Leon's POV
Cold. That was all I felt.
How long have I been here? Days. Perhaps months. Time holds no meaning in this place.
Why did it have to be me? Why did I have to die? For thirteen years, I was cursed, insulted, mocked, beaten—the pain never ceased. I endured, clinging to the hope that at the end of this dark tunnel, there would be light. Yet, they even stole that from me.
"Do you desire power?" a voice echoed in the darkness.
Who's there? I turned, searching.
"Do you crave revenge? To make them all pay for dismissing you?"
Show yourself.
Silence. Then a shift. Darkness pulled me elsewhere.
A garden, infinite in bloom.
"What is this place?" I asked.
"Hello," the voice came from behind me.
I whipped around. A woman stood there, clad in a dark dress, her hair black as night, flowing freely.
Beautiful—that was the only word that came to mind.
"Thank you," she said. Her voice was unlike the one I'd heard before.
Wait, can she read my mind?
A smile curved her lips.
"Alright, enough staring." She approached me.
I straightened, fighting the urge to gape. She stopped before me, fixating her gaze. An uneasy feeling crept in—I needed to say something. I couldn't just stand there.
Her presence was warm, like being under a mother's tender care.
I took a breath. Focus.
"So... um... lovely weather today." I mentally facepalmed. Why was that all I could think of? I wished the ground would swallow me whole.
She chuckled.
"It's all right, young one. I'd be worried if you reacted any other way. Please, have a seat."
She gestured to a chair that hadn't been there before. I sat. She waved her hand, and a table appeared, adorned with a cup and a plate of snacks.
Magic. My eyes lit up. I'd always loved the arcane arts. Most of my allowance went into books about them. I dreamed of becoming one of the Evolved—those who wield mana.
But those bastards stole that chance when they killed me. Teeth clenched, anger surged.
A cold, gentle hand touched my face.
"Calm yourself, child," she said.
Right. It had already happened—nothing I could do about it.
"Where am I?" I asked. "How did I get here?"
"You are in the realm that separates the physical from the spiritual. The place where dead souls come to face judgment," she explained, gesturing around us. "This is the Veil."
Her voice carried authority.
She returned her gaze to me.
I am Raava, Keeper of this realm, Judge, Jury and Executioner.
I was speechless. I had read about her—Raava. The Mother of the end, the keeper of the Veil—the line dividing mortals from the celestial realm.
"Let the hearing begin," she announced. Her warm presence abruptly shifted into something cold.
"Like those before you, you will be given a chance to defend yourself and earn passage into paradise," she declared. "Your crime is being born, bearing the will of The Forgotten One. This condemns you to the pit. What say you?" she asked, delivering her verdict.
"I didn't ask to be born with it. Why would you all condemn, kill even now, judge a child for what he had no say in?" I pleaded. My voice was weary and tired.
A flicker of pity. Maybe. Passed through her eyes. "It is true that you had no say in the matter, but isn't it the curse of the child to bear the sin of his blood? No one wishes to be born the way they are, but they must accept it and move on. Accept your fate, child. Accept your punishment. For it is the only forgiveness you are to be granted." Her word left no room for debate.
"I have heard enough; judgment shall now be passed. Leon of Windfall, for bearing 'it's' will, you shall be sentenced to the pit!" As she spoke, the lush garden and greenery withered away, replaced by a fathomless black abyss that tugged at my soul.
I fought against its pull, instinctively knowing that if I fell, I would be changed forever.
"Don't resist, child. This is for the greater good of the world," she urged.
The same world that judged me without knowing, that killed me and cast me here—now demands my sacrifice for its survival.
As the darkness claimed me, fury ignited within my soul.
"BULLSHIT. What has the world ever done for me!" I roared. "Thirteen years of beating, mockery, suffering—all because of it. No more."
I drew a ragged breath from the air around me.
"HEAR ME NOW. I SWEAR VENGEANCE ON THIS WORLD. ON THE ONE WHO BROUGHT THIS FATE UPON ME. ON THE HEAVENS. ON ALL WHO CONDEMN ME!" I shouted with all my might.
"I will bring calamity upon you all. This I swear."
Throughout my outburst, Raava stood unmoved, as if my final cry was but the desperate scream of a forsaken soul.
"Scream all you wish. Your fate is sealed," she replied, her tone flat.
CRACK!
A jagged rupture tore through the fabric of space.
Raava's eyes widened in horror. "Who dares!" Her voice echoed with unimaginable power, almost as if I had already died again.
She lunged forward, summoning a magic circle to close the crack.
Meanwhile, the voice that had spoken to me in darkness whispered once more, "Do you want to survive? Do you seek the power to crush them all?"
"Yes," I responded without hesitation. No matter the cost, I would pay it later.
"It's done. Now go forth and unleash your wrath... Azazel," was the last thing I heard from the voice before my soul was pulled—not toward the pit, but toward the crack Raava was nearly done closing.
Get back here, vermin! she shouted, releasing some of her mana from the crack to ensnare me.
Sadly for her, the crack pull was stronger than her. As my soul passed through it, I cast her a final, lingering glance.
The expression of disbelief and rage on her face was priceless, 'I'll be back for you, bitch.' I thought before everything went dark.