The storeroom was eerily quiet, the air thick with dust and the faint lingering scent of iron. The once grand space, was now nearly empty. Shelves that should have been overflowing with stolen riches, rare artifacts, and whatever else these slavers deemed valuable were instead stripped bare. A few scattered trinkets remained, glinting under the dim torchlight, but the bulk of what once occupied the room was gone.

  Kaiser stepped forward, his boots pressing against the blood-stained stone floor, leaving faint crimson prints in his wake. His body still hummed with the energy of combat, his muscles tight with tension from the relentless slaughter outside. He wasn’t sure what he expected upon entering, but the sight before him wasn’t it. His gaze flickered to Ivan, who stood nearby, panting heavily, his body visibly exhausted yet victorious. His clothes were drenched in sweat, but despite the clear signs of physical exertion, there was a triumphant smirk plastered across his face.

  Ivan exhaled sharply and rolled his shoulders before wiping a smear of sweat od from his cheek. "You were too busy playing with your food, so I had to pick up the slack. You’ve been on your little rampage for over fifteen minutes, you know that?" He let out a strained chuckle, shaking his head. "I pushed myself to the absolute limit and cloned myself twelve times, pulled a hundred and twelve people out of here, and even managed to grab some artifacts. I left the useless noble garbage behind, like paintings, golden cups, anything that didn’t give off any power. But the real issue is..." His voice trailed off as he motioned to the far end of the room.

  Kaiser followed his gesture, his gaze settling on three massive silver cages.

  Unlike the rusted, crude enclosures they had broken into before, these weren’t just simple holding cells. The bars shined under the torchlight, unnaturally pristine, without a single scratch or dent. The craftsmanship was intricate, the silver weaving together in patterns that felt too calculated to be purely decorative. Even stranger, despite the clear gaps in the bars, Kaiser couldn’t see inside.

  His crimson eyes narrowed as a creeping sense of wrongness settled in his gut. He took a step closer, cautiously running his fingers along the smooth, cold surface of the metal. ‘There was something off.’

  "...These aren’t normal cages," he muttered, his voice low and calculating.

  Ivan walked up beside him and rapped his knuckles against the bars. The sound that rang out was hollow, unnatural, as if striking the surface of deep water rather than solid steel. He pulled his hand back with a frown.

  "Yeah, no shit," Ivan muttered.

  Kaiser continued studying the cage, his mind quickly breaking down the possibilities. He grabbed hold of the bars and attempted to pull them apart, applying a considerable amount of strength. Immediately, he felt a strange resistance, not like a normal lock or barrier, but something else entirely. The harder he pulled, the more the metal resisted, pushing back against him with an invisible force.

  His frown deepened. He braced himself and applied even more strength, his muscles tensing, veins bulging as he increased the pressure. The resistance only grew stronger. It was almost as if the cage was adapting to his force, countering it, rendering brute strength completely ineffective.

  Kaiser let go and took a step back, rolling his shoulders as he clicked his tongue in irritation. "Hell of a lock," he muttered, his expression unreadable.

  Ivan folded his arms, watching with mild frustration. "Guess we’re screwed, huh?"

  Kaiser placed his hand against the cage, his fingers gliding over the cold, enchanted metal. It was completely unyielding. For several moments, nothing changed. The cage remained as rigid as ever, its strange defenses holding strong. Then, just as he was about to shift his stance, he noticed something. A subtle shift, a flicker of weakness. It was so faint, so fleeting, that had he not been paying full attention, he might have missed it entirely.

  Kaiser narrowed his eyes. He didn’t move. He didn’t press harder or try to force the cage open. Instead, he simply waited, his fingers still resting lightly against the metal. Ten seconds passed, and again, the magic faltered, even if just for an instant. The resistance wavered before reasserting itself, like the faintest hiccup in an otherwise unbroken rhythm.

  Twenty seconds. Another lapse.

  Thirty seconds. And there it was again.

  Realization settled over him like a slow-burning flame, spreading from the depths of his mind to the confident smirk that curled at the edges of his lips. ‘The cage was not invincible.’ It was not an unshakable wall, standing firm against all attempts to break it. It breathed. The magic fluctuated, waxing and waning in precise intervals, and if he timed his strike correctly… If only he struck at the exact moment when the barrier was at its weakest, then nothing could stop him.

  His fingers curled into a fist, his entire body coiling with effortless control. He waited, patient and calculating. And then, just as the next pulse of weakness washed through the cage, he moved.

  The force of his punch met the enchanted metal at the precise instant its defenses faltered, and the result was nothing short of devastating. The cage did not merely crack. It detonated. The enchanted silver erupted outward in a violent cascade, fragments of metal bursting into the air like shrapnel. A concussive shockwave rolled through the room, sending wooden crates skidding across the floor, the thick layer of dust swirling in chaotic spirals.

  Ivan stumbled back, his eyes wide with disbelief as he stared at the wreckage. The cage, once an unbreakable prison was now nothing more than a twisted ruin of shattered steel and dying magic. Kaiser exhaled, rolling his shoulders as he casually dusted off the remnants of the obliterated metal.

  "Gotcha."

  The bars had been completely destroyed, reduced to jagged, broken fragments.

  Kaiser barely had time to revel in his success before a sharp, searing pain shot through his arm. He looked down to see his mangled fingers, shattered knuckles, and wrist bent at an unnatural angle. His entire hand was ruined, a twisted mess of broken bones and torn flesh.

  Kaiser let out a breathless chuckle, flexing his broken fingers slightly as blood dripped onto the ground. Even as the pain flared up his arm, he could already feel the bones beginning to knit themselves back together, his rapid regeneration working overtime.

  "Now," he murmured, eyes gleaming with curiosity, "Let’s see what was worth locking up so tightly."

  The moment he took a step inside, the oppressive weight in the air lifted, like a chain had been snapped, releasing something that had been bound for far too long. Kaiser’s gaze immediately locked onto the source.

  A sword.

  Not just any sword tho, this was something beyond mortal craftsmanship, beyond the understanding of any blacksmith. It glowed, radiating a red aura so intense that the very air around it seemed to waver, as if reality itself was struggling to contain its presence. Even sheathed, its power bled into the surroundings. The polished black scabbard was etched with faint, infernal runes that pulsed dimly, like embers stirring in the wind. The guard, shaped like demonic wings, curved outward as if ready to take flight, their crimson hue matching the glow that seeped from within.

  Kaiser felt something primal stir inside him at the sight. His grin widened. "Yeah," he muttered, eyes gleaming. "That’s mine."

  Ivan, still standing at the entrance of the now-ruined cage, tilted his head. "You’re not even gonna think about it, huh? Just ‘oh look, terrifying, cursed hell-blade, guess I’ll pick it up’?"

  Kaiser chuckled, already stepping inside. "You’re acting like you don’t want it." He glanced back at Ivan, motioning lazily toward his old sword. "Keep that piece of junk I gave you earlier. I don’t need it anymore."

  Ivan scoffed. "Piece of junk? That sword’s been cutting through metal cages like nothing." Kaiser wasn’t listening. His focus was locked solely on the blade before him.

  Each step closer made his skin prickle. The aura it emitted wasn’t just hot, it was oppressive. The ground beneath the sword had been scorched black, the stone cracked and fractured from exposure to its presence. Even the air smelled different, filled with the scent of burning metal and something older, something ancient.

  Kaiser extended a hand toward the hilt, and the moment his fingers brushed against it, the entire room reacted.

  A violent surge of heat erupted outward, igniting a vortex of flames that roared to life, engulfing the cage in an instant. The shockwave sent Ivan flying backward, forcing him out of the ruined enclosure as a blazing wall of fire melted the remaining silver bars, reducing them to molten slag.

  "Kaiser!" Ivan shouted, shielding his face from the heat as he stumbled back, but his voice was drowned out by the deafening roar of the flames.

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  Inside the inferno, Kaiser remained unmoved.

  The fire twisted around him, consuming the space in a swirling maelstrom of red and orange, but he stood in its heart unflinching. His clothes burned away, his skin blistered and cracked from the sheer intensity of the heat, but none of it mattered. His regeneration worked just as fast as the flames could devour him.

  If anything, he looked thrilled. With a slow motion, Kaiser wrapped his fingers tightly around the hilt.

  The moment he lifted it from its resting place, the flames exploded outward, the entire room trembling under the sheer pressure. Kaiser inhaled sharply as the heat intensified, flowing through him like magma in his veins. The sheer power radiating from the weapon was suffocating, but it wasn’t trying to reject him… It was testing him.

  Will you wield me? Or will I consume you?

  Kaiser’s grin widened. ‘What a stupid question.’

  With a smooth, almost reverent motion, he unsheathed the blade, and the moment the metal was exposed, the room shook even harder.

  Flames coiled around its surface, dancing along the pitch-black steel like living embers, their intensity growing the longer it was held. It wasn’t just a tool for cutting, it was destruction given form, a raging inferno in the shape of a blade.

  Kaiser exhaled slowly, his breath coming out in steam, his body already struggling to keep up with the raw heat pouring from the weapon. His palm sizzled as the fire licked at his flesh, eating away at his skin over and over again. But each time the sword burned him, his flesh knit itself back together.

  Pain. Regeneration. Power.

  A constant cycle.

  Kaiser swung the blade through the air, testing its balance, and it was perfect, far too perfect. It didn’t feel like he was swinging a sword. It felt like the sword was swinging itself. The heat, the weight, the movement, it was all intoxicating.

  His grin turned downright feral.

  "It’s alive," he murmured, his voice filled with pure exhilaration. He twirled the sword effortlessly, watching the way the flames trailed behind each movement like the tail of a comet. His crimson eyes gleamed as he whispered, almost to himself "This thing wants to kill something."

  Outside the cage, Ivan had barely regained his footing, still staring at the infernal display before him with wide eyes. His mouth opened, then closed, then opened again. He had no words. Kaiser, still caught in his moment of admiration, finally turned his attention back to him.

  "Hey," he called out, lifting the sword slightly, letting the flames surge higher as he did.

  Ivan took a full step back. "What?"

  Kaiser flashed him a sharp grin, the hellfire reflecting in his crimson gaze. "...Think anyone’s still alive out there?"

  Ivan crossed his arms, his face still slightly pale from witnessing Kaiser’s unhinged delight with the infernal sword. "Before you go running off to kill more people, we still have two cages left to open." he reminded, voice firm.

  Kaiser sighed, "Yeah, yeah… might actually find something as good as this thing in them." He patted the black scabbard at his hip, sending out small flickers of heat with the motion.

  Ivan rolled his eyes. "Let’s hope it’s something safer this time."

  Ignoring him, Kaiser stepped toward the second cage. Now that he was properly armed, he decided to test something. Raising his new sword, he swung it in a single, fluid motion.

  The moment the blade met the silver bars, they melted like butter. There was no resistance. No need for the careful technique he’d used before. The sword cleaved through the magically reinforced metal as if it were paper, the heat warping and collapsing the edges of the remaining bars into molten drips.

  Ivan muttered under his breath, "…That sword’s bullshit."

  Kaiser didn’t respond. Because this time, there was actually someone inside the cage.

  ‘A girl?’

  She was small, far too small to be here. Brown hair hung in long, messy strands around her face, obscuring her features. She sat on the floor, knees pulled up to her chest, unmoving. Her arms, though pale and thin, bore something strange, a violin tattoo.

  Unlike the rest of the prisoners they had found, she wasn’t chained. She wasn’t hurt. And yet… she wasn’t asleep, either.

  Kaiser’s battle-hungry grin faded immediately. His hands sheeted his sword, and for once, his expression softened. Without thinking, he strode forward, stepping through the half-melted bars. "Hey," he called out, voice firm but gentler than before. "Are you alright?"

  The girl remained motionless, offering no response. Kaiser frowned and crouched beside her, resting a hand on her arm.

  "Oi, squirt, you hear me?"

  The moment his fingers made contact with her skin, she stirred. Not in a natural way—no startled flinch, no sluggish blink—just a slow, deliberate movement, as if something unseen was guiding her. Her head lifted, inch by inch, the motion disturbingly unnatural, like a marionette on tangled strings.

  A chill crept up Kaiser’s spine, cold and insidious. Then, she opened her eyes.

  No whites. No pupils. Just void.

  Kaiser flinched back instinctively. "The hell—"

  Ivan, who had just stepped inside the cage, halted mid-step. "Okay, yeah, that’s unsettling as hell."

  But before either of them could react further, the girl’s hand grasped Kaiser’s wrist, her grip was weak, but at the same time firm. And then, she spoke.

  "Your name," she murmured. Her voice was small, fragile, barely more than a whisper. "What is your name?"

  Kaiser blinked, caught off guard. "…Kaiser."

  The moment the name left his lips, the girl grinned. A grin so wide, so unnatural, that for the first time in a long while, Kaiser felt something deep in his chest lurch. And then, her tattoo began to glow.

  The ink on her arms flared with golden light, its form twisting, shifting, until it moved. The violin materialized on her shoulder, no longer just a mark, but a real, physical object. A golden violin, humming with power.

  The moment Kaiser saw it, his instincts screamed, but before he could react, she let go of his wrist, reached for the strings, and whispered, "I only need one more thing to confirm," as a bow of pure light formed in her hand. Then she played a single note, and the world exploded.

  A sound unlike anything Kaiser had ever heard tore through the air, sending shockwaves through the entire room. The remaining cage detonated, shards of silver metal blasting outward in a deadly storm of shrapnel. The ground split open, stone fracturing under the sheer force of the sound. Ivan, who had been mid-step, was violently thrown backward, tumbling across the floor as debris rained around him.

  But Kaiser took the worst of it.

  The force hit him point-blank. He was launched like a cannonball, slamming into the farthest wall with bone-crushing force. The impact sent cracks spiderwebbing across the stone, dust and debris collapsing from the ceiling. For a moment, the only sound left was the ringing in his ears.

  Kaiser’s vision flickered as he peeled himself from the ruined wall, his whole body aching, bones already knitting themselves back together. He spat out a chunk of stone. "…What was that?"

  Across the room, Ivan groaned, still flat on his back. "Kaiser… what the hell was that girl?!"

  Kaiser cracked his neck, rolling his shoulders. He could still feel the vibration from the note inside his ribs. His gaze snapped back to the center of the destruction, to where the girl had stood, and she was still there, cradling the violin with delicate fingers, her expression no longer eerie but radiant. Pure, unfiltered happiness spread across her features as she let out a soft, breathless laugh.

  "Father was right," she whispered, as if the words themselves were sacred. "You really exist."

  Kaiser’s brows furrowed. ‘What?’

  Ivan, still recovering from being blasted across the room, coughed and rubbed his face. "I don’t like that. I don’t like anything about that."

  Kaiser took a slow step forward, one hand resting on the hilt of his sword. "The hell are you talking about?"

  The girl didn't answer. Instead, she tilted her head, farther than was naturally possible, all the way until something cracked.

  Her head snapped violently to the side, twisting farther and farther until it bent at an unnatural angle, then kept going until it had fully turned around—yet her face, now staring from behind, still held the same eerie smile as Kaiser’s grip tightened, his instincts screaming, just as she began to change.

  Her body twitched. Muscles shuddered. The violin disintegrated into golden motes of light as a white, viscous slime-like substance began crawling over her head. It spread across her face, coating her features like melting wax, obscuring everything beneath a shifting, gelatinous layer.

  Then she grew. Her thin frame expanded, limbs stretching, broadening. Feminine features disappeared entirely, the delicate form morphing into something much larger, much more imposing. The skin beneath the slime shifted, bones cracking as musculature adjusted, reshaped.

  The process was disgustingly smooth. There was no blood, no tearing and only change. By the time it was done, a completely different figure stood before them.

  The humanoid shape was tall, looming, unnervingly perfect. The white slime-matter now formed a smooth mask over its head, featureless aside from two deep, pitch-black holes where eyes should have been.

  It was unnatural. Fluid. Yet precise.

  Then, the creature bowed. A deep, graceful motion, like a performer before an audience. "I apologize for the deception," it said, voice now distinctly male, smooth, refined. "But faith must be tested, after all." The mask tilted upward, and though it had no eyes, Kaiser felt its gaze.

  "I am Maestro," the being continued. "The Shepherd of the Father. The right hand of the Unloved One. And with your arrival, Kaiser…" The two black voids where eyes should have been seemed to darken further.

  "I am now certain, certain that you are real."

  Kaiser only stared. Then, after a long pause of thought he raised an eyebrow "What does that mean?"

  Ivan threw up his hands. "Great question. Fantastic question. I also have another—WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU?!"

  Maestro chuckled. The sound was rich, elegant, unfitting for something so… inhuman. "I am but a humble servant," he mused, placing a hand over where his heart should be. "A Shepherd, guiding the lost toward the path of the Father."

  Kaiser didn’t relax. If anything, his stance hardened. "And who the hell is this ‘Father’?"

  The being gave a soft, almost fond sigh. "The one who waits. The one who sees."

  Ivan, who had gotten to his feet, took an aggressive step forward. "You’re being really cryptic, mask-boy, and I don’t like cryptic."

  Kaiser didn’t move. His eyes stayed locked on the Maestro. "You said you had to ‘test’ your faith." His voice was low, almost dangerous. "What the hell does that even mean."

  Maestro tilted his head. "Faith must be proven," he said simply. "One does not recognize the sun by merely hearing its name. They must feel its warmth. They must witness its light."

  Kaiser was beyond done with this flowery bullshit. "Yeah? And does that have to do with me?"

  Maestro stepped forward, not walked, but stepped. The movement was so unnaturally smooth that it almost seemed like he had shifted positions instantly.

  "You are the flame," Maestro said, voice still calm, but filled with certainty. "The fire that will either consume or illuminate. I had to know whether the stories were true. Whether you were simply a myth. But now…"

  Another step.

  Kaiser felt the air shift as the room, despite the lingering heat from his sword, grew colder, and as Maestro raised a single hand, his gaze unwavering, he spoke with quiet certainty. "I see now that you are not a myth, Kaiser. You are real." Then he snapped his fingers, unleashing a shockwave that tore through the air.

  The stone beneath Kaiser’s feet fractured instantly. The molten silver cage imploded into dust and Ivan was thrown backward again, cursing as he skidded across the ground.

  But Kaiser held his ground. His body screamed from the sheer force of the sound wave, but he forced himself to stay upright. His eyes burned with adrenaline.

  Though the Maestro’s mask had no mouth, Kaiser could feel the grin beneath it as the being spoke with something unnervingly close to reverence. "Yes… you’ll do."

  Kaiser unsheathed his sword, flames erupting in a furious clash against the whole room, "You wanna test me, freak? I say bring it on."

  Maestro merely gave a slow, elegant bow before whispering, "Then let us dance, Flame of the End."

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