Kairo awoke face-down in dust.
Not ash. Not smoke. Just dry, chalk-white dirt, cracked like skin left too long in the sun.
He pushed himself up slowly.
The world around him had changed again.
The sky above was pure white—no sun, no clouds, just a seamless glow like the ceiling of a perfect cathedral. Marble towers stretched into it, untouched by time. Not a single crack or blemish. Everything was symmetrical. Clean. Flawless.
Too flawless.
He stood on a stone bridge suspended high above a massive, circular city. The architecture was pristine—pillars, archways, gold-framed murals, fountains that flowed without noise.
And every single figure in the city was frozen.
People—hundreds of them—stood motionless in perfect poses. Reading books. Pouring tea. Laughing. Mid-embrace. They didn't blink. Didn't sway. Statues carved from flesh, held in some unnatural stasis.
[NEW DOMAIN RECOGNIZED: PRIDE // EIRAS' SANCTUM]
[FRAGMENT PRESENCE: ACTIVE]
[SYSTEM STABILITY: SUPPRESSED]
Kairo stepped forward slowly.
As he moved past the first figure—a noblewoman mid-curtsy—he caught a glint in her eye.
Moisture.
She wasn't dead.
She was aware.
He stopped breathing.
Their eyes didn't move, but he could feel them watching. All of them. Trapped inside perfect poses. Their souls locked beneath their skin.
[WARNING: SIN FIELD EFFECT IN PLACE // EMOTIONAL SURGE: PRIDE]
[RESISTANCE CHECK… FAILED]
Kairo stumbled.
A pressure bloomed in his chest—sudden, burning. Not pain. Not fear.
Arrogance.
For a split second, he felt powerful. Superior. He looked down at the frozen people and thought: Why should I care?
The thought vanished as quickly as it came—but left a bitter taste.
He gritted his teeth. "This place is poison."
And something—someone—laughed.
Not from above. Not behind. From inside his head.
"You returned broken this time."
The voice was velvet and venom. Female. Familiar in a way that made his skin crawl.
"Did you forget again, little Kairo? How disappointing."
He spun.
The air shimmered ahead—and from it stepped Eiras.
The Witch of Pride.
Tall. Regal. A woman of ageless beauty dressed in robes woven from starlight and chains. Her hair was silver, coiled in a crown of thorns. Her eyes glowed with a soft, searing white. Not heat—purity. So flawless it hurt to look at her.
She walked barefoot on marble that rippled under her step like it feared displeasing her.
Kairo instinctively raised his arm, readying a skill.
Eiras smiled.
And the system froze.
[ERROR // SYSTEM ACCESS DENIED]
[REWRITE PRIVILEGES TEMPORARILY REVOKED]
She reached out with a single finger and pressed it to his forehead.
He couldn't move.
Her touch wasn't cruel. It was condescending. Like a sculptor disappointed in a half-finished statue.
"You were born here," she said softly.
He blinked.
"What?"
Her smile widened. "In a past loop. You were my finest creation. The only one that ever dared to speak against me."
A wave of memory hit him—flashes of fire, marble cracking, her face twisted in rage.
"And what did you do to me?" he whispered.
"I perfected you," she said. "Again and again. But each time, you broke yourself trying to be human."
She leaned closer.
"So I turned the others to stone, and left you to find your way back."
Kairo's hands shook.
"You're lying."
"Am I?" she asked, voice like silk. "Then why does your system obey me? Why does it lock up in my presence? Why do you feel proud when you walk my streets?"
He tried to move.
Failed.
"Let me go."
Eiras tilted her head. "Say you're mine again, Kairo. That's all. Say you belong to me."
The pressure behind his eyes swelled. Pain lanced through his skull.
He grit his teeth until blood welled in his gums.
Then—he smiled.
"No."
She blinked.
"I'd rather die again."
And that was enough.
The spell cracked.
The system rebooted.
[ERROR REPAIRED // OVERRIDE ACCESS RESTORED]
[NEW SKILL: SHATTER//TRUTH - LV.1]
Kairo's eyes flared violet.
And Eiras?
She laughed.
Not mockingly. Not in rage.
With genuine joy.
"You're back," she said. "Finally."
And with a wave of her hand, the marble bridge beneath him collapsed.
He fell.
Into the city.
Into the Domain.
Into the world he once destroyed.