Ten years passed like a wound that never healed.Within the cursed walls of Hell Forest, Ryu had battled monsters, hunger, madness—and worst of all, silence.
He no longer flinched at the sight of torn flesh.No longer dreamed of home.Only blood, breath, and instinct remained.
Now seventeen, he stood beneath a canopy of black leaves, where the sunlight looked like it was dying before it touched the ground.
Ryu (low, almost amused):Guess I became the strongest thing in here…
Yizo (dry):Strong enough to break through steel and sanity.If you stepped into the outside world today… you'd be called an A+ threat.But out here? You're just another beast who lasted longer.
Ryu:Then maybe it's time I left this damned cage.
Flashback One: The Ogre's Last Stand
Rain poured. Steam hissed off Ryu's skin as fire licked from his arms.An ogre—towering, muscle-bound, with tusks like daggers—charged through the rain, howling.
Ryu stood still.
The ogre brought its club down. Trees cracked. Earth split.But Ryu was already gone—behind it, one hand outstretched.
CRACK—
A pulse of destructive mana surged through his palm into the ogre's spine.Its body arched… then imploded—muscle folding in, bones turning to ash from the inside out.
The rain couldn't wash away the blackened crater he left behind.
Flashback Two: The Hound Pack
Six shadow-wolves emerged, crawling through trees like living oil.They didn't growl. They just breathed—long, slow, synchronized breaths, like monks waiting for a signal to kill.
Ryu smiled—just barely.
He crouched, two fingers to the earth. A ripple of mana spread outward, setting the grass ablaze.
Then he vanished.
What followed was a blitz—a blur of motion, claws clashing with flame, bones snapping, flesh tearing in mid-air.Within seconds, five hounds burned in silence.The sixth one tried to run.
It didn't make it far.
Ryu landed on its back, hand pressed to its skull. With a soft whisper—
Ryu:Disappear.
The creature dissolved without a sound.
Flashback Three: Before the Light
The final beast was different.A centipede the size of a train, armored in obsidian, slithered up from beneath the soil, cracking the land with its emergence.
Ryu didn't wait.
He launched himself into the sky—flames coiling around his limbs like dragons.He spun mid-air, fists blazing, crashing down on the beast's head with a shockwave that flattened half the forest.
The ground screamed. The centipede's head split open.Silence returned.
Yizo: (slowly)You don't hesitate.You don't even breathe between killing and walking away.
Ryu: (voice hollow)I stopped being human years ago.
He walked forward. No more monsters came.
Yizo:Impressive... but you still have zero sense of drama.You couldn't just walk out quietly?
Ryu:Not my style, bones-for-brains.
Yizo: (mock offense)Your tongue's sharper than your strikes these days, Stone face..
Ryu: (deadpan)Isn't there a mute button for you in here?
Yizo:Tried. Doesn't work. Soul bond, remember?
Then… he saw it.
The trees parted. The dark sky peeled back.
Light.
Not the sickly glow that filtered through Hell Forest's branches,But real sunlight—golden, warm, free.
He froze.
His hands—scarred, calloused, trembling just slightly—lowered. His red eyes, always narrow and calculating, widened like a child's for the first time.
It wasn't peace.It wasn't safety.It was freedom.
Yizo: (quiet)Ten years of darkness...You clawed your way through madness, blood, and ash.Now step forward—And see if the world beyond can contain you.
Ryu took one breath—just one. Then he stepped into the light.
Not healed. Not whole.
But alive.
And ready to set the world on fire.