I had reached out and gripped the hand of the man who had hijacked my existence. His aura was an endless, frozen abyss—a power that had stagnated for two centuries, yet remained terrifyingly vast. Every second in his presence felt like standing at the edge of a jagged cliff. I knew that refusing his partnership would only make my survival impossible, so I gave him my "Yes" without hesitation.
But my mind was a storm of unanswered questions. Who was that "Dear" entity in the dream? Were Rank 1 and Rank 2 truly humans once? It felt as if I weren't just a player in this game, but a key to a lock I hadn't even found yet. I never had the luxury of time to think. It was always death, always a struggle, always the next blade.
"I accept," I muttered within the void. "But I have one condition. We find those two 'Goddesses' first. They aren't divine; they are a plague, and I want my answers."
Kiran—the Azure Knight—offered a faint, knowing smile. He looked at me as if he had known me for lifetimes. The moment our hands met, the void fractured. My soul was violently yanked back into reality.
The Awakening: A Tree of Life
"Night-ji! Please... wake up! Stay with us!"
Yumi's desperate plea dragged me out of the darkness. I forced my eyelids open. My body was a map of agony, but something had changed—my shattered bones had been knitted back together. I looked up and saw a magnificent sight. Yumi had channeled her life-force to manifest a World Tree, its glowing branches spreading over us like a protective canopy. Shimmering, translucent petals were drifting down, mending my flesh.
The physical pain was receding, but the exhaustion was bone-deep. I grabbed the hilt of my Azure Blade, using it as a crutch to kneel. The first light of dawn was beginning to bleed through the horizon. Within Yumi's massive barrier, the villagers were huddled together, safe from the storm.
"If you had this kind of power..." I croaked, my throat feeling like it was filled with glass, "...why did you wait so long to use it?"
I looked at them. Hina and Yumi were different now. Their auras had stabilized, pulsing with a newfound resolve. Suddenly, Yumi lunged forward and pulled me into a fierce embrace. My broken nerves screamed in protest. Before I could speak, she pressed her lips against mine in a desperate, fleeting kiss.
Are you kidding me right now? I thought, stunned. Is this really the time?
"Just heal," she whispered, her eyes burning with an intensity I hadn't seen before. I realized they weren't just cowering anymore. Hina was already at the edge of the barrier, conjuring massive spheres of roaring flame. They had spent the last hour farming their auras, preparing for the final stand.The Divine Rain: The Soul's Fuel
"Let's begin," the voice of the First Night echoed in my skull.
"Wait! Hold on!" I yelled internally. "I don't want to feel that soul-tearing pain again!"
"Fine. Then you handle them," Night replied, his tone suddenly shifting to a cold, mocking challenge.
I pushed myself up, stretching my stiff limbs. Hina and Yumi watched me, their expressions a mix of relief and renewed courage. I extended my hand toward the approaching demon army, focusing every ounce of my will.
"DIVINE RAIN!" I roared.
Silence. Not a single drop fell. My soul couldn't even tickle the mana in the atmosphere.
"Useless," Night hissed.
Without warning, he seized control. He didn't ask. He didn't negotiate. He simply reached into the core of my being and began to wring my soul dry. I felt a white-hot spike drive through my chest. The power he was drawing wasn't coming from the atmosphere—it was being sucked out of my very spirit.
The Price of Power:
Night snapped his fingers through my hand. "Divine Rain."
The sky didn't just open; it wept diamonds. Brilliant, crystalline droplets began to fall, shimmering with an ethereal azure light. It was breathtakingly beautiful, but inside, I was screaming. Every drop that hit a demon was a fragment of my soul being set on fire. It was a pain that transcended the physical; it was as if my consciousness was being fed into a meat grinder.
Night looked at Yumi, his voice dripping with a courtly, ancient respect that he never showed me. "My lady, would you be so kind as to lower the barrier? Trust me."
Yumi smiled and dissolved the shield.
"You bastard!" I roared inside my own head. "You're bleeding me dry for your magic show, and you have the nerve to be a gentleman to her?"
Night ignored me. As the rain began to melt the demons into sludge, he swung my blade in a wide, horizontal arc. He didn't just slash the air; he slashed with my life-force. A wave of diamond-cut azure energy erupted, blindingly bright. It didn't just kill the demons; it erased them from existence.
The moment the last monster dissolved, Night retreated into the shadows of my mind, handing the "reins" back to me.
"AGHHHH!" I collapsed to my knees, coughing up a thick glob of blood. Yumi rushed to my side, her healing light flickering again, but she didn't understand. This wasn't a wound she could fix with mana. My soul felt like a shriveled leaf.
"Are you insane?!" I screamed at Night. "I almost died just now!"
Night's laughter echoed in the dark corners of my subconscious, cold and amused. "Relax, partner. You're still breathing, aren't you? Save your breath... the real show hasn't even started."