The world went white.
Pain followed. Not the sharp pain of a cut or the dull ache of a bruise. This was something else entirely. Excrutiating pain. Hot pain. It felt as if his body had been plunged into magma, as if he was being pierced from the inside while his guts burst simultaneously. A pressure built behind his eyes, growing and growing until he thought his skull would split open.
He could not breathe.
He felt like he was lying on the floor, but he could not be sure. Everything else might as well have been written off as static. The yells and tremors around him were nothing but a blur. He could not hear. He could not see.
The backlash had claimed him.
A million fate essence for ten diamond marks. Just manifesting his chains was enough to make him throw up blood. Now imagine if he manifested his chains ten million times over and over again. That was the backlash equivalent of all of it happening in one go. He was receiving his consequence.
Finally, he thrashed. His body convulsed on the cold golden surface. He felt solid ground beneath him. He felt warmth seeping into his back, the residual heat of his warm blood. His fingers felt warm and slick, wet with blood. His eyes were red. When he opened them, everything was tinted crimson.
Pain overtook him again. Slow, excruciating pain that crawled through his veins like molten lead.
Finally, he burst into breath. He took deep, ragged gasps. A hand supported his neck. His head swayed back.
Fenwick managed a squeal.
The metallic odor of blood radiated from him in waves. It was the smell of a slaughterhouse, thick and cloying and impossible to ignore.
"How... how are you alive?" Fenwick whispered. His voice trembled. His hands shook where they touched Lucid's shoulders.
Lucid coughed ragged breaths. Pain. That was the only word he could use to describe his state. There was nothing else. Just pain and the slow realization that he was still breathing.
Finally, he lifted his hand and supported himself against Fenwick. The nobleman was weak, barely able to hold his own weight, but he braced himself and let Lucid lean on him.
He stood. His knees were bent. His stance was low and unsteady, like a newborn animal trying to find its feet. He swayed.
A voice carried through the air, announcing itself in an indifferent manner.
[You have obtained the Lyre of Transaction — Monolith of Trade]
[Rank: UR]
[A Monolith once appointed by a singular goddess, gifted a sacred lyre to measure and maintain perfect balance. But when the goddess shattered a single fair exchange, his order fractured. The lyre meant to preserve value became an instrument of neglect, warping faith and currency alike across the Scattered Realms.]
Mercyros turned to face Lucid fully, its golden form rotating with a grace that seemed almost lazy.
"Most peculiar," the Monolith said. Its voice was deep and resonant, like a bell struck in an empty cathedral.
Lucid stood barely holding himself upright. He was completely covered from head to toe in his own blood. It dripped from his hair. It soaked through his shirt. It pooled in the cracks of the golden pillar beneath his feet.
Valen stared in disbelief. His golden eyes were wide, his nonchalant mask completely shattered. For a moment, he looked like a young man who had just seen something impossible.
Celeste stared in horror. Her white hair was disheveled, her face pale, her painted lips parted in a silent gasp. The fragility beneath her noble composure was visible now, cracks in the armor she had worn for so long.
The cultists under their purple hoods stared in awe. Their pale faces were upturned, their purple-tinted skin almost glowing in the golden light. Their eyes were wide and wet, as if they were witnessing the second coming of their twisted faith.
Fenwick was beyond shocked. His mouth hung open. His hands covered his face. He looked like a man who had seen a ghost and realized the ghost was still breathing.
Lucid looked up hazily. His vision was blurred at the edges, but he could see the Monolith floating above him, its measuring eyes fixed on his broken form.
He took a step forward.
Then suddenly he stumbled. His foot caught on the edge of the pillar. His body tilted.
Fenwick grabbed the hem of his shirt, pulling him back from the edge.
"It seems your fury has burned you, my subject," Mercyros intoned. Its voice rose, filling the golden void. "I raise my bid. Fifteen diamond—"
A chain shot up from below.
"Would you give it up already!"
Mercyros looked down. A spiderweb of chains wrapped around a pillar below, anchoring Lucid to the structure. His fingers were bloodied and stretched, gripping the chain with desperate strength.
"Then what do you trade?" the Monolith asked.
Lucid scowled. His face twisted with pain and defiance.
He lunged at Mercyros. Chains manifested around him, sizzling through the air. He leaped from pillar to pillar, his broken body screaming with every movement. Blood sprayed from his wounds, but he did not stop. He pushed through the pain. He pushed through the discomfort.
"You trade violence?" Mercyros asked. Its voice was calm, almost amused.
Lucid twisted in the air. He leaped from one pillar to the next, using his chains to pull himself forward. Mercyros followed his movement with its golden eyes, its face showing nothing in particular.
'Screw the illness,' Lucid thought. 'I will just have to kill a god if that is what it takes to get that thing.'
Mercyros put its hand forward. Its voice reverberated through the Domain.
"Heaven's Tune."
Lucid spun midair. The wind hit his face. He felt something impending from his side, a pressure building like the moment before a thunderclap.
A shockwave of pure sound reverberated through the air. It was not a noise that could be heard. It was a noise that could be felt, vibrating through bones and organs and the spaces between thoughts.
Lucid twisted, facing the shockwave.
It hit him.
His arm broke and severed from his body. The limb spun away into the golden mist, trailing blood. Light grew from his right side, forming a new hand made of pale green energy. He tumbled away outside the circular pillars, shot a chain, and hauled himself up.
He summoned the Midnight Spear. The weapon materialized in his grip, dark and hungry.
He threw it at Mercyros.
The spear shattered before it even reached the Monolith, stopped by an invisible attack that rippled through the air like heat haze. Lucid looked around frantically.
He saw Valen looking at him. The yellow-haired boy's expression was unreadable, but something moved in his golden eyes. A calculation. A decision.
Lucid changed his direction and headed toward Valen.
While he swung through the air, he twisted and dodged another attack. He still got hit. Something clipped his shoulder, spinning him sideways. He felt the bone crack.
He understood the rank of this being. It was beyond him. Beyond anything he had faced before. But it had to be at least close to alive, considering he could hit its form, and his healing was working. Slowly. Painfully.
Until an attack no other manifested.
"The game ends here," Mercyros announced. Its voice was patient, almost gentle. "It was amusing while it lasted."
It raised its hand.
"Chrono Stasis."
Lucid froze immediately in midair. A luminous lock formed around him, glowing bright and ethereal, sealing his limbs in place. He could not move. He could not breathe. He could only hang there, suspended like a fly in amber.
'Chrono Stasis. That is impossible. That is her ability. That is—.'
The thought echoed through his mind.
Mercyros gestured with its hand.
"Heaven's Impact."
Immediately, Lucid felt a gravitational force unlike any other. He could not move. Simultaneously, it felt like he was being crushed from all sides. The force grew harder by the minute, by the second. Every time he struggled, the pressure increased.
"This is a reflection of each transaction," Mercyros said. "Debt accumulates over time. It looks like you have accumulated quite a lot of it. And it is owed to a single being."
Lucid's limbs tore. His shoulder made a wet cracking sound, followed by the noise of wet cardboard giving way. The joint separated. The flesh ripped.
He screamed.
'Think. Think. Think.'
He looked around frantically. His eyes scanned the golden void, searching for anything, anything at all.
Valen threw him something. A small object arced through the air, glinting in the golden light.
'What is it this time?'
He could not move. But he somehow managed to catch the thing in his teeth.
"Crush it!" Valen yelled.
Lucid bit down.
His teeth closed around stone. The object crunched between his molars. Dust filled his mouth, bitter and dry.
His body grew light. He felt himself dissolving, becoming something less solid, something more like mist. White light enveloped him, and he disappeared into glowing vapor.
An impact suddenly reverberated through the space. Two massive forces slammed together at great speed, crushing the air where he had been suspended. If he had been there, he would have turned into mush.
He landed on a pillar once more. His new hand gripped the cracked surface. His body was whole again, though the blood remained.
"You alive?" Valen called out.
Lucid rose up on his knees slowly. His chest heaved. His lungs burned.
"I'm always alive..." He muttered.