Chapter 16 – The Door with No Name

They walked in silence.

The path behind the stone door led deeper into the mountain. Cold air brushed their faces. The walls, once full of old marks, slowly turned smooth—like they were walking into a place even time forgot.

Ren's feet dragged a little. He was tired, but he didn't complain. Hina walked ahead, her hand brushing the wall every now and then. Sora stayed close behind, holding a small light that flickered in her palm.

"Do you feel that?" Ren asked after a while.

Sora nodded. "Like something's pulling us forward."

"It's not a trap," Hina said. "It's a test."

Ren looked at her. "You know this place?"

"No," she replied. "But I've read about doors that don't have names. They lead to places Heaven can't see."

"Why would something like that be down here?" Sora asked.

Hina stopped. "Because not everything wants to be found."

They kept moving until the tunnel stopped. In front of them was a door—tall, black, and smooth like glass. There was no handle. No mark. No lock.

Ren stepped closer. The air near it was heavy. His heart beat faster. Something inside the door… was watching.

He placed his palm on it. His Name mark sparked. Then burned. A small line of light ran across the door.

And the door… spoke.

Not with a voice, but with a feeling. A question.

"What are you?"

Ren blinked. "I…"

He didn't know what to say. Stray? Nameless? A mistake?

Hina stepped beside him. "It's not asking your name. It's asking what you've become."

Ren took a breath. "I'm someone who was left behind. But I'm still walking."

The door pulsed once with soft light.

Then Sora stepped forward.

"What do you fear?"

She flinched. "Being useless," she said, her voice low. "Not being strong enough to help the people I care about."

Another soft pulse.

Hina touched the door.

"What do you hide?"

She didn't answer right away. Her eyes were cold, but her lips shook just a bit.

"...My real face."

The door opened.

No sound. Just a slow, smooth slide as it pulled itself away, revealing a space beyond that wasn't a room at all.

It was a place between places.

Empty white space stretched out in all directions. There was no floor, but they stood. No sky, but there was light. In the center, a small figure sat on a block of stone. A child, no older than ten, dressed in black robes with a blank mask over their face.

The mask had no eyes, no mouth, no nose.

Ren stepped closer. "Who are you?"

The child tilted its head. "You carry no true Name. You are not written in Heaven's books."

"You can see that?"

"I am what is left behind when Heaven writes its rules. The forgotten ink. The broken brush."

Ren didn't understand, but his chest felt tight. This being—whatever it was—wasn't an enemy. But it wasn't a friend either.

"I want to change my path," Ren said. "I want to be strong."

"You already are," the child said. "You just don't believe it yet."

Then the child lifted its hand and touched Ren's forehead.

Suddenly, Ren saw something.

A battlefield of Names. Thousands of glowing words flying through the sky. And him—standing alone, not as a Name, but as a shadow. The Names burned when they touched him. He was something they couldn't hold, couldn't shape, couldn't control.

A nameless power.

Then the vision faded.

Ren gasped. He was back in the white space, his mark glowing like never before. The child was gone. In its place was a single word floating in the air.

"Stillborn."

The word burned itself into his mark, then faded.

Sora ran to him. "Ren! Are you okay?!"

"Yeah," he said, his voice shaking. "I think… I just got a new step."

"What do you mean?" Hina asked.

Ren looked down at his hand. His mark was different now. More jagged. Wilder. The lines weren't neat anymore. They looked like cracks.

"I think this is the first real Name I've ever earned. One that didn't belong to someone else."

Stillborn. A word that meant something that never lived, but also something Heaven couldn't see.

Not dead. Just… not allowed to be born.

And yet here he was.

Alive.

The space began to fade, the white bleeding into shadows. The door behind them reappeared, open once more.

It was time to go.

They stepped out, back into the tunnel, back into the mountain—but everything felt different now. Ren could feel his power stirring like a sleeping beast starting to wake up.

And far away, in the halls of Heaven, a Judge turned its head.

Something wrong had just been born.

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To be continued...