The morning haze clung to the frozen horizon like a dying breath as Akuma walked away from the eastern edge of the Clouds of Azure. His steps were slow, deliberate, and silent, boots pressing into untouched snow with a rhythm that felt almost too calm for someone who had just consumed the kingdom's most sacred artifact. The Core of Azure churned inside him like a caged storm, its power burning through every invisible corner of his being. Yet Akuma's face remained blank—emotionless, unreadable, a walking contradiction of divine gluttony and hollow stillness.
But something was wrong.
A faint pressure wrapped itself around his ribs, crawling up his spine like liquid glass. Akuma placed a hand against his abdomen, fingers spreading across the fabric as the sensation vibrated with the subtlety of a sleeping beast.
Akuma:"...This… distortion within my vessel. If this is the consequence of absorbing the core… then its structure was incompatible with my existence from the beginning. I should have anticipated that. But—"
He paused, breath steady, eyes narrowing slightly.
Akuma:"…This sensation is accelerating."
It wasn't pain. Pain required emotion. It was more like an equation unraveling inside him — a miscalculation in the formula that was his current body. Something expanding, multiplying, swelling beyond limits that shouldn't exist.
Then—
BOOM.
The world turned white.
A shockwave tore through the snowfields, flames flashing into the clouds like a dying star. Ice melted and refroze midair. The ground split open. Birds fled. Trees bowed as a ring of destruction pulsed outward. And where Akuma once stood…
…nothing remained except a crater carved into existence by the inside-out collapse of his own flesh.
Silence.
Cold air drifting.
A few falling embers.
Then — the crunch of footsteps.
Four shadows emerged, walking through the dissipating smoke with unshaken confidence. Their presence carried weight, the kind that bent the atmosphere itself — the unmistakable pressure of S-Rank Adventurers.
The first stepped down the slope, dragging a massive sword that dripped with red particles resembling blood.
Ace the Blood Knight.
His voice was deep and irritated, the kind of tone that suggested he had better things to kill today.
Ace:"...The request said a 'minor magical disturbance.' Does this look minor to anyone? Because to me, this looks like someone dropped a whole damn meteor."
A gentle fragrance of petals drifted by as the next person approached — a girl with bright, soft eyes but a terrifying aura beneath them.
Lily the Flower Warrior.
She knelt at the edge of the crater, touching a melted patch of ice that bloomed instantly with a small, glowing flower.
Lily:"This heat signature… it wasn't natural. The snow here evaporated faster than a dragon's breath. Whoever caused this… didn't simply use magic. They became it."
She plucked the glowing flower, watching it dissolve into particles.
Lily:"…And whoever they were, they're not ordinary."
Heavy steps echoed next as a man covered in stone-like armor dropped into the crater, the ground cracking under his weight.
Juri the Earth Knight.
He punched the ground once, sending vibrations rippling like a pulse.
Juri:"The land remembers everything. And right now… it's screaming."He glared at the still-settling dust."This wasn't a spell. It wasn't an attack. Something inside that person self-destructed. Like a body rejecting the power it swallowed."
A faint blue flame flickered into the air as the fourth figure landed lightly beside them, hands glowing with sapphire fire.
Ren, Knight of the Blue Flames.
He exhaled, and the remaining smoke dissolved into harmless wisps.
Ren:"…No corpse. No mana residue. No tissue. Nothing. This wasn't self-destruction…"
He narrowed his eyes.
Ren:"…This was forced rebirth."
Ace turned sharply.
Ace:"Rebirth? As in — they blew themselves up and lived? Who the hell is capable of pulling off something like that?"
Ren raised two fingers, letting cold blue flames dance between them like a whisper.
Ren:"Only someone who can manipulate existence on multiple levels. Someone who can rewrite themselves mid-explosion."
Juri clenched his jaw.
Juri:"So we're dealing with a monster. Great."
Lily stood, eyes drifting across the sky, petals swirling around her like curious spirits.
Lily:"…No. Not a monster."She paused."A demon… or something worse."
Ace slammed his sword into the snow.
Ace:"Alright. Enough guessing. Whoever did this is dangerous enough that the kingdom will want their head mounted on the Azure gates. We track them. We find them. We end them."
Ren looked at the crater one last time, blue fire illuminating his eyes with suspicion.
Ren:"…He didn't die here. I can feel it. Whoever he is… he's still out there. And he's growing."
Lily turned as snowflakes drifted into her hair.
Lily:"…Then we'd better hurry. Because if he survived this… then he's only going to become harder to kill."
The wind howled, carrying the faint echo of something ancient awakening.
A presence leaving no footprint.
No breath.
No heartbeat.
Only a whisper of existence.
—Akuma was not gone.Only beginning.
The world was muffled—snow twisting in a spiral, the scent of burned ozone mixed with the metallic taste of magic ruptures lingering in the frozen air. Where Akuma had stood before the explosion, there was nothing but a crater carved into the ice, its edges glowing faintly blue with residue from the Azure Core's unstable energy. The four Level-S Adventurers stood at the rim of the crater, their weapons drawn, their breath cutting through the air like smoke.
But inside the void—inside the expanding darkness where his body had been torn apart—Akuma existed. And didn't.He floated in a warped half-dimension, shredded between existence and nothingness, suspended in a realm where time had no body and sound had no permission to exist.
And then—He heard them.
His other selves.Fragments of Akuma that should never have existed, each sculpted from an emotion he did not possess.
A voice dripping with molten fury spoke first.
✦ A Dimensional Rift of Emotion ✦
??? (Rage-Akuma):"Pathetic. You let your vessel detonate because you don't feel anything. If you refuse to value survival, then WE will force it upon you."
A second voice—shaking, trembling, drowning—echoed through the dark.
??? (Sorrow-Akuma):"We do not wish to disappear. Even if you don't feel loss, we do. We… we don't want to end. That's why we're pulling you back."
Another voice snarled, restless.
??? (Desire-Akuma):"There is still power to consume. Still worlds to reach. Still destinies to rewrite. You cannot die yet."
A terrified whisper crawled into the cracks of Akuma's mind.
??? (Fear-Akuma):"You don't fear death… but we do. Let us take control. Even just once."
Then laughter—broken, hysterical—rose.
??? (Joy-Akuma):"Hehe… This is FUN. Breaking. Rebuilding. Dying. Living. All at once. Let me stitch you back together—I want to SEE what happens next."
And beneath all of them was the heaviest voice.The slowest.The hungriest.
??? (Gluttony-Akuma):"Consume the pain. Consume the magic. Consume the self. We will reshape the body for you… so you can continue devouring the world."
Their words wrapped around the emotionless Akuma like chains of light and shadow. The space twisted, colors bleeding together as the alternate selves pushed their raw emotions into him, stabilizing the collapsing soul vessel.
✦ Rebirth Through Emotion ✦
The void shattered.
A body began to form—bones first, then nerves, then heat, then skin. The Azure Core's explosive force rewound, rewired, and reforged by the collective will of the parallel selves.
And then—Akuma opened his eyes at the bottom of the crater.
His expression was calm.Silent.Unmoved.
But behind those eyes, for the first time, flickered something faint—something not his own.
A hint of emotion.Not enough to change him.But enough to keep him alive.
Above him, the adventurers stepped back in shock.
Ace (Blood Knight) tightened his grip on his greatsword, red aura pulsing like a heartbeat.
Ace:"What… what kind of monster survives a point-blank Arcane Core detonation…?"
Lily (Flower Warrior) covered her mouth, petals fluttering anxiously around her.
Lily:"He should've been vaporized… There wasn't even a trace left! How is he standing…?"
Juri (Earth Knight) slammed his gauntlet into the ground, cracking the ice.
Juri:"No human recovers from something like that. Not a mage. Not a spirit-host. Nothing living should."
Ren (Knight of Blue Flames) stepped forward, blue fire swirling around him, but his tone was surprisingly calm—almost analytical.
Ren:"Look closely. His body… it's not reforming normally. It's as if multiple sources reconstructed him at once."
Akuma slowly lifted his head.His voice was soft—calm—but something about it felt… layered.As if there were echoes beneath it.
Akuma:"Multiple sources… yes. That is an accurate conclusion."
Ren narrowed his eyes.
Ren:"…Who—no… what are you?"
Akuma blinked slowly, snow melting on his lashes.
He considered the question—not emotionally, but logically. The right answer did not exist.The truthful one did not matter.So he chose the efficient one.
Akuma:"I am… something that refuses to disappear."
A ripple of killing intent spread across the ice.
Ace stepped forward, greatsword raised.
Ace:"Then you're a threat. A big one."
Akuma tilted his head thoughtfully—not afraid, but calculating.
Inside him, the other selves whispered, their emotions swirling like a storm behind the emptiness.
And for the first time since his reincarnation…Akuma felt the faintest pulse of something unfamiliar.
A heartbeat that wasn't empty.