-----
The glow from the TV screen cast harsh shadows across the room, flickering as the final cutscene of the game William had been playing unfolded like a cruel joke before his incredulous eyes. His heart pounded, not from anticipation, but from a deep, gnawing dread. This wasn't the ending he had battled hundreds of hours to earn. Not after unlocking every other route. This was the last one, the one he needed for the Platinum Trophy in this cursed game that had consumed his life for years.
On screen, his once-beloved protagonist, Mirai—the kind and hopeful heroine he had guided for so long—now stood tall in a cathedral consumed by black demonic flames. The character he had invested 300 hours into for this final route gazed at the party with eyes burning with disdain and fury. Her once-bright gaze, full of hope, now cracked like fractured glass over obsidian, empty and shattered.
"If love can't change the world," she whispered, voice cold and broken, "then I'll destroy it instead."
A horrific transformation seized her.
Wings blackened with cosmic ash burst from her back. Her halo shattered into jagged black-and-red horns that spread across her body. Her form swelled, growing monstrous and towering taller than the final boss. The sky cracked. The Cathedral of the End shuddered and collapsed, revealing the twisted Distorted Dimension beneath.
Dramatic, haunting music swelled as Mirai became an aberrant Anomaly of the highest rank, warping space around her. The party screamed in terror as the battle began. A glowing title appeared above her head.
[CHAOSBORN DEMON EMPRESS OF RUIN: TWISTED MIRAI]
"No… no, this can't be right," William muttered, voice trembling. "I unlocked every memory fragment without building a romantic bond with any side character. I even beat the Rank 5 Dimensional Architect, The Shepherd of Skinned Time, within the time limit! The forums said this would trigger the true ending—the one where she resets the world before the Hintergrid arrives and everyone lives normally. What's happening?!"
From what he had read, many players hailed the reset ending as the best. It erased all damage from the Grievances, Anomalies, and Hintergrid. But the cost was steep: Mirai lost every connection and bond she had formed. That was why it required no relationships at all—a difficult feat in a game that pushed dating sim mechanics at every turn.
"Don't stop me. The world… I will destroy it…! This way the Universe can finally be freed from Fantasy!"
William launched the fight anyway, deploying his full party of ten characters and every saved item. He switched members, used revivals, unleashed ultimate skills, and synthesized attacks to exploit her weaknesses.
But…
[0 DAMAGE]
[0 DAMAGE]
[0 DAMAGE]
[0 DAMAGE]
[0 DAMAGE]
No matter what he tried, Twisted Mirai—this never-before-seen secret final boss—was utterly immune. Poison, status ailments, reflected damage—nothing worked.
"I wasted three hundred hours… DAMN IT!"
The controller shattered against the desk in a burst of rage. Plastic fragments scattered like broken dreams. He stared at the wreckage of his effort—all the grinding, careful choices, hours spent skipping dialogues to gather perfect items—reduced to this.
A world drowned in blood. A goddess consumed by madness. The party was helpless before her.
William watched in helpless horror as his entire party fell, one by one, until the last member perished.
[GAME OVER]
[Continue from last save?]
[Yes] [No]
"Maybe I can try again… but fuck, I'd have to redo the whole last dungeon. What a pain," William sighed, draining the last warm swig from his beer can. "Screw this. I'm going to bed."
BBZZZTTT!
As he tidied the room, the screen flickered with unnatural interference. Behind the Game Over message, Mirai… stared directly at him.
"…?"
William leaned closer, peering past the glitching text. Mirai was walking toward the viewer.
Blood tears streamed from her eyes. Her long hair twisted into writhing black tentacles that reached toward the screen.
"What the hell? Some secret cutscene? Fourth wall break bull—WOAH!"
Crackle!
Static energy surged from the TV. Pixelated shards rippled outward as if the screen itself was breaking. The speakers emitted a low, guttural groan—like an ancient voice struggling through corrupted code. Mirai's voice.
"You… the one behind everything… you're the cause of my suffering… you… you… you…! Face me… stop hiding behind that screen!"
He froze, breath catching.
"Is she talking to me? I need sleep. I'm hallucinating from a week without rest…"
But he couldn't move.
"…?!"
His breath turned icy. The TV warped, the image stretching into an impossible spiral that glowed like a tear in reality. Then the screen ripped open.
CRACK!
"A-Ah…! What…!"
An abyssal claw shot out, seizing his chest. The room was dissolved. Time shattered. His vision fragmented into stuttering frames, his life breaking apart heartbeat by heartbeat.
"This… is real?"
As William realized he was being pulled into the screen, he came face to face with her, the protagonist he had guided—not just for 300 hours, but over two thousand across every route.
In every other ending, she found some happiness, even if the world remained broken.
But now, her eyes held only sorrow, despair, and burning rage.
"Aaaahhhhh!"
His distorted scream filled the room as his body was sucked into the TV. The sickening sounds of flesh tearing and bones snapping echoed through the apartment. The screen went dark, smeared with blood and shredded clothing.
♢♢♢♢
"What?!"
Agony jolted him awake.
Pain exploded in his gut like molten fire. His fingers clawed at the ground—not dirt, but ash-soaked soil damp with blood and moonlight. Silence pressed in. Skeletal trees loomed overhead. The air reeked of decay and iron. William scanned his surroundings, desperate to understand.
The torment in his abdomen was unbearable, clouding every thought. One moment he had finished a ruined route in his favorite game, [Sinner Academy: Love At The End Of The World]. The next… he was pulled into the TV and torn apart?
"No, no, no—this can't be real! Ugh! Why does my stomach hurt so much?! Why am I on the ground? Where am I?!"
Then he saw it. A twisted, serrated knife protruded from his stomach, pulsing with purple venom. Black veins festering from the wound. He gasped, gagging as unfamiliar memories flooded inside his mind—images, visions, voices that weren't his.
"…He's still alive," a voice murmured. "I thought he died when he collapsed…"
William turned toward the sound and saw an armored knight in pitch-black plate wielding a long mechanical spear.
"He won't last long. The venom is designed specifically to kill dragons like him."
Another figure approached, clad in sleek gray armor etched with serpentine patterns. A glowing insignia marked his shoulder: Vultarn High Dominion.
"H-Help me…" William pleaded. "I-I'm not who you think! I don't know what's happening! Please—you have the wrong person!"
He assumed it was a case of mistaken identity, some criminal mix-up.
"What is he babbling about?"
"Ignore him. He's as good as dead."
"A-Ah…! W-Why?! Why—Ugh?!"
William glanced down at a small pool of silver liquid on the ground. In its reflection, he saw a face that wasn't his.
Delicate and pale as death, with faint yellow eyes, long curly white hair, and spiraling horns rising from each temple.
Shock rooted him in place. His hands trembled as they touched his face and horns, confirming the impossible. Foreign thoughts surged—regal memories of pride, war councils, noble burdens, a world ravaged by Fantasy, bitter frustration at his own lack of talent despite draconic blood.
He blinked.
A name resonated deep in his soul.
Prince Louis Drakeheart Yggdrasil—Heir of Frostbane, Bloodline of Dragons, Grandson of the Dragon King.
Flashes of battles, a smile not his own, a crown steeped in ice and hatred. He was trapped inside another body.
No, he had become someone else.
"There's no way…"
A game memory surfaced: Prince Louis, the mid-game antagonist. Ruthless. Charismatic. Born of cursed dragon blood. The villain players were meant to hate—the one who opposed Mirai.
"I turned into this mid-game boss? This guy? Louis? Seriously?"
William—no, Louis—clenched his fists. Disbelief warred with the searing pain in his gut. Without it, he might have convinced himself this was a nightmare. But the agony was too real.
Louis Drakeheart was the child of an Anomaly from Yggdrasil and a Scientist-Esper from the VPI—the first known hybrid of otherworldly being and human.
As son of Benladra Drakeheart, eldest daughter of Yggdrasil's Dragon King, Louis inherited her bloodline. Everyone placed high hopes on him.
Yet his blood was cursed. Human and dragon did not mix well. His draconic powers never awakened. He could not transform or forge a Dragon Heart.
Raised under constant disappointment, he developed a deep inferiority complex, growing resentful toward the world—especially those with natural talent, like the protagonist Mirai. He antagonized her at every turn.
Using drugs to force growth, Louis pushed his limits and eventually challenged Mirai and her party, seeking to kill her, claim her Fantasy Heart, devour her Spiral of Incarnations, and overcome his curse.
But like any mid-boss, he fell to Mirai's group. He wasn't even difficult. William remembered how easily Louis died, a memory that now stung the merging Louis ego as both minds clashed.
"Ahhh… Ugh…"
Vision blurred. A pounding headache split his skull as memories from two lives collided, slowly fusing into one.
He tried to stand and collapsed, weak and exhausted. Even the stomach wound barely registered anymore.
He just wanted to sleep.
"This has to be a dream… I'm a human from Earth… I'm… human… Ugh…!"
The armored men stared at Louis with contempt as he mumbled incoherently. Foam bubbled from his mouth. His body convulsed until his eyes rolled back, fixed on the eerie forest.
Then he went still, lips twitching as if trying to speak.
It felt so unfair. Why him?
William had no idea Louis was meant to be poisoned or stabbed. Was this even part of the original story?
"I just arrived… and I'm dying again…?"
Poison coursed through his veins. Louis Drakeheart drew his final breath.
His empty yellow eyes stared at the blue sky.
The armored men regarded the corpse coldly before dragging it away.
♢♢♢♢
Louis drifted in eternal darkness, surrounded by the screams of billions of tormented souls. A river of shadows pulled him deeper.
"Where… what is this?"
His eyes opened. Above stretched an endless void faintly lit by five glowing thrones, each radiating meanings he could not comprehend.
He averted his gaze from those brilliant, mind-corrupting beings and looked down at the purgatory below.
Millions of souls wailed in horror and pain. Thousands of shadow claws reached for him. Louis stared in disbelief, struggling to grasp the nightmare.
After hearing a trusted rumor of a Resonance Heart forming in the First Layer of the Dimensional Labyrinth—the Forest of Hollow Salt—he had rushed to the coordinates, desperate for anything to awaken his dormant powers.
The foolish prince walked straight into a trap. Ambushed by Vultarn High Dominion soldiers, beaten senseless, then stabbed with a dragon-slaying poisoned knife.
Now he fell deeper into purgatory, shadow claws dragging him down as tormented screams filled his mind.
"No...!"
Panic consumed him. He fought the souls, but it only enraged them further. Flames licked at his essence.
His soul tore open. Claws burrowed into his existence. Memories fragmented. His sense of self faded.
Black claws gripped tighter, ripping a hole through his chest.
CRACK!
"NO, NO, NO! NOOO!"
In horror, he peered into the wound.
Something was inside.
Revulsion flooded him at the sight.
An ashen creature emerged from his shattered soul.
The wailing specters recoiled, screaming at its presence.
Tall and skeletal, with elongated limbs like a mummified corpse, it unfurled desiccated black butterfly wings—as if Louis had been merely its cocoon.
Both Louis and William knew what it was.
"An Anomaly?! W-What…! Why is an Anomaly inside my soul?!"
The entity stared at Louis. Its bony face twisted into a smile. Empty sockets flickered with faint red light.
"I am thou, thou art I..."
This was neither William nor Louis.
Something monstrous dwelled within, a horror beyond imagination.
The entity seized Louis's soul and soared upward, escaping purgatory.
"Oh my dear prince… we cannot die yet… not yet…"
"We?"
"Not until I destroy your family and claim vengeance against your grandfather."
"Who…! Who are you?!"
Louis struggled, but he was powerless.
The thing smiled and hurled him back into the river of abyssal and golden light shimmering through time and space.
"Let's go back, shall we?"
"Wait…! What's happening?! What are you doing?!"
Louis screamed as agony wracked his soul. Broken pieces filled with strange ethereal liquid.
"AAAAGGGHHH!"
Through excruciating pain, Louis and William awoke as one.
Their egos no longer fought. They had truly merged.
At the same moment.
Sharp pain in his gut jolted him awake. Louis found himself in the same spot as moments ago, before purgatory and the shredding of his soul by vengeful specters.
He gasped, struggling to comprehend. He looked around and realized he had truly returned.
"That thing revived me? No…"
He saw the two soldiers speaking.
"…He's still alive. I thought he died when he passed out."
"He won't last long. The venom is designed specifically to kill dragons like him."
The exact same words as before.
Louis had regressed.
His first reaction was to smile.
"Hah… Hahah… Hahahahaha!"
The soldiers stared in shock as the blood-soaked prince laughed.
He screamed in agony as he yanked the knife free, blood and black poison splattering across the ground. Louis collapsed to a sitting position, glaring at the two soldiers with burning hatred.
"Has this bastard lost his mind?"
"What the hell? Does the venom do that?"
The soldiers stared in disbelief. Before poisoning him, they had beaten Louis senseless, breaking two ribs and his right arm.
Yet the blood-soaked prince was laughing.
"Hey…"
Louis fixed his gaze on them. The armored men stepped back instinctively, sensing a chilling, ominous aura rising from within him.
"I'm going to kill you… no matter what it takes. I won't forgive you. I'll tear you two limb from limb! You hear me? Limb from limb! Then I'll parade your corpses through your hometowns and burn your families at the stake! And you know what? I'm going to enjoy every second. I'll listen to your parents beg for mercy, smile at them, and then behead them too… no, wait. Stab them. Over and over. With venom-coated knives. Just like you did to me!"
"…?!"
"T-The fuck are you talking about?!"
The soldiers clenched their fists in fury at his deranged rant. Both drew their weapons.
"Maybe we should end you right now! Why bother with the poison?"
"That venom was meant to seal his dragon abilities… We were merciful letting him die slowly… but this bastard wants it quicker."
"Hah… Hahah…!"
Louis laughed louder, backing up until his spine pressed against the tree behind him. His eyes darted everywhere.
Where the hell was the Resonance Heart?
He could swear he had glimpsed it before the ambush. The rumor hadn't been completely false.
These two bastards probably planned to harvest it for themselves.
It was small, but he wasn't sure it would even help…
Yet he had no other choice.
"Come on, what are you waiting for?! Going to kill me or what? Cowards! Come at me!"
The soldiers exchanged glances. Louis was known as a weak, crippled failure, but the Drakeheart Dragon Family's fearsome reputation lingered. Even these men hesitated, unsure if the prince hid some hidden trump card.
Truth be told, Louis had nothing. He was bluffing to provoke them. His plan was simple: force an attack, trip one, and seize a gun from their belts.
It was a desperate gamble. Running was impossible—he had no possessions left, no Innate Abilities.
Well… except one now.
Regression, Time Loop, Death Loop.
Whatever the name was, this was Louis' only hope.
But was it a one-time gift?
He didn't know.
Gripping the knife that had pierced his gut moments ago, Louis glared with eyes brimming with madness.
Standing still meant death. Crawling away meant death. Fighting meant probable death.
Every path ended the same.
So he chose the only one with even a flicker of hope.
"I'm not dying pathetically again... I will take you down with me."
"Kill him!"
"Die, disgusting noble!"
Both knights charged, Louis's face twisted as he stumbled back, flinching.
A mechanical spear aimed for his head, another for his chest.
He dropped to the ground, dodging the head strike while thrusting his knife into the gray-armored knight's neck.
"Wha—"
The knight couldn't react in time. Louis grinned viciously, seizing him and driving the blade deeper.
"DIE!"
Madness consumed him. Louis stabbed repeatedly.
The black knight struck from behind, piercing his right shoulder. His grip slipped.
Louis groaned, teeth clenched. The shoulder wound hurt, but it paled against the fire raging through his entire body.
He roared like a beast, kicking the black knight down, snatching the gun from the dying man, and firing at the helmeted head.
The helmet saved him from instant death. The knight scrambled to escape while the stabbed one clung desperately to Louis's legs.
"You're still alive?!"
"Guuugh…! Guaaaarrrgh!"
Louis gasped, trying to shake free, only to notice black miasma seeping from the wounds he had inflicted.
The knight was dead yet still moving.
"This bastard just turned into a zombie?!"
Louis kicked frantically, but the undead grip was iron-tight. He fell, the creature crawling over him, jaws snapping against its own helmet.
"Get off! Ahh!"
Then, at that moment, he spotted it—a glowing white crystal to the east, behind a salt tree with a distinct pink hue, impossible to miss now.
"T-The Resonance Heart…! It's there! I need it! I—"
CRASH!
Before he could finish, a mechanical spear pierced his skull, ending him instantly.
♢♢♢♢
Louis floated once more between Void and Purgatory.
Disbelief and frustration twisted his face.
"I almost had it…! That bastard—I missed him! He came back to finish me even after his partner turned zombie?!"
Lost in bitter thoughts, he noticed his soul already torn wide open. The same "thing" emerged again, staring at him.
"You're so pathetic, little prince… Hahaha… Your struggle is truly disgustingly delightful, just like your grandfather's…"
It mocked him.
"What did you expect me to do?! There were no other options… So this is it? A one-way ticket? I wasted my second chance…"
"Who said that?"
"…?"
"I told you, Louis… This won't stop until your family is ruined… So let's go back. Let's have fun together."
"What? My family? I've only ever met my mother…"
"That doesn't matter to me. I'll kill her too."
"…?! Who the fuck are you?!"
"Oho, the prince has learned some colorful words… What's gotten into you? It's like you're a different person."
"Have you been spying on me, you fucking creep?"
"Yes. In fact, I've been here since you were born, waiting…"
"Who are you?! Tell me!"
"Shhh, it's time. Try not to die so quickly this time, little prince."
"Like hell I will."
Louis was pulled back through the familiar river, the entity smiling.
"Grow strong—as strong as you can, little prince. Without it, we can't kill your family, after all!"
♢♢♢♢
Louis returned.
This time he didn't gasp. He surveyed his surroundings in silence.
The two guards were talking.
If he stayed perfectly quiet, their dialogue shifted slightly.
He scanned the forest carefully.
"Where is it?"
He searched for the Resonance Heart.
The pink tree—where?
"The… east, right?"
There—behind a cluster of crystalline salt trees.
It was well concealed, barely visible from his position.
"Can I sprint in this body? I can hardly stand… I'll crawl. My legs lack the strength to run… I can kill one, but the other will flee and strike from behind… The first will turn zombie too."
Louis began his performance again, screaming, laughing, provoking the soldiers.
He repeated his previous rant word for word.
He even elaborated on tormenting their younger siblings, if they had any.
Rage consumed the knights.
How could a noble from the revered, feared Drakeheart Dragon Family behave like this?
They expected dignified death, not a rabid beast fighting to the end.
And they indulged him.
"Die, pathetic noble!"
A mechanical spear rushed toward his head.
This time, Louis dodged with greater precision and agility.
Gripping his knife, he stabbed the gray knight's neck three times before the body crumpled.
Another spear aimed for his shoulder, but he avoided it by a hair's breadth.
The black knight retreated under a hail of bullets. His armor held, but fear drove him to flee.
"Now!"
Louis seized the mechanical spear but abandoned it—it was too heavy, would only hinder him.
Clutching the gun, he staggered toward the tree, using trunks for support.
"Almost… almost there!"
His trembling hands drew closer. He glanced around nervously, ensuring no pursuit.
"Is this it?! T-The Resonance Heart! Finally…! Finally in my grasp!"
Resonance Hearts were dense accumulations of highly radioactive Fantasium, the reality-warping substance that had reshaped Earth over the past fifty years since entering the atmosphere through Dimensional Rifts connecting to Parallel Worlds and the Dimensional Labyrinth.
To ordinary humans, the crystal was lethal. But to Louis—a hybrid Anomaly, half-dragon from the Fantasium-rich Yggdrasil—it was salvation.
As a "Sinner," a cross between Anomaly and human, Louis could naturally absorb and refine Fantasium.
Yet he had never obtained a Resonance Heart, the special Fantasium Crystal capable of directly awakening a Sinner or Anomaly's Fantasy Heart.
Fantasy Hearts were inner pocket worlds born from madness and delusion, shaped by Fantasium, able to alter reality.
A powerful bearer could expand their Fantasy Heart and impose their Fantasy World on reality, bending it to their will.
This was perhaps the only force, besides Esper Psychic Power, that could challenge the Grievances, Anomalies, and Otherworldly Entities invading Earth.
For Louis, inheritor of the dragon bloodline, it was his sole chance to awaken his crippled body and ignite a true Dragon Heart.
"It's mine…!"
Louis gazed at the Resonance Heart in awe. Its pale blue glow pulsed rhythmically, as if beckoning him. His hand reached out. After three deaths, he was finally claiming what he sought.
However.
"He found the crystal! Stop him!"
"Graaaarrr!"
"Damn it! You again?!"
The zombified soldier seized his legs, trying to drag him down. The black knight hid behind a tree.
"So it was you! You manipulate corpses! You're no ordinary human! Why wear all that armor if you're a Sinner like me?!"
Louis confronted the black knight, who stood silent, shaking his head.
"N-No! I can't touch Fantasium! It's dangerous! J-Just die already! Die! Kill him! Tear him apart!"
"GRAAAHH!"
Louis kicked the zombie away with every ounce of strength and lunged for the Resonance Heart.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
A second before contact, gunshots riddled his body. Louis collapsed onto the Resonance Heart. Its light flared as vast quantities of Fantasium poured into him through every wound.
"Hey? A-are you dead yet?"
The black knight approached cautiously, watching from afar before advancing.
Louis's body lay motionless over the glowing crystal.
Blood painted the crystal crimson. His consciousness faded into the void once more.
"Ah, am I going to die again?"
He clenched his teeth in fury, hands twitching, still grasping the crystal even as death closed in.
"No…! I can't rely on that bastard…! If possible… I have to live… as long as I can! Whatever that butterfly wants, it won't grant endless reincarnation freely. There's a trick…! I cannot…! Die so easily again!"
The soldier noticed the movement and panicked, aiming his gun.
"How are you still alive?!"
Louis began absorbing the Resonance Heart. Its energy dispersed and flowed into him. The zombie roared, attacking again, trying to pull him away. But Louis held tight, fingers locked around his final hope.
"You think I'll let go?! I won't! No matter what! No matter— Ugh?!"
Then it happened.
In an instant, Louis stood on a vast stage.
If William hadn't merged with who he was now, he wouldn't have recognized this place.
"This is… the game's event when someone awakens their Spiral of Incarnations?"
Spiral of Incarnations, a manifestation of one's Fantasy, Madness, and Delusion.
Every character experienced a different event.
And now, Louis stood in the center of a vast stage.
This was the stage of his life.
"Ah… that's right…"
He saw countless faces—some familiar, others barely remembered.
Yet all of them, every single one, represented his "connections," no matter how fleeting.
Enemies, friends, family—it didn't matter.
"Louis…"
A gentle voice echoed behind him. Louis's eyes widened as he turned to find a tall, beautiful woman gazing at him with warm golden eyes.
Pale blue skin, long silvery-white hair, shimmering golden scales on her hands and neck, bright golden horns, feathered wings, and a long tail.
This was his mother.
"Mother…"
The eldest daughter of the Dragon King of Yggdrasil, one of the first peaceful visitors from another world to Earth.
She lay bedridden now, gravely wounded and cursed after battling a powerful Level 5 Entity three years ago.
His mother, once so strong, able to dispel any curse, poison, or disease with her Holy Magic… now unable to heal herself.
Her condition had slowly worsened, and Louis had done everything possible to help his father find a cure.
"Son."
Another voice rang out—serious, strict, almost emotionless.
A tall, young-looking man stood there, messy black hair, short black beard, glasses framing tired eyes with dark bags beneath them.
He wore a white lab coat, his overworked father.
A powerful Esper who dedicated his life to studying the Hintergrid, Anomalies, Parallel Worlds, and the Dimensional Labyrinth.
A pragmatic man Louis had once resented for his lack of emotion.
"Father…"
His parents, from utterly different worlds and species, loved each other despite everything. He was the miracle born of that love.
"…"
Louis sighed, gazing at the countless figures before him.
The Soul Stage was a mysterious Mindscape.
Anyone awakening a Spiral of Madness remained here until they accepted their flaws and cried out their hopes, dreams, and obsessions with the world.
To unite with the Spiral of Incarnation, one had to embrace their madness, devour it, and transform it into power.
"No matter what, I promise you all… I will avenge our family. I won't forgive those bastards who have tried to assassinate us all these years."
"I will burn them to the ground, no matter the cost!"
"Mother, I will find a cure!"
"Father, I will ask if you truly feel anything."
"And above all…"
Louis looked down. In the shadows far away, a young girl with black hair and glowing red eyes stared at him.
"I will ask why you brought me here… And then take revenge."
He sighed, a twisted smile forming as he gazed at the bright sky bathed in white light.
His face contorted with countless emotions.
Colors swirled and converged into a black heart. Louis pierced his chest and tore it free.
Holding the still-beating heart, he began devouring it piece by piece.
Blood dripped from his jaws with every grotesque bite.
He consumed his own heart of madness.
His obsession.
What was Louis's deepest obsession?
"I want to become stronger… at any cost… stronger than anyone…"
More than revenge, more than vengeance…
Louis needed to prove he wasn't the useless failure the world believed him to be.
He craved strength to push back against a merciless world that never gave him a moment to breathe.
Above all, he needed power to one day shatter this endless loop.
In this horrible world, without strength he was nothing.
"Magnificent."
A voice echoed from the light, unfamiliar to Louis and unknown even in the game William had played.
"Thou hast proven worthy."
Frozen light burst in every direction. The poison stopped. Blood flowed backward. His irises shifted, silver and sapphire flames flickering deep within.
The ground cracked. Frost spread in jagged runes, blooming into flowers and trees.
"By devouring thy madness, thou hast proven worthy of the crown."
"Crown…?"
"Receive it, oh grandson of mine."
"…?!"
An interaction that had never occurred—the enigmatic Dragon King of Yggdrasil, who never appeared in the main story or spoke to anyone…
He was addressing Louis now.
FLASH!
Amidst the pillar of light, a crown forged from white ashes materialized, floating above his head.
From within emerged a silhouette of ash, a tall, slender, fragile figure.
Half dragon, half human.
"Hold the crown of ashes, oh hollow prince…"
"The Ashen Heir."
BA-DUM!
BA-DUM!
BA-DUM!
"There it is!"
Louis laughed as he felt his heart finally beat.
A false dragon heart, born from ashes and regret, manifested within him.
"I did it…"
Laughing maniacally, Louis rose, surveying his surroundings, ice and white light everywhere, ashes drifting from the sky like snow.
"W-Wha…?! I shot you a dozen times! How are you still alive?!"
The necromancer stared at Louis in disbelief, hands trembling.
Dozens of silhouettes shambled from the forest—walking corpses infested with corrupt miasma.
"What is that?! What is that thing?!"
Despite his army, the necromancer retreated in horror. Something stood behind Louis now.
"At long last… it's mine."
Louis had reached Tier 9, the First Step Toward the Pinnacle.
Then another voice resonated gently within his soul
{The Hollow Spiral of the Ashen Wyrm}
["When the First Dragon died, its soul did not ascend—it coiled inward, forming a Spiral of ash and memory. Those who walk its path do not live. They persist."]
[A forbidden Spiral born from the corpse of a dying world-serpent. It is the only Spiral that begins at death and spirals inward, not upward. Each tier is a descent into deeper metaphysical hollowness, where the soul is slowly devoured by the Spiral itself. Yet, paradoxically, this devouring grants power, if the bearer can retain identity long enough to reach the Spiral's core.]
[You have become the {Ashen Heir}, born of dragon flame and human fragility. Fated to become the {Fate Bearer}'s antagonist, you instead seek to rewrite the Spiral itself. Each death you suffer feeds the Spiral but also reveals a deeper truth. You cannot awaken your dragon powers because they were sealed by the Spiral itself, until you reach its core.]
[You Are The Ninth Spiral, The Flicker of Ash.]
[Your Spiral Incarnation is The Gravewalker.]
[Your Ability is {Ashen Frost (Tier 9)}: Grows stronger by absorbing Despair in the atmosphere, malleable.]
"I finally… have something…"
Louis smiled, clutching his face as his hair cascaded down. The soldier hiding behind the tree unleashed his dozens of undead—Louis had no idea where he had even obtained them.
"Thank you… you've brought quite the audience…" Louis said gently. "Truly… I am so grateful."
He stepped forward, wounds healed, and his vitality restored. His true draconic power remained sealed, but he had gained something else.
Something he desperately needed.
Strength.
"Come, Gravewalker. Let me feed you his soul."
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