"Kindness is reciprocal, but I never did become a kind man in the end. I feel like I haven’t changed much. I am still just the same stubborn and arrogant Damon Grey."
He shook his head and smiled at her, though there was something almost bitter about that smile.
"I want to be better."
Sylvia opened her eyes and immediately saw the final scene once more. A massive pillar stretched toward the heavens while the world itself came apart at the seams.
The oceans rose violently and their once beautiful blue waters shifted into the color of blood.
Mountains collapsed inward as the earth cracked apart and melted into rivers of molten lava.
Rot spread across the land like a disease devouring everything it touched. Forests withered and became barren wastelands while space itself began collapsing inward as though reality could no longer sustain its own existence.
At the center of all this chaos stood Damon.
His expression was hidden from her yet somehow Sylvia understood. This was not an enemy that could be beaten. This was not a battle anyone would win.
Then Damon laughed.
"Hahaha... hahaha..."
It was hollow laughter. The laughter of a man who had lost everything and stood before the certainty of absolute defeat.
The world of Aetherus would die together with its God. The Unknown God would obtain the Pillar of Conflict and even when the Goddess herself descended personally to stop him, their battle would prove meaningless.
The outcome had already been decided. Unknown would obtain his pillar no matter what anyone did.
Sylvia slowly opened her eyes.
She had seen this dream thousands of times already and every time she reached the same conclusion. Nothing could change. Slowly she was losing her mind.
Her grey eyes had long since lost their luster. The girl she once was had disappeared and all that remained now was a bleak woman trapped by knowledge she should never have possessed.
She sat quietly in the corner of her room and cursed.
She cursed the younger Sylvia who had wanted to know. She cursed anyone who ever desired knowledge beyond their understanding.
Ignorance truly was bliss. If she had never known, then perhaps she could have lived peacefully and loved quietly beneath the comforting shade of ignorance until the inevitable end came.
"My God... you torment me."
She spoke calmly to the empty room.
One of her eyes moved strangely and something beneath its surface crawled like a living parasite trapped under flesh.
The pain was unbearable, far worse than having a blade forced through her eye, but this evil presence was the only thing she had left to speak to.
Sylvia Moonveil was now suffering the consequences of the gift she had once accepted.
In her pale hands rested an ancient book. It was a treasure that contained absolute knowledge, the answer to every question imaginable, every secret in existence, every truth buried by time itself.
It held knowledge in its purest and most complete form, yet the sheer abundance of what it offered had become a curse strangling her mind.
Knowledge had always been Sylvia’s deepest desire.
And desire had birthed her curse.
The room remained silent. No answer came, but Sylvia knew something was listening.
She was tired. She was terrified. Yet she endured. A lesser person would have collapsed long ago and accepted madness simply to avoid facing reality, but Sylvia continued seeking answers and in doing so had discovered the true nature of the book.
At first she believed sacrifices had to be specific, that only certain offerings would allow her to receive something in return.
She was wrong.
The book accepted anything.
Anything at all.
As long as what was sacrificed possessed value.
The greater the value of the sacrifice, the greater what one received in return. As Sylvia became stronger, what she could ask for also increased, and she learned sacrifices came in two forms.
Permanent sacrifices.
And temporary sacrifices.
Though temporary did not necessarily mean brief. Some temporary sacrifices could last centuries depending entirely on what was asked.
Today Sylvia intended to ask again.
She stared down at the ancient pages and spoke calmly.
"I pray to the God of this holy book, as long as I live I shall never eat cherries."
Then her voice shifted slightly, becoming darker as though addressing something entirely different.
"I pray to the Demon God of this unholy book, as long as I live, I will never scream no matter the suffering."
Her eyes remained fixed on the pages.
"In exchange, grant me the Sixth Class Advancement."
The book immediately began glowing with an unnatural light and power flooded into Sylvia’s body. Her aura surged violently and in that instant she advanced.
From this day onward Sylvia would never eat another cherry.
No matter what agony she experienced, she would never scream.
Her suffering would forever remain silent.
She had become stronger, but still not strong enough. She still could not ask about the Pillar of Conflict. To learn truths of that magnitude she needed to reach the Seventh Class Advancement, and to reach that point she had already offered countless sacrifices.
One of them had been simple.
"As long as I live, I shall never taste sweetness again."
From that day onward sugar no longer existed to her. Fruits, desserts, honey, candy, none of it carried flavor anymore. She remembered what sweetness tasted like, but memory was all she had left.
Another sacrifice had been crueler.
"As long as I live, I shall never feel warmth upon my skin."
Every bath felt cold. Every ray of sunlight felt empty. Every embrace carried no comfort. Her own skin felt like frozen stone.
The day her mother hugged her after that sacrifice, Sylvia cried.
Not because she was sad.
But because for the first time in her life, her mother’s embrace felt like nothing.
Another sacrifice followed.
"As long as I live, I shall forever hear the sound of dripping water whenever silence falls."
It was endless torment.
Even now, whenever the world became quiet, all Sylvia heard was the constant sound.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
Another sacrifice.
"As long as I live, my body shall never know comfort."
Beds felt like stone.
Chairs caused pain.
Rest itself became irritating.
It felt as though she were forced to live forever exposed to the wilderness.
Eventually she adapted.
Another.
"As long as I live, I shall dream only nightmares of the future to come."
This sacrifice allowed her to witness the horrors ahead. Every catastrophe waiting for the world. Every death. Every ending.
Another.
"As long as I live, I shall never scratch an itch upon my body."
It seemed ridiculous at first.
Until the itching came.
Until the torment stretched endlessly.
Fortunately Sylvia found loopholes.
She could ask others to scratch for her and as a princess with countless servants nearby, this burden became tolerable.
Barely.
Another.
"As long as I live, one of my teeth shall ache whenever rain approaches."
A constant source of pain tied to weather itself.
Eventually she learned spells to avoid rain entirely.
Another.
"As long as I live, music shall sound hollow to my ears."
Songs lost their beauty.
Melodies became empty noise.
The world itself became quieter.
Some sacrifices she endured directly.
Some she learned to circumvent.
But she was close now.
If she accumulated enough sacrifice then she would succeed.
All of this suffering had only one purpose.
She wanted to save someone she loved.
And so once again Sylvia called upon the book.
"I pray to the God of this holy book, as long as I live..."
Her voice remained steady.
Then it darkened.
"I pray to the Demon God of this unholy book, as long as I live, I will never give up."
The moment those words left her mouth something changed.
Something fundamental vanished from her very being.
Something deeply human had been taken away forever.
She did not know what it was.
She simply felt emptier.
"Grant me the Seventh Class Advancement."
The book erupted with overwhelming power. Reality trembled around her as energy surged violently into her body.
Yet moments later the process stopped.
Sylvia had advanced.
But only to the Peak of the Sixth Class.
Not enough.
Even sacrifices this severe were still insufficient to reach the Seventh.
Silence filled the room once more.
Sylvia stared quietly at the book resting in her trembling hands.
She could no longer give up.
She had sacrificed even that.
Slowly her eyes lowered toward the ancient pages and finally she understood what rested within her grasp.
It was not simply a book.
It was not merely knowledge.
It was not divinity.
She held the abyss itself.
And now she had begun seeing how deep it truly was.
"Damon..."
Her voice was soft.
Quiet.
Yet the emotion behind it was terrifyingly deep.
"My love for you is deeper than the abyss. Even if I am not loved the same... my love is enough."
She tightened her fingers around the book and stared at it once more.
Then she whispered again.
"I pray to the God of this holy book, as long as I live..."