The beast's body was still twitching when Ash stepped over it, his boots barely touching the blood-soaked stone.
Arin stared at him, brows furrowed, blade at the ready.
"You didn't chant. You didn't even move your lips. That was high-tier destruction magic."
Ash shrugged. "I'm a quick learner."
The two nobles behind her—one tall and armored, the other a thin boy with a staff—exchanged nervous glances.
"That's not learning," the thin one whispered. "That's… unnatural."
Ash ignored them.
The air shimmered around him, charged with Crimson Dominion—an ancient magic that didn't obey modern formulas or circles. It was will-based, emotion-fed, and deadly precise. Lost to the world.
And now reborn through him.
---
As they pushed deeper into the labyrinth, the stone corridors narrowed. Walls pulsed like veins. Strange glyphs pulsed with heat.
Then they found it: a sanctuary chamber—large, round, sealed, and unnaturally clean. A brief break from the maze.
They stepped inside.
"I count ten survivors," Arin murmured. "Out of over seventy dropped."
Ash sat cross-legged in the center, eyes closed. His aura began to fade, buried beneath calm.
And then…
"You woke it, didn't you?"
A voice echoed from above.
A girl dropped from the ceiling rafters in a blur of white and red—her robes tattered, hair wild, but eyes clear and sharp.
She was beautiful in a terrifying way—like a painting painted in blood.
"Name?" Ash asked, not looking up.
"Lyssara. Second-year. Supposed to monitor the trial. But now?" Her smile widened. "Now I'm stuck in here with you lot."
She walked closer, eyes fixed on Ash.
"I felt the core activate. Crimson Dominion… was just a myth."
Ash opened his eyes. Golden and glowing.
"Is it?"
Her smile faltered for just a moment.
"No," she whispered. "No, you're the real thing."
Arin looked between them, suddenly tense.
"What's your stake in this?" she asked the girl.
Lyssara licked her lips. "Same as yours, princess. I want to live. And I want to see if this boy is what I think he is."
---
That night, as others slept or argued over food, Ash stood at the edge of the room, staring into the tunnel beyond.
He felt it. A deeper presence below the Labyrinth. Something old. Watching.
And it knew him.
Not Ash. But who he used to be.
---
In a memory soaked with blood and betrayal, he had once sealed a being so powerful that even gods feared it. And now… it was stirring again.
Ash smiled darkly.
> "Let them come.
This time, I won't die.
This time, I'm the monster in the dark."
---