The rooftop was silent.
Only the wind moved, carrying with it the faint scent of rot and dust. The cracked floor stretched endlessly, littered with debris and shattered glass that glimmered beneath the dim sun.
And at the far end of that rooftop, she stood.
Darian's breath hitched. His hands shook on the handle of his axe. The world felt distant, blurred around the edges, as if he were watching from behind a fogged window.
His mother's hair fluttered gently in the wind. It was still the same soft brown he remembered. Her clothes, however, were tattered — the teacher's blouse and skirt now stained dark. Her eyes, once warm, were hollow pits of flickering gold and black.
She tilted her head slightly, the way she used to when he came home late from training.
But this time… there was no warmth.
Only hunger.
And something else, confusion.
The system chime cut through the heavy silence.
[Starved Null — Lv. 21]
Darian's throat tightened. His knees nearly buckled.
"...Mom?"
The word slipped out, fragile, trembling.
Isara stayed behind, her body tense, magic swirling faintly around her hands... but she didn't move forward. She couldn't. She knew this was his trial. To step in would only make things worse.
The Starved Null's body twitched at the word, a strangled growl rumbling deep in her throat. Her lips parted,... and for the briefest second, he thought he saw her smile.
Then she lunged.
The sound she made wasn't human — a shriek that ripped through the air as she dashed toward him, impossibly fast.
Darian barely managed to raise his axe. Metal clashed against claw. The impact threw him back a few steps, his boots scraping against the cracked tiles.
She pressed forward, her claws slashing in a flurry. He parried, blocked, and ducked, but she was faster... much faster than any Null he had ever fought.
Her strength was monstrous, her movements refined. She wasn't attacking mindlessly. She knew how to fight.
Each swing of her arm carried precision... muscle memory from a life she no longer remembered.
And that realisation broke something inside him.
He stumbled back, deflecting another blow with a grunt.
"Mom! It's me! It's Darian!"
The Null froze... just for a heartbeat. Her face twitched, confusion flickering behind the golden hue of her eyes.
Then, the hunger returned.
She shrieked again, swiping violently, slamming him against the rooftop fence.
Pain exploded in his back. He coughed, tasting iron.
"Stop!" he roared. "Please, stop!"
His pleas were answered with another slash.
Blood splattered.
Isara took a step forward instinctively... but stopped herself. Her fists trembled, frost creeping along the ground beneath her boots. She wanted to help. Desperately. But this wasn't her fight.
It was his.
Darian gritted his teeth, the world spinning as his vision blurred. He pushed off the fence, roaring.
[Bullish Charge]
His entire body ignited with red force. He surged forward, shoulder-first, slamming into the Null with the weight of a raging bull.
The impact sent both of them crashing into the concrete, shattering the tiles beneath them.
For a moment, they lay still. Then she hissed, clawing at his chest.
Darian roared back, tears burning his eyes as he brought his axe down.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Each swing felt like it tore his soul apart.
But she kept coming, her body regenerating faster than it should.
"Why… why can't you just stay down!"
He screamed it, voice breaking. The sky itself seemed to dim, clouds swirling above.
[Mayhem Domain]
Dark crimson light rippled around him, distorting the air. His muscles tightened, his eyes burning with a wild glow. The world faded to shades of red and black.
He attacked again... relentless, desperate, broken.
Every strike echoed with his grief. Every swing carried his rage.
He wasn't fighting a monster anymore.
He was fighting his fate.
And for a moment, she stopped attacking. Her body trembled, her head tilting once more, like she was remembering.
"...Darian…"
His breath caught.
Her voice.
Soft. Familiar. Painfully familiar.
"Mom?"
Her lips trembled. "I love you…"
That one word shattered him.
But before he could speak, her body convulsed violently. The hunger roared back to life, consuming whatever trace of humanity had surfaced.
She lunged again, faster than ever.
The claws came down... but Darian moved.
[Bullish Charge]
He dodged low, pivoted, and swung his axe upward in a wide arc.
The blade glowed... Taurus's will roared to life.
A golden flare exploded as steel met flesh.
The strike cleaved clean through.
Her body went still.
The light in her eyes faded.
And she smiled. Just faintly.
Then she was gone... dissolving into a cloud of golden motes that drifted away with the wind.
Silence fell.
Darian dropped to his knees, his axe clattering beside him. His chest heaved, eyes empty.
He didn't feel victorious.
He felt hollow.
He had killed her.
Not a monster. Not an enemy.
His mother.
The person who had once told him he was strong enough to survive anything.
And now she was gone... by his hand.
Tears blurred his vision. His fingers dug into the floor until his nails cracked.
"Why…" His voice broke into a whisper. "Why did it have to be you?"
No answer came.
Only the faint hum of the system.
[Trial Complete.]
[You have slain a Starved Null — Level 21.]
[System Notice: "Class Advancement Progress: Complete"]
[Hidden Attribute of
[New Ability: CHAOTIC WILL — (Passive)]
[Your presence radiates instability. Nearby enemies experience weakened mental fortitude and may fall under temporary compulsion. Mind control intensity increases with emotional turmoil.
[New...]
[....]
The message faded, but Darian didn't move.
He just knelt there, the blood-stained wind whispering through the ruins.
Isara stepped forward quietly, her boots crunching against the glass. She stopped a few steps behind him, uncertain if she should speak.
The aura around him was… wrong.
It was heavy, suffocating. The red mist of Mayhem rippled off his body like heat waves, distorting the air.
His eyes glowed faintly — not the usual amber, but crimson, like a dying star.
He wasn't just angry.
He was fractured.
When he finally spoke, his voice was a whisper — steady, but hollow.
"I didn't save her…"
Isara swallowed hard, her throat tight. "You freed her."
He didn't look at her. "That's what people say to feel better."
Silence again. The wind howled through the broken fence, carrying away the last of the golden dust that had once been his mother.
Then something changed.
The air shimmered.
Isara blinked as her vision blurred. For a second, she thought she saw movement, shadows swirling around Darian's body.
He lifted his head. His voice was soft, but it carried a strange echo.
"She said… she loved me…"
A flicker of light passed through his eyes.
Then, just as suddenly, the aura vanished. The red mist faded, and Darian collapsed forward, catching himself with his arms before his face hit the floor.
Isara rushed to his side, kneeling beside him. "Darian! Hey... hey, stay with me!"
He didn't answer right away. His breathing was shallow, but steady. His eyes were open, blank, staring at the horizon.
"I can hear them," he muttered.
Isara stiffened. "Hear who?"
"The Nulls." His voice was distant. "Their thoughts… their hunger. It's so loud."
She didn't understand it... not yet... but she knew whatever had just awakened inside him wasn't normal.
The system didn't lie.
[Mind Compulsion.]
The hidden side of Mayhem.
She placed a trembling hand on his shoulder. "You did what you had to, Darian. You finished your trial."
He let out a shaky laugh... dry, bitter. "If this is what finishing feels like… I'd rather have failed."
He stood slowly, gripping his axe. The weapon's edge was cracked, its once-golden glow faint.
But his eyes... those crimson eyes... burned with something new.
Not hope.
Not rage.
Something else entirely.
Resolve born from ruin.
He turned toward the horizon... toward the city still crawling with Nulls... and exhaled slowly.
"Let's go," he said quietly. "There are more out there. I can feel them."
Isara hesitated. "Darian, you just..."
"I can feel them," he repeated, sharper this time. "They're waiting."
The wind blew again, carrying his mother's last words through his mind like a ghostly whisper.
'I love you. '
He gripped his axe tighter, eyes cold. "Not this time."
And with that, he walked toward the stairwell, leaving behind the bloodstained rooftop... the grave of the last piece of his heart.
****
In the distance, on another rooftop a few kilometres away, stood a young girl. She had immaculate white hair that cascaded down her back like a stream. A loving smile graced her face as her blue eyes gazed into the distance, watching Darian move into the room and slam the door behind him.
On the back of her hand was a marking that resembled a shoe, adorned with feathered wings on both sides. She was beautiful... essentially the dream of anyone, someone who deserved to be treated like a princess. Yet at that moment, this princess was wielding a bloodied bat, with a dead null lying at her feet.
Behind her was a group of men dressed in white, their expressions stern.
"He really is my type," she said, her voice laced with infatuation. "Too bad he's not in the family."
Determination sparkled in her eyes as she made a decision. "Then I'll just have to take him for myself."
With that, she suddenly swung the bat, striking the null and causing it to burst into golden particles that entered her body, leaving behind a deep red orb. One of the men in white hurried to pick it up.
"Let's get going. We have things to do," the young lady said, and without waiting for a reply, she began to walk away.