Wrath Domain, Behind the Wall, January 4, 2026
It had been a day since Cornelia's visit.
Ashen sat on his cell floor, back against the cold stone wall, knees drawn up with his forearms resting on them. He'd barely moved from this position for hours.
…Curiously, he wasn't in shock or despair. It wasn't surrender either.
He was organizing his thoughts.
A lot had happened during the last period… too much, too fast… and Ashen had barely had time to breathe between crises. So he decided to use this alone time to sort through everything rattling around in his skull and hash out his next moves.
He exhaled slowly, watching his breath mist faintly in the cool cell air.
'Starting from the beginning.'
Before the Beholder's Gaze had activated and dragged him into the Fragment of History, he'd been dealing with a different set of problems. Finding Alice. Reuniting with her. Making sure she picked Lust according to the future vision. Ensuring her safety.
All of that was more or less accomplished.
He could check those off the list.
Which meant he could turn his attention to the other matter that had been occupying his thoughts: The Veiled Moon.
Ashen's jaw tightened.
It had started with unusual Narkal movements on the frontline. Demihumans acting strangely… patterns that didn't fit normal behavior.
The more he'd learned about that cult and its leader, the Astrologer, the more ominous the future had seemed.
And then he'd met the man himself. The much younger Cassius Asta, standing beneath that ancient tree, red eyes glowing with barely controlled madness.
A shiver ran down Ashen's spine despite himself.
He could still feel the lingering terror when he tried to recall their encounter. The way Cassius had played with his beliefs, stripped away his goals, messed with his very identity. Even now, Ashen wondered how he'd stayed sane after that.
He rubbed his face with both hands, as if trying to scrub away the memory.
'At least one good thing came from it.'
Cassius's "tests" had confirmed his twin soul's statement about him being unbreakable under pressure. Thoroughly, utterly, and without question.
The Narkal stampede had been another situation he wasn't supposed to survive. But he had. And he'd come out stronger for it.
Ashen was even tempted to put himself in another deadly situation just to see how far he could push—
He caught himself, shaking his head violently.
'No. No, no, no. What am I even thinking? I barely have time to breathe as it is. No more suicidal thoughts. Begone!'
He slapped his cheeks lightly, forcing focus.
'Back to the Astrologer.'
From all the clues he'd gathered, Ashen was almost certain Cassius would make another move in the near future.
The domains would be better prepared this time—largely thanks to the system and its blessings. But that was cold comfort.
Ashen pushed himself to his feet and began pacing the small cell, three steps one way, three steps back.
The system aided every human without distinction. And last he checked, Cassius was very much human, despite all the madness.
So he naturally also had the system now.
Not only that, but he also had an additional two hundred years of planning. A mature cult infrastructure. And the element of surprise.
Ashen paused mid-step.
'Because everyone who suspected him as the mastermind behind the Pride Domain tragedy is probably dead, unlike what happened in the Fragment.'
No one knew it was coming except him and maybe Alice if she put any effort into thinking about it.
His hands clenched into fists at his sides.
When his thoughts reached this point, one conclusion became unavoidable: he had to prepare for an eventual confrontation with Cassius Asta.
He resumed pacing, faster now.
Any normal individual who could see his current thought process would label him delusional, extremely arrogant, and even possibly insane.
The Cassius of two hundred years ago had clearly already been at the third step. He'd had an innate ability. A mysterious curse that allowed him attack with only words.
Yet here was Ashen, a mere sixth step, trying to figure out how to confront him.
It would look admirable at first glance. Noble, even.
…But also stupid.
Because when was it his turn to hold up the sky when there were clearly more fitting choices in the form of Sin Lords?
Ashen stopped pacing and let out a bitter laugh.
'But that's exactly who I am, isn't it?'
If the Cassius from the Fragment could see his thoughts right now, he wouldn't be surprised at all. He'd think it was a matter of course.
Because Ashen Hart had been silently nursing a savior complex this entire time.
He knew it. His twin soul knew it. Hell, even Cassius had seen it written in his constellation.
"Hmm."
Ashen moved to sit on the edge of his bed, elbows on his knees, hands clasped.
"Let's start with the most obvious one: The Astrologer."
Speaking aloud helped organize his thoughts. It made them concrete.
He rubbed his chin, staring at nothing.
"Cassius made everyone believe he could read the future, but it was something else entirely."
His fingers tapped against his jaw as he thought.
"That man could see every aspect of my personality. My thoughts. My beliefs. Even my habits."
Tap. Tap. Tap.
"When he has that, predicting a person's next actions becomes trivial. I guess that's how he passed himself off as a precog."
He leaned back slightly, gaze drifting to the cell ceiling.
"He also proclaimed he could see a person's true power, but..." A pause. "...personal power is just another aspect that helps constitute personality. So it's naturally under the Astrologer's gaze."
A breath out.
"While I know all of this, there's little I can do against it for now."
He ran a hand through his messy hair, frustration bleeding into the gesture.
"But at the same time, the Astrologer itself isn't geared toward direct confrontation, so there's that."
His hand dropped back to his knee.
"Reading thoughts is still going to be a pain in the ass, though."
Silence settled for a moment. Just the distant drip of water somewhere in the prison depths and the faint shuffle of guards changing posts.
Ashen's expression hardened.
"Next on the list is that curse."
He stood again, resuming his pacing. Three steps. Turn. Three steps. Turn.
"From what Cassius revealed, the only requirement to trigger it is divulging secrets. And anyone ignorant of those secrets has to pay a price."
The price could be anything.
Cassius had said Secrets—the Outer God—had stolen his hope. And Ashen had experienced firsthand how varied the payment could be.
Stripping away personality. Injecting false scenarios designed to break him. Even memories that felt more real than reality.
He wouldn't be surprised if the price could be physical too. Cassius had said people simply died from it before he learned to control the curse.
But.
Ashen stopped pacing, a small smile tugging at his lips.
'If that was all there was to it, I'm not afraid.'
When he'd dived into the Fragment of History, he could only bring one partner—Alice. Which meant his future self, the one who'd gained a soul of its own and wasn't just memories anymore, couldn't come along.
He crossed his arms, leaning against the wall.
'Otherwise, I doubt any secret Cassius uttered would work on me.'
Because that entity in his mind had already seen it all. Had killed the Outer Gods that made Cassius lose hope in the first place.
Even if Ashen didn't know the secrets on a conscious level, he knew them on an unconscious one.
His twin soul was a cheat code against Cassius's curse.
The smile faded. "That only leaves the simplest thing."
His voice dropped.
"Base power."
This was the point where his confidence crumbled.
A third-step pathway walker couldn't even be called mortal anymore. They were given their own classification: transcendent.
That alone showed how outlandish his thoughts of confronting Cassius were.
Ashen pushed off the wall and moved to the center of the cell, standing there motionless.
'No.'
He shook his head resolutely.
'If I can't even deal with one man, how am I going to face Them?'
Seven silhouettes appeared in his mind's eye.
Four remained blurry, indistinct. But the other three… He recognized them all too well.
The first was the Outer God of Euphoric Misery. The one he'd seen through nightmares leaking from his twin soul. The one who had taken Alice's heart in another timeline.
The other two came from Cassius's revealed secrets and the scenarios he'd been forced to witness.
The Keeper of What Should Not Be Known. Secrets, as He liked to be called.
And The Broodfather of Sterile Fertility, responsible for the endless spawning of Narkals.
Ashen stood there for what felt like hours, thinking. Calculating. Drawing mental diagrams of power scales and trying to find paths that bridged impossible gaps.
He kept drawing blanks.
There was no logical way to bridge the distance between him and them. Not at his current level.
Not with any method he could conceive.
His shoulders sagged slightly. Exhaustion crept in at the edges.
Then—
A memory surfaced.
Morikawa Shun, brandishing his twin blades and dancing through a horde of Great Beasts. Killing them. Slaughtering them. All while making it look effortless.
…All while still being mortal.
Ashen's head lifted.
'If he could do it...'
The thought grew, solidified, and became certainty.
'...then it's not impossible.'
His gaze shifted, focusing on something invisible to anyone else. His status window materialized in his vision, text glowing faintly.
'And I even have the tools for it.'
His eyes settled on the newest addition to his arsenal.
Innate Skill: Mana Authority
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