The Leyndell Royal Capital stretched before him... a gilded labyrinth of towering walls, divine architecture, and remnants of an empire built in the name of the Greater Will.
Jin-Woo strode through the main gates, his expression impassive as golden embers drifted in the air, remnants of the battle he had left behind. The guardian of the threshold lay in ruin, its once-proud form shattered beyond recognition. The last echoes of its divine resistance had been erased beneath his overwhelming power.
Beru clicked his mandibles, surveying the vast cityscape before them. "Hmm, I expected more resistance."
Jin-Woo didn't reply immediately. He could feel it... the eyes of the city upon him. Watching. Waiting. The remnants of Leyndell's defenders, hidden behind grandiose towers and fortified walls, biding their time.
He smirked slightly... calmly as he opened his mouth.
"They're afraid."
His voice carried through the empty streets, reaching no one and everyone at the same time. The silence that followed was deafening.
The Greater Will's last kingdom, trembling in fear.
The ruins of Leyndell's outer districts spoke of a city that had long been at war with itself. Crumbling roads wound through shattered plazas, their once-immaculate stonework now cracked and worn by the weight of centuries. Broken statues of past monarchs lay scattered among the debris, their divine visages now nothing more than dust and rubble.
The scent of incense and rot clung to the air.
Jin-Woo's steps were slow, measured. He wasn't in a rush.
Not yet.
Beru moved beside him, his elongated limbs clicking against the cobblestone as he surveyed their surroundings. "There's something strange about this place, my liege." His mandibles twitched. "The air is... thick."
Jin-Woo nodded. He had felt it the moment they entered.
Leyndell was alive.
Not in the sense of a city bustling with life, but something far more insidious.
A lingering will.
A presence that coiled through the streets, pressing down on his senses like a weight that could not be seen, only felt. This was not just a capital.
It was a prison.
One built to contain the impossible.
Jin-Woo's eyes glowed faintly, his abyss aura extending outward in invisible tendrils. Shadows writhed at his feet, stretching into the alleys and broken passageways of the ruined city. He could see them.. twisted figures, lurking within the darkness. Some wore golden armor, their bodies stiff, as if held together by sheer force of will. Others were wretched things, monstrosities born of stagnation and divine neglect.
The remnants of a kingdom that had long since rotted from within.
Beru exhaled sharply. "Pitiful creatures."
Jin-Woo agreed.
But he did not pity them.
They were obstacles... Nothing more. Nothing less.
And as if in response to his unspoken judgment, the city stirred.
The distant clang of metal.
The slow, measured steps of something immense closed distance..
Roar!!!
The first wave came swiftly.
Golden-armored knights emerged from the ruins, their bodies stiff and unnatural, like puppets pulled by unseen strings. Their weapons gleamed beneath the fractured sunlight, blades wreathed in crackling divine energy.
Jin-Woo didn't move.
Beru, however, did.
The Ant General vanished in a blur, his monstrous form flickering between the gaps in reality. The first knight barely had time to raise its sword before Beru's claws tore through its chest, snapping its body in half like a brittle twig.
More came.
A dozen. A hundred.
It didn't matter.
Beru moved like a living consuming storm, his strikes ruthless and absolute. Divine steel clashed against hardened chitin, but the outcome was inevitable.
Jin-Woo watched, his gaze shifting upward as the city continued to stir.
Something else was coming.
Something far greater than mindless knights and broken puppets.
He smiled.
Good.
Let them come.
He would break this kingdom.
And from its ashes, he would carve his path to the throne...
And from then.. he could return home..
*****
Dum! Dum! Dum!
The golden mist thickened.
Jin-Woo could feel it pressing against him.. something unnatural, woven into the very fabric of Leyndell itself. This city was not merely a fortress; it was a bastion of divine will, a stronghold shaped by the power of something far beyond mortal comprehension.
And it was resisting him.
His shadows writhed at his feet, tendrils of darkness lashing against the unseen force, but the city's presence remained unyielding.
Then, a voice, deep and reverberating, echoed through the ruined streets.
"Defiler of the Erdtree... your trespass ends here."
A shadow moved atop the crumbling rooftops. Not one of his own, but something older, something bound to the city's purpose. The air split apart as a figure descended.. massive, armored in resplendent gold, its form exuding raw, overwhelming authority.
Jin-Woo's gaze sharpened.
Sir Gideon Ofnir... No.
This was something else. Something grander.
The Draconic Tree Sentinel.
Golden lightning crackled around the towering knight's colossal frame. His dragon-scaled armor shimmered, radiating an aura of pure dominance. He bore no steed... he had no need for one. The very ground trembled beneath his presence, a testament to the power bestowed upon him by the Greater Will.
Jin-Woo exhaled, his gaze faintly gleaming in a pleasant way..
Like when darkness sees a resistance.
Finally.
A challenge.
Beru clicked his mandibles. His excitement was almost palpable. "My liege, shall I..."
Jin-Woo lifted a hand slightly, silencing him.
The moment he lifted his hand, the air ignited.
The Tree Sentinel moved.
The knight surged forward with terrifying speed, the ground beneath his feet cracking apart from the sheer force of his movement. In a single instant, he was upon Jin-Woo, his great shield raised high, glowing with divine power.
Jin-Woo's instincts alerted..
He moved... darkness coiling around him, his form flickering out of existence just as the sentinel's shield came crashing down. The impact was catastrophic, a golden explosion erupting upon contact, obliterating everything in its radius.
The shockwave ripped through the ruined city, sending shattered debris flying in every direction.
But Jin-Woo was already behind him.
His blade materialized in his grip, black as the void itself, seething with the power of his dominion.
He swung.
The sentinel twisted, reacting impossibly fast. His shield came up in an instant, intercepting the strike with a deafening clang. Divine sparks scattered as darkness met light, as two overwhelming forces clashed for supremacy.
Jin-Woo grinned.
This was fairly it.
A true battle that made him think slightly..
They moved like titans.
The Draconic Tree Sentinel struck with a force that could sunder mountains, each blow infused with the very essence of the Greater Will. His weapon, a golden glaive wreathed in crackling lightning, carved through the battlefield, seeking to crush the intruder who dared defile this holy ground.
But Jin-Woo was faster.
He weaved through the storm, his shadows twisting and lashing out like living entities. His dagger was a streak of all consuming darkness, cutting through golden armor, leaving trails of void in its wake. He struck again and again, forcing the sentinel onto the defensive.
Yet the knight did not falter.
Lightning erupted from his form, a divine tempest given shape. He raised his glaive skyward, and the heavens answered. A thunderous roar split the skies as a bolt of pure, condensed power descended upon Jin-Woo.
The Shadow Monarch didn't even bother to look up as he raised his hand.
His darkness surged!!!
The lightning struck.
The battlefield vanished in a blinding explosion.
When the dust cleared, Jin-Woo stood unmoving. Wisps of smoke coiled from his fingers, his palm having absorbed the brunt of the attack.
He flexed his hand.
"Amazing." His voice was low, reverent. " I'll give you that... "
The sentinel did not respond. He had already begun moving again, his assault relentless, divine fury driving him forward.
Jin-Woo exhaled sharply.
Then he stepped forward.
And the battle changed.
The sentinel swung, but Jin-Woo was no longer where he had been. He reappeared in the knight's blind spot, his blade already in motion. The edge of his weapon carved through enchanted steel, slicing deep into the sentinel's side.
A normal foe would have fallen.
But this was no normal foe.
The knight twisted, slamming his shield into Jin-Woo with titanic force, sending him hurtling backward. Jin-Woo landed with ease, his body barely skidding against the ruined stone.
His smirk widened slightly...
The knight was powerful. Unyielding. But…
Jin-Woo rolled his shoulders. "You're quite durable." His voice was almost conversational. "But I've fought worse."
The sentinel did not respond. His stance did not waver. He had no need for words.
He was a bastion.
A living wall forged by the will of a god.
But against the living darkness, that will...
Would break.
Jin-Woo's aura surged.
The darkness beneath him deepened, stretching outward like a tide. Power coiled through his veins, the weight of his dominion pressing upon the battlefield like an unstoppable force.
His fingers tightened around his blade.
"It's time to end this."
The battle would not last much longer.
The sentinel was strong, but Jin-Woo was stronger. The gap between them widened with every passing second, with every exchange of blows.
Then...
The opening.
The knight swung, but Jin-Woo was already inside his guard. His blade lashed out, severing the arm that held the great shield. A pained roar echoed, but there was no time for retaliation.
Jin-Woo moved.
His dagger plunged deep into the sentinel's chest, piercing divine flesh, rending through golden steel like parchment.
The knight shuddered.
Then, slowly, he fell to his knees.
The golden lightning flickering around his form dimmed. His weapon slipped from his grasp, embedding itself into the stone with a dull clang.
Jin-Woo stood over him, his gaze unreadable.
Then as the battlefield still lingered in the dust of battle
A voice was heard.... like a god pronouncing judgment, like a last commanded before finality befall
He spoke:
"Arise."
The abyss darkness swallowed the fallen knight whole....