Kane stood amidst the ruins of the master bedroom, the once-opulent chamber now a gruesome pit of pulverized marble and jagged debris. Blood, dark and arterial, painted the white stone, seeping into the fine dust of disintegrated velvet and silk. He was a creature of wreckage himself—his Wood Shell armor, so recently formed, was brutally battered, cracked, and scorched. The dark plates smoked faintly, smelling of ozone and singed flesh, remnants of the Demoness of Pleasure's black fire. Every breath was a shallow, ragged gasp of pain and exhaustion. His entire existence had been a fight, but he had never faced an opponent so insidious, so fundamentally focused on breaking his psychological defenses, wrapped in a mantle of lethal, otherworldly beauty.
'Please... Please, just die already,' he had pleaded internally during the final, desperate moments
Then, the cold, distant, and utterly emotionless voice of the Spell resonated in the hollow space of his mind, a final, chilling decree:
[You have slain an Awakened Titan, Demoness of Pleasure]
Kane blinked, the immense, terrifying weight of the words slowly sinking through the blinding fog of pain. 'Demoness... of... Pleasure,' he thought, a grim, humorless rasp escaping his throat. 'Seriously.' He understood now. The overwhelming, intoxicating beauty, the seductive aura that had threatened to drown his will and turn his mind to mindless devotion—it all made a horrifying, sickening sense. He had been fighting not just a physical titan, but a force designed to harvest the soul through ecstatic corruption.
"Luckily, I didn't fall for it. Or else..." Kane trailed off, unable to complete the thought. The thought of what might have happened—of the utter, blissful, eternal degradation of his core—sent a fresh, icy shiver of revulsion down his spine, scraping against the exhaustion. The Demoness had not just been an enemy of the body, but of the very core of his sanity.
As he pondered these horrific implications, Kane's gaze fell upon the small, white bone statue nestled amongst the debris. The remnants of the Woman's essence seemed to be clinging to the statue, not dissipating. He remembered the unsettling moment he had picked it up, the strange, cold energy radiating from it just before the Demoness had manifested and struck.
He knelt, his cracked armor groaning in protest. "What exactly are you?" he murmured, carefully retrieving the statue. It felt ancient in his hand, a sliver of petrified divinity. The raw power radiating from it hinted at divine craftsmanship, yet the energy it held was utterly contrary—it reeked of pure, unadulterated, primal destruction. The hair, carved into writhing, snake-like forms, with its dense cluster of tightly shut and perpetually open eyes, was a sickening vision of beauty corrupted. It was a paradox, a thing of both creation and annihilation, held in a piece of bone.
Kane waited, expecting it to dissolve into a Memory or a Fragment, as most artifacts of this caliber did. But it didn't. It remained solid, inert, yet vibrating with latent malice. This unnerving fact shocked him more than the Titan's death. He carefully opened his [Shrink Chest], the small, iron box materializing with a soft clunk, and placed the statue inside the storage space. This was something unique, something special, and he instinctively decided to keep it. He closed the chest and unsummoned it.
The adrenaline that had been his lifeline through the ordeal began to drain away, leaving behind an oppressive, tidal wave of exhaustion that threatened to crush him. Kane's vision tunneled, the edges of the ruined room blurring and warping. His consciousness, battered and worn thin, started to fade, the immense weight of the Wood Shell suddenly too much to bear. He finally succumbed, collapsing heavily into the rubble, his body hitting the shattered marble with a dull, final thud.
[Missy's POV]
Missy was simmering with indignation, a shimmering cloud of frustration anchored precariously on one of the dizzying, inverted stairs. She was still pouting about the grand, strategic plan that had left her so unforgivably sidelined. The agreement had been clear: Kane and Linia would challenge a room each, and she would provide support for either of them if needed. A crucial, but inherently passive, role.
"Seriously," Missy muttered, her mist form shimmering with iridescent irritation. "They both abandoned me and told me to be backup. At least I should have had a fight here, but I'm not having anything."
She considered Kane and Linia her found family, her new pack, and she desperately longed to participate, to prove her strength and fidelity. But for some bewildering reason, they persisted in treating her like a fragile child. "For Spell's sake," Missy shouted, her voice echoing with an unnatural, hollow quality in the vast emptiness of the maze. "I am an Awakened, a rank higher than them!"
Suddenly, the world around her gave a violent, sickening shudder. The entire vertical city groaned, a colossal, terrifying sound like a dying leviathan succumbing to internal injuries. Missy steadied herself, her eyes wide with a sudden, overwhelming alarm. The two rooms where Kane and Linia had entered began to fracture simultaneously, the pristine walls tearing apart, breaking into glittering, chaotic pieces of geometry. The shimmering silver line that had connected the two rooms, previously pulsating like a live, ethereal wire, began to vibrate intensely, an accelerated, frantic rhythm. It expanded rapidly, tearing a gaping, ragged hole in the very fabric of reality, forming a huge, swirling portal of blinding, cosmic white light and sheer, dizzying dread.
Missy spotted them almost immediately. Kane and Linia, their bodies floating limply amidst the splintered remnants of the shattered rooms, utterly still, utterly unconscious. As if on a horrific cue, the entire city began its final, catastrophic disintegration. It was not a natural collapse, but a horrifying, deliberate geometric fragmentation. Massive blocks of stone, impossible towers, and inverted architecture detached from their invisible anchors, forming multiple, tumbling cubes that spun into the void, accelerating toward the swirling portal. The very floor that Missy stood on began to dissolve beneath her spectral feet, and she too was cast violently adrift, floating helplessly in the accelerating chaos.
"Kane! Linia!" Missy shrieked, her voice thin and desperate against the deafening roar of destruction. She darted through the debris, dodging massive, falling fragments, trying frantically to rouse them, but their sleep was deep, profound. Whatever horrors they had faced, they had fought with a ferocity that had completely consumed their consciousness.
A fierce, protective determination flared within Missy's core. She would not allow them to be lost. With a desperate surge of her dwindling energy, she propelled her misty form towards the heaviest anchor—Kane. Her spectral hand wrapped around his armored wrist, the cold steel of the Wood Shell a chilling contrast to her warm energy. She began the excruciating task of dragging his immense, heavy form through the tearing reality, the resistance like swimming through thick, molten tar.
She then barely reached the floating Linia, grabbing a fistful of her torn dress. Missy gritted her teeth, her entire being straining against the swirling currents of spatial instability. With a final, explosive, desperate push of energy, she propelled all three of them—the two dead weights and herself—into the blinding, swirling vortex of the cosmic portal.
The moment they entered, the portal flared one last, blinding time, then snapped shut with a soundless finality, leaving no trace behind. The fragmented remains of the vertical city continued their slow, irreversible tumble into the abyss, a monument to a battle fought and won, its victors spirited away into the terrifying, unknown heart of the Nightmare.
******
In the vast, sterile opulence of the Bright Castle, where every stone spoke of cold, enforced order, Seishan waited. She stood in a secluded, shadow-draped section of the castle grounds, the pristine white marble unnervingly bright even in the dim light. She was outwardly composed, but internally, a deep current of unease swirled. She was shocked that Changing Star had contacted her, and sheer curiosity—coupled with the terrifying knowledge imparted by Shakti that Nephis was planning to kill her mother, the Song Clan Matriarch—had driven her to accept the clandestine meeting.
As she waited, she saw Changing Star , clad in her silver, ruthlessly practical armor, approaching with Cassie flanking her. Nephis's steps were measured, silent, and entirely devoid of wasted motion. When they were near, Nephis paused, the coldness of her silver mask hiding any hint of emotion.
"I want to discuss an important matter," Nephis stated, her voice flat and utterly devoid of warmth.
Seishan met her gaze with an equal measure of grace and boldness. "What is it?"
Nephis's mouth curled slightly, a chilling, practiced expression that was not quite a smile. "I have found a way to escape this hellhole."
Seishan's eyes widened momentarily, the news cutting through her practiced composure.
"I need you to be an ally," Nephis continued, the statement a command disguised as a request.
Seishan's immediate response was cold, defensive. "Explain. How are you doing it?"
Nephis and Cassie then laid out their plan, Seishan listened, her face growing harder with every detail.
When they finished, Seishan spoke with a frigid finality. "Your plan can work out. But... I don't want to become you ally."
Cassie frowned, a flicker of genuine surprise crossing her usually impassive features. Nephis's calm facade cracked ever so slightly, a microscopic tremor of controlled fury.
"Why?" Nephis demanded, her voice tightening. "I can do it. If that is my will, who will stop me?"
Seishan laughed, a short, sharp sound that held no humor, only contempt. "No, I truly believe that. I believe your will is strong enough to rip the sky down. But I won't accept you as an ally."
Cassie, who had remained silent until now, spoke, her voice laced with suspicion. "Why is that, Seishan?"
"Because," Seishan answered, her eyes locking onto Nephis with ice-cold judgment, "I cannot form an alliance with a maniac who sacrifices people for her goals."
Nephis clenched her fist, the movement barely perceptible beneath her silver gauntlet. She stood silent, genuinely stunned. A storm of paranoid thoughts raged behind her eyes. 'Does she know that I am planning to kill her mother'
Cassie, ever the pragmatist, was simultaneously thinking. Her suspicion focused immediately on the two weakest links who could have leaked the information about Nephis's ruthless intentions: Kane and the unpredictable Shakti.
Seishan sighed, softening her tone slightly, shifting from accusation to negotiation. "I will ally with you, but there is one condition."
Nephis's composure instantly returned, her cold calculation resuming control. "What is the condition?"
Seishan offered a smile that was both demanding and manipulative. "Bring back Kane, and include him in this plan. Make him accept the terms. If you fail to do this, don't ever count me as an ally."
Cassie immediately interjected, her concern genuine. "Kane went to the Dark City, he—"
Seishan cut her off with a dismissive wave. "I know about that charade, too. The only reason I am placing this condition is because, unlike you, Nephis, he is the only person in this entire hellhole whom I can trust."
With that chilling condition delivered, Seishan turned and left the secluded spot, disappearing into the shadows of the Bright Castle.
Nephis stared coldly at the empty trail where Seishan had stood. She had been so certain she could shatter Seishan's pride and force her into an alliance, but the encounter had instead complicated everything. She knew her other lieutenants were too loyal or too barbaric to Gunlaung to support her, leaving Seishan as her only realistic high-ranking ally. Without her, Nephis couldn't effectively figure out Gunlaung's weaknesses and suceed. And now, she had this impossible task hanging over her head.
Cassie looked at Nephis, her silver armor reflecting the cold light. "So, what should we do now? Kane is likely lost in the Dark City's heart, or worse."
Nephis stood for a long moment, the complexity of her betrayal and her ambition overwhelming her. Her eyes narrowed into slits of pure, ruthless calculation. After a long, heavy silence, she finally spoke the chilling, inevitable words: "We need to find him."