The scent of ash still lingered. Rei sat alone on a broken stone, arms resting on his knees, watching the blood-soaked clouds drift across the sky. The battle was over, but inside him, something else was beginning.
Kael stood nearby, silent, waiting.
Rei didn't speak for a long time.
He was tired. Not from the fight, but from everything before it. From hoping. From trying. From believing people could be saved without breaking the world first.
"They called me a protector," he muttered, barely audible. "Then turned their backs the moment I changed."
He stared at his palm. Blood swirled faintly in the air, answering his every thought.
"I never wanted this kind of power."
Kael finally spoke. "But you have it. And you use it to give the fallen a second chance."
Rei shook his head. "What good is a second chance if the world refuses to change?"
He stood slowly, eyes heavier than ever. He looked to the east—toward the cities that had ignored Aethra's cries. Survivors had begged for shelter… and were left to die in the cold.
"I begged them," Rei whispered. "I begged them. And they sent back silence."
His hands clenched, veins pulsing faint red.
"I'm not trying to destroy the world, Kael. I'm just done letting it destroy me."
A few hours later, Rei stood before his new army of Bloodbound—thirty-seven strong and growing. Kael walked beside him as they prepared to move.
"Where to, my Sovereign?"
Rei didn't answer right away.
Finally, he said, "The eastern province. We won't wipe them out… unless they force us to."
Kael looked surprised. "You still… care?"
Rei's gaze hardened.
"I care enough to give them one last choice."
That night, Rei sat in silence again. But something was different. There was no warmth. No music in his thoughts. Only a strange, heavy clarity. Like fog had finally cleared.
And for the first time…
He didn't feel like the hero.
He felt like something else entirely.
Not evil. Not monstrous. Just… necessary.
He opened his system:
> [Warning: Path Divergence Detected]
[Alignment Shift: Ruthless]
[Unlocked Title: The Crimson Judge]
And far away, in the sky above the clouds, the divine halls whispered nervously.
Because Rei Kisaragi was no longer the one asking for permission.
He was ready to take.