The Weapon Genius: Anything I Hold Can Kill-Chapter 44: The Shadows of the Past

The plaza fell silent.

No breathing.

No footsteps.

Just the faint crackle of burned stone cooling in the night air.

Jin gripped his staff, his heart still pounding from the last fight.

The ground where the Face of Honor fell had turned black, cracks spreading outward like roots. Something shifted beneath the surface, slow and deliberate, and then —

It rose.

The Face of Regret.

Its body wasn't solid.

It looked like a man-shaped shadow, barely holding itself together. The limbs flickered in and out of existence, its face a featureless void, save for a pair of hollow, gray eyes.

It didn't speak.

It didn't move.

It just stood there, its head slightly tilted, watching them like a lost ghost.

Jin exhaled, lifting his staff into a ready stance.

Joon's gloves crackled, and Seul flexed her fingers, her gloves glimmering faintly.

But the creature didn't attack.

It just stood there.

And wept.

"...Is it broken?" Joon muttered, rubbing his ribs.

Seul didn't take her eyes off it.

"No," she whispered. "It's... crying."

Jin squinted, stepping forward cautiously.

Drip.

A single black tear rolled down the creature's face, hitting the ground and sizzling like acid.

Then another.

And another.

The air grew colder.

Seul's breath frosted in front of her mouth.

Jin's muscles tensed, his instincts screaming at him to move, but he didn't know where to move.

The creature's voice slithered through the air, a soft, cracking whisper that barely sounded human.

"Why...?"

Jin's fingers tightened on the staff.

"Why what?"

The creature tilted its head further, like a dying animal struggling to understand the question.

"Why... didn't you kill them?"

Jin's chest tightened.

And then the creature's body shook.

Smoke started pouring out of its form, thick and pitch-black, curling over the ground like ink in water.

The smoke snaked toward them, tendrils reaching like fingers.

Jin's eyes narrowed.

"Back up," he snapped.

They all scattered, moving to avoid the creeping fog — but the smoke didn't chase them.

It just spread, blanketing the plaza, pooling into every crack and crevice.

Joon hopped onto a piece of rubble, eyes darting around.

"What the hell is this?" he muttered.

Seul climbed onto a broken pillar, her shoulders tense, her fingers twitching near her gloves.

"It's not attacking," she said, voice low. "It's just... filling the space."

The creature's voice rippled through the smoke, echoing like a distant funeral bell.

"You could have saved them."

The words hit like a gut punch.

Jin's jaw clenched, his mind flashing back to the office, to the girl he left behind.

The creature lifted its hands, the smoke curling around its fingers like puppet strings.

And then —

Shapes began to form.

Silhouettes, rising from the smoke.

Bodies.

People.

Jin's stomach dropped.

The first body that appeared... was hers.

The girl from the first day of the system. The one he left behind.

Her limbs twisted, her face crushed — her eyes empty and lifeless.

She turned toward him, her mouth slowly opening, and a delayed echo of her voice spilled out.

"You left me..."

Jin's hands shook.

His heartbeat thundered in his ears.

Seul froze, staring at a charred figure that looked like Chul.

Joon stiffened, watching burned faces rise from the smoke, their hands reaching toward him, begging silently.

The creature watched them.

And it smiled.

"This is your grave."

The smoke thickened, the silhouettes dragging themselves closer.

Jin's fingers twitched around the staff, his chest tightening, and for the first time in a long time —

He felt like he couldn't breathe.

The smoke thickened, rising up like phantoms.

The silhouettes took shape, their forms warping and stretching, until they looked... human.

But wrong.

Their limbs were twisted, faces distorted, mouths opening and closing like they were trying to scream, but no sound came out.

Jin's pulse hammered, his eyes locked on the girl he left behind.

Her body crumpled and broken, her head hanging at an unnatural angle.

Her feet dragged against the ground as she staggered toward him, her voice a glitching echo of the past.

"Why... didn't you come back?"

Jin froze.

The regret hit like a hammer to the chest, heavier than any physical blow.

He had told himself he didn't have a choice.

That he had to protect the people who came with him.

But that didn't erase the guilt.

Seul's body locked up, her breathing sharp and shallow.

The smoke swirled around her, and a figure formed — a boy, face half-melted, his eyes hollow.

Chul.

Not as he was now.

As he was when he barely escaped the first quest, burned and broken, dragging himself to the station.

He reached for her, his fingers bent and cracked.

"You should've been faster," he rasped.

"I almost died because of you."

Seul stumbled back, her heel hitting a chunk of rubble.

"No," she whispered, shaking her head.

"That's not real."

The Face of Regret turned toward her, its body still flickering, and its voice rippled through the plaza.

"Isn't it?"

Seul flinched, her heart slamming against her ribs.

Her gloves flickered, the gravity around her hands faltering.

Joon's hands shook, his fingers crackling with static, but he couldn't lift his arms.

The smoke had swallowed him, and the shadows that emerged were all familiar faces.

His team from work.

The people who didn't make it out of the building.

Their bodies were charred, eyes glowing faintly in the darkness, their mouths moving in soundless pleas.

One of them — a guy he used to share lunch with — crawled toward him, dragging half a body across the concrete.

His lips twisted, and his voice scraped through the air like a knife.

"You had powers."

"Why didn't you save us?"

Joon's chest locked up, his throat tightening.

He tried to speak, but nothing came out.

The creature laughed softly, the sound like cracking bone.

"You let them die."

"Because you were afraid."

Joon's knees buckled, his heart slamming against his ribs like it wanted to break free.

The electricity around his hands fizzled out.

And he just stood there, staring at the ghosts of people he couldn't save.

Jin's fingers twitched around the staff, but he couldn't move.

The girl's face was too real.

He could see her eyes, the pain in them, the way she stared through him like he was the reason she died.

The Face of Regret didn't attack.

It just watched, the hollow sockets of its face glowing with a sickly gray light as it fed on their pain.

The more they hesitated, the more solid it became.

It was leeching off them.

Growing stronger the longer they wallowed in guilt.

Jin's body locked up, but somewhere in the back of his mind, he remembered something.

The Face of Honor's last words:

"Stand tall."

"The battle is not yet over."

The pain of regret wasn't just about what they'd done.

It was about what they did next.

Jin's teeth clenched, his jaw tightening so hard it ached.

He couldn't undo the past.

But if he let this thing paralyze him, they were all going to die.

Jin forced himself to move, stepping toward the hallucination.

The girl's body twisted, her neck snapping sideways, and she lunged at him —

But the staff passed through her.

Like she was made of smoke.

Jin's breath caught, and he turned back to the creature.

"This isn't real," he rasped.

"You're not real."

The girl froze, her body flickering, and the creature's form shuddered.

Jin swallowed hard, turning toward the others, his voice rough and shaking.

"It's not real," he said, louder this time.

"They're not real."

Joon's eyes snapped up.

Seul looked over, her hands trembling.

The Face of Regret twitched, its body distorting.

"But you still remember them," it whispered.

"You still blame yourself."

Jin gritted his teeth, planting his staff in the ground.

"Maybe I do," he spat.

"But standing here feeling sorry about it won't bring them back."

The creature's smile faded.

The smoke started to thin.

The Face of Regret flinched.

It looked... afraid.

Its body trembled, the smoke curling around it like withered tendrils, struggling to hold its shape.

Jin tightened his grip on the staff, dragging himself forward.

His body screamed, muscles throbbing, but he didn't stop.

He stepped through the smoke, and the hallucinations dissolved, their figures breaking apart like dying embers.

The creature shrank.

Jin exhaled, his breath jagged.

"Get up," he rasped, his voice barely more than a whisper.

"Keep walking."

Seul staggered to her feet, her leg shaking, but she pushed herself up anyway.

The smoke version of Chul still reached for her, his voice cracking with pain.

"You should've saved me."

Seul clenched her jaw, her eyes burning, but she stepped forward — and his figure evaporated, fading into the black mist.

Joon wiped the blood from his mouth, his chest still heaving, but he forced his body to move.

The shadows of his dead coworkers flickered around him, their hands clawing at his arms.

But he kept walking.

With every step they took, the smoke retreated, and the Face of Regret withered.

It crawled backward, its form cracking, shrinking until it was barely the size of a child.

"Stop," it whimpered, its voice thin and crumbling.

"Don't leave me."

Jin's jaw tightened, his heart pounding against his ribs.

"We're not leaving you," he muttered, stepping closer.

"You were never real to begin with."

The Face of Regret collapsed, its body splintering, the smoke spiraling inward like it was being sucked into a void.

Its face contorted, eyes wide with desperation.

"What am I without your regrets?"

Jin raised the staff, pointing it directly at the creature.

"Nothing," he said.

The creature shattered, the last tendrils of smoke dissolving into nothing, leaving the plaza silent once again.

And then —

[The Face of Regret Defeated]

[Phase 5 Initiating: The Face of Self-Destruction]