The world around Asura shattered.
The battlefield blurred into mist.
The screams, the fire, the blood —
gone.
Only silence remained.
Inside that endless silence,
he stood alone.
The ruins of a boy's memories surrounded him.
Shattered toys.
Broken dreams.
Torn books.
Faded laughter that never reached the sky.
And standing before him…
was himself.
A boy no older than twelve.
Fragile.
Small.
Eyes wide with hope and pain and desperate dreams.
The boy looked up at Asura.
Not with fear.
Not with hatred.
With something far, far worse.
Disappointment.
"Why?" the boy asked softly.
"Why did you give up?
Why did you choose this?
We wanted to be a hero.
We wanted to be better.
We… we were supposed to save them."
Asura said nothing.
He couldn't.
The words tangled like chains around his throat.
The boy stepped closer.
Tears welled in his wide, broken eyes.
"You were supposed to save people like us.
Not become the thing we feared.
Not become the thing that broke us."
Memories stabbed through Asura's mind.
The Guild Academy beatings.
The laughter of the strong.
The screams no one answered.
The prayers no one heard.
He wanted to fall to his knees.
He wanted to scream.
But he didn't.
Because he knew the truth.
He had made his choice.
He had chosen to burn the world that had abandoned him.
The boy's voice broke into a whisper:
"You could still turn back.
You could still choose."
For a breath.
For a heartbeat.
Asura almost believed him.
But then…
He remembered.
The betrayal.
The abandonment.
The cruelty.
And he knew.
There was no forgiveness.
There was no turning back.
There was no hero left to save.
Only Asura.
Only ruin.
Only silence.
He reached out —
and closed his hand around the boy's throat.
The boy struggled.
Tears fell.
But Asura's hand did not tremble.
Not anymore.
With a final, shuddering breath,
he crushed the last piece of his own humanity.
The mist collapsed.
The dream ended.
The boy was gone.
When Asura opened his eyes again on the battlefield,
he was alone.
Utterly.
Eternally.
Arin collapsed to her knees across from him,
her body spent from overusing her Light Sigil,
blood pouring from her mouth.
Her light flickered desperately —
but it could no longer reach him.
No one could.
Asura stepped forward through the ash and ruin.
No longer as a man.
No longer as a savior.
As the true Monarch of Abyss.
Crowned by silence.
Crowned by ruin.
Crowned by the ashes of the boy he once was.
The world wept.
The last light flickered.
The king had chosen.
And there would be no turning back.