The door led to neither a forest, nor hell, nor a hallway. It opened into a void. A vast gray arena, its floor made of cold, polished stone, stretched infinitely beneath a sunless, starless white sky. No walls. No sounds. Only the echo of my heavy, unbalanced footsteps breaking the sacred silence.
I walked forward, dragging my left leg, which still suffered from a delay in neural response. In the center of the arena, a hundred meters away, stood "something." And behind that thing, a massive white door stood, inscribed with a single, elegant yet provocative line of black script: [To Pass: Kill the Weakness.]
I drew closer. With every step, the beat of my new heart grew more violent—not with fear, but with... shock. The creature standing before me wasn't an ogre or a demon. It was a frail human body. Narrow shoulders, protruding ribs, pale skin, and a posture bent slightly with a familiar weakness. It wore the same tattered clothes I had worn the day I burned my house to the ground.
I stopped directly in front of it. The body belonged to "The Old Ray." Same height, same thinness, same hands that had never held a sword. But the face... I looked up at its face, and the blood froze in my veins. There was no face. A smooth expanse of pale skin covered the front of its head. No eyes, no nose, no mouth. A mere "ghost" of a dead memory.
"Is this me?" I looked at my current hands. Massive, vein-riddled, tipped with sharp black claws, and skin as tough as armor. Then I looked at its hand. Small, soft, human. I laughed mockingly, my voice emerging coarse and terrifying. "So... the test is to crush this garbage? This is easier than I expected."
I lunged toward it. I wanted to end it with a single blow. I raised my giant fist, gathering enough strength to shatter a concrete wall. "Vanish, you weakling!" I swung my hand down to crush its smooth skull.
Whoosh! I struck only air. With terrifying ease, the old body tilted to the left in a fluid, water-like motion. I was propelled forward by my own weight and momentum, stumbling and nearly falling.
Before I could regain my balance, the old body kicked my "crippled" knee. The kick was weak; it didn't hurt me physically. But it hit the "exact right spot." I lost my balance and fell to my knees.
The clone stood before me, motionless, breathless, faceless. It mocked me with its silence. "How...?" How did it dodge my strike? I am ten times faster! I am a hundred times stronger!
I rose in a rage. "Mere luck." I attacked again. A right punch, a left hook, a kick. Dodge... duck... retreat. The clone moved in perfect harmony. Its nerves were perfectly connected. Its muscles knew exactly where its bones were. There was no "lag" between its thought and its movement. It danced. Meanwhile, I... I am a "monster," powerful but fragmented. When I attack, my hand outpaces my foot. When I turn, my back muscles spasm. I am a very powerful machine, but my software is full of bugs. It is a weak machine, but its software is flawless.
The clone began to attack. Fast, precise strikes on the joints of my neck, my eye, my liver. They weren't painful; its strikes were like those of a child. But the humiliation... the humiliation burned me hotter than fire. My "weak" old self was toying with me? I, who tore my own flesh and built myself from scratch, was being insulted by this shadow?
"AAAAARGH!" I roared in fury and tried to grab it. It slipped through my hands like soap. It jumped and kicked me in the face. I recoiled, wiping a small drop of blood from my nose.
I looked at it. It stood in a primitive fighting stance, calm and provocative. I realized the bitter truth. I am trying to fight "as a human." I'm trying to mimic its movements, trying to be agile like him. But I am not him. I am not that scrawny boy. I killed that boy in the white room. Why am I trying to fight in his style?
"You're right..." I whispered, my voice shifting into something more feral. "You dodge because you're afraid to be touched. Because one hit from me will end you." I looked at my mangled body. "As for me... I don't care if I get hit."
I lunged once more. This time, I didn't try to be fast. The clone saw me coming. It prepared to punch me in the eye. I didn't dodge. I kept my eyes open and pushed my face toward its fist. Thud! Its punch hit my eye directly. The pain was annoying, but I didn't blink. I seized the moment its skin touched mine.
I reached out with my massive hand and clamped down on its weak arm. CRACK! The sound of bones shattering under my grip was musical. The faceless clone convulsed violently, trying to escape. But it was too late. My grip was a hydraulic vise.
"I caught you." I smiled, revealing teeth that weren't entirely human. "You're agile... you're beautiful... you're harmonious." I jerked its arm and pulled its frail body toward me. "But you are weak."
I raised my other hand, and instead of punching, I opened my palm and shredded its chest with my claws. The blood wasn't red; it was black, like liquid smoke. I didn't fight it with martial arts; I fought it like a beast. I headbutted it with my solid skull. I grabbed it by the waist and slammed it into the stone floor until the arena shook. BAM! BAM! BAM! With every strike, I was shattering a memory of my old self. Goodbye to my fear. Goodbye to my weakness. Goodbye to my humanity that was holding me back.
The body beneath me turned into a pile of mangled flesh and broken bones. It no longer moved. I stood over it, my chest heaving, as black smoke rose from its corpse and clung to my skin.
I looked at the white door. It opened slowly.
I walked over the corpse of "my old self" and crushed it under my foot without looking down. I felt something shift inside me. My movement didn't become smoother—no—but I accepted the "harshness." I was no longer trying to be "Ray the Human" in a monster's body. I am now... something else.
A final message appeared above the open door: [Remains discarded.] [You are now completely empty.] [Ready to be filled.]
I stepped into the darkness behind the door, leaving the smooth corpse behind in the gray arena. I had killed the man I used to be. And now... I could be born anew.