Lue's hands felt unbearably heavy.
So did his heart.
But his mind
His mind was empty.
Not the kind of emptiness that brings peace, nor the quiet that follows exhaustion. It was a hollow void, stripped of thought, stripped of meaning- too vacant to hold onto anything, too distant to even ache properly.
And yet… something lingered beneath it.
Something waiting.
He walked.
Without direction. Without purpose.
Just… walking.
Each step landed with quiet certainty, as though his body had already decided on a destination his mind refused to acknowledge. The world moved around him- loud, restless, alive but none of it reached him.
Or perhaps-
He had stopped reaching back.
The streets were crowded, filled with people brushing past one another, voices overlapping, laughter rising and falling like waves. Merchants called out, children ran through narrow paths, and conversations tangled into a noise that should have felt overwhelming.
But to Lue-
It was nothing.
No one looked at him.
Or maybe they did, only for a fleeting second, before their gazes slid away, uninterested, unaffected.
As always.
As if nothing had happened.
As if nothing had changed.
As if the world hadn't burned.
Lue moved through them like a shadow.
Like something that didn't belong among the living.
His fingers tightened slowly around the hilt of his sword, the only thing that still felt real beneath his grasp. The familiar weight grounded him- barely but it was enough to remind him that he still existed.
The laughter around him-
It didn't warm him anymore.
Once, perhaps, it might have.
Once, he might have paused to watch, to listen, to feel something stir in his chest.
But now-
The more he looked at them, the less empty his mind became.
And that, somehow, was worse.
Because the emptiness did not disappear.
It twisted.
It shifted.
It filled- not with life-
But with something else.
Something sharp.
Something cold.
Something alive in the most unnatural way.
They're laughing at you.
The voice came quietly.
So quietly he almost mistook it for his own thought.
"Kill…"
His steps did not slow.
"Kill them…"
The whisper curled around his mind, slipping into the spaces where nothing else existed, taking root where emptiness once ruled.
"Kill them all…"
It didn't stop.
It didn't fade.
It only grew clearer- more insistent, more certain- until it felt less like a suggestion and more like truth.
His mind, once hollow, began to fill.
Not with confusion.
Not with hesitation.
But with a singular, terrifying clarity.
More.
More.
More.
And yet-
Lue did nothing.
He didn't turn.
He didn't draw his blade.
He didn't answer the voice that called to him from somewhere deep within.
He simply
Walked.
Step after step, through a world that no longer belonged to him.
To where?
Only he knew.
Or perhaps
Only that something within him knew.
When his steps finally came to a halt-
He didn't question it.
He didn't need to.
Because he already understood.
A battlefield stretched before him.
Once again.
But this time-
No one had dragged him here.
No one had forced him into the chaos, into the blood, into the violence that clung to the air like a living thing.
This time-
He had come on his own.
A slow breath left his lips.
"Haa…"
The sound was soft.
Almost… relieved.
At last.
His gaze lifted, drifting across the battlefield with detached curiosity. Men clashed in desperate struggle, blades colliding with harsh, metallic cries. Bodies moved with urgency, with fear, with the desperate need to survive just one more moment.
Life and death-
Unfolding before him.
Meaningless.
All of it.
Then-
A shift.
A presence behind him.
A man lunged forward, blade raised, driven by instinct or desperation- perhaps both.
Foolish.
Lue did not turn.
He did not flinch.
He did not even acknowledge the attack.
His sword moved-
A single, effortless motion.
A light touch.
Barely enough to be called contact.
And yet-
The man's body-
Did not fall.
Did not stagger.
Did not scream.
It… burst.
Like something fragile.
Like something that had never been meant to hold together in the first place.
A sudden, violent rupture-
And then-
Nothing.
No form.
No structure.
No existence left to recognize.
Just-
Blood.
It scattered through the air, splashing across the ground, staining everything it touched.
Across Lue.
Across the battlefield.
Across reality itself.
For a moment-
There was silence.
Not in the world.
But within him.
"Haa…!"
The sound that escaped him was sharp.
Unfamiliar.
A laugh.
Low.
Unsteady.
He lifted his hand slowly, watching the blood drip from his fingers, his expression distant, almost contemplative- as if he were observing something trivial.
Something expected.
"His entire existence…"
His voice was quiet.
Detached.
"…was just blood."
His eyes remained empty.
Devoid of anything human.
But his mind-
His mind was no longer silent.
More.
More.
More.
The whisper had become a chorus.
Endless.
Relentless.
Hungry.
Lue stood still, unmoving, as the white of his hanfu slowly darkened, soaked through with red.
It spread across him like a memory-
Like something that had always been waiting to return.
Around him, the battlefield faltered.
Movements slowed.
Voices wavered.
Confusion came first.
Then understanding.
And finally-
Fear.
"What… was that…?"
"Did you see- ?"
"What is he- ?"
Their voices trembled.
Their bodies followed.
Lue looked at them.
Really looked at them.
And for the first time-
There was something in his gaze.
Not anger.
Not hatred.
Disappointment.
"Pathetic."
The word fell softly from his lips.
But it carried weight.
Finality.
He stepped forward.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
The sound of his blade sliding free from its sheath cut through the air, clean and absolute, like a line drawn between what was and what would no longer be.
They had started it.
After all.
It was only fair-
That he ended it.
And somewhere-
Far beneath the surface of his being-
Something ancient stirred.
Watching.
Waiting.
Smiling.
"…yòu…"