The world was a crushing weight of absolute, lightless pressure. I was no longer a man; I was a fractured consciousness, a phantom lashed to iron chains within the gut of a titan. These chains weren't just binding me—they were melting, plying into my very essence, fusing my human spirit with the demonic sludge of the monster that had devoured me.
Through the predatory, violet haze of the High-Rank Demon's eyes, I watched the horror of the reality outside. The Azure Knight, the legend of Rank 7, was crumbling. To see a pillar of the world erode in seconds was a trauma that surpassed physical pain. I felt a surge of wretched helplessness. 'Is this my existence?' I wondered. 'A memory chip being slotted into different corpses, destined only to witness the end of everything?' My soul felt like a bruised circuit, sparking with a headache so intense it felt like my spirit was being crushed by a hydraulic press. I couldn't run. I couldn't fight. All I had was the cold, acidic darkness of the demon's womb.
The Invisible Shield
Kiran, the blue-haired Knight, lunged again. He was a mess of shattered steel and clotted blood, yet he fought with a suicidal desperation. 'Is he insane?' I thought. 'Does he want to die this badly?' I had to help him. I had to be more than a passenger.
The Demon raised a massive, clawed hand to deliver a finishing blow. I poured every ounce of my will into the demon's motor functions. My soul burned against the chains. I couldn't stop the body, but I felt the Elements—the mana flow that the demon drew from the earth. I reached out and yanked on that energy.
CRACK-BOOM!
A jagged wall of obsidian erupted from the dirt, blocking the demon's path. The monster roared in confusion, its guttural voice vibrating through my very soul. "Who? Who is doing this?" it bellowed. It turned its gaze toward the unconscious Hina and Yumi. "If I cannot kill the Knight, I will shred the girls!"
The monster shattered my obsidian wall and lunged. I threw everything I had—my logic, my pain, my detective's instinct—into a mental hijack. I felt the iron chains heat to a blinding white. The demon collapsed to its knees, clutching its head as our two minds collided in a storm of agony.
The Azure Sacrifice: The Final Silence
Kiran didn't waste the opening. He didn't use a flashy aura or a complex pattern. He took a deep, shuddering breath, his lungs likely filled with his own blood, and put his entire rank, his life, and his memories into a single, silent horizontal slash.
S-L-I-C-E.
The world went mute. A cold, surgical sharpness passed through the demon's neck. The head of the beast slid from its shoulders in slow motion. As the demon's life flickered out, the chains around my soul finally snapped. I felt a vacuum of peace pulling me away from the blood and the ash.
The Dream of the White Knight
Suddenly, the village was gone. I was floating in a vast, impossible cathedral of space. The sky was a deep, velvet indigo, peppered with stars that looked like diamonds spilled across a queen's robe. The silence was not empty; it was a caress.
Then, the scene shifted. I was small. I was looking through the eyes of a child—Kiran's childhood self. I stood in the center of a village that was a portrait of hell. Millions of demons, a sea of teeth and obsidian claws, surrounded me. I felt a child's pure, unadulterated terror. 'Save me... please, someone save me!'Suddenly, the sky split. A pillar of white light descended, so pure it felt like a silent prayer. Out of the radiance stepped a man. He wore armor as white as freshly fallen snow, glowing with an internal golden sun. He stood with his back to me—a golden knight holding back the apocalypse.
"How does the world look to you?" he asked. His voice was a melody from a forgotten age.
Before I could answer, he moved. He didn't fight; he transmuted. He ran toward the millions of demons, and as he reached them, a miracle occurred. The demons didn't bleed. They didn't scream. They turned into petals.
Millions of black horrors transformed into billions of golden flowers, swirling into the sky like a floral blizzard. It was the most beautiful sight I had ever witnessed—a massacre of pure beauty. The demons were gone, replaced by the scent of eternal spring and falling petals.
The Maiden of the Golden Silence
As the White Knight vanished into the light, a presence materialized behind me.
"Do not look back, dear," a voice whispered. It was a golden sound—sweet, haunting, and cold all at once. I felt a hand touch my shoulder. It was a spiritual balm, erasing the trauma of the devouring, the burning of the chains, and the weight of my detective's burden.
I felt a ruhani (spiritual) peace that I hadn't known in any life. My grief, my anger, my pain—it all evaporated.
"I am not her," she whispered, her voice a haunting echo that resonated in my very marrow. "But I know the one you seek. You have beautiful memories now, Reyansh. Hold onto this golden feeling..."
I didn't try to see her face. I didn't try to move. I just stood there, a child in a field of golden flowers, feeling a sukoon that felt like a dream I never wanted to wake up from.