"Lord Unknown, huh..."
The name echoed in my head like a knock on the door I never wanted opened. It seems my greatest nightmare is beginning to walk in—and somehow, I find myself holding the door open.
From a very young age, I feared the unknown. Not just what lurked in the dark, but the silence behind a closed book. The stillness in an unanswered question. And now, I had met the one who reigned over all of it—the Lord of Unknown.
I was still absorbing what I had heard. Trying to digest truths so vast they threatened to unmake me. Then I realized—it wasn't the world breaking down around me. No. It was me. I was the one unraveling, thread by thread.
Whoosh.
…
I felt it before I saw it. The sunlight warming my skin—not like a promise, but like a memory I didn't trust.
Like the warmth on a condemned man's back as he walks toward the gallows.
My fingers twitched. Something wet clung to my hand.
I opened my eyes. Morning.
The dizziness clung to my head, but it was merciful compared to what I'd endured.
Speaking of the past—
"Four-faced demon," I muttered.
I had almost forgotten. How? That thing was horror incarnate. Yet compared to the pressure Lord Unknown had exerted on me... that beast felt like a petulant child.
I hadn't seen Lord Unknown's face, but some primal instinct told me—
That was a blessing.
If I had seen it, I suspect insanity would've been the best-case scenario.
I forced myself upright, pain biting into my spine.
And then... I looked down.
Some kind of semi-liquid clung to my hand.
I brought it closer, sniffed it through my mask.
And recoiled.
"Oh god... That's shit. Real shit!"
I stared at it like it had betrayed me.
"What kind of cosmic joke is this?"
Here I was—a man who had spoken to the embodiment of mystery, survived a four-faced eldritch horror, and returned from a place that defied logic—
Only to wake up covered in poop.
I sighed. A long, soul-crushed sigh.
"Is this character development or divine punishment?"
I peeled some leaves from a nearby bush, wiping my hands with the grace of a defeated emperor.
"The universe really said: 'Oh, you think you're special? Have a turd sandwich, you pretentious peasant.'"
I groaned.
"I bet the gods are watching this like a sitcom."
Still grumbling, I got to my feet. My knees cracked like old wood.
How did I even end up here?
My only lead—the four-faced demon. Maybe it carried me here after I passed out.
I vaguely remembered it whispering something before everything went dark. Something about Lord Unknown...
Could he control those things too?
I mean, Kuro can tame mutated beasts while still being human. For Lord Unknown, this must be... a casual hobby.
I began walking, shaking off the dirt, the stench, the humiliation. The landscape grew stranger by the minute.
Then I saw them.
Creatures—no, myths—moving through the mist. Majestic, terrifying, impossible.
One had antlers made of glass that refracted light into rainbows as it turned its head. Another resembled a tiger, but its fur shimmered like mercury and its eyes held constellations.
A bird with feathers like molten gold soared above, trailing embers in its wake.
Each of them looked sculpted by some divine artisan who didn't believe in moderation.
And I could only stare.
A forgotten poem from a famous poet drifted to the surface of my mind:
"In every breath of the wind, a god sleeps. In every root, a secret. The world is not built on stone and stars, But on the awe that holds them together.
The most powerful laws are unspoken. The most sacred lands, unnamed.
And beauty? Beauty is not what we see. It is what stops us from breathing when we do."
My heart calmed, if only for a moment.
Eventually, the terrain began to feel familiar.
I had returned to known territory.
The base loomed in the distance.
"I'm back," I whispered to no one.
But what greeted me wasn't relief.
It wasn't warmth.
It was silence—stretched and strangled. The kind that doesn't wait for you to feel it. The kind that enters you.
Not heartwarming.
Heart-tearing.