'Ah… how troublesome.'

Kaden thought, eyes shut tight, feeling his mind struggle to stay awake amid a sea of pain, his thoughts jumbling sporadically all around his thought-cage, making his face twist into one feral scowl.

A headache. A bloodydamn headache!

It was as if an overly passionate blacksmith was hammering down his skull, wanting to smash it and turn it into mashed brain cells and meat. And it wasn't only that, different kinds of thoughts were screaming inside his mind like hundreds of loudspeakers at max volume, making him unable to focus on the current situation he found himself in.

Added to all that, there was a voice whispering to him.

Now, if that voice had belonged to a woman with a tone as sweet as musk, Kaden would have thanked the gods for this mercy. But he knew the gods didn't fancy his existence.

For the voice whispering inside his mind was that of a man who couldn't stop shouting and wailing in agony at the same time, or so Kaden assumed.

But the voice was faint, sounding as if someone were speaking kilometers away, making the situation less chilling and yet…

…for a moment, Kaden thought he was truly going mad.

But he wasn't. His Will was strong enough for him to shoulder all of this, though it made him almost unable to do anything else.

'That bloody woman.' Kaden cursed Mahina, feeling an intense urge to smash that woman's face.

And in that instant…

"Already awake?" Mahina's voice echoed around him.

He was startled, opening his eyes with a loud snap, thinking his curse had been heard.

But no, he was worrying for no reason.

He frowned.

He was lying on the floor, he noticed, curled up in a tight position. Wearily, he pressed his palms on the cold ground and pushed himself up, managing to sit.

He then raised his head, looking around him, finally gaining a basic understanding of where he was. The sight stunned him. But he didn't have time to ponder it, as Mahina's voice echoed once again.

"If I'm not wrong about your Will, then you're already awake." Mahina's voice resonated.

This time, he was able to pinpoint precisely where it originated from.

Calmly, he raised his right hand and touched the back of his head. His fingers brushed against something cold and hard.

Ice.

"I'm speaking with you through my intent," she said, confirming Kaden's thoughts.

"And I didn't leave much on you in order for my husband not to detect it. So I will go straight to the point, boy."

Kaden frowned, not liking at all where this was going. This whole situation smelled like something orchestrated, pulling him into whatever scheme this woman had planned for some reason.

His frown deepened, a thin vein charring across his forehead. He felt a sickening surge of annoyance in his stomach.

And yet, he listened. Not like there were any other sensible choices to make at that moment.

"You are inside The Madhouse, the place where the Mad Sun Emperor gave his last breath. Inside that place, there is a shard. Let's call it the Starlight Shard, okay?"

"The Starlight Shard is supposed to be with him, inside his remains."

She paused briefly, letting Kaden absorb her words, then continued.

"Your task is simple, boy. You simply need to take it back from the corpse and bring it to me. Don't think I didn't notice the space ring inside your stomach. You are still a child, boy."

"Put it inside of it when you get it."

'How did she know about my space ring? Bloody hell,' Kaden thought. Then, 'My task? Is this woman taking me for her errand boy?'

"Now, before you think you have any choice in this matter, let me tell you the things you wanted to know so badly." Here, her voice turned almost playful yet chilling. "I know where your brother is, and I know for a fact that he does not have much time to live, for some stupid thing he had no business doing."

Kaden's eyes sharpened.

"Now," she continued, "don't take it as a threat. Take it as a transaction between us. Give me the Starlight Shard, and I will send you to your brother, and you will save him before the thing he's trying to swallow swallows him first."

"I will make sure to delay the process of finding him to give you time, though you don't have eternity for it. Do the task, and save both your brother and the mind of my daughter you seem to appreciate."

"And also…Golden Voice, huh?" She chuckled. "That's a good nickname. I approve."

And just like that, her voice faded away completely, the ice on the back of his head dissolving into blue light before disappearing into the air.

Kaden was silent for a moment, his eyes fixed on the bleak golden-crimson fog that tainted his surroundings.

After a while, a dry, humorless chuckle escaped his lips. "Ah, brother… what type of situation did you involve yourself in?" he wondered wistfully.

Things were getting bothersome, but Kaden remained calm, almost unbothered.

He didn't bother worrying about Mahina's schemes, it hardly mattered. There was a certain kind of relief, a certain way of seeing things when you knew that death was not the end of your path, but merely another step toward deeper discovery.

So if he couldn't find the truth in one life, he would in the second… or the third. As long as he had death coins, Kaden wouldn't mind playing the pawn in order to devour the king. Or maybe Queen? Meh.

And yet, that didn't mean he wasn't curious.

Mad Sun Emperor? Starlight Shard?

No matter how many times he thought about it, all of this…

"…smells like myth," he muttered, a smile painting his lips as his face twitched from the pain knocking at his mind. But he didn't care, his smile only grew wider.

He was still not eligible to take the quest, there were still four other stats to surpass the limit. But looking at the situation he was in, he wasn't worried, as…

…he unhurriedly raised his head to look at the space around him. Truthfully, his eyes were clouded by a weird, thick fog, making him unable to perceive properly.

All he saw was a heavy golden mist tainted with streaks of crimson. He then squinted his eyes, pushing his perception to the max, and only then was he able to see.

He first looked at the sky, suppressing a chill as his gaze met a striking golden expanse with a crimson sun hung directly in the middle, shining with furious red light.

All around him, hidden behind the fog, Kaden saw…

He frowned.

"Paintings?" he wondered. It was strange, because that was the only thing that came to mind. They were protected by a thin film of golden light, making them look pristine and untouched.

The paintings were diverse…animals, objects, the cosmos, even humans.

But looking at them, Kaden felt something wrong. Something that bothered the seed of transcendence inside him.

Not knowing why, he shook his head and continued his inspection.

Beneath him, the floor was hard and cold. Ice, he easily deduced.

Finally having a basic map of his surroundings, he got up from the cold floor and stood straight.

He didn't know his way, but he knew he needed to walk forward, as the fog grew thicker the farther he looked. Meaning, the origin of it was there… so the probability of finding what he sought was high.

But that was easier said than done, as he could sense an intent filled with unmasked madness thick within the space around him, clinging to his skin like lovers in the night, trying to seep into his mind the way water would into soil.

He didn't let any of it enter, but he knew he would eventually have to, because he needed to die and gather stat points first.

He gave a dry smile. 'Why must I always go through consecutive deaths every time I'm about to rank up?' he wondered.

And at that moment, Death decided to grace him with some motivation.

DING!

[You have received a new quest.]

[Quest: Reach the dead body of The Mad Sun Emperor.]

[Difficulty: Near Hell.]

[Description: Do I need to spell it to you? Start walking.]

[Penalty: None.]

[Rewards: Death Coins — 15,000 | Stat Points — 200.]

Kaden glanced briefly at the quest before smiling, then intentionally lowered his Will's protection over his mind and body.

The effect was disastrous.

His knees instantly buckled on the icy floor with a resounding crack, his bones shattering from the impact. The ice remained untouched, immaculate. Pain and shock screamed through his body like thunder, reeling his mind, leaving him lost for a second.

Then came the whispers.

Kaden clenched his head with both hands, grabbing tightly in agony. His veins bulged, threatening to burst. It wasn't just his hands, even his head and eyes swelled with pulsing veins until they exploded, painting his sight crimson. Next his skull ballooned from the overwhelming intent, his mind catching only a fragment of the whisper before fading into oblivion…

"AURORAAAAAAA!!"

BOOM!

His head exploded in a spray of blood and brain matter, followed swiftly by his body.

[You are dead.]

Thud.

—End of Chapter 295—

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