[Present — The Throne Room Returns to Silence]
The flickering firelight once again filled the broken throne hall.
Kazuki finally stopped speaking.
The story—the secrets—the entire past of Vareon—had been told. Layer by layer. Sin by sin.
And for a brief moment, the air was heavy with silence.
Vareon stood still.His dark aura rippled faintly, but his voice—when it came—was low, dangerous, and cold as ice.
"...Now that you're done with your tale…""Tell me this—how did you come to know all of it?""And how did you come this far, boy?"
Kazuki exhaled. A slow, deliberate breath.
Then he smiled—not mockingly, but with a calm that only comes when every card has been prepared to fall exactly where you want it.
"Fine," he said."Let's talk about me, now."
He took a step closer to the throne.
"But first… let me tell you one last truth.""You regret it, don't you?"
Vareon's aura flared, but he said nothing.
"Deep inside, you've always regretted what you became. You may have smiled outside, you may have conquered kingdoms and stood on mountains of corpses, but in your heart... you kept whispering the same question to yourself…"
Kazuki's voice lowered.
"Why did I do all of this in the first place?"
[Regret: The Shadow Within]
Kazuki didn't wait for a reply.
"You tried to push it down. Tried to act like regret doesn't matter when power is already in your hands. You told yourself:'What can I do now? I've already come this far, there's no turning back.'And so you kept walking forward… blindly."
Vareon's fists clenched. His dark aura coiled tighter, swirling like a storm around his boots.
But still—he didn't speak.
Kazuki's tone sharpened now.
"Despite being one of the most cunning manipulators in this world, Vareon… you were always getting defeated."
"Not by your enemies.Not by fate.Not even by me."
He pointed directly at him.
"You were defeated by yourself—by the voice in your mind you never silenced. You buried it under power, under politics, under sacrifices. But it's still there."
Kazuki's eyes gleamed.
"You had more potential than anyone. You were brilliant. But you wasted all of it. You let your genius rot in the name of domination."
And then—
"And after making all your mistakes…""You made one final one."
He paused. Let the weight of his words drop.
"You regretted it."
[The Trigger]
That word hit Vareon harder than any sword.
Regret.
His body trembled slightly—just a twitch. But it was enough.
The dark aura around him burst into a violent glow, swirling faster, denser. It began to crack the floor beneath him, warping the air, shaking the walls.
A low growl escaped his throat.
But Kazuki didn't stop.
He stepped forward again—fearless.
"That's the mistake you'll never admit.""Not what you did… but that you're still human enough to feel bad about it."
"You think regret makes you weak?""No. It means you still had a chance to change. And you chose not to."
Kazuki's voice dropped to a whisper.
"That's why you lost long before I ever stood here."
[The Aura of Madness]
Vareon's aura now surged into the air like a cyclone of shadow. His eyes flickered with chaos.
But his lips… were sealed shut.
Not because he had no answer.
But because everything Kazuki said was true.
And that truth was louder than any scream.