Chapter 105:
The air in the cell was so thick it felt like breathing living shadows, an invisible weight crushing his chest. With every second, the darkness grew stronger, coiling around him like an endless prison.
Inside his mind, Rasen floated in an ocean of shadows. Before him, Sariel emerged, wreathed in a mist of pure void.
"Always the same, aren't you?" His voice echoed, mocking and hollow. "You fight, you love, you lose… and in the end, you always crawl back to me. To the abyss you'll never escape."
Rasen's gaze snapped up, fury and desperation twisting his features.
"You have no idea what's happened."
Sariel laughed, a sound like shattering glass.
"Don't I? I am the echo of every loss you've suffered. Clear died because you couldn't save her. Evans, your own brother, betrayed you. And Cristal… your own children."
A cruel smile slithered across his lips.
"What kind of man kills his own flesh and blood?"
Rasen trembled. Memories consumed him—the frenzy, the blood, the screams of his children.
In the darkest corner of his mind, Rasen saw Cristal's face—her eyes open, lifeless—and felt the warmth of his daughter's blood on his hands again. Sariel didn't need to say it. He only had to make him remember.
"No... I didn't—"
Sariel stepped forward, his footsteps drumming like a funeral march in the void.
"You're weak. Always have been. You are nothing without me."
The shadows chained him, forcing him to his knees.
Rasen squeezed his eyes shut, but Sariel's whisper slithered into his ear:
"Aisha… That woman. Is she love? Redemption? Maybe I should find out for myself."
The name ignited something in him.
"Don't you dare touch her, Sariel."
Sariel grinned.
"Oh, but I already have. I've seen her in your memories—so determined, so brave. A perfect weakness for a man like you."
He raised a hand, and the shadows twisted like serpents.
"Let's see how she feels when I greet her… wearing your face."
In the Physical World
The chains binding Rasen had loosened. His body lay motionless—but something had changed.
A pulsing shadow clung to him, thick as a second skin.
Then… his eyes snapped open.
They were no longer Rasen's.
Black. Bottomless. Hungry.
Sariel now wore Rasen's body like a suit, his soul pounding against its prison like a caged beast.
The cell door creaked open.
Aisha stepped in first, Varek behind her. Outside, the howls of beasts echoed—but inside, the air itself had turned to lead.
"Rasen…?" Aisha whispered, but the name died on her lips.
The figure on the ground lifted its head—slow, unnatural. A twisted smile stretched across its face.
"Always showing up at the worst time… or maybe the best."
Sariel spoke with Rasen's voice, but the cadence was wrong—mocking, dripping with malice.
Aisha's blood turned to ice. That voice scraped against her nerves like a blade.
The shadow around Rasen rippled. In a blink, a tendril lashed out—coiling around Aisha's throat like a viper.
"You haven't changed at all," Sariel murmured before hurling her like a ragdoll into the wall.
"AISHA!" Varek lunged for her.
Sariel flicked his wrist. A wall of darkness erupted, sealing the cabin. Now, they were trapped.
Two brothers, divided by betrayal and death.
And Aisha, caught in the middle.
"Sariel…" Varek's voice was raw. "Let her go. This isn't what you want."
A hollow laugh escaped Sariel's lips.
"Isn't it?" He stepped closer, each movement deliberate, predatory. "Always the noble one, Varek. Always protecting everyone else. But tell me… who protected me when you let me die?"
Varek flinched. The words hit like a physical blow.
"It was a mistake… I couldn't save you—"
"Exactly!" Sariel roared. "You couldn't save me… and now, you can't save her either."
A twitch of his fingers. The shadow-chain tightened.
Aisha gasped, hands clawing at her throat, body jerking in desperate, silent struggle.
"Varek, Varek, Varek—" Her mind screamed his name.
"Let. Her. Go." Varek's voice broke.
Sariel's eyes burned with venomous disgust.
"She has everything to do with this! Because you care for her. And that… sickens me."
His gaze locked onto Aisha, jealousy twisting his features.
"She's stealing the only thing that should be mine. Your brother."
Varek stepped forward. "Sariel, this isn't you. I won't abandon you again."
"I'm not your brother, Varek." Sariel's whisper shook the cell. "I'm what you left rotting in that grave."
With a violent jerk, the shadow-chain released Aisha.
She collapsed, gasping, body slamming against stone.
Sariel looked at her with disdain, leaning in to whisper in her ear:
"Brave… but replaceable."
Then he flung her aside like she had never mattered.
At the same time, the dark barrier trembled—pulsing with Sariel's rage.
"If you can't protect her… then you don't deserve her."
Varek charged, ignoring the pain screaming through his body.
But Sariel was ready, lips curled in a cruel smile, savoring every second of the fight to come.
Their eyes met—just for an instant.
The boys they had been.
The monster one had become.
The same face. The same blood.
For a fleeting moment, Varek remembered Sariel as a child—laughing in the rain, mud on his feet, eyes still bright. That boy was gone. All that remained was the echo… and the wound.
And for the first time…
Sariel didn't want to destroy his brother.
He wanted him to beg.