From Human to Skeleton: Revived with Infinite System Crystals

The throne took hold of Kieran's tether before any of them chose a world.

Caught on the farthest opening, the gold fire dragged all three sideways. Above Jade, Earth vanished while black water missed Ty's feet. The dead city folded shut with a green flash that left its heat on his bones.

Black feathers struck their faces as the opening swallowed them.

Ty struck a wooden walkway first. His shoulder broke through two rails before the tether snapped Jade and Kieran down beside him. The bridge hung in white space with no ground beneath it. Rooms floated beyond the broken railing, each built from dark wood and red joints. Some sat upright. Others climbed walls that had forgotten which direction deserved a floor.

Jade's back struck one of the twelve waiting chairs and sent it scraping toward the center.

Across the platform, the remaining chairs turned to face the trio. An empty throne occupied the center. Black feathers covered its seat and shifted under the pressure from Jade's ruined eye.

Kieran pulled the tether from Ty's ribs and checked Jade before standing.

"Tell me whether your missing sight recognizes this place from the shelter."

"I saw the throne once, and the person sitting there wanted Ty warned."

Ty pushed himself out of the broken railing. His left arm hung lower after the impact, though red fire gathered around the shoulder joint.

"Warnings improve when people include directions and fewer threatening chairs."

One chair moved close enough to touch his knee. White lines from the Reaper's failed cut crawled over its back and sank into the carved wood. A smooth helm appeared above the seat, empty where a face should have been.

Kieran raised her fire blade across Ty's damaged shoulder.

"These belong to Erebos, and his servants will reach us before your shoulder heals."

A flute case clicked open behind the throne.

The boy who stepped from the corridor beside the throne had grown no taller since Earth. A red cloth covered his left hand to the wrist. Black robes hid the curse Kieran remembered around his neck, but the skin above his collar shone through the fabric.

The boy looked at Kieran before his attention reached Ty.

Kieran's blade lengthened until its point touched the throne.

"Regaku Sarabi, release whatever command you placed on this room."

The old name struck him harder than her fire.

His throat tightened under the collar. Light forced its way through the cloth around his neck and drew three hooked marks beneath his jaw. The covered hand beat against his thigh, once for each mark.

"That name was removed, and you have no permission to return it."

Kieran stepped between him and Jade with both feet planted.

"You used it while your flute walked through human hearts on Earth."

The boy opened his mouth, but the curse took the first answer. His knees bent. He caught the throne with his bare hand and dragged himself upright before the chair could move away from him.

Ty heard the graft beneath the red cloth knock three times.

The beat matched the mark in his wrist.

"Kegaku, your left hand knows part of me, while Kieran knows the part of you that disappeared."

Ty kept the name the boy could survive.

Kegaku's attention dropped to Ty's violet mark. His covered fingers reached for it, then fought backward until he trapped the wrist against his chest.

"Master said the skeleton would arrive through a crack, but he never said you would bring both women."

Jade rose with one hand on the chair. It tried to turn her toward the empty throne. She kicked the front leg hard enough to send it scraping away.

"Erebos has made several plans involving me without earning an introduction."

Kegaku stared at the white blood dried along her face.

"He watched you long before the Reaper learned to use your eye as a doorway."

The sentence moved Kieran faster than anger should have allowed. Her fire blade stopped at Kegaku's throat because Ty caught her wrist with his working hand.

"Let him finish the part that tells us what Erebos prepared here."

"He controlled my body and used me to kill people on Earth."

"Then you deserve the answer while he still owns enough breath to give it."

Kegaku's gaze stayed on Ty's hand around Kieran. The hesitation made him look younger than the face he wore on Earth.

"Regaku was the field name Master gave the body before he repaired its limits. Kegaku belongs to the body that survived the repair."

Kieran pressed her blade close enough to singe his collar.

"Names do not become disposable because your master dislikes the memories attached."

"You speak confidently for someone whose body carried my commands."

Gold fire struck the throne behind him. Kegaku flinched after the impact rather than before it. Kieran noticed and lowered her blade by one inch.

Jade noticed too. Kegaku had expected pain from the wrong direction.

The white cut opened above the twelve chairs.

The Reaper's scythe entered first, its blade searching each seat before the rest of the skeleton forced through. Every smooth helm turned toward it. The names Sanguina, Griswald, and Yami burned across three faceplates where Jade could read them from below.

The remaining helms stayed blank until Ty moved. Then the cracked one followed his shoulder, while another tracked the white blood on Jade and a third watched Kieran's blade.

Kegaku forgot his old argument and ran for the adjoining corridor.

"The tank cannot receive a collector while the outer time remains broken."

Jade grabbed the back of his robe before Kieran could strike him.

"Who is inside that tank, and why does my eye already feel her?"

"I do not know her name because Master never lets servants spend what belongs to kings."

The Reaper dropped onto the platform. Its weight drove every chair outward. One rail tore free and spun into the white below.

Ty put himself between the scythe and Jade. His damaged shoulder locked while the Reaper found the crack running through it.

"Our match moved with us, so remove your master's furniture from the floor."

Kegaku laughed without humor and pulled the flute case from behind the throne.

"You entered a prison that stops time, landed beside twelve unfinished universe claims, and brought death to Master's private door. The furniture outranks all of us."

He opened the case and exposed the repaired flute inside.

The flute inside had been broken into four pieces. Metal braces joined them where the instrument had once split. One brace carried dried gold in its hinge from Kieran's resistance on Earth.

Kegaku lifted the broken instrument toward his mouth with both hands.

Kieran moved her blade between the flute and his face.

"Play one note at my body, and I finish what Earth interrupted."

"The note is for the chairs unless you prefer twelve empty claims choosing bodies."

The smooth helms descended toward the nearest living bodies.

Ty cut the nearest chair through its back. The helm above it stayed in place and lowered toward him without the wood beneath it.

Jade saw the trap before it reached his skull.

"Destroying the chairs frees the helms, so everyone stops helping until we know the room."

The Reaper ignored her and swung for Ty. The descending helm took the blade across its face. White fire crossed the smooth surface and burned the name LEGATO where no face had been.

Kegaku lost his grip, and the flute struck the wooden platform.

The name struck the empty throne. Black feathers rose from the seat and rushed through the adjoining corridor toward the unseen tank.

Someone inside the next room hit glass with an open hand.

The sound crossed the bridge, reached the Reaper, and made it turn away from Ty.

Kegaku left the flute on the floor and ran toward the tank.

Kieran caught his red-covered wrist before he passed. The graft hand bit through its cloth and closed small teeth around her gold fire.

Kieran and Kegaku stopped with the graft biting her fire.

The hand used a woman's tired voice between their locked wrists.

"Regaku was the name he had when I met him."

Kegaku's face lost every trace of anger at the woman's answer.

Behind him, Erebos walked onto the bridge carrying his black porcelain cup and a bent silver spoon. Tea had spilled over the rim and wet two fingers. Jade remembered enough of him to know the mistake mattered.

He looked at Ty, Jade, Kieran, and the Reaper before setting the cup on the empty throne.

"Kegaku, close the outer time before our visitors make another old name true."

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!