Bound By Fury:The Forced Path

The silence was deadening, thick and full enough to choke all sounds.

Time had stopped itself, freezing everything into a tableau of surreal impossibility.

Akira's ragged breaths, the outstretched claws of the women.

For a moment, Akira could not hear anything except his heartbeat, whose soft rhythm pounded in his ears, like the sounds of war drums.

A reminder that he was still alive, a fragile thread of life amidst the crushing weight of defeat.

His mind swam in turmoil as the voices of regret and despair shouted louder than the searing pain in his body.

"This is the end."

Then, from the very pit of his soul, something stirred.

A presence, chilling and crushing, just like the bottom of an abyss without stars.

A deep, resonating voice hacked through the silence, like honey drenched in malice and disdain.

Unknown Entity: (mockingly, echoing in Akira's mind)

"Yo, brat."

"Time to sleep."

Akira's consciousness slipped like sand from his grasp. His vision blurred and the presence inside him surged forward, tossing his mortal will aside like the insignificant annoyance that it was.

Time started up again, and the women , her claws poised for the killing blow, suddenly froze in mid-motion. Her crimson eyes went wide with terror as the oppressive weight of a new aura crushed down upon her like a mountain.

"HUH?!",

She gasped, her voice coldly trembling as if the air around her had just turned to ice.

Akira's body remained eerily still.

Yet, the aura surrounding him told another story-one that told tales of something ancient, something divine, and something horrifying.

The dungeon, once ringing with battle, felt smothering now, as if the very walls had buckled under some incomprehensible force.

White lightning started to crackle around Akira's form, bright and untamed, casting harsh shadows across the chamber.

The light was blinding; every flash a heartbeat of raw, uncontested power that resonated through stone walls.

His black hair shifted, strands turning silver as though kissed by moonlight, flowing unnaturally, defying gravity. His eyes, once dark, now burned like twin stars-piercing white orbs that seemed to see through the women's very existence.

As the entity inside Akira finally took complete control.

A miracle happened.

Akira's severed hand, which had lain lifeless on the ground moments earlier, suddenly began to dissolve into radiant particles of light.

Before Cha-Jong's disbelieving eyes, those particles floated upward, converging at the stump of Akira's arm. Slowly, almost ceremonially, the light began to reshape itself, forming the structure of his hand from the inside out. Bones, sinew, and flesh materialized in perfect synchronicity, as if time itself had reversed.

Within seconds, the hand was whole once more-unblemished, unscarred, and full of life.

The scars that had blemished Akira's body, which had been gathered vanished one by one, as if erased by some invisible artist. 

It was as if the wounds, the pain, and bloodshed had never happened in the first place.

The entity cocked its head slightly, surveying the newly reconstituted hand with an air of indifference, curling the fingers in and out as if testing its handiwork.

The women gasped audibly, her crimson eyes darting between the impossible regeneration and the aura now surrounding him.

Her confidence, already in tatters, crumbled some more as she stumbled backward.

Cha-Jong and others could only stare, slack-jawed, as the scene unfolded before them. they felt like they were witnessing the rebirth of something otherworldly, something way beyond their understanding.

Her voice, once dripping with venomous confidence, now wavered with disbelief.

"W-What… what is this?"

"What are you?"

The presence within Akira stirred further, and a smirk curled upon his lips-not his own.

The entity spoke through him, his voice rumbling like distant thunder, laced with cold malice.

Unknown Entity: mocking, cold

"Yo, mosquito."

"Didn't your kind get wiped out ages ago?"

"Or did some of you crawl back out of the cracks when no one was looking?"

The women's confidence was utterly shattered. Her knees buckled, and she sank into a crouch, as if her primal instincts screamed at her to run.

"W-Who… who are you?"

The entity's laughter was a low, resonant rumble, carrying a weight of disdain that sent shivers through everyone in the chamber.

Cha-Jong, still pinned by her earlier Blood Domination skill, managed to lift his head, his eyes wide with terror and awe.

Cha-Jong: (whispering in disbelief)

"E.B… what… is this…?"

The entity ignored him, its focus locked entirely on the trembling women.

It tilted Akira's head slightly, the glowing white eyes narrowing with cold amusement.

Unknown Entity: (mocking, sharper now)

"Who am I?"

"You don't get the luxury of knowing, mosquito."

"Just know this: you've been dancing on the wrong stage this time but i guess it's a habit your fucking vampires have"

Its white eyes glowed, now settling on the vampire, who was trembling, her earlier fragmented confidence like fragile glass.

The words hit the vampire like a blow.

But those words didn't just shake her.

They reached Cha-Jong, who lay sprawled against the dungeon floor,

His breath hitched as his mind raced to piece together what he'd just heard.

Cha-Jong: ((stammering, in disbelief))

"V-Vampire?"

"Did… did he say vampire?"

His eyes darted to the woman, now visibly terrified. Her unnaturally pale skin, crimson eyes, and the overwhelming aura of dread that surrounded her suddenly clicked into place.

Cha-Jong's heart pounded, his pulse roaring in his ears.

Vampires were supposed to be myths, legends spoken about in hushed tones, their stories confined to the pages of ancient books and the whispers of scholars.

But in those stories, they were monstrous rulers of darkness, creatures really powerful.

Only ONE had ever emerged on Earth since the appearance of dungeons, and its reign of terror was carved into history.

It had taken five S-rank STARS to bring it down. Only three of them had survived the battle. The devastation it caused had left and entire city in ruins, a stark reminder of what even a single vampire could do if left unchecked.

Cha-Jong's voice trembled as he spoke, his disbelief turning into raw horror.

"You're telling me… that E.B—that boy—was fighting her… alone?!"

Mira, Lyra, and Garret were in dumbfounded silence, save the soft sound of their exhaled breath, as their minds went blank with incomprehension at what lay before their eyes.

E.B-or that which now wore his skin-took center stage in the room, lit by an impossible-to-comprehend level of mana and energy.

Cha-Jong spoke

"That....that can't be E.B right?"

"That level of mana and energy is not possible for a human"

Mira the usual calm and composure that characterized her were washed away, with wide eyes in disbelief.

"His scars…they are gone."

"Completely gone. I…I don't feel any of his usual aura.

It's like…"

She swallowed hard.

"It's like he is someone-or something-wholly different."

Garret:

With an expression of combined wonder and terror, he gestured to Akira.

"It is just impossible that all this happened and it is not something we can understand".

Mira sees Akira, who showed grayness of silver in his hair, calm yet a threat all in one expression.

She shook her head in utter unbelief. Look:

"That is no longer E.B, Boss.

"That is something else."

Lyra's only saw the entirely changed form of Akira and stayed silent

Unknown entity inside Akira ( mocking )

"Come trash how long will you stay like that"

Vampire:

"You bastard!!"

Centuries of survival and combat had honed the vampire's instincts to a fine edge, telling her to strike. 

The fear got hoisted out the window as her predator aspect took over, her body a blur of unbelievable speed. Her target was the throat of the Akira with deadly precision, the claws shimmering in dark energy and covered in condense blood to douse this threat to her very existence.

Yet entity inside Akira occupant did not budge.

His scintillating, white eyes never left hers, brimming with the most scornful amusement.

When she came closer, his lips twisted, and that faint smirk grabbed at her undead heart-the most terrifying, wild, and uncontrollable grasp of fear within her.

Entity (in Akira): (at ease, mocking)

"Desperate, are we?"

"How pitiful."

And in that flash of a second quicker than eye could mark, his hand shot out.

No theatrical pose, no melodramatic warning-only that faint blur so swift it was all but unseen.

The vampire had suddenly stiffened in mid-air; wide eyes stared unblinkingly at him.

It was as if her momentum was arrested, as if she'd hit something invisible.

"HUH!!"

"WHAT JUST HAPPENED"

Her vision blurred and the world spun unnaturally. A surreal weightlessness overcame her. She couldn't fathom-and couldn't understand-until she saw it.

Her head tumbled through the air-a surreal, almost horrible sight-it landed softly, her face frozen in a mask of disbelieving shock.

For a second or two, her body just stood, swaying gently, as if it hadn't registered that it was dead.

Then it slumped lifelessly to the floor.