When the Raven flew over.
Ian looked down at his hands, his fingertips trembling slightly.
He felt that his consciousness had never been clearer, as though a membrane covering the world had been torn open, allowing him to glimpse a truer outline of reality.
However.
When the Raven exchanged a blow with Death and then turned to look at him, Ian's mind went blank. He had thought he stood beyond the world.
But now, it seemed.
The Raven could even gaze into the future from within history that had already been frozen?
A suspicion arose in his heart.
In the black-and-white world.
The Raven's eyes glowed a crimson that did not belong to the colors around it.
"Wake up."
The Raven's voice echoed through Ian's mind like a spell tearing reality apart, as though it had come from the end of the world. That voice carried an irresistible will.
As though Destiny itself were calling him.
It felt deeply familiar to Ian, yet also stirred a trace of resistance—this truly was a talking bird. Titaness Claire's description of the Raven had not been wrong.
And.
The Raven had an exceptionally deep, raspy voice.
"Who... are you?"
Ian asked softly.
The Raven did not answer. It merely flapped its wings lightly, its tail feathers brushing through the air and leaving behind faint ripples.
Ian's heart lurched.
This was not an ordinary "wake up."
It was a deeper awakening—not waking from sleep, but breaking free from an illusion, from a false reality. Ian's thoughts blurred for a moment.
The next second—
The world collapsed.
Not slowly, but instantly. The black-and-white sky shattered like glass, countless sharp fragments suspended in the void before turning to dust the moment they touched Ian. The ash-covered ground beneath his feet caved in. He felt himself falling,