The drunkard walked toward me. His steps were unsteady, staggering left and right, but his aura was so heavy it felt as if gravity around him had multiplied tenfold. The pungent stench of sake wafted from him, choking the air, mixed with the scent of something ancient... the smell of blood dried centuries ago.

  I looked at him, and a cold shiver ran through my stone veins. You are different... from the man I saw yesterday, Oni.

  < Analysis: Target perceives camouflage. Hostile aura: High. > < Escape Rate: 0%. Win Rate: 0%. Body Efficiency: 60%. > < Only Option: Desperate escape attempt. >

  I began to move immediately. I flew as fast as I could, using Wind Magic to propel myself, leaping over rooftops trying to distance myself from this "weight."

  But it was futile.

  Suddenly, in mid-air, he appeared before me. He was drinking from his sake jar, suspended in the sky as if standing on solid ground. Without even looking at me, he kicked me.

  It wasn't an ordinary kick. It was like a planetary collision. I heard the sound of shattering in my chest before I even felt the pain. He sent me like a meteor toward the carcass of the dead dragon on the ground. I slammed into its hard scales, the earth shattered beneath me, and dust and blood sprayed everywhere.

  < Analysis: Critical injuries. Body functionality: 30%. Defensive systems failed. >

  He descended from the sky slowly, like a feather, despite his heavy presence. In that moment, the system began linking data:

  < Voice Analysis: Match found... > < Aura Analysis: Matches Red-Category warnings. > < Result: This is no mere Ronin. Data points to legends gathered by (Ling Gu). He is the Legendary Samurai. > < Danger Level: Catastrophic. Escape is impossible. >

  He reached me and crouched down by my side. He took a long swig of sake, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and said in a raspy voice: "Is it a coincidence, I wonder? That a dragon appears at the exact moment you emerge from that forest, Oni?"

  He looked directly into my eyes, his red eyes gleaming with a terrifying intelligence: "Oni, you are from the outside. Therefore, it is my duty to kill you. I am (Morito Ryu), the Eternal Guardian of this island. But... for some reason, I feel I shouldn't kill you. Why is that, I wonder?"

  Then, without warning, daggers shot from the shadows at the speed of light toward Morito. He didn't move. He simply tilted his head slightly with boredom, and the daggers whistled past him to sink into the dragon's corpse with a muffled thud.

  The one who threw the daggers was (Kage). < Analysis: Why did she return? >

  The man said: "It seems your wife, Oni, has returned to save you."

  Morito looked at her, then at his sake jar. Suddenly... he unleashed his aura. Behind him, a giant shadow of red and black energy took shape. It was a true dragon. Vastly larger and more terrifying than the one he had just killed. Its scales looked as if they were made of frozen blood, and its eyes were spheres of hell staring directly into our souls. Its voice wasn't heard, but rather felt as a vibration that ground bones.

  This is Ryu.

  Under the sheer pressure, Kage fell like a puppet whose strings had been cut, fainting instantly as blood leaked from her nose. I felt my stone bones cracking under the weight. Morito returned to his crouching position, the dragon shadow vanished, but his eyes remained burning.

  "I also feel the presence of two entities inside you, Oni. Is that why you are different from the being who was here yesterday?" He smiled and touched my chest, over my heart, with his finger. "Return."

  Then... in an instant... I felt myself sinking into darkness. No... he was forcing control back to (Dream). I tried to resist, but I was too weak to stand against the will of a dragon. I returned to the darkness.

  [Dream's Perspective Returns]

  The first thing I felt was the intense pain tearing through every cell of my body, as if I had been crushed under a hydraulic press. The second thing I felt... was the body of (Clara) lying motionless before me, her face as pale as death!

  I looked at her and screamed, my voice coming out hoarse and broken: "Clara! No! No, no! Wake up!"

  I began crawling toward her, dragging my shattered body, my nails digging into the dirt. But the man crouching before me blocked me with his hand—a steel barrier that wouldn't budge. I screamed in his face, spit and blood flying from my mouth: "I'll kill you! I'll kill you!"

  Then I looked at her and wept, my stone tears falling heavy: "Clara... no. Don't leave me. Please don't leave me. I'm sorry... I'm sorry. I love you, my star. Please, I don't want to be alone... I don't want to."

  The man remained crouching indifferently, drinking his sake, watching my collapse with coldness. I looked at him, and his face distorted in my tearful eyes. He was no longer the drunkard... his features faded and were replaced by harsh ones—silver hair and cold golden eyes.

  Corvus. My father. It’s all because of this man... I’ll kill him... it’s all Corvus! I screamed: "Corvus! I'll kill you!"

  Then my mind went blank. I stood up quickly, drawing strength from pure madness, and attacked (Corvus) with everything I had left. But (Corvus/Morito) was immensely powerful. With a single simple punch to my stomach, he sent me back to my place, kneeling on the ground, vomiting blood and shards of my pride.

  I could no longer stand. I was on the brink of death. Clara was dead. And it seemed I was about to be killed. Everyone I knew had died... because of me... because I am weak.

  I looked at (Corvus) and cried with the helplessness of a child: "Aren't you my father? Why are you doing this to me? I only want to live happily with Clara... I don't want anything more."

  Corvus looked at me with strange eyes—looks of longing and sadness—then his face rippled like a reflection in water, and the face of the red-eyed man (Morito) returned.

  The man spoke in a calm, weighted voice: "Who said she is dead? And who said I will kill you?" "What?"

  The man stood up, brushed the dust off his tattered clothes, and said with sudden seriousness: "I have decided, Oni. I, (Morito Ryu)... shall make you my disciple." "What?" "And I will leave you and (Clara) alive... on one condition."

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  He leaned toward me, the pungent smell of sake filling my nose: "That you abandon Clara."

  I screamed in his face: "Who said, you bastard, that I want to be your disciple?! And you tell me to leave my star?!"

  He looked at me coldly and said: "So you want death for yourself and her?" He took another sip and said nonchalantly: "This is your only choice. There is no other. Decide now. Her life for your freedom."

  I looked at the unconscious Clara. I wept. I remembered my memories with her, everything we lived through, our marriage, our home, our incomplete dreams. I said in a trembling voice: "She will die if I leave her... she gets hungry fast, and thirsty often. She's weak, and slow... she needs me."

  He looked at me and said: "She won't die. I will see to it that someone takes her to a safe place. Now decide... hurry, I am a busy man."

  I cried and gave her a heart-wrenching look of farewell: "Can I just touch her before I leave her? Please... just one touch... just one last hug."

  Morito looked at me for a moment, then said: "Fine. Hurry up."

  I began crawling toward her while the man drank and watched me. I reached her. Her face was beautiful, pale as the moon, but it was cold. Her eyes were slightly open, staring into the void without a soul, like a broken doll. She didn't blink. She didn't move. She didn't respond to my touch. She was there, and she wasn't there.

  I kissed her cold, salty lips and whispered in sorrow: "I'm sorry... but I will leave you for a while. I swear I will return. I swear to you." She didn't answer. She kept staring at the empty sky. "I'm sorry... I'm sorry that I am a sin... I'm sorry."

  After that... my life turned gray.

  That man who called himself Morito grabbed me by the collar, and in an instant, the world distorted around me. In two seconds... from the warm village to the top of the world. We reached Mount Ryu.

  It was a sleeping dragon of rock and ice. Its peak vanished into the clouds, and its slopes were sharp and cruel. The wind there didn't blow; it howled and screamed, carrying snowflakes as sharp as needles.

  He led me into a cave. It was filled with random items, empty and full sake jars, and a single dilapidated bed covered in bear fur. The first thing the man did upon arrival was sleep. He said he was drowsy and fell into a deep slumber immediately, his snoring louder than the wind.

  I sat and waited. If anyone asked me what was happening, I would say: I don't know. How am I this calm despite leaving Clara alone? I don't know. Why does this man want me as his disciple? I don't know. How did I get to this point? I don't know. Where is the (404) chip? I don't know. Who am I? I don't know. Why am I waiting? Why did I agree? I don't know.

  The only thing I knew was that healing my wounds would take at least 25 hours. That was the only thing I knew.

  And the last thing I didn't know... was that for some reason, I was calm. I felt like everything was a dream, a long nightmare I would soon wake up from in my bed with Clara.

  After the man woke up after sleeping for ten hours like a polar bear, he didn't talk to me about anything. He just went somewhere and ordered me to stay here. After approximately 15 hours, right after my total recovery, the man returned as if he knew the timing of my healing with the precision of a clock.

  He looked at me, his eyes still sleepy, and said: "Your first training... what was your name?" I replied in a low voice: "Dio." "And I am Morito Ryu. Your first task is to pour me sake." "Pour sake?" He said with deadly seriousness: "Yes. Now we begin."

  He sat down, waiting for me to give him one of the sake jars in the cave. I gave him one. He drank it in a second. Then, as soon as he finished, he struck me with the scabbard of his sword at the speed of light on my head. "Ow!" He looked at me sharply, his eyes flashing red: "Next time I'll cut off your head. When I finish the sake, you give me the next one immediately. I don't want to wait a single second while my cup is empty."

  I said, rubbing my head: "Understood."

  I don't understand why I am doing this. But life without Clara has become gray, tasteless, and colorless. I just do what Morito wants. I have become a machine. I don't get angry, and I don't feel.

  And so time passed. The sound of sake pouring, and the sound of strikes. Morito truly started trying to behead me. The next time he finished the sake and I didn't give it to him immediately, he drew his sword and tried to cut my head off. I dodged at the last moment, feeling the coldness of the blade touch my neck and cut a lock of my hair. He wasn't joking.

  After some time—I don't know how much—he stood up and said: "We are going down to the capital, Edo." I didn't know where this capital was. All I knew was that we were in the middle of a snowy mountain, isolated from the world. Then he said: "I'll wait for you there." And he vanished. He evaporated into thin air.

  "Wait for me?" I looked at the void where he had stood. "Aren't you going to take me to the capital?" Are you kidding me, you son of a bitch?

  That was how I felt after being struck a thousand times in the last five hours. After he kept saying he wanted to make me his disciple... and made me move away from Clara... and made me pour him sake... and tried to kill me if I was late... now he wants me to go down this mountain alone! And reach a capital whose location I don't know!

  I began the descent. As soon as I left the cave, I immediately slipped on the hard ice and fell for more than a hundred meters, tumbling like a rock, hitting stones and ice. I slammed into a frozen tree, and a sharp branch pierced my waist. The warm blood that came out froze instantly on my skin.

  I started walking while injured, dragging my feet through the deep snow. Then... the ground shook.

  And it appeared. The Yuki-Guma. A giant snow bear. Thick, snowy white fur glowing with a faint blue shimmer under the cold moonlight. Its eyes were a bright icy blue, emitting a cold and dead aura. When it breathed, no steam came from its nose, but rather small ice crystals that flew through the air, freezing whatever they touched. On its back, a thick layer of ice formed like a shield, and sharp ice spikes protruded from its shoulders like spears.

  It was an intensely powerful beast. I couldn't fight it, and like every time, I tried to escape. But this time, escaping didn't work. The injury to my waist was slowing me down. The bear used Ice Magic, firing massive ice balls from its mouth like cannons. Around it was always a small blizzard that hindered vision and movement.

  Suddenly, it struck an ice ball at my waist, the exact spot of my injury. I screamed in pain. This bear is incredibly smart... it’s analyzing me. It doesn't attack directly with its body; it attacks from afar to know the level of its new prey.

  I tried to attack despite my injuries, but whenever I got close, the blizzard would push me back and knock me down. Fighting was not an option. I must try to escape. But I couldn't run backward because it would send ice balls to break my back.

  The bear knew I was weak and trapped. It decided to attack directly with its icy claws and mouth full of blue fangs to end it.

  At that moment, for some reason, I felt logic take over: < Analysis: Opponent excels in power and environment. > < Solution: Use environment against it. > < Guidance: The ice beneath the bear is relatively thin in that spot due to its massive weight. > < Order: Strike the ground beneath its left foot with maximum force. >

  I executed the order without thinking. I raised my sword and struck the frozen ground. CRAAAAACK! The sound of the ice breaking echoed like a cannon shot. The ice shattered beneath the charging bear. Its balance faltered, and its massive foot slipped into the watery gap beneath it.

  I seized the moment and slid down the sloping ice, moving away from it as fast as possible, leaving it roaring in anger behind me, its voice vanishing into the storm.

  [Kage's Perspective]

  It hurts... it hurts so much. The monster I thought was warm... didn't do it this time. This time, it was intensely painful. I felt he was punishing me for my plan to save him. That’s how I felt when he assaulted me so brutally.

  He didn't care for my crying; he didn't care for my silent pleas. He didn't care for anything; he only cared for himself and his desires. I no longer saw him as warm as I had thought.

  I thought he was just lonely and needed someone by his side. And I... I liked that feeling. The feeling that someone needed me, even if it was an illusion. I liked the feeling when he called me "his star." When he talked to me about things I didn't know. When he remembered memories I wasn't part of, but that woman named (Clara) was with him.

  I liked the feeling that he saw me as (Clara).

  But that feeling stopped at some point. Those were moments for me a thousand times worse than the harsh training of the Gu clan when I was a child. It was a thousand times worse. There, at least, you didn't feel anything for the entity that tortured you. But with him... I felt my heart being destroyed and rebuilt at the same time.

  Why did I try to help him by throwing daggers even though I knew I couldn't do anything against that monster (Morito)? I don't know.

  But my heart wanted to hear those words again, even while I was lying on the ground motionless, faking unconsciousness. Words that weren't for me. The word "my star." "The most beautiful woman in the world." My heart wanted to hear them... even if it were a lie.

  Even though my mind knows... that I hate this monster who destroyed my dignity, and I want to kill him.