Before I could react, the world dimmed. Shadows surged around us like a living tide. In the next heartbeat, my vision went black.
Then, just as suddenly, the darkness peeled away. I blinked and found myself high above the ruins, North beside me, both of us held aloft by Edgar’s shadows.
"What just happened?" I asked, my voice sharper than I intended.
The whistling still rang in my ears, shrill and cutting through the chaos. I turned my head in time to see a figure plummet, smashing into the ground with a force that split the earth.
BOOM!
The impact thundered out in every direction, another brutal shockwave ripping across the capital. Buildings bent and broke, the streets tore apart, and the screams of people below blended with the roar of collapsing stone.
But this time Edgar was there. His shadows flared, bending the wave of destruction around us, like water parting before a rock. For once, the blast didn’t reach us.
As the dust settled, I saw her. Hazel.
She floated in the air, her hair wild, her face twisted with something between rage and grief. Her eyes gleamed with a madness I hadn’t seen before, and her sword hand trembled from the fury she was holding in.
And without a word, she dove.
She shot downward at impossible speed, heading straight for the grandmaster embedded in the crater below, her blade thirsty for blood.
"She’s losing control," Edgar muttered beside me. His voice was low, almost resigned.
"What do you mean?" I asked, though I already felt the unease settle in my chest.
"She’s slipping," he said. "Her law feeds on emotion. She’s the only one who dared to walk the path of Death itself, aiming for the Major Law. But her strength is also her weakness. The more she gives in to her emotions, the less she commands her law. Right now, her sword isn’t guiding death... death is guiding her."
I frowned. "What? I thought she only followed the path of the sword."
Edgar’s shadowy form shifted, and I thought I saw him smile faintly, though it didn’t reach his eyes. "The sword is only a vessel. A supplement. Death has always been her true path."
Before I could ask more, the shadows carrying us faded. He lowered North and me back to the shattered streets.
"Take care," he said. Just two words. Then he vanished again, swallowed by his own shadows.
Raising my head I saw the chaos and conflicting laws shining and exploding everywhere. And then there was Hazel completely lost in her own world.
"What should we do?" North asked.
I responded instantly.
"Kill."
I tightened my grip on my sword. My heart thudded in my chest as I called the words.
"[Abyss Severance]."
Lightning coiled around my body, running sharp through my veins. My vision tunneled, every detail sharpening, the world fell away except for the Master ranked man stumbling out of the rubble ahead. His eyes widened, mouth opening to shout. But his fate was sealed.
I bent my knees and vanished.
The blade sliced through, silent, perfect. His head fell, his body folded. Clean. Empty. No blood. The cut was complete, but I felt a little impatient.
Hazel’s words came back to me.
Do not doubt. Do not hesitate.
She had drilled that into me every time I faltered, every time I tried to overthink the swing instead of trusting it. Now, watching her lose herself, I wondered. Had she already made her choice? To end it all? Was she showing me the truth of her path, or warning me of it?
I clenched my teeth. No room for questions. Only the quest.
Another figure burst from a broken tower, armor cracked, his weapon half-drawn. I raised my blade, lightning crackling harder, and whispered again.
"[Abyss Severance]."
I flashed forward, blade carving through his chest. He didn’t even get a scream out. The crack in the air vanished, and he toppled.
The system chimed in my ear.
[Skill Level Up]
[Abyss Severance Lv.2 -> Abyss Severance Lv.3]
My breath caught. The swing had felt sharper, faster, like my sword was starting to understand me, not just follow me.
I swallowed hard, pushing the thought down. There was no time. Another body. Another target.
"[Abyss Severance]."
The words became rhythm. Breath. My body moved, faster, harder. My sword was the only constant. The skill surged, burned, and ate through me each time, but I kept going.
Kill. Step forward. Swing. Silence.
Kill. Step forward. Swing. Silence.
Hazel’s voice lived in the back of my skull. Don’t doubt. Don’t hesitate. Always forward. Always the end.
The Masters kept coming, some fleeing, some foolish enough to charge me. They all fell the same. My blade hummed, my body screamed, but I didn’t stop.
By the time I pulled in a ragged breath, the streets were unrecognizable. Rubble piled in heaps, smoke twisted into the sky, corpses littered the broken stone. My sword arm trembled, and sweat poured down my back. Lightning still crawled across my skin in faint sparks, but even that felt weaker now.
I had lost count of how many I cut. The system hadn’t.
44 activations.
Forty-four times I had torn the world open with that swing. Forty-four lives ended with no hesitation.
It took me 30 minutes to do so but I felt I spent eternity doing that.
I stood in the middle of it all, chest heaving, lungs on fire. My body screamed at me to stop, but my hand refused to let go of the hilt. The sword hummed, alive in my grip, eager for more.
I looked down at the nearest corpse—clean cut, no blood, the body split neatly in two. My jaw clenched as I thought of Hazel again. Was this what she meant all along? To keep swinging until nothing remained? To walk so far down this path of death that turning back was impossible?
My knees shook. My vision swam for a moment, black spots at the edge. Still, I raised the blade, whispering under my breath.
"Kill or be killed..."