The Masked Virtuoso-Chapter 91: The Absence of War

A World Without War

Ethan stood on the balcony of his apartment, staring at the horizon.

The city stretched before him—bright, untouched, alive. Skyscrapers gleamed in the morning sun, students rushed to school, and the streets hummed with normalcy.

No Rift.

No battles.

No gods waiting to erase him from existence.

It had been a month since the final battle.

A month since the Rift had disappeared.

A month since the war had ended.

And yet, something inside him didn’t feel right.

Behind him, the door slid open.

"Hey, you’re brooding again."

Mia stepped outside, her red hair slightly messy from just waking up. She leaned against the railing beside him, yawning.

Ethan smirked slightly. "I don’t brood."

Mia raised an eyebrow. "You stand alone, staring at the city, looking all mysterious? That’s textbook brooding."

She tilted her head. "Thinking about the war?"

Ethan exhaled. "It’s just... too quiet."

Mia nudged him. "Enjoy it. You deserve this, we all do."

Ethan wanted to believe that.

He really did.

But something in his gut told him this wasn’t the end.

It was just the beginning.

---

School Life Begins (Again?)

Ethan hadn’t stepped into a school in what felt like years.

But today, he found himself walking through the gates of St. Helena Academy—the top school in the city.

Mia, Selene, Orion, Kieran, and Nefera walked beside him, dressed in school uniforms.

Kieran stretched. "Man, this feels weird. One day we’re fighting gods, the next we’re back in high school?"

Orion adjusted his glasses. "It’s a necessary adjustment. If we’re going to live normal lives, we need to integrate back into society."

Mia rolled her eyes. "You sound like an NPC giving tutorial dialogue."

Nefera smirked. "Better than Kieran. He sounds like an old man reminiscing about his glory days."

Kieran gasped. "Nefera, how could you? We fought together!"

Selene chuckled. "She’s not wrong."

Despite the lighthearted conversation, Ethan’s unease remained.

Everything felt... too perfect.

The city. The school. The way the world had simply moved on after everything that happened.

Shouldn’t people remember the Rift? The war? Nihilor?

But no one spoke about it.

It was as if none of it had ever happened.

---

The First Signs of Something Wrong

At first, everything was... normal.

Too normal.

Ethan had lived so long in chaos that peace felt unnatural. The war was over. The Rift was gone. There were no gods left to fight. For the first time in his life, he wasn’t preparing for battle—he was just... existing.

And yet...

Something felt off.

It wasn’t anything obvious. No sudden earthquakes, no golden cracks in the sky, no ominous whispers from forgotten deities.

It was subtle.

The moon looked slightly different than he remembered. The color of the sky was just a shade off. People said things that didn’t match their memories. Small, unimportant things.

"Hey, didn’t this café used to be a bookstore?" Mia asked one day, pointing at a small shop on the corner.

Ethan frowned. "No... it’s always been a café."

Mia gave him a confused look. "No, I used to buy books from here."

Ethan turned to Selene. "Do you remember?"

Selene hesitated. "I... I think it was always a café. Right?"

Mia shook her head. "That’s not—ugh, forget it. Maybe I’m remembering wrong."

Ethan let it go.

But it happened again. And again.

People forgetting small things. Buildings changing slightly overnight. Entire conversations that never happened.

It wasn’t just him. Mia noticed. Nefera noticed. Selene noticed.

Something was rewriting reality.

But why?

---

Hunting the Leftover Rift Monsters

Despite the Rift’s destruction, not everything had vanished.

Some monsters—creatures that had fed on the Rift’s energy for centuries—had survived. And they were not happy about losing their power source.

Ethan and his team spent the next few days hunting them down.

Their latest target was a Riftbeast—a wolf-like creature made of shadow and molten gold. It lurked in the mountains, devouring entire forests.

"Alright," Orion muttered, adjusting his visor. "Standard formation?"

Kieran grinned. "Nah, let’s do something stupid this time."

Mia rolled her eyes. "I swear, if you charge in without a plan—"

Kieran charged in without a plan.

"YOU ABSOLUTE IDIOT—!" Mia lunged after him.

The Riftbeast roared, lunging toward them with claws that tore through reality itself.

Ethan moved without thinking.

Golden flames erupted from his hand. In an instant, the Riftbeast stopped existing.

Not destroyed. Erased.

The forest fell silent.

Ethan lowered his hand, his golden flames flickering.

That was too easy.

These monsters were weaker than they should have been. The Rift’s destruction should have left them desperate and aggressive. But instead, they were... fading.

Just like everything else.

Selene stepped beside him, her silver eyes scanning the empty space where the beast had been.

"You felt it too?" she murmured.

Ethan nodded. "They’re disappearing before we even reach them."

Nefera crossed her arms. "Or something is removing them first."

The realization sent a cold chill down Ethan’s spine.

This wasn’t just cleanup.

Something was wiping away what remained of the Rift’s influence.

And it wasn’t them.

---

The Attack of the Corrupted Artifact Users

It happened at dusk.

The team had just returned from the hunt when a shockwave tore through the city.

Ethan moved instantly, his golden flames roaring as he appeared at the source—

And then he saw them.

Artifact users. Hundreds of them.

Not ordinary ones. These were from the past.

People who should have died long ago.

Their bodies twisted with corruption, their eyes empty, their artifacts glowing with unstable power.

They should not exist.

And yet, here they were.

Mia’s daggers spun into her hands. "What the hell—?"

Selene’s spear flashed, her stance shifting. "How are they alive?"

Ethan narrowed his eyes. He could feel it now. Their existence was... wrong.

Like they were barely here.

A figure stepped forward.

A man wrapped in golden chains, his armor cracked, his artifact pulsing with raw, unstable energy.

His voice was a whisper of static.

"...Ethan Cross."

Ethan’s golden flames flared.

"Who are you?"

The corrupted man tilted his head. His eyes were hollow.

"You erased the Rift."

Ethan’s breath caught.

"You thought that meant you won?"

The sky darkened.

Every corrupted artifact user raised their weapons.

And Ethan realized—

This was not a battle.

This was a mass execution.

---

Aftermath – The Unease Grows

The battle lasted less than five minutes.

Ethan and his team destroyed the corrupted artifact users easily.

But it left a question.

Why were they still here?

If the Rift was gone—shouldn’t they be gone too?

And why...

Why did they keep whispering about ’the Architect’s illusion’?

Ethan’s breath slowed.

Something wasn’t right.

And he was going to find out what.

---

To Be Continued...