faded into sepia tones, like an old, dying photograph. Shadows stretched unnaturally across the walls and floors, twitching with a rhythm I couldn’t trust. The air was heavy, cold enough that my breath came out in thin clouds.

I glanced at Moona, already working. A thin barrier shimmered around us, barely visible, like mist caught in moonlight. Her fingers glowed faintly with pale blue Mana, and her expression had gone from curious to deadly serious.

Melisa stood to my left, her enhancement gun already in her grip. Sleek, matte-black, humming with contained power. Her eyes darted across the room, reading every movement, every sound. She was fully alert... No jokes now.

And then there was me.

Empty hands. No weapon. No spell has yet been cast.

But I could feel it... Something inside. Waiting.

I closed my eyes, steadying my breath. Reaching inward. I called to it, the light I’d barely touched before.

At first, nothing.

Then a spark.

A single flicker of light danced across my palm. I focused harder, drawing it in, shaping it with my will. The spark grew. It pulsed, alive. Slowly, the energy shifted, stretching and forming.

From spark to blade... A sword began to take shape, forged entirely from light.

Brilliant, silent, warm. It hummed softly in my hand as if recognizing me.

I opened my eyes.

Whatever was waiting... I was ready.

I glanced at Moona and Melisa.

"...You guys ready?"

No words, just nods. But that was enough.

Then it came... A low groan from beyond the hallway. Inhuman. Drawn-out. As if something was straining, tearing its way through the fabric of this twisted version of my home.

The shadows pulsed again.

And this time... They moved.

A figure emerged from the far end of the hall.

No... Not a figure. A silhouette. Its limbs are too long, body thin, and twitching like a broken puppet. Its face... Or the lack of it was a smear of darkness, a void where eyes and mouth should be.

The first Shadow creature.

"Barrier holding," Moona whispered, her voice tight with focus.

"Not for long," I muttered. I could already feel the pressure building against it like invisible hands pressing in from all sides.

Melisa raised her weapon. A soft whirr as the enhancement core activated, and small, glowing runes lit up along the side of the barrel. "I’ve got your left. Mikail, take center. Moona, cover support"

The plan was simple. It had to be. In the Zero Zone, hesitation got you killed.

I stepped forward, my blade of light casting faint illumination around me. The Shadow hissed, recoiling slightly but not retreating. It began to circle, others starting to flicker into view behind it.

Four... No, five. And more were coming.

"They’re testing the barrier," Moona said, voice strained. Sweat beaded on her forehead. "Trying to find a weak point"

"We give them none"

I shifted my stance. The light in my sword brightened, responding to my focus, and for a moment I felt the Mana within me pulse like a heartbeat, synchronized with the world around me.

The Shadow moved.

Fast.

The first one launched itself forward, shrieking as it collided with the barrier. A flash of blue flared from Moona’s spell. The shield held... Barely.

Another shriek. Then another impact.

Then...

*CRACK*

A hairline fracture appeared on the barrier’s edge.

"Now!" I shouted, leaping forward, blade raised. The light flared as I struck, cleaving through the barrier’s opening just as the first shadow broke through. The creature screeched in pain as the sword cut through its chest if it had a chest, and dissolved into smoke.

Another rushed in from the side. Melisa fired a sharp, clean burst. The enhanced shot tore through the air and slammed into the creature’s core, sending it into convulsions before it evaporated.

"Two down," I called. "Stay close!"

The others weren’t slowing.

No time to breathe.

No time to think.

The night had only just begun.

--------

The living room was a battlefield now.

Shadows twisted across the warped walls, flickering in and out of shape like dying flames. The air vibrated with a pulse that didn’t belong to this world, a steady thrum that resonated in bone and soul alike.

Mikail moved like a beacon, his sword of light carving through the dark with precise, fluid arcs. Each swing lit up the room in sharp bursts, scattering creatures made of nightmare and void. Where his blade landed, darkness recoiled, hissing, shrieking, dying.

Moona stood in the center, her barrier fractured but holding. Her hands danced with glowing runes, casting support spells with speed and precision. Threads of blue Mana weaved from her fingers, reinforcing weak points in the shield, slowing enemies just long enough for her allies to strike.

Melisa was a whirlwind on the flanks. Her enhancement gun thrummed with each shot, firing bolts of condensed Mana that tore through shadows with surgical efficiency.

Each trigger pull echoed like a drumbeat, punctuating the chaos with rhythmic destruction. She covered Mikail’s blind spots without a word, always moving, always aware.

But the creatures kept coming.

Ten.

Twelve.

More.

The Zero Zone wasn’t just a place. It was alive. It wanted them to fall.

One of the larger shadows surged forth from the writhing mass, an abomination of muscle and malice, twice the size of a man. Its body was twisted, contorted like something assembled wrong on purpose, with limbs too long and joints that bent the wrong way.

Black, sinewy flesh glistened under the flickering light, and from its hunched back, bony spines jutted outward like broken spears. Its face was nothing but a jagged maw filled with rows of teeth that shimmered like glass shards.

With a guttural snarl, it barreled forward, claws like hooked scythes carving deep gouges into the warped wooden floor. Each step reverberated like thunder, the sheer weight of the creature warping the very air around it.

Mikail tightened his grip, raising his sword of light, the blade flaring with defiance. But before he could strike, Melisa moved like lightning.

She dropped low, sliding across the cracked floorboards, her gun already aimed. Two sharp cracks split the air as she fired, bright pulses of Mana slamming into the creature’s knees. The beast staggered with a snarling bellow.

Before it could recover, Mikail was already in motion. He leaped forward, light trailing behind him like a comet, and brought his blade down in a devastating vertical arc.

The moment the sword connected, there was a flash, a burst of radiant energy that carved through the monster’s torso, clean and final.

The beast let out a distorted roar, a sound too deep and broken to be natural. It echoed through the room, rattling the glass in the windows, and then, with a violent shudder, the creature dissolved into thick, oily smoke that curled into nothingness.

"They’re getting stronger," Moona gasped, beads of sweat trickling down her temples as her hands traced new sigils in the air. Her voice trembled, not with fear, but with realization.

Mikail didn’t answer. His eyes flicked toward the hallway again.

There. Beyond the mass of shadow spawn. A shape watching from the far dark.

Not moving.

Not attacking.

Just... Observing.

....

...

..

.