Tekime collapsed to her knees, her chest rising and falling in desperate sobs. Tears streamed down her face as a scream tore from her throat, echoing through the shadowy surroundings. The cold, damp ground beneath her trembling fingers quivered slightly, as if the earth itself shared in her sorrow.

  Anon, though gripped by fear, closed his eyes for a moment, took a deep breath, and forced himself to act. His body still trembled from the horror he had just witnessed, but he made himself stand tall. His voice came out steady, though tinged with hesitation.

  — "Come on, little lady... We have to keep going. Or at least try to find him."

  Silence answered. Only the sound of Tekime’s sobs and the fading echoes of screams filled the air. The darkness around them felt heavier, as if something was watching from within the shadows. The stench of blood and decay lingered, and the shadows seemed to move on their own.

  Hitory had vanished. And the looming sense that something terrible was about to happen hung over them like an inevitable omen.

  An image struck Hitory’s mind like a sudden blow.

  Nyliryka slowly raised her head, the clinking of chains echoing through the void. Cold metal pressed against her pale skin, leaving deep marks. Her eyes, caught in a space between madness and pleasure, locked onto his. A smile crept across her lips — not a normal smile, but something disturbing, distorted. As if she teetered on the edge of collapse... or something far worse.

  The world around Hitory trembled. A chill crawled up his spine. His breath quickened, and in the next second, he awoke with a start.

  — "What... was that?"

  He raised a hand to his head, feeling cold sweat running down his neck. His body was heavy, muscles stiff as if torn from one reality and hurled back into another. The sensation still burned in his memory.

  — "First I get pulled through a wall... now this?"

  His eyes scanned the space around him. The metallic scent of blood still lingered. Something was wrong. Very wrong.

  The air froze.

  Hitory felt time slow for a heartbeat as a dry snap echoed behind him. A chill surged up his spine like icy blades. It was as if the world itself whispered in his ear: "Run."

  He turned slowly.

  And saw hell incarnate.

  A colossal creature, twisted by abyssal essence, moved among the ruins. Its form resembled a hellhound, but with too many heads, too many claws, too many eyes. A chimera born from the worst nightmare of a god. Its black skin rippled like living shadow, and its dozens of eyes burned like embers, starving for flesh and blood.

  The creature let out a roar — not just sound, but pressure. The air around it warped, trembling like water ready to boil.

  Then it came.

  Brutal speed. Inhuman strength.

  One massive paw lifted like a demonic crane and crashed down with fury. Hitory tried to move — but too late. The blow landed full-force.

  Crack.

  He was hurled into the wall like a ragdoll. The impact crushed his body and shattered the stone behind him. Bones screamed. The world spun. His vision darkened for a moment, and when it returned, he was drowning in pain.

  — “D-Damn it... what the hell... is this?”

  He coughed blood. His legs trembled. Both arms were still there, but the right one hung limp, partially unresponsive, throbbing with pain.

  And yet...

  He stood.

  With hell charging at him.

  The chimera approached like an earthquake. Each step thundered. Each breath made the air more rotten, as if he were inside the throat of the abyss itself.

  But then — something... someone.

  In the back of the room, within the shadows — a figure.

  Seated with elegance, like a king without a throne. One hand resting on a helmet. The armor he wore wasn’t as old as it looked. No — it was something beyond. It was as if he already knew how this would end.

  Watching. Judging.

  The surroundings were a sarcophagus of a forgotten temple. Broken pillars, tapestries eroded by time, symbols of past glory now reduced to ash. Everything there had long died... except for the monstrosity roaring in front of him.

  — “...This won’t end here.”

  The sword.

  Hitory drew it. His trembling fingers gripped the hilt with rage. The blade — now cracked from battle — responded with a subtle glow.

  It wasn’t mana.

  It was will.

  The chimera lunged, all heads snarling.

  And he ran straight into it.

  The first strike came like a hurricane. Hitory dodged just in time, feeling claws tear through his thigh. Blood sprayed — but he didn’t stop. He spun in midair, slashed diagonally, and struck one of the heads.

  The roar the creature gave made the entire room shake.

  But it wasn’t enough. Another head came down like a guillotine. He twisted his body, dropped to his knees, and countered. His sword flashed once more.

  Each movement now was a dance of survival. Pain and technique. Instinct and defiance. His body begged for rest. His soul demanded war.

  And then — the moment.

  With a desperate leap, Hitory lunged. The sword swept through the neck of the central head like a divine scythe. Flesh, bone, and black blood erupted.

  The chimera staggered.

  Hitory didn’t let up.

  Another slash. Another head dropped. A third lunged to bite, but he drove the blade straight into its burning eye. The creature screamed with a thousand voices at once.

  And then — with all the weight of his being —

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  he plunged the sword into the beast’s heart.

  Time froze. A dry sound. A final breath.

  The chimera fell.

  Its body crashed against the ground with a deafening thud. Black blood exploded in every direction, covering Hitory completely. He dropped to his knees, panting, trembling.

  The sword in his hand... broke. The blade cracked, split in two. A dead echo of metal reverberated in the darkness.

  Silence.

  Only the sound of his own heartbeat.

  Hitory, covered in blood and sweat, still alive, looked toward the throne in the darkness. The man there finally raised his head.

  — "I... I did it..." — Hitory whispered, his body shaking from pain and exhaustion. He looked at his broken sword, a sense of loss rising within him, yet at the same time, a small flame of relief. — "But at what cost?"

  He turned his gaze to the knight at the back of the room, who still remained motionless, as if nothing had happened. The tension in the air was palpable, and Hitory knew this was just the beginning of something much darker.

  After the monster fell, silence took over the room, broken only by the echoes of his ragged breathing. Hitory was on his knees, his hands trembling as he stared at his shattered sword, feeling the pain of the battle and the price he had just paid. The chimera’s black blood still dripped across the floor, forming puddles around him. But that brief moment of relief was soon interrupted.

  From the back of the room, the knight slowly rose from his throne, his gaze fixed on Hitory. His presence seemed to absorb all light, as if he were a living shadow. His voice, deep and threatening, echoed through the chamber, breaking the silence with a cold, cruel tone.

  "Only I remain," he said, his eyes glowing with a predatory intensity. "Come on."

  The knight moved with supernatural agility. He approached quickly, grabbing the sword that rested against the throne. The sound of metal being unsheathed echoed through the air. Without hesitation, he lunged at Hitory with incredible speed — faster than anything Hitory had ever seen.

  Still stunned from the previous battle, Hitory could only react on instinct. He dodged quickly to the left, feeling the knight’s blade graze his neck. The cut was shallow, but the pain was immediate, and blood began to stream down his skin. The edge of the sword had touched his jugular, and he felt the warmth of the hot blood trickling over his collarbone, but there was no time to worry. He stepped back quickly, his chest heaving with adrenaline.

  — "What the hell…" — he muttered, his throat burning from the shallow cut. He looked at the knight, who had stopped just one step back, watching him with a sadistic smile, as if the real fun was just about to begin.

  The knight paused, the blade in his hand still vibrating from the sheer speed of the attack. He looked at Hitory with cold, calculating eyes, as if measuring every breath the young warrior took.

  — "I wasn’t supposed to miss," — he said, his voice deep and laced with icy venom. — "Next time, I won’t."

  As those words echoed through the room, something began to happen. On the knight’s arm, a mark began to form, pulsing with unsettling energy. It was a twisted halo, its shape wrapped in golden lines that intertwined around his forearm. The lines moved like a serpent coiling and expanding, forming a hypnotic spiral.

  The glow of the mark intensified with every second, its golden threads illuminating the surrounding darkness with an imposing, almost divine light. The mark seemed to reflect something more — an aura of power, of colossal ego.

  Hitory felt it immediately. An overwhelming presence took hold of the room, as if reality itself were being bent by the energy emanating from the knight. The pressure on his chest increased, as if the air around him had grown thick and impossible to breathe. The ground trembled faintly, and a sensation of oppression, like the weight of the entire world on his shoulders, made him instinctively bow down.

  The aura surrounding the knight wasn’t just threatening — it was crushing, something Hitory had never experienced before. It was as if the energy from the mark was more powerful than that of the Demon King himself. An incomprehensible, authoritarian force — something beyond any human concept of power.

  And then, something unbelievable happened.

  The knight raised his right hand, and the air around him seemed to distort even more, as though the very fabric of space was bending.

  A vision appeared before Hitory’s eyes — a surreal, apocalyptic spectacle.

  With a simple gesture, the knight appeared to hold the entire planet in the palm of his hand. He was no longer a mere man, and the planet seemed to shrink under his control, like a tiny sphere in the hand of a superior being. It was as if the knight could manipulate existence itself, creating a distortion that made Hitory feel like he was standing before a force beyond measure — something so far from his comprehension that his mind could barely grasp it.

  The knight's aura became unbearable.

  It was as if the entire universe was being crushed beneath the weight of his strength, reality trembling under the infinite ego he possessed. The world around Hitory seemed to distort, as though being seen through a shattered lens—each passing second growing heavier and more intolerable.

  This power wasn’t something ordinary. Still on his knees, Hitory tried to process what was happening, but his mind was crumbling under the weight of the pressure. That aura—immense and suffocating—was not just the power of a warrior. It was something much deeper, something that transcended the physical.

  The knight was no longer just a mortal being.

  He had become something infernal.

  The power of a Supreme Sin—the Sin of Pride.

  Hitory felt fear grip his chest like a steel vice. Every cell in his body screamed to run, to hide. He felt gravity seep into his very being, an overwhelming sense of helplessness. His breathing grew ragged, his heartbeat pounding inside his skull like a frantic war drum. This wasn’t just power—it was the declaration of absolute supremacy, an ego so vast it erased any attempt at resistance.

  Hitory, the boy who always felt small and underestimated, was now facing something that made him feel like nothing.

  A being who held the right to destroy—and the weight of that right seemed to crush everything around it.

  The ground beneath him felt as if it was falling away, as if he were being devoured by a force beyond comprehension.

  The mark on the knight’s arm continued to shine with that intense golden light, reflecting the vastness of his pride—unyielding and absolute.

  Hitory trembled, a deep fear spreading through his limbs, paralyzing his thoughts.

  He tried to lift his head, but every movement was a painful effort.

  He felt as though the knight’s gaze alone pressed him further into the ground.

  And the knight, in his supremacy, merely watched.

  He didn’t need to do anything more to show his power.

  The presence of that mark—and the energy radiating from it—acted as invisible chains, dragging Hitory into an abyss of despair.

  He knew now… he wasn’t just fighting an enemy.

  He was fighting the concept of Pride itself.

  Something that saw itself as the pinnacle of all existence.

  “I…” Hitory murmured, voice trembling. “I can’t…”

  Panic swelled within him.

  Fear swallowed him whole, and the image of the knight holding the planet in his hand burned in his mind.

  He stood before something he couldn’t understand—something far beyond any monster he had faced until now.

  A power beyond what he thought was possible.

  The pressure on his mind and body grew worse, and each breath became harder to take.

  He knew that if he didn’t act, the battle would be lost before it even began.

  But what could he do against this?

  When Hitory looked back at the knight, something strange happened.

  He saw a figure appear behind him—as if it were a shadow cast by the knight’s very presence.

  At first, it seemed like nothing more than a trick of the light and darkness, but then the image came into horrifying focus.

  It was a towering being—imposing, with golden wings—

  but they were twisted and mangled, as if the feathers had been shredded by the weight of existence itself.

  Its face bore marks of agony and arrogance,

  its eyes glowing with supernatural power,

  as if the heavens themselves had collapsed upon Hitory.

  Aureolus was there—

  a figure radiating an aura of absolute superiority.

  He was no longer a celestial being—

  but a fallen angel.

  A monster of Arcane Class, whose very presence bent the world around him to his authority.

  Aureolus’s gaze was a burden on Hitory’s soul.

  Those piercing eyes conveyed a message clear as daylight:

  Superiority. Isolation. And a declaration that nothing and no one was worthy of his company.

  Aureolus smiled—but it was not a smile of mercy.

  It was a smile of disdain and scorn,

  as if Hitory were nothing more than a pathetic insect on the vast battlefield of existence.

  What he saw before him was not a worthy opponent—

  but a meaningless piece in the grand game of power.

  Hitory’s heart skipped a beat.

  The Sin of Pride was manifesting in full force, and the image of Aureolus behind the knight only amplified the overwhelming sense that he was incomparably beneath it all.

  Hitory felt as though he was being crushed—

  not just by physical power,

  but by arrogance incarnate.

  End of EP 21: "The Shadow Throne"