Sai's grip tightened around his daggers as he faced the mysterious
hooded man
standing in the vast hall. The golden chains binding the massive doorway behind him
shuddered
, as if something on the other side was reacting to Sai's presence.
The air was thick with
old power
, the kind that felt like it had been lingering for centuries, waiting.
"You are not the first to stand here,"
the hooded man said, his voice calm yet heavy.
"And you will not be the last."
Sai's eyes flicked to the
mark on the man's palm
—the same symbol that had appeared on Sai's body when he first awakened the
Lost Gate System
.
"Who are you?"
Sai demanded.
The man tilted his head slightly.
"I could ask you the same question."
Sai exhaled sharply, irritation creeping into his voice.
"Enough riddles. Where am I? What is this place?"
The man regarded him for a moment before finally speaking.
"This is the Hall of Remnants. A place between what was... and what should have been."
"That doesn't answer anything."
"Doesn't it?"
The man took a step forward, his movements
unnaturally smooth
, like someone who had long since abandoned the need for hesitation.
"This hall is where the memories of those who touched the Abyss remain. And now, you stand among them."
Sai frowned.
"Memories?"
The hooded man raised his hand, and the statues lining the hall
began to move.
The
stone warriors
that had stood silent now trembled, their massive forms shifting as golden
light flickered within their eyes.
Then—
the world around Sai shifted.
For a brief second, he was no longer standing in a ruined hall.
He was
somewhere else entirely.
A battlefield.
The air was
thick with smoke
, and the ground was littered with
corpses of hunters
in unfamiliar armor. Beyond them, creatures
of pure shadow
twisted and shrieked, their forms shifting unnaturally.
And at the center of the battlefield—
Were
hunters unlike any Sai had ever seen.
They fought not just with weapons but with
abilities that bent the very fabric of reality
. One moved
faster than sight
, cutting through shadows with a
blade that burned like the sun
. Another raised a hand, and the air
froze solid
, trapping creatures in ice that shattered instantly.
These were
not normal hunters.
These were
the first.
The
ones who had sealed the Abyss.
And then—just as quickly as it appeared—
the vision ended.
Sai was back in the hall, breath sharp, mind
reeling.
"What... was that?"
"The past,"
the hooded man said.
"Or at least, what remains of it."
Sai's heart pounded. He had always known the
first hunters
were legends, but what he had just seen was beyond anything he had imagined.
"They were stronger than anything I've ever seen," Sai muttered.
"Because they had no choice,"
the man said, stepping closer.
"You believe the Lost Gates hold monsters. But you have not yet seen what they were truly built to contain."
He gestured to the
golden chains
on the massive doorway behind him.
"The Abyss was not sealed away with magic alone. It was sealed with their very existence."
"Their existence?"
Sai repeated.
"The first hunters did not simply defeat the Abyss."
The hooded man's voice was
calm, but absolute
.
"They
offered themselves
to contain it."
Sai's stomach twisted.
"You're saying... they sacrificed themselves?"
"Not just their lives."
The man finally stopped walking, standing just a few feet away now.
"Their very identities were erased. Their names, their histories... forgotten, so that the Abyss would never call to them again."
A chill ran down Sai's spine.
That would explain why there were no records, why
no one truly knew
what had happened during the first war.
It wasn't just history that had been erased.
It was the people who had fought in it.
"Then why do I still exist?"
Sai asked.
The hooded man studied him for a long moment.
Then—
for the first time, he hesitated.
"Because something went wrong."
Silence stretched between them.
Sai could hear the faint creaking of the golden chains behind the man, the slow, rhythmic pull of something
waiting to be freed.
"You were never meant to survive the Lost Gate,"
the man continued.
"The Order erases them for a reason. To stop the cycle from repeating."
Sai clenched his fists.
"What cycle?"
The man finally lifted his hood slightly, revealing
eyes that glowed with golden energy.
"The cycle of Chosen."
The word
echoed
in Sai's mind.
That woman in the ruins had used the same word.
"What does that mean?"
Sai demanded.
The man's expression didn't change.
"It means you are closer to the Abyss than you realize."
Sai's breath caught.
"And the more you seek the truth..."
The golden chains behind the man
shuddered violently.
A deep,
inhuman sound
rumbled from beyond the sealed doors.
"...the closer it comes to waking up."
Sai took an involuntary step back, every instinct screaming at him that
something was very wrong.
The
whispers
that had filled the city were growing louder now, slipping into his thoughts like
fragments of something half-remembered.
"What's behind that door?"
Sai asked.
The hooded man exhaled.
"Something that should have stayed forgotten."
The ground trembled.
The chains began to
break.
Sai's pulse
spiked.
"Then stop it!"
he snapped.
"I can't,"
the man said simply.
"I am only a Remnant."
A final
snap
And the golden chains
shattered.
The massive door
lurched open
, revealing nothing but
endless darkness.
A
single tendril
of
black mist
drifted out from within, curling unnaturally through the air.
And then—
A voice.
"You came back."
Sai's vision blurred.
The world
tilted.
And suddenly—
He was
falling into the Abyss.