Knowledge Is Power: The Last Reader

The battle had barely begun when the Shiny raised a hand, and the fighting stopped.

Not because anyone wanted it to. Not because the team had surrendered. But because the Shiny—Don, as he’d once been called—seemed to lose interest in the fight. He stepped back, his form shifting from monstrous to something almost human. A man, perhaps in his late thirties, with tired eyes and a face that had seen too much and felt too little.

"Wait," he said, his voice carrying a note of something that might have been exhaustion. "Before we continue this farce, I want to tell you something."

Kelly’s eyes narrowed. "A trick. It’s trying to distract us."

"Maybe. Or maybe I’m just tired of being a monster and want to explain myself before I die. Or before I kill you. Either way, I think you deserve to know who you’re fighting. what do you have to lose?"

---

The Shiny—Don—sat down on his throne of bones, his posture relaxed, almost casual. But his eyes were old. Ancient. They’d seen centuries of pain and loss and regret.

"My name used to be Don," he began, his voice carrying a note of distant memory. "Don the Con, they called me. I was a thief. A con artist. A man who could sell ice to a snowman and convince a widow to buy her own wedding ring back from me."

He laughed, a short, hollow sound.

"I was good at what I did. The best. The greatest thief in the world. People hated me for it. Tried to kill me for it. But I didn’t care. I loved it. The game. The challenge. The feeling of taking something that wasn’t mine and making it mine."

He paused, his gaze drifting to the ceiling.

"My family was the reason I started. They were con artists too. But they were terrible at it. Small-time. Petty. They’d send me out to steal and con and swindle, and then they’d take everything I brought back and waste it on drinks and women and whatever else they could spend it on. I once stole five hundred gold from a rich man. Five hundred gold. That was enough to buy a house, start a life, escape. My father took it and spent it all in a single day."

He shook his head, a bitter smile playing at his lips.

"I ran away after that. I was young. Stupid. I thought I could make it on my own. And I did, in a way. I became famous. Feared. Respected in the underworld. But I also became something else. Something worse."

---

He looked at them, his eyes carrying a weight that seemed to press down on the room.

"I learned to kill. At first, it was self-defense. People tried to kill me, so I killed them first. But then it became something else. Something I enjoyed. Taking a life was like taking their gold. It was power. It was control. It was the only thing that made me feel alive."

Kelme’s jaw tightened. "You’re a monster. why are we even listening to him, this is carzy. let’s just jump him already. his obviously buying time to do something."

"I know. I’ve always known. But I didn’t care. I didn’t care about anything except the game. Until I met her." Don, said paying no attention to Kelme like the rest of theme that seemed to be mesmerized by the story.

His voice softened, the harshness fading into something almost gentle.

"She was the love of my life. I saw her while I was stealing from a rich family’s estate. She was beautiful. Kind. Everything I wasn’t. She was as valuable as any gold I’d ever stolen, but in a different way. A way I didn’t understand."

He laughed, a self-deprecating sound.

"I stayed close to her. I became a maid in her household, of all things. I was the greatest thief in the world, and I was scrubbing floors and serving tea just to be near her. I forgot I was a thief. I forgot everything except her."

---

"But she loved someone else," Aria said, her voice soft. She’d woken up, her head still fuzzy, but she understood enough to know where this story was going.

"She loved someone else," Don confirmed, his voice carrying a note of old pain. "A knight. A good man. The kind of man who deserved her. And I... I didn’t deserve anything. I was a thief. A murderer. A con artist. She would never have looked at me the way she looked at him."

He paused, his hands clenching into fists.

"So I did the only thing I knew how to do. I cursed her. Put her in a glass container, frozen in time. I stole her. I told myself it was love. I told myself I was saving her, I don’t even remember the BS I told my self to make myself do it. But it was selfish. It was always selfish. I was trying to possess something I could never have."

"You kidnapped her," Kelly said, his voice flat. "You kidnapped her and put her in a box. can we please jump him now?"

"I know. I was a monster. I’ve always been a monster. But I couldn’t stop myself. I needed her. I needed to feel like I had something that was mine. and watching her getting closer to him and farther from me was killing me."

---

"The knight came after you," Bunny said, her voice carrying a note of grim understanding. "The man she loved."

"Of course he did. He was a good man who was in love as well. The best. He hunted me down, tortured me, tried to find out where I’d hidden her. And he pushed too hard." Don laughed again, this time with no humor. "I died. My secret hideout died with me. And my body somehow ended up here, bound to this dungeon. The mimic’s spirit merged with mine, and I became this. A Shiny. A creature that feeds on emotions and hunts humans."

"So now you’re trapped here," Kelme said. "Like you trapped her."

"Exactly. Ironic, isn’t it? I spent my whole life taking things that weren’t mine, and now I’m stuck here, unable to take anything. The only way to leave this dungeon, to go back to her, is to become the final boss. To evolve. To level up. And mimics don’t level up easily."

He stood, his form beginning to shift back to something monstrous.

"I get bonus experience for trapping humans. For tricking them. For making them feel emotions. That’s why I toy with you. That’s why I drag this out. Every moment of fear, every flash of anger, every desperate hope—it makes me stronger. It brings me closer to leaving this place. To seeing her again."

---

Aria looked at him, her expression unreadable.

"You still love her, don’t you?" she asked. "After all this time. After everything you’ve done. You still love her."

Don was quiet for a long moment. Then, slowly, he nodded.

"Yes," he said. "I love her. I’ve always loved her. I loved her when I was alive. I loved her when I was dying. I love her now, trapped in this body, feeding on fear and hope. I love her, and I’ll never stop loving her."

"You hurt her. You cursed her. You stole her life."

"I know. I’m sorry. I’m sorry for everything I did. But I can’t go back. I can’t change what I am. The only thing I can do is keep going, keep fighting, keep hoping that someday I’ll see her again."

He raised his hand, and the room seemed to darken.

"And that’s why I have to kill you. Because you’re in my way. Because your emotions make me stronger. Because I need to escape this place, and you’re the only way out. and I am sorry but I need to make it last and it need to be in the place, you’re the only humans I got for now."

---

The team tensed, their weapons ready.

"Don," Aria said, her voice carrying a note of something almost like pity. "You know she won’t love you. Even if you get out. Even if you see her again. She won’t love you."

"I know," Don said, his voice cracking. "But I don’t care anymore. I just want to see her. Just once. Just to say I’m sorry. Just to tell her I loved her. I’m so empty without her no matter how much I steal or own, an empty chest."

"That’s selfish," said Kelme.

"I know. I’ve always been selfish. It’s the only thing I’m good at."

He lunged, and the battle began again. But this time, there was something different in his eyes. Something that looked almost like grief.

---

The fight was brutal.

Don was faster now, stronger, more determined. He had a purpose, a goal, a reason to fight. And the team was struggling to keep up.

"HE’S TOO STRONG!" Grom shouted, his shield splintering under the force of Don’s attack.

"KEEP FIGHTING!" Kelly shouted back. "WE CAN’T GIVE UP NOW!"

"Why not?!" Bunny yelled. "WE’RE CLEARLY OUTMATCHED!"

"BECAUSE IF WE GIVE UP, WE DIE!"

Darian slashed at Don’s legs, but the Shiny seemed to barely feel it. He backhanded Darian across the room, sending him crashing into the wall.

"You can’t win," Don said, his voice calm, almost gentle. "You never could. But I appreciate the effort. It makes the experience points taste better."

---

Aria stood up, her body aching, her mind racing. She looked at Don, at the pain in his eyes, at the desperation in his movements.

"Don," she said, her voice carrying a note of something almost like understanding. "This isn’t going to make you happy. Even if you get out. Even if you see her. It’s not going to make you happy."

He paused, his eyes meeting hers.

"What would you know about happiness?" he asked.

"More than you think. I’ve lost everything too. I’ve felt the same desperation. The same need to hold onto something. But I’ve learned that clinging to someone won’t bring them back. It just drags you down."

Don was quiet for a long moment. Then, slowly, he smiled.

"You’re right," he said. "But I’m not ready to let go yet."

He raised his hand, and the shadows began to close in.

"Let’s finish this."

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