Shouya Yugure stood before the great leaders of the government, his presence unyielding as he represented the S-Rank Valkyries of his squad. His posture was stiff, an air of authority hanging around him, but inside, the indifference was growing, thicker with every passing moment.
Since becoming captain, his team had only grown stronger, his students—no, his comrades—had risen to a level of skill that even he couldn’t have anticipated. Though to call them students was an insult, wasn’t it? They were all the same age, all in this for the same reasons, but somehow, he had ended up as their captain.
He glanced across the room, his sharp gaze falling on the rotund man sitting at the head of the table. The man’s bloated face twisted in a mixture of anger and greed, but there was something in his eyes, something that spoke of desperation. It was all too familiar.
Shouya was no stranger to seeing this look. It was the face of a man willing to sell his soul for a scrap of hope. But what good was hope when the world was already past the point of saving?
Shouya’s mind drifted back to the moment that had shaped it all: his Valkyrie squad... once a disjointed, inexperienced group, had defeated an SSS-Rank Eidolon. The very same Eidolon capable of wiping entire cities off the map. And in that moment, they had become heroes. The Valkyries had become the last glimmer of hope for humanity. And now, this man—this fat, pot-bellied fool—looked at him like he was some kind of savior.
"Yugure, you and your squad are humanity's last chance." The man spoke, his voice gravelly, thick with forced authority. "We need you to understand the gravity of the situation!"
Shouya blinked, his gaze icy and indifferent. He had already heard it all. The Core. The source of all this madness. The thing that had connected their world to the dimension of the Eidolons. The thing that had caused the dimensional rifts, the monsters, the collapse of modern society. The thing that had doomed them all.
"We need you to find a way to close the Core, Yugure." The man’s voice was desperate now, shaking with fear, but there was also an undeniable greed in his eyes. He wanted it, he wanted the salvation of the planet, sure, but he also wanted the power that came with it. He wanted the reputation... he wanted to be the instigator of the world salvation.
Shouya stared back at him, his expression blank. The truth was, he had never been the type to care about saving the world. His squad was strong, they could fight, they could win battles, but was any of it enough?
The world had already fallen apart. What was there to save? There was no grand mission left. He wasn’t a hero. Heroes were for stories, not for men who knew that the end was already here.
And yet, they still asked for his help. They still expected him to do something that could change everything. But what could he do? He was a Valkyrie captain, not some miracle worker. He had only one answer to give.
"I’ll do it," Shouya said flatly, not a hint of hesitation in his voice. His mind was already elsewhere, distant from the man’s rambling, already planning the next move.
But even as he spoke, but in the end it was all pointless. The Core was a mystery, and whatever it was, it wasn’t going to save anyone. Not when the world was already on the edge of destruction.
The man seemed to accept his words, relief flooding his features as he finally spoke. "Thank you, Captain Yugure. Humanity will owe you everything!!!"
Shouya didn’t reply, his eyes narrowing slightly as he thought about what would come next. To save humanity? Or was this just the last act of a dying world?
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His mind cut to another moment.
They were running.
The night sky burned with fire and smoke, entire buildings crumbling as explosions shook the earth beneath them. The sharp scent of scorched metal and ozone filled his lungs, adrenaline surging through his veins as he clenched the word transmitter in his hand. Every breath felt heavy, labored, but his feet never stopped moving.
Another explosion. His vision blurred for a moment as the shockwave sent debris flying. Damn it.
A wall of shimmering [Exousia] flared to life in front of him, blocking the impact. The energy hummed, vibrating at an intensity only possible with a high-load Valkyrie barrier. His gaze flickered to the one standing before him, shielding him without hesitation.
A girl with flowing white hair and piercing purple eyes turned to face him, her expression both stern and exasperated.
Noa.
One of his Valkyries.
"Captain! You should be more careful—!"
She never got to finish.
A monstrous blur surged toward them—a creature of writhing flesh and countless eyes, its form twisting impossibly as it lunged.
But Noa didn’t falter.
With a flick of her wrist, she conjured something that shattered the very concept of physics... a cube, dark and pulsing with magnetic energy, floating in her palm. The air around it seemed to warp, twisting and bending unnaturally.
And then she threw it.
The moment it connected, reality itself distorted.
The monster shrank—compressing down to the size of an ant in a blink—before being pulled inward, space bending and folding unnaturally as a rift formed. The very air cracked like shattered glass, and within seconds, the Eidolon was gone, swallowed into a fissure that sealed behind it.
A pocket dimension.
One she had created.
Shouya remained still, his face unreadable. His heart should have been racing, but instead, he simply watched the aftermath with calm detachment.
Noa turned back to him, tilting her head slightly, awaiting praise.
But Shouya only had one thought.
How terrifying.
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Shouya ignored Noa’s expectant pout and kept running. They were almost at the Core.
With an exaggerated sigh, Noa fell back into position, her expression a mix of irritation and annoyance.
The further they ventured into the center of the Forgotten City, the heavier the air became. The ruins of a bygone era stretched around them, the remnants of humanity’s first great loss. This was where it had all begun. The first Rift. The place where the largest number of S-Rank Eidolons had ever been recorded in history.
More monsters surged from the shadows, grotesque and relentless.
A blur of motion...- and then nothing.
A girl with dark blue hair and pitch-black eyes appeared before the beast that lunged at him. In the next instant, they both vanished.
Teleportation.
Shouya barely spared her a glance. His Valkyries had truly become monsters themselves.
Another wave of creatures closed in, only for two streaks of gold to flash through the sky.
Twin figures descended, their movements in perfect sync, their small frames belying their strength. With a single, simultaneous kick, they sent the approaching Eidolons flying.
Shouya barely held back a smirk. Shorties.
The thought was fleeting as his feet touched the edge of a crumbling skyscraper. With a sharp inhale, he jumped.
The dark, murky water of the abyssal ruins stretched below him. His Exousia Detector hummed violently in his grasp, indicating the exact coordinates of an immense energy signature, the largest ever recorded in history.
The Core was close.
Then, the water surged.
A monstrous shape! twisted, bloated, a fusion of countless teeth and empty sockets... burst from the depths, its grotesque form resembling that of a shark warped beyond recognition.
It moved too fast.
Its gaping maw stretched wide, closing in—
And then—
Frozen.
A glacial force surged through the air, the creature encased in crystalline ice before it could reach him.
Shouya felt his body lift effortlessly, carried princess-style to shore.
It was almost comical.
The culprit?
A girl with hair like falling snowflakes, her icy blue eyes staring down at him with something unreadable, something dangerous.
She held him too tightly.
Shouya’s gaze remained indifferent as he slipped from her grasp and continued forward without a word.
Her cold expression wavered. A flicker of disappointment crossed her face.
She wanted to chase after him.
But before she could, a swarm of Eidolons erupted from the ruins, cutting her off.
She sighed, flexing her fingers as a freezing mist coiled around them.
“Captain is as heartless as ever…” she murmured before turning to slaughter the creatures that dared stand in her way.
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As he ran, heart pounding, breath sharp, Shouya glanced up at the sky.
A girl with curly, light brown hair danced between the stars, twisting and weaving through the air, dodging the swiping claws of a dragon.
A dragon?!
There wasn’t even time to process what the hell that thing was. His body was already moving, muscles burning, sweat rolling down his skin as pure adrenaline surged through his veins.
Just a little more!
The ground shook violently.
A muscular giant, grotesque and monstrous, burst through the ruins of a collapsed building, its massive body tearing through steel and concrete like paper.
Shouya had no time to react.
In the next instant, he felt a sharp tug at his collar.
Yanked backward at the last moment, he barely missed becoming a bloodstain on the pavement.
“Careful, Captain~💜”
A sultry voice purred near his ear before a pair of soft lips pressed against his cheek.
A teasing kiss.
And just like that, the purple-haired girl who had saved him was already gone, sprinting toward the mountain of muscle like it was her personal playground.
Shouya barely processed the interaction.
He had arrived.
The Core.
Before him stretched a massive crater, the earth torn apart by an unknown force. And in the center of it all—
A spherical mass of pure energy.
It pulsated.
It hummed.
It was alive.
This was it...
The thing that tied this world to destruction.
His chest heaved, his body battered and torn, his uniform in tatters, blood and sweat mixing into the dirt on his skin.
Shouya stared at the sphere.
What was he supposed to do now?
Was he just… supposed to approach it?
...
...
...
It pulsed, an ever-expanding mass of energy, growing larger and larger, swallowing the world with its light.
Then—
A voice.
Strange, whispering directly into his mind.
Come closer.
His chest tightened. Shit. This was it. His last chance.
He wanted to be useful.
That’s why he came here.
Even with these thoughts hammering through his brain, his face remained the same—distant, cold, indifferent.
Was his sister eating properly now?
The thought passed idly as he took his first step.
Agony.
It felt like his bones were shattering.
Second step.
His eardrums felt like they were exploding.
Third.
His brain—his neurons—felt like they were melting into putty.
Screams.
Faint at first, then louder.
Shouya blinked through the pain.
Noa.
Emy.
Yui.
Rin.
And the others.
They were all screaming.
They had arrived—finally. But—
Blood.
It dripped from his ears. His eardrums had already burst.
They tried to move closer, but the force repelled them, their bodies trembling as they fought against it.
Yet he remained untouched.
Why?
He didn’t care.
Seventh step.
His hand—his very flesh—began to disintegrate.
Eighth.
His clothes. His skin. Gone, peeling away into nothingness.
Ninth.
He smiled.
"You should lived well."
Tenth.
With the last of his strength, he lunged forward.
Blood streamed from his eyes, his nose, his ears—every part of him drained the moment it left his body.
Would his parents be proud?
Or would they just call him an idiot?
His sister…
Was she eating well?
He didn’t turn back.
Didn’t look at the sobbing mess behind him.
Didn’t acknowledge the crazed desperation in their tear-filled eyes.
Noa’s voice cracked with rage and grief, screaming at the blue-haired girl—
"TELEPORT TO HIM. SAVE THE CAPTAIN!"
She tried.
Again. Again. Again.
But she couldn’t.
Because Shouya had already cut off their connection.
…Maybe his parents were waiting for him on the other side.
The thought barely registered before his fingertips brushed the Core.
Light engulfed him.
His body vanished.
Shouya Yugure ceased to exist.