The Heavy Shadow
Elara tilted her head slightly, her eyes tracking the crimson-haired girl with a deeply puzzled expression. She frowned softly, leaning closer to Kael to whisper, "She… looks incredibly familiar."
"You've already met her," Kael replied quietly, his voice barely carrying over the ambient noise of the room. "Remember? When she came to the house and delivered that letter."
Drake scoffed from the corner, crossing his arms over his chest. "She always loves creeping people out like this. It's practically her hobby."
"Hmm..." Kael murmured. He didn't look away from the girl.
Nyx glided across the room and settled onto the sofa. The exact moment she sat down, Kael felt a sudden, violent shift in the air. An oppressive, heavy aura flooded the room—the kind of suffocating presence that belonged exclusively to a lord born to rule. Yet, looking at her small frame, Elara couldn't shake the jarring impression that she was just a child.
"I am staying at my friend's house tonight," Nyx announced. Her voice was entirely flat, stripped of any youthful warmth.
Kael rubbed the back of his neck as a cold chill ran down his spine. It's a perfectly normal line, he thought, so why does it sound so sinister?
As if reading the exact frequency of his anxiety, Sara's voice echoed sharply within his mind: 'Who knows? But there's something too familiar about her... and it isn't good.'
Seeking a moment of quiet to process the suffocating weight in the living room, Kael retreated to his bedroom. He walked over to the window and glanced outside, but his muscles instantly locked tight.
Perched on the snowy roofs of the neighboring houses were demonfolks. They stood entirely still, their dark silhouettes stretching long under the moonlight as they stared intently at Kael's house. Sensing his gaze, one of the creatures slowly snapped its head toward the window. It locked eyes with Kael, its lips peeling back into a grotesque, impossibly wide smile.
Instead of panicking, Kael just smirked. The absurdity of the horror met something stubborn inside him. He turned away from the window and walked back out of the room, completely unfazed—maneuvering through the eerie atmosphere as if he had been born directly into it.
The Cold Awakening
The days bled into one another after that night. Everywhere Kael went, the demonfolks watched him from the shadows, their unblinking eyes tracking his every move. Strange, unknown structures were being built around the city by mysterious figures, yet the regular townsfolk seemed entirely blind to them. They didn't react to the buildings, nor did they notice the monsters lurking on the street corners.
Then came the afternoon Kael was leaving school.
Without warning, a group of demonfolks stepped out from the alleys, effectively blocking his path. Around him, the world continued to move in blissful ignorance. A van driver slightly veered his vehicle away from the area, casually avoiding the crowd without a second glance, completely unaware of the monsters standing in the road.
Suddenly, a wave of unnatural exhaustion hit Kael. His eyelids grew heavy, closing slowly as his body went limp. As he drifted into darkness, his mind transformed into an echoing chamber of frantic voices.
'Kael! Kael! Are you okay?!' Sara's voice echoed violently.
Then Drake's voice cut through: 'Kael! Wake up! Get up!'
But neither could take physical form to pull him away. The heavy suppression in the air kept them locked inside his consciousness, unable to help as Kael forced his eyes open to a completely unfamiliar sight.
He was in a dark, open room. Standing directly in front of him was a woman, calmly issuing orders to the surrounding demonfolks.
Drake's voice echoed with sudden horror in Kael's mind: 'No way…. Kael, she is a Demon Lord.'
Kael gulped, his inner voice trembling. 'What?'
'That's why we can't take physical form,' Sara explained, her usual calm replaced by taut tension. 'She already put a magical guard on you. Our manifestation is completely suppressed.'
Kael's mind raced as he stared at the figure. 'Drake... she wants to fight a ten-year-old boy?'
Drake replied grimly, 'Kael, in the demon realm, there is no partiality based on age. If you are a target, you are a target.'
Stunned, Kael watched as the girl slowly turned her head to glance at him. A mocking expression danced in her eyes. "Oh…. Hi…." she said softly. "You know my name. Nyx."
She dragged out the syllables of her name, letting it hang in the air like a threat.
Kael's breath hitched, his voice trembling despite his best efforts to control it. "W…. Wait. Are you the Nyx?"
She looked down at him coldly, her crimson eyes burning with a predatory hunger that made it feel as though she wanted to tear him apart on the spot. Kael forced his jaw to set, trying to find his footing. He smirked weakly, masking his terror. "What do you want?"
She smiled, a terrifyingly vacant expression. "Do you know today's date?"
Kael squeezed his brows together, thinking through the fog in his mind. "December 24th…." Then, the realization hit him like a physical blow. "Oh no…."
Nyx knelt down, bringing herself to eye level with him. "What if... I decide to kill your parents tonight?"
Strangely, Kael's immediate thought didn't flash to his parents—instead, the faces of his closest friends, Tatsuka and Shiya, flashed vividly behind his eyelids. A surge of raw, unadulterated fury flooded his system. His eyes filled with bloodshot veins as he began to scream, his voice tearing through the open, black room.
After a few minutes, the rage spent itself, leaving only a hollow ache. Kael closed his eyes, tears finally slipping down his cheeks. "Why...?" he whispered, his voice cracking.
Nyx tilted her neck, looking back over her shoulder. "Hmmm?"
"Why me?" Kael choked out, the tears dropping onto the cold floor. "Why my family? Why my friends? What did we ever do to you?"
She sighed, turning away with a dismissive wave of her hand. "I don't know what you're talking about."
The heavy door to the chamber slammed shut, leaving Kael alone in the suffocating silence of the dark room.
The Infinity Binding
The silence didn't last long. The heavy door groaned open again, and a succubus stepped into the room, her vibrant violet eyes glowing softly in the gloom. She carried a tray of food.
"Hey, little boy," she said, her voice surprisingly gentle. "Eat this food."
Kael glared up at her from the floor. "I'm not eating anything you give me."
The succubus let out a deep, tired breath. "I knew you were going to say that. That's why I brought the anesthesia, too." She lifted a small vial, her violet eyes locking onto his. "Eat the food willingly. If you don't, you will lose your family a lot sooner than you think."
Kael went completely motionless. The threat stripped away any remaining defiance. He sat paralyzed against the heavy wooden pole he was tied to, utterly helpless, until exhaustion and the lingering effects of the drugs forced him into an unconscious slumber.
When Kael finally woke up the next morning, his body felt entirely drained of energy. His system was struggling to recover from the sedation. Recognizing that he needed strength if he was going to survive, he forced himself to swallow the food left for him.
Right on cue, the same demon entered the room as the morning light filtered through the cracks in the wall. "Eat your breakfast and take proper rest," she commanded flatly.
Kael had no cards left to play. He obeyed the order in silence. Inside his mind, the profound suppression remained; Drake and Sara were still entirely cut off from the physical world.
'Sara….' Kael called out mentally.
'Hmmm…?' her voice sounded distant, strained.
'I have to use the Broken Soul technique,' Kael communicated desperately. 'It's the only way out.'
'If you use Broken Soul right now, it will be impossible to save you,' Sara warned sharply. 'Listen to me, Kael. Vrita isn't here. We don't have her dragon healing to put you back together if your soul shatters. You won't survive it.'
Kael gritted his teeth, tugging against the bindings cutting into his wrists. 'Then how do I break this rope?'
'You can't,' Sara said softly, her voice heavy with despair. 'It's impossible. The bindings are infused with Infinity magic. It cannot be broken by physical force.'
Kael looked up at the ceiling of the dark room, his despair turning into a hollow ache. "Wha—"
Before he could finish the thought, the heavy doors were thrown wide open. Two large demons grabbed him by the arms, dragging his weak body up a winding stone staircase until they emerged into the blinding light on the roof of the building.
Kael looked out at the scene waiting for him, and his eyes widened in sheer horror.