***
{Outside The Projection}
"...Ah."
It clicked.
It finally—finally—clicked.
The missing piece... the veil had been ripped off.
That was why. That was why Cyrus was like that. Why he was so desperate. Why he pushed so hard for a replacement. Why he trained someone like Malik, a man who would've gone to the ends of Fam Iblis to end him.
Because he was Corrupted...
Since the start.
Since the very first scene of him on the projection...
He was already dying. Already rotting from the inside.
But man... he held it back. For so damn long.
Alone, without any outside help.
He had no Sinbad.
No speck to protect his soul.
It was insane.
It was tragic.
It was poetic.
It was cruel.
The crown... the Golden Throne was never a reward.
Never something that Malik was after.
It was punishment.
A punishment that the Former Sultan tried to apologize for.
