After seeing the hell of Loticia fade, the cold voice of 404 brought me back to the rocky reality of the arena.

  I looked ahead, and the woman I had been weeping over was (Valeria), not (Isabella).

  She was cut in half, her blood irrigating the arena's sand, and steam rose from her entrails into the cold air.

  I looked at the hysterically screaming audience, their faces contorted with the ecstasy of violence: "The Paner! The Paner! Inma!"

  Between the cheers, I heard other voices screaming with the anger of losing gamblers, sharp voices like shards of glass: "Damn you, weakling! I bet on your win, not your death!" "Weak bastard! At least fight better!" "Entertain us more before you die!"

  Then I raised my eyes upwards.

  I looked at a man sitting on the empty throne... (Majun)'s sacred throne that no one dared to touch.

  (Ling Gu) was sitting on it now.

  He was sitting cross-legged with royal nonchalance, looking down at me from his height with a wide, satisfied smile.

  He began to clap.

  It was not enthusiastic applause... it was slow, rhythmic, and heavy. Clack... Clack... Clack...

  Every clap echoed in my ears like the sound of a judge's hammer condemning logic to death.

  I didn't understand anything in that moment. Shouldn't I be executed? I killed one of the Heirs! Am I the damaged one, or are they the damaged ones? Shouldn't they seek revenge on me?

  I don't understand anything.

  But... why does no one want to kill me?

  I'm happy that no one wants to kill me, and I won't be held accountable for killing her at all.

  And I don't care that I killed this woman named (Valeria). I knew her only briefly, and what I knew was that she was arrogant and savage. She deserved what happened to her. Yes... she deserved it. Right...?

  (Ling Gu), still enthroned, stood up and motioned for me to move and follow him.

  And I moved, as if I had done nothing, as if I had not killed a woman who had people who cared about her... and people she cared about.

  The air in the inn was thick, reeking of cheap sake, grilled meat, and dead ambitions. I sat across from (Ling Gu) in a private room, the faint noise from the main hall seeping through the thin paper walls like a whisper from another world.

  (Clara) sat silently beside me, an unmoving shadow, her presence so quiet and disciplined that it was easy to forget she was there.

  (Ling Gu) poured himself a glass of sake, the clear liquid glistening in the candlelight: "Today is the day of your journey, Dream, killer of the fierce beast Valeria."

  I said flatly: "I am still surprised that I am not imprisoned or executed."

  (Ling Gu) laughed and said: "Do you really think a place like this would care about something as trivial as lineage or kinship? She chose to fight you, even if it was unexpected that you would kill her despite her saying she would surrender. In the end, leaving her alive or killing her is the winner's choice."

  Then he leaned toward me, his eyes gleaming with a sudden seriousness that pierced the fog: "But you should be afraid, Dream... not of the Heavenly Demon Sect's wrath, but of mine. For you killed one of my followers."

  I looked at him, realizing he was testing me with this talk. I smiled coldly and said: "Follower? At that weak level?"

  (Ling Gu) laughed loudly: "You seem to be as smart as I expected. She recently broke through to the Mastery realm. For her age, that is an achievement. But compared to her siblings, she was garbage."

  He paused, and his smile became sharp as a blade: "But let's forget this unexpected event for now. Today, the Heavenly Demon Sect's 'Earth Dragon' Gate, which hasn't been opened for over sixty years, will be opened. And you will go through it. My friend, you have a two-year deadline to execute the plan."

  Then (Ling Gu) smiled with enjoyment and said: "I will not send you alone. You will go... and (Clara)."

  He nodded toward (Clara) who was sitting silently.

  I looked at her and smiled, saying to (Clara): "It seems like the honeymoon trip we never took."

  (Ling Gu) smiled broadly and said: "See, Dream? I told you, you've become smarter."

  The Heavenly Demon Palace gate was a wound on the face of the mountain.

  We stood before it, (Ling Gu), (Kage/Clara), and I, and (Yin Tang) was waiting for us.

  "I don't see the Great Wall," I said, looking at the snowy Void Mountains that stretched behind the palaces, obscuring the horizon with their stark, cold whiteness.

  (Yin Tang) laughed with a sound like cracking ice: "You shouldn't know, killer of the beast. You are about to see the greatest thing in your life."

  (Yin Tang) led us inside. The moment we crossed the threshold, reality shifted.

  We found ourselves in an open temple, with the Void Mountains stretching infinitely before it. The floor was made of polished obsidian, like a black mirror, and the columns rose to embrace the sky. The sight of the snowy Void Mountains stretched before us in solemn white silence, hiding the world's secrets behind them.

  (Majun) was waiting for us there, seated on his stone throne, like a god observing his creation from the edge of the cosmos.

  (Majun) spoke, his voice like a revelation descending from the heavens, shaking the bones: "Do not delay again."

  Then he stood up, and his hand extended toward the white void before him. "Open your mouth, Earth Dragon. I am your master, Majun."

  He released an aura of pure power, a cold demonic aura that made my soul tremble. It was not destructive power, but the power of absolute reality alteration.

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

  Before our stunned eyes, the snowy Void Mountains began to wither. They didn't melt like snow, but shrank and vanished like a flower having its life force sucked out, turning into a black mist that evaporated into nothingness as if they had never existed.

  And behind them... the truth appeared.

  The "Great Wall," the Earth Dragon Wall, manifested, and behind it, the vast ocean stretched forever, its black waters silently crashing.

  And in front of the temple, there was a gigantic gate carved with the face of a screaming demon, its eyes red like embers, and its mouth open into a dark abyss.

  The colossal gate began to open, and we felt hot air rushing out, air laden with repressed energy and the smell of ancient flame and sulfur, as if the very breath of hell was welcoming us, scorching our faces with unbearable heat after the cold of the snow.

  I remembered my memories with a shock: The Huy An city gate was not like this. This one is simply different... it is vastly different.

  Fifty men came from behind us, dressed completely in black, with demonic masks covering their faces. The sailors of Torment.

  Then a ship appeared from the sky... it emerged from nothingness, cleaving the clouds like a dagger.

  The ship, "Ark of Torment."

  It was a terrifying masterpiece, made of black wood glossy like burnt bone, and its sails were red, the color of clotted blood, emanating the smell of ancient, salty sea.

  (Ling Gu) said: "You and (Clara) will be the first two people in hundreds of years to step onto this ship who do not belong to the Heavenly Demon Sect."

  (Yin Tang) commanded: "Board."

  We boarded the ship. The gate closed behind us with a resonant clang resembling the sealing of a tomb door, and we were cut off from the world we knew.

  More than two months passed while we sailed in this watery void. The first days were strangely and disturbingly quiet.

  The air here was different. Saturated with a sticky humidity and a dense salinity that settled on my stone skin and on my lips, its taste reminding me of the blood and tears in (Hong Min)'s memories.

  I spent most of my time on the deck, watching the unchanging gray ocean, and practicing with my sword.

  And I talked with (Clara) about all trivial things, such as how (Kairo) was still bickering with (Isabella). I gossiped a lot to her, telling her I thought (Isabella) and (Kairo) loved each other.

  I sensed she registered shock for some reason when I told her this, but that's (Clara)'s way of expressing her emotions. And I showed my affection for her in every way possible.

  And sometimes I saw (Clara) crying alone for some reason. Perhaps because she was afraid of the ocean? When I saw her, I went immediately to comfort her, wiping her tears with my stone hand, ignoring the coldness of her body and its rigidity under my touch.

  One night, while I was sitting alone under the stars I had never seen before, (Clara) approached and sat beside me.

  I whispered in her beautiful ear: "Don't be afraid. I am here. I will protect you."

  I put my arm around her, feeling her body cold from the sea air, and beautiful from the intense beauty of the stars that shone in a vast sky above us.

  I wanted to take her to bed so we could enjoy the warmth, but suddenly...

  The sky began to change.

  Black clouds gathered like an angry army swallowing the stars, and the wind began to howl with a sound like the screams of the dead we had killed. Within minutes, we were in the heart of a majestic storm. The waves rose like black mountains, hitting the ship with a force that would have shattered any ordinary vessel.

  But the "Ark of Torment" stood firm as an unshakeable pillar, unmoving, defying the wrath of nature with supernatural silence.

  I shouted, hugging (Clara) tightly, shielding her with my body from the salty spray that whipped us like lashes: "Don't be afraid! I am here!"

  But wait... why are we standing still? The ship is stationary in the middle of the hurricane!

  I looked at the masked captain who came directly to me, and said in a dead voice not covered by the noise of the storm: "It is time."

  I asked him: "Time for what?" He looked at me in surprise from beneath his demonic mask.

  He said: "Didn't he tell you? Our mission ends here. You are now going to jump off the ship to reach Nippon."

  I shouted in his face, my voice lost in the wail of the wind: "What are you saying?! I don't see any island to swim to! This is suicide!"

  He replied coldly: "That is not my problem. We cannot move further or we will be noticed."

  I looked at (Clara) trembling in my arms, and said to him desperately: "Can you at least take (Clara) back with you?"

  He said firmly: "No. The orders say both of you. Come on, jump."

  I looked at (Clara), tears filling my eyes and mixing with the salty rainwater: "I am sorry... this happened because I trusted (Ling Gu). I am sorry... I am sorry. Will I become a sin again? I don't want to go back there. I don't want to. I just don't want to. I want to stay with you."

  (Clara) looked at me, smiled a sad and mysterious smile, and said in a calm voice amidst the storm: "Don't worry, Dio. We will reach the island... swimming or flying... we will not die."

  Then she gripped my hand tightly and said: "Come on."

  And she jumped with me.

  She and I, off the ship, into the heart of the raging storm.

  During the free fall, a huge lightning bolt illuminated the sky, and for one moment, I saw her face.

  It was not (Clara)'s frightened face... it was a cold face, eyes focusing intensely, and a body preparing for impact with lethal professionalism. Ka-?

  In that moment, (404) decided to intervene.

  The emotional "Dream" consciousness retreated, and the cold digital consciousness advanced to face the wrath of nature.

  

  The hell of thinking began. It was not magic, but engineering the impossible.

  I extended my arms, and through me, I grasped the threads of the raging wind that was trying to tear us apart. I did not resist it, but "re-directed it."

  I wove the winds around us to form a transparent spherical cocoon, a ball of high atmospheric pressure spinning faster than the speed of sound, repelling the rain and waves.

  KRAAAACK!

  A crashing sound like breaking bone. The shield shattered under the force of a giant wave. Cold salt water slapped my face like whips.

  I built another shield. It shattered. I built a third.

  The minutes became hours, and the hours an eternity of infinite repetition. Build. Shatter. Rebuild.

  I was burning from the inside. My mind processed millions of variables per second: the angle of the wave's impact, the wind speed, the weight of (Clara) who was clinging to me like a drowning person clinging to a straw, her warm breath the only constant in this revolving world.

  The storm screamed like a hungry monster, and I answered it with the silence of numbers.

  Every quarter of a second, I created a small miracle, then watched it shatter, only to immediately create another.

  My stone body turned into an anchor, and my digital soul into an impregnable dam. I wasn't protecting myself... I was protecting the "variable" in my arms.

  
  And so, for two nights and two days.

  I was a sphere of static order, slowly descending into the heart of the world's chaos, carrying a trembling star in my arms.

  Until finally... the storm died.

  It did not fade gradually, but parted suddenly like a stage curtain revealing the final scene.

  And we saw it. Nippon Island.

  It was not just land in the sea. It was a painting drawn by ancient gods and then forgotten.

  On the horizon, a majestic volcano pierced the sky, its peak covered in pristine white snow gleaming under the morning sun like a diamond crown, and its slopes descended with a royal softness downwards.

  Beneath the mountain, dense forests stretched, not just green, but an explosion of colors: cherry trees with their falling pink blossoms covering the ground like a carpet, and maple trees with leaves blood-red as if ignited by cold fire.

  The air here was different. The foul smell of the storm's saltiness vanished, replaced by a strange, aromatic scent... the smell of old pine, faint incense, and something metallic, like the smell of a newly drawn sword.

  And before us, was the beach.

  It was not ordinary sand. The "Golden Sand" literally shimmered, fine grains reflecting the sunlight and making the beach look as if it were cast from liquid gold. The waves here did not crash violently onto the shore, but touched it with a gentle whisper, as if the sea itself feared disturbing the inhabitants of this island.

  We landed on the golden sand.

  The beauty was overwhelming, and the place was quiet to the point of terror.

  I felt the energy of the place... it was neither Rei nor Mana. It was a sharp, focused energy, filling the air as if millions of invisible swords were hanging over our heads.

  I looked at the mountain, and at the silent forest, and felt how small I was.

  Then, my body collapsed. I lost consciousness immediately upon arrival, (Clara) and I, embracing on the sands of the paradise that might be hell itself.