As we continued walking.For a long time.
It was a massive castle.The kind you'd see in old paintings — grand but lifeless.The walls were lined with cold, grey bricks — maybe decorative once, now just sad and worn.
I was frustrated.Embarrassed even.We hadn't exchanged a single word since that moment back in the room.Her presence was suffocating, but not loud. Just—cold. Silent. Heavy.
What annoyed me most wasn't the silence.It was the hallway.The same damn hallway.For the past fifteen minutes.Repeating.Same doors. Same windows. Same stale air. Same silence.
She didn't notice. Or maybe she didn't care.Either way, it pissed me off.
I stopped in front of one of the endless doors.She kept walking a few steps, then finally turned to face me.Her eyes were blank — like I was just another part of the castle walls.
I didn't say anything.Just looked at her. Then, without breaking eye contact —
I pushed the door open.
What I saw inside froze me solid.
A corpse.A boy—my age, I think.His body twisted unnaturally, like he'd been dropped from the sky and never moved again.His clothes weren't normal.A long black coat, strange glowing patterns stitched in.I don't know what it meant, but I felt it.
Another Ascendent.
But that wasn't the worst part.
Before his body stood… something.No. Not stood. It didn't have legs. Or arms. Or a face.I can't explain it. I really, genuinely can't.
It was wrong.Every part of it rejected the laws of nature.It bent in ways my eyes couldn't follow.It made a sound I couldn't hear, but it echoed through my skull anyway — like drowning in silence that wanted to scream.
And it noticed us.
I stepped back.Felt the blood drain from my face.My vision flickered.
I turned to her—
She was already holding her spear.
It jumped at me.
I didn't think — I just moved.Instinct. Panic. Terror.My body ducked on its own.
Then—
Boom.
Her spear cut through the air like thunder.And in a single, brutal flash —
The thing was gone.
No scream. No final breath.Just… gone.Obliterated.Shattered like a fragile mirror beneath a god's heel.
I stood there. Frozen.Not from the monster.But from her.
That power...The sheer force of her throw... it didn't just kill the thing.It annihilated the entire section of the hallway we'd been trapped in.
Fifteen minutes of walking in circles — erased in a single strike.
Dust floated where bricks used to be.The suffocating cycle — the repetition — it was all gone.
And now,for the first time...
In front of us,a real hallway.No loops. No tricks.
At the very end —a single black door.
I opened my mouth.
"…Thanks," I said, or maybe tried to.It came out broken. Dry.
She didn't stop.She kept walking. Like nothing happened.Like that thing... like what she just did... meant nothing.
She stood at the door. Hand reaching out.
Then —
It happened.
The door exploded open.A light — no, a storm — ripped through the air like screaming thunder.
Energy shots.Dozens. Hundreds.
Fyu Chun.
Each blast carved into her, tearing through flesh and bone before she even had time to react.There was no scream.No final moment.Just pieces — gone before they hit the ground.
And then her spear —It hit the stone floor with a dull, final sound.Clink.
I stood there. Frozen. Shaking.
And then —
The shadow came.
Crawling from the threshold of the door.Slow. Creeping. Endless.
It didn't crawl like something living.It formed. Took shape.A silhouette with no body.Like smoke that remembered how to walk.
It filled the room.The air.My lungs.My thoughts.
And then —
It ate me.
I couldn't even scream.
When I opened my eyes again —
I was walking.
Next to her.
My head tilted slowly to the side.It was her. The girl. Alive. Spear in hand. Silent as ever.
My knees buckled.And I vomited. Violently. All over the grey tile floor.
My fingers dug into the ground.
I couldn't breathe.Couldn't think.
What was that?What the hell was that?
A voice echoed in my head.
"You touched the Thread."
I blinked.
My hands were… glowing?
No — unraveling.
Like strings.Thousands of invisible strings wrapped around my fingers, my arms, my spine.
They writhed like snakes — but I wasn't scared anymore.
It was part of me.
I didn't understand it yet.
But i knew it's name.
Ascendent Power: String of Denial.