Several minutes had passed since Zavi first left that area and walked along Vica Street in Chapena District after such a long time without feeling any sense of calm.

  The soft light from the street lamps immediately welcomed him as he had absolutely no desire to look back and no desire to think about the ritual or the strange meeting with that woman. Zavi took a deep breath, trying to calm his mind before continuing his steps.

  'It seems this is not as easy as I imagined,' he thought with a smile.

  Not long after that, he finally arrived at the small alley where his house stood and stopped in front of the door for a few seconds. He observed the surroundings, afraid that someone else might have followed him, including that woman, before turning the doorknob.

  Click…

  He pushed the door slowly so it would not make a sound. The inside of the house felt silent and eerie. There was only dim light above the round table in the living room, and a hanging candle lamp with a faint glow, as if the house were empty.

  "Ren… Isabelle… can you hear me?" Zavi muttered without blinking as he checked every corner of the house, including his own room.

  There was no answer. The air stopped moving as Zavi's breathing began to feel heavy.

  "I already told you…" a soft yet cold voice, clearly feminine, slipped into his head. "You will not be able to escape from me," the mysterious figure said, without showing her face or revealing where the voice came from.

  "Hah? Who is that?" Zavi immediately became alert. "Are you the woman I met in that dream?" he asked, the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end.

  "That was not a dream… Mister Zavi or Liam Tirarty. Actually, I—"

  Before the mysterious woman could finish her words, Zavi's consciousness began to fade. His vision blurred, and he collapsed right in front of the door of his house.

  "Tch… how annoying. I will wait for you, remember that."

  "..." He was confused, wondering why she knew his real name and what exactly she was waiting for.

  Darkness instantly drowned both his mind and his body.

  Fear and emptiness blended together in that moment, a sensation that felt far too familiar to him. He had been at this point before, when he first awakened at the beginning of all of this.

  Then… a mixture of panic and resignation sounded clearly in his ears.

  "Zavi... Wake up. What happened? Why did you scream like that?" Ren's voice sounded panicked, very close. His eyes stared sharply at Zavi, into a pair of blue eyes now wet with tears.

  'Damn… was I crying just now?' The thought appeared unconsciously.

  As soon as his eyes truly opened, a strong throbbing pain immediately attacked his head. Nausea rose from his stomach, making his breath stop for a moment. That was how it felt when Zavi finally woke up from a sleep that had been far too long and far too deep.

  Yes. His meeting with that woman had truly happened. Not in the real world, and not in another world either. Everything had occurred within his subconscious, a space that he had somehow been sharing with that strange woman.

  "How long… have I been asleep?" he asked quietly, his voice almost drowned out by the pain in his head.

  Zavi's gaze shifted.

  Beside him, Isabelle, his younger sister, sat leaning forward with both hands resting on the bed. She had fallen asleep with slow, steady breathing, her chest rising and falling as if she had been crying earlier.

  Zavi smiled faintly when he saw her, even though his memory of that woman had already disappeared without a trace, as if she had never existed.

  However, one thing remained.

  The ritual had succeeded!

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  He had not died. But his body was now paying a price he did not yet fully understand in order to accept it.

  "I'm not sure," Ren replied quietly. "Isabelle was the one who found you lying in the middle of the street on Friday afternoon. A lot of people had already gathered around you… some of them even said you were dead."

  'Did he get robbed or something?' Ren thought.

  Ren let out a short breath before continuing, "Today is Saturday, the twenty-seventh. It's twelve noon right now."

  Zavi's brows furrowed. "Yes… I understand…" he whispered weakly.

  'So it has been a week already.' He smiled.

  Even Ren, a Receiver, did not realize what had changed within Zavi. He already possessed that ability, Prisoner, a Suppression type ability similar to the ability owned by Miss Veranica, Prefence. However, for now he only possessed it without control, little understanding, and without even realizing it.

  Unlike Sorcerer and Transmitter, Architect type abilities. Black Death, a Manifestation type ability.

  A Hollow, a person who possesses one of the fifteen supernatural abilities currently known, each with different characteristics, has no levels and cannot be called Receivers.

  A Receivers without exception is a recipient. Because they obtain supernatural abilities through ritual, which causes that power to flow directly into their bodies, with the additional requirement that they must perform actions appropriate to the ability they took, and there are side effects.

  Different from a Hollow, which could be called a "cheat" in a game, who obtains that power through a contract with another being, storing the power inside an object rather than in their body, with the help of the contracted being acting as an intermediary.

  Ren showed a puzzled expression when he saw Zavi laughing to himself.

  "If you're alright, that's enough," Ren said, then turned around after realizing something. "Oh right, Mother left earlier. I don't know where she went. What is certain is that she didn't say anything since this morning."

  'Did that man with glasses really meet her.' He thought while looking at Zavi.

  'After seeing Mother's behavior, I cannot let her go outside alone. Fortunately I asked Veranica to keep an eye on her, and of course I will pay her later.' Ren finally finished his thought.

  Silence fell again.

  And behind Zavi's still weak body, something had awakened, silent, waiting, and not yet ready to be revealed.

  Click.

  The door opened wide, allowing air from the living room to sweep into the bedroom. Ren then stepped out and made sure the door closed again behind him.

  Tap. Tap. Tap.

  From inside the room, Zavi could clearly hear Ren's footsteps as he went up the stairs.

  "Hunger is truly unpleasant."

  The sound of his stomach growling broke the silence, bringing life back into the quiet room and the confusion surrounding him.

  He got up and sat on the edge of the bed, then tried to step down slowly so he would not wake his sister. However, when he stood up, his legs trembled, unable to support his body, causing him to fall straight onto the floor.

  Thud!

  The sound echoed clearly inside the room for quite a while and disturbed Isabelle's sleep.

  She woke up while rubbing both of her eyes and saw something vaguely beside her.

  "Who's there?" she muttered weakly, then yawned.

  "Damn. My legs..."

  Surprised.

  "Hah? You're already awake?" Isabelle stood up and pushed the chair backward. Relief and worry mixed within her.

  Without thinking and without helping him stand first, she immediately hugged Zavi tightly. She did not even care that her brother had just fallen.

  "Hey, I-I can't breathe properly! Get away from me!" Zavi said while struggling.

  Isabelle immediately released him and stood while looking at Zavi with her mischievous smile.

  "Sorry, sorry. I got carried away." Isabelle stuck her tongue out slightly.

  Zavi looked at his sister with a gloomy face.

  "Please help me stand up. It seems like I forgot how to stand."

  "How could someone forget how to stand?" Isabelle asked in disbelief. "You're lying, right? I'm sure you are," she said while helping Zavi stand and pulling the chair so he could sit down.

  Then she quickly added, "Don't tell me… you got rejected by a woman?"

  Indeed, after his feelings were rejected by a woman, Zavi's heart had been shattered and left empty. He did not know what to do, and by accident he once told Isabelle about that rejection because he had no friends to confide in.

  Zavi frowned.

  "Why do you always talk about that? Is there nothing else you can do besides talking about it?" he said, then with a slightly raised tone, though not harsh, he told his sister to leave his room immediately.

  Isabelle immediately looked gloomy after hearing those words.

  "So... a younger sister isn't allowed to be in her brother's room?"

  "No," Zavi answered without the slightest hesitation. "If you insist. I want you to stay in Ren's room instead, how about that?"

  Isabelle puffed her cheeks in annoyance. "Fine. I'm leaving."

  She turned around and walked out, each of her steps creating vibrations that made the hairs on the back of Zavi's neck stand on end from inside the room.

  His brows knitted together. "Isabelle. Don't tell me you're angry?" he said in confusion, his lips twitching.

  The door slammed shut when Isabelle left the room. The sound echoed briefly throughout the house, startling anyone who heard it, including Ren who was outside the house.

  "What was that just now?" Ren quickly turned around. "Are they doing something strange again?" he muttered to himself, unaware of what was truly happening in their minds.

  Then he stepped forward with steady steps, heading out to search for his mother while also gathering information about what had been happening in the city lately.

  Meanwhile inside the room, Zavi kept calling his sister's name.

  "Um, Isabelle. Sorry if my words were too harsh."

  'Was that too harsh? Eh, the important thing is that I apologized, because I don't know what influenced her thoughts and emotions to return to normal again.'

  He knew. Isabelle was still standing in front of the bedroom door, her back facing him and both hands frozen while holding the doorknob.

  'Huh, was I too excessive?' Isabelle thought, her heart uneasy after remembering what had happened to Zavi earlier, thinking that he had truly been robbed by someone.

  Click.

  The door opened slightly, just enough for one of Isabelle's eyes to peek from outside the room.

  "Yeah… I'm sorry too for always saying that," she said with a gloomy expression. Then she opened the door fully and walked back inside.

  Her brows lifted slightly, her eyes opening a little as she smiled inwardly.

  Exactly as expected.

  They looked at each other for several seconds, until finally Zavi revealed his real intention.

  "I haven't eaten. Could you make me something?" he asked, his eyes sparkling as he tried to convince his sister.

  "Hah?" Isabelle was surprised and remained silent for a few seconds. "Alright, I'll make something. Eh, do you want a sandwich?"

  Without waiting for an answer, Isabelle turned around and ran toward the kitchen to prepare it immediately.

  A few minutes later, Isabelle returned to the room carrying a plate with two sandwiches she had just made.

  "Ah… I forgot to tell you something," Isabelle said while handing the plate to him, then she sat on the edge of the bed.

  Zavi took it and said with his shoulders slightly raised, "Tell me about what?"

  Isabelle stepped to the side, moving her legs while trying to remember the conversation.

  "Who was it..." she said while touching her chin.

  "I'm terrible at remembering things. But I'm sure it was a woman who came to see me at that time... She asked the same question, 'Where is Zavi?' I answered that he was unconscious, lying weak in bed."

  She paused for a moment. "Oh… now I remember. Her name was Zeta Audervin, I think."

  Zavi's eyes widened instantly.

  "Zeta, you said?"

  "Yes." Isabelle stood up and walked to the window to open it, looking upward toward the beautiful sky above that was covered with smoke.

  'I see… in that case I have no choice but to meet that person as I had planned.' he thought, already prepared to carry out plan number two.

  "Thank you, Isabelle." Zavi glanced at his sister, then finished all the sandwiches on the plate.