The impact was not a sound; it was a physical erasure of silence.
When the shadow-hand slammed the Citadel of the King into the ruins of District 5, the shockwave leveled every standing skyscraper within a two-mile radius. A mushroom cloud of bone-dust and purple fog billowed into the sky, blotting out the stars.
Inside the ruins of the cathedral, Seol-ah shielded her eyes. The 'Sanctuary' was gone, crushed under the sheer weight of the Sovereign's presence. She looked at Kang-woo, but the man she had shared a car with was gone.
He stood amidst the swirling ash, his silhouette jagged and sharp. The black fire wreathed his body like a funeral shroud. He didn't breathe. He didn't blink. He was a living hole in the world.
[Current State: Sovereign's Avatar][Warning: Your soul is burning as fuel. Time remaining: 04:59]
"Kang-woo..." Seol-ah's voice was a whisper, lost in the roar of the wind.
Kang-woo didn't turn. He stepped out of the cathedral's wreckage, his feet not touching the ground but treading on a path of cooling shadows.
The Citadel groaned. From the center of the crashed fortress, the bone-white gates burst open. Thousands of skeletons—The King's Legion—poured out like an avalanche of ivory. They weren't the clumsy ghouls of the upper districts. These were armored knights, riding steeds made of spectral mist.
At their head rode a figure ten feet tall, encased in armor that looked like it was forged from the frozen blood of a god. He held a spear that hummed with the vibration of a dying star.
[Entity Identified: Grand Commander of the Abyss.][Rank: Epic-Class Boss.]
"Usurper!" the Commander roared, his voice a tidal wave of malice. "You dare lay hands upon the King's dwelling?"
Kang-woo raised his void-filled eyes. He didn't summon the Centurion. He didn't use the Grave-Hook. He simply reached into the air and pulled.
The 'Auditor's Ink' in his veins surged, manifesting as a massive, translucent quill made of pure shadow. He scribbled a jagged line across the horizon.
[Skill: 'The Sovereign's Ledger' activated.][Condition: All who stand before me are in Debt.]
The charging Legion froze.
The spectral horses buckled. The armored knights began to crumble, not from physical force, but as if their very right to exist had been revoked. One by one, they turned into gray mist, their essence being sucked into the black fire surrounding Kang-woo.
[Mana Restored: 100%][Mana Restored: 200%][Overcharging...]
"My turn to collect," Kang-woo said. His voice was no longer human; it sounded like the collective whisper of a graveyard.
He blurred.
He appeared in front of the Grand Commander. The Commander lunged with his spear, a strike fast enough to break the sound barrier. Kang-woo didn't dodge. He caught the spearhead with his bare hand. The metal hissed and rotted instantly under his touch.
Kang-woo drove his other hand—now a claw of solidified void—straight through the Commander's breastplate.
"The King... will... devour you..." the Commander rasped, his soul-fire flickering.
"Tell him to hurry," Kang-woo replied.
He wrenched the Commander's core out—a pulsing, dark-green jewel. He didn't store it. He crushed it.
[Epic Soul Consumed.][Time Remaining: 03:22][Level Locked: Breaking seal...]
The explosion of energy cleared the fog for miles. Kang-woo stood atop the heap of dissolving armor, looking at the center of the Citadel. There, atop a throne made of a thousand ribcages, sat a figure that remained motionless.
The King of the Dead.
The King wasn't a giant. He was the size of a man, draped in a simple, rotted gray robe. He didn't have a weapon. He just watched, his chin resting on a hand made of pale, translucent bone.
"You have grown quite bold, little butcher," the King's voice echoed in Kang-woo's mind, devoid of anger, filled only with an ancient, terrifying curiosity.
"I'm coming for the seat," Kang-woo said, his voice cold.
"Then come. But remember," the King stood up, and as he did, the entire district began to tilt, the gravity itself bowing to his movement. "A Sovereign without a lifespan is merely a ghost playing pretend. How long can you stay awake, Kang-woo?"
Suddenly, the ground beneath Kang-woo erupted. Not with monsters, but with mirrors.
Thousands of glass shards rose from the dirt, reflecting Kang-woo's face. But in the reflections, he wasn't a Sovereign. He was the G-rank carrier again, bloodied and broken, being mocked by Park.
[Psychological Attack: 'Mirror of the Lost Self'.][Sanity dropping rapidly!]
Kang-woo stumbled, his void-eyes flickering. The black fire around him wavered. The weight of his 'zero' lifespan began to crush his spirit. He saw himself dying in the pit, over and over.
"Kang-woo! Don't look!"
Seol-ah's voice pierced through the mental static. She was running toward him, her silver-gold mana forming a protective halo. She wasn't strong enough to fight the King, but her presence was a tether to reality.
"Remember the car!" she yelled, her face wet with tears. "Remember the bridge! You're not that person anymore!"
The mirrors cracked.
Kang-woo gripped the black heart in his pocket. He didn't look at the reflections. He looked at Seol-ah.
"You're right," Kang-woo whispered.
He turned back to the King, his void-eyes hardening into something even darker. He didn't just use his mana. He used the 'Life-Debt Bond' with Seol-ah, pulling a thread of her silver light into his black fire.
[Paradox Synergy: 'Twilight Executioner' form initiated.]
The black fire turned a shimmering, lethal gray. Kang-woo leaped.
The King finally raised a hand. A wall of absolute darkness rose to meet him.
"This is for the years you stole," Kang-woo roared.
The gray blade of his hand sliced through the King's darkness like it was paper. But as he reached for the King's throat, the King disappeared.
A cold sensation washed over Kang-woo's neck.
The King was standing behind him, his bone-finger touching the base of Kang-woo's skull.
"Checkmate," the King whispered.