A Cruel Existence

The Next Day

Yuto lay unconscious, wrapped in the glowing tendrils of healing magic. 

The faint hum of divine magic surrounded him, a soft, steady pulse that seemed to sync with his heartbeat. 

His wounds had been tended to, but the true work was still underway. 

The remnants of the divine power, the Goddess's Blessing, were still coursing through his body, unraveling and reshaping him.

Alice stood at the foot of his bed, her arms crossed tightly, her gaze unwavering from his still form. 

She hadn't left him since they brought him here, staying by his side, watching the magic work its slow, painstaking process. 

Her heart felt heavy, and despite the magic's comfort, she couldn't shake the gnawing worry. 

The light from the spells felt cold against her skin, not reassuring like the warmth of human touch.

Beside her, Lilith stood with her arms folded, her eyes carefully watching the flow of magic around Yuto.

Ayla, sitting quietly on a chair near the bed, looked like she hadn't slept in hours, her eyes full of concern, though she didn't speak much.

The door opened with a soft creak, and Evelynn stepped into the room, followed closely by Reika. 

Evelynn's usual composure seemed more strained than usual, her eyes flickering to Yuto's prone form with worry.

"Alice," Evelynn greeted her with a soft but tense voice, stepping up to her side. 

"How is he?" 

Her voice betrayed a subtle worry, but she quickly masked it with a composed smile.

Alice barely looked at her. 

"He's still unconscious," she said flatly, arms still crossed. 

"And we're just waiting" 

She paused, her gaze flicking from Yuto's face to the glowing magic that surrounded him. 

"But… it doesn't feel right"

Reika stood a little farther away, her arms crossed as she took in the situation. 

Her usual aloof demeanor had softened just enough for her to seem more concerned than usual. 

"I can feel the magic in the air. It's… unsettling"

Lilith nodded, stepping forward. 

"It's divine magic. Stronger than anything anyone's ever seen" 

She glanced at Alice, her voice quiet but urgent. 

"The Pope and the Priestess will be arriving in a week to assess the situation"

At the mention of the Pope, Alice's eyes flicked to Lilith, her expression unreadable. 

"The Pope?" 

She scoffed lightly, clearly uninterested. 

"What do they expect to do? Bless him until he's fine?" 

Her tone was sharp, a little defensive, as if she was irritated by the idea of outside intervention. 

"We'll take care of him. We've been dealing with enough already"

Evelynn raised an eyebrow, clearly surprised by Alice's reaction, but didn't press the issue. 

Instead, she glanced back at Yuto, her gaze softening for a moment before she masked it again. 

"We need to know what happens next," she said quietly. 

"This isn't something we can just ignore"

Ayla stood up suddenly, her eyes wide as she looked at Yuto's form again. 

"What if he never wakes up?" 

Her voice was barely a whisper, the question hanging heavy in the air.

Reika's eyes flicked between the group. 

"He will wake up. But whether he'll be the same…" 

She trailed off, the words left unfinished, though the weight of the thought settled over everyone.

Lilith turned to face Alice, her expression serious. 

"We don't know what's happening to him. He's not just recovering from an injury"

"The Goddess's Blessing is rewriting something deep inside him. This is something beyond us"

Alice stayed silent, her lips pressed into a thin line. 

Despite her indifference to the arrival of the Pope, the growing unease gnawed at her, too. 

Yuto had been through so much already, and now… now this divine magic was rewriting him, changing him in ways they couldn't predict.

Evelynn, her eyes darkened with concern, looked at Alice. 

"We'll be here. All of us. Until he wakes up"

And just like that, the room fell into an uneasy quiet, everyone processing their thoughts, unsure of what the next few days would bring.

- ??? -

"Ugh… my head"

His voice echoed, not in the infirmary, not in any room of the academy, but somewhere else entirely.

Yuto sat up slowly; the pain was dulled but present, like a fading echo in the back of his skull.

He wasn't in bed. 

He wasn't anywhere familiar.

White mist curled around his feet as he stood on a smooth, obsidian floor that reflected a sky without stars. 

All around him, space bent strangely, like he stood at the center of a memory or maybe something deeper.

Yuto blinked, frowning. 

"Where… am I?"

There were no walls. 

No ceiling. 

Just that endless void above and a faint pulse beneath him, not quite a heartbeat, but something alive.

And in the distance, footsteps.

Soft. 

Slow. 

Drawing closer.

He turned, heart pounding.

"Who's there?" he called, but his voice didn't echo.

Then… a figure appeared. 

Just out of reach. 

Not approaching. 

Not leaving. 

Waiting.

Yuto took a step forward.

And the figure in the mist took shape, slowly emerging with the grace of a falling feather.

A woman.

No, not a woman, something more. 

Something vast.

Her black dress rippled despite the still air, each fold catching the faint shimmer of the void beneath them. 

Her hair was darker than the space around them, a flowing midnight veil. 

And her mouth… hidden beneath black silk, leaving only her ruby-red eyes to speak for her.

Eyes that fixed on him with an unreadable depth.

"You've changed," she said softly. 

Her voice was smooth, resonant, not echoing, but settling, as if it had always been there.

Yuto blinked at her, confused. 

"Do… I know you?"

There was no reaction. 

No surprise. 

Not hurt. 

Just that same, quiet, eternal calm.

"No," Elise replied after a pause. 

"Not in this life"

Yuto shifted uncomfortably, his gaze dropping to the strange world beneath him. 

"Then… why do you look at me like that?"

Her eyes lingered a moment longer before drifting upward, toward the tousled white strands of his hair.

"The raven black suited you better," she murmured. 

"It was yours"

That made him flinch.

He reached up and ran his fingers through the white strands, frowning. 

"So… this isn't?"

She took a step forward, the mist parting for her like obedient servants.

"It is now," she said, almost gently. 

"But it was never meant to be taken from you. Not like this"

Yuto's chest tightened. 

"Why does that sound like I lost something I didn't know I had?"

"You did." Her answer was immediate. 

Final.

Silence fell between them.

And in that silence, something within Yuto stirred, a quiet ache that wasn't from pain but absence.

He looked at her again, his eyes searching. 

"What is this place? Why am I here?"

Elise tilted her head ever so slightly.

"This is the space between what was… and what might become. And you're here because you're breaking"

His breath caught.

"Breaking?"

"You carry too much. The divine cannot coexist with the demonic… and you, Yuto Akimitsu, are no longer only one or the other"

She stepped closer, and this time, he didn't step back.

"Your past is knocking," Elise whispered. 

"And you haven't decided if you'll open the door"

He stared at her, lost.

"Who are you?"

At that, Elise smiled beneath her veil.

But her eyes?

They softened in a way that made the void around them feel cold.

"I am someone who's waited a very, very long time… for you to remember me"

Yuto let out a dry chuckle, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Great. Another one talking in riddles," he muttered. 

"First Lilith, now some mysterious person in a place that isn't real"

Elise's eyes didn't waver. 

"I don't speak in riddles. I speak in truths you're not ready to accept"

Yuto gave her a look. 

"You could've just said that I'm confused"

"You are," she agreed. 

"But it's not confusion of the mind. It's your soul. Your essence. You were someone before, someone powerful… someone righteous"

He frowned. 

"The Old Hero. Some keep calling me that"

Elise said nothing.

"So what, then?" he continued, stepping toward her, voice rising. 

"You want me to just accept that? Become him? I don't even remember him. I don't know who he is!"

His voice echoed this time, not in the air, but within the space itself. 

The obsidian floor cracked faintly beneath his feet, a silver light bleeding through.

Elise watched the crack with something between reverence and sorrow.

"You don't have to remember everything," she said softly. 

"But you must choose"

"Choose what?"

"To move forward as who you are… or awaken who you were"

Yuto stared at her, chest rising and falling.

"That's why I'm here, isn't it?" he said finally, bitterly. 

"Because I'm stuck between both. Because I can't go back to who I was… and I don't know who I'm becoming"

Elise stepped beside him now, her presence strangely comforting despite the veil, despite the void.

"This realm is a reflection of your indecision," she said. 

"You're neither asleep nor awake. Neither whole nor broken. Until you choose… You will remain here"

He looked at the void around him again. 

It didn't feel like a prison, but it didn't feel like freedom either.

"And if I stay?"

"You'll fade," Elise said simply. 

"Slowly. Quietly. Until nothing remains"

"…Sounds peaceful," he muttered.

She turned to him, her red eyes blazing suddenly. 

"Don't joke about fading, Yuto. Not after everything you've endured to survive"

That struck deeper than he expected.

He lowered his gaze, silent.

"I'm not here to make the choice for you," Elise added, her voice softer again. 

"Only to guide you. To remind you that your path was never meant to be walked blindly"

Yuto sighed. 

"Then… how do I choose?"

Elise raised a hand, palm open.

"Take a step. Any direction. The realm will respond. And your soul will follow"

Yuto looked at her hand, then at the mist beyond.

A step toward who he was… 

Or a step toward who he could become.

Yet, his gaze seemed to linger on her hand.

It looked so small, so human. 

But the weight behind it was anything but. 

He could feel the presence radiating from her, timeless and immense. 

Not demonic. 

Not human. 

Something beyond both.

He looked away.

"How am I supposed to choose when I don't even know what I want anymore?" he muttered.

Elise let her hand lower. 

Her voice remained steady.

"You do know. You've just buried it under fear"

He gave a dry laugh. 

"Fear of what?"

Her eyes met his.

"Of what you truly are"

Yuto didn't reply. 

Didn't flinch. 

Didn't ask the obvious question.

She studied him for a moment longer, as if waiting for some flicker of emotion.

"You're calm," she observed.

"I'm tired," Yuto replied.

"And nothing surprises you anymore?"

He shook his head slowly.

"Not in here. Not after everything"

A pause.

Then Elise spoke, her tone deliberate.

"I am a Goddess, Yuto"

He didn't react.

No awe. 

No fear. 

No reverence.

Just quiet acceptance.

"Yeah," he said. 

"I figured"

That, for the first time, made her pause. 

Just slightly.

"You don't care?"

"I don't think this place is real enough for that to matter," Yuto said. 

"Whatever you are... you're just another piece of something I'm not sure I understand. Or want to"

Her veil shifted with what might've been the ghost of a smile.

"In this realm, you are unshackled from distractions," she said. 

"No memories cloud you. No feelings to chain you. Only the truth"

"And the truth is I'm breaking," Yuto said.

"Yes," Elise confirmed. 

"Piece by piece. And in time, if you don't act, there will be nothing left to return"

He looked out across the void. 

Two paths had formed in the mist, one glowing red behind him, the other glowing pale blue ahead. 

Both pulsed softly, like breath.

One past. 

One future.

Neither felt right. 

Neither felt wrong.

Just... heavy.

Yuto exhaled.

"So if I pick one," he said, "that's it?"

"No," Elise said. 

"It's only the beginning"

"And if I stay here?"

"You'll fade. Quietly. Painfully. Without meaning"

He looked at her once more.

Her eyes, ruby and radiant, held no cruelty. 

Only patience.

And something else.

Hope.

Yuto stared at the mist.

The girls weren't here to help make the choice. 

There were no friends. 

No battles. 

Nothing to pull him forward and nothing to hold him back.

Just a choice.

Just him.

He clenched his fists.

"I don't know who I am anymore," he said.

"You will," Elise answered. 

"But not here"

He looked down at the obsidian floor. 

At the faint light bleeding from the cracks. 

At the paths.

"I hate this," he muttered.

"I know," Elise whispered.

"But you were never made for an easy path"

"..."

Both options seemed like a hassle. 

He exhaled a long breath, rubbing his temples. 

"Man, what the hell is this?"

Elise watched him quietly, waiting. 

He didn't need to think it through. 

He was done with trying to fit into someone else's expectations. 

The last thing he wanted was to be pushed into some heroic destiny or relive a past that felt like it didn't belong to him. 

"Fuck that," he muttered under his breath. 

Without hesitating, he took a step forward, straight down the middle, where the paths met.

The ground cracked as his foot pressed down, both red and blue light swirling into a single, chaotic swirl of energy. 

Elise's eyes widened just slightly, but Yuto didn't care. 

He wasn't here to play games. 

He wasn't interested in some grand cosmic choice. 

"Why pick?" he said, a smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. 

"I'll make my own way"

Elise tilted her head, watching him as the world around them began to fracture, the two paths merging in a blur of color and light.

"You're different," she said, her voice almost curious now.

"Yeah," Yuto shrugged. 

"I'm just trying to get back to my normal life"

With each step he took, the flood of memories came crashing back, relentless and overwhelming.

At first, it was just a blur.

A flash of faces, of places, of moments long past. 

But as he moved, the memories sharpened, each one cutting deeper, making him stagger slightly. 

He gritted his teeth, trying to block it out, but they came anyway, visions of battles fought, decisions made, and the weight of a life that he didn't even remember.

His heart pounded in his chest as the memories crashed into him like waves. 

He was the Old Hero. 

He had once been more than human. 

A leader. 

A warrior. 

A symbol of hope... or was he? 

He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to block the onslaught, but the faces wouldn't stop. 

People who had once meant something to him, people he had fought for, loved, lost, everything he didn't want to remember but couldn't forget.

"Damn it," he muttered under his breath, the weight of it all pressing down on him. 

He gripped his head, desperately trying to ground himself, but the flood kept coming.

And above it all, a faint presence followed him.

Elise.

She hovered just above him, watching quietly, her form unbothered by the chaos swirling around him. 

Yuto glanced up at her. 

"You're just going to watch me struggle through this, huh?"

Her eyes met his. 

"You're the one who chose this path"

He clenched his fists, trying to ignore the memories pressing against his mind. 

But with every step he took, they hit him harder.

The faces. 

The choices. 

The battles. 

He could feel the weight of the world on his shoulders, a weight he didn't ask for. 

But it was there, whether he wanted it or not. 

It was part of him. 

"Shut up, just shut up," he muttered to the voices in his head, grinding his teeth as his pace quickened. 

"I'm not that person anymore"

But with every step, the past followed him, haunting him, reminding him he couldn't outrun it. 

Not yet.

And Elise? 

She just hovered, silent, watching his every move.

"You're not running from it," she said quietly, her voice carrying an almost playful edge. 

"You never could"

Yuto gritted his teeth, pushing forward with all his strength. 

He wasn't going to break. 

Not now. 

Not when he still had control of something.

The floor cracked outward beneath him, shattering like glass, yet he remained standing. 

Calm. 

Unshaken.

Elise floated back, not in fear… but in awe.

Her veil fluttered in the winds surging from the clash of power.

"You..." she whispered, her voice trembling for the first time.

"You denied the path of the Hero and the Demon... and forged something new!"

He froze.

Then looked up at her, brows furrowed, confused.

"Say what now?"

And just as the last word left his lips, the floor beneath him gave way, crumbling into nothingness. 

He plummeted into the endless void below.

He reached out to save himself, but it was too late; there was no road to catch him.

"Since you denied both paths, you will walk them firsthand," Elise's voice echoed in the dark.

"Only then will you understand if rejecting parts of yourself was worth it"

3

2

1

BZZZZ

"...Ugh... where?"

He opened his eyes, and to his horror, the world around him was rotting.

The sky was red. 

Not like a sunset, but bleeding. 

Clouds moved unnaturally, like they were alive, whispering curses as they swirled above a battlefield soaked in ash and sin.

"The hell is this?"

He tried feeling his body to check if he was okay when he noticed the next thing.

His hands were older, gaunt, and scarred, wrapped in black bandages burned at the edges. 

His body wore a bloodstained military cloak, adorned with a golden emblem: a broken sword through a bleeding crown.

He was standing atop a mountain of corpses.

And they were all smiling.

Twisted, frozen smiles were etched into their lifeless faces.

He staggered back, his breath caught in his throat. 

But his body, this body, moved with terrifying ease. 

Like it remembered. 

Like it belonged here.

"Commander Kain," a voice said softly from behind.

He turned.

A woman stood there. 

Pale skin. 

Hollow eyes. 

No pupils. 

No shadow. 

Her voice sounded like silk and steel being torn in half.

"You've done it again. Killed them all without a hint of remorse"

"I… what?" he choked out. 

His voice was deeper. 

Hollow. 

And behind it, echoes. 

As if something else was speaking with him.

She didn't flinch. 

She smiled.

"That's why I love you"

She stepped closer, dragging behind her a chain made of ribs and fingers. 

At the end of it, a broken man, alive but silent, empty-eyed and pale, bound in silence.

"Do you remember this one?" she asked, tilting her head. 

"You made him watch. You said pain is the price of peace, heh, mocking you for doing the right thing"

He dropped to his knees.

"No. No, I wouldn't—"

"But you did," another voice said, colder, male.

A tall man with no face emerged from the fog. 

He wore the same cloak. 

His hands were stained black and dripped with ink that stained the ground.

"You said you'd purge the world, and so you did"

Yuto stumbled backward. 

His own memories began to bleed in, but they were drowning in this life.

This pain. 

This power. 

This absolute emptiness.

The faceless man leaned down.

"You are not a hero. You never were. You were just better at hiding the monster"

He looked down.

And his hands were soaked in blood.

Not fresh.

Not recent.

Old.

Like they'd never been clean.

Ever.

His world began to spin, his vision got blurry, and he tried to stand but eventually collapsed.

"COMMANDER!"

"KAIN!"

Thump!

An Hour Later

He awoke to candlelight.

Flickering shadows danced across cold stone walls, and the scent of lavender and ash hung in the air. 

The sheets beneath him were silk. 

The room was spacious, with royal arches, crimson drapes, and stained-glass windows that bled moonlight.

The door creaked open.

A woman in mourning black stepped in, elegant, pale, with silver hair cascading over one shoulder. 

Her eyes widened the moment she saw him sit up.

"Lord Kain… you're awake"

Kain?

Right… His name.

Before he could speak, she rushed to his side, kneeling, hands trembling as they grasped his.

"We thought you were lost. After what you did… after what you faced…"

"The capital holds its breath awaiting word. You've saved us all. Again"

He opened his mouth. 

"I—"

But his voice was hoarse. 

And the name felt foreign.

Despite already hearing it from two others.

The woman, Lady Celene, as he would learn, called for the others.

Soon, the room was filled with figures dressed in black armor and flowing gowns, each bearing a different sigil. 

Nobles. 

Commanders. 

Priests. 

Even children peeked from behind the guards. 

And all of them wore expressions of reverence.

To them… he was a savior.

To him… they were strangers.

They spoke of a great evil beneath the ruins, of him descending alone, blade in hand, of silence that followed for days until a tremor split the sky, and the demons bled out.

They told stories of how he'd stood on the edge of damnation and smiled, bleeding, still ready to fight.

They toasted to his name: Kain the End-Bearer.

But as the celebration rose that night, he stood alone on the balcony, looking out at the silent city veiled in fog.

His reflection in the window didn't match. 

His face… was older. 

More ruff. 

There was a scar beneath his left eye that he didn't remember earning.

And when he whispered, "Yuto…" under his breath—

Nothing answered.

No one turned.

Not even the wind.

The city was silent beneath him.

He stood on the balcony, hands resting on cold stone, eyes locked on the rotting skyline. 

Towers leaned like broken teeth. 

Streets stretched out like veins through a corpse, shrouded in an unnatural mist that crawled over cobblestones like hungry insects.

A single lantern flickered in the distance, then blinked out. 

Gone. 

Even the light was afraid.

He breathed, but the air was thick, coated in ash and a faint metallic tang that tasted like old blood. 

His fingers twitched against the railing, which was still unfamiliar to him.

His reflection in the stained glass beside him showed a man he did not know. 

A soldier. 

A killer. 

A legend.

But not him.

"I don't belong here," he whispered to no one.

That's when he heard it.

A breath.

Right behind him.

He turned— 

But the room behind him was empty. 

Candlelight flickered softly. 

The silk sheets of the bed were untouched. 

The fireplace was low, crackling with orange embers.

And yet… something was off.

A smear of black along the marble floor. 

Like soot. 

Or dried blood.

And then— 

A knock.

Not at the door. 

Not on the wall. 

But on the glass.

Behind him.

Slow. 

Measured. 

Deliberate.

He turned again.

The balcony was empty.

But there… on the windowpane, it was a handprint.

Small. 

Too small.

Red. 

Still wet. 

Dripping down the glass.

He backed up.

And then… a voice. 

No louder than a whisper but cutting through the silence like a dagger to the chest.

"Do you regret it?"

He looked around, heart pounding.

"Who's there?" he barked, reaching for a blade that wasn't there.

Silence.

Then, another whisper.

"Liar!"

He staggered backward into the room, knocking over a chair. 

The whispering didn't stop. 

It grew. 

Like a hundred voices crawling into his ears, crawling under his skin.

"Kain!" 

"Monster!" 

"Lord!" 

"Savior!" 

"Devil!" 

"Hero!" 

He clutched his head, breath shallow. 

The walls trembled. 

The chandelier above groaned as if the ceiling itself were trying to speak.

Then—

Thump.

A child stood in the corner.

Pale. 

Thin. 

Eyes white like moons. 

Her skin was stitched along the neck. 

Her smile was wide, too wide.

In her hands, she held a doll, its limbs bent wrong, its mouth sewn shut.

"You promised me peace," she said softly. 

"And then you burned my village"

"I—I didn't—"

"But you did," another voice replied.

A boy now, stepping out from behind the curtains, dragging a rusted sword behind him.

"You smiled when you did it, despite our still loving you. Oh Goddess, did thou leave us?"

Then more.

One by one, they emerged. 

Children. 

Elders. 

Soldiers. 

Priests. 

All bearing scars. 

All smiling. 

All wrong.

Memories made flesh. 

Love twisted into horror.

Kain backed against the wall, panic surging.

"This isn't real," he gasped. 

"I didn't—"

The little girl stepped closer, placing a single finger to her lips.

"You did. But it's okay, Kain. We forgive you… We always do"

Behind them, the reflection in the glass shifted.

It was not Kain standing there anymore.

It was something else wearing his face.

Smiling.

Waiting.

For the demon to come forth once more.