While Gajeel learned about a certain Shiboni clan, Albion drifted elsewhere, far from the flooded corridors and clashing magic.
He floated endlessly.
The space around him resembled water, yet it was wrong in every way. It moved like a current, pressed against his skin like a deep sea… but its color was absolute black.
An endless ocean with no horizon, no sky, no life. He was fully submerged in it.
Yet he could breathe.
"…Is this the end for me?" Albion murmured.
His voice echoed strangely through the void, swallowed almost immediately by the silent sea.
He wasn't speaking to anyone. Just… letting his thoughts drift.
"When that other me started bad-mouthing Mother…" His brow faintly tightened. "Why did I react like that?"
The memory surfaced clearly.
The anger. The desperation to win.
The need to crush the opponent standing in front of him.
Even though that opponent had been someone who looked exactly like himself.
"The way I acted…" Albion muttered. "It was the same way Gajeel acts."
His mind replayed the words he'd heard before.
[I fight for the love of the game.]
[Live for yourself. Your pleasures. Your hates. That's all that's real.]
Albion slowly exhaled.
"If I'm being honest…" he admitted quietly, "I admire him." The black currents shifted around his body.
"Not just for his strength, but for his mindset… and the way he lives."
More words surfaced from memory.
[Good. Use that anger.When someone gives in to rage… that's when they're strongest.]
[Compassion has no place in this world.]
Albion's eyes lowered. "Maybe that's how he lives…"
"But that isn't how I am."
Slowly, he stopped drifting.
His body tilted forward until his feet touched the unseen floor beneath the black sea. Rising upright, he stood in the empty abyss.
"…Why don't I like fighting?" He asked the question aloud. "There was a reason… right?"
Before he could search for the answer, a voice cut through his mind.
[Look at you. Sometimes I wonder if we're even related by blood.]
[Now you're useless. Completely useless!]
Albion's body stiffened.
[The only reason you ever mattered… The only reason I kept you alive… It was because I could sell you.]
His expression fractured.
Shock spread across his face as his hands suddenly shot to his neck. His fingernails scraped across his skin, dragging thin red lines across his throat.
He scratched harder.
"…Why did I get so angry…?" he whispered through gritted teeth. "Why defend someone like her…?"
His voice trembled now, threaded with irritation and something deeper.
"She sold me. She cursed me from the moment she adopted me."
The memory changed.
At the time he was physically exhausted
He was on all fours, making himself as small as possible. Looking at the ground, breathing heavily
And in front of him, his mother stood upright.
Her right hand clenched into a tight fist.
"…That's right." Albion's eyes darkened. "How could I forget?"
He remembered the way she looked at him.
Not with anger. But with disappointment.
"I was a failure who could never meet her expectations."
Even after years of training. Endless drills.
Endless punishment.
"…To her, I wasn't a son."
His voice turned hollow. "I was a tool."
A weapon meant to be sharpened, and discarded if it broke.
Ironically…
That brutal upbringing had given him something.
A natural instinct for combat. Others might have called it talent. But that "talent" meant nothing in the world he lived in.
Because in this world, magic stood above everything.
Reaching the surface, Albion slowly rose from the black water. The moment he broke through, he stepped onto it, his feet pressing against the surface as if it were solid ground.
Yet the moment he shifted his weight, faint ripples spread beneath him.
Water. But also… ground.
Using the strange surface to steady himself, Albion stood upright.
"This place doesn't make any sense," he muttered aloud. "How can the surface be solid like the ground… yet still behave like water?"
His gaze drifted across the horizon. Nothing had changed. The same endless sea of black stretched in every direction.
No land. No sky. No life.
Just the silent ocean.
"What is this place?" Albion wondered. "Maybe it's a dream…"
The idea felt logical enough.
If this really were a dream, it would explain why he had suddenly appeared here after falling asleep.
Slowly, he lifted his gaze upward. And there it was again.
The sun.
Or… something that resembled one.
A hollow sphere floated high above him. Its outer shell was pure white, so pale it almost hurt to look at directly. The center, however, was empty, forming a perfect circular void.
Yet despite its strange structure, it was the only source of light in this endless world.
And just like before, encircling ncircling half of the hollow sun was a white Eastern dragon.
Its long body coiled through the air in a slow, endless orbit.
But the other half of the sun's path… Was not empty.
Something moved there. No shape. No outline. No sound.
Yet its presence was unmistakable.
"Assuming this place is a dream… what could any of this mean?" Albion wondered aloud.
"I'm not too sure about the black water… but the other two things might have some kind of meaning."
A thoughtful look settled on his face.
His eyes remained fixed on the white dragon as it continued circling only one half of the hollow sun.
"The Eastern dragon most likely represents order… or harmony," Albion reasoned quietly. "But what about the other side?"
His gaze shifted to the half of the sun the dragon never touched. "Why does it only circle half of it?"
"…Maybe the unseen half represents an unknown presence?" he guessed.
Although he quickly sighed. "I have no way of proving any of that…"
His eyes moved again.
Dragon.
Sun.
Black water.
Again.
And again.
Suddenly, Albion slapped both of his cheeks.
"I'm such an idiot!" he exclaimed. "The black water, the hollow sun, and the dragon… none of them are controlled by a ruler."
"They exist independently—like different forces of nature!"
The realization sent a small jolt through him.
"Ruler…?" Albion muttered. "Why does that sound familiar…?"
Then a memory surfaced.
[Hey there, King.]
"That's right!" Albion's eyes widened. "That other me… called me king."
But that only raised another question.
What did king actually mean?
His gaze slowly lowered to the surface beneath him, where his reflection stared back from the black water.
"…Doesn't king just mean the ruler of this place?"
"Or… if this really is a dream…"
His thoughts suddenly halted as a sharp realization struck him.
His eyes narrowed. "If this place really is a dream… why haven't I woken up yet?"
"…What if—this is just a theory—but what if there were two kings?"
The idea formed slowly in his mind. "What if two people in this world are capable of becoming the King?"
"And if there are two people trying to become king…"
Albion's eyes widened. "Then either one of them could drag the other down."
Silence filled the endless sea.
Then—
"You really are smart." The voice appeared behind him.
The moment Albion heard it, his heart dropped. His body froze as shock overtook his face.
"You figured out so much… after only seeing this place once."
A figure stepped out from behind him and stopped at his side. Albion didn't even need to turn his head to know who it was.
White looked out over the endless ocean, calm and composed. Then he spoke a single word.
"King."
'It's him!'
The moment Albion turned around, he came face-to-face with White.
Both of them moved at the exact same instant.
A sharp crack rang out through the empty world as their clash lasted barely a second, then Albion was forced to leap back several feet across the surface of the black water.
Ripples spread beneath his landing.
White barely had time to react before a sudden, intense pain shot through his arm.
"…My hand."
His red eyes lowered to his wrist. It bent at an unnatural angle.
'He dislocated it.'
Without even flinching, White grabbed his hand and twisted it back into place.
Pop.
The bone slid back with a dull snapping sound.
In that brief moment of contact, White had attempted to strike Albion directly. But Albion had reacted faster.
He slipped past the blow by a hair's breadth, drove his palm sharply into White's wrist, then immediately leapt backward.
All in a single motion.
White flexed his fingers slowly. 'Interesting.'
Meanwhile—
'Where did he come from?!' Albion's face tightened with stern alertness as he instinctively stepped back.
His mind was already racing.
'I can't win.' The thought came quickly. Almost automatically.
'I have to run.' His eyes narrowed. 'Let's face it… I'm not like Gajeel.'
His mind flashed back to their previous battle.
The first round of their fight. How overwhelming it had been. How easily he had been beaten.
'Am I going to lose again…?'
Without realizing it, his fingers drifted to his neck.
He began scratching again.
Thin lines formed where his nails dragged across his skin.
'Lose…'
The memory replayed again.
Gajeel standing over him.
The humiliation. The defeat.
'Lose…!'
"Look at you."
Albion's eyes widened.
White's voice had suddenly appeared right beside him.
"Getting lost in your own thoughts."
Before Albion could react White grabbed him.
Effortlessly lifting him into the air.
Then—
SLAM.
He drove Albion straight down into the black water.
Pain exploded across Albion's back as the impact knocked the air out of his lungs.
"—GHK!"
His chest spasmed as he instinctively gasped for breath. The cold surface of the strange water disoriented him for a moment.
But before he could recover, White planted his foot firmly against Albion's chest, pinning him down.
"Only one King can exist at a time."
White's grin widened. "This place is the Inner World."
He gestured casually toward the endless black sea surrounding them. "Within it, there are two beings capable of becoming King."
His vivid red eyes shifted back down to Albion. "Despite that, this isn't a prison."
"Either one of us can pull the other into this place whenever we choose."
"When that happens, the body outside becomes completely still… as if time itself has paused."
He paused briefly.
"The throne of King is never permanent. It can change hands at any time." White tilted his head upward toward the hollow sun and the dragon circling it.
"This realm is the manifestation of your psyche. Your consciousness, your memories… your emotions."
His gaze slowly returned to Albion.
"Everything that exists here is a reflection of something inside you."
White's smile sharpened slightly. "As you grow… so do I."
"It isn't a matter of which one of us is stronger." His crimson eyes gleamed. "It's simply a matter of who proves more worthy…"
"…of becoming King."
"But don't get it twisted," White said.
He threw his head back, his mouth opening wide as a loud, mocking laugh burst from his throat.
"Ahahaha—!"
The laughter wasn't joyful. It was cruel.
When he finally lowered his head again, his red eyes locked directly into Albion's.
"Once I become King… that worm will be the first person I hunt."
His grin widened as he stared straight into Albion's eyes. "Because unlike you… my heart won't waver."
His voice dropped, heavy with venom. "I'll make that woman pray for death."
"Please… stop…"
Albion's hands shot to his neck as he began scratching desperately at his skin.
His voice trembled. "You don't understand what you're saying…!"
"I understand perfectly!" White snapped back immediately.
"The way you are now… you're too weak to keep holding the title of King."
He lifted his foot slightly, then pressed it down against Albion's throat.
"You're a half-baked, delusional, naïve puppet. A puppet that can't think for himself."
"A puppet that only knows how to think for other people."
White's eyes sharpened. "I refuse to play servant to a weak King."
"People with hesitation and weakness like yours… will get us both killed."
Albion's eyes widened. His pupils expanded until they filled most of his gaze.
Tears pooled at the bottom of his eyelids before finally spilling over. His face twisted into a grimace that exposed both rows of teeth.
"T-this wasn't… this isn't supposed to happen…"
A voice echoed through his memory. A voice he knew all too well.
[Albion… It symbolizes purity and innocence. How beautifully ironic. A name so clean… forced into a life of violence and corruption.]
[I like that contrast.]
White slowly lifted his gaze away from Albion.
He stared forward into the endless black sea.
Following his line of sight, Albion looked as well.
"Memories that manifest here behave like temporary physical structures," White explained calmly.
The black water in front of them began to rise,
Slowly shaping itself.
Within seconds, the silhouette of a laboratory stood before them. "You were raised inside a facility, a laboratory."
"You never knew how you arrived there… or why you had been brought to such a place."
"For as long as you could remember, the cold white halls of that building were the only world you had ever known."
White's voice carried through the empty realm like narration. "Those scientists studied you. Observe you. Tested you."
"H-how do you know about that…?" Albion asked weakly.
"I am you, Remember?" White replied without even looking at him. He lifted his hand slightly.
The laboratory shifted. Its form dissolves before reshaping into the figures of several scientists.
"They weren't forced to do any of it," White continued. "They did it willingly."
Albion had no friends. No family. No parents.
The laboratory was his entire world.
And within those sterile walls, he slowly began developing a sense of self.
During that time, he was constantly monitored.
Constantly experimented on. But the experiments were rarely painful.
Sometimes they would draw small samples of his blood. Sometimes they simply watched him for hours.
It always felt like they were searching for something inside him. Something even Albion himself didn't understand.
Back then…
He had only been an infant.
Then one day, everything changed.
"The laboratory was attacked," White said flatly.
Albion's scratching intensified. His nails dug deeper, breaking skin.
Thin streaks of blood began running down his neck. "You never learned why they came… or what they were searching for."
"There were three of them.Two boys… and a girl."
White continued calmly.
"One of the boys wore strange clothing. Something that reminded you of a ninja."
"The three of them defeated the scientists with ease."
White paused.
Then his grin slowly returned. "But then something… unexpected happened."
"The girl betrayed them. Without hesitation, she turned on her own allies… and killed them."
Albion's breathing grew heavier.
White continued.
"After that… she approached you."She looked down at the child inside the laboratory chamber."
"And then she gave you a name."
White finally looked back down at him.
"Albion."
From that moment forward, the woman became the person he called Mother.
Albion had never known love. Never known family. Never known kindness.
So the first person who acknowledged his existence…
Became everything to him.
That alone was enough.
It was the reason he devoted himself completely to her.
White waved his hand lazily.
The laboratory dissolved. The scientists vanished. The black ocean returned to its endless form.
"It's really quite funny when you think about it," White said. He lowered his gaze to Albion again. Their faces were only inches apart.
"All that nonsense you spout… about the value of life…"
His grin stretched wider. "…was just your pathetic attempt to protect yourself."
White burst into laughter again.
"Ahahahaha—!"
White burst into laughter, loud and unrestrained. As he pulled his foot away from Albion's chest, he staggered back a few steps, clutching his stomach as if the whole situation was the greatest joke he had ever heard.
"Oh, but don't worry," White said between breaths. "That wasn't even the best part."
A predatory smile slowly spread across his face. It stretched far wider than any normal grin should, revealing a full row of teeth.
The stitches running across the corners of his mouth strained under the expression. Threads pulled tight… then tore slightly, fresh beads of blood forming along the seams before trickling down his chin.
Then the black water behind him began to stir.
Something rose from its surface.
A figure that was another Albion.
It was a memory, Albion from his fight with Gajeel. The imitation spoke with the same voice Albion remembered using.
"I can feel what others feel. But being human… taught me something deeper."
"What my mother gave me wasn't love… I just wanted to believe it was.I'm lonely… and I don't want to be alone anymore."
"I want to matter. I want to be needed. I want to know it's okay for me to exist."
Before the memory could continue, White flicked his hand lazily.
The water shifted again.
That Albion collapsed back into the black sea, only for another version to rise in its place.
This one stood in a quiet library.
"So I guess… I just wanted to know if it's alright for me to keep living…"
"HAHAHAHAHA—!"
White's laughter exploded again, echoing across the endless void.
But even that memory was swept away with another careless wave of his arm.
"You were cursed by those scientists," White declared, his voice suddenly sharp.
"And you were cursed by the person you claim to love the most."
His grin returned, darker this time.
"YOU are the curse of humanity!"
"Albion Ebonveil!
Albion's shoulders began to tremble. At first, no sound came out.
"Hhh—hic…! Nnngh…! Hhh… hic…!"
The sobs forced their way out of him.
He tried to breathe, but every inhale broke into another choking cry.
Suddenly, he lifted his head and slammed it forward into the black surface beneath him.
Ripples spread outward across the dark water.
A memory echoed in his mind.
[If you had never existed… maybe I could have become something.]
[Maybe my life wouldn't have rotted like this!]
"Ahh—hh…! Hic…! Nnngh…!"
Albion slammed his head down again.
And again.
And again.
[I curse the day you were born.]
[You should have never been born at all!]
"Hhh—hic…! Hhk…! Nnghhh…!"
Finally he stopped.
Slowly, he lifted his head. His fingers dug into his scalp, scratching violently.
Yet despite the tears streaming down his face,
A wide, unnatural grin stretched across his lips.
His eyes were wide and bloodshot.
Locked in an obsessive, unstable focus. "I can't handle it anymore…!" Albion cried through shaking breaths.
"My mind is breaking… it's tearing apart!"
"I—I want it all to go away!"
"I want everything to just end!"
White's smile vanished instantly.
The playful cruelty disappeared from his face.
Now his eyes were sharp and serious.
"If being King is too much for you," White said as he began walking forward, "then I'll become the King."
Step by step, he approached Albion.
When he finally stopped in front of him, he slowly extended his hand.
"I'll carry all the burdens.All the sins. All the hatred. So you don't have to."
"If you fall… if you aren't fit to be King…"
"Then I'll fight for both of us. I'll protect both of us."
Albion stared at the hand in front of him.
'If I can say what I want… just this once…'
Slowly, his trembling hand began to rise toward White's.
'Then I…'
'I…'
And at that moment—
A long-buried memory surfaced clearly within his mind.