EPISODE 5: The Remnant’s Burden

"YOU'RE THE ONE WHO'S NOT GETTING OUT ALIVE!!" Zoren shouted, locking eyes with her. She felt something strange about Zoren.

She started hallucinating, seeing a terrifying aura around him. Zoren himself wasn't producing any aura, she was seeing things she shouldn't.

The Demonic Dragon didn't have a choice, so instead, she relied on her physical abilities to overwhelm Zoren. She suddenly dashed forward to punch him, but before she could reach him, Zoren had already used Oblivion Blink and appeared beside her. Using ice magic, he froze her left foot, trapping it to the ground.

Then, Zoren conjured a large, razor-sharp ice blade. As he pointed his palm toward her leg, the blade pierced through it. She let out a scream, the kind that comes only from unbearable pain.

"ARGHHHHH!"

With her left foot stuck and her left leg impaled, she could no longer use it.

Before she could even react, Zoren moved again. He suddenly placed his palm over her mouth and sealed it shut with ice. Her mouth was now frozen, unable to open.

Zoren looked into the Demonic Dragon's eyes — eyes that now seemed pitiful. Her mouth was no longer visible, only her nose and tear-filled eyes, wide with pain. She shook her head, but Zoren ignored her. He immediately did the same to her right leg, piercing it with another sharp ice blade.

Her body arched in agony. More tears streamed down her face. She couldn't scream, only stare at the sky, her vision blurred with endless tears.

Out of desperation, she tried to punch Zoren, but felt a sudden coldness in her arms. Zoren was already freezing them. Her eyes widened again, pleading silently for mercy, but Zoren didn't care whether she felt pain or not.

The cold intensified through her arms. Ice formed along her skin, and as Zoren continued freezing her, her blood began to slow, freezing from the inside out.

She shook her head again in front of Zoren, silently begging him to stop, tears falling in helpless streams. She couldn't do anything, only beg, over and over, hoping this man would let her go.

Then she heard his voice, his lips near her ear:

"That's how the humans felt… when you slaughtered them. They begged for mercy, but you demons never listened."

At those words, the hallucinations grew stronger. A dark crimson aura emanated from Zoren, and the trauma overwhelmed her.

She remembered flashes of her past, when she killed humans for pleasure… when she tore off a man's most private parts… when she severed limbs, destroyed buildings, and even razed schools filled with children. That's when she realized: all the pain she was experiencing was the same pain she had inflicted on others.

She heard one final whisper from the man:

"You'll die a painful death. Slowly."

The Demonic Dragon felt her entire body grow colder. The pain was unbearable. Her insides felt as if countless ice shards were piercing through them. Zoren was torturing her, freezing her slowly to death, turning her blood, organs, and flesh into solid ice.

She wanted to scream, but could only cry. Her tears began to freeze. Her head grew heavy. Her lungs tightened. She couldn't move, but she was still conscious.

"Goodbye, monster," Zoren said as he walked away.

But the girl couldn't hear his words, her ears had stopped functioning. And finally, fully frozen, she died.

.....

After leaving, he saw that the Demonic Dragon's den was still filled with smoke. He quickly ran toward it and used his magic to freeze all the fire inside the cave. Ice formed on the surfaces within, slowly caging the flames.

After a while, when no heat was emanating, he left the ice-filled cave behind and began to look around. Then, he heard a faint sound of water nearby. He followed the sound, heading in the direction where he could hear the waves.

As he walked toward it, just beyond the giant trees, he saw a waterfall. It was large, but the water was clear and very clean, splashing against the stones.

He cupped the water in both hands and began to drink. It felt refreshing in his throat, and he kept drinking until he was full.

He then found a giant stone nearby, climbed it, and sat at the top, gazing at the sky and beginning to think.

They say that when someone does something wrong, you must forgive them, you must learn to forgive their sins. But an unforgivable sin is always unforgivable. I wouldn't even call it a sin anymore. This is my first time killing someone, and in a brutal way. I didn't kill her because I wanted to kill. I killed her because I wanted justice.

Humans from countless planets have died. They're all gone. And now I've been resurrected as the only human left, the one who must avenge humanity.

I've realized that I'm also a cruel person. I'm not even a hero anymore. I'm just a REMNANT of humanity. My mission is to kill every demon, but I already see myself turning into something I once hated.

After my first kill, I already feel this way. But when I heard the souls of the humans crying out for revenge and justice, it hurt. Those words are painful, because I must succeed.

Demons are demons. Monsters are monsters. They killed humans for dominance, without mercy. They appeared out of nowhere. I'm alone, carrying the weight of all human emotion at once.

Rage, anger, hopelessness, sadness, depression, vengeance, all of it. I've come to realize I'm the only one left who feels these things.

If that's truly the case, then I will live long enough to be the seeker of justice, but be forced to become the destroyer in the eyes of my enemies.

After talking to himself, just as he was about to go down the stone, he heard something in the grass, something was running fast. He looked around but didn't see anything.

He carefully climbed down without making a sound. From the ground, he walked slowly, examining everything. He placed his palms on the stone and leaned his head around to look for anything unusual.

But again, he saw nothing. And when he looked over his shoulder, a massive brown creature stood in front of him. Its head was enormous, its body long and thick, it was a giant king cobra, but unlike any he had seen before. This was a monster, not an animal.

It had moved so stealthily that Zoren hadn't heard it approach. Compared to the dragon form of the previous enemy, this one was also enormous, longer than her, and perhaps just as dangerous, though in a different way.