The stage stood as a grand centerpiece at the heart of Westoria's capital square, framed by proud marble buildings and tall banners that swayed in the soft breeze. Cobbled streets spread out like veins from the square, lined with towering lamplights and colorful market stalls, though today they were abandoned — everyone had gathered here, pressed shoulder-to-shoulder in eager silence.
Gabriel stepped up to the polished wooden podium, the gold trim of his formal robes catching the morning light. He cleared his throat, voice calm but powerful.
"Welcome, welcome. Please, relax yourselves," he said with a graceful wave of his hand, quieting the murmur of the restless crowd. "I'm glad to see so many of you here today — many faces filled with potential, ready to help our great nation."
He paused, sweeping his gaze across the sea of people, his smile warm yet deliberate.
"I bring you important news. I refuse to leave the people in darkness — you deserve truth. We have made great strides in the war. I won't lie: it has been a brutal struggle. But we have successfully fought off the majority of Astoria and Virenia's invasions. Our lands are safe, for now. However…" Gabriel's tone darkened, "we have yet to make progress across the ocean. The real war still waits for us beyond the horizon."
The ground gave a faint shudder beneath the crowd's feet. Most ignored it at first, chalking it up to nerves or imagination. A few heads turned.
"We need you — your strength, your courage," Gabriel pressed on, voice rising. "This is a war for our freedom. If we fall, we will be crushed under Astorian rule. We cannot allow that!" His voice roared across the plaza, igniting the crowd. "We must fight! Fight until our very last bone breaks!"
The trembling beneath their feet grew sharper. Pebbles skittered across the stones. Now, unease rippled through the people like a current. Some glanced around nervously. Others began to back away.
Gabriel's sharp eyes scanned the sky. He felt it — a strange, unnatural energy that prickled against his skin.
A tearing sound split the air like thunder.
Above the plaza, a portal ripped itself open — a jagged wound of red energy, swirling and thrashing like a living thing. The crowd broke into full panic, screams rising in a chorus of terror as people scattered in all directions, believing it to be a blight attack.
Gabriel raised his hand, magic pulsing at his fingertips, ready to fire a spell —
—but he froze. His senses caught something buried inside the portal's chaos: a second, deliberate energy signature. Familiar.
Before he could react, a blur of crimson shot from the portal like a fired cannon.
It slammed into Gabriel, blasting him backwards. The force shattered the ornate stage backdrop behind him into a shower of splintered wood and torn velvet. Gabriel's body crashed through it, sent flying into the side of a nearby stone building. Cracks spiderwebbed across the masonry as he slammed against it, debris raining down in heavy chunks. Dust filled the air.
Gabriel staggered to his feet, chest heaving.
Across from him stood a figure cloaked in deep red, a crimson mask gleaming in the broken light.
Gabriel's eyes widened, heart hammering.
"Who… are you?" he gasped.
But deep down, part of him already knew.
The Crimson Shadow had come.
"I've done it — I finally found you!" Shadow threw his arms up and laughed, a raw, manic sound that echoed off the ruined walls. "I've waited for years… years to gather the strength! And now—I'll kill you!"
He thrust his hands outward.
"Hellflame!"
A blast of searing crimson fire exploded from his body, swallowing the building in a storm of heat and light. Wood turned to ash instantly. Stones cracked and crumbled under the sheer force.
The entire structure groaned. Gabriel could feel it giving way. He bolted across the collapsing floor, dodging falling beams and chunks of burning rubble. In the next room, through the swirling smoke, he spotted four survivors trapped under a half-fallen wall.
Without hesitation, Gabriel crashed through the wall beside them, creating an exit.
"Look at you!" Shadow's voice barked from behind, heavy with hatred. "Trying to play the hero now?! You don't get to act all noble — not after what you did! You killed him! I'll never forget it!"
Gabriel spun to face him, the truth rattling something deep inside his mind.
"I… I don't know who you are!" he shouted back.
"Yes you do," Shadow snarled.
He thrust his hand forward, sending a wall of flames roaring straight at Gabriel. When Gabriel rolled aside, the fire twisted midair, curling around to trap him inside a blazing ring.
"Tell me who I am!" Shadow screamed, his voice almost breaking.
Gabriel shielded his face against the heat. "I— I can only think of one person— but he should be dead…" he muttered under his breath, heart pounding.
Shadow clapped his hands together with a thunderous boom.
From the circling inferno, arms of fire burst out, clawing toward Gabriel. Each molten hand slammed into the ground, chasing him as he darted and weaved between them.
"Shadow!" a voice cut through the roar of flames.
Both men turned.
Sosuke stood at the edge of the wreckage, katana drawn, his stance calm but ready.
"You're here," Shadow said, almost in disbelief. "Don't tell me… you work for him?"
"I do," Sosuke answered, stepping forward, eyes never leaving him. "What are you trying to do?"
Shadow's hands trembled. "Don't look at me like that! I'm not a monster! He killed my friends!" he cried, voice shaking.
"Whatever happened…" Sosuke said carefully, "I'm sure it was an accident—"
"NO!" Shadow stomped the ground. Cracks snaked through the floor like veins. "He did it on purpose! He called it mercy! He said they were too weak to survive! They didn't deserve to die!"
Behind him, Gabriel moved slowly, hands raised, voice soft.
"I'm not that person anymore, Mark."
At the name, Shadow flinched violently, twisting to face him. He raised an arm defensively.
"Stop! Stop it! I'm not a villain! I just want Gabriel dead!" His voice cracked with something almost like sorrow.
Turning back to Sosuke, he pleaded, "Please — I helped you. I helped your friends return home. I taught you things. Why won't you see the truth?"
"You didn't act like this before," Sosuke said firmly. "If you're really not a villain… then you need to see what's in front of you. Gabriel's changed. Anyone can see it. He's not the man you hate anymore."
For a moment, the fire seemed to hesitate. The air between them hung heavy with doubt.
Shadow's arms trembled… but then he snarled through his teeth, pushing the hesitation away.
"If you won't help me—then stay out of it!"
Chains of fire burst from his arms, wrapping tightly around his figure. At the ends, they sharpened into brutal, glowing blades — living extensions of his rage.
Mark roared and lunged, chains of molten flame slicing through the air.
Gabriel stepped forward, calm and composed.
With a swift motion, he drew the sword from his back — but didn't unsheathe it.
He held the beautifully crafted weapon firmly by the scabbard, treating it like a staff rather than a sword.
The chains snapped toward him.
Gabriel parried with a smooth twist of his wrist, the sheath knocking the chain aside in a burst of sparks.
Sosuke blinked, struggling to follow the speed.
Gabriel wasn't even fighting in the usual sense.
He was protecting — every movement was meant to redirect, not destroy.
Mark attacked again, faster, angrier.
The ground cracked beneath his feet.
His chains lashed like whips, forcing Gabriel back step by step.
Gabriel spun the sheathed sword in tight arcs, deflecting the blows one after another. He never countered. Never struck back. Only controlled the space between them.
One of Mark's chains slipped through.
It raked across Gabriel's side, cutting into flesh. Blood seeped through his white uniform.
Gabriel didn't react.
He stepped in closer, letting the momentum of Mark's next attack pass over his shoulder.
The scabbard moved almost lazily in his hands, yet it pushed Mark's strikes off course every time.
"You're still pretending to be better than me!" Mark shouted, voice breaking.
"I'm not pretending anything," Gabriel said quietly, blocking another heavy strike with the body of the sheath.
Mark screamed and slammed his chains into the ground. A shockwave split the earth, sending dust and rubble into the air.
Sosuke shielded his eyes, heart pounding.
He couldn't believe it.
They fought on a different level — a level where strength was restrained, like a blade sheathed within a scabbard, even in the middle of war.
Gabriel stepped forward through the dust cloud, completely unfazed.
His sheathed sword flicked up and struck the side of Mark's chains, unraveling them without even harming him.
"You're not my enemy," Gabriel said, voice barely audible over the chaos.
Mark hesitated, breathing ragged.
Chains writhed around him, uncertain, flickering.
Gabriel lowered the sheathed sword — offering no guard, no defense — and walked closer.
"You killed them!" Mark shouted, his voice cracking. "You left us to die!"
Gabriel shook his head slowly. "I made mistakes. But I'm not that man anymore."
Mark's hands trembled. His chains wavered — then shattered into dust.
Sosuke stood there, silent, sword trembling in his grip.
He realized the crushing truth:
He was nowhere near either of them.
Gabriel bled from his wounds, and yet he hadn't drawn his blade once.
Not even once.
Mark roared, swinging his arm wide. A wall of flame tore across the ground toward another building — a building full of civilians.
"I'll get them!" Sosuke shouted, sprinting toward the structure.
Heat seared his skin as he burst inside. The air was thick with smoke, blinding and choking. He grabbed the nearest people — a woman clutching a boy, a dazed man stumbling near the stairs — and shoved them toward the exit. More flames roared in from behind, splintering the walls.
Sosuke threw himself into the last room, gathering two more people and dragging them out just as the building groaned and collapsed behind him.
When he staggered outside, coughing, the wall of flames had vanished. Ash drifted through the air like snow.
At the center of it all stood Gabriel, looming over a kneeling Mark.
Gabriel's sword — still gleaming — was buried deep in Mark's shoulder.
"Why?!" Sosuke shouted, voice raw.
Gabriel withdrew the blade, and Mark crumpled to the ground, staring up at the empty sky, one hand reaching toward something unseen.
"He chose hatred over life," Gabriel said, his voice flat. "He endangered innocents. I had no choice."
Guards closed in from all sides, weapons drawn, ready to drag Mark away.
Sosuke scrubbed a hand down his face, breathing hard. "What the hell just happened?"
"It's… a long story," Gabriel answered.
"Don't give me that bullshit," Sosuke snapped. "He said you killed somebody. If I'm going to serve you, I deserve to know whether I'm following a murderer."
Gabriel's eyes sharpened. "Because you're not one?"
The words hit Sosuke like a punch.
He stiffened, blinking at Gabriel in disbelief.
"What did you just say?"
His fists trembled at his sides. "You bastard."
"I didn't mean it like that—" Gabriel stepped forward, reaching out. "It came out wrong. I'm just… ashamed of who I used to be—"
"You compared me to yourself without thinking," Sosuke said. His voice was low, dangerous. "Which means you did kill people. Innocent ones."
He turned on his heel and walked away, the silence between them louder than any shouting.
Gabriel let out a long, shuddering breath and lowered his head.
—
The manor lay in silence, swallowed by the deep black of midnight.
Sosuke stood on a hill overlooking the fields, the tall grass brushing against his fingers. He barely noticed it. The stars above were cold and distant, and the breeze carried nothing but loneliness.
In the dark, he found a strange kind of comfort.
At least in the dark, he didn't have to see what was broken.
Mom, Dad, Ryoma…
Their names echoed in his mind, heavy and hollow.
If killing is wrong, he thought bitterly, then what am I supposed to do with their deaths? What am I supposed to do with this pain?
He pressed a hand against his scarred eye, feeling the old wound under his fingertips.
For a moment, he swore he could still feel the metal chain digging into his skin, still hear the screams of the prisoners trapped with him.
He tightened his jaw, forcing the memories down — but they rose anyway.
Tears welled up, blurring the world around him, and this time, he couldn't fight them back.
He dropped to his knees in the grass.
Tears streamed down his face silently — not the heaving sobs of a child, but the quiet, broken weeping of someone too tired to scream.
The sky stretched overhead, vast and empty.
Sosuke stared into it, searching for answers that never came.
How do I live like this?
I'm a monster.
I'm alone.