– The Price of Sukoon (Expanded)
I stood in a place that rejected the logic of the waking world.
It was not a land, nor a dream—but a sanctuary that could only be reached by slipping through the fragile silver seam between consciousness and sleep.
The air itself felt alive. It did not merely enter my lungs; it settled into my soul. Each breath carried something sacred—an ancient calm spoken of only in forbidden scriptures, where exhausted souls were forgiven not by judgment, but by mercy.
Fragrance layered upon fragrance.
Jasmine bloomed softly in the distance. Sandalwood lingered like a memory carved into time. And beneath it all flowed a sweetness I had no name for—warm, maternal, slow, sewing together the fractures in my mind with invisible hands.
For the first time in countless deaths, I felt sukoon.
Not relief. Not numbness.
But peace so deep it threatened to erase the scars of every previous life.
The nightmare felt distant now. Like a story told about someone else.
"Would you like to stand by my side?"
Her voice reached me gently, hesitant, as if afraid of disturbing the stillness. It shimmered—soft, melodic—yet pulled at my heart so absolutely that I whispered yes before reason had a chance to resist.
I lowered my gaze. My hands were small. I was small.
I stood once more in the fragile form of a child—Kiran's childhood self—fingers trembling slightly as if unsure whether this body was real or imagined. When I looked up, the maiden before me was little more than radiant haze, blurred by golden light.
"What will I get in return?" I asked, voice wavering—not from fear, but from caution.
"Will you answer every question I have? Show me the truth behind this hollow world?"
The golden field swayed in slow, deliberate waves, as if the land itself breathed. The wind carried warmth, not force. Here, one could forget what it meant to be hero, victim, or monster.
I wanted to stay. To sink into this peace. To let the burden of existence dissolve completely.
"I have a gift for you," she said, sidestepping my negotiation with effortless grace.
"I am giving your soul a shape. Forging the essence of the Sovereign within you. But now… it is time for me to leave."
"Wait!" I reached forward, fingers passing through light as though desperate to touch reality itself.
"Just answer one thing. One question."
She giggled. The sound echoed like silver bells in a cathedral abandoned by time.
"If I feel like answering, I will," she said, playful. "But be warned, Reyansh—every question has a price. If I do not like your question… I will kill you."
The threat felt meaningless here.
Fear had no soil to grow in this divine garden.
I met her shimmering gaze.
"What must I do next? Where does this path end?"
"You asked two questions, dear," she said softly as the golden world began to fracture, light cracking like thin glass.
"But I shall answer. Because I want you to reach me. I am giving your soul form. Whether you follow my shadow or forge a path through the ash… that is your choice."
Her presence began to fade.
"But know this—every step you take, every scream you utter, is a moment of joy for me."
The Violent Rebirth
The gold was torn away.
Not gently. Not gradually.
Something vast and merciless seized my soul and dragged me backward—ripping me from peace and hurling me into reality with catastrophic force.
My skull felt as if split by rusted axes. Pressure mounted endlessly, compressing thought, memory, identity—until it felt as though my spirit itself would rupture.
GASP!
I woke screaming.
The scream was primal, raw, animal—ripped from a throat that no longer felt like mine. Heaven vanished, replaced by pain so absolute it erased language.
I was back in the Azure Knight's body.
Every nerve burned. Every bone screamed. My skeleton felt pulverized, reforged with molten lead. The sukoon of the dream collapsed into narak, and my body paid the price for touching divinity.
The pain surpassed reason.
And I laughed.
A broken, hysterical sound clawed from me—the laughter of someone who had tasted heaven only to be flung into hell.
What a magnificent joke. Reaching her? This path? This agony?
I dropped to my knees, coughing thick blue-tinged blood that spattered across the scorched ground.
Before me lay the severed, rotting head of the High-Rank Demon—the corpse I had once inhabited. Beyond it, Hina, Yumi, and the maids crouched together, frozen in terror.
The air hissed.
Two new presences descended.
Two High-Rank Demons emerged from smoke and ruin, landing between me and the girls like falling stars. Dark mana warped the air. One raised an obsidian blade—execution already decided.
The Millisecond of God-Tier Reflex
Time shattered.
Not slowed—fractured.
Because this was a Rank 7 body, the world unfolded in unbearable clarity.
I saw the tremor in Hina's lips. A single tear suspended on Yumi's cheek. The blade's descent stretched into eternity.
My soul moved before thought.
Azure light exploded from within me. In a flash that tore night into day, I was there.
Steel met obsidian.
Shockwaves screamed through the village, shattering every window for miles. I kicked the demon's chest with Rank 7 pressure.
It wasn't launched. It was erased.
I spun, the Azure Blade alive—heavy, aware. One motion cleaved the second demon from shoulder to hip.
Pain answered every movement. Liquid ice burned through my muscles.
"STOP! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" I screamed internally.
Another voice roared—Kiran, drowning beneath my presence.
"Stop screaming! I can't maintain the balance! Your soul… it's too heavy! It's like you've stuffed an entire mountain into my chest!"
"I'm the one in a thousand pieces here!" I fired back. "You're worried about balance? I'm worried about surviving!"
The Mountain-Splitting Strike
The first demon returned, madness erupting from its aura.
Our internal conflict crippled the body.
We dropped to our knees.
The demon's claw reached for our throat—slow, inevitable.
Then—the body moved.
Kiran slammed his forehead into the earth. Pain surged—anchoring him. Blue lightning cracked.
SHING!
Mana tore through me.
I felt my soul ripped from my chest.
The demon disintegrated.
The strike didn't stop. It traveled beyond the battlefield, crashing into the ancient mountains behind the village.
The earth screamed.
The mountain split perfectly in two.
A canyon carved by accident. Dust swallowed the moon. Silence followed.
Hina and the others stared—fear transformed into awe.
"This power… why didn't you use this before?"
"This… isn't my power," Kiran whispered.
"This is the weight of your soul, Reyansh."
Then he retreated.
The body became mine. Pain returned in full.
I collapsed.
As darkness closed in, only one thought remained—
I am coming for you… no matter how much it hurts.