The first thing Kimura felt was the cold.
Not the kind that made one shiver, but a deep, hollow chill—stone walls, forgotten ruins, and the silence of abandonment. His eyelids fluttered open to a broken concrete floor, the faint stench of rust and mildew clawing at his nose.
Pain followed.
Every bone screamed, each nerve reminding him of a battle he had never chosen.
He blinked sluggishly, staring up at a ceiling so fractured it barely held together. Faded beams jutted overhead like the ribs of a colossal corpse. Dust choked the air, and every shallow breath burned his lungs.
Slowly, he tried to move his wrist.
Agony shot up his arm.
His face twisted as he forced himself upright, back scraping against a cracked wall as his body trembled.
"What… what just happened…?" he rasped, his voice little more than a broken whisper.
He looked down at his hands.
One was torn open, blood seeping freely, shaking as if it no longer belonged to him. He lifted it to his face, smearing crimson across his cheek—proof that he was still alive.
His heart twisted violently.
Memories surged like tidal waves.
"My daughter… my wife… our lives…" His voice cracked, dissolving into silence.
They wouldn't stop.
Saki's gentle smile.
Airi's laughter.
Then screams.
Blood.
And the looming shadow of a man clad in black steel.
The nightmare.
"Vanko…" Kimura growled, teeth grinding together as his entire body trembled with rage and despair.
Tears blurred his vision, but they could not wash away the image of his family suffering. Grief crushed his chest, suffocating him.
"There is no need for me to live," he whispered into the darkness. "I can't handle this pain… Saki… Airi…"
Then—
Another memory.
Not of them alive… but broken.
Crying. Reaching for him.
While that armored monster stood towering over them.
Something inside Kimura cracked.
A guttural growl tore from his throat—low at first, then rising, unchained.
"Grrr… ha… ha… ha…!"
The sound twisted into maniacal laughter, echoing through the ruins.
"Oh… how could I forget?" His lips stretched into a bloodied grin, eyes wide with something unholy.
"The source of my suffering. The cause of all this pain."
His fingers dug into his face, nails scraping skin.
"If I am dying… then they should die as well," he whispered. "I will not go alone."
A malicious aura seeped from his battered body, staining the air with something primal.
He staggered to his feet—broken, yet unbending.
"I will be their bad luck," he murmured.
"I will be their suffering."
"I will be their… death."
The grin never left his face as the aura thickened, crawling over him like a living shadow.
"He will feel my pain," Kimura roared, madness and conviction entwined. "A hundred times more… a million times more! He will die—by my hand!"
Then, like a cruel echo of fate, a voice resurfaced in his mind.
"The dungeon rift: Scaletrón City."
His jaw clenched.
And then—
"Phwew!"
Something tore through the air.
A bone-tipped arrow screamed past his cheek, grazing his skin before embedding itself in a rusted iron wall.
For a heartbeat, silence.
Then—
BOOM!
The wall ruptured.
Dust and debris blasted outward as a crater nearly ten meters wide tore open where the arrow had landed.
Kimura spun toward the source, blood running cold.
A skeleton towered in the dim light—unlike anything he had ever seen.
Nearly three and a half meters tall.
Its golden bones gleamed beneath fractured shafts of sunlight.
Two massive horns curved from its skull like a devil's crown.
Eldritch light burned in its hollow sockets, fixed on him with predatory intent.
Clad in tattered hunter's attire, it raised a massive bow of bone and sinew, drawing another arrow forged of pure golden marrow.
"What the hell—!?" Kimura gasped.
The creature fired.
"Shpew! Shpew! Shpew!"
The arrows split the air, detonating in rapid succession.
Instinct screamed.
Kimura moved before thought, sprinting between shattered walls and fallen pillars.
His battered body moved faster than it should have—five meters a second, fueled by sheer survival.
Pain tore at him, but adrenaline drowned it out.
Explosions erupted around him, fire and debris biting into his skin.
His lungs burned.
His legs screamed.
Then—silence.
He glanced back.
The skeleton lowered its bow, reaching for a hunting knife strapped to its waist.
A purple, heart-shaped gem embedded in its chest flared violently.
Power surged.
The blade shimmered with deathly energy.
"Shit—!"
The skeleton charged.
Not walking. Not running.
Charging…
More than twice his speed.
The ground shook with each precise step.
Kimura dove sideways just as the blade cleaved the air where his head had been.
Sparks and dust erupted from the impact.
He hit the ground hard, ribs screaming.
His hand closed around something solid.
A rusted steel bar.
As the skeleton lunged again, Kimura twisted, swinging with every ounce of strength left in his body.
Bang!
The blow shattered into its jaw.
Bone cracked violently.
The head snapped sideways, aura flickering as the force rippled through its frame.
Kimura staggered back, panting.
"You think… I'm scared of you!?" he snarled.
The skeleton hissed soundlessly.
Kimura roared.
"DIE, YOU SPARKLING PILE OF SHITTY BONES!"
He drove the sharp end of the bar into its neck joint.
Crack!
The head separated cleanly, hitting the ground with a hollow clunk.
The aura bled away.
The golden frame collapsed into lifeless remains.
Thump!
Kimura's knees gave out.
He collapsed onto the rubble, chest heaving violently, every breath a war.
Sweat and blood drenched him as his vision blurred.
"Huff… huff…"
For a long moment, there was only silence.
Slowly, his trembling fingers curled into a fist.
He raised it toward the broken sky.
His lips pulled into a bloodied grin—shattered, yet unyielding.
"Just you wait, Vanko," he whispered. "You will be my final kill… before I reunite with Saki and Airi."
The words lingered among the ruins.
The promise of tragedy had become a promise of vengeance.