My eyes snapped open, but I wasn't met with light. I was met with the visceral, bone-deep sensation of my own body being pulverized. I was back in Kiran's form, but the vessel was failing. Blood didn't just leak from my eyes; it flowed like twin rivers of crimson down my face. Every breath felt like inhaling shards of hot glass.
The Demonic Commander didn't give me a second to breathe. He grabbed me by the hair and began to swing me, slamming my body against the shattered stone pillars of the gate like a ragdoll.
CRACK. Another rib shattered. My jaw was hanging by a thread of muscle. My face was being pounded into the dirt until I couldn't tell the difference between the mud and my own flesh. Kiran's body was a fortress of power, but under this onslaught, the fortress was turning into a tomb. I could hear the sound of my own bones grinding into powder—a wet, sickening crunch that vibrated through my very soul.
"Just kill me..." I wheezed internally, the words barely forming through the mental fog. "Kill me! I don't care about saving them! I don't care about this kingdom! Just make the pain stop!"
The Temptation of the Void
Suddenly, that new female voice echoed, cutting through the agony with a melodic, almost playful tone. "You really are a fascinating creature," she mused. "You bleed for people you claim to hate. You beg for death, yet you refuse to let go. If you get even a sliver of a chance, you'll throw yourself back into the fire to save them again, won't you?"
"Shut up... go to hell!" I spat back.
"Why suffer for nothing?" she continued, her voice growing cold. "If you're going to die, die fighting. If you're going to bleed, make sure the world drowns in it. If you survive, you can kill them all yourself later. But for now... stop being a victim and start being a monster. I'd much rather watch a massacre than a tragedy." 💀
A dark, twisted laugh bubbled up in my throat, tasting of copper and bile. I forced myself up on one trembling knee. My teeth were shattered, my vision was a red haze, but I stood.
The Commander paused, his eyes narrowing. "You still have a spark of life? Impressive. Let me extinguish it."
The Symphony of All or Nothing
I took a deep, shuddering breath. I looked around. The world was dying. Yumi's golden barrier was shattered, her form collapsing from exhaustion, but she managed one last flickering healing spell that hit my chest. Hina, her face pale with terror, was screaming my name, hurling spheres of white fire at the Commander. To him, they were nothing but sparks; to me, they were the fuel for my final act.
"Kiran... are you ready?" I asked, my soul vibrating with a new, dark resonance.
"Our spirits are fractured, Reyansh. We are at the limit," Kiran's voice was a jagged whisper.
"Then let's break the limit. Aarya-paar... everything or nothing!"
I reached deep into the core of my soul, ignoring the 'Mental Trauma' that threatened to shatter my mind. I gripped the very earth itself. Using my mana, I lifted the shattered remains of the gate and the surrounding boulders, spinning them into a localized hurricane of stone and wind.
My agony transformed into a primal roar. With a violent gesture, I unleashed the storm. One hundred High-Rank demons were erased in a single breath, their artificial bodies torn to microscopic shreds by the sheer velocity of the debris.
But the Commander didn't even flinch. He stood in the center of the storm, untouched.
The Execution: The Black Slash
Kiran's perception slowed the world down. Every drop of rain, every spark of Hina's fire, hung suspended in the air. All my power—every ounce of gussa and agony—was being funneled into a single point.
I began to construct a pattern in the air, using floating earth and compressed wind as stepping stones. The Commander lunged, but I wasn't there. I danced through the air, moving through the patterns I had created, a blur of blood and Azure light.
The Commander struck again, his fist missing my head by a hair's breadth. He was exactly where I needed him to be.
"Now, Kiran!"I funneled my entire soul into the blade. The Azure light didn't just intensify; it underwent a horrific mutation. It turned Jet Black—a void that sucked the light out of the battlefield. 😈
Kiran moved. He didn't just slash; he became the edge of the world.
The Black Slash tore through the space between us. It didn't meet resistance; it ignored it. In one clean, silent arc, the Commander's neck was severed. His head, still wearing an expression of arrogant confusion, tumbled into the mud.
The silence that followed was deafening. My soul felt like it had been hollowed out, every drop of energy extracted. My vision began to fail. As I collapsed, the darkness of the void rising to meet me, that mysterious voice returned one last time, whispering with a chilling sweetness:
"You really did it... you beautiful, broken monster."