Kaiden drifted.

There was no ground beneath him, no sky above, just a vast, muted expanse that felt neither warm nor cold. Not darkness, exactly. More like the absence of urgency. The absence of pain.

He became aware of his body slowly.

Breath came first. Shallow. Then deeper, steadier. His chest rose and fell without resistance, without fire. Limbs followed, heavy but intact, nerves no longer screaming. When sensation finally settled in full, it brought with it a dull, bone-deep exhaustion that had nothing to do with injury.

He opened his eyes.

The space around him resolved into something like a shore of pale light, hazy and indistinct, stretching endlessly in all directions.

Kaiden pushed himself upright with a groan, sitting there for a long moment with his elbows braced on his knees, head hanging forward. His body was healed, perfectly so, but it felt like he'd been hollowed out and left to dry.

The anger was still there.

Not raging. Not screaming.

Just… present. A hot, coiled thing buried deep in his chest, no longer tearing him apart, but far from gone.

He exhaled slowly through his nose.

"…I'm beyond exhausted," he muttered.

As if answering the thought, something slid back into place within him, no longer muted or distant.

[The Demonic Pornstar System greets the Successor.]

Kaiden didn't react beyond a faint tightening of his jaw.

[Congratulations are in order. The Successor has earned recognition from a foundational entity.]

Silence followed.

Kaiden remained seated, staring at the indistinct glow in front of him. His hands rested limply between his knees, fingers slack, as though even clenching them would take too much effort.

"I don't feel like celebrating," he said after a while.

[That is understandable.]

He huffed softly, almost a laugh, though there was no humor in it. "That thing went way too far with the final trial."

[The experience was intentionally extreme.]

"That's one way to put it," Kaiden replied flatly. He leaned back, letting himself lie down on the light-formed ground, arms spread, eyes fixed on nothing. "I feel… so damn overwhelmed."

[Such a response is natural. The Successor was subjected to prolonged psychological agitation, compounded by repeated, visceral deaths, emotional provocation, and forced moral confrontation.]

"That I was…"

For a time, neither of them spoke. The quiet stretched for what felt like long minutes.

Finally, Kaiden spoke again, voice lower.

"That thing… The Original Sin. Seven Deadly Sins Originator… Cosmic Fucker. Whatever it really is… it used my girls."

[Yes.]

His fingers twitched.

But slowly, understanding dawned on him. With a reluctant breath, he sighed, "It wasn't random. It wasn't just being cruel for the sake of it."

[Correct.]

[The system theorizes that the Trial of Wrath was shaped in response to the Successor's prior solution.]

Kaiden closed his eyes. They were on the same wavelength.

[During the Trial of Pride, the Successor rejected domination for its own sake. He anchored his resolve to protection, to those he values. That choice stabilized his power and earned acknowledgment, letting him pass the trial.]

[However, the Original Sin-]

"Can you call him Cosmic Fucker?"

[That is improper. It is a fundamental force of the universe, deserving of nothing but respect and reverence.]

"Please? I would feel so much better…"

[…]

[Only one sentence.]

"No way, you'll do that for me?" Kaiden was shocked. But his heavy heart lightened just a tiny bit.

[The entity tortured the Successor, after all… The Demonic Pornstar System, while it understands the reason, does not approve of the methodology.]

[Thus…]

[The system believes that the Cosmic Fucker saw the Successor's answer to Pride and wanted to twist and see how that same resolve would morph in a different scenario. When it was the Successor in control, he used the girls as a driving force to make his focus single out one objective: to protect them at all costs. But Wrath did not ask what the Successor protects… It asked what the Successor will become when protection fails.]

Kaiden's jaw tightened.

"So the Cosmic Fucker twisted my answer," he said quietly. "Took the one thing that worked… and turned it into a weapon against me, using it as a tool for my next trial."

[Yes.]

He let out a slow, shaky breath.

Kaiden opened his eyes again, staring into the pale nothingness. Images flickered unbidden at the edges of his mind. Fire, screams, the sound of bone giving way under impossible heat. He pushed them down with great effort.

"What was good about what it got from me by doing this? I mean, really. My answer was accepted, but I was basically turned into a vengeful wraith. How is that a proper answer to the Trial of Wrath? I let myself be wholly consumed by the rage I felt in my heart."

[Wrath is not the absence of reason.]

Kaiden frowned slightly, but didn't interrupt.

[It is the refusal to yield when reason alone is insufficient.]

The words settled slowly, pressing against the edge of his thoughts.

[The Successor was aware that the scenario was artificial. He recognized that the figures presented were constructs, not his actual lovers.]

"Yes…" Kaiden said quietly.

[And yet he chose not to treat them as disposable.]

The System continued, tone precise.

[The Successor rejected the optimal answer of emotional detachment. He rejected the efficient solution of sacrifice. He internalized the pain, allowed it to compound, and used it to fuel action.]

Images rose again in his mind, his own body burning, skin splitting under impossible strain, muscles tearing as he forced himself forward regardless of consequence.

[The Successor converted self-destruction into momentum.]

[Wrath, when wielded by the Successor, was not about indiscriminate violence. It was about transgression, about exceeding imposed limits through sheer refusal to accept the outcome.]

[He burned his own body to absorb damage that would have otherwise reached his lovers. He let his flesh fail repeatedly while his intent sharpened rather than dulled. That usage of Wrath was accepted.]

[Or so the system believes.]

"… A good theory," Kaiden had to accept. Then he sighed, with a weak smile forming on his lips. "But you know, I never expected you to be so chatty and supportive."

[The Successor experienced a devastating mental breakdown, and he didn't have his companions nearby.]

Kaiden's eyes widened. "Wait, you took on the role of a supportive robot girlfriend? For my sake?"

[First of all, the Demonic Pornstar System, despite the insistence of the Successor and the Valkyries, is not a female. Second, it is not a robot. Third, no, it does not wish to be thought of as the Successor's romantic partner.]

All that went in one ear and was lost in the other. "But you still called him Cosmic Fucker to make me happier. That was very sweet of you."

[The system did no such thing.]

"Hah? You're lying to me now?!" Kaiden sat up, feeling a burst of energy.

[No.]

"But I remember clearly!"

[Such an outlandish claim is invalid without the showing of solid proof. The Demonic Pornstar System has a reputation for being a professional system aid; no one will believe the Successor, who is known to spout lousy, arrogant lines. Furthermore, the Successor experienced a great deal of emotions; the system believes he hallucinated.]

"Damn you. Show me the logs."

[There are no logs.]

"If you're not a damned woman, then I'm a gorgeous princess from a fairy land."

[The system proposes the name Kaidenette Grey. Should it rewrite the status window?]

"… You know what? Scratch that."

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