The wind that blew through the broken village was no longer cold—but heavy.
Heavy with eyes.
The kind you couldn't see.
The kind that didn't blink.
Adexander sat beneath a dead tree at dawn, his crimson coat flaring in the breeze.
The children were asleep nearby, curled beneath Velessia's enchanted blankets. Raik had passed out while standing guard. Kaien snored softly, leaning against a ruined bell tower.
The boy Naru, he'd said his name was—was awake, staring at the ashes of the fire.
"You're really not human, huh?" the kid whispered.
Adexander didn't respond right away. His eyes were closed. Listening.
After a moment, he said, "Do you want me to lie to you?"
"…No."
"Good."
Naru hugged his knees. "You scare me. But I don't want you to go."
Adexander's eye opened slowly.
"I won't."
As the others stirred and the sun rose higher, the group set off. Adexander carried the youngest girl on his back—she'd refused to walk unless "the big scary red man" did it. He didn't argue.
Raik walked ahead, sword over his shoulder. "So we're… babysitters now?"
Kaien chuckled. "I think we're more like walking apocalypse guardians."
Velessia, tired-eyed and quiet, whispered something only Adexander heard:
"…They're not just kids."
He glanced at her.
"They survived what most adults couldn't. With no food. No protection. And no mana."
They arrived at a ridge just before noon.
What they saw stopped all laughter.
Ahead, a field of withered corpses stretched for miles.
Burned-out ruins. Slaughtered knights. Demonic sigils still smoking in the soil.
At the center—a lone tree. With a sword stabbed into its base.
And around it…
Figures. Watching. Waiting.
A dozen cloaked beings.
Each of them radiated something foul. Not demonic—but something worse.
Kaien stiffened. "That's…"
"Cult of the Black Root," Velessia whispered. "Mana butchers."
Raik frowned. "I thought they died centuries ago."
"They don't die. They burrow."
The cloaked figures didn't move.
Until one stepped forward.
His voice came not from his mouth—but from the sky itself.
"You walk with the vessel."
Adexander stepped forward, placing the child gently down.
"The what?"
"You have begun to outgrow mana," the voice said. "You are waking what should never wake."
Kaien clenched his fists. "They're talking about the power inside you."
The cultist raised a gnarled hand. "The gods sent mana to limit mankind. To protect you from yourselves. But you… you are something else."
Adexander's eyes narrowed. "Say the name."
"…Ashbreaker."
The ground cracked beneath him.
Velessia gasped—the mana shattered around him like glass again.
Adexander looked toward the children, then toward the cult.
"I'll give you one chance."
"Chance for what?"
"To disappear."
They laughed.
A dozen robed lunatics raised their arms. The ground twisted. Spectral beasts crawled from the cracks—made of dead mana and bound blood.
The children screamed.
But before they could reach the group—
BOOM.
The first cultist's head exploded.
Raik vanished in a blur of motion.
Kaien's fist turned the second to pulp.
Velessia summoned a holy seal that erased the third into flame.
And Adexander?
He walked through them.
Unafraid. Unmoving. His presence alone unmade the beasts.
Until only one remained—the speaker.
He fell to his knees.
"You… you don't belong in this world."
Adexander stopped just in front of him.
"No."
"The world doesn't deserve me.
With a flick of his wrist, the air ruptured. The cultist was gone—scattered to memory.
After the fight, the group stood in silence.
Velessia looked at Adexander with awe. And worry.
"You… you didn't use mana."
He looked down at his hands.
"I used something else."
> [System Notice: Essence Threshold 7% Reached.] [Ashbreaker Status Deepening.] [Mana Displacement Field Widening.]
That night, Naru came to sit beside him again.
"You're not like the heroes in stories," he said.
"No."
"But I think… maybe you're something better."
Adexander didn't smile.
But something in his eyes softened.
In the distance, beyond ruined mountains and ancient seals…
An archdemon shivered for the first time in a thousand years.
And in the realm of the gods—
One of them woke up screaming.
To Be Continued.