As she walked through the silent alleys that smelled of damp mud, she repeated an old mantra in her mind, one she had taught herself over the years. "Don't be afraid, Aline. You are strong. You are not a little girl anymore. Don't cry. Never cry."
But beneath these words, there was a real fear, not of the monster she had left sleeping in the hut, but of the ghost it had awakened within her. His stone face, his words that were echoes of another boy's words... all of it had reopened a wound she thought she had sealed with scars.
She glanced back for a fleeting moment. And saw him.
He was there, fifty meters away, a massive silhouette detaching itself from the deeper shadows of the hut. He wasn't running; he wasn't shouting. He was walking. And that was more terrifying. Walking at her exact pace, as if he were her shadow that had gained weight and form.
She felt a coldness run through her veins. She began to walk faster, her footsteps kicking up small splashes of water from the muddy puddles. She looked back again. He had matched her speed; the distance between them had not changed. He wasn't chasing her; he was accompanying her toward an unknown fate.
Here, the real panic began. She couldn't stand it anymore. She started to run.
The escape turned into a storm of memories. She used her magic, whispering a single word, and felt the wind wrap around her feet, lifting her lightly over a pile of rusty barrels. She leaped onto the roof of a dilapidated hut and ran across its damp wooden planks.
A flash. Another jump, in another time. She was laughing, the wind playing with her blonde hair as she looked down to see Hong Min's amazed and shyly smiling face as he rose into the air for the first time. The game had been hers, and the world had been her playground. The feeling was warm, strong, and bright.
She landed in another, narrower, darker alley, the smell of garbage more intense. She looked back. He was there. Leaping from roof to roof with brutish strength, shattering the planks beneath his stone feet, but he wasn't falling. He was getting closer.
"Don't cry. Don't cry."
She emerged from the passage, panting, the memory of betrayal burning her lungs more than the running. He almost caught her. She felt the coldness of his stone fingers brush the hem of her robe. She flinched violently, pushed herself forward with greater force, and felt the fabric tear.
A flash. Another touch. It wasn't cold, but warm and sticky. The dirty hands of a fat old man, the smell of his foul breath as he whispered in her ear. "You are my concubine now." She had been screaming his name. "Hong Min! Help me!" And she saw him. She saw him standing behind the slightly open door, his face a map of horror, but his body... his body was frozen. He didn't move. He didn't scream. He did nothing.
This was the deepest wound. This was the memory she buried every day under layers of hatred and contempt. And "Dream," this ghost, was digging up her grave with his stone fingers.
She reached the end of her road. Before her stood the Twilight Bridge, that ancient stone line separating misery from power, the eternal symbol of the limits of her world. There was nowhere left to run. She stopped, leaning on her knees, panting violently, the cold air hurting her chest.
All her strength, all her determination, all her silent mantras... collapsed.
She burst into violent, painful crying, not a quiet weeping, but deep sobs that shook her entire body. The crying of years of suppressed pain, of betrayal, of loneliness, and of a dream that had died. She tried to whisper to herself "be strong," but the word came out as a broken gasp.
"Dream" arrived. He did not attack. He stood a few steps away, as silent as a mountain, observing this collapse. He tilted his head slightly, like a scientist watching a strange chemical reaction. Then he approached.
Aline felt his shadow cover her. Before she could retreat, he bent down and hugged her.
It wasn't a hug. It was a prison. She felt the absolute coldness of the stone, and the irresistible force pressing on her bones. It felt like a mountain slowly collapsing on top of her. Then, in her ear, she heard his deep, quiet voice, devoid of any emotion, rumbling like a scientific question.
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"What are you feeling now? Describe it to me."
It was the strangest and most terrifying thing she had ever heard in her life. She tried to resist, but she was like a butterfly trapped in a fist of rock.
"Let me go!" she screamed, her voice muffled against his stone chest. "What are you feeling?" he repeated, tightening his embrace slightly, not to hurt her, but to prevent her from escaping. "This feeling... this vibration in your body... what is it?"
"Fear!" she screamed through her tears. "I feel fear, you monster!"
He suddenly let her go. He took a step back, his grey eyes staring at her with intense focus. "Fear... of whom?" "Of you!"
"Dream" fell silent for a moment, processing the data. Then he said with an icy calm, "If I kill you now, will you grant me permission to enter your memories? So I can feel this fear you are feeling."
She stared at him, and in that moment, all the crying, all the despair, evaporated, and only a pure, cold rage remained. She lifted her head and spat in his stone face. "Go to hell, you son of a whore."
For a fleeting moment, nothing happened. "Dream" remained completely frozen, a small drop of saliva slowly trickling down his stone cheek. His mind was coolly processing what had happened.
But then, in the silence that followed the analysis, something happened. The constant flow of data in his consciousness paused for a moment. In that silent void, something new flickered. A low hum emanated from his secondary heart, a sensation that had no data classification, a pressure like heat began to spread through his chassis. And deep within his grey optical sensors, a faint but steady red dot ignited.
It was not the echo of a memory. It was something new. Something of his own.
The air around him changed. Aline felt it immediately. He was no longer just a cold rock; she could feel a strange, invisible heat emanating from him, and she watched in horror as his grey eyes were no longer completely empty, but now held a deep and dangerous red glint.
He slowly released her wrist and took a step back.
Aline turned and began to walk across the bridge, her heart pounding violently. She was no longer running; she was retreating. And with every step, she could feel him behind her. He was no longer just a heavy presence, but a being charged with an anger she didn't understand. She could feel it like static electricity in the air, like a low rumble shaking the ground beneath her feet. She didn't need to look to know that the calm monster had vanished, replaced by something more primitive and dangerous.
When they reached the main street, no one dared to look at them for long. The people sensed that raw, focused rage, and they fell back, clearing a path in silence.
At the gate of the "Gu" palace, the two guards stepped out to block his path. "Stop, you monster! You can advance no further!" This time, there was no analysis. There was no efficiency.
It was not a clean massacre. It was an explosion of blind rage. Aline saw "Dream" charge forward. He grabbed the first guard by his helmet and used his armored body as a massive battering ram to smash his comrade against the wall, creating a horrific sound of twisted metal and crushed bone. Then, before the two bodies could fall, the "Ash Blade" tore through them in a single, violent, upward motion, sending a cascade of blood and metal shards into the air.
Aline froze in place, watching in silent shock. She had seen his strength before, but she had never seen his brutality. This wasn't a fight; it was an unloading of rage. She realized in that moment that the creature following her was not just a strange machine, but a ticking time bomb, and she had just lit the fuse.
After he was finished, "Dream" turned slowly. His body was covered in blood, but his eyes were still fixed on her, the red glint in them now more pronounced. Then, without a word, he nodded his head toward the road that led to her house. His message was clear: "Keep walking."
Aline continued on her way home, now trembling not just from her memories, but from the terrifying present that was walking behind her.
She finally reached a massive mansion in the Sunrise balcony area. The guards opened the gate for her with clear hesitation and fear. Before she entered, she turned to him. "How long will you keep following me?" she asked in a tired voice. "Until you agree to travel with me."
She laughed a desperate, sarcastic laugh. "I have nowhere to go."
She entered the vast garden, and he followed her. Suddenly, a small child ran out from behind a bush, running toward her. He was five years old, his clothes looked slightly torn, and there was a faint blue bruise on his cheek.
"Mama!" he cried in a small voice. Aline ran to him and bent down, hugging him tightly. "Ryo..." she whispered, her face buried in his hair. This moment was the only real warmth in this cold day.
"I love you, mama," the child said, crying quietly. "I love you too," she said, and all the cruelty in the world melted from her voice.
But behind them, "Dream" was watching. Hong Min's memory saw the scene and felt a pang of longing, saw his sun in her purest form. But 404's logic saw something else. He saw a new variable. An obstacle.
"Dream's" gaze shifted from Aline to the child. It was not a look of anger or hatred. It was a cold, quiet, and analytical gaze. The gaze of a scientist who has found the problem hindering his experiment.
And little Ryo, who was still hugging his mother, was looking over her shoulder at the stone monster that was staring at him.