AKIHIRO ATLAS
The King of Shadows... huh.
Irony. This title stands right in the middle of the things Magnus hates. Kings, systems, hierarchies... He was against them all. And he still is. So is this... a contradiction, or a sign of
something greater?
For now, it doesn't matter.
Now is not the right time to bring this up.
But I won't forget.
This will stay in the back of my mind. Like a silent, waiting question. Something that doesn't need an answer but unsettles with its presence.
...because Magnus doesn't do such things "by accident".
Everything has a meaning. Or he makes it happen.
I raise my eyes.
Zagreus.
Magnus.
They are looking at each other.
No… this is not just looking. This is two beings weighing each other's existence. Not just
power—but meaning, willpower, perhaps... who is more "real"?
The atmosphere is getting heavier.
As if the world were being forced to choose between them.
There's that familiar look in Magnus's eyes—that cold awareness that unravels everything, dismantles it, strips away its meaning.
As for Zagreus... he's not backing down.
Interesting.
Most people would run away from that look.
But he stands on the ground.
He responds.
…this isn't good.
Or maybe this is exactly what's supposed to happen.
I hold my breath without realizing it.
This is not a conflict yet.
Maybe it won't happen now, or it will, I don't know.
However, when that happens... I will know which side the King of Shadows is on.
When Magnus' gaze turned to Zagreus, what changed in the atmosphere was not power; it was as if the meaning itself had shifted. This was neither an attempt to assert superiority nor a form of oppression. Rather, it was an unsettling awareness that made one question why everything in existence exists at all. The red energy pulsating around Zagreus was still intense, his wings still spread wide enough to span the sky, but all that majesty seemed to turn into a spectacle in the presence of Magnus's presence.
When Magnus spoke, his voice neither rose nor became harsh; his words spread calmly, as if merely revealing a truth that had always been there. "You still walk the same path," he said, without taking his eyes off Zagreus. "But you think the path you're on belongs to you.
This is… your oldest mistake. "
There was a slight movement on Zagreus' lips. That sarcastic expression was returning.
Magnus continued. "You are caught up in a prophecy, yes. But prophecies are not a promise of the future as you think. They are merely... echoes of decisions already made. You think you are making choices. Yet you are the result of a choice that has already been made. "
These words were not an attack, but they did not remain unspoken; they touched directly upon Zagreus' existence. Still, Zagreus did not withdraw. On the contrary, he tilted her head slightly to the side and a familiar disdain appeared in his eyes as he looked at Magnus.
"It's the same old thing," said Zagreus, his voice this time clearer, sharper. "That never-ending story of emptiness." He spread his wings slightly, and the energy around him fluctuated momentarily. "You haven't changed, Magnus. You still think you're superior by rendering everything meaningless."
Magnus' expression didn't change.
Zagreus' smile widened. "But I'm different from you. I am not an echo. I am… the thing that brings about the result. " He raised his hand slightly, and the red energy around him condensed around his fingers. "You always watched. You always interpreted. But you never truly intervened."
He continued, squinting his eyes. "Because you can't. "
This sentence left a sharp mark in the air.
"That's your problem," said Zagreus. "You see everything… but you own nothing. That's why you neither possess what you create nor have the courage to destroy it. "
Magnus's gaze was still calm, but there was an indescribable depth to that calm. Zagreus's words had reached him... but it was unclear whether they had made an impact.
"I bear all the burden in the universe.Magnus said these words in a tone I had never heard before, one that was remarkably calm.
Zagreus took another step forward. This wasn't just a challenge; it was the echo of a confrontation from the past.
"You didn't come here to stop me," he said in a low voice. "We both know that." He bowed his head slightly. "You're just watching. As usual. "
A short pause.
Then he smiled.
"And this time it won't be any different. "
The red energy around him intensified once more, and his wings stretched out as if cutting through the sky.
"I will complete my mission," he said, shifting his gaze back to me and then to Magnus. "Whether you call it a prophecy or an outcome, it makes no difference. "
He emphasized his last sentence particularly.
"Because unlike you... I don't stop. "
Magnus still hadn't moved.
But this silence...
It wasn't just calmness anymore.
It made me feel like something was approaching.
I had expected Magnus to reveal his image, but that didn't happen. He was still standing there, waiting. He was watching Zagreus without showing any emotion or movement.
"I will not fight you, Zagreus." he said.
Zagreus narrowed his eyes and looked at Magnus disparagingly as he slowly formed the Image Sword in his hand again, responding, "Even if I sever your head from your body?"
Magnus did not interrupt Zagreus's words. While listening to him, there was neither a reaction nor a change in his expression; it was as if the words of the being before him were a repetition of an idea long since consumed. However, as this silence prolonged, the weight of its meaning began to grow. When he finally spoke, his voice was still the same—neither rising nor falling; it merely stated an existing fact, an inevitable truth.
"You still think time flows linearly," he said, fixing his gaze on Zagreus. "That's why you treat every encounter as an outcome and every conflict as a turning point. However, some moments... are merely spaces that precede things that should not have happened yet."
The energy around Zagreus fluctuated slightly, but Magnus's voice remained uninterrupted.
"What you are doing here now," he continued, "will neither bring about a victory nor mark an end. Because you are acting in the shadow of something that has not yet been called into being. And a shadow... carries no meaning without its source. "
He bowed his head very slightly; this time, there was an almost imperceptible firmness in his gaze.
"Your master hasn't woken up yet. "
This sentence, due to the way it was said, sounded like a judgment rather than a piece of information.
"And its awakening is not a matter of 'time' as you think. It is an imperative that will occur only at the moment when certain conditions come into contact with each other. " Magnus's voice gained meaning not in the choice of words but in their arrangement. "You, on the other hand, are acting outside those conditions. Premature. Unwarranted. And therefore… ineffective. "
Zagreus's gaze hardened, but Magnus continued.
"Akihiro Atlas…" he said, using my name so directly for the first time, "is not yet a tool. Nor is he yet a key. He is merely… potential itself at present. And when potential is forced before its time... it either breaks or loses its meaning."
There was a brief pause.
Then Magnus' gaze turned back to Zagreus.
"If it holds any meaning for your master," he said calmly, "it is he who will already know this. Not you. "
There was no disdain in that sentence.
But still...
There was a sharp distinction.
"Because you," Magnus continued, his voice unchanged, "believe you carry his will.
However, you… can only understand as much as that will allows you. "
The energy around Zagreus intensified for a moment.
Magnus' expression remained unchanged.
"I've known him longer than you," he said.
This time the words fell a little heavier.
"And deeper than you."
He didn't take a step. He didn't show any strength. But this sentence…It created a distance.
"That's why what I'm telling you isn't a warning," he added. "It's just… an expression of the inevitable. "
His gaze remained fixed.
"Retreating is not a sign of weakness. Advancing at the wrong time is… pointless. "
His voice was still calm as he spoke his final words.
But this calmness... carried an irrefutable certainty that was hard to resist.
Zagreus' gaze did not waver even for a moment. The invisible weight created by Magnus's words would have bowed the shoulders of most people; but it did not cause the slightest fracture in him. On the contrary, he accepted that weight as it was—without bending or running away. His lips parted slowly; his voice did not rise in volume, but it settled at the center of the space he occupied.
"Knowing someone for a long time…" he said, pronouncing each word deliberately, "doesn't mean you truly understand them. "
Following his words, he paused briefly in silence. This was not hesitation—it was a pause that allowed his thoughts to settle. His eyes were fixed on Magnus's; there was no escape, no softening.
"Time is just the accumulation of experiences," he continued, his voice still carrying the same calm determination. "Memories, observations, repetitions… But none of these alone constitutes 'understanding.' Because understanding begins with seeing someone as they are—without trying to change them, without fitting them into your own mold, without laying claim to them. "
He bowed his head almost imperceptibly, as if weighing even his own words. "
"Standing properly by someone's side… is not about what you want them to be, but about accepting who they are. Without trying to control them, without trying to define them, just… by bearing witness to their existence. "
Their breathing was steady. It neither accelerated nor stopped.
"Yes," he said, this time in a clearer tone, "I may have known him for less time than you. But every moment I spent with him... I was truly with him. Without reducing it to an idea, a past, or an expectation."
A momentary pause.
"That's why this isn't a matter of retreating," he added, his voice now carrying a sharper clarity. "The issue is… knowing where you stand. And why you stand there. "
The distance between them still existed—but it was no longer one-sided.
…
Magnus' expression did not change.
Zagreus' words would have caused at least a slight reaction on the face of an ordinary person; but in Magnus… nothing moved. It was as if everything that was said had been evaluated, placed, and lost its meaning before it was even spoken.
A brief silence passed.
"Understanding…" he finally said.
The word lost its ordinariness the moment it left his mouth. It was as if Magnus wasn't just using the concept—he was dissecting it.
"People use this word too easily," he continued, his voice retaining its unchanging, almost mechanical calmness. "As if it were a state that is reached at some point and remains fixed."
His gaze never left Zagreus.
"You mentioned seeing it as it is," he said, pronouncing the words slowly, almost weighing them carefully. "But 'what it is' is not fixed."
A very slight pause.
"It never happened. "
The atmosphere grew heavier without being noticed.
"Humans are exactly like demons in this regard, that race they fear and loathe." he added.
"That would be too superficial. They… disintegrate. They are rebuilt. Sometimes of their own free will, most often by the force of the inevitable."
Their eyes were still fixed on the same point. Inevitable, fixed, unresolvable.
"And in this process," he said, his voice managing to remain at the same level without dropping nearly to a whisper, "even those who stand closest… lose what they thought they saw."
He didn't take a step.
But their words left an impact much greater than a single step could have.
"You think you're standing next to them properly," he said, this time more directly, with sharper clarity. "But if what you see is... only what you want to see—"
The sentence hung in the air.
There was no need to complete it.
"…then you're no different from the others."
Silence returned.
But this time… it was heavier.
This time, the sarcastic expression on Zagreus's face shifted gradually, not through an instantaneous reaction; the sharpness of disdain was tempered, replaced by a calculating, weighing, and benefit-seeking gaze. As its wings opened and closed with a heavy rhythm behind its back, the red energy around it also took on a more organized and disciplined form; I suspect this was no longer the frenzy of anger but the preparation for a conscious retreat. For a long moment, he remained silent, as if he were reorganizing what Magnus had said within himself rather than refuting it. Then he tilted his head slightly to the side, and a thin, almost disrespectful smile appeared at the corner of his lips, resembling an acceptance. When looking at Magnus, there was now a cold calculation of self-interest in his eyes instead of open defiance for the first time; this was not a retreat but choosing the right moment.
"Your never-ending conclusions..." he began, his voice still harsh, but this harshness was not unthought-out anger; it was a deliberate tone. "The way you think you're above everything while trying to make sense of everything—it hasn't changed." He paused briefly, but this pause did not weaken his statement; on the contrary, it added weight to what he would say next. "Still, what you said this time isn't completely worthless." She looked at Magnus without squinting, then shifted her gaze very briefly to me before fixing it back on him. "If the time hasn't come yet, there's no point in forcing it. My master's will... as you said, already creates its own moment. Whether I hurry or not does not change this truth."
The tone of his words changed markedly here; it was an acknowledgment, but not a submission. "But don't view this as retreat," he said, his voice becoming sharp again." This is merely... postponement. And I don't forget the things I postpone." Her wings spread a little wider with these words, the energy around her momentarily intensified before settling back into balance. As she looked toward Magnus, her smile returned, but this smile now resembled a promise rather than a taunt. "We will meet again soon. And then... you will remember this conversation. Because things won't go according to the plan you think is perfect."
When their gaze turned to me, that calculating coldness gave way to a more direct, more personal harshness. "And you..." he said, his tone noticeably deepening. "Surviving today is not an outcome, just a delay." He held my gaze fixed on me, as if he wanted his words to be etched not only into my ear but also into the deepest recesses of my mind. "Don't think I've forgotten you, Akihiro Atlas. It's just... a matter waiting its turn." There was more certainty than threat in this sentence; it felt like a statement about a future that was certain to happen.
Then he slowly raised his sword. This movement was not hasty, but it carried an unquestionable certainty within it. When he swung his sword through the air, the space before him split open as if it were a surface; it was as if what was cut was not air, but something deeper had been severed. The resulting fissure flickered with a red light, opening into an undefinable depth; it was not merely a passage but a rupture through which another order imposed itself. The edges of the passage were undulating, as if the fabric of this world was resisting but unable to close the opening.
Zagreus paused briefly in front of the passage. When he turned his head toward Magnus, the familiar challenge was still present in his eyes. "I wonder if you'll just stand by and watch next time," he said, his voice calm but filled with meaning. "Maybe then you'll really have to choose a side. " These words were not an invitation, but rather foreshadowed a reckoning from the past.
Then he looked at me. This look was brief, but the meaning it carried was heavy; like a foreshadowing of an inevitable encounter. "Be ready," he said for the last time. "Because I... will return.Then he turned around and without hesitation stepped into that red crevasse. The portal remained open for a few more seconds; the pressure emanating from within bore the breath of a order that did not belong to our world. Then it slowly closed, leaving only a heavy silence, a shattered city, and the feeling of something approaching.
Magnus, if you hadn't come... I might have really died. Leaving behind everything I held dear and failing to protect anyone…
I fell to my knees. I thought about the people whose deaths I had just caused. I'm not strong enough to even take my revenge. What I realized was tearing me apart.
Despite the footsteps coming toward me, my gaze remained fixed on the ground.
"Stand up. "I'll take you somewhere. " said Magnus.
I was sad, angry, lonely, useless, pathetic because I was Akihiro.
It was a moment when I didn't want to get up.
"Why are you here anyway?" I said in a tearful tone, because I was about to cry and didn't know what to do?
He passed by me with calm steps. I noticed he was standing at the edge of the roof we were on by listening to the sounds of his footsteps. Probably right now, he was looking directly behind me at that ruined city with nowhere left to live.
"I'll explain later. It would be best for you to leave before another king or queen arrives. "
"I don't think anything more will happen. They haven't shown up at all for six months -"
He interrupted me with sudden anger.
"They will come, very soon. Many more will come. I felt it during the time I watched your battle." he said.
Watching my battle?
Watching.
This word... stood out from the rest. It was as if everything else had vanished and only this remained. I blinked, wiping away the tears streaming down my cheeks with a harsh motion. My breathing was uneven, but this time it wasn't due to fatigue. Something... didn't feel right inside me. I slowly lifted my head, squinted my eyes, and looked at Magnus.
"Did you watch...?" I murmured, but it wasn't a question. It was more like a newly realized truth spontaneously leaking out.
I didn't say anything for a few seconds. I just looked at him. Then, with an effort, I forced myself to stand up. My muscles were rebelling, my Spirit Power was completely depleted, yet I managed to stand. Because what I was feeling now was more intense than fatigue.
"You..." I said, my voice cracking, but I continued. "You saw everything. "
I took a step forward. It was unstable, but I didn't stop.
"You saw those people too. "
That scene reappeared in my mind. The car. The blood. The crushed bodies. That "soft" collision feeling.
My hands started to shake.
"You saw me too... right?" I said, my voice rising this time. "The moment I killed them…"
My breathing quickened. My chest tightened.
"And you didn't do anything. "
That sentence hung in the air.
It was heavy and oppressive.
I took another step. My eyes were no longer pale. There was something trembling within them—anger, guilt, and something ready to lose control.
"You could have done this," I said, gritting my teeth. "You... could have done it."
My mind was falling apart. My thoughts were colliding, my logic and emotions were drowning each other out.
"You could have saved them!"
My voice got louder, maybe if there were people on the side streets around us, they would hear us.
"You could have stopped me! At that moment— before that collision—or after! It didn't matter!"
My heart was beating like it was going to break my chest. My head was spinning but I didn't stop.
"You have this power!" I shouted, pointing my finger at him. "I just saw it! You destroyed that sword! Without doing anything! For you, it's... nothing!"
I lost my breath. My chest was heaving.
"So why…?"
My voice faded.
But this fall… It was more dangerous.
"Why didn't you do anything...?""
My mind kept going back to that moment. Replaying that collision over and over again. If only that moment had been different... if only someone had intervened... if only…
My hands went to my hair. My fingers gripped tightly.
"I…" I said, my voice trembling. "I killed them because… because I couldn't control it! "
I lifted my head. My eyes locked directly on Magnus.
"But you… you could have controlled it. "
This time my words came out slowly. The words of Keskindinler were like Magnus's words.
"You watched."
Silence fell. But this silence... was not peaceful.
Something inside me was breaking.
"I… I have to bear this now," I said, my breathing becoming uneven. "Every second. Every moment. With that image. "
My eyes trembled.
"But you… just watched. "
I paused for a moment. Then I laughed.
But it wasn't a smile.
It was shattered.
"Is this your... ideal? " I said, my voice turning into anger mixed with sarcasm. "Is this your 'understanding'? "
I took another step.
"When people die… you watch. "
My vision went black.
"And then you go out to the fucking king and say… it's not time. "
My breath shook.
"Then that time has come for me. "
Silence fell again.
But this time… The thing inside me hadn't stopped. It continued to disintegrate.
Something snapped.
The last shred of balance left within me quietly shattered, and all that remained was raw, directionless anger. I no longer knew what I was thinking or what I was doing; all I knew was that I couldn't bear this weight. I acted suddenly. I don't even remember how it happened—one moment I was standing in front of him, the next my hands were clutching his collar. Whatever it was—the fabric or whatever—offered no resistance under my fingers. I pulled him towards me, threw him down, and then pressed him to the ground with all my strength.
The ground cracked.
But he... was still the same.
I climbed on top of it. My knees locked on either side, my breathing was uncontrolled. And then my fist came down.
Once.
Then again.
Then again.
Each blow was like everything pent up inside me bursting out. I was just hitting. There was no rhythm, no pattern. There was anger. There was guilt. There was hatred of myself. There was everything.
"You didn't do anything! " I shouted, as my fist descended on his face again. "You were there! You saw! You saw it all!"
My punches accelerated. Each blow felt harder, more uncontrolled.
"And you just… watched!"
This time I hit him on the left.
That metal mask on the left half of his face.
At the moment of impact, a sharp pain shot up from my hand. It was as if I had hit something so hard it shook me to my bones. But I didn't stop.
I hit it again.
The pain got worse.
"Damn it…" I clenched my teeth and brought my fist down again. "What the hell are you, huh? ! "
The metal surface wasn't even scratched. There was neither a crack nor a mark. It was as if what I had hit wasn't real. But the pain I felt... was real.
My hand was throbbing.
But I didn't stop.
This time I turned to his right side. Leather. Meat. Blood.
When my fist struck, there was a sound—softer, more human. The corner of his lips turned up, his head tilted slightly to the side. Blood began to flow.
But…
There was no reaction.
Even his eyes didn't change.
This… made me even more angry.
"Feel something!" I shouted, delivering another punch. "Suffer! React! Do something!"
My fists descended again and again. Right, left, right, left… I wasn't counting anymore. I don't know how long it lasted. Did minutes pass or seconds… it didn't matter. Time had lost its meaning at that moment.
My hands were covered in blood.
I didn't know whether it was his blood or mine.
Every time I hit the mask, my hand hurt more. My skin was torn, my bones ached, yet not a single scratch was left on that damn surface.
"You… you're an empty shell playing god!" I exclaimed, breathless. "You talk as if you know everything, but you don't do anything! "
Another blow.
"People are dying! "
Another blow.
"And you… just watching! "
My punches started to slow down.
But I didn't stop.
"What good are you, huh?!" I said, my voice cracking. "You've got all this power, but you don't do anything!"
I hit the mask one last time.
My hand was numb now.
I couldn't even feel the pain properly.
I lost my breath.
My arms felt heavy.
My fist remained raised…
And then it fell.
But this time I didn't hit him.
I just... I had no strength left.
I looked at Magnus's face.
There was blood. It was dripping from his mouth and down his face.
But his expression... It hadn't changed.
Neither anger. Nor pain. Nor the slightest reaction.
It was as if… All this had never happened.
This… Was even worse.
My hands were shaking. My breathing was irregular. And for the first time… I had to stop hitting.
I couldn't do anything as he slowly pushed me aside. He used the robotic purple arm on his left arm for support, stood up, and walked back to the edge of the roof as if nothing had happened and sat down. I watched from behind as he looked out over that devastated city.
He was standing on the edge of the roof. I saw steam rising from above his head. I immediately noticed that the wounds on his face had disappeared. It was very likely that this man had this level of regenerative ability. He was looking at the city, but it was as if he wasn't really watching it; what he was observing wasn't individual events but the whole picture. I was still on the ground, my hands were shaking, my breathing was uneven, my body felt heavy as if it didn't belong to me anymore after those punches. But he... acted as if nothing had happened. He passed by me, lifted the weight off me as if it had never existed, and walked to the edge of the roof. He didn't even look at me. At that moment, it felt like what I was going through meant nothing to him.
"What you see are just interruptions," he said, without taking his eyes off the city. His voice was still the same; it neither rose nor became emotional. It was as if he wasn't explaining anything but merely putting an already existing truth into its proper place. "Not an entire life, but broken fragments. That's why the mind misses the whole picture."
As I heard their words, something tightened inside me, but I couldn't immediately name what it was. Was it anger, or something worse… I wasn't sure.
"What is happening here is a simple calculation," he continued. "If a thousand people are saved and the loss of ten is inevitable for this to happen, this is not a failure. This is the protection of the majority. You, on the other hand, see it the opposite way. Not one thousand saved, but ten lost. "
He paused for a moment. He looked at the city. I, on the other hand, wasn't even trying to understand what he was saying anymore. I was just beginning to feel it. The name of that feeling was slowly becoming clearer, but I didn't want to admit it.
"You carry that moment because your mind only absolutizes singular losses," he said. "That's why you identify yourself as the perpetrator. But what you call a perpetrator is not the one who determines the outcome, but the one who misinterprets the outcome. "
This sentence... sank deeper into me.
For a moment, I wanted to close my eyes, but I couldn't. Because even if I closed them, what I saw wouldn't change.
The family in the car came to my mind. That feeling of impact. That softness. My hands, they came to my mind."I…" I said, but my voice didn't come out at first. My throat was dry.
Magnus continued.
"If I had intervened, stopping you wouldn't have only prevented you. It would have changed the entire chain of events. The vast majority of civilians were saved. The few deaths you saw didn't alter the balance of the whole."
At that moment, something became clearer within me. It wasn't something I hadn't noticed before; it was something I didn't want to notice. That "few deaths" he mentioned... had become the center of everything in my mind.
And I couldn't change it.
Magnus didn't even turn to me.
"And the majority always prevails over the individual," he said.
This sentence... was heavier than any shout.
Because there was truth in it.
And this justification... made me even more angry.
I planted my hands on the ground. I was shaking. I tried to stand up, but my body was having difficulty. Something was growing inside me; it had begun like anger, but it was not remaining like anger.
"You…" I said, my voice breaking. "Are you really saying this? "
Magnus did not answer. He just looked at the city.
And that silence was the worst answer.
Because in that silence, I realized: for him, this wasn't even a discussion.
It was a fact.
But inside me…
It was far from being a reality.
Because that "the majority survived" statement didn't change anything in my eyes.
Only... it was redefining destruction.
And I didn't want to accept it.
"So, you... can you accept being a savior who leaves behind the minority to save the majority?I asked with all the anger inside me.
A few seconds of silence darkened our night even more.
"I am not a savior. I never was; everything I left behind became the reasons for this universe's evil." he said.
…
…
"Who are you really, Magnus?"
END OF CHAPTER