The sky was lit by green flames. It looked like and felt like the world had already ended.
Just beneath the burning-green sky, a man knelt on both his knees. He was chained and pinned to the ground. His body trembled slightly as he watched the green fire flicker around him.
His hair was blonde and scattered from battle but still it complimented his eyes, which were a striking deep-blue, they stared at the cracked ground below him, wide ,dazed and and shaking, his right arm chained and frozen.
Strange.
Then finally, a single tear drop rolled down from the corner of his eye as he screamed ,not a cry for help, but as rage.
Before the kneeling man , a massive beast stirred. Four enormous black wings spread wide, stirring the air like a storm. Its eyes glowed a faint green, matching the pulsing arrays on its chest ,a glyph , none alive had ever seen before. Chains the size of trees coiled around its limbs stretching and coiling around the kneeling man pinning him down, and yet, it bowed its massive head toward the kneeling man.
Carved deep into the metal band around its neck were eight glowing letters:
R-E-V-E-N-A-N-T .
That was the name of the beast .
The beast knelt. A dragon bowed before a man.
Kin's head still trembled as he looked forward and watched them burn.
His wife and two daughters, already ash, the wind carrying their final shapes away.
Kin couldn't scream. Couldn't even cry. He felt weak ,He was weak .
All he could do... was stared .
Then, from above, a figure slowly descended from the sky, stepping down onto the arena like gravity didn't dare pull .He was neatly dressed in a black-and- green mantle draped across his shoulder, his slick back hair glowing faintly under the twilight. No blood on him. No rush. No hesitation.
Just his eyes.
Cold.
Dead.
This was Tanyu.
"Look at you Kin…" Tanyu said calmly, even as the ashes of Kin's family floated past him like snow. "Still alive. Still kneeling."
He stepped forward.
"Same as the battle at Vurnhold. Same as on the cliffs of Arden. Always bleeding. Always losing."
The man referred to as kin spoke. His eyes glowed faintly, a blue deeper than any sky.
"I never lost," he said through his teeth. "I just kept standing longer than you could count Tanyu."
"Still talking like a hero… when the world burned behind you...You never understood what this world asks for.... You kept looking for meaning. Purpose. Hoping power would arrive like a gift for being kind."
He crouched slightly, leveling his gaze with Kin's.
"That's not how kingdoms are born, Kin. That's how fools are buried."
"You could have joined me when u had the chance, when I asked, but now look at where we are."
Kin's voice finally broke through
"...Why?"
Tanyu's brow barely moved.
"You were getting too loud, Kin… louder than me. And I couldn't let that happen."
"Even the sins turned their heads for you ,like you were something rare. Something worth tasting."
The coliseum cracked beneath them as Tanyu's aura surged again, shaking the sky.
"You didn't build anything worth saving. Just people. Just promises with a gods weapon, And now look."
Tanyu gestured lazily behind Kin .
The burnt remains. A charred dinner table. A child's toy fades into ash .
"They died in your name."
Kin's breath caught.
"They died because of you."
Tanyu stood straight again.
The Revenant Dragon roared behind Kin, but it wasn't a loud roar ,it was slow. Ritualistic. As if it were singing to Tanyu's soul . The beast was happy like it had long awaited this moment.
Tanyu raised a single hand.
His aura flared like a surge of light , green-hot, and screaming.
Kin looked up at him, his body still trembling.
He could barely speak.
"Even if you end me…"
He gasped.
"...someone will come."
Tanyu gave the faintest smirk ,tired, amused.
"I'm counting on it."
A heartbeat passed.
The chains around Kin ignited.
And in a single, blinding pulse of heat and silence,
he was gone.
Nothing remained but scorched stone.
No body.
No bones.
Only.
A single, frozen limb.
Kin's right arm.
Untouched. Encased in a thin sheet of ice, still clenched into a fist.
Tanyu didn't see it.
He just turned, his cloak dragging against the ground, as the Revenant Dragon slithered after him.
The fire died out slowly, but the silence lingered.
Like the world had lost something, it wouldn't get back.
################
Silence.
That was the first thing Kin noticed. Not the echo of fire. Not the roar of the dragon. Not even pain.
Just stillness.
Kin opened his eyes.
The world was cream-colored ,blank, and endless. No walls. No ground. No sky. Just space.
He stood there barefoot, body whole, but empty. He blinked slowly and turned his head, expecting... something. Anything.
Nothing answered.
A whisper escaped him. "So this is it… Heaven?"
He wasn't sure if he was asking or admitting it.
He stepped forward. No sound followed. The space absorbed everything. There were no shadows, not even his own , no wind. Just him.
Kin frowned. He spoke again, mostly to himself now. "This is what dying feels like?"
He exhaled. "Then why do I still feel... angry?"
Then the air behind him changed. It felt different, like someone or something was behind him .
A presence, thick and suffocating, like time and space itself, was holding its breath. Kin's body froze instantly, like his very muscles had betrayed him.
He couldn't turn around.
He couldn't breathe.
He couldn't blink.
Then
A voice.
Gentle. Jovial. almost playful.
"How amusing," it said. "Even in death, you stand like a child who thinks he was worthy."
Kin's lips trembled. "W-What… are you?"
A low chuckle followed. Warm. Like it was mocking him .
"What I am," the voice echoed, "is something your kind has neither the right nor the rank to comprehend."
The weight of that sentence alone sent pressure through Kin's knees.
"You should be kneeling, little one. In lands far from here, those stronger than you have bled just to whisper my name."
Kin swallowed hard, sweat forming on his face despite the void's stillness. For a moment, kin thought this might be God—or some divine judge.
Then, the voice asked;
"So then... where to with you?....The pit Or paradise?"
Kin didn't answer.
His fists clenched. His voice was dry, and he didn't answer the question... but instead, he said something different.
"…I want to go back."
Silence again.
"Oh?"
"I want to finish something. I want to kill Tanyu."
The presence was quiet.
Then it laughed.
Not cruelly but deeply. Like it had heard this story a thousand times before.
"Revenge. Hah… of course.
I've heard this before.
'Let me go back.'
'Let me right the wrongs.'
'Let me kill the monster that took everything from me.'"
The presence paused, then whispered coldly .....
"They all failed.
So tell me, mortal...
What makes you different?"
Kin's voice came sharp this time, eyes narrow.
"…I'm not them."
"Oh?"
"I'm better."
There was a shift. The void trembled slightly. Even the air seemed to pause, unsure of what just dared to speak.
Kin tried to look back ,to see who or what was speaking.
The moment he moved, light exploded behind him. His back flared in raw pain, like the sun had reached down and burnt his skin. His body screamed, but still, he didn't fall.
The voice sighed, almost amused.
"Arrogant.
Stubborn.
Broken.
Just the way I like them."
A warm hum filled the void. And for the first time, Kin felt the being behind him not just in power but in intention.
It smiled.
"Very well.
I'll grant your return.
But the rules... will be mine."
Kin's fists loosened. "I don't care what it takes."
"Then hear this."
He felt the air press against his skin. A palm, massive yet gentle, rested lightly atop his head.
"You will begin again.
A different time.
A different name.
A different path."
"But your soul will remain the same—so will your rage."
"You will bring me the head of Tanyu... and the Seven Sins he worships."
"You have twenty-five years to complete this task."
"And also HE as left you a special surprise "
"Fail"
"And not even this void will remember your name."
Kin didn't blink.
"…Deal."
The moment he spoke, his body began to unravel–threads of light and dust, peeling away piece by piece like ash caught in a slow breeze.
Kin felt warmth… for the first time since they died.
Then, darkness.
As the last of his form faded, the presence stood alone in the void once more.
And from its unseen lips came a final murmur.
"I hope this gamble does not end like the last one…"