The door pulsed like a living wound
Veins of crimson light webbed across it, feeding on forgotten emotion.
Then it opened.
And what emerged… was not the girl.
Not the voice.
Not the whisper Adexander remembered.
It was a man.
Draped in a mantle of shadows, golden chains dragging behind him like broken promises.
Eyes pitch-black, with rings of blood-red orbiting the pupils.
No heartbeat. No breath.
Only power that suffocated.
He smiled, slow and cruel.
"I was born when you died, Crownbreaker."
Kaien stepped forward, blade drawn.
"The hell is that thing?"
Velessia's voice trembled—not with fear, but fury.
"…It's not a memory. It's a predator. A parasite born from the collapse of a king."
Raik narrowed his eyes. "A Kingkiller."
The Kingkiller laughed—its voice echoing like an inverted choir.
"I am every oath broken in your name, every crown shattered because of you.
I am the failure that followed your fall."
Adexander said nothing.
But his grip on the Fangblade tightened.
> [System Notice: Danger Class – Transcendent Threat Identified.]
[Name: ??? – Alias: Kingkiller.]
[Weakness: None Registered.]
[Origin: Anomaly. Not part of established timeline.]
[Memory Echo Authority: Level Null.]
Then it moved.
Faster than light—
Kaien barely blocked a strike that sent him flying into a wall of forgotten stone.
Raik lunged, fists ablaze, but was caught mid-air and slammed into the ground.
Velessia's magic lit the air with a wave of defensive sigils, but the Kingkiller walked through it like mist.
Only Adexander stood unmoved.
"You want my throne," he said.
"You want my ruin."
The Kingkiller grinned wider.
"No. I want your remorse."
Clash.
Their blades met.
Not in the world of flesh
But in the world of truth.
Every strike tore through memory.
Each slash revealed glimpses of Adexander's past
His betrayal.
His death.
His rise.
The Kingkiller whispered as they fought:
"I know what you lost.
The woman who called your name.
The brother who turned away.
The allies who feared what you became."
Adexander roared.
The Fangblade surged, burning black and red, igniting the air with flame forged in rebirth.
"I carry their ghosts. But I don't kneel to them."
He struck again—this time carving deep into the Kingkiller's shadow-flesh, forcing the creature to stagger.
But the Kingkiller only smiled wider.
And from behind his cloak
He drew a crown.
Adexander's first crown.
The one from his past life.
Shattered. Stained with blood.
"Want it back?" the Kingkiller hissed.
"Then take it."
He crushed the crown in his hand—
And from its fragments, a new army was born.
A legion of faceless kings.
Each one wearing Adexander's face.
Each one fallen.
Velessia gasped. "He's weaponizing your legacy."
Kaien, rising from rubble, spat blood and grinned. "Screw that. Let's burn it."
Raik stood beside them. "Together."
Adexander lifted the Fangblade.
His voice, low.
Rising.
"Then I'll forge a new legacy."
The ground cracked. The realm shook.
And from Adexander's back
A new sigil flared to life.
Not of a king.
Not of a conqueror.
But of a breaker.
> [New Skill Awakened: Legacy Devourer – Authority Over Past Versions.]
[Effect: All false echoes are nullified. Strength drawn from self-made truth.]
[Title Gained: The Flame That Refuses to Die.]
The false kings lunged.
Adexander met them with fire.
His allies followed—
Not as shadows.
But as the future.
This was not the end.
But the beginning of war between memory and will.
And the Kingkiller, bleeding and laughing, retreated into the deeper dark.
But before vanishing, it whispered:
"Find her, Crownbreaker.
She remembers more than you."
> To be continued...