The moment Yueri spoke my name, the cave trembled.
Not violently—no.More like the world itself inhaled sharply, startled that someone had dared to acknowledge the existence of the Sword of Ruin.
Her voice lingered, soft, hesitant… almost fragile.
"Ruin…"
I didn't know a mortal's voice could carry such warmth. Or maybe I had simply forgotten. When you spend centuries as a weapon sealed under divine chains, warmth becomes a myth.
She stood there, slightly trembling, the crystal droplet of my essence floating above her hand. The faint glow illuminated her face—pale, delicate, streaked with dust from her escape, but her eyes…
Those pale silver-violet eyes were too gentle for this world.
Too gentle for someone holding me.
I wasn't used to being held by gentle people.
I cleared my metaphorical throat. "So. Yueri, was it? The one who unsealed me?"
She nodded, her hair swaying like ink in moonlight.
"You were calling me 'boy' earlier…" she mumbled, cheeks puffed as if personally offended.
I froze. AHEM.I definitely remembered loudly declaring:"Hey—boy—stop touching my blade."
"T-that was a misunderstanding," I said, with all the pride a sentient sword could muster. "In my defense, this cave is dark. And short hair is misleading."
"I don't have short hair…"
"IT WAS TIED UP."
"…No it wasn't."
I went silent.She tilted her head, enjoying this a little too much.
Ahem. Moving on.
THE WORLD OUTSIDE BEGINS TO SHIFT
As Yueri watched my ethereal core fade back into the blade, she knelt beside me.
"Ruin," she whispered. "Why was a sword like you sealed here?"
The air stopped moving.
Every cave wall, every crystal shard, every ancient rune…Everything suddenly felt colder.
"Because," I said slowly, "the gods feared me."
That wasn't arrogance.That was memory.
A long, buried, agonizing memory.
Images flickered in the darkness of my consciousness—cities swallowed by light, mountains split into dust, oceans rising like beasts. Screams. Fire. A goddess with eyes like white sunfire.
Seraphyne.
Her verdict had echoed long after my forged body was shattered:
"An artifact that feels anger is a calamity.An artifact that understands loss is a greater one.You do not belong among mortals."
I had been cast into a timeline where I didn't exist.A world where my sins were rewritten.A world where my name was erased.
"…I don't believe that," Yueri said softly.
"You shouldn't."
"I can feel it," she continued, touching the hilt lightly, almost reverently. "You're… warm. Like someone with a heart."
I glitched.
Warm?
Me??
I AM A BLADE MADE TO END CIVILIZATIONS—But the words wouldn't leave my mouth.
She wasn't wrong.
Ever since she touched me, something inside me had begun to change—like a limb I hadn't used in centuries suddenly waking up.
A dormant instinct.
A forgotten piece of myself.
I swallowed the confusion. "You speak boldly for a mortal."
"M-my grandmother said that," she muttered.
"Smart woman."
"She died."
"Oh."…"Smart woman," I repeated awkwardly.
Yueri giggled, wiping her eyes. "You're strange."
"I'm a legendary weapon."
"And?"
"…I'm STRANGELY legendary."
Her laughter echoed in the cave.And something inside me relaxed.
I hadn't heard laughter in centuries.
THE HUNTERS APPROACH
The cave walls suddenly thrummed with vibrations.
Footsteps.Armor clicking.Magic-circles sweeping the forest outside like searchlights.
Three… no, five signatures.Fast. Armed. Experienced.
"Yueri," I warned. "Someone's coming."
Her entire body went stiff. "The temple knights… They tracked me this far."
"Why are they after you?"
Her silence answered everything.
She wasn't just a runaway.
She was a fugitive.
A target.
But more importantly…
She was connected to the gods.
And if she was connected to the gods—Then she was connected to Seraphyne.
The goddess who sealed me.The goddess who destroyed my original soul.The goddess who punished me simply for feeling.
Suddenly, Yueri's hands shook. Not from fear—but from resolve.
"Ruin… can you fight?"
"Of course."
"But can I fight?"
I paused.
Her aura was unstable and faint, but there was something else buried deep—like a tiny spark struggling beneath layers of fear.
An unawakened gift.
A divine inheritance she didn't know she carried.
"You can," I said. "You just don't understand how yet."
"But—"
The footsteps grew louder.
The knights were right outside.
"No time for doubts," I said. "Hold me."
She hesitated.
"Yueri," I urged, "trust me."
Her fingers wrapped around my hilt.
The moment she gripped me—
A surge of power tore through her body.
Lightning-sharp.Soul-deep.Vast, ancient, and hungry.
But not destructive.
Attuned.
Synchronized.
Her eyes widened as glowing marks crawled up her arms like awakening constellations.
"Wh-what is this?!"
"Your bond with me," I said.
"No… this feels like…"
She swallowed.
"…like something inside me is waking up."
"Good. Because you're going to need it."
The knights burst into the cave—torches flaring, blades drawn, magic sigils pulsing.
"There she is! The heretic!"
"Kill her!"
"Retrieve the sword fragment!"
Sword fragment?
SWORD FRAGMENT??
I WAS NOT A FRAGMENT—I WAS THE WHOLE GODDAMN DISASTER PACKAGE!
But I didn't get to finish that thought.
Because Yueri stepped forward.
Not hiding.Not trembling.
Her awakened aura burning like silver fire.
"Ruin," she whispered.
"Yes?"
"…Don't let me die."
"Never."
"Then—guide me."
"Oh? Asking for help? From a legendary entity such as—"
"JUST DO IT!"
"YES MA'AM."
I channeled energy into her arm.
Power rippled through the cave.
And for the first time, in centuries—
The Sword of Ruin sang.
The blade ignited with a violent, beautiful arc of black-silver energy that screeched through the air like a cosmic violin string snapping free.
The ground cracked.The cave howled.The knights froze.
Yueri gasped as if the universe had just awakened inside her chest.
"…Ruin… what am I?"
I smiled—in the only way a sword could.
"A mystery the gods wanted to bury."