LGHTNOVELBOOK Chapter 7: Chapter 7: The Ones Who Erase
KNOCK. KNOCK.
The sound echoed through the room.
Steady. Measured. Patient.
Klein didn't move.
Neither did Yeaia.
For a long moment, the two simply stared at each other—one sitting at the desk, the other perched on the windowsill.
Then—
KNOCK. KNOCK.
The second knock was softer this time, almost polite.
Too polite.
Klein had been a detective. He had been a god. He had been a dead man walking.
And in all that time, he had never feared a simple knock at the door.
Until now.
---
"They Shouldn't Be Here."
"Yeaia," Klein said quietly, "who is that?"
The Dreamer's expression was unreadable.
"I don't know."
But their fingers had curled into their sleeves. Their posture was tense.
Klein glanced at the room's protective setup.
The anti-divination runes were still intact.
The spirit world disturbances were still contained.
The traces of his presence were still obscured.
No one should have been able to find him.
And yet—
KNOCK. KNOCK.
This time, it was impatient.
Yeaia's gaze flickered to the door, their silver-gray eyes darkening.
"They shouldn't be here."
A cold feeling settled in Klein's stomach.
"Then who are they?"
Yeaia exhaled slowly.
"The ones who erase."
---
The Absence Behind the Door
KNOCK. KNOCK.
The knocking had stopped sounding human.
It was no longer a sound.
It was an absence.
A hole in the air.
A feeling that something had knocked without moving.
Klein's grip on reality tightened.
His fingers twitched toward his revolver—silver bullets loaded, enchanted, ready.
But somehow, he knew.
A gun would not stop whatever was behind that door.
Yeaia slid off the desk, their movements slow, deliberate.
"Klein," they murmured, "do you trust me?"
Klein didn't hesitate. "No."
Yeaia huffed a quiet laugh. "Fair."
KNOCK.
The door opened.
And Klein saw nothing.
No person. No shadow. No presence.
Just a yawning, empty void.
---
"Step Outside."
A voice spoke.
It wasn't sound.
It wasn't thought.
It was erasure.
"Step outside."
Klein's entire body locked up.
Because for a split second, his mind obeyed.
His foot almost moved.
His fingers almost uncurled.
A force beyond reason had told him to step outside—and his body had listened before his mind could resist.
But then—
"Hey."
Yeaia's voice cut through the air, light and effortless.
"You're a little early, don't you think?"
A silence pressed against the room.
The void in the doorway shifted.
"You persist."
It wasn't a question. It was a fact.
A recognition of something that should not be.
Yeaia tilted their head, smiling lazily.
"What can I say? I'm a bad habit."
The void twitched.
Klein could feel it.
A presence that was not a presence.
Something that should have never been noticed. Something that erased everything it touched.
"You will fade."
Yeaia's expression didn't change.
"Maybe."
The air shook.
Then—the void disappeared.
Gone.
No trace. No sound. No proof it had ever been there.
Just absence.
Like it had never existed at all.
---
"What Was That?"
Silence hung in the room.
Klein let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding.
Then, slowly, he turned to Yeaia.
"What the hell was that?"
Yeaia gave him a sheepish look.
"Uh… technically?"
"The remnants of the ones who erased my Pathway."
Klein stared.
"Technically?"
Yeaia waved a hand. "Look, the gods that erased the Dreaming Pathway? They're long gone. But their actions left… echoes. Imprints. Things that still enforce their will even after they've faded."
"That thing was one of them."
"A remnant of erasure."
Klein felt his headache getting worse.
"And it wanted you gone?"
Yeaia smiled, tired.
"Of course. That's all it knows how to do."
---
A Warning Left Behind
Klein glanced at the doorway.
Nothing was there.
No disturbance. No traces of a presence.
Nothing to prove that anything had stood there at all.
Except—
A single symbol had been burned into the wood.
A strange, looping spiral.
A mark that Klein didn't recognize.
But Yeaia did.
Because when they saw it, their face finally lost its laziness.
They looked grim.
Klein noticed.
"What does it mean?"
Yeaia hesitated.
Then, softly—
"It means we don't have much time."
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End of Chapter 7
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