Dancing on the golden ashes

The power raging around me was raw and untamed, unlike anything I had ever felt before.

How could I even describe it? It was as if an invisible wall loomed in front of me—a barrier that had always been there, holding me back. But now, my power pushed against it, forcing cracks to form. Tiny fissures spread across its surface, allowing my aura to seep through.

The pressure built to a crescendo, and with it came a massive explosion of soul energy—chaos incarnate. The force radiated outward, shaking the very foundation of this space.

Jeong Suhan was sent rolling backward, his body skidding across the ground. When he finally stopped, he rose cautiously, his expression uncharacteristically serious.

He felt it too.

The power capable of breaking systems.

My breath came heavy, but my mind raced with a single thought: If I can crack my own system, wouldn't I someday be able to shatter someone else's?

The realization sent a shiver down my spine, but the fire of determination burned brighter in my chest. This wasn't just about survival anymore—this was about rewriting the rules.

The entire space around us began to crack, the walls of this fabricated world shattering piece by piece. The Creator's body started to be pushed away, inch by inch, as if some invisible force was expelling him.

He reached out toward me, desperation in his movements, but it was all in vain.

"Get out!"

The entity inside me roared, its command carrying undeniable power.

The Creator's form flickered, then vanished entirely, his voice lingering as he left:

"You will regret this. One day, you'll understand that this path is wrong."

Those words… they were hard to believe, yet for some reason, they left a faint impression on me.

To be honest, I didn't trust the entity inside me either. But right now, I trusted it more than I'd ever trust him.

BOOM!

Another surge of power erupted from my body, the chaotic energy ripping through the remnants of this space. The world around us shattered into fragments, dissolving into nothingness and revealing the same spot where we had first been teleported.
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The Creator was gone.

Only Jeong Suhan and I remained, standing in the empty room.

But something had changed.

I could feel it—my body was transforming, piece by piece, into a fully demonic form. The power coursing through me was almost overwhelming, wild and untamed, yet thrilling in its intensity.

"What the fuck are you, Lee Gaon?" Jeong Suhan asked, his expression complicated—or maybe amused. It was hard to say. He was always difficult to read, his face rarely showing any real emotions.

"Me?" My voice had returned to normal, and I felt full control over my body once again. I smirked, my confidence rising. "I'm just the same old Lee Gaon, am I wrong? Or does it bother you now that I have power? That you can't act so cocky around me anymore, mentor?"

"I guess I didn't teach you well enough in life," he replied with a faint smile.

Before I could respond, he moved. With a single step, he was behind me. His speed was insane.

But not too much for me to handle.

BOOM!

The explosion of clashing auras echoed through the space as his blade met my claws. The gauntlets I wore felt like extensions of my own body, perfectly in sync with my movements. It didn't even feel like I was wearing armor—fighting with them was like using my bare hands.

"Soul Impact!"

The words escaped my lips as I delivered a powerful punch, combining the force of my gauntlet claws with a surge of chaotic energy.

The impact sent a shockwave through the air, followed by a rapid series of explosive sounds—paw! paw! paw!

Jeong Suhan's blade met the attack, but under the sheer force of my power, it cracked.

Even I didn't expect that.

For the first time, I saw a flicker of something in his eyes—surprise.

"Pursuit of Light!" Jeong Suhan shouted, his voice echoing with power.

In an instant, he began teleporting around me again, his movements even faster than before. Each thrust of his blade unleashed a blinding white light attack, cutting through the air with deadly precision.

I barely had time to react. Dodging was impossible. Instead, I summoned my chaos shields, wrapping myself in a cocoon of multicolored energy.

With a quick thought, I applied immense wind pressure from within, inflating the shield like a balloon. The compressed chaos energy burst outward in all directions, sending a powerful shockwave through the battlefield.

The wall of chaos energy hit Jeong Suhan almost immediately, throwing him backward.

The brief moment of respite was all I needed to counter.

"Are you happy now? That it's come to this?!" I screamed, my voice raw with emotion. "If only you had supported me back then, I would have never stood in your way!"

His expression twisted, his face turning ugly at my words. I could see it—something was holding him back, preventing him from answering me.

"What's wrong? The cat got your tongue?" I taunted, my voice cutting through the tension.

Without waiting for a response, I split into ten clones. Each one rushed at him from a different direction, surrounding him in an instant.

Though my clones couldn't wield my full power and were limited to basic form, they were enough to pressure him. Jeong Suhan's eyes darted between them, his movements quick as he tried to keep up.

"What do you know!" Jeong Suhan finally snapped, his voice carrying a rare edge of frustration.

In the next instant, a massive white sword materialized in the sky, glowing with an overwhelming aura. He stepped back, putting distance between us as the blade hung ominously above.

I traced its movement with my eyes, my instincts sharp. Always running away, I thought as I dodged the sword's descent.

"What kind of main character are you?" I growled, my rage boiling over. "Always running, always hiding. Then let me kill the main character and show the world we don't need one."

My clones sprang into action, casting Soul Shackle on him from all directions. The spectral chains coiled around him, restricting his movement just as the massive sword descended.

BOOM!

The sword struck the ground with devastating force, splitting it wide open. The earth groaned as a massive chasm formed, allowing water from the ocean to surge in, flooding the battlefield.

The attack was powerful, but it was clumsy, unfocused.

"Let me show you how to launch a real attack," I said, my voice calm and confident as I closed the distance between us.

But before I could strike, his body erupted with an even brighter white light, the chains around him cracking under the pressure.

With a violent explosion, all of my clones were obliterated.

But it was too late.

"Five Paths of Fire: Second Path... Power!" I shouted, my claws igniting as black flames surged to life.

"The Reappearance of the Demoness!"

A massive black beam of fire erupted from my claws, its chaotic energy consuming everything in its path as it crashed down on him.

Jeong Suhan raised a shield of white light in an attempt to block it, his face grim with determination.

But who did he think I was?

To me, he was nothing but prey. And I… I was the hunter.

Crack!

His shield shattered, and the black beam of fire struck him directly, carrying his body into the sky.

I chased after him, refusing to let up. As I closed in, I saw his entire body was gone—only his heart remained, glowing with an intense white light that shielded it. In the blink of an eye, his body reformed completely, but I could sense it—his power had dropped slightly.

A good sign.

That just means I have to kill him over and over again until he stops regenerating.

"Sovereign's Domain," I whispered under my breath.

Darkness surged outward, trapping him inside a space where only I held control. This time, his movements were slightly slower, and for the first time, panic flickered across his face.

Let's see how many times you can regenerate.

"Shadow Blast."

Black orbs of pure darkness, invisible in the void of my domain, materialized around him. I unleashed them repeatedly, each attack striking before he could retaliate.

This skill was always one of my favorites—not just because it could bypass armor, but because it struck directly at the skin, inflicting raw, undeniable damage. With my current mastery over darkness, it had become one of my most devastating abilities.

Jeong Suhan's body exploded and reformed in blinding white light again and again, each time weaker than before. But his damn immortality was starting to piss me off.

Then an idea hit me.

While he was momentarily immobilized, I reforged my gauntlets into a spear of pure black. My control over soul power made shaping weapons effortless, though I'd always preferred the scythe or claws—they were cooler.

This time, I poured everything into the spear.

Black lightning crackled along its length, chaos energy spiraled around it, and its power was overwhelming. Even I knew this attack could kill me if I wasn't careful.

"Forget it," I muttered, my voice cold. "I don't even want to know anymore. Just die. And please, live a good life in the underworld. Go now!"

The moment it was only his heart remaining again, I launched the spear. It flew faster than the eye could follow, a streak of pure destruction racing toward its target.

But then something unexpected happened.

A massive black hand descended from the sky, tearing through my domain like it was nothing but paper.

In a single motion, it caught my spear and flung it back at me with terrifying force.

No!

I tried to cancel the attack, but it was too late.

My own spear pierced my stomach, the chaotic energy frying my insides instantly. Pain like I'd never felt before wracked my body, and I could feel myself fading.

Gritting my teeth, I recalled the spear back into my hand, reshaping it into a scythe. Blood spilled from my mouth as I coughed violently.

"No…" I tried to scream, but my voice was weak. Dammit…

In the next moment, the world shifted.

I felt it—the pull of teleportation.

No! No! Please, I must kill him!

The system message echoed coldly in my mind:

[You have been banished from these lands.]