Su returned… carrying a head.

  The head of the man with the nodules. His expression frozen in a grotesque echo of pain, mouth parted as if to ask why.

  Blood dripped slowly from the severed neck, each drop painting a crimson trail behind Su’s silent footsteps.

  His eyes were vacant, unfocused, yet his movements were precise and steady, as though something else guided him.

  Just before reaching Seer, Su let the head fall.

  It landed with a muted, wet thud, then rolled a few paces before coming to a slow stop, staring into nothing.

  Su halted, standing over Seer without a word.

  Seer didn’t react. His gaze remained on the mouth of the cave, still as stone.

  But the chill in his eyes had not faded, it still lingered like frost that refused to melt.

  Without turning, he spoke.

  A single word. Cold. Commanding.

  “Kneel.”

  Thud.

  Su dropped to his knees, the sound dull and obedient. It couldn't even be called decision, it was more of instinct. Like his body moved before thought could catch up.

  Only then did Seer lower his eyes.

  He looked at Su—no, through him.

  The cold in his gaze no longer lingered at the surface. It now ran deeper, as though carved into his bones.

  “Ladylike?” he said quietly.

  The words were soft.

  But inside them coiled something venomous, something dark and cruel.

  Su said nothing. He couldn’t. His mind was still lost in a fog.

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  Without pause, the Seer reached forward and pressed his hand against Su’s head, fingers spread firm across the skull, palm resting over the center.

  Instantly, the white drained from Su’s eyes, vanishing like mist under morning sun.

  His blank expression cracked, replaced by terror.

  His eyes widened, brimming with a fear that went beyond reason. It wasn't just dread, it was the primal, soul-deep horror of something wrong.

  Something his very being recognized and recoiled from.

  Sweat broke across his skin in an instant, drenching him.

  He trembled violently under Seer’s grip, but the hand on his head was unyielding. Unbreakable.

  Then their eyes met.

  And in that single breath… the fear twisted into something worse.

  Regret.

  A crushing, breath-stealing regret gripped Su’s chest, like the weight of every wrong choice he had ever made had returned to judge him.

  Coming here.

  Seeing Seer.

  Wanting more than he should have.

  Wanting what was never his to take.

  He regretted everything.

  Not just today, his entire life.

  If only he had been good.

  If only he hadn’t stolen, lied, fought, craved.

  If only...

  He choked out, “P-please…”

  His voice shook. Tears welled up in his eyes, hot and helpless.

  But Seer didn’t blink.

  He simply stared, cold and unmoved, his presence towering, heavy with silence.

  “I’m… sorry,” Su whispered, barely audible.

  Seer’s reply came low and unforgiving.

  “As you should be.”

  Su tried again. “I… I…”

  But before the words could form, Seer’s fingers tightened slightly.

  JERK.

  Something inside Su jolted violently, his heart lurched as if it had been yanked upward by invisible strings. His eyes flew wide, locked onto Seer with sheer panic.

  He wanted to scream.

  To move.

  To sob.

  Even to tremble

  But his body no longer answered him.

  It felt distant now.

  Foreign.

  As though it no longer belonged to him at all.

  His eyes remained locked on Seer, terror frozen in them. Then something began to shift.

  Not in the air.

  Not in the cave.

  But in him.

  A soft, white glow bled from beneath Seer’s palm, spreading over Su’s skull like whispering light.

  Su's limbs began to twitch subtly, as if something ancient was reaching through time itself… rearranging the bones of his past.

  A strange hum echoed low and slow, like the groan of forgotten stars moving in alignment.

  Then Seer spoke.

  “Your life was flawed at conception. A waste of breath… a thief shaped in the womb.”

  His tone was still calm, eerily so.

  “I will carve you anew.”

  Su’s breath hitched, eyes quivering.

  His throat tried to form protest, but all that came out was a broken whisper.

  “Wh-what… what are you doing to me?”

  Seer’s fingers pressed tighter.

  “I’m making you beautiful. And you will hate every moment of it.”

  Then it began.

  Something intangible snapped, not a sound, but a sense, like the breaking of an invisible thread that once tied Su to his original path.

  Reality twisted inward.

  Time folded over him like silk dipped in oil.

  Su’s body arched involuntarily: his skin crawled with invisible threads, pulling, weaving, sewing something new into his very soul.

  The edges of his features softened, barely noticeable.

  His presence shifted, lost its weight, replaced with something delicate, graceful… disturbingly ladylike.

  His lips parted in a silent gasp as the transformation dug deeper, rewriting not just his flesh, but his history.

  He could feel the changes rippling backward, like someone was unspooling his timeline, knitting it again from thread dyed in mockery.

  Yet, he was still a man.

  Undeniably so.

  And that contrast made it worse.

  Feminine grace wrapped around his masculine frame like a second skin he could never shed.

  He whimpered, voice shaky, softer now. “Why…?”

  Seer’s eyes narrowed, glowing faintly.

  “To remind you that you were never in control. Not of your greed. Not of your fate. And now… not even of your form.”

  Then his hand released.

  Su collapsed, breathing shallow, eyes wide in disbelief, there was neither wounds nor blood.

  But something fundamental had changed. Something that could never be undone.

  He was still Su.

  But the world would never see him the same again.

  And worse, neither would he.