Dancing on the golden ashes

Soon, fifteen days had passed. No matter how far we traveled, the world around us remained unchanged. It was as if we were trapped in an endless loop of desolation—an infinite stretch of emptiness that seemed to have no end. The ground was cracked and barren, the sky a dull crimson that never seemed to shift. No life. No movement. Just silence.

But did it matter?

Not at all.

I found myself looking at the bright side, a rare feeling that began to settle over me like a weight lifted. For once, there was no threat of danger, no one hunting us, no need to be constantly on guard. There was nobody who wanted to kill me here. Isn't that a piece of quiet?

Who wouldn't enjoy it? For once, I wasn't fighting day and night for survival. For once, there was no one breathing down my neck, no enemies pushing me to my limits. It felt almost refreshing, in a way. A break. A pause. A world where I didn't have to always be preparing for the next battle.

It was strange. This kind of peace, this kind of stillness, was foreign to me. But as the days passed and the world remained the same—silent, desolate, and unchanging—I started to understand something I hadn't before. Sometimes, not having to fight, not having to survive, could be a relief. A strange, quiet comfort that I didn't know I needed.

And for the first time in a long time, I allowed myself to feel it—content.

Well, I enjoyed it even without feelings, like, why can't I? After all, who says peace can't be appreciated, even if you don't feel the typical warmth others might? It was strangely satisfying, in its own detached way. But that aside, today, something new happened.

While Eun-woo and Seong-hoon sparred in the distance, training with their new powers, shaking the very ground beneath them with their dominance, I noticed something. They were so focused on their training, so immersed in their own battle of strength, that they missed it entirely. A faint light flickered in the sky, far off in the distance, and for a brief moment, just a split second, it lit up the sky and then disappeared, vanishing as quickly as it had come.

It was so faint, so fleeting, that if my senses weren't fully enhanced, I would've completely missed it. The light was so subtle, so weak, that without the sharpness of my perception, I would have never noticed it. But I did. I felt it. And with it, a realization hit me. There's still something out here.

I turned to Eun-woo and Seong-hoon, who were still too caught up in their training to notice my shift in attention.

"You two fools," I called out, my voice carrying the usual cold command. "Come here. We need to head that way."

Both of them immediately halted their sparring, turning toward me with focused expressions. I didn't wait for a response as I pointed to the sky, to the place where I had seen the light flicker.

"Seo-Yoen," I said, addressing one of my trusted demon commanders, "would you be able to move ahead slightly and use your ice powers to sense the surroundings? Take Min-Jeong with you. The two of you are close to nature, and if there's anything in that direction, you should be able to feel it." I motioned to the left, where the light had appeared. "I want the two of you to find out if there's anything that could cause a strange light like that to appear. It might not be demon-made. It's probably something tied to this world itself. Maybe there's water or ice there. If you can, reconstruct the area once you've made some progress. Afterward, please find me again. We'll continue heading east, at least for now."

"Yes, Empress." The two of them didn't hesitate. They shot into the sky like arrows, vanishing from my sight within seconds, their forms swallowed up by the vastness of the crimson horizon.

As I watched them go, I knew Jieun could feel something in the east, but we couldn't just rush ahead. We had to find a place to stay, somewhere safe for us to settle. And that strange light—it had to be coming from some source on the ground, probably tied to water, maybe even ice. Whatever it was, it felt like it held some key to this world—something worth exploring.

"Are you sure they don't need company?" Malrang suddenly asked, her voice light, almost playful, as her small wings fluttered around me. She spun casually in circles, her body weightless, carried effortlessly through the air. She seemed entirely at ease, a stark contrast to the heavy atmosphere of the barren world we now stood in.

I couldn't help but wonder—could it be that she came from this place? The thought nagged at the back of my mind. Had she once belonged here? Did that bastard—the Creator—kill everyone in this world, and then use some twisted power to create the system and bring beings like her from here to the World of No End? Or was it not just this world that had suffered? What if other worlds had been wiped out too, all in the name of his ambition?

I stood there, a cold, calculating thought spreading through my mind. And to think all his hard work would be destroyed by me... He truly was a fool, the worst of them all.

"They'll be alright," I said, dismissing the concern with a wave of my hand, as my eyes followed her erratic, yet graceful movements in the air. "As for you," I turned toward her, my voice shifting with purpose, "do you feel this world to be familiar in any way?"

With us, there were no secrets. We had been through too much together for pretense. The truth was what we had, and that was enough.

She paused in mid-air, her wings flapping lightly, then tilted her head as she considered my question. "Now that you mention it," she said, her tone more thoughtful than before, "it feels like I can breathe better in this place. But maybe that's also because I'm around you. It's hard to tell." She paused for a moment before shrugging casually, her small frame looking even more delicate, yet there was an undeniable strength in the way she carried herself now.

"I think this place is not bad," she added, a slight smile curving her lips, though it wasn't an innocent one. Her eyes gleamed with something primal, something older, far deeper than the playful exterior she often wore. In that moment, her small, cute frame seemed to radiate the aura of a beast, untamed and feral, as if she had returned to a place that resonated with her very essence—the home of her ancestors.

I studied her for a moment, wondering just how much of her past she was keeping to herself. What if this place was more familiar to her than I could even fathom? But for now, I let the question linger in the air, knowing that Malrang was more than capable of keeping her own secrets. It was something I had come to accept.