The sudden silence of the daisy voices wasn't a victory; it was a vacuum, and something far more dangerous had rushed in to fill the space.

Akhil's relief vanished as a coldness, sharper than the mountain air, settled into the marrow of his bones.

This voice didn't echo from the flowers or the mist—it resonated from the absolute center of his own consciousness. It was a sound devoid of the human desperation the other hallucinations had shown; it was a hollow, abyssal tone that made the voices from before feel like a fresh breeze.

"You want more blood, don't you?"

The words weren't a question; they were a recognition.

Akhil's body stiffened. His chest tightened to the point where he could feel his ribs straining against his lungs. Every muscle in his body began to twitch and fire, as if his very cells were trying to tear themselves away from his skeleton. It felt as though a dormant seed of pure violence had just detonated inside him.

"Shut the fuck up," Akhil hissed through gritted teeth. His voice was a rasp, barely audible over the sudden, violent thumping of his heart.

"Why deny it?" the voice continued, smooth and inescapable. "You didn't just come to this mountain for a crown. You came for the hunt. You crave the moment the system confirms a kill. You crave the feeling of being the only thing left standing in a world of corpses."

Akhil slumped to his knees, his fingers digging deep into the soil, crushing several of the white daisies. The "Purity" the trial demanded wasn't just about accepting his path; it was about acknowledging the darker hunger he kept buried under the guise of necessity.

"I... I am building something," Akhil gasped, sweat pouring down his face as he fought the internal pressure. "I am the solution... I'm not the problem..."

"You are the Apex," the dark voice whispered, now vibrating in his skull. "And an Apex only knows how to feed. Deny the hunger, and you're just another hypocrite rotting in the weeds. Accept it, and the path will open."

Akhil's vision began to turn red. The pristine white valley started to fade, replaced by a world of crimson.

He felt the blood within his own veins beginning to boil, pushing him toward a state of frenzy he had never experienced before. He was completely alone in the field, with no allies to anchor him and no enemies to distract him—just the flowers, the gas, and the monster in the mirror of his mind.

'If I let this voice win...' Akhil thought, his mind fracturing as he clutched his chest, 'I won't be a King. I'll just be a beast.'

Akhil's fingers dug into the soil, tearing through the roots of the white daisies as the dark voice pulsed in his mind like a second heartbeat. The internal pressure was becoming unbearable, a physical weight that threatened to crush his lungs.

"Why fight it, Akhil?" the voice urged, growing deeper and more resonant. "The 'King' you want to be is just a mask for the 'Monster' you already are. Give in. Let the blood flow. That is true purity."

"No..." Akhil gasped, his vision flickering between the white field and a void of pure red.

He realized then that the trial wasn't just asking him to accept his actions—it was trying to bait him into becoming a slave to his impulses. If he embraced the bloodlust, he wouldn't be "pure"; he would be predictable. He would be just another beast in the system's gallery.

To silence the voice, he didn't try to push it away.

Instead, he did something far more difficult. He turned his mental gaze directly toward the darkness.

'You are right,' Akhil thought, his mental voice becoming a cold, sharp blade that sliced through the dark ego's resonance. 'I do want the blood. I do enjoy the kill. I am the Apex.'

The dark voice paused, as if surprised by the sudden lack of resistance.

'But,' Akhil continued, his resolve hardening, 'I am the one who holds the leash. You are a tool, not the master. My hunger serves my goals—my goals do not serve my hunger. I don't kill because I must; I kill because I choose to.'

Suddenly, he visualized a massive, iron gate within the center of his mind. In front of him stood a mass of pure darkness, with deep red crimson eyes staring down at him.

He felt an overwhelming pressure standing before the strange being, but Akhil didn't let the pressure bring him down.

He stood firmly, locking his eyes with the monster.

"I will be the one to decide what I do and how I want to do it.... Its not you! And it will never be"

The monsters pitch red eyes stared back at him with surprise, as though shocked by his confidence. Then a loud laughter echoed through the void.

"Good good. This is amazing! But I wonder.... How much more longer before the master is consumed by his beast? Let's see how long you'll contain me... Be rest assured, I'll always be here for some blood. Maybe someday yours too" The voice said, staring down at him with a lascivious gaze.

Akhil couldn't see it's body due to the pitch black space around him, but he could've sworn that the strange beast was licking it's tongue when it made the statement.

Akhil let out a calm breath, "If you want to eat you have to be a good boy"

There was no reply, but the space around him began to wrap up and the darkness claimed him.

He accepted the "evil" within him, but stripped it of its voice. He didn't deny the monster; he domesticated it.

The crushing weight on his chest suddenly vanished. The dark voice let out one final, distorted hiss before fading into a quiet, background hum—a dormant power now fully under his thumb.

The red tint in his vision cleared instantly. The white daisies around him stopped glowing and settled back into a mundane, silent field. The nausea was gone, replaced by a clarity so sharp it felt like he could see every individual petal in the valley.

{Trial of Purity: Cleared}

{Hidden Sub-scenario 'The Wandering Princess' — Completed}

{Reward: Trait 'Absolute Self-Governance' unlocked}

{Description: Your mind is a fortress. Mental interference, hallucinations, and emotional manipulation have 80% reduced effectiveness against you.}

Akhil stood up, brushing the dirt and crushed petals from his knees. He felt lighter, yet more grounded than ever before. He had faced the abyss of his own psyche and come out with the leash in his hand.

He looked toward the far end of the valley, where the path led up to the final jagged peaks of the Dark Mountains, but his mind couldn't help but drift back to the scene.

"What was that? No, who was that?" His chest tightening as he remembered the beast. That didn't seem like a beast, it sounded like a being with a personality of it's own... A mind of it's own.

Just then, another notification appeared before him.

{Ding!}

{PLAYER AKHIL HAS BECOME THE FIRST PLAYER TO OBTAIN AN AVATAR}

{Congrats you have unlocked your avatar: The blood monarch}

Akhil stared in confusion at the screen... His brows creased."What the heck is this? This wasn't part of the game..." He muttered, still in confusion.

"Shit! I don't have time to ponder about that" The flashing time on the system screen was a quiet reminder of the task ahead. The King Selection was entering its final stage, and he couldn't afford to be standing still in a field of flowers.

Without wasting any more time, Akhil sprinted out of the field of daisies. As he crossed the threshold, the air changed. The sweet, poisonous scent of the "Purity" trial vanished, replaced by the damp, cold bite of the mountain fog.

This new area of fog was much thinner, drifting in wispy trails that allowed him to see the jagged path ahead.

"I should be much closer to the end now" Akhil muttered to himself checking the system again, and just like he'd thought, he was very close to the marked spot where the emblem was meant to be!

'Let's get going' Akhil let out a brief sigh of relief as he took a step forward, but he came to an abrupt stop as he sensed something— or perhaps someone.

"Turn back and leave, I'll be the one to get the emblem.." the firm feminine voice came from a corner behind him.

Akhil slowly glanced to the side, catching the figure of the fully geared female adventurer with a tiger following just right by her side.

To make things much more stranger, she held a sack dripping with fresh blood over her shoulders.

'What's she doing with corpses?' Akhil thought to himself as he caught the sight of the sack.

He turned facing the lady who had just arrived.

"I'm sorry... You don't expect me to go back empty handed after passing through all that struggles do you?" Akhil's eyes narrowed as he looked at the girl.

The air between the two cackled with tension as their eyes locked.

But the girls eyes slowly widened in surprise and shock, "....."

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