Ryen wanted to kill him.
The thought struck hard — raw and unfiltered. He'd never felt hatred like this before, so sharp it almost felt foreign in his own body.
It was strange. Until now, he'd seen cruelty, faced monsters, and even crossed paths with people who'd taken lives without blinking. Yet never once had he truly wanted to kill someone. Not like this.
But seeing Rin's body fall lifelessly to the ground — seeing that masked bastard standing over him, calm, almost bored — something inside Ryen snapped.
A hot, searing fury burned through the numbness in his chest.
He'd always thought he understood what it meant to face evil. To fight it, to resist it. He thought he was hardened enough to endure anything this twisted world could throw at him.
But he'd been wrong.
He'd been naive.
Because no one had died before — not someone he truly cared about. As long as everyone survived, he could always pretend things would somehow work out. That tomorrow would fix what today broke.
