The vision collapsed, dragging Kael back into reality.
But his heart was no longer the same. Lira's image—her final gaze, the promise he never had the chance to hold—remained etched deep within him.
His steps faltered. His eyes stayed lowered, empty. It was as if his body had returned to the arena, yet his soul remained in the abyss, beside the small figure swallowed by the mist.
And then—a black shadow struck.
A single, brutal swing from Noxis tore toward Kael's left cheek. A faint crack rang out as his jaw twisted from the impact. His body jerked, yet he did not block. He did not evade. His gaze remained lowered, dull and cold—numb, almost lifeless.
Before he could fall, Noxis twisted his hips and drove another fist into Kael's right cheek, harsher than the last. His head snapped sideways, hair whipping through the air as a thin spray of blood slipped from the corner of his lips.
"Fufufu… just a little longer." Noxis's low laughter followed the relentless barrage.
His left hand rose, striking upward into Kael's chin. A heavy impact echoed as his jaw was forced up, his body lifting slightly, like a fragile puppet.
An elbow slammed into his chest, forcing the air from his lungs in a harsh gasp. Then came a vicious kick to his ribs, sending him half a step back.
Still—no resistance.
Kael simply stood there, receiving every blow. His face was pale, his expression frozen, as if pain no longer mattered beside the deeper wound buried in his heart.
"Weak." Noxis sneered, driving another straight punch into Kael's abdomen, followed by a palm strike to his shoulder that shoved him sideways.
The eighth strike—Noxis's metal knee crashed into Kael's stomach. A heavy, metallic thud mixed with the crack of bone. Kael doubled over, blood spilling from his lips, yet no groan escaped him. Only ragged breathing—and the same hollow stare.
Between the impacts, Noxis's voice cut through the air, dripping with poison.
"You think the rage you hide will save you? You suppress it… lock it away… because you're afraid." The corner of his lips curled into a cruel smile. "Afraid of losing control. Afraid of becoming who you truly are!"
Another punch crashed into Kael's face, blood bursting from his nose.
"Hahaha… how ironic. That's exactly what makes you weak."
Noxis did not stop. A sweeping kick knocked Kael's legs out from under him, forcing him to one knee. From there, Noxis grabbed his hair, yanking his head up, locking eyes with a gaze that held no trace of defiance.
"Wake up, Kael Vieron. This world has cast you aside once already. They threw you into the ice, treated you as nothing more than a corpse from the past. You were abandoned, erased… even your own blood was deemed unworthy to be passed on."
Noxis leaned closer, his voice trembling with scorn.
"Aren't you angry!? Don't you want… to strike back!? Don't you want this world to feel the same pain you did?!"
Kael remained silent. His body was covered in wounds, his lips stained red, his breathing rough. Yet his eyes stayed empty, as though no fire remained within him.
Then—Noxis raised his arm.
A vortex of blood-red rifts tore open in the air, spinning like the jaws of a dimension. From within came the screech of grinding metal and the feral roar of machinery.
Four colossal metal fingers emerged, spreading wide like the gaping maw of a starving beast. The mechanical hand Kael had once destroyed was reborn from the vortex—more savage, more cruel.
"Mauler Maw…" Noxis muttered, his eyes gleaming.
Then he shouted, his voice burning with hateful ecstasy.
"Let it go! Let your rage devour you! Only then… will you survive!"
With that cry, Mauler Maw snapped shut. The four metal fingers clamped around Kael's body, crushing his waist and chest, pressing into bone. He was lifted into the air, hanging limp, like a lifeless doll in the grip of a mechanical monster.
The arena fell silent for a moment—filled only with the screech of grinding metal—while Noxis gazed at Kael, who no longer resisted, his eyes brimming with triumph and mockery.
Silence.
The world seemed to stop as Kael's body hung suspended in Mauler Maw's grasp. The pain that had battered him relentlessly faded, replaced by a strange stillness that swallowed his consciousness whole.
Then, within the darkness of his soul, a voice echoed. Gentle—like a whisper from a past he could no longer reach.
"Kael."
The first call was faint, distant.
"Kael…"
Closer this time—piercing straight into his heart, tearing through the black fog that bound him.
"Kael... Kael!"
The third call was a spark of light, cracking through the darkness.
In an instant, the world around him shattered. Mist and blood dissolved, replaced by an unfamiliar sight—or perhaps an old memory he had never been able to grasp.
Kael's steps came to a halt as the darkness of night unfolded into a silent lakeside garden.
A gentle breeze drifted through, carrying the scent of water laced with the soft fragrance of lotus flowers. Thousands of white and pale pink petals floated across the surface, shimmering faintly beneath the glow of golden fireflies that drifted slowly above the water.
At the lake's edge stretched a short wooden pier—not long, just enough for a single small figure standing with their back to him. An old lantern swayed gently above it, its trembling light casting long shadows across the still surface.
Kael stood at the edge of the land, motionless. His chest rose and fell—not from battle, but from something far heavier. His fingers clenched, yet his feet felt rooted, unwilling to move closer.
The child did not turn. White hair fell down their back, reflecting the lantern's glow. At last, a voice reached him—soft, yet cutting cleanly through the silence.
"You're allowed to be angry," she said calmly, as if she had known all along that Kael was there.
"Anger is natural… it proves your heart is still alive. But it only has meaning if you have the courage to accept it—rather than run from it. Otherwise… you'll only sink deeper into the same darkness."
Kael lowered his head. His jaw tightened, his lips trembling, yet no reply came. The night wind brushed his damp face—whether from sweat or tears he hadn't noticed, he couldn't tell.
The girl continued, her gentle voice like water softly brushing the lake's edge.
"Kael… don't let that hatred control you. That isn't who you are. You are not a shadow that exists only for revenge. You live… because there are still those waiting for you to return."
She turned slightly, though her face remained vague beneath the lantern's glow.
"If you drown in anger, then I… and Lira… will remain nothing more than wounds. Not the reason you move forward."
Kael lifted his face, his eyes trembling. Water and firefly light blurred together in his vision, reflecting the small figure upon the lake's surface.
But before he could reach her—before he could speak the name trembling on his lips—the vision shattered, collapsing like ripples swallowed by the current.
His consciousness was dragged back. All that remained was the heavy weight in his chest: rage on the verge of eruption, entwined with the fear of being consumed by it.
That pain was never simple. It was as if his veins were no longer blood and flesh, but shards of crimson glass—vibrating, fracturing, embedding themselves throughout his body.
Kael collapsed, his body convulsing as his fingers clawed into the white floor. Dark red fissures spread from his chest, crawling up toward his face, leaving patterns like shattered glass that pulsed with each breath.
And yet… despite his body resisting, despite his mind battered by waves of agony that threatened to tear his consciousness apart, his eyes remained open. The deep black in his pupils trembled—no longer empty, but filled with something new.
Awareness.
Noxis's voice slipped through the air, low and mocking, like a whisper pressed against his ear.
"Look at you… even your own body rejects you. You're nothing more than a fragile vessel, unworthy of ever touching me."
The grip of Noxis's mechanical hand slammed into Kael's shoulder, pinning him against the white floor. Metal clashed against bone, forcing Kael's jaw tight, his teeth grinding as he swallowed a scream. Yet amid the unbearable pain, a faint smile curved his lips—not of victory, but acceptance.
Kael drew in a breath, his hoarse voice breaking as it escaped.
"I… acknowledge it."
The words didn't rise like a declaration. They fell—quiet, like a prayer swallowed by the empty space around them.
"Uhh…?" Noxis muttered, confusion slipping into his voice.
The crimson veins across Kael's body throbbed harder, as if ready to tear him apart, but he didn't stop.
"I acknowledge it… you are mine. This rage… this hatred… they belong to no one else. So return to me."
The mechanical grip around him faltered. Noxis's red eyes flickered—trembling. For the first time, doubt took hold. The metallic voice that once rang with certainty now sounded fractured, barely holding together.
"You… dare to call me yours?" Noxis hissed, his tone wavering between fury and fear. "I am a higher form than you! You are nothing but the shadow you cast aside!"
Kael lifted his face, blood dripping from the corner of his lips. His eyes locked onto Noxis's—sharp now, no longer rejecting, but steady with cold resolve.
"My anger is not yours to exploit. My hatred is not your fuel." He paused, drawing in a heavy breath, then releasing it slowly.
"You want me to lose control? Sorry… I've lived in darkness long enough to know what it means to be blinded by it."
Noxis let out a roar. His entire body shook, his voice splintering as his metallic grip began to crack, its form breaking apart. From his pitch-black body, crimson fragments spilled like shattered dust, drifting into the air.
"What are you trying to say!?" Noxis demanded.
"If you think I'm the same as you," Kael continued, his voice lower now—steady, unshaken, "then you're too foolish to see the difference between us."
The white space around them began to tremble. Crimson cracks crawled across the walls, spreading before slowly collapsing. New contours emerged—pale stone, aged brick, and the warm scent of unfamiliar air.
The featureless white shattered, replaced by a narrow cobblestone street, classical windows, and the distant cries of merchants—a city. Nirvana. The Sanctum border district from Kael's past.
Kael fell silent for a moment, taking in the shifting surroundings, before his gaze returned to Noxis, now cornered, his voice thinning into forced provocation.
"You think… this is acceptance? This is only the beginning of your own destruction!!"
Kael did not answer with words. He simply rose to his feet.
His body was still laced with pulsing crimson fractures, yet his posture was firm. A faint, calm smile touched his lips—as if the burden that had fought him for so long had finally stopped resisting, and, for the first time, become part of him.
The metallic resonance that once dominated the arena wavered, stripped of certainty. Noxis's chained hand, which had been pressing down on Kael's shoulder, creaked as its grip weakened. Red fissures spread across his body, black-and-crimson fragments scattering like torn dust.
Noxis's red lens widened. His voice broke—not cold anymore, but panicked.
"This… this can't be happening…!"
His body shook violently, his mechanical frame breaking apart piece by piece, screaming like a failing machine.
"My entire body… why… why can't I reject you…!!"
Kael stared ahead. His face was pale, riddled with crimson cracks, yet his eyes did not waver. His breathing was heavy—each rise of his chest sending pain through the pulsing veins—but he did not falter.
Noxis roared, his shrill cry echoing through the fracturing space. Then he lunged at Kael with everything he had.
"No!! I won't let you go. I won't accept this!!"
Noxis reached out.
"I swear… I swear… I WILL RETURN WITH THE VENGEANCE OF EVERY LIVING BEING'S RAGE!!"
The scream shattered along with Noxis's collapsing body. From his blackened form, thin blood-red fragments peeled away, fluttering like burning paper. Each shard glimmered—then was drawn toward a golden light igniting on the back of Kael's right hand, where his Abyssal Seal pulsed.
The symbol flared. Its circular lines and alien sigils opened like a gate. One by one, the fragments of Noxis were pulled in, vanishing into dense crimson light.
Kael staggered, his body trembling violently.
But instead of relief, a tidal wave of memories crashed into him.
Flash after flash of a black-and-white world of rage—everything he had suppressed, every hatred, every wound, every fury buried just to survive—erupted all at once.
The faces of fallen Assassin soldiers on blood-soaked fields. The wars of the Seven Frontiers. Civilians screaming for help. Blood spilling across the ground. Fires raging. Dozens hanged alive in underground cells. The loss of Lira. His mother. His father. A small child by the lakeside. And the betrayal—the truth of who had killed him.
All of it struck without mercy.
"Agk… ghk… aarrgghhhh!!"
His scream split the space. Crimson lines burst across his body like ruptured veins, scorching him from within. The cracks spread over his skin, as if his body were being devoured by invisible flames—fires born from his own rage.
He dropped to his knees, both hands slamming into the ground. From those fractures, red light surged outward in all directions. The white space finally collapsed, replaced by new contours—brick walls, cobblestone roads, foreign air tinged with dust and freshly baked bread.
The border district of his past slowly took shape.
But the world remained incomplete. Buildings blurred, the sky fractured, the merchants' voices faint—as if suspended in midair.
And Kael, at the center of it all, could only roar, his body wracked by the flood of rage pouring into him. The crimson lines continued to blaze, growing thicker—burning, tearing him apart from within.
"AaaAAARRRRRGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
His final scream shattered the air, shaking the half-formed world.
Then, amid that violent rebirth—he fell into a temporary slumber.
***