Chapter 12 – Requiem.
The projection pulsed again, crimson shadows bending across the throne room as the Queen flicked her fingers. Damon's breath hitched — he felt Gamishi's pain humming through the vision, despair woven into every flicker of light.
The Queen's voice echoed, softer now. "Watch carefully… this is the price of defiance."
Gamishi hung by chains forged from living flame. They didn't just burn — they fed on his eterna, draining him with every breath. His chest rose raggedly, as if life itself was slipping through cracks in his body. He had died a thousand times already — mind and flesh torn apart — but Kroxus replaced each organ with fire, binding him back together. Every part of him hurt.
Kroxus stood before him, arms crossed, calm, like a sculptor admiring unfinished work. "Still silent?" His voice dripped with cruel amusement. "I expected screams by now."
Gamishi raised his head, lips cracked. "I'd rather burn," he rasped, "than satisfy your evil desires."
Kroxus smirked. "Then burn you shall."
He snapped his fingers. Lightning poured from above, coiling into the flames like living serpents. The sky itself trembled. Gamishi's cry echoed through Loira — a sound that could have reached the stars, if the stars had ears.
Days passed. Or weeks. Time had no meaning to Kroxus. One mortal against an immortal — relentless, but hopeless.
The guards stopped watching. One muttered, "This is not justice. I only wanted the eterna‑blooded treated better."
Kroxus turned, smiling. "Your wish is my command." He walked to the soldier. A single strike — and the man was gone, burned through in an instant.
But Gamishi never broke. He stopped screaming. He just breathed. And the silence became his rebellion.
Then came the whisper. Not from Kroxus — but from the dark itself. Hallucinations. "You can end it. Just tell him. One word, and you'll see them again…"
Gamishi's fingers twitched. His vision swam. He saw Yuki's face. His sons' laughter. The necklace she wore that morning. He closed his eyes. No.
Kroxus chuckled. "Ah, the mortal's mind — so fragile, yet so loud."
He knelt beside him, voice low. "Tell me what the message said on Saro's arm."
Gamishi didn't answer.
"Fine," Kroxus sighed. "Perhaps mortals can be selfish… for others." He turned, eyes gleaming. "Let's see if your family is as strong‑willed as you are."
The chains vanished. Gamishi collapsed, knees hitting the cracked floor. A rift opened beside them — a red gate roaring with flame.
Through it, Gamishi saw Earth. His home. The fountain where Haruki once played. "No… please…"
Kroxus extended his hand. From the flames emerged three beasts — horned, four‑eyed, cloaked in ember dust. "One for each," Kroxus said coldly. "A son. Another. And your wife."
"STOP!" Gamishi's voice cracked, desperate.
"Why should I stop? Your sons' training might finally pay off. Let's test it."
"NO!"
"Those are not the words I want to hear, human."
"Please— I'll tell you!"
Kroxus turned, grin sharp as a blade. "Then speak, mortal."
Gamishi's shoulders shook. "Saro said… prepare for Kroxus."
"Excellent." Kroxus's eyes flared. "Then the destruction begins now."
He spread his arms. Reality opened like a wound. Demons — endless, black, crawling — poured through the portal toward Earth.
"You promised not to hurt my family!" Gamishi cried, dragging himself forward. "What? When did I ever say so?" Kroxus smiled cruelly, stepping through the gate.
Gamishi summoned every strand of strength, clawing toward the closing portal.
The smell of blood. Screams of pain. Smoke choking the air. Cries of agony. Everywhere he looked — cities scorched in seconds, oceans boiling, Earth itself screaming.
And then — Yuki. Standing at the gate, clutching both sons. Her face pale, her eyes brave.
Gamishi crawled toward her. "Don't… touch them. Please."
Kroxus stepped on his fingers. Gamishi yelled in pain. "Oh, but you've been silent this whole time?" Kroxus sneered, snatching the children from Yuki.
She screamed. "Don't touch them!"
His foot lashed across her face.
"Now boys, come say hello to your father."
Haruki and Akira struggled, eterna flaring — one water, one fire. They hurled it at Kroxus.
"You've taught your children well, Gamishi," he said, then crushed them. The cracking sound echoed through Gamishi's ears.
"YOU SAID YOU WOULDN'T HURT MY FAMILY! WHY!?"
Yuki's terrified yet agonised. The embodiment of maternal fury.
Kroxus laughed, deliberate and cruel. "I'm a man of my word. I never said they wouldn't die."
He raised his hand. Flames lifted Yuki into the air, choking her voice, wrapping her in a cruel glow. Her eyes found Gamishi's — terrified, yet unbroken — and for a heartbeat, eyes of confused sorrow met eyes of desperate love.
"Gamishi…" she whispered through fire, her voice breaking but steady enough to carry. "I love you."
And in that instant, her body disintegrated — light scattering like ash in the wind. Her necklace fell, striking the ground with a soft chime that echoed louder than any scream. The eyes that he once loved filled with bloody tears, lifeless.
Gamishi didn't move. He Couldn't. His eyes wide, empty. Then, slowly, something inside him snapped.
"I have a gift for you, Gamishi."
Kroxus gathered the agony of every soul he'd shattered — rage, terror, despair — and poured it into Gamishi like venom. He turned to leave, fearing the Eternal One's arrival. But suddenly—
Flames bent around Gamishi. Eterna — no longer bright, no longer pure — turned black, twisting into the ground.
His hair darkened, flowing like ink. A red crack split across his forehead, glowing molten. His eyes — once gold — burned crimson.
Kroxus watched, amused but cautious. "What are you doing?"
Gamishi rose slowly, shadows bending toward him like loyal beasts. "The anger… of my people," he said, voice layered with echoes. "The pain… of every life you took…"
He looked up, whisper and roar at once. "It's mine now."
The chains shattered. The ground broke.
Kroxus laughed. "You absorbed their emotion? Their fear? Their hate? Clever. But too late."
Gamishi stepped forward. "You're wrong. This is enough."
For the first time, Kroxus hesitated. The air quaked. The sky cracked. Gamishi's flame — black and red — consumed all around.
Boom.
Back in the throne room, the projection dimmed to nothing. Damon sat frozen, heart pounding like a drum. The dog trembled against his leg, tail tucked. Hazel floated silently, her glow faint.
The Queen finally spoke, voice low and tired. "That was the moment Gamishi, our hero, turned. Not because he was weak… but because grief gave him power no mortal should ever wield."
Her eyes flickered with old sorrow.
"How?" the dog asked.
Hazel explained softly. "Eterna can be powered by emotion. If you're happy, it shines beautifully. If you're angry… well, you saw." She swirled her hands, diamond light glowing briefly.
Damon swallowed hard. "And Kroxus?"
"Kroxus fled," the Queen said. "He felt the Eternal One coming to punish him. But before he left… he smiled."
"Why?"
"Because even in defeat," she whispered, "he knew someone else would carry his will."
"His will?" Damon asked.
"Gamishi intends to destroy all beings with eterna. He believes it is the root of his loss."
"How does that affect our world?" the dog barked.
"It does because all living things have eterna," Damon answered.
The Queen nodded. "The Eternal One took the remaining eterna‑blooded who fled during the war and forged this plane — Eternum — to hold them. The rest, the non‑eternas, he returned to Earth… after mending it. Your world is what you would call a multiverse, though that word barely holds its weight."
"The multiverse is real!" Damon and the dog exclaimed together.
"Yes."
"The Eternal One promised us a chosen one would come. To defeat Gamishi and save the two planes. That one is you, Damon."
The light faded completely.
And in the silence that followed, Damon's eterna shimmered faintly on his chest for the first time.
End of Chapter 12 – Requiem