I rejected it without hesitation.
I stood before the void that whispered promises, and I spoke with a voice as decisive as a sword drawn from its sheath: "No. I refuse your power. I refuse to be your plaything or a slave to love woven from ash. I will not sell my humanity for false promises."
The air around the black panel exploded as if the word itself had become fuel. Its red symbols trembled as though ashamed, and the first system's voice returned, lower this time, laced with icy sarcasm:
"So you choose thus? Very well… your choice is recorded. But remember — vows are never left unpaid. Yet it matters little; I have paid what I paid for you."
Kim: "What do you mean? What did you pay?"
A dark smile: words spilling like volcanic threads. "I paid something."
It spoke to Kim: "Do you know what your purpose is now? Hahahaha." A laugh born of death.
I swallowed a black lump, a fire in my chest flaring as if trapped in the throat of a man who refuses to yield. I stepped forward; the world's echo dried around me: "I see you now. You all want to rule me, force me to be what I am not. No. I will not accept you or your king or your game."
Silence held for a beat, then shattered by a metallic wail from the panel: an automated tone sharpening into frost in the bones as it voiced a lethal warning:
"Your potentials are limited without me. You refused, and that is your decision. But know — choices have consequences. You will regret this, Kim. A time will come when you wish my shadows had swallowed you rather than stand alone against them."
The words did not terrify me; they kindled a new fuel in my veins. I smiled a smile that knew no retreat: "If you hate my refusal, remember your words. If you want to show me your power, come now and prove it with deeds, not promises. As for regret… do not ascribe it to me first."
The panel winked a final flash, then rearranged its symbols as one setting a trap. The mechanical voice stretched through the air like a visible mark on the skin of night:
"You will regret it. Not tomorrow alone — within hours, if you follow the dark, it will lead you to the abyss — you will discover that when you are alone, when you learn the true price of your refusal."
The proclamation vanished like bad news, but the weight of its words remained heavy as a stone buried in the city's heart. I stood alone amid the ashes, the black fire beating my head like war drums, a smile on my lips saying I had chosen my path — even if that path were all flame and wounds.
Kim: "What use is regret now while I'm exiled alone in the void?" A smile with a long hope: "I will be stronger than anyone so I can protect myself and not die. Yes — this is the purpose I was revived for now. I will survive this hell; I will grow stronger here; I wandered into the void."
Thus Kim remained standing amid the ashes of a dying city, black fire devouring his chest, and words from systems and voids promising him either salvation or annihilation. That refusal was not an end — but the start of a new course, a path strewn with choices and price, a road where his humanity would be measured by a fire only his tears or his victory could extinguish.