Chapter 12 – Requiem
𓆩⟡𓆪 ❂❂❂ 𓆩⟡𓆪
The projection pulsed again, crimson shadows bending around the throne room as the queen flicked her fingers.
Damon's breath hitched — he felt the pain of Gamishi, humming with despair.
The Queen's voice echoed, softer now.
"Watch carefully… this is the price of defiance."
𓆩⟡𓆪 ❂❂❂ 𓆩⟡𓆪
Gamishi hung by chains forged off the living flames of hell.
They weren't just burning — they were feeding on his eterna.
Each breath came out ragged, like he was barely holding on to life. Nevertheless, it didn't matter. He'd died so many times — mentally and physically. But Kroxus just replaced each damaged organ. Bonding them to Gamishi with fire. It hurt, each part of Gamishi hurt.
Kroxus stood before him — arms crossed, calm, like a sculptor admiring unfinished work.
"Still silent?" he asked, voice dripping with cruel amusement.
"I expected screams by now."
Gamishi raised his head. His 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 flame like a living serpent.
The sky itself trembled.
Gamishi's cry echoed through Loira — it could have reached the stars, if the stars had ears.
Days passed. Or weeks.
Time had no meaning to Kroxus.
After all, it was one mortal against an immortal. This mortal had no chance but he was relentless.
The guards stopped watching. They'd grown tiresome of the torture.
"This is not the justice I seek, I simply want the eterna-blooded treated better" said one soldier.
Kroxus turned to him "Your wish is my command" he said as he walked to the soldier.
Boom. A whole burnt through the soldier.
But Gamishi never broke. He had stopped screaming. He just breathed.
But the silence became his rebellion.
𓆩⟡𓆪 ❂❂❂ 𓆩⟡𓆪
Then came the whisper.
Not from Kroxus — but from the dark itself. Gamishi's 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 turning low.
"Tell me what the message said on Saro's arm."
Gamishi didn't answer.
"Fine," Kroxus sighed. " In fact, why has it just dawned upon me that mortals can be selfish for others?"
Two demons looked at each other in confusion.
" What I'm trying to say is..." he said turning around.
"Let's see if your family is as strong willed as you are." he said. Sending chills down Gamishi.
The chains vanished. Gamishi fell, his knees hitting the cracked floor.
A rift opened beside them — a red gate, roaring with flame.
Through it, Gamishi saw Earth.
He saw his home — the same 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've finally paid off, lets test shall we?"
"NOO!" Gamishi yelled.
"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 and crawling jumped from the portal into another portal to earth.
"You promised not to hurt my family?" Gamishi said crawling desperately.
"What? When did I ever say so?" Kroxus said with a cruel smile bright on his face as he jumped through the portal to earth.
Gamishi's breath caught. Dragging himself towards the closing portal. Summoning every strand of strength — he gets there.
𓆩⟡𓆪❂❂❂𓆩⟡𓆪
The smell of blood. Screams of pain. Choke of smoke. Cries of agony.
That was all he saw, no matter which direction he looked. No matter what part of earth the portal took him to.
He lands in the place he recognises. Its his part of Earth. Despite being at the dawn of night and the blood painting everything except the sky, he knew.
After hours of threading portals...
Cities scorched in seconds. The ocean boiled.
Earth screamed.
Gamishi watched helplessly.
He turned towards the gate of his city, again — and froze.
Yuki stood there, clutching both sons.
Her face pale. Her eyes — brave.
Gamishi tried crawling to her. "Where do you think you're going?" Kroxus said stepping on Gamishi's fingers.
Gamishi yelled in pain. "Don't...touch..them. Please" he said weakly.
"Oh but you've been silent this whole time?" Kroxus said snatching the children from Yuki.
Yuki yelled "Don't touch them!".
Smack
His foot lashed at her face.
"Now boys, come say hello to your father" said Kroxus as he walked to Gamishi still on the ground.
Haruki and Akira struggled. They harnessed eterna — one as water, one as fire. And tossed it in Kroxus' face.
"You've taught your children well, Gamishi" he said then squassed the boys. The cracking sound echoing through Gamishi's ears.
He yelled. "YOU SAID YOU WOULDN'T HURT MY FAMILY! WHY!?"
Kroxus laughed — cruel, deliberate — then spoke "I'm a man of my word Gamishi, I never said they wouldn't die."
Kroxus raised his hand.
Her body lifted into the air — she tried to scream but flames hugged her throat.
"Gamishi…" she whispered through her burning voice.
"I love you."
And in one horrifying instant, disintegrated.
Her necklace hit the ground with a soft chime.
Gamishi didn't move. He Couldn't.
His eyes were wide. Empty.
Then, slowly, something inside him snapped.
𓆩⟡𓆪 ❂❂❂ 𓆩⟡𓆪
"I have a gift for you, Gamishi"
Kroxus gathered the agony of every soul he'd shattered. Their rage. Their terror. And poured it into Gamishi like venom.
He was about to leave— in fear of the Eternal one. To leave Gamishi in the pool of his families blood. To suffer alone.
But suddenly —
Flames bent around Gamishi.
Eterna — no longer bright, no longer pure — turned black, twisting into the ground.
The air whistled as Kroxus turned back.
Gamishi's hair grew and darkened, flowing like ink.
A red crack formed across his forehead, glowing like molten stone.
His eyes — once gold — became the embodiment of red.
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 — his voice a whisper and a roar all at once.
"It's mine now."
The chains shattered.
The ground broke.
Kroxus laughed. "You absorbed their emotion? Their fear? Their hate?" he asked rhetorically "This mortal really is something."
He smirked. "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.
𓆩⟡𓆪 ❂❂❂ 𓆩⟡𓆪
Back in the throne room, the projection dimmed to nothing.
Damon sat frozen, his heart pounding like a drum in his chest.
The dog trembled against his leg, tail tucked. Hazel floated silently, her light faint.
The Queen finally spoke, voice low and tired.
"That was the moment Gamishi, our hero turned."
Her eyes flickered with old sorrow.
"Not because he was weak… but because grief gave him power no mortal should ever wield."
"How?" the dog asked.
Hazel explained "Eterna can be powered by emotion to some extent"
"For instance, if you were happy, your eterna would be beautiful regardless of attribute" she said swirling her hands in the air creating a small glow of diamond light.
Damon and the dog amused.
"On the other hand, If you were angry, well...we saw how it is"
Damon swallowed hard. "And Kroxus?"
"Kroxus fled," she said. "He felt the Eternal One coming to punish him. But before he left… he smiled."
"Why?"
"Because even in defeat," the Queen whispered, "he knew someone else would carry his will, continue his mission."
"His will?" he asked.
"Gamishi intends to destroy all beings with eterna because he believed it's the root cause of his loss"
"How does that affect our world?" barked the dog.
"It does because all living things have eterna" Damon answered
The queen nodded.
"But how did the three planes become four?" he asked.
"The Eternal One took the remaining Eterna users 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, of course. Your plane is what you would call a multiverse, though that word barely holds its weight "
"The multiverse is real!?" Damon and the dog asked at the same time.
"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 Queen explained.
The light faded completely.
And in the silence that followed, Damon's eterna shimmered faintly on his chest for the first time.
𓆩⟡𓆪 ❂❂❂ 𓆩⟡𓆪
End of Chapter 12- Requiem.