Eroan tries to sleep after returning home; however, he can’t fall asleep, thinking of today’s defeat. While heading back, he muttered to himself, "Crest has grown significantly stronger than before." In a surprised tone, he added, "He even created a new form of Xcel art."

  As he walks, he tries to straighten his back, but the pain from the fight had reached his shoulders and stiffened his spine. He winces, "Ouch! I can’t even move properly. Seriously, if I hadn’t blocked that blow with the wooden sword, it would've shattered a few bones." (Referring to the Xcel art strike.)

  Then, touching his hair, he mutters, "How could I be so careless!"

  Back to the present—he wakes from bed after recalling the defeat and washes his face. While doing so, he notices that his left eye has turned slightly yellow and is glowing. Eroan stares at it, amazed for a moment, then brushes it off as a symptom of jaundice.

  "Wow! Did my eye color finally change? Nah, I’m either hallucinating or I’ve got jaundice."

  Shortly after, he returns to his room and picks up wired headphones instead of Bluetooth ones—thinking Bluetooth isn’t cool. He plugs them into his phone and lies on the bed. While listening to music, his phone suddenly shuts off. After a few minutes, he notices and slams his hand on the bed in frustration before going to charge it.

  He goes back to bed, trying to sleep. He dozes off, but it doesn’t last long as he hears a voice in his dream:

  "It’s not the time. Wake up!!"

  Weird sounds keep buzzing and disturbing his rest. Eroan, now too annoyed to sleep, messes his hair up in frustration and turns on the TV to drown out the noise. He searches for a movie called Inception. After half an hour of watching, he gets up to grab a drink from the fridge, only to find one can of Sprite and a nearly finished cake with just two pieces left. He opens the fridge, disappointed.

  "Guess that’s enough for now," he sighs.

  He eats the cake and drinks the Sprite while watching the movie. Just as he finishes eating and reaches halfway through the film, the electricity goes out. He gets up, puts the plate aside, and yells,

  "Damn! Electricity!"

  Heading to the window, he tries to check if any shops are open at 4 a.m. He wears a jacket due to the cold, gets ready, and is about to leave when he sees the ring in the showcase shining brighter than usual. Thinking it looks pretty, he tries it on. As soon as he puts it on his index finger, a lightning bolt strikes near his area. He looks up, speechless. Right when he wears the ring a shock gives him chills down his spine, his eyes turn completely white, and without any expression on his face, he collapses to the floor, slowly bending at the knees.

  His body lies on the ground, just in front of the door. A dark blue aura surrounds him, steadily burning his body. The flames consume him from both ends—head to heart and legs to arms. Parts of his body turn to ashes and begin fading into nothing.

  As the eternity flames touch his right arm, the ring on his index finger begins glowing unlike ever before. The light overpowers the dark blue aura. Then, everything vanishes—his body almost entirely turned to ashes. A black shadow envelops what’s left of him and sinks through the concrete floor, dragging Eroan’s remains into the abyss.

  In the depths of the jungle, beside the road where Set and Crest had fought others, police officers arrive to arrest members of various clans and groups. Doctors also rush in to check on the wounded. While treating people, the doctors grow extremely concerned about one individual—worried how anyone could survive such injuries.

  They perform defibrillation, and suddenly, that person wakes up—it’s none other than the ML.

  As soon as he opens his eyes, the doctors panic. Unbothered, he takes a pen from one of them. After a brief “thanks,” he strikes all five doctors at the neck with the pen and follows up with a precise blow using his hand, rendering them unconscious. He then grabs a white shirt from one of them and collects all the money from the wounded.

  Looking out the window, he notices many police officers nearby. The closest one is smoking. ML spills a few drops of a potion inside the vehicle and throws an unconscious merchant out. Hearing the noise, the officer approaches cautiously—unaware that ML is already behind him.

  ML strikes the officer at the neck and dislocates his shoulder as he tries to draw his weapon, even in an unconscious state. Searching his pockets, ML finds a lighter. As he exits the vehicle, he murmurs,

  "Thanks once again."

  Walking away, he tosses the lighter at the vehicle. It explodes, erasing all traces and witnesses. That potion’s one drop equals three bottles of kerosene.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Back in Eroan’s area, everything is silent. Only the sound of cold wind and rustling leaves fill the air. Inside his house, there’s no sign of him—until a black cloud emerges through the concrete floor. Lying above it is Eroan, fully healed. The black shadow that once surrounded him merges with his body, leaving only a black scar above his right index finger.

  When he regains consciousness, he finds himself a few meters away from a grocery shop, confused about how he got there. He doesn’t recall anything after putting on the ring.

  Thinking it’s due to sleep deprivation, he assumes he must have wandered out in a half-sleep state. As he walks toward the shop, his fingers begin to itch. That’s when he notices the scar on his index finger.

  He whispers, "No need to overthink. Maybe it’s just a scratch from wearing this old ring. That kind of thing doesn’t matter."

  As he turned to leave, the scar gave off a faint pulse—soft, rhythmic—like it was responding to something ahead. Eroan paused for a second, stared at his hand again, then shook his head.

  "Yeah... I definitely need sleep."

  Behind him, just for a moment, the cold air rippled—like heat shimmering off pavement. A vague silhouette flickered into view, more shadow than substance, before disappearing without a sound. Eroan didn’t notice.

  Soon, he reaches the store and buys a drink along with a packet of hot noodles. Sitting on a bench under a street lamp, he takes off his gloves and rubs his hands together for warmth. He unpacks the noodles, holds the chopsticks, and blows gently to cool them.

  Gradually, he eats the noodles and then leans back to rest.

  Far from this area, a number of people wearing prisoner outfits were running for their lives. While running, one of them stumbled upon something and fell to the ground, falling behind the others. When he looked at what he had stumbled upon, he completely froze—it was none other than the dead body of his comrade who had been with him just a moment ago. That body had both its eyes and mouth open. It stared into the guy's soul, its face covered in blood. The sight really creeped him out and made him extremely uncomfortable.

  He then gathered some courage and checked to see if there was any way his friend was still alive—or if there was any way to save him.

  All of a sudden, the wind blew faster than ever, and he heard movement heading toward him. When he tried to look around, blood splashed onto his face. As he looked up in terror, his neck snapped, placing him in the same position as his fallen comrade.

  Then, at a distance, the others—who were ahead of him—asked each other a few questions while running: whether they had escaped properly, if so, where they should go next, and what they should do now. Breathing heavily, they questioned each other.

  The answer to all those questions was simple: "Just survive."

  At some point, they stopped running—they had reached a dead end.

  Soon, the atmosphere darkened. They began to hear those movements approaching their way too. Suddenly, everything went silent. All that remained was the sound of their tired breathing and the cold wind breezing past them.

  After a moment of silence, they heard the noise again, looked around—and then something strange began.

  Soon, every one of them started dying, one by one. Some were suspended mid-air with all their bones crushed. Some died as objects passed through their bodies. They just died trying.

  In the meantime, four of them managed to escape into a nearby building. When they entered, they could barely see anything due to the lack of light. They winked at each other and nodded, then stabbed their friend one by one and laid him on the floor.

  They each cut a little from their own hands and dropped their blood into a bottle. Then they placed the bottle above his body, pushing it into the wound they had made.

  After that, one of them said a spell, “Sanitial Esdo.” The other two repeated after him. Then all three of them fell to the ground beside their dead friend.

  At that moment, something silver passed through all their bodies and entered the bottle. Without wasting a second, the last man closed his eyes and swallowed the gas and blood from the bottle.

  Soon, his body transformed. He tore off his prisoner shirt and grew a black wool coat. Red, blood-like scars formed on his chest to waist on both sides, shaped like first brackets. Both sides of his cheeks turned fully black, and a red gem appeared on his forehead. His hands were wrapped in bandages, and black and red lines spread across them like veins.

  He touched the bottle—it turned into a silver dagger with black and red lining.

  After a while, he heard that same noise again. As it grew closer, he swung the dagger, and blood-like slashes tore through the walls—revealing the face behind the murders and eerie events.

  It was the guy in the black coat and cowboy hat who had been watching Eroan and Aster from the rooftop. He said, “Good grief, now what’ve you done here?”

  The guy had turned into a monster and wouldn’t listen. He lunged toward the cowboy hat guy; however, he dodged it effortlessly. Then, with his sword, he sent a powerful black slash toward him that sent him flying through the walls—even though he blocked it.

  That monster wouldn’t catch a break, so it attacked again with crushing force. But he countered it with his arms, swiftly turned him around, and slammed him into the ground, breaking a few floors.

  After that, he thought it was finished for now and looked behind him, saying, “Today is dark,” referring to the half-dark moon, while trying to smoke—unaware of the monster’s awakening.

  It moved all the debris off itself with its bare hands and punched at the cowboy guy—though he dodged it again without even moving.

  After taking a few steps back, he got ready for an attack, but the monster, now awakened further, unleashed a combined black and red slash. Barely escaping it, the slash tore up his hat, and blood started dripping from his forehead.

  Furious, he moved his fingers, and a black crystal sword appeared.

  As the monster charged at him, he moved with light speed. The next moment, he was behind it—and the monster had been cut into pieces.

  Then, as it began to fade, light emerged from it, and the souls of the innocent dead gathered—only to fade away. But one remained and asked the cowboy guy in a calm, sorrowful tone, “Why kill humans when they can change?”

  He replied confidently, in a serious tone, “Change is something that rarely comes. If they don’t have humanity left in them, they aren’t humans anymore.”

  After hearing that, the soul began to fade and thanked him for giving them peace—purifying their soul and easing the pain.

  After a while, he lit his cigarette, and while smoking, he said, “In reality, I’m that monster.” Then he looked up at the shining moon and said, “Guess I’ve brought back the light. It’s enough for today".

  Later, Eroan gets up and, instead of taking the short way home, chooses the longer path that passes by the school—a curved road.

  As he walked in silence, a strange whisper brushed past his ear—soft, fleeting, and impossible to understand. Just air. But it made him stop mid-step. He looked around. Nothing but wind.

  "Okay… I'm really losing it," he muttered, forcing himself to keep moving.

  He cracks open the can and drinks as he walks. His posture is slouched, his body swinging backward slightly. When he reaches the school, he hears metal clashing noises. Curious, he looks through the gate—it’s miraculously unlocked.

  Inside, two people are fighting.

  One has maroon hair, golden eyes, a black scarf, an olive-colored jacket, and a white shirt underneath. He wears brown shoes with small spikes and wields two mid-range guns—each with a dagger attached.

  The other has emerald hair and a large sword. He wears an indigo coat over a tan shirt, charcoal pants, and black shoes. An unknown crest is etched on both his sword and shirt, and oddly enough, he’s wearing sunglasses at night.

  Seeing this, Eroan casually comments,

  "Hey! Are you guys cosplaying this late at night? That’s fire—totally awesome, guys. Keep it up!"

  His voice draws their attention. Both of them look at him, astonished by his cluelessness.

  One stares at him and mutters, "What an idiot," then warns him to leave immediately.

  But the one with the guns doesn’t waste a second—he merges both guns into one massive spiked sword and rushes toward Eroan, ready to slice him in half with a look of terror in his eyes.

  Eroan just stands there like a statue—completely frozen, unable to react. Then the drinking can he was holding fell on the ground and right at that moment blood came spilling and covered the can in blood.