There was no sun.
There was no night or day.
Only the Void… an endless black sea, and cursed flames coiling around Kim's body, gnawing at him every time he tried to breathe.
At first, he screamed.
Then he cried.
Then he laughed madly.
Until all his emotions had dried up.
The voices never left him:
— "Kill… kill… kill!"
— "Surrender your body, let us show you true hell."
— "You are no longer human… only a vessel."
Days passed… weeks… years…
Or so he thought.
But here, in this world, time did not exist.
Every second mirrored the other, every moment replayed itself like an open wound that would not heal.
Kim sat on his knees, his eyes wrapped in the bindings of the System, but behind them… the darkness never stopped crawling. Black sigils covered nearly half his body, breathing on his skin like living creatures.
He whispered hoarsely, not knowing to whom:
— "How long has it been…? A hundred years? A thousand? I don't know… I only know I have not died yet."
The System's voice finally returned after a long silence:
— "Five hundred years… that is what your mind believes. But the truth… there is no time here. You are imprisoned inside the same moment, again and again."
Kim laughed bitterly:
— "Five hundred years of torment… for what?"
System:
— "For the curse you chose. The more you resist it, the deeper your prison grows. But if you surrender… your identity will be erased forever."
Kim raised his head, his eyes glowing behind the bindings with strands of silver and black:
— "So this is my fate… to be a king in an endless world, or a slave in my own body."
But suddenly… the Void trembled.
A massive gate opened before him, unlike any he had ever seen. It was not made by the System… but by a power older, deeper.
From within it came a strange voice, thunderous and profound:
— "Death Tiger… five hundred years of silence is enough. The time has come to be tested outside this hell."
Kim clenched his fist, the curse flaring hotter in his body.
He smiled a mad smile, filled with spite and defiance:
— "If eternal torment could not break me… no one will."
And he stepped toward the gate, crossing it, leaving behind five hundred years of madness and silence.