I stood there, frozen, staring into the crooked grin of a creature that shouldn't exist.
The room felt colder than before. The flickering torchlight overhead seemed to dim, shadows stretching longer with each breath I took.
It had offered me freedom.
An end to the curse.
The chance to make Copy something more than a death sentence.
But something about the way it smiled made my stomach twist.
"…What's the price?" I asked quietly. "No one offers something for nothing."
The creature tilted its head. The chains around its limbs clinked like bones rattling together.
"Smart," it said, sounding pleased. "Come closer. I'll whisper it. The Markers… they're always listening."
My instincts screamed at me. Every part of my body told me not to move. But my legs shifted anyway, almost on their own. I stepped closer, across the cold stone floor, until I was just a few feet from its chained, monstrous form.
Its voice dropped to a whisper, low and venomous.
"I want to take this world," it hissed. "I want revenge. For what they did. The Markers cast me down… locked me in this Tower like a dog. They feared what I knew. What I could do."
It leaned forward, chains groaning with strain.
"But with you… with your gift and my knowledge—we could burn the Towers to ash. Kill the gods. Unmake everything."
I froze.
There it was.
The real price.
He didn't want to help me.
He wanted me to become a weapon.
A puppet.
"No," I said, my voice steady. "You're too dangerous. Whatever they did to you... maybe they were right."
Silence.
For a heartbeat, the creature didn't move. The grin remained, frozen in porcelain.
Then it shattered.
Its face twisted with rage, too fast to process.
"You dare deny me?"
Before I could blink, before I could even breathe—
Something slammed into my gut.
I looked down.
A black, jagged spike of bone jutted through my stomach.
Blood poured out in a warm flood across my armor, down to the floor.
I hadn't even seen him move.
I gasped, mouth opening in a silent scream, but no sound came.
The pain didn't hit right away. Just the cold. Like everything inside me had been switched off all at once.
The creature leaned in, whispering as my vision blurred.
"Then I shall wait for another instead."
It smiled again.
I collapsed.
My head hit the stone with a dull crack. The ceiling above me shimmered, then spun.
I'm dying.
I didn't scream. I didn't cry.
I just thought of Yomi.
Her smile. The way she used to tug on my sleeve when she was scared. The promise I made to keep her safe.
I failed her.
I died for nothing.
No glory. No power. No redemption.
Just… blood, and cold, and regret.
I don't want this… I didn't want this…
My last breath rattled in my chest.
And then—
Everything went black.