---
**[Scene - Ironwood Kingdom Human Territory - A Ruined Tower - Sunset]**
The air was thick with rot. The crumbling fortress stood like a skeleton against the red sky.
Kuro followed silently behind Rei.
She walked ahead without looking back, her steps anxious.
> *He's so quiet...*
> *He should be angry.* She had tried to kill him. She had lied.
> *But... he wasn't trembling.*
> *He followed.*
> *Was this...*
> *His plan all along?*
---
**[Scene - Inside the Tower]**
The demon-human was waiting.
He wore tattered robes, and behind his stitched-shut mouth, his eyes gleamed like molten gold.
Upon seeing Kuro, he laughed.
> "So you've come. Heir to the cursed shadow."
He raised a hand, magically producing two prisoners.
Rei gasped.
> "Mother... Father...!"
Her parents were still alive—weak, battered, but breathing.
The demon-human smiled.
> "I released them as promised. Good of you to bring him here."
The chains snapped. Her parents collapsed to the ground.
Rei cried out and ran to them.
---
The man turned back towards Kuro.
> "You're dangerous, boy. That much is clear."
Kuro stepped forward, dark flames enveloping his hands.
> "But you're still just a child. You can do nothing with uncontrollable power."
Kuro said nothing.
He simply raised a hand.
> "Then let's test that theory."
---
**[Scene - The Battle - 5 Seconds]**
The demon-human grinned widely.
> "Abyss Chain-!"
> *Flash.*
In an instant, Kuro was gone.
"What?!"
Then he reappeared behind the man.
His hand pierced through the man's chest.
> "Guh-ah!?"
> **"Shadow Shift. Temporal Cut."** Kuro stated flatly.
The man looked down, stunned. Blood poured from his mouth.
> "You... I didn't see..."
> "It's not possible..."
> *Crunch.* Kuro twisted his hand.
The man's body crumbled like burning paper, dissolving into smoke.
Gone.
---
**[Scene - Aftermath - A Cold Silence]**
The tower was silent.
Rei stared in shock.
> "You... you killed him as if he were nothing..."
Kuro walked past her without a word, looking out at the sunlight.
She followed him slowly, her heart pounding.
> "Aren't you... angry with me?"
Finally, he stopped.
He answered without turning.
> "No."
> "You are still useful."
---
Rei felt a coldness seep into her blood.
She realized something.
> *Kuro doesn't trust me.*
> *Kuro doesn't hate me.*
> *Kuro feels nothing.*
> *He calculates.*
> "What am I to you?"
She looked at his shoulders, where the shadows around him danced.
> "A piece on the chessboard."
> "In a game no one understands but me."
And with that, he walked away.
"How strange... he didn't feel anything even after killing a person..."
He left her there quietly, lost in his thoughts.
*Kuro already knew. To change something, one must abandon something. Including one's humanity.*
---
In the distance, within the Demon Empire, the Eastern Demon Lord stared into his scrying pool as sudden black flames erupted within it.
He had felt the death of the demon-human.
> "So the boy's power is that great already?"
He clenched his claws.
> "Then I must move to the next gambit."
---
✦ **To be continued...**