The judge announced the start of the match.
Luna dashed forward like a lightning bolt, giving Frosita no chance to activate her magic. But Frosita wasn't a weak opponent — she unleashed her ice magic, firing hundreds of icy arrows toward Luna.
She roared with fury:
"I'll kill you, you wretch!"
Luna retreated and activated her light aura. A radiant glow burst from her, cutting through the oncoming arrows. But Frosita seized the opening, launching water spears that shattered part of Luna's shield.
The light surrounding Luna intensified, illuminating the entire arena, disorienting Frosita for a moment. Still, she didn't hesitate — she activated a jagged ice shield from which sharp spikes erupted, scraping Luna's body.
Luna stumbled back, panting… sweat dripping from her brow.
Outside the ring…
Lin watched the battle with tense eyes, gripping the metal railing.
Lin (to himself):
Damn it… I should've made Luna forfeit. If this keeps up, I'll fail the mission. Frosita's too strong… and if I intervene, I'll look like I'm protecting Luna… which will enrage both her and the Matriarch.
Lin (muttering):
"Withdraw, Luna… damn it."
Think fast… think, damn you…
Then a slight smile curved his lips.
Lin:
I've got two options.
First plan: exploit Frosita's feelings for me. I jump in, take the hit instead of Luna, pretend I'm exhausted — she might abandon the fight to save me.
But… that's a huge gamble.
In the ring…
Luna:
"Let's end this, Frosita… this is my final move!"
Lin (shocked):
A fire aura… fused with light?! That technique's unstable!
Luna surged forward, pierced the icy shield, and left a clear scratch across Frosita's face.
Frosita (furious):
"Damn you!"
She soared into the air, her eyes turning pure white.
A massive snowstorm erupted around her. Hundreds of ice spears spiraled, freezing the ground beneath Luna's feet.
Frosita (voice trembling with wrath):
"I didn't want to kill you… but you dared to seduce what's mine."
"I'll end you myself!"
Lin (shouting):
"Damn it! No choice!"
He leapt into the ring, shattered the ice beneath his feet, and kicked Luna out of bounds with one decisive blow.
Lin:
"How dare you attack my lady?! Damn you, whore!"
He strode toward Frosita, knelt before her, gently took her hands and said:
"Are you alright, my lady? Forgive this disgrace… it seems the traitors have forgotten their place."
Judge:
"Victory goes to Frosita!"
Lin (smiling as he ushers her out of the arena):
"My lady… your focus must never waver in battle."
The crowd exploded in outrage:
"That's cheating!"
"Where's the honor?!"
"Coward!"
Lin answered only with a mocking smile, as if their insults were praise.
System Notification:
Mission complete: you avoided the scenario.
Protective barrier will be suspended in two hours. Entering Cooldown Mode.
Lin (sighing with relief):
We made it…
But the peace didn't last.
Matriarch:
"Lin… how dare you intervene in a match that's not yours?"
Lin (confident):
"How could I stand by while my lady is harmed?"
Matriarch:
"If your loyalty is true… kill the one who hurt her. Kill Luna."
Silence.
Lin (thinking):
If I refuse, I'll be branded a traitor. But if I obey… I'll make enemies of the Emperor and Ian.
Lin:
"I accept any punishment you deem fit."
Matriarch:
"The Frost Prison … for one week. After that, you'll receive your reward."
He was seized by force, but shouted:
"This is madness! There's no law against what I did!"
The Matriarch unleashed magical pressure so dense, even spirits bowed before bodies. Everyone knelt under the weight of her presence.
Her voice rang sharp and merciless:
"A mere servant… dares defy my word!"
Then, with cold queenly disdain, she turned to a family mage and ordered:
"Take him. Drag him to his fate."
In a blink, a mage appeared behind Lin, whispered an incantation barely audible… and Lin collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.
As he vanished…
Frosita's eyes lingered on him.
Two burning orbs of contradiction—
Desire… and pity.
As if she both feared for him… and longed for him.
In the Frost Prison …
Lin woke to find that the gates of hell hadn't opened with fire… but ice.
The air itself was an invisible dagger, tearing through his lungs with every breath, slicing cell after cell. The ice wasn't white, but black, clear as cursed crystal — and within it moved shadows, slowly drowning in eternal molasses. Twisted faces, mouths wide in silent screams, hammered from within the walls. Begging. Cursing. Watching him.
The wall was more than a wall — it was a living gravestone, showing Lin the fate that awaited him.
The cell floor was nothing but a thin crust above a void. Every step echoed a soft crack, a whisper that falling wasn't a possibility — it was a promise, merely postponed. Beneath lay nothing… only the blackness of those countless eyes that stared unblinking.
He shivered — not from the cold alone, but from something deeper. Something that seeped into his marrow, into his soul.
> System: Cooldown Mode begins in… 3… 2… 1…
At zero, the pain wasn't physical. It wasn't even pain.
It was intrusion — as if something crawled into his skull and sowed madness with frozen fingers.
A massive eye opened in the void and stared at him.
One glance was enough to kill a man.
And suddenly, Lin was falling — plunging into a black sphere of nothingness.
He screamed, spiraling through an ocean of oblivion.
Voices rose — not from outside… but within.
From the corners of his skull. From the cracks in his soul.
Mad laughter. Piercing screams. Deadly whispers.
Each voice carried a tone he knew…
He saw everyone he'd ever known… mocking him.
His own voice, shattered between sobs and hysteria.
"What are these shadows?!" he cried. But the echo didn't leave his lips — it rang from within.
"Leave me alone!"
But they didn't.
They weren't just around him — they were in him.
The shadows seeped from the walls, like smoke sliding under his skin.
They weren't shapes… but thoughts.
Each shadow was a sin.
Each shadow a regret.
Each shadow a mistake he wished he could erase.
"You don't deserve life."
"Fear is your master."
"You fled the Ma'hul? Why? Where will you run now?"
He slammed his head against the wall, desperate to silence the voices, to smother the regret—
But the wall absorbed the blow… and echoed it back as psychic agony.
"Damn it… DAMN IT!"
He collapsed, clutching his head, the cold piercing his bones like nails of frost.
But the shadows weren't done.
This time… they didn't speak to Lin.
They spoke to what lived inside him.
"You are not him."
"You're an intruder… this child's body is not yours."
"Our child is dead… you're a parasite."
Something inside him shuddered.
Like his soul had been stabbed.
Like the body rejected him. Like his mind split.
A pulse of light erupted…
Not pure — but a radiant black, twisted, desperate to be holy… and failing.
The light surged up his spine, into the back of his skull—
Then exploded, silently, inside his mind.
He screamed — a soundless cry — through tears that were not water… but black blood.
He knelt, hands trembling like autumn leaves in a storm.
His eyes turned pitch black, no whites remaining — like death itself.
Like life had abandoned them.
A voice boomed — not from outside…
but from within:
"Return… before the curse deepens."
"Be who you were — or vanish."
"Be erased from every world, from memory, from existence."
The air around him froze… then shattered.
Reality cracked.
He gasped as if someone was stealing the breath from his lungs.
His heart… no longer beat in his rhythm.
Another presence was trying to claim it. To steal his pulse.
"Who… am I?" he whispered.
But the voice wasn't his.
And his name… wasn't his.
Then—
A scream erupted from deep within, inhuman and tormented.
Not his.
But of lost souls.
Souls that died in the Ma'hul and could find no escape…
Except through him.
"You stole my body!" Lin shouted.
The shadows replied:
"You betrayed your fate!"
"Now… we'll take you with us."
His skin cracked — not like wounds…
But as if his body rejected its own existence.
His bones twisted, shattered, then reformed… again and again.
The cell was no longer a prison…
It was the womb of the Ma'hul.
Rebirthing him… as something else.
Something… no longer human.
Below him… the void spread.
Reality collapsed.
Eyes — countless and unblinking — rose around him.
Watching. Judging. Condemning.
Hungering for his soul.
He was alone.
Stripped of his name.
Of his body.
Of his past.
No Lin.
No Jin.
No one.
Only a scream… echoing through eternity.
Each moment is worse than the last.
And all that remained in the cell…
Was the sound of his skull hitting the ground,
And the blood… black as the void.
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