The wind had a scent I didn't trust.
Ash. Rot.
And something else—something old enough to hate everything that breathes.
Nyx stirred at my side, his fur bristling.
"We shouldn't be here," he muttered, nose twitching. "This place… feels cursed."
It was.
The Hollow Deep had collapsed behind us days ago. And yet, something worse had taken its place. I stood atop the jagged cliffs of the forgotten basin called the Gloom Maw, where dead Echoes wandered and the sky stayed blood-red even at noon.
Below, half-buried in the earth like a sunken crown, sat a circular ruin—an arena of broken spires and bone monoliths. In the center, a massive throne of stitched corpses and obsidian stone loomed.
Something was sitting on it.
"Is that…?"
A clawed hand shifted.
I felt it instantly—Authority—but warped and decayed. Twisted by some abyssal madness. My system buzzed in protest.
[Warning: Unregistered Apex Entity Detected – Classification: YAMA KING]
[Recommendation: Evacuate immediately. Threat Level: Catastrophic.]
I smiled bitterly. "Too late for that."
The creature rose.
He was towering. His body looked humanoid, but stretched wrong—limbs too long, head crowned in shattered bone antlers that constantly dripped smoke. His face was hidden behind a steel mask etched with fangs. But I could feel his eyes.
Locked on me.
The throne behind him exploded into ash.
Then he spoke—his voice like rotting silk dragged through a dying battlefield.
"Daughter of Ruin... You bleed the Abyss. You reek of forbidden Authority. I shall consume your legacy."
And with that, he charged.
I barely leapt aside before his black greatsword carved through the stone I'd been standing on. It melted everything it touched.
Nyx was already airborne, diving at the King's back. He struck once—twice—tearing into flesh, but the Yama King simply roared and backhanded him across the arena. I saw blood scatter through the air.
"NYX!"
The King turned back to me, blade dragging behind him, leaving a trail of searing ruin.
I summoned blackfire. My hands trembled from fatigue—I'd barely recovered from the Core Guardian. But I had no choice.
"Come on then," I growled, sliding into stance. "Let's see if you bleed."
The Yama King moved again—faster this time.
I ducked the first strike, rolled under the second, and launched a spear of dark flame straight into his chest. It exploded—a blast that cracked the arena wall—
But when the smoke cleared, he was still standing.
Wounded. Yes.
Bleeding?
Not yet.
He raised his blade. A wave of Void energy screamed across the field, and I barely threw up a barrier before it hit. The impact sent me flying through a pillar.
[HP: 61%]
My ribs burned.
The Yama King followed without pause, dragging his sword like a guillotine.
I screamed and unleashed my Authority—blackfire turned violet, warping the air, forming claws and jaws and whips of flame that lunged at him. He met them all with brute force, cleaving through each construct as if it were made of mist.
But I was watching.
I saw it.
A crack in his mask. A thin line of exposed, pulsing flesh beneath the right eye.
I dove forward.
He swung wide—I slid under his arm, spun behind him, and plunged both hands into the cracked spot, channeling every drop of fire I had left.
The mask shattered.
The King screamed—not in pain, but fury.
His face beneath was a twisted echo of something human. Pale. Half-rotted. Still alive.
He slammed a boot into my chest and kicked me across the field. I crashed through rubble, gasping.
[HP: 44%]
He was on me again before I could recover.
And the fight had just begun.
[HP: 44%]
My vision doubled.
The kick had broken something—ribs, maybe. Breathing felt like sucking in molten iron. Nyx hadn't moved since crashing into the far wall. The arena was shaking. Cracking. Bleeding Void.
And the Yama King was still walking toward me.
Each step echoed like a war drum. His mask was shattered now, revealing a half-decayed face twisted by a hatred deeper than death. Eyes black with hollow fire stared into mine.
"You are not worthy to carry the Abyss," he snarled. "Only death earns power. Only agony makes kings."
I spat blood, then smiled.
"Then come earn it."
[Skill: Shadow Spear] – Activated.
[Mana: 78% → 41%]
A sharpened lance of blacklight ripped through the air toward him—but he raised his blade and shattered it mid-flight. The backlash hit me like a whip to the soul.
I lunged sideways, landing behind the broken pillar. I couldn't run. Couldn't outpace him.
So I reached into my belt.
Health Elixir – Used.
[HP Fully Restored.]
[MP Fully Restored.]
[Agility Boost +100% – Duration: 10 Minutes.]
Time slowed.
The pain vanished.
The shadows around me thickened, responding to my will like hungry serpents.
I surged from the rubble, dashing in a wide arc around the King. With my boosted speed, I was a blur, leaving afterimages across the crumbling arena. The Yama King spun, blade sweeping wide, but this time—I was faster.
Too fast.
I struck.
Left claw—fire. Right claw—frost. My strikes carved glowing arcs across his chest, each one searing a layer of his armor away. I moved like a storm, like wrath incarnate. He bellowed in fury and drove his sword into the ground, releasing a blast of Void.
The shockwave hit.
[HP: 79%]
Still standing.
I leapt into the air and drove my claws into his shoulders. "Let's see how you like this—!"
[Skill Fusion: Abyss Claw + Shadow Wrath – OVERLOAD MODE]
My hands ignited with corrupted flame, and I plunged them deep into his flesh.
He screamed.
The arena cracked.
The earth split.
And we both fell through.
We landed in the Undervault—a hidden chamber of bone pillars and buried altars. The Yama King smashed into a monolith, cracking it clean in half. I hit the ground and rolled, coughing, disoriented.
He rose slowly—bleeding now. Real blood. Dark. Viscous.
I saw it: he wasn't invincible. He was dying. But his will wouldn't let him stop.
"Do you think… this is the end?" he hissed. "No… girl of ash. I have ruled for centuries. I have eaten kings."
"I've killed worse," I whispered.
I lied.
He roared and threw his sword. It came like a black meteor—I sidestepped just in time, but the blade carved a trench through three pillars and vanished into the abyss behind me.
He was on me before I could blink.
We grappled. Flesh against flame. Teeth. Claws. I bit his neck. He cracked my jaw. We tore through the ruins, a blur of destruction and screams.
He slammed me against the altar.
I screamed.
Then—Nyx howled.
Out of the smoke, my soul-beast leapt, one eye bloody, ribs cracked, wings torn—but alive. He struck the Yama King in the throat, forcing the beast to stagger back.
"NOW!" Nyx roared.
I didn't think—I moved.
[Skill: Abyssal Fire Spiral – MAX Output]
Flame howled from my chest. I poured everything into it. Fire wrapped around the King like a snake of violet death, and I screamed as I sent the full charge into his torso.
The Yama King caught fire.
He burned. His screams echoed for miles. His flesh melted. His Authority warped. He reached toward me—
And then he fell.
Burning.
Dying.
Crowned in silence.
The air went still.
The darkness cleared.
[System Message: Boss Defeated – YAMA KING (Level ???)]
[Reward Acquired:]
[Yama Void Sword – Legendary (Cursed)]
[Veil Earrings – Rare+]
[Yama Fruit (3 uses): Grants +1000% to all stats temporarily]
[Hidden Fragment: Name – Yamak. Progress: 1/3.]
I collapsed to my knees.
The arena was rubble.
Nyx limped toward me and curled against my side. Neither of us said anything for a while.
Because we both knew—
This war was just beginning.
[Hidden Fragment: Name – Yamak | Progress: 1/3]
The System chimed again.
> [New Objective: Survive the Collapse of Demon Yama Palace]
[Reward: Yamak Fragment (1)]
[Time Remaining: 05:00 minutes until complete structural collapse]
I looked up.
The ceiling was crumbling.
Above us, the arena floor had split like an eggshell. Crimson fissures ran through the stone, glowing brighter with every passing second. The ground shook—once, then twice, before finally groaning like a beast in pain.
"Nyx. We move. Now."
He didn't argue.
We scrambled over the rubble of the Undervault, ducking under falling debris, sprinting through tunnels we didn't recognize. The echoes of the Yama King's death still lingered in the stone, making the air thick with cursed heat.
> [System Alert: Catastrophic Collapse Imminent]
[New Path Unlocked – Hall of Screaming Chains]
"I don't like that name," Nyx growled.
"Me neither. But it's either that or getting crushed."
We tore through the new passage. The Hall of Screaming Chains was exactly what it sounded like—a narrow corridor filled with rusted chains hanging from the ceiling, each one screaming like a tortured soul when touched.
And they were moving.
"They're reaching for us—!" Nyx snapped, clawing one that whipped toward his throat.
"I know—keep going!"
I ducked, rolled, and burned one set of chains with a snap of flame. Behind us, the hall began to collapse.
One chain wrapped around my leg—
[HP: 72% → 44%]
I screamed and ripped free. Flesh tore. Blood poured. But I ran.
We emerged into a twisted throne chamber. Dead guards lined the walls. The King's trophies were shattering from the tremors. At the center of the room floated a black crystal.
A fragment.
[Yamak Fragment Detected]
[System Message: Claim it and escape within 60 seconds.]
I didn't hesitate.
I lunged, gripping the shard. Darkness surged through my veins—it wasn't just a fragment. It was a memory. A scream. A war cry.
[Hidden Fragment: Yamak – Progress Updated: 2/3]
Then the floor gave out.
Everything collapsed.
Falling.
I couldn't tell how far. Wind howled. Rocks fell beside me. I wrapped my arms around Nyx, shielded him with my body.
We hit something hard—then tumbled down a slope of molten stone and broken bone. The air was pure chaos. Fire. Void. Screams. Echoes of the dead clung to the walls like rot.
Finally, the collapse slowed.
I coughed blood.
But I was alive.
Barely.
[System Alert: Cataclysm Survived]
[Reward Acquired: Yamak Fragment (2/3)]
[System Note: Final Fragment of Yamak is hidden within the Scarred Void.]
I lay there a moment longer, feeling the tremors die down.
Demon Yama Palace… was no more.
Buried. Burned. Destroyed.
But from its ruin, I had clawed out power. One step closer to unlocking Yamak, the Supreme Commander.
Nyx dragged himself up beside me. "You're insane, you know that?"
"Probably," I muttered, smiling through blood. "But I'm not done yet."
The sky above us was cracked and bleeding. The war wasn't over.
It was just moving to a new battlefield.
[Hidden Fragment: Yamak – Progress: 2/3]
The Scarred Void wasn't a place.
It was a wound.
Endless darkness stretched before me, devouring all light. Gravity meant nothing here. The laws of time twisted. Each breath I took tasted like ash and metal. And every step forward felt like walking through the echo of a battlefield soaked in forgotten blood.
Nyx limped behind me, still recovering. "Sylvia… are you sure this is where the fragment is?"
I nodded. "The system led me here. The final Yamak fragment is somewhere in this… hell. But it doesn't give without taking."
> [Location: The Scarred Void – Warning: Existential Risk]
[Final Yamak Fragment Detected]
[To access the Void Gate, a sacrifice of equal value to your life must be made.]
We stopped.
Before us stood the Void Gate—a monolithic, pulsating maw of obsidian veined with crimson, tall enough to swallow mountains. It hovered above a pit of swirling emptiness.
The gate didn't open.
But a voice did speak.
"What will you trade for passage, Reincarnated One?"
I froze.
Nyx's ears flattened. "Sylvia… no."
My hand clenched into a fist.
I only had one option.
And I'd known it since I entered this place.
"My life," I said. "Spare him. Take me."
> [Sacrifice Recognized: Sylvia Plath – Life for Passage]
[Void Gate Trial Passed]
The Scarred Void screamed.
For a moment, my entire existence unraveled. My name. My power. My soul. Everything began peeling away, drifting into the gate like petals in a storm.
But then—
Nyx tackled me. "You STUPID, reckless, suicidal idiot!"
He roared, wings spreading wide.
"Don't you ever think your life is worth less than mine!"
But it was too late.
The Gate had accepted my offer.
And now—it opened.
> [Yamak Fragment x1 Obtained]
[Hidden Fragment: Yamak – Progress: 3/3 – COLLECTION COMPLETE]
[Exit Portal Activating…]
[Notice: Fragment will soon Unlock. You will be Notified.]
The howling wind silenced.
The Void Gate shattered like glass, and a swirling Exit Portal emerged from the ruins.
I was still breathing. Still alive. Somehow. My offering hadn't killed me—but it had marked me. Something had been taken. And something new had replaced it.
"I'll be fine," I whispered, more to convince myself than Nyx. "It's done now."
Nyx growled low. "We're not doing that again."
I smiled faintly. "No promises."
We stepped through the portal.
Light. For the first time in what felt like an eternity.
I had escaped the Scarred Void.
---
> [Yamak Fragment Collection: Complete]
[Unlocking soon… You will be notified upon awakening the Supreme Commander.]
The system faded into silence.
I fell to my knees in a barren field lit by dying stars.
I was broken. But alive.
And when the Yamak fragments awakened…
I would be unstoppable.