[The Descent: Into Hell]
The descent into the valley wasn't a run; it was a fall. My lungs were burning, my legs were numb, but I couldn't stop. The closer we got, the thicker the black smoke became. The smell of roasted meat from the city—which had made us so hungry just an hour ago—was replaced by the smell of burning wood, thatch... and flesh.
"Mom!" Elena screamed, her voice cracking. She tore ahead of us. "Dad!" Arthur roared, his speed increasing unnaturally.
I lagged behind, the bag of gold banging against my back and the Blue Shawl clutched tightly in my hand. The System was flashing red in my vision, obscuring my sight with warnings I didn't have time to read.
[WARNING: High-Level Hostiles Detected.] [WARNING: 'Absolute End' Fragment Manifesting.]
[The Square: The Gifts in the Mud]
We burst into the village square. It was gone. The cozy houses were skeletons of fire. The silence was broken only by the crackling of flames and the coarse laughter of men.
Three armored soldiers—the cleanup crew—were standing in the mud. One soldier was wiping his bloody sword on a dirty rag he pulled from his belt.
He was standing over two bodies. A man and a woman. Arthur's parents. Gareth lay face down, his hand reaching toward his wife. My mother lay nearby, her eyes open, staring at the sky she would never see again.
"Filthy peasants," the soldier spat. "Resisting a royal search? They got off easy."
CLATTER.
Arthur dropped the New Iron Sword we had just bought. It hit the stones next to his father's lifeless hand. He had bought it to show his father, to make him proud. Now, it lay next to his corpse.
My hand went limp. The Blue Shawl slipped from my fingers. It fluttered down softly, landing in the mud, soaking up the blood pooling around my mother. I had bought it to keep her warm. Now, she was cold forever.
[The Triad of Guilt]
Time froze. In that single second, the realization hit us.
Arthur stared at the sword. 'I wasn't here to use it.' Elena stared at the bodies, her hands covering her mouth, her knees giving way. I stared at the pocket where the gold contract lay. 'I have the money... I have the money, so why are they dead?'
Elena let out a choked, broken sob and collapsed, fainting from the sheer psychological overload.
[The Trigger]
Another soldier was holding something up to the light. It was the Void Silk Shoe. Inside it, the violet flower—healed by Elena's kiss—was still glowing with a soft, divine light, untouched by the blood and ash around it.
"Look at this," the soldier laughed, shaking the pot. "Who puts a holy relic in a shoe? The Baron was right. These rats were hiding treasures."
[Arthur's Awakening: The Red Storm]
Arthur didn't scream. He didn't cry. He just... stopped being human.
He looked down at the New Iron Sword lying in the mud. He bent down and picked it up. His movements were stiff, mechanical.
The soldier holding the shoe laughed. "Oh look, the rats returned. Little boy, is that a toy sword? Do you want to—"
BOOM.
The air in the square didn't just vibrate; it screamed. A wave of blood-red energy exploded from Arthur's body. It wasn't the controlled aura of a knight. It was a jagged, wild storm of pure rage. The mud around him dried up and cracked instantly.
[System Alert: Protagonist Awakening Triggered!] [Limiters: OFF.]
Arthur vanished. He didn't run. He erased the distance.
The soldier holding the shoe didn't even see him move. One moment, he was laughing. The next moment, a red line appeared on his neck.
SLASH.
The soldier's head slid off his shoulders. The Void Silk Shoe fell from his dead hand. Arthur caught the shoe with his free hand before it hit the ground. He gently placed it down on a clean patch of grass.
Then he turned to the other two soldiers. His eyes were glowing with a feral, red light. "You..." Arthur whispered. It sounded like grinding stones. "You touched them."
The other two soldiers panicked. They raised their heavy crossbows. "Monster! Kill him!"
[Dante's Awakening: The Abyss]
Arthur was charging in a straight line. He was in a blind rage. He wouldn't dodge the bolts.
'No...' I thought, my mind fracturing. 'I won't let him die. Not again. Not like in the dream.'
I felt something break inside me. The "Merchant" died. The "Guide" died. Something else took the wheel. That "Locked Door" in the back of my mind... I kicked it open.
I raised my hand toward the two soldiers. I didn't want to hit them with magic. I wanted them gone.
[System Alert: Unknown Energy Detected!] [Source: Dante]
A sphere of absolute, vantablack darkness materialized in my palm. It was small, the size of a coin. "Disappear," I whispered.
The black sphere shot forward. It didn't fly; it deleted the distance between me and them. It expanded instantly, engulfing the two soldiers just as they pulled their triggers.
There was no explosion. No fire. The darkness just... ate them. Their armor, their flesh, their bolts, their screams... everything was sucked into a vacuum of nothingness.
POP.
When the black mist cleared, there was nothing left. No bodies. No blood. Just two clean, perfect spherical craters in the ground.
[The Aftermath: Cold Logic]
Silence returned to the burning village. Arthur stood panting, the new sword dripping with blood. The red aura flickered and died, leaving him looking small and broken.
I stared at my hand. It was trembling violently. I fell to my knees, vomiting bile. The cost of using that power... it felt like my soul had been scraped raw. [System Error: Vitality drained by 80%.]
Elena was stirring on the ground. Arthur walked over to his parents' bodies. He dropped the sword. He fell to his knees in the mud, embracing his father's corpse.
"Mom... Dad... I bought a sword..." he sobbed, his voice breaking into a child's cry. "I was going to show you... Look, it's real steel..."
I wiped my mouth and forced myself to stand. The "Merchant" logic rebooted. Survival first. Grief later.
"Arthur," I croaked. "We have to go."
Arthur didn't look up. "I have to bury them."
"No time," I said, stumbling over to him. "That Noble... he will realize his men aren't coming back. He'll send more. An army."
"I'll kill them too!" Arthur shouted, looking at me with wild eyes. "I'll kill them all!"
"You can't," I said coldly. "Not yet. You're tired. I'm empty. If we stay, we die. And if we die, your parents died for nothing."
I pointed at Elena, who was curled up in a ball. "We need to get Elena to safety. Do you want her to die too?"
Arthur froze. He looked at Elena. Then, he slowly stood up. He went to the grass and picked up the Void Silk Shoe. He tucked it into his bag. He walked over to Elena and picked her up in his arms.
"Where do we go?" Arthur asked. His voice was dead.
I looked at the horizon, toward the city lights we had just left. I touched my pocket. The Mithril Button was gone. In its place was a bag with 298 Gold Coins.
298 Gold. That was what we had left after buying the sword that lay next to a dead father, and the shawl that was soaking up a dead mother's blood.
I clenched the coins. 'This money... It's not a fortune anymore. It's war funds.'
"To the Underworld," I said, my voice hardening. "We get new names. We get strong. And then... we hunt."
We turned our backs on the burning village. Three children walked into the darkness, leaving their innocence—and the gifts that never reached their owners—in the ashes.