Morning sunlight spilled through the stained-glass windows of the adventurers' guild, painting multicolored shapes across the floor. Adventurers were yawning, drinking bitter morning ale, and arguing about whose pet rat stole their rations.
Then the doors opened.
Rex walked in — or… something that looked like Rex.
His white-and-black hair was messier than usual, the tiny black horns hidden beneath his bangs. His inverted silver eyes gleamed faintly. Lira glanced up, expecting her usual half-awake troublemaker.
"Morning, Rex. Mission board just got updated," she said cheerfully.
Rex didn't answer.
He just walked to the board, scanned it silently, plucked an unregistered mission sheet — one freshly tacked up, still smudged with ink — and brought it to the counter.
Lira blinked. "Uh… you sure? This one's not registered yet."
"...Yes."
The voice was cold. Too cold. Flat. Almost hollow.
Lira felt a prickle on the back of her neck. Rex was usually sarcastic, tired, or confused — not robotic. But she assumed he'd just had a long night. She didn't notice the detail she should have:
His inverted silver eyes had a faint purple tint swirling in the silver parts, like smoke trapped in glass.
She stamped the mission paper, unaware she had just let something else walk out the door.
Cut to: Inside the Ruin — Noir Unleashed
The ruin was tinted in sickly purples, stone walls cracked with veins of glowing amethyst light. A low fog of violet mist pooled over the floor, swirling around Rex's boots with an eerie, eager pulse.
But this wasn't Rex walking.
This was Noir — and every step he took radiated excitement.
"Oh-ho-ho…" Noir murmured in Rex's voice, but sharper, hungrier. "There you are…"
Floating above a shattered altar was a shard — a jagged fragment of crystal hovering midair, dripping purple mist like liquid magic. It pulsed with a rhythm like a heartbeat.
Noir's grin stretched wide. Too wide.
But before he reached it, the ground rumbled.
A massive golem, assembled from broken stone slabs and fused together with the same purple energy, rose from the floor. The joints crackled, anchored by glowing violet lines. Its single eye flared open, blazing purple.
It stepped forward, blocking Noir's path.
Noir groaned dramatically. "Finally… something that isn't boring."
The golem swung a colossal arm down like a falling boulder.
Noir moved like liquid shadow — sliding under it with a single lazy smirk.
"Too slow!"
He sprinted straight for the shard, purple mist swirling around him. He leapt, snatched the crystal into his left hand—
And crushed it.
The shard shattered with a scream of magic, releasing a torrent of violet energy that rushed up his arm like living fire. Rex's left arm crystalized — jagged amethyst forming claws, plates, and crackling lines of energy.
His eyes blazed fully purple.
Noir laughed. Not a happy laugh. A laugh that echoed like something that shouldn't exist.
"Ahhhh… yes. Another fragment of my original power."
He turned toward the golem, which roared, stumbling toward him.
"Let's test it, shall we?"
The Fight
The golem charged. The floor shattered beneath its weight.
Noir dashed forward, the crystalized arm leaving streaks of purple light behind him. He leapt high — higher than Rex ever could — and twisted midair, driving his left claws straight into the golem's glowing eye.
The monster recoiled, flailing blindly, its movements more erratic and desperate as the crystal lodged in its face crackled with unstable magic.
Noir pushed off, landing behind it with a low crouch and a delighted grin.
"Come on, big guy! Dance!"
The golem stomped backward, trying to crush him. Noir slid aside like a shadow and drove a crystalized kick into its leg. A sharp CRACK split the air as purple light burst through the stone.
The golem's leg shattered completely.
It fell forward onto one knee, shaking the entire ruin.
Noir didn't stop. He darted to its side, jumped, and slammed his crystal arm downward, ripping the golem's right arm clean out of its socket. Stone flew everywhere.
Then the left arm.
Noir tore it away with savage glee, laughing like a creature that had waited centuries to let loose.
The golem, mutilated and barely functioning, stared at him with its remaining eye. Its runes dimmed with fear — or whatever the closest thing a construct could feel.
Noir walked toward it slowly. Deliberately. Like a predator savoring the moment.
"You were fun," he said softly. Almost kindly. "At least let me strengthen my claws before you go."
He placed a single finger on its chest…
Then plunged his crystal arm deep inside, piercing through layers of stone.
With a triumphant grin, Noir ripped out the core — a glowing purple sphere.
It pulsed weakly in his hand.
He crushed it without hesitation.
"Bye-bye."
The golem's eye flickered… dimmed… then went dark.
The entire body collapsed into rubble at Noir's feet.
He exhaled, satisfied, flexing his now even-crystalier arm.
Then he turned, purple light fading into the ruin's shadows.
"Soon… I'll have all my power back," he whispered, voice dripping with ecstasy. "And then I can finally start having fun again."
He disappeared into the mist, leaving only shattered stone and a dead ruin behind.