FWSH—
Yuri's eyes flew open.
His skull throbbed violently, like someone had shattered glass inside his head. The world warped, bending at the edges — dissolving, reforming, snapping back into shape. A breath tore into his lungs as vision settled into place:
Broken metal.Collapsed buildings.Concrete skeletons jutting into an ash-gray sky.
The wasteland.The dead echo of the world he once knew.
He realized he was sitting — legs folded awkwardly on the rooftop of a ruined building. Wind scraped dust across the surface in thin, gritty swirls. The taste of iron clung to the air like rot.
And standing over him—
Zeek.
Expression unreadable.Hands in his pockets.Shadows coiling faintly at his heels like tame serpents.
"Good," he said. "You're awake."
Yuri blinked rapidly, his thoughts dragging far behind reality.
"Z-Zeek? How…? We were just in the Pillars. Yesterday. Weren't we?"
Zeek didn't even flinch.
"Not a world," he said. "Just a plane of existence. One I haven't completely solidified yet."
That explanation performed a flawless backflip over Yuri's comprehension.
He remembered the Palace of Pillars — a month of training, frustration, and Zeek's constant barbed sarcasm — but now it all felt hazy, distant. Like a half-remembered dream.
"Look," Zeek continued, "save the '101 questions.' I'll explain later. We need to move forward. You know that."
Yuri forced himself upright, swallowing down the avalanche of questions.
"Right… right. The final boss of this level."
"That's what I said."
"Well… then let's get to it!" His voice trembled, but the enthusiasm was real.
And then—
Something changed.
The breeze stilled.The distant rumble of collapsing metal died.Even the dust seemed to pause in midair.
A coldness seeped into the world — not the chill of weather, but something deeper.Older.Hungry.
It pressed down on Yuri's lungs, suffocating him in a silence sharper than any scream.
His breath stuttered.
Wh… what is this?A-am I… scared?
His chest tightened.
"Zeek…?" he whispered. "Are you doing some shadow thing right now…?"
No answer.
His heartbeat punched at his ribs. Harder. Harder.
"Zeek…? You're freaking me out. Say something."
A voice finally answered.
Except it wasn't Zeek's.
The figure in front of him stiffened. His back still turned, but the voice that seeped from him was deeper, thick with venom and distaste.
"It's amusing…" it growled, "watching you pretend to be confident. It disgusts me… makes me sick to my stomach…"
Yuri froze.
That voice—
No.
No, no, no—
Zeek's silhouette began to distort. His hair dissolved into smoke, then regrew — but shorter, whiter. His dark clothes unraveled like burned paper. His form shrank, shifted, reshaped.
A new silhouette emerged.
Yuri's blood froze solid.
It was him.
But twisted.Wrong.Corrupted beyond meaning.
White, flowing hair — unnaturally pure.Two demonic horns curled from his skull like a fallen angel's crown.And his body… swallowed whole by pulsing, breathing darkness.
Eyes like dying stars locked onto Yuri.
They stripped everything from him — courage, thought, will.
His muscles seized.His breath stopped mid-throat.His mind splintered.
Then—
Darkness swallowed the world.
Everything dissolved but Yuri and the demon wearing his face.
"You feel it, don't you?" the creature whispered directly into his bones. "The fear. The pathetic weakness. The truth of who you are."
Its voice was inside him — under his ribs, behind his eyes, under his skin.
"That's all you are," the creature hissed."Pitiful. Hopeless. A waste."
Yuri's thoughts shattered like glass under a hammer.
The demon stepped closer — too close.
"What? Did you really believe you mattered?" it growled. "That you had purpose?"
Its grin split wider.
"ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING."
Yuri broke.
He wanted to die.He wanted the pain to stop.The weight was suffocating — crushing — obliterating.
The darkness crawled into him — up his throat, into his eyes, around his heart. His mind dissolved into static.
The demon laughed.A horrific, bone-splitting laugh that cracked reality itself.
But beneath the roar…
A whisper.
A whisper that pushed him over the edge.
"Yuri…I love to see you break."
SNAP.
Yuri jerked awake — knees slamming onto concrete as he gagged.
He vomited.
A thick, burning black substance splattered onto the rooftop — sizzling, steaming, alive. The taste scorched his throat. Sweat drenched his skin. His entire body trembled violently.
He forced himself to look up—
And saw Zeek.
But Zeek was standing inside a crater.
Clothes ripped.Body torn open.Blood running in raw lines down his arms and chest.
His eyes glowed like molten amethyst.
He staggered toward Yuri — barely standing — breath ragged.
Then—
He collapsed.
A heartbeat later, Yuri fell too — the last of his strength draining from his limbs as the world tilted and darkened.
Their vision dimmed…their bodies fading…their consciousness overlapping in the void.
Then a message tore through the darkness in bright, merciless white:
CONGRATULATIONS — LEVEL 2 UNLOCKEDONE STEP CLOSER.