The city stood still.
Smoke drifted lazily into the sky, blackening the heavens as if trying to hide the blood-soaked truth from above. Crimson rivers flowed through the cracked marble streets, a testament to the storm that had swept through the ranks of the corrupted. Noble blood. Soldier blood. Sinful blood. All the same.
Kael stood at the center of it all, his coat in tatters, his body coated in red, though none of it was his own. His blade hung loosely in one hand, dripping gore onto the stone beneath. His chest rose and fell in rhythmic calm. Behind him, the mimic—his mirror—stood silently. Only now, it was not just a reflection.
The mimic shimmered strangely, its form glitching for a moment before suddenly splitting into three. Kael didn't move. He watched with emotionless curiosity as the mimic became a trinity of himself—one carried his calm deadpan expression, another wore a savage grin with beast-like posture, and the third leaned against a broken pillar, smirking sarcastically with arms crossed.
"…What the hell," Kael muttered, raising a brow. "You multiplying now?"
The sarcastic version shrugged. "Well, you've been doing all the hard work. Thought it was time we formed a union."
The savage one snarled, bloodlust gleaming in its eyes. "More prey. Let me rip."
The original mimic—the calm one—simply mirrored Kael, eyes forward, scanning the now-ruined noble palace.
Before Kael could even begin to understand this evolution, a chime echoed in his ears.
> SYSTEM UPDATE COMPLETE.
USER: KAEL
LEVEL UP: [Rank S]
NEW ABILITIES UNLOCKED.
DIVINE TASK DETECTED.
INITIATING GOD'S WILL ARC…
Kael blinked. His lips tightened.
"…Huh."
The sky rumbled.
Not with thunder. With command.
From the heavens, a voice echoed—silent to the ears of the unworthy, but clear as judgment to Kael. It was not loud. It didn't need to be. It simply was.
> "Kael. The City has been cleansed. But the world is still drowning in rot."
"You will travel now. You will judge."
"You will bring divine wrath to where it festers."
Kael closed his eyes. His breathing slowed. Not out of fear or exhaustion, but out of acceptance. The bloodshed was not over. It was merely beginning. The City of Sin was just the first wound that needed cauterizing.
The wind shifted.
Behind him, survivors of the city watched from alleyways and ruins, wide-eyed. No one cheered. No one dared move. Children clutched their mothers. Guards dropped their weapons. Even the cruelest sinners wept quietly, sensing something ancient and holy—or unholy—passing judgment through Kael.
He turned away from the ruins.
His coat flared slightly as he walked.
The three mimics followed: one laughing, one snarling, one silent.
Before Kael reached the gates, he paused. He looked back, just once.
And then he whispered, not to the people, not to the city—but to himself.
> "God made me this way."
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