I could not move from my spot. As that golden, colossal dragon stood before me, a primal fear seized my entire body, as if my life would be forfeit the moment I stirred. I wanted to run, but I could not.

My legs, those powerful limbs that had obeyed me, no longer listened to my commands. As if my body no longer belonged to me, I was frozen solid in the middle of that ruin.

The Golden Dragon, without taking its eyes off me, looked at me with a judging, disdainful air. Its voice echoed in my mind like thunder:

"What a pitiful creature."

Those were the last words I heard. The last thing I saw was the dragon's contemptuous gaze upon me.

Pure, cleansing golden flames enveloped my body. I could not even move. I just stood where I was and waited for those sacred flames to end my cursed existence.

The burning of that ancient curse, that dark power in my veins, by those golden flames was an incredible, indescribable pain.

Even being cut and torn apart by hundreds of swords at once would have been a blessing compared to this agony.

But my mind was preoccupied with something other than the torture my body was enduring.

I had failed. Even though I had destroyed the entire city, those who deserved that hatred were still alive.

My father had managed to survive. My sister Vexana, though gravely wounded, was still breathing.

And he... Mordret... the person I hated most, had not even shown his face. But I was sure he was alive.

So... what was everything I did for? What were all those lives I took for?

All the pain I lived through, all the humiliation I suffered... what was it for? While I died here in agony, would they continue to live?

As my soul shattered, filled with these unacceptable regrets, my consciousness sank into an endless darkness. The war, for me, was over.

(Sethrak's Spirit. The Present in the Ruin)

I do not know what is left of me. I barely even remember who I am.

The only thing I know is that for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years, I have watched my life as a prisoner from within a monster's eyes, inside this dark ruin.

I am in a dark room. I am trying to protect a stone. I slaughter everyone who enters this building, everyone who tries to reach this-stone.

Again and again... For centuries, this meaningless cycle continued.

Until... they arrived.

At first, I thought they were just a few more fools who had come for the stone, destined to die for their greed. But they kept climbing the building.

They passed floor after floor, destroyed my guardians, and finally reached me, on the top floor.

As soon as they entered the room, they burned all the monsters under my command with dark flames.

The one who did this was a gasping child, with red eyes and white hair. Beside him was another, older man, who emitted a dark aura. The moment he saw me, he instinctively took a step back.

The monster instinct controlling my body lunged forward in rage.

But unexpectedly, a huge, four armed creature emerged from the child's palm and wounded me. Then, together with that older man, they fought fiercely.

From within, with that small, trapped piece of my soul, I could not help but wonder: Could it be... could it be that I would finally die, escape this endless torture, and find peace? Had these people, this child, come here to end my suffering?

My only hope was for it all to be over.

When the fight ended, I had lost. That man had defeated me in a dark dimension; I was lying on the ground, wounded.

Inwardly... I was happy. My time to find peace had finally come.

The red eyed child stood before me with his katana. But... he was hesitating to make the final blow.

But why?

There was a mercy, an empathy in his eyes that I could not understand.

Why did he pity me? Just moments ago, I had nearly killed him. So why?

Before I could find my answer, the child dropped the sword in his hand and placed his hand on my monstrous head. His gaze held emotions I could not comprehend.

Then, he cast a spell that was both painful and purifying. My consciousness was suddenly torn from that dark ruin and dragged to another place, another time.

I was inside a castle. It was a rainy, stormy night. In a luxurious bedroom, a tired woman who had just given birth lay on the bed. She was holding a newborn baby in her arms.

The baby... had red eyes and stark white hair. Bloody tears flowed ceaselessly from his eyes.

A man with a powerful posture, likely her husband, sat in a chair beside her. Neither of them looked very happy, despite having a new child.

The memories continued to flow. I listened to their conversations, their whispers. They spoke of the child being cursed.

But his wife, the child's mother, opposed this, trying to protect him. In the end, the man's decision was final: The child would be sent into exile, to the Dark Forests, so as not to tarnish the dynasty's name.

The memories continued. The child, as decreed, had been sent to the Dark Forest. He was being carried by two soldiers. The next moment, both soldiers were killed. An old man in a black robe stood over the corpses. The old man in the black robe took the child and left.

I continued to watch the memories. The child was now in a place like a laboratory, sterile but terrifying.

He was being strapped to metal tables, subjected to countless, painful experiments. Every day... and every day.

The child was constantly subjected to torture. In the child's eyes, there was always that empty look I could not understand. A vacant stare with no expectations of life, one that did not even feel pain.

A look... a look that I once had as well. So much so that even the life I lived in that barn paled in comparison to what this child was enduring.

Years passed. The child had grown up in that laboratory. And as always, he was subjected to another experiment. But this time, the experiment backfired.

The child turned into a monster. Just like me. Horns sprouted from his head, claws grew from his hands, his eyes turned pitch black. He grew taller, his appearance completely changed.

He slaughtered the entire laboratory and everyone inside it, everyone who had inflicted this pain upon him. And most importantly, the main person responsible for his torment, that old man.

After a long battle, the child was wounded in the heart. But he had no intention of losing. The child began to form a massive, dark sphere of energy in his hand. A sphere of pure nothingness, emitting an aura that seemed capable of tearing apart the very fabric of the universe...

The child detonated the sphere. And he returned everything to nothingness, sacrificing himself in the process. The forest, the laboratory, the test subjects... and that old man.

When the battle was over, the child had returned to his small, original form. His white hair spilled to the sides, his red eyes gazing at the full moon in the sky.

The child's expression, unlike that of someone dying, held an incredible, indescribable peace.

As time passed, the child's eyes slowly closed.

I thought he had died. But that was not what happened. From within the child's lifeless body, a spectral, purple female silhouette rose and stood at his head.

She had long purple hair and purple eyes. She was an incredibly beautiful woman; a surreal beauty, equal to the gods.

I could not take my eyes off her. The woman, as if sensing my gaze, turned toward me and winked. There was a mischievous smile on her face.

Wait... Could she... see me?

I spoke immediately. "Can... can you see me?"

The woman giggled. Her voice rang inside my mind. "Hahaha! Of course I can see you, sweetie. Did you think I was blind or something?"

"N no! I did not mean it like that!" I said, my voice panicked.

The woman covered her mouth with her hand and giggled softly. "You do not need to be so tense... Cordelia."

Cordelia? Was that my name?

The woman leaned down and cupped the face of the child lying on the ground. Then, she pressed her forehead to his. "Good job, little Cass."

The mortal wounds on the child's body instantly, miraculously began to heal.

The woman then turned her head back to me and said with that all knowing smile, "You had better not betray his trust."

The child and the woman vanished in an instant.

The memories shifted again. The child, having somehow returned to life, was walking half naked in a snow covered forest. He was found by someone and brought to civilization, to a duchy. The people who found him gave him a home, a family. They took him under their wing.

The child was just beginning to think he had found peace, that perhaps he could be happy... when one day, everything took an apocalyptic turn. The duchy he lived in was attacked.

Everyone was fighting for their lives, trying to survive.

In those moments, the child lost control. A crown mixing black and red colors appeared on his head. Then his body changed again. Back to that monster form... Horns sprouted, claws grew, his eyes blackened.

Then he threw himself onto the battlefield and began to fight. His target was an arrogant young man with silver hair.

Cassian and that man entered a life or death battle. But something was wrong. The silver haired man was too calm, as if he knew everything. But the child, blinded by his rage and pain, seemed not to notice.

The child was gathering a destructive energy in his hand, about to kill the man, when... Suddenly, the child's head was separated from his body by an invisible attack and fell to the ground.

The silver haired man picked up the child's severed head. The man's voice did not reach my ears, as if the universe itself was preventing me from hearing.

But even though I did not know what he was saying, I saw that the man... was crying as he looked at the child's lifeless face.

Afterward, the child's body and head turned to dust and vanished into nothingness.

"Ahh... so his story ends here too," I thought to myself.

But again, it did not end. The memories shifted once more.

The child, somehow, returned to life again. He continued to live. He continued to fight for his life. He never gave up. No matter what happened to him, no matter how many times he fell, he kept clinging to life.

I continued to watch the child's memories. Until... he reached me. Until that moment he entered this ruin and fought with me.

The dreams cut off at that moment.

I returned to the dark space. Everything was pitch black again. Except for one thing... In the air, shining in the distance, was a purple star.

It shone so beautifully, so invitingly, that I could not take my eyes off it. I reached my hand out toward that star, and my consciousness was drawn into its light.

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