✦「 A Quiet Hunger • A Forbidden Core • A Criminal is Born 」✦✦◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆✦
The Gem of Azure sat in Akuma's palm like a trapped star, a sphere of deep-ocean blue light swirling with condensed mana older than the Clouds themselves. Even through his dull expression, something faint flickered behind his eyes — not emotion, not thrill, but a cold, analytical recognition of value. A resource that pulsed, breathed, and sang with the entire kingdom's lifeblood.
To any other being, touching such a core would mean madness or instant death.
To Akuma?
It was simply… information to consume.
Slowly, he raised the gem to his lips. The glow intensified, a surge of raw power pulsing like a heartbeat, the air thickening as the walls trembled around him. His skin dimly reflected azure fractals as he parted his lips and—
He bit into the core.
The Gem screamed.
Not with sound, but with every mana vein across the entire eastern dominion flaring at once — a shockwave of blue erupting across the clouds like lightning threading the heavens. Akuma's jaw tightened, and the crystalline sphere shattered between his teeth, dissolving into streams of raw energy that poured down his throat like molten light.
Akuma's body convulsed once — only once — before stabilizing.
His fingers twitched.His shadow rippled.His veins glowed faintly beneath his skin.
And then—
It was gone.All traces of the Gem of Azure. Consumed. Absorbed.Erased from existence by a single creature who didn't even know his own name.
A single whisper escaped him, spoken with calm analysis rather than enjoyment:
Akuma: "This world has… inefficient safeguards."
He stood there for a long moment, letting the excess mana settle into every corner of his form. He felt stronger — not emotionally, but structurally. His bones hummed with untapped density, his mind sharpened, his senses stretching outward like threads mapping the kingdom's beating heart.
And then the castle bells began.
First one.Then six.Then the entire kingdom erupted with alarms, mana flares lighting the sky like blue fire.
Wanted notices exploded into being instantly via mana projectors.
"ALERT: CORE BREACH — THE GEM OF AZURE HAS BEEN STOLEN!""THE THIEF IS A SHAPELESS ENTITY MASQUERADING AS HUMAN!""ALL KNIGHTS, ALL SEERS, ALL TRACKERS — HUNT IMMEDIATELY."
Soldiers sprinted through the streets.Priests ignited azure runes.Spirit-beasts howled as they were summoned.
Akuma listened to the uproar like someone listening to distant rainfall.
His expression didn't shift.
Akuma: "Threat classification… elevated. Response protocols predictable."
He stepped out of the chamber as calmly as if he was walking through a quiet marketplace. The castle shook with panic, yet his footsteps were measured and soft — a creature that did not fear them, did not respect them, and did not acknowledge their place in the world.
And as he reached the outer balcony overlooking the frantic kingdom below, he whispered a final monotone line to himself:
Akuma: "If gluttony defines sin… then efficiency defines purpose."
The clouds roared.The kingdom searched.And Akuma — now infused with the kingdom's stolen heart — walked into the storm of consequences without a single emotion flickering across his face.
✦「 Shattered Will • Broken Core • Azure Trembles 」✦
Yakumo's pupils flickered violently, her breath chopping in and out as if someone had dunked her mind into freezing water and then ripped it back out. The last traces of Akuma's influence cracked off her mind like fragile glass, leaving her standing there—trembling, staggering backward, clutching her chest as the realization of what just occurred slammed into her all at once. Her gaze snapped toward him… toward the calm, stone-faced figure casually finishing the last shimmering fragment of the Azure Gem as if consuming the most mundane fruit in existence.
The floor itself hummed—vibrating under the weight of the devoured core—and Yakumo nearly fell as the flow of magic in the castle spasmed, twisted, and then destabilized like a beast losing its heart.
Her voice tore out, unsteady, horrified.
Yakumo:
"Wh… what did— what did you do? W-W-Why… why would you eat that? No human should even be able to stand near the Core, let alone— let alone consume it whole! Who— no— what are you?! How are you still standing? How are you breathing? A mortal should've exploded— or melted— or— or ceased to exist entirely!"
Akuma didn't answer immediately.He merely lifted his gaze, blinking once—slowly, without urgency—like someone inconvenienced by noise in a quiet library. His voice came out low, calm, clean, as if crafted with intention rather than emotion.
Akuma:
"I heard the phrase 'only the worthy may hold the Gem.' Ingestion seemed to be a faster form of acquisition. Your reaction confirms I was correct."
Yakumo stumbled again.
Yakumo:
"F-Faster—? That wasn't— that isn't— you don't just eat a national core, you— you—!"
She pointed at him, hand trembling so violently she could barely keep her finger straight."No human— no beast— no mage— no anything would do something so reckless… so impossible… and stay alive. Your flesh should have disintegrated. Your soul should have fractured. Your mind should have collapsed under the pressure of that much raw energy. It's not— it's not normal— none of this is normal—!"
Akuma tilted his head slightly, observing her as though she were a puzzle missing too many pieces.
Akuma:
"Your description implies that my survival should be impossible.If survival is impossible, yet I am alive, then there are two logical explanations:Either your understanding is flawed…or I am something that does not fit into that understanding."
Yakumo's breath hitched.Not fear—no, terror curled up her spine.
Yakumo:
"…Then tell me. Please… tell me what you are."
The answer came without hesitation.Calm.Cold.Effortlessly honest.
Akuma:
"I do not know what I am."
He took a step closer, the air warping faintly around him as the Core's power settled inside his cells like an uninvited storm trying to make a home.
Akuma:
"But I am beginning to understand what I can become."
Yakumo froze.
Yakumo:
"Y-You're… you're dangerous… far more dangerous than anything that has crossed these walls. A demon? A cursed divine? A monster wearing a human's face? You… you manipulated me— my mind— and I couldn't even fight it. And now you've eaten the Azure Core— the very source of our kingdom's stability. Do you realize what you've just done?!"
Akuma blinked once more.Not confusion.He was simply taking in information.
Akuma:
"I realize that the power I consumed increases my capabilities.The rest of your concerns are irrelevant to my objectives."
Yakumo:
"And what are your objectives?!"
Akuma's gaze softened—not emotionally,but analytically,as if building the answer in real time.
Akuma:
"To continue existing.To continue learning.And to reach the peak of whatever this world can offer."
He paused.
Akuma:
"If your kingdom survives that process depends entirely on its decisions."
Yakumo's heartbeat stuttered—and for the first time since she was born,she felt genuinely, utterly powerless.