The moment Kairo whispered, "I won't lose another person…"—something in him broke.
Not his body.Not his mind.Something deeper.
Something ancient.
Something that should never have been awakened.
Black lightning seeped from his skin like ink bleeding through paper.First thin lines.Then cracks.Then rivers crawling across his arms, his chest, his face.
The wooden cot beneath him ignited in an instant.Stone cracked under his feet as he stood.
The girl's breath caught.
"T-this pressure… is he even human?"
The Priest-Knight didn't speak.He simply watched — the silent recognition of one predator meeting another.
Above them, the Rift Beast descended.
A nightmarish thing of bone and shadow:Four arms.A vertically-split jaw.Tendril-flesh writhing like living smoke.
Its roar tore the sky in half.
BOOOOM.
Eidrus shook. Debris rained down like dying stars.
The trapped child below screamed again—
"Help me!! PLEASE!"
Kairo's heart twisted so violently it hurt.
His legs moved before thought existed.
He didn't jump through the window.He tore through the wall.
Stone exploded behind him as he plummeted to the plaza, landing in a storm of black lightning.
People screamed. Scattered. Fell to their knees in terror.
The child looked up through tears.
"P-please… my legs…!"
Kairo knelt and ripped away the rubble.
His hands trembled.
Not from weight.
From fear.
Could he save this boy…when he couldn't even save his own brother?
His breath shook.
The Beast's shadow swallowed them both.
The child clung to his sleeve.
"D-don't leave me…"
Kairo's throat tightened painfully.
"I won't."
The Beast lunged.
A claw the size of a truck descended.
The child screamed—
Kairo turned, shielding him with his own body—
—time stopped.
Sound vanished.Sight dimmed.The world froze mid-air.
A single glowing line appeared in front of Kairo.
< Prime Breaker Authority: Level 1 Release? >
His whisper was barely breath.
"…yes."
The world detonated.
Black lightning erupted outward in a spiral of annihilation.
The Beast staggered mid-lunge, bones cracking, tendrils burning, its skull splitting from the force alone.
Kairo didn't think.Didn't feel.Didn't exist.
He moved on instinct, grabbed the Beast's lower jaw—
—and ripped it off.
Shadow ichor flooded the plaza.
Civilians ran in terror — not from the Beast…
…but from him.
The Beast writhed, howling, smashing buildings in blind agony.
Kairo didn't move.
He turned slowly, mechanically, like a newborn monster learning its own limbs.
Black lightning flickered in his eyes.
The Beast charged again.
Kairo raised a hand.
Lightning shaped itself into a blade the moment he thought it.
He whispered one word:
"Die."
He swung.
SPLATTER.
The Beast's head vaporized.
Its corpse fell like a collapsing mountain, flattening market stalls and sending dust storms rolling through the district.
Silence swallowed everything.
The lightning faded.Kairo collapsed to his knees.
His breath stuttered.His vision shook.His heart hammered like something was trying to escape his chest.
The system spoke:
But Kairo didn't hear the rest.
Because in the shadow of the Beast's corpse—at the edge of the destruction he caused—
lay a man and a woman.
A husband and wife.
Crushed instantly by the shockwave he created.Still holding hands.Still staring.Still warm.
Kairo froze.
His heart didn't break.
It shattered.
The child stared at them, unbelieving.
"Mom…? Dad…? Wake up… wake up…"
Kairo's breath choked.
"No… no no no… I didn't— I didn't mean to—"
Guilt flooded him.Crushed him.Suffocated him.
He had saved one life…
…by killing two.
His stomach twisted.He felt sick.Tears stung at his eyes.
"I didn't want this…"
But the world didn't care.
A shadow fell beside him.
The Priest-Knight landed lightly, boots hitting dust.
He studied the scene with cold detachment.
"So this is your power."
Kairo didn't look up.
He couldn't.
"You saved a child," the Priest-Knight continued, "and killed two adults."
Kairo's chest tightened until he couldn't breathe.
"It wasn't your fault," the man said. His voice didn't soften. "It was your weakness."
Kairo looked up slowly, eyes red, voice breaking.
"I didn't want to hurt anyone…"
The Priest-Knight smiled.
A thin, calculated, predatory smile.
"And yet you did."
He knelt beside Kairo.
"Kneel to Eidrus. Serve our city. Learn control. Become a weapon in the hands of gods."
His gloved hand clamped onto Kairo's shoulder.
"Or more will die."
Kairo stared at his own hands — shaking, blood-soaked, ruined.
His voice trembled like a dying flame.
"…I don't want to hurt people anymore…"
"Then be ours," the Priest-Knight whispered.
Above them, the bells rang — announcing a citywide decree.
"The anomaly shall be judged before the High Council."
The child clung to Kairo's sleeve, crying silently.
Civilians watched him with terror.The girl from the window watched with conflicted eyes.The Priest-Knight watched with hunger.
Kairo felt something inside him collapse.
He whispered:
"…I'll never… be forgiven for this…"