Damian looked up at the figure, waiting for an answer that didn’t come.
Snow continued falling between them, each flake landing without sound.
’You... won’t answer me?’
The figure remained motionless, that black energy continuing its endless writhing around its form.
Damian’s hands unclenched slowly, blood still dripping from the cuts in his palms.
"Ever since the Beggar told me everything about this novel..." His voice came out calm, almost conversational. "The strongest beings in my mind have always been the Demon Rulers and the Divine Rulers."
He looked up at the clouds drifting across the moon as snow gathered on his shoulders.
"But after truly coming to this world, after living through everything that’s happened to me..." His voice came out barely above a whisper. "Time and time again, I’ve come to realize that the most mysterious being, the one whose powers I couldn’t even begin to imagine..."
His throat worked.
"Has always been the Beggar."
Nobody spoke for several heartbeats as the wind picked up slightly, cutting through the frozen air.
"That’s what I thought was the peak. That’s what I believed was the absolute limit of power in this universe."
Damian’s eyes found the snowy ground below.
"And now you come before me..."
The words came out quiet but carrying weight.
"You give me a choice that rewrites everything the Beggar did to me. You can undo everything that a being who’s allegedly been fighting against Fate itself for countless years managed to do to me..."
He lifted his head, crimson eyes locking onto where the figure’s face should be.
"It makes me wonder... What kind of a being does that make you?"
The figure remained silent and unmoving.
Damian waited, watching for any response, but nothing came.
"I don’t understand why a being like you can’t just change the ending yourself."
His voice carried frustration now, edges of something breaking through.
"I don’t understand the meaning behind your vague words either. All these cryptic answers, all this silence, all this mystery..."
His hands clenched again, fresh blood welling from the cuts.
"But I think I understand one thing clearly..." His voice came out quiet. "You’re even more cruel than that Beggar, aren’t you?"
The words hung in the air between them.
"The Beggar did everything on his own... He manipulated events, orchestrated my reincarnation and used me for whatever goal he’s pursuing."
Damian’s voice grew louder.
"But he never left me a choice! I was just his victim! I could hate him for it, curse him for it, but at least I knew where I stood!"
His breathing was getting faster now, his chest rising and falling with increasing intensity.
"But you..."
The word came out like a hiss.
"You sick bastard."
His voice cracked slightly.
"In the name of your goddamn choice, you’re making me choose between my past life’s loved ones and this life’s loved ones!"
He started to stand, his legs shaking beneath him.
"If I leave, my choice kills my parents! Kills Luna! Kills everyone in this world who’s counting on the Beggar’s plan to save them!"
His voice was rising now, the control slipping.
"If I stay, my choice kills Nera! Kills my Big Brother! Abandons them to fates I could have prevented!"
Damian’s hands moved to clutch at his head, fingers digging into his scalp.
"Either way, from now on my own hands will have their blood! Regardless of whether I’m actually responsible for all of this or not! Regardless of whether I asked for any of this!"
His voice broke completely.
"In my mind, I will become the decision maker! I will become their killer! The one who chose which loved ones lived and which ones died!"
A dark mist started to seep from his body, the same black fog that had filled his Domain of Despair.
"You shouldn’t have come here!"
The words tore from his throat, raw and desperate.
"First it was the Beggar! Then the Hooded figure! Now you! Another mysterious being with incomprehensible power, showing up to offer me choices that aren’t really choices at all!"
Tears started streaming down his face, mixing with the blood on his hands.
"All of you are the same! Every single one of you has your own plans! Your own agendas! Your own reasons for doing what you do!"
His voice cracked into something that was almost a sob.
"But no one cares about me! No one cares about what all of this is doing to me! No one asks if I’m okay, if I can handle this, if I want any of this!"
The black fog was pouring from him now, thick enough to obscure his form.
"I just– I just want to live peacefully! That’s all I’ve ever wanted!"
The words came out between sobs, his composure completely shattered.
"Why... what have I done to deserve being dragged into all of this?! Why me?! What did I do wrong?!"
He collapsed to his knees, hands still clutching his head.
"I’m tired! I’m so... I’m so tired of all of this! Tired of being used! Tired of everyone expecting things from me!"
His voice had dissolved into broken gasps, the words barely coherent.
"Tired of carrying memories from two lives! Tired of being torn between who I was and who I am!"
’Tired.’
The thought echoed through his mind.
’So tired.’
"I can’t... I can’t keep doing this!"
His shoulders shook with sobs he couldn’t control anymore.
’Tired tired tired tired tired.’
The thoughts repeated endlessly, crushing down on him with suffocating weight.
Damian’s hands slowly lowered from his head, shaking violently as they fell to his sides.
He looked up at the figure through tear-blurred vision, his face completely destroyed by despair.
"I... I can’t make this choice."
His voice came out as barely a whisper, hoarse from screaming.
"I love all of them. I love big brother, I love Nera, I love my mom and dad here, I love..."
His breath hitched.
"I love Luna. I love her the most. More than I thought I could ever love anyone. But I can’t... I can’t just..."
The words wouldn’t come.
"So please... please just–"
And then something broke inside him.
BOOM
The sound came from deep within his soul itself.
The black fog exploded outward from his body, thick and suffocating, swallowing the light around them.
Damian’s hair shifted, crimson bleeding away to pure white in the span of a single heartbeat.
In his peripheral vision, text flashed into existence.
[Law Seed: Despair - (Temporarily Manifested)]
[WARNING: Host body insufficiently developed for Law Seed usage - Soul structure unstable at current rank - Prolonged use will result in permanent soul damage and potential death]
But Damian didn’t see the warning.
The despair consumed him completely, drowning rational thought beneath waves of absolute hopelessness.
"–Kill me!"
The words ripped from his throat with terrible finality.
"Just end me! I don’t want any of this anymore! If I’m dead, nothing will matter! I won’t have to choose! I won’t have to be responsible!"
The black fog grew thicker, darker, more oppressive.
"I failed them all anyway! Failed my brother, failed Nera, I’ll fail everyone here too! That’s all I do! Fail and watch people suffer because of me!"
His voice was dissolving into pure anguish.
"So just kill me now! Before I hurt anyone else! Before I have to make this choice! Before I become a monster in my own eyes!"
The despair radiated outward in waves, making the very air feel heavy and wrong.
This wasn’t just emotional breakdown.
This was the manifestation of a Law Seed, one of the fundamental forces that governed reality itself.
Despair, pure and absolute, given physical form through someone whose soul couldn’t properly contain it.
And it was eating him alive from the inside out.
Silence fell around them completely.
Whoosh
Then the figure appeared directly in front of Damian as its hand settled gently on top of Damian’s white hair.
Warmth flooded through the touch.
The white began bleeding back to crimson, strand by strand, and the black fog retreated like it had been burned, rushing back into Damian’s body and disappearing.
The text vanished from his vision.
The crushing weight lifted just enough to breathe.
Pant... pant... pant...
Damian collapsed forward, gasping, his entire body shaking even though the despair itself had faded.
The figure settled down in the snow beside him, hand still resting on Damian’s head for a moment longer before withdrawing.
They sat there together in silence while Damian’s breathing slowly returned to something resembling normal.
After what felt like an eternity, the figure finally spoke.
"Despair is a powerful weapon." The voice was even more gentle now. "But it turns toward its user first before it turns against enemies. Be very careful of this path you’re walking."
Damian remained on his hands and knees, trying to breathe, trying to think, trying to be anything other than the broken mess he’d just become.
"Is this..."
His voice came out as barely a whisper, hoarse from screaming.
"What you wanted?"
He swallowed hard, throat raw.
"This was your goal, wasn’t it? Breaking me down like this?"
The question hung in the frozen air, unanswered.
Silence stretched between them and the night kept getting longer and longer.
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