The darkness was splitting like a sharp blade. The shadowy streets, the silhouettes of the buildings, and the stone-paved roads were forming a map in my mind as I ran. If I had guessed Roy’s direction correctly, he would have to run straight for at least two blocks to reach the North Gate. This gave me an opportunity to take a shortcut through the side alleys and catch up to him.

I pushed my legs harder, my footsteps echoing against the stone ground as I tried to keep my breathing steady. I kept making calculations in my mind: How fast was I? How far was he? How many seconds did I have?

One last street. One last turn. The gate was in front of me. I pressed my knees, speeding up. Finally, I arrived right in front of the North Gate and stopped abruptly. Roy would arrive in just a few seconds, jumping across a few more rooftops before reaching the exit. I had to wait until he leapt onto the last rooftop — it was the only way my plan would work. I started counting the seconds.

I gently placed my hand on the stone wall. The moment my fingertips touched the surface, I felt something tremble inside me — I understood the structure of the building, the foundation stones, the connection points, how every single beam was placed. It was as if I could see through the wall... And when everything fell into place, power flowed through my fingers.

With a whisper: "[Shatter]."

I timed the activation of my ability just before Roy jumped onto the building’s roof.

For a brief moment, silence. Then, the invisible bonds within the building began to unravel one by one. First, a thin crack appeared in the middle of the wall. Then another. The cracks rapidly expanded, shattering the mortar between the stones. It was as if the building itself understood what was about to happen, groaning deeply as it collapsed inward.

I heard the first creak from the upper floors. The wooden beams vibrated, and the building's internal skeleton, as if suddenly losing its support, went into freefall. Massive stone columns caved inward, causing the walls to collapse one after another. The roof, like a heavy lid, slowly sank into the central opening, releasing enormous clouds of dust into the air.

The windows... The glass shattered simultaneously, exploding outward as the internal pressure suddenly shifted. Thousands of sharp fragments glimmered in the light, scattering like shrapnel. The wooden frames, stripped of their glass, snapped and hit the ground with sharp cracks.

The bricks, like toppled toy blocks, slid down one by one. First a few, then hundreds... When the last beam, unable to bear the weight of the roof any longer, snapped with a loud crack, a massive dust wave enveloped the area like the echo of an impact.

Within seconds, the enormous building had turned into a giant pile of rubble at my feet. Now, only debris, rising dust clouds, and the echoes of the collapse remained.

I heard groans rising from the dust, and those groans could only belong to Roy. As I approached, I saw his legs crushed under the massive pile of rubble. Right next to him were the stolen belongings from my bag. The moment I reached down to grab my bag, Roy gripped my arm and looked at me.

"H-How, what did you do!? How could a rookie like you take me down?" he shouted. The noise from the collapse had already attracted the guards; they were surely on their way, and I had to finish this quickly and leave.

Roy’s legs were completely crushed, so he was no longer a threat. I tried to pull my arm free from his grip, but he held on tightly.

"Where do you think you’re going?" he said, glaring at me with fury. I stomped on Roy’s arm, forcing him to release my wrist. I grabbed my belongings and decided to flee before the guards arrived. Roy, writhing in pain, looked at me and said:

"Do you think you can get away with this? Do you think I’ll believe your lie about being an archer now? What will happen when the others find out about this? I’ll tell everyone about that damned skill!"

The moment I heard this, something snapped in my mind. I finally understood that I was the one who had been wrong all along. I shouldn’t have spared anyone. Not a single person.

I picked up a piece of rubble from the ground, gripping it tightly with both hands, and slowly walked back to Roy.

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"What are you going to do with that rock? Do you think you can hurt me with a little stone?"

He was right; I couldn’t harm someone with much higher stats than me with a simple rock. It had been pure luck that he got trapped under the rubble, but what I was doing now was nothing but arrogance. Pulling out my knife from my bag and finishing the job would be much easier... but I didn’t want to.

I knelt down and lifted the stone above my head with both hands.

“W-Wait, what are you doing? I told you it wouldn’t work!”

I brought the rock down on Roy's face with all my strength. When I pulled the rock back, I noticed his face was only slightly bruised and bleeding—a normal person would have been dead already.

“I told you, a stupid rock isn’t enough to kill me! When I get out of here, you’ll be begging for a place to hide,” he said, laughing and coughing up blood.

“A place to hide?” I muttered in a cold voice. Me? Hiding? If I was going to run from a pathetic rat like him, how would I ever face the bastard I called my father? No more running.

I lifted the rock again and brought it crashing down on Roy's face. Every strike left small wounds, but that was enough. I kept raising the rock and smashing it into his face, over and over. At first, he cursed and mocked me, but soon his words turned into pleas.

“P-Please, please stop…”

It felt like hours, but it had only been a few minutes. When I heard the guards approaching, I lifted the rock for one final blow.

“PLEASE STOP!” he screamed, his face covered in blood and bruises. His eyes were swollen shut, eyebrows split, cheekbones caved in, and teeth shattered. I could barely understand his words through the constant coughing up of blood.

“I’LL GIVE YOU WHATEVER YOU WANT, PLEASE STOP!”

I thought seeing him beg like that would change something inside me, but I was wrong. When I looked at that bastard, all I saw was my father’s face. Maybe that’s why I felt so calm when I delivered the final blow.

I smashed the rock into Roy's face with all my might, crushing his skull.

The sharp cold of the air wrapped around the ruins like a lingering ghost. The collapsed building had scattered dust clouds into the streets, and the dim streetlights cast faint beams through the swirling haze. The dust, thick and suffocating, mixed with the smell of broken stone and charred wood, making it hard to breathe. Wisps of smoke still rose from the wreckage, like remnants of the building’s last breath.

Screams echoed from the far end of the street, people peering through their windows, trying to understand the chaos. Footsteps echoed closer—the guards were rushing to the scene. I had no time.

I quickened my pace toward the inn, my hands still slick with blood. I wasn’t sure how much belonged to Roy and how much was my own from the tiny cuts left by the shards of stone. But inside, I felt... cold. The world itself seemed quieter.

My thoughts collided like shards of glass as I walked. What had I done? I killed someone. And I hadn’t even hesitated. Roy was a filthy thief, but when I looked at him, I saw my father. Killing him wasn’t just about Roy—it was about silencing the echoes of my past.

I’d killed monsters before, but this was different. In a fight, killing was survival. But here... here I didn’t stop until his face was unrecognizable. I wasn’t killing Roy. I was killing my past. My father. But had he really died? Or was he still alive, rotting somewhere deep inside me?

When I reached the inn, I climbed back through my room’s window. The warmth inside hit me, but the cold still gnawed at my bones. I cracked the door open and listened. The inn was quiet. No one seemed to know what had happened outside.

I shut the door and took a deep breath, but nausea clawed at my stomach. I looked at my hands. Blood... I wiped them on my cloak, but the stain wouldn’t leave. It felt like the blood had soaked into my skin. Those hands had drawn bows, wielded blades—but now they had taken a life.

I sank onto the bed, but the echoes in my head wouldn’t stop.

When the guards arrived at the scene, silence fell. The collapsed building had become a massive grave. Dust still lingered, swirling in the cold breeze. Bricks occasionally tumbled, echoing in the quiet. But the most horrifying sight was the body in the wreckage.

At first, they only saw the pool of blood. Then, as they carefully approached, they discovered the mangled corpse beneath the rubble. One of the guards, unable to breathe, dropped to his knees.

"He is..."

The other nodded silently. The man’s face was nearly unrecognizable — crushed, swollen, bones shattered. His teeth were missing, blood splattered everywhere. His head was completely destroyed, bone and brain matter mixed into the rubble. This wasn’t a fight; it looked like an execution.

One of the guards took a deep breath and whispered, "This wasn’t a fight... This was a massacre."

The other placed his hand on the ground, examining the traces. "A robbery?"

Another guard checked a nearby sack. He stood beside Roy, noticing that his hands were still clenched as if trying to hold on to something. But the belongings were gone.

The head guard approached the wreckage with heavy steps. He took a deep breath and turned to his team.

"Search the area. Go to the nearby inn and find out who came and went during the night. If there’s a stranger, they’re our suspect."

As soon as they received their orders, a few guards rushed off, while the others continued investigating the crime scene. One of them noticed footprints on the ground — small, fast steps. The prints didn’t lead through the wreckage but along the sides, suggesting someone had fled in a hurry.

The head guard let out a long sigh. A heaviness settled in his chest. This wasn’t just a murder. It had to be the work of someone carrying immense rage.