Death.

Chapter 30: Burning...

Jade rose to her feet, her breath still heavy from the battle, and immediately reached for Fenrir. Her fingers closed firmly around his forearm before he could take another step toward Reiko. "Don't." The word was quiet, but there was authority behind it.

Despite Jade’s plea, Fenrir's eyes never left the general. Across the battlefield, Reiko advanced through the chaos with his warhammer gripped in both hands. Every soldier who dared to intercept him was met with a violent sweep of the massive weapon. Metal shattered whenever the hammer struck armour, and their bodies were thrown aside as the general forced his way through the remaining defenders, his eyes fixed solely upon the emperor.

Jade tightened her grip on Fenrir's arm. "Help me get Kintaro to safety." She gestured toward the fallen Shokan nearby. The Tigrar-Shokan was barely conscious, his armour torn open across his side and blood running freely down his body. One of his hands pressed weakly against the wound as he struggled to remain conscious.

Fenrir did not answer immediately. His gaze remained locked on Reiko as the general continued approaching. Jade saw it before he even spoke. His decision had already been made. "Fenrir."

The emperor finally turned his head toward her, though his eyes remained hard with determination. "It's now or never, Jade."

He raised one hand and motioned toward two nearby warriors. Both men immediately broke away from the fighting and hurried toward them. "You know we can't allow him to escape." Fenrir's voice carried the certainty of someone who knew what the next few minutes would mean for the outcome of the battle. "Not while victory is this close."

Jade looked down. She hated how right he was. The loyalist forces were collapsing. Sheeva and Ilur had broken through from the south. The Shokan clans were finally fighting as one, and the Imperium forces were pressing forward on every side. Reiko and his loyalists were becoming increasingly isolated. If he escaped now, everything they had sacrificed to protect Kuatan would be for nought.

Yet Jade could not silence the other thought screaming inside her. Fenrir would be alone. Again. Her heart tightened. She still could not bring herself to look at him properly. The revelation in the palace remained painfully fresh in her mind. Fenrir, the man she had fallen in love with, was a Nephilim. Moreover, there was something else living inside him, something ancient and malignant enough to seize control of his body and nearly kill her with his own hands around her throat. She could still remember the darkness in his eyes…The unnatural veins spreading beneath his skin. The voice that had spoken through him. She remembered how powerless she had felt when it had happened.

Fenrir had promised her that the being would not return. She wanted to believe him. Gods help her, she desperately wanted to. But the trust she had for him would not return simply because someone promised it would. Not after everything.

Still, despite the anger burning beneath her ribs, Jade's concern for him remained stronger than she wanted to admit. She knew exactly how capable Fenrir was. She had watched him survive things that would have killed the strongest of warriors. Yet, she had also seen him become something terrifying in battle and then somehow force that darkness back into the depths of himself…That was precisely what frightened her.

Reiko was not just another soldier. He had already fought Fenrir once. And if the general had somehow survived everything that had happened tonight, then Jade could not dismiss the possibility that he had one final weapon remaining. For Reiko was above all cunning, ruthlessly so.

Jade looked toward Reiko and then back at Fenrir. She wanted him safe, alive. For him to stay beside her when the fighting finally stopped, the fires and screams dying with them and when there was finally enough silence for them to figure out what they were going to become after all of this.

Even after the truth had shattered something between them. She still wanted him with her, to help him in this fight.  But Kintaro needed help, and the battlefield needed a commander. But above all, Reiko had to be dealt with. There was no avoiding it.

Jade slowly released Fenrir's arm. The two warriors reached Kintaro and immediately moved to either side of him, helping the wounded Shokan lift himself from the ground.

Fenrir understood what was happening inside her mind. How could he not? He could see it in Jade's eyes. She was afraid. Not of him. For him. Fenrir reached for her hand. Jade stiffened almost imperceptibly when his fingers touched hers. She still did not look at him. She couldn't…Not yet.

Fenrir gently turned her hand in his and ran his thumb across the soft skin of her palm. The simple gesture carried none of the confidence he displayed on the battlefield. There was no emperor in it. No warrior. Only the man she loved.

The warmth of his hand spread through hers, familiar enough to hurt. For one fleeting instant, the battlefield seemed to disappear. This was something only the two of them could understand. A tiny remnant of the intimacy they had shared before the truth about Fenrir had come crashing into their lives. A touch they had exchanged countless times without thinking.

Now, that same touch reminded Jade of how deeply she loved him. And, painfully, how much she had trusted him.

Fenrir's voice was quieter when he spoke. "He won't come back." Jade finally moved her eyes toward him. Fenrir held her gaze. He knew exactly who he was referring to. "I won't let him." His thumb brushed gently across the back of her hand before his fingers tightened around hers. "I promise."

Jade searched his face. For the lie, the uncertainty. For that darkness she feared might still be lurking somewhere beneath his eyes. Yet, she found none. Only Fenrir.  Her heart argued with her fear. She hated how easily he could still reach the part of her that loved him. After what Kitana had done by keeping Mileena’s origin a secret for her, she had promised herself that she would never again allow blind trust to destroy her. Yet here she was, standing in the middle of a battlefield, once again placing her faith in someone she loved.

It felt foolish doing so again. Perhaps it was. But there were moments when the heart knew something the mind could not prove. And in this moment, Jade's soul told her that Fenrir meant what he said.

She slowly exhaled. "…Go." The word was reluctant, but it carried warmth. Jade immediately moved beside Kintaro, helping stabilise the wounded Shokan. Kintaro grunted through clenched teeth but managed to remain standing. This time, when she looked at Fenrir, there was no uncertainty in her eyes. Only resolve. "Beat the living shit out of that bastard."

Fenrir stared at her for half a second. Then he grinned. It was that familiar grin. The one Jade had seen countless times before whenever Fenrir was about to do something reckless, impossible, or both.

He spun Arondite once around his hand, the black blade flashing with dark-blue fire as it traced a bright arc through the smoke-filled air. "With pleasure."

Fenrir turned toward Reiko and marched forward. Then his pace quickened, charging toward the general. Reiko saw him coming and prepared for what was about to come. For a brief moment, the battlefield seemed to narrow around the two men. Everything else became background noise for the duel at hand.

The two mighty warriors had faced each other multiple times before. Sun Do, the many battles that came after, where the lives taken had become uncountable…And now Kuatan, the end of the road. Every encounter had left scars. Tonight, one of them intended to make the next scar final.

Fenrir reached him first. Arondite crashed against the ornate grip of Reiko's warhammer with tremendous force, the collision sending a metallic spark through both weapons. Fenrir expected the weapon to buckle from the strength of his attack. Yet, it didn’t.

Reiko's grin widened. "So, we meet again." His voice was calm despite the violence around him, mockingly so. "Under fire and death."

Fenrir pushed harder against the hammer; the blue flames around Arondite danced violently between the weapons. "Looks like it." His eyes narrowed. "Sadly, for you…" Then, Fenrir suddenly shifted his weight. "There won't be a tomorrow."

With one hand, he released Arondite's hilt. His revolver came up instantly; Fenrir pressed the barrel against the general's abdomen. Reiko's eyes widened in surprise.  Then, three shots erupted at point-blank range. The bullets tore through flesh and armour alike.

Reiko staggered backwards. Blood immediately spilt across his abdomen as Fenrir stepped away, weapon still raised. For a heartbeat, Reiko looked down. Fenrir expected him to collapse. Instead, the general laughed confidently.

Then something began moving beneath Reiko's wounds. Fresh flesh formed across the bullet holes. Then, the holes closed. A second later, the same bullets dropped from Reiko's body and struck the ground.

Fenrir stared in disbelief "What the fu—" Suddenly, a blast of green energy struck him in the chest before he could finish. The blast sent the emperor hurling backwards, making him crash hard against the ground, his boots carving trenches through ash and shattered stone.

He rolled once and forced himself back to his feet. Then he looked up. Reiko stood before him. And, in ire mixed with horror, Fenrir finally understood. In one hand, the general held his warhammer. Around the other, a mass of green spectral energy churned like a miniature storm.

Hundreds of souls seemed to twist within the orb, their distorted forms barely visible before being swallowed into the green light. Fenrir’s face contorted with clear disdain; he had seen power like this before. From none other than Shang Tsung. Then, another image surfaced in his mind, a haunting one. Reiko stood exactly like Shao Kahn.

For centuries, the fallen emperor had wielded the souls of the dead as weapons, fuel, and extensions of his own strength. Reiko, somehow, had found a way to do the same.

Fenrir slowly rose to his full height. Reiko extended his hand slightly, allowing the green energy to coil around his fingers. "Like it?" He grinned proudly. "A parting gift from the sorcerer."

Fenrir's jaw tightened. Shang Tsung had fled when Goro fell, leaving Reiko behind to deal with the consequences. His grand design had failed. Yet the sorcerer prior to the battle had apparently given his ally something capable of changing the entire fight. The sorcerer had given exactly what he needed to pursue his vengeance.

Reiko's devotion to Shao Kahn had never disappeared, nor will it ever. If anything, the months of war had sharpened it into something far darker. The general lifted the hammer onto his shoulder.

Fenrir's eyes narrowed. "How many, Reiko?" Fenrir's voice rose above the battlefield. "How many innocent souls did you take!?"

The green energy twisted around Reiko's hand. "Hundreds." Then he shrugged and tilted his head. "Thousands, perhaps." There was no remorse nor hesitation in his tone. Nothing resembling shame for the vile act he had committed in the name of vengeance.

He pointed the hammer toward Fenrir. "More than enough to defeat you, Earthrealmer."

Fenrir's expression hardened. He had once considered sparing Reiko. Carkas had spoken highly of him as a hero of his people. Fenrir had believed there might still be something worth preserving beneath the general's hatred. That man was becoming increasingly difficult to recognise; malignance had won over the love for his people.

The battlefield continued to rage around them. Bodies bearing both their insignias lay scattered across the broken ground; fires burned through collapsed structures as steel rang against steel while the loyalists and the emperor’s men, Imperium and Shokan warriors alike, continued tearing each other apart.

Fenrir slowly raised Arondite. "Carkas once told me you were a hero for your people." Yet, Reiko's expression did not change at the mention of his old friend. "He told me I should consider sparing you." Fenrir's eyes narrowed. "Now I know what you are." Then, he pointed the blade directly at Reiko. "A monster."

Reiko smiled; there was no insult in his expression. He seemed almost proud of the accusation.

His grip tightened around his hammer. "What's one more life…" Then, he lowered himself into a combat stance. "For victory?"

Fenrir stared at him. In that moment, the flames surrounding Arondite intensified. He raised his revolver with his other hand. The six chambers glowed faintly as the hellfire within the bullets awakened. "Do you know what I do with monsters, Reiko?" Fenrir's eyes grew cold, piercingly so. "I hunt them down."

In that moment, Fenrir charged forward once again. Reiko met him. Their weapons crashed together again, but Fenrir altered his approach at the last instant. Instead of meeting the hammer head-on, he slipped beneath the strike and slid between Reiko's legs.

Reiko twisted, trying to track his movement. But it was too late for the general. Fenrir came up behind him with a savage upward slash. Arondite cut across Reiko's back, tearing through armour and flesh, leaving a deep, bloody wound from hip to shoulder.

Reiko staggered; he tried to reach behind him instinctively. Yet, Fenrir did not give him time. Arondite moved again and again. Fenrir attacked with precision rather than reckless power, targeting openings in Reiko's armour while his revolver barked between sword strikes. There was no remorse in them, for mercy was long gone in their rivalry, only conviction.

Six hellfire rounds tore into the general. Fire erupted from Reiko's chest and shoulders, burning flesh and cracking armour once again. The force of the attack drove him backwards. For several seconds, Reiko appeared to vanish beneath the flames. Then the green souls surrounding him surged once again, spiralling inward. In that moment, Reiko's wounds began closing just like before.

Fenrir watched carefully as flesh regenerated over the damaged sections. The price was obvious. Every wound consumed souls to heal itself.

Fenrir's expression hardened. He needed more power if he wanted to stop the process from repeating. On the bright side, if there was one to the situation, it meant the power had a limit. He just had to force Reiko to reach it.

It was then that Reiko suddenly lunged. Fenrir barely raised his arm before the general's fist crashed into his face, staggering him. Reiko followed immediately with another strike to the ribs. Then he spun his hammer and slammed it into Fenrir's chest.

The impact launched Fenrir several feet backwards. The emperor landed hard and rolled across the debris. Before he could fully recover, Reiko jumped. The general raised his soul-empowered hammer above his head; Fenrir's eyes widened as Reiko brought the hammer down. The ground shook afterwards. A massive wave of soul energy erupted from the point of impact, spreading outward in a violent shockwave.

Fenrir, cunningly and swiftly, threw himself sideways as the blast tore through the ground where he had stood. Even from a distance, tendrils of green energy caught him.

The souls burned across his skin. Fenrir grunted and rolled away before forcing himself upright. "Goddammit!" The burns on his arm and shoulder began closing as his regeneration activated, but not quickly enough to ignore the damage.

Fenrir flexed his fingers; he could feel the difference in Reiko’s strength. His strikes were heavier, much heavier. Stronger in nature. He was, without a doubt now in his mind, not the same warrior he had faced in their countless battles.

A surge of electricity formed around Fenrir's hand as he channelled the spell. He thrust his palm forward. Once released, lightning exploded toward Reiko.

Surprisingly, the general vanished. Fenrir's eyes widened in surprise. Reiko reappeared behind him, having teleported by dodging the emperor’s attack.  The punch that followed caught Fenrir between the shoulder blades. A second struck his chest. Then the hammer came next. It slammed into his abdomen and sent him crashing into the ground once more.

Fenrir coughed violently as blood ran from the corner of his mouth. He spat it aside. "Fuck me…" Fenrir said, then he pushed himself up onto one knee. He could feel his body working to repair the damage. Yet it was taking longer than usual.

Reiko's attacks weren't merely stronger; the soul magic behind them was placing an enormous strain on Fenrir's regenerative abilities. Fenrir looked toward his opponent. He had survived the Shokan prince's strength and brutality. But this Reiko had surpassed that level. The stolen souls had transformed an already skilled general into something considerably more dangerous.

The Elder Gods had forbidden the practice for a reason. Soul magic wasn’t just dangerous because of what it could do to the user. It was dangerous because every ounce of power came from someone who had died. Someone whose existence was being consumed and lost forever in the void.

Fenrir slowly wiped the blood from his lips. Yet, the general wouldn’t allow him to recover. Reiko charged again. Fenrir rolled beneath the first hammer strike and sprang upward, twisting through the air to create distance before landing several metres away. The hammer came down two more times, but Fenrir dodged each strike skilfully. Then, he slipped to the side as the third strike swept toward his ribs.

Fenrir bent backwards just enough for the hammer to pass over him. "Is that the best you've got, asshole?!" Reiko snarled and attacked again. Fenrir parried and countered immediately, driving Arondite across Reiko's chest. Blood sprayed from it as the general staggered.

Fenrir followed it with a flurry of slashes across the abdomen and shoulder. Each strike opened another wound, forcing Reiko to sacrifice more souls. Reiko's aggression remained deadly, but Fenrir was no longer attempting to match strength with strength. He was forcing the general to spend what he had.

Then, after another exchange of attacks, Fenrir stepped inside Reiko's guard and drove Arondite upward. The blade tore across Reiko's torso. The general roared in pain as souls surged into the wound. Fenrir watched them disappear. It was then that he took advantage of the situation.

Fenrir's eyes hardened as he raised his revolver. Then, he emptied the weapon’s chamber in a quick-fire succession. Once Fenrir's revolver clicked empty, he holstered it.  Then, Reiko's body began healing again. Yet Fenrir did not wait.

The emperor extended one hand. Fire erupted around his palm. At first, it was only a concentrated sphere. Then it expanded; flames roared outward. Fenrir unleashed the spell with all the force he could muster. The inferno engulfed Reiko.

For several seconds, the battlefield disappeared behind a wall of fire. Reiko's silhouette remained visible inside it. Then the flames intensified, his armour melted, and his skin blackened. The general's body was consumed until almost nothing remained but a charred silhouette. Fenrir maintained the spell until his arm trembled from the strain. Then, finally, he released it. A final pressure wave exploded from his palm and hurled Reiko's burned body across the battlefield. The general slammed into the ground motionless…Defeated.

Fenrir stood breathing heavily. He could barely believe it. Then he heard another sound. A war cry from the south. The reinforcements had arrived. Sheeva and Ilur emerged through the smoke at the head of the Shokan forces, their warriors pouring into Kuatan like a living wall. Just as Sheeva had promised. The remaining loyalists were already beginning to retreat under pressure, but the arrival of the Shokans shattered whatever cohesion they had left.

Jade saw Sheeva and immediately joined the advance. She led the Imperium troops forward from the opposite side, rallying the remaining warriors around her.

The final charge began. Shokan warriors crashed into the loyalist lines with overwhelming force. Hammering their arms, blades, and sheer size tore through the enemy formation. Kuatan was finally turning. Victory was within reach.

Fenrir lowered his burning hand. His chest rose and fell heavily. He turned toward the battlefield. And then he heard a voice. A voice he had feared he might never hear again.

"Fen!" Fenrir froze. The sound cut through everything. He turned and finally saw her again.

Mileena stood in the distance, no longer alone and lost to them. Kitana was beside her. Skarlet stood just behind them. For the first time, Fenrir saw the three women together without hatred dividing them. Mileena was smiling, not with the expression she used to hide pain, but genuinely.

The sight struck Fenrir harder than any weapon. His eyes widened, joy flooded his face, and his voice came out quietly. "…Mileena?" After everything that had happened between them. Her disappearance, the battles, the bloodshed…she was here. Alive, with Kitana. Together once again.

Fenrir smiled joyfully. He took one step toward them…And that was all it took. The first sensation was barely more than a sting. Something sharp had entered his abdomen.

Fenrir's smile vanished. The sensation widened. The blade pushed deeper and deeper. His body stiffened as blood filled his mouth. He looked down. A sword had emerged through his stomach. The weapon was silvered and dark-edged, driven through his body from behind with enough force to tear through flesh, muscle, and bone alike.

Fenrir's eyes widened. Whoever held the weapon shoved it farther through him. The wound was enormous. Even a Nephilim could not simply ignore damage like this. His knees weakened.

In despair, across the battlefield, Mileena saw it happen. Her expression shattered. "NO!" The scream came from somewhere deep within her. She had only just found him. After waiting and believing there might finally be a chance to have the people she loved beside her again. And now Fenrir was falling, being taken away from her.

Jade turned. The instant she saw him, the colour drained from her face. "Fen!" The emperor staggered forward. His legs finally gave out.

Jade collapsed to her knees as the blood poured from his body, yet she rushed towards him. Kitana and Skarlet followed suit; their faces twisted in horror. For once, Kitana had no composure left to hide behind. Skarlet moved faster than anyone, already preparing herself to stop the bleeding, but the wound was too large.

Then Fenrir heard a voice behind him, from the man responsible for his wound. Reiko slowly pushed himself upright. What remained of his body was horrifying. Much of his flesh had been burned away. His armour was ruined. One side of his face was little more than charred tissue…And yet, he remained standing.

Green light flickered around him, not as pronounced as before. Only remnants, what remained of those stolen souls. Reiko smiled through the remains of his burned lips. "I might lose tonight." His eyes were fixed on Fenrir. "But I'm taking you to the grave."

Fenrir barely had the strength to turn his head. Reiko looked down at the sword buried inside him. "Don't even think of healing that." The general's smile widened as flesh slowly regenerated across the worst of his burns. "This is Netherrealm steel." Fenrir stared at the weapon. Reiko tightened his grip. "No wound can close once its blade reaches it."

The emperor's body trembled as Reiko tightened his hands around the sword. Then he pulled the blade free. Fenrir screamed in pure agony; his body folded. Reiko raised the weapon once again high, intending to finish it with one final and decisive strike. But before the hellish sword could fall, a bladed fan came slicing through the air.

It struck Reiko across the shoulder. The force knocked him sideways, staggering the Outworld general.  Kitana stood with her second fan already raised, no longer horrified but full of ire against the general.

Reiko looked at her. For a moment, the two stared at one another. Then the general laughed. His remaining loyalists began retreating around him, dragging wounded soldiers through the smoke. Reiko backed away, never taking his eyes off Fenrir. "See you in hell, Emperor!" Then he disappeared into the shadows with what remained of his forces, leaving behind chaotic agony and the blood of the man he had finally brought down.

Jade finally reached Fenrir. She caught him before he could collapse entirely. "Stay with me." Her voice was breaking. "Fenrir, stay with me." Kitana dropped beside them, pressing one hand against his wound while Skarlet attempted to assess the damage. Yet, there was too much blood. Even worse, the blood seemed to confront her. The hellish blade had poisoned it, stopping her from being able to save the emperor.

Mileena stood only a few steps away. Frozen. She couldn't speak or breathe. She had spent so long believing that she wanted Kitana to understand her pain. And now, after finally finding her sister again, she was watching the man she cared for most bleed to death.

Jade held him as steady as she could; tears rolled down both her eyes. His body felt heavy, far too heavy. His strength disappeared all at once. The sounds of the battlefield began fading around him. The fire became distant.

Mileena's cries became muffled. Skarlet and Kitana’s shattered expressions disappeared from his sight. Jade's voice blurred into something he could no longer understand.

He looked toward her, to speak. But nothing came. His vision darkened. The last thing he felt was Jade's hand gripping his. Then everything became black. There was no battlefield anymore, only darkness.

A strange calm settled over him. Then, through the darkness, another voice reached him. A voice he had heard before. One that seemed to echo through time itself.

Kronika’s words came softly, almost like a warning whispered directly into his soul. "When the dark hands stand above you, do not mistake it for closure, for death shall one day give you life."

Fenrir's thoughts drifted. The darkness felt endless. His body no longer felt like his own. Whatever remained of him was slipping away. A small, almost bitter smile touched his lips.

"Sad…" He thought. "I thought there would be stars..."

Then, his eyes closed. And the darkness swallowed him completely. For Fenrir, there was nothing beyond that moment. Only silence. Death had come. And this time, he could not fight back.

---

First, there was silence. 

It was strangely peaceful despite how haunting the emptiness of the void felt. There were no screams. Only darkness. Death felt strangely cold. It wasn’t painful, yet neither peaceful. Just empty. Fenrir drifted through it without knowing where the darkness began or ended.

During his years as a demon hunter, he had encountered countless spirits and rescued others from the creatures that preyed upon them. He had heard stories of the afterlife from beings who had glimpsed it and returned, each account different from the last. Perhaps there would be a light. A massive, blinding light at the end of an endless road. Maybe there would be a door waiting for him, inviting him beyond the threshold. Or perhaps there had never been a path waiting for him at all.

Fenrir had killed too many people to pretend otherwise. Even when his motives had been righteous, or when he had believed he was protecting the innocent or ridding the world of monsters, a life had still been taken by his hand.

Then, his mind returned to the darkness leaving inside of him. Perhaps his soul had been tainted from the beginning. There had been times when Fenrir had willingly loosened his grip and allowed it to take control. Sometimes because he had needed its strength. Other times because he had simply been too exhausted, too angry, or too consumed by his own desire for vengeance to stop it. When it had taken lives, innocent or malignant alike, those deaths were his responsibility too. There was no excuse he could offer himself in death that he had not already used in life.

Perhaps, instead of walking toward some radiant afterlife, he should have been falling endlessly into the Netherrealm, dragged beneath its burning depths to answer for every life he had taken. For all the good Fenrir believed he had done, some part of him had always suspected that was where he belonged.

Yet fate had apparently prepared something far stranger. The darkness began to fade. At first, Fenrir barely noticed. Then came sensation. Heat touched his skin. Sound returned first as a faint crackling somewhere nearby, followed by the soft flicker of flames. Stone pressed coldly against his body as his lungs tightened before instinctively drawing in air.

Fenrir gasped; the breath burned and returned to his chest. His fingers twitched against the stone. Muscles and limbs that moments ago had felt nonexistent slowly returned to life. Fenrir slowly pushed himself upright, breathing heavily as air filled his lungs again.

For several seconds, he remained there, hunched over and trying to understand what was happening. He was alive. Or something close enough to it. Fenrir lifted his head. Confusion immediately replaced the exhaustion in his expression. This was not the void. Nor was it the blazing pit he had expected to find waiting for him.

He was inside a chamber constructed from dark stone polished to an almost ebony sheen. Black banners hung along the walls, each bearing the same strange pyre-like symbol. Weapons had been mounted throughout the room: axes, swords, polearms and other instruments of war arranged almost as though they were part of the room's design rather than mere decorations. Heavy tapestries hung between them...Dark wooden furniture occupied the corners.

Everything about the chamber seemed built around the same aesthetic; ancient, imposing and undeniably infernal. Torches burned from iron sconces. Their flames were not orange. They were deep crimson. The fire cast a bloody glow across the room, while tall arched windows allowed a strange dark-orange light to filter through from outside.

Fenrir narrowed his eyes. Something about the place was wrong. The temperature was warm, unnaturally so. Not the fleeting warmth produced by the torches, either. The heat seemed to exist within the very environment itself, as though this place had been forged around an eternal pyre. There was no sensation of changing climate here. No cool draft...And somehow, it felt familiar.

Fenrir slowly looked down at himself. His confusion deepened. He was naked, mostly. A dark linen wrap covered what little modesty remained, leaving his upper body completely exposed.

Fenrir stared at himself for a moment. Then at the room. Then back at himself. "What the fuc—?" His voice sounded rough and dry. He placed one hand against the floor and pushed himself upright. His legs immediately buckled.

"Fuck!" Fenrir caught himself against the edge of the stone, breathing hard while his muscles struggled to support his weight. Whatever had happened to him, his body had clearly not returned to normal.

He remained there for several seconds, allowing his strength to settle. Then he heard something. Footsteps that echoed from the wide-open doorway to his right. Someone was coming. Fenrir immediately straightened as much as his weakened body allowed. He prepared himself instinctively, despite having no weapon and barely enough strength to stand.

A young woman appeared in the doorway. Fenrir's eyes widened slightly. By appearance, she looked around his age. She wore a stark black leather cropped jacket over a dark, form-fitting top. Thin crimson straps crossed over her collarbone, adding small flashes of colour to an otherwise dark outfit. But her hair immediately drew his attention. Most of it was raven-black, falling around her face in messy, textured layers. Yet a deliberate streak of white cut through it, standing out sharply against the darkness.

There was something unusual about her. Something difficult to define. Dark markings surrounded her eyes, somewhere between tattoos and war paint, giving her gaze an intensity that made it difficult to look away. A faint trace of crimson coloured her lower lip, adding to the strange, dangerous beauty she carried. It was not the soft kind of beauty Fenrir associated with Edenian nobility. It was sharper. Magnetic, the sort that commanded attention rather than invited it.

But whatever impression she made on him, her own reaction was far more immediate. The instant she saw him standing there, her expression changed completely. "Shit!" She said, shocked.

Fenrir blinked. Before he could say anything, the woman spun around and hurried back through the doorway. "Wait—!"  Her footsteps disappeared into the corridor. Fenrir stared after her. "Shit," he muttered. He looked around the room again. "That doesn't sound good."

He tried to take a step toward the doorway. Yet his legs nearly gave out again. "Fuck!" Fenrir grabbed the edge of the nearest table and steadied himself. His body was slowly responding now, but something was clearly wrong. He had died. He began to remember it now. How the sword went through his abdomen...Jade screaming his name. Then, the darkness and Kronika's words. And then nothing.

How was he standing here? Where was here? And why was a stranger so shocked to see him alive? Fenrir barely had time to form another thought before footsteps returned.

The woman entered again. But this time, she was not alone. Fenrir's expression changed instantly. The weak confusion disappeared. His entire body stiffened despite the exhaustion weighing down his muscles. He knew the man standing behind her. Or, at least, he knew the face.

It was the face of a man he had spent years trying to forget. A ghost from the past...His past. Fenrir took an involuntary step backwards. "No…" His eyes narrowed. "No, no, no." Disbelief gave way to anger. "This has got to be a sick fucking joke."

The man entered the chamber without haste. He wore a magnificent, tailored black coat that swept down past his knees. The dark fabric was fitted around broad shoulders and a muscular chest that remained partially exposed beneath it. Intricate charcoal embroidery ran through the coat, almost absorbing the crimson light around him rather than reflecting it.

His skin possessed a pale, almost porcelain quality. Yet beneath it ran dark ember-like veins. They pulsed faintly along his collarbone and arms, glowing with the subtle rhythm of ancient blood moving through his veins. 

Two massive ridged horns swept backwards from his forehead like a dark crown. His ears were sharply pointed. His eyes burned with an intense crimson glow. Long, midnight-black hair framed a face carved with sharp, sculpted features.

There was something undeniably striking about him. Even beneath the demonic nature of his appearance, his features possessed a terrible kind of handsomeness. He looked less like a common demon and more like a ruler who had been forged in the depths of Hell itself. A figure meant to command. To be revered by those who followed him. And feared by those who opposed him.

Fenrir knew those traits. He had seen them in himself countless times whenever he looked into a mirror. That realisation made his stomach turn. The woman stood several steps to the side, tense and alert now. One hand gripped a dagger, its dark metal carrying an unnatural sheen that suggested that the weapon was enchanted. Her posture remained defensive as she watched Fenrir carefully, as though she still wasn't certain what he might do.

The demon, however, seemed far less concerned. He looked directly at Fenrir. For several seconds, neither spoke. Then a faint grin appeared on the demon's face. Not cruelly, there was something almost pleased about it. As though seeing Fenrir awaken had confirmed something he had been waiting a very long time to see.

Fenrir's heart pounded. His mind raced through memories he had buried so deeply that he had almost convinced himself they belonged to someone else.

Then, the demon finally spoke. His voice was deep and commanding, echoing through the chamber as though the room itself recognised his authority. "Welcome home." Fenrir froze once he heard his voice. A haunting memory came back in that very instance. The man's crimson eyes remained fixed upon him. "My son."

Sareena?

11 votes · Closes Oct 30, 2026, 4:39 AM (1 month from now)

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