I Guard The Book That Slays Gods

Everything was collapsing around him. Suspended between emotion and circumstance, as Raiden's last tear slipped free, the deafening sound came rushing toward him.

He closed his eyes in understanding, his pulse quickening with each beat. He knew who approached and what they wanted from him. But he couldn't give them that now, even if he tried; he couldn't even give himself what he knew he desperately wanted.

"Where's Ash?!" Noelle shouted once she was close enough, watching Raiden sprawled across the rough stone ledge, eyes shut against the world.

Raiden tried to rehearse any kind of reaction, but nothing came. The fault was entirely his, and he deserved this reckoning. If he had just realized Ash's feelings in time, he could have prevented her death and still had the one person who felt like family.

Here it comes—he thought, preparing himself for the storm of Noelle's fury.

"Rule domain," Noelle whispered once close enough. Her golden aura ceased its flow, crystallizing into an enormous sphere that trapped them alongside everything within a mile: the trees, the very air, insects, and even a section of the mountain.

She closed the distance to Raiden, caught him by the collar, and yanked him upright. Her deep violet eyes burned with pure rage, wordlessly demanding answers, but Raiden couldn't bear to face them. Not from fear—he knew the connection those two had shared, and now he had stood by helplessly as she died.

"How could you?… she was just a child." Her voice trembled, fighting back the tears she refused to show. "…just a kid."

He could have stayed silent, watched the others attempt to penetrate her domain from outside, or simply listened to what Noelle had to say. But something darker in him had other intentions. Maybe prolonging this would deliver all the guilt he needed to carry. Ash's blood stained his hands, no one else's.

"Are you done?" He turned his head slowly to face her, staring straight into her eyes. "Funny… last I checked, it was a servant's job to die for their master."

Noelle's eyes blazed with fury as she stared into Raiden's rotting soul, then slapped him hard across the face. "How could you?!"

Raiden smiled. He hadn't anticipated the slap, but having received it, he hungered for more. He had never realized how thrilling it was to be struck in situations like this.

A menacing grin twisted his lips. "In the end, survival is all that matters… the way it was when you abandoned your mother." His devilish laugh echoed in the enclosed space.

Something snapped in Noelle. She held Raiden locked in her grip, her eyes trembling as she stared at him in complete disbelief, mouth slightly agape.

For a brief moment, it seemed like it was over. Then, inexplicably, Raiden's smile widened further, and that final cruelty shattered Noelle completely.

She slammed Raiden down and pummeled him without mercy. Her fist crashed into his face while she stared past his malicious eyes into something darker. For the seconds that followed, it was as if her fist moved on its own—strike after merciless strike, each one cutting deeper than the last.

Raiden looked into Noelle's emotionless face, and while she stared straight at him, he knew she wasn't really seeing him. Just memories, and past that, reactions long lost.

Blood streamed down Raiden's face as one side went numb under the endless barrage of blows. But he welcomed it. He had been nothing but a monster, letting all the people he loved die while he stood by helplessly. This beating was the least he could pay for simply existing.

After countless strikes, however, Noelle froze mid-punch. She blinked, her vision clearing as she saw Raiden's bruised and bloodied face beneath her. After a few seconds suspended in that position, she let him go and pulled herself to her feet. It was as though reality had snapped back into focus, and she couldn't bring herself to continue.

"We'll finish this later," she said, walking away as her golden domain disappeared.

Raiden's head followed her direction as she walked away. He clenched his fist, shivering uncontrollably. He wasn't satisfied—he needed more, a beating that would bring him to the brink of death, something to make him truly face what he had become.

MK and Leo, who had been trapped outside the domain, looked at him with complete disgust. MK hurried to catch up with Noelle to check on her, while Leo's horrified expression toward Raiden said everything his shocked silence couldn't.

As Raiden watched their retreating forms, he realized his chances of securing them as teammates had dwindled to almost nothing. A cold dread settled over him.

This time, he wouldn't have to wrestle with who he could save and who he couldn't. Freya was gone, Ash was gone, and he'd been powerless to stop either loss.

Perhaps it was time to return to solitude, to purge himself of these emotions. Yes… the way he always had before. The only person he needed was Jobe. And even in his demise, his presence still lingered in every fight.

"Yeah, that's right… only Jobe."

He abruptly forced himself to his feet. No matter who died, no one would rob him of his chance to go back to his world and avenge his brother. With Ash gone, there was nothing left to tie him down.

He began to brush himself clean, his body feeling increasingly hollow and empty, as if a gentle breeze might strip him down to bone.

But his mission wasn't finished, and they needed to move before they were attacked again.

However, the instant he stepped forward, his body seized up completely. He went rigid, trembling as if struck by lightning.

His mind reeled in confusion, wondering if Noelle had done something to him. But soon his vision blurred, his body became impossibly heavy, and the weight pulled him sideways until he collapsed to the ground.

The confusion thickened around him, though no logical explanation surfaced. This feeling was entirely foreign to him, and worse still, as he lay convulsing uncontrollably, he felt himself being drawn away. Slowly pulled from his own body by a force that seemed somehow familiar.

Am I dying?—he wondered as darkness crept in around the edges of his vision.