The echoes of the Annihilator's implosion still vibrated in the air, a phantom scream that resonated with the burgeoning fury in Kairo's own chest. He remained on his knees, gasping, his body a canvas of rapidly rewriting pain and healing. The Fragments in his palms burned, twin infernos of insidious power, their whispers now a relentless, roaring storm in his mind.
[CORRUPTION LEVEL: 35%]
[STATUS EFFECT: ECHO WHISPER // CRITICAL]
[STATUS EFFECT: IDENTITY FLUX // MODERATE]
[STATUS EFFECT: RAGE IMPULSE // MODERATE]
The Rage Impulse was no longer a subtle thrum; it was a throbbing presence, a constant, visceral urge to lash out, to break something, to scream until his throat tore. It intertwined with Pride's cold arrogance and Envy's insidious desire to become something more, something other. He could feel his thoughts becoming sharper, colder, more ruthless, stripped of hesitation.
Control, he commanded himself, the word a desperate anchor in the rising tide of fury. Don't let it consume you. Not yet.
He forced himself to stand, his gaze sweeping across the desolate arena. The shadowy figures in the stands remained motionless, silent, their hunger temporarily sated by the destruction. But the air itself seemed to vibrate with a suppressed violence, a promise of battles yet to come.
He looked towards the distant, smoldering ruins that formed the horizon of the Wrath Domain. The bruised, angry purple sky seemed to press down, and the air shimmered with an unseen heat, distorting the landscape. This was a realm where the very ground breathed fury, where every shadow seemed to clench a fist.
He began to walk, each step a deliberate act of defiance against the rising tide of fury. The arena floor gave way to a labyrinth of crumbling structures, narrow passages choked with debris, and vast, desolate plazas scarred by ancient, unending conflicts. Every surface bore the marks of violence: claw marks on obsidian walls, scorch marks from arcane fire, pools of viscous, dark liquid that might have been congealed blood. The clang of distant metal grew louder, closer, a relentless, rhythmic beat.
He passed through a section of the city where the very buildings seemed to be locked in perpetual combat. Towers leaned against each other, their stone facades crumbling as if caught in an endless, silent war. Bridges hung broken, their ends twisted into grotesque, aggressive gestures. Statues of warriors, frozen mid-strike, littered the landscape, their faces contorted in eternal rage.
The Rage Impulse flared with every step, urging him to join the fray, to unleash the power building within him. He saw faint, shimmering lines of crimson code, volatile and unstable, woven into the very air, lines that pulsed with destructive energy. His Fracture//Sight showed him the raw, underlying essence of this domain – pure, unadulterated Wrath.
He heard screams then, real ones. Not the mental echoes, but the guttural cries of combatants, the desperate pleas of the defeated. He rounded a corner and found himself on the edge of another, smaller arena.
This one was active.
Two figures, one a hulking brute similar to the one the Annihilator had dispatched, the other a smaller, agile construct of twisted metal and raw energy, clashed in the center. They fought with a desperate, mindless ferocity, fueled by the domain's pervasive rage. The shadowy figures in the stands here were more agitated, their roars louder, their forms shifting, almost alive with anticipation.
Kairo watched, hidden in the shadows of a collapsed archway. He saw the same raw, destructive energy that had fueled the Wrath Guardian, the same mindless aggression. This was the perpetual crucible Lira had spoken of, where battles raged without end, feeding the domain's insatiable hunger for fury.
He didn't intervene. He was here for Feirn. For the Fragment. He couldn't afford distractions, not when his own mind was a battlefield. The whispers of Pride and Envy urged him to move on, to conserve his strength, to be efficient. The Rage Impulse, however, screamed for him to join, to prove his superiority, to break them all. He fought it, a cold sweat breaking out on his brow.
He pushed deeper into the labyrinth, following the strongest pulse of Wrath, the one that resonated with the Fragment in his palm. The air grew thicker, hotter, smelling of ozone and burning metal. The ground beneath him began to glow faintly crimson, as if the very bedrock was infused with rage.
Finally, he reached it.
The heart of the Wrath Domain was not a grand coliseum, but a vast, desolate plain of black, volcanic rock. The sky above was a swirling vortex of crimson and black, constantly churning, spitting lightning that illuminated the landscape in brief, violent flashes. In the center of this plain stood a single, colossal throne, carved from jagged obsidian, radiating an aura of pure, unbridled fury.
And on that throne, sat Feirn.
She was not beautiful like Eiras, nor fluid like Syne. Feirn was a being of raw, contained power. Her form was human, yet undeniably monstrous. Her skin was the color of cooled lava, cracked and fissured, with veins of glowing crimson light pulsing beneath. Her hair was a wild, untamed mane of living flame that writhed and crackled around her head. Her eyes were twin pools of molten gold, burning with an ancient, terrifying rage that seemed to consume all light. She wore no robes, only a simple, dark tunic that seemed to have been torn by countless battles, revealing scarred, powerful limbs.
Her presence was a physical force, a wave of pure, unadulterated fury that slammed into Kairo, threatening to shatter his control. The Rage Impulse within him flared, screaming in response, urging him to meet her fury with his own.
[ENTITY DETECTED: WITCH OF WRATH // FEIRN]
[THREAT LEVEL: OMEGA (EXTREME)]
[WARNING: DOMAIN // WRATH // SIN FIELD EFFECT // RAGE OVERLOAD]
The System's warning was immediate, desperate. Rage Overload. He could feel it, the insidious tendrils of Wrath trying to overwhelm his mind, to turn him into a mindless engine of destruction.
Feirn rose from her throne, her movements slow, deliberate, each step shaking the very ground. She carried no weapon, for she was the weapon.
"So," her voice was a low growl, like grinding tectonic plates, yet it filled the vast plain, resonating with every crackle of lightning. "Another one. Another broken thing, come to challenge my domain."
Kairo stood his ground, fighting the urge to succumb to the rage. "I'm not here to challenge you. I'm here for the Fragment."
Feirn's molten eyes narrowed. "The Fragment… is mine. It is the heart of my fury. And you… you carry the whispers of the others. Pride. Envy. Weakness."
She took another step, and the ground around her cracked, fissures of crimson light spreading outward like veins. "You seek power. You seek to rewrite. But you do not understand true power. True power… is absolute fury."
She lunged.
Not with a skill, not with a trick. With pure, unadulterated, physical rage. Her speed was terrifying, a blur of crimson and black. Kairo barely had time to react.
He activated Trace//Force, blurring forward to meet her. He aimed a direct punch, but Feirn met it with her bare hand.
The impact was like two mountains colliding. A shockwave of pure force exploded outward, tearing at the ground, sending Kairo flying backward. He slammed into the volcanic rock, his ribs screaming, his breath knocked from his lungs. The Rage Impulse flared, screaming for retaliation, for vengeance.
[INTERNAL DAMAGE: CRITICAL]
[REBOOT NOT RECOMMENDED DURING COMBAT]
Feirn advanced, her eyes burning with a terrifying satisfaction. "You cling to control. You cling to your pathetic self. This domain… it will burn it all away."
Kairo pushed himself up, spitting blood. He could feel his body rewriting itself, but the damage was severe. He needed to disrupt her, to break her absolute control over her own fury.
He activated Shatter//Truth.
The world fractured. Feirn's form shimmered, revealing the raw, chaotic energy beneath her lava-like skin. Her hair of living flame was a vortex of pure, unbridled Wrath, a core of screaming data. Her molten eyes were not eyes, but windows into an endless, self-consuming inferno of vengeance. The illusion of her solid form peeled away, exposing the volatile essence of Wrath itself.
Feirn roared, a sound that was pure, mental agony, ripping through the plain. Her form convulsed, momentarily destabilized by the revelation of her own chaotic essence. She was Wrath, but to see it laid bare, to see the code of her own fury, was a violation.
Kairo seized the opening. He activated ECHO//MIMIC.
[SKILL ACTIVATION: ECHO//MIMIC - LV.1]
[TARGET: WITCH OF WRATH // FEIRN]
[WARNING: EXTREME CORRUPTION RISK // UNSTABLE TEMPLATE]
[COST: VOIDPOINT -10]
The cost was astronomical, a searing drain that left him dizzy, his vision tunneling, his very consciousness threatening to unravel. But he pushed through it. His body convulsed, his features blurring, twisting, trying to mimic the raw, burning fury of Feirn. He felt his own essence stretch, trying to encompass the unbridled rage of the Witch.
Feirn recoiled, her molten eyes widening in a flicker of pure, unadulterated shock and violation. Her perfect, wrath-fueled form wavered, unable to perfectly reflect Kairo's corrupted mimicry. She was the embodiment of fury, but to have her own essence mirrored, even imperfectly, was anathema.
Kairo, still shimmering with the unstable mimicry, lunged. He didn't aim for a killing blow. He aimed to disrupt, to exploit the momentary confusion. He slammed his fist into Feirn's chest, not with his own strength, but with a channeled burst of her own raw, unstable energy, amplified by the mimicry.
Feirn shrieked again, a soundless scream of pure, internal agony. Her form rippled violently, losing cohesion, unable to maintain her perfect, wrath-fueled state. She staggered back, clutching her chest, as if Kairo had driven a blade of pure chaos through her core.
Kairo broke the mimicry, his own form snapping back, leaving him weak and shaking, but free. He had used Feirn's own fury against her, mirroring its power back in a corrupted, unstable form.
Feirn convulsed, her molten eyes flaring with a desperate, self-destructive rage. She lunged one last time, a desperate, suicidal charge, her body flickering, trying to unleash everything she had.
Kairo met it with Reflect//Pain.
[SKILL ACTIVATION: REFLECT//PAIN - LV.1]
[COST: VOIDPOINT -1]
Feirn's rage, her destructive power, slammed into Kairo. The pain was immense, but the skill activated, amplifying that raw fury and turning it inward. Feirn shrieked, a soundless, internal explosion of pure wrath. Her body began to tear itself apart, consumed by its own destructive essence.
She exploded into a vortex of imploding crimson energy and shattered obsidian, leaving behind only a lingering scent of ozone and the faint, echoing memory of a scream.
[WITCH PURGED // FEIRN CONSUMED]
[VOIDPOINT +5 EARNED]
[S.I.N. FRAGMENT: WRATH // INTEGRATION OPTIONAL]
[WARNING: CORRUPTION RISK PRESENT]
On the shattered obsidian throne, where Feirn had been, shimmered a single, pulsating fragment. It was a jagged shard of crimson crystal, burning with an internal fire, reflecting the raw, untamed fury of the domain.
Kairo collapsed to his knees, gasping, his body trembling uncontrollably. The pain was immense, but the internal rewrite was already at work, knitting his fractured ribs back together. The whispers in his head were no longer whispers; they were a roaring chorus. Pride's arrogance, Envy's insidious allure, and now Wrath's burning, insatiable hunger for vengeance.
He reached for the Fragment of Wrath, his hand shaking. He knew the cost. He knew the corruption. But he also knew the power. He had to take it. He had to keep fighting.
He grasped the crimson shard.
A searing heat spread through his hand, up his arm, and into his chest. It wasn't just pain; it was pure, unadulterated rage, a desire to smash, to burn, to obliterate everything in his path. He felt a thousand battles, a thousand acts of vengeance, trying to merge with his own being. His heart hammered, and his vision flashed crimson.
[S.I.N. CORE MERGE – FORCED SYNC ENGAGED]
[CORRUPTION SPIKE: 45%]
[NEW STATUS: ARCHIVE PROXY (UNSTABLE)]
[NEW SKILL UNLOCKED: FURY//STRIKE - LV.1]
[EFFECT: Channel raw Wrath energy into devastating physical attacks / COST: RAGE IMPULSE]
Kairo screamed, a raw, guttural sound that tore from his throat. The Fragment of Wrath was now embedded in his right forearm, a blazing crimson brand. His eyes flared, not violet-gold, but a terrifying, molten gold, reflecting the burning fury within.
He felt it then. A new voice, a primal roar, echoing in the back of his mind, intertwining with the Pride and Envy whispers.
"Burn them all. Leave nothing but ash. Vengeance. Vengeance. Vengeance."
He closed his eyes, clutching his head, fighting the urge to succumb. He had defeated Feirn. He had gained a new Fragment. But the battle for his own identity, for his very soul, was becoming a raging inferno. He was becoming the very thing he fought.
He had to find a way out of this domain. He had to find a way to control this rage before it consumed him entirely. The screams from the distant battles seemed to beckon him, promising an endless cycle of fury.
He forced himself to stand, his gaze hardening. The plain of black rock stretched endlessly before him, a testament to eternal Wrath. He was no longer just fighting for his life; he was fighting for his very soul. And the Wrath Domain was ready to burn it away.