Chapter 323: The Fate of an Immortal

General Malakar stood between them, his enormous demonic energy spreading through the ruined city like a storm. The pressure rolling from his body was enough to crack the pavement beneath his feet, yet the shadow figure’s eyes never left Zeri.

That disturbed Zeri more than anything.

General Malakar had severed its hand. He had appeared between them carrying enough demonic power to make even powerful demons instinctively retreat, yet the shadow figure didn’t seem threatened. It didn’t even seem particularly interested in him.

Its attention remained on Zeri.

Only after several seconds did the shadow figure finally turn its head and look directly into General Malakar’s eyes.

Malakar froze.

The change was immediate.

He had arrived ready to fight, but the instant their eyes met, something cold crawled through his entire body. His instincts, sharpened across countless battles and centuries of survival, delivered a warning so violent that his grip tightened around his weapon.

This thing was no ordinary enemy.

Malakar had understood that from the moment he arrived, but now he understood something far worse.

He might have made a mistake by standing in front of it.

Without hesitation, General Malakar threw aside the ordinary katana he had been carrying.

Zeri’s golden eyes widened.

"Elder...?"

Malakar reached for another sword.

The moment Zeri saw the weapon being drawn, even his terror was briefly replaced by disbelief. The katana looked different from the ordinary blade Malakar had discarded. An ominous presence clung to its sheath before the blade had even been fully exposed.

Zeri recognized it.

The Cursed Katana.

He hadn’t seen General Malakar draw that sword in centuries.

There had been battles, powerful enemies and situations where countless demons had died around him, yet Malakar had still refused to unsheathe this weapon. If he was drawing it now, then there was no doubt left in Zeri’s mind.

General Malakar was serious.

Malakar slowly pulled the Cursed Katana free while keeping his eyes fixed on the shadow figure. His expression remained controlled, but Zeri noticed something he had almost never seen from the General before.

Fear.

"Zeri."

Zeri immediately looked toward him.

"Run as far as you can."

"Elder...?"

"Don’t look back. Go directly to His Majesty and report everything you’ve witnessed here." Malakar tightened his grip around the Cursed Katana as demonic energy continued pouring from his body. "Tell the Demon King exactly what happened tonight."

Zeri stared at him for only a moment before rapidly nodding.

"Yes, Elder."

He didn’t need to be told twice.

Zeri turned around and prepared to run.

The shadow figure smiled.

"Die."

The single word passed through the silent city without force.

There was no explosion.

No visible attack crossed the distance between them, and no overwhelming wave of energy struck General Malakar. For one confusing second, Zeri didn’t understand why nothing had happened.

Then he noticed the silence behind him.

"Elder...?"

General Malakar was no longer moving.

The Cursed Katana remained in his hand, but the enormous demonic energy that had surrounded his body moments earlier had completely vanished.

Zeri’s hopeful expression slowly disappeared.

"No..."

General Malakar collapsed.

His body struck the road without resistance, and the Cursed Katana slipped from his fingers before clattering against the pavement beside him.

Zeri stopped breathing.

"No... No, no, no..."

He waited for Malakar to rise.

Nothing happened.

Zeri knew what General Malakar was capable of. Among demons, he was one of the strongest beings Zeri had ever known, standing beneath only the Demon King in the hierarchy of monsters Zeri trusted to be nearly untouchable. His body possessed an extraordinary healing ability, and Zeri had witnessed him survive wounds that would have destroyed lesser demons.

Yet there had been no wound to regenerate.

No battle had taken place.

The shadow figure had spoken one word.

And General Malakar was dead.

Several meters away, Yuuta remained unconscious upon the ruined road, completely motionless beneath the fading traces of darkness.

"ELDER!"

Zeri’s scream tore through the unnatural silence.

The last piece of hope inside him shattered. ℯ

He immediately dropped onto all fours and ran.

There was no dignity left in him. His claws scraped against the pavement while his legs pushed desperately behind him, making him resemble a terrified beast rather than the High Demon who had spent the night tormenting everyone around him.

"No! It can’t be! It can’t fucking be!"

He glanced backward while continuing to flee.

General Malakar still hadn’t moved.

"One word...?"

Zeri’s voice cracked.

"He killed Elder with one fucking word?!"

His mind refused to accept what his eyes had witnessed. General Malakar had arrived, drawn the Cursed Katana for the first time in centuries and prepared to fight seriously.

None of it had mattered.

Zeri’s breathing became increasingly frantic as he pushed himself faster.

"Monster!"

The word escaped him as a scream.

"You’re a fucking monster!"

The shadow figure remained beside Malakar’s fallen body without showing the slightest reaction to Zeri’s panic. Its severed hand had already begun moving strangely, darkness stretching from the wrist before the missing limb returned to its original place as though being cut off had meant nothing.

The figure slowly flexed its restored fingers.

Then it looked toward the fleeing High Demon.

Zeri felt that gaze immediately.

"You’re not a demon..." Zeri screamed while scrambling farther away. "You’re worse! You’re the fucking devil!"

The shadow figure disappeared.

Zeri’s eyes widened.

Before he could react, fingers closed around the top of his head.

His entire body stopped.

The shadow figure was suddenly standing beside him, its restored hand resting against his skull exactly as it had before General Malakar interrupted them.

"Enough."

There was no amusement left in its voice.

Zeri’s claws remained pressed against the road, but his body refused to move. His golden eyes trembled as he slowly looked upward, once again finding that horrifying darkness standing over him.

The shadow figure tightened its fingers around Zeri’s head.

"You’ve wasted enough of my time."

Zeri’s golden eyes widened as the figure brought its other hand up and placed both hands against opposite sides of his skull. For one confused second, Zeri didn’t understand what it intended to do. Then those fingers dug into his flesh, and an unimaginable force began pulling in opposite directions.

Zeri tried to scream, but the shadow figure didn’t hesitate.

With one brutal motion, it tore him apart.

Zeri’s vision distorted instantly. The world in front of him seemed to separate down the middle, one half moving away from the other as his consciousness struggled to understand what had happened. His body collapsed between the figure’s hands, yet somehow Zeri remained conscious long enough to realize that he had just been ripped open.

I’m going to die.

The thought came with surprising clarity.

Then another immediately followed.

No... I can’t die.

His terror weakened for the briefest moment as he remembered what he was.

I regenerate.

That ability had always saved him. No matter how badly his body was damaged, flesh would reconnect, bones would reconstruct themselves, and even a destroyed head could eventually return. He had relied upon that certainty for so long that death itself had become meaningless.

So Zeri waited.

Regenerate.

Nothing happened.

His consciousness flickered, but his body remained destroyed.

Come on...

Still nothing.

For the first time, the ability that had protected him throughout his entire existence simply failed to answer.

REGENERATE!

Zeri desperately commanded his body again and again, but the two ruined halves showed no sign of reconnecting. Whatever the shadow figure had done wasn’t allowing his regeneration to repair the damage.

Through his fading vision, Zeri saw the figure squat beside what remained of him.

The darkness covering its face made it impossible to see any human expression clearly. Only those glowing crimson eyes remained visible, staring down at Zeri without pity, anger or urgency.

Zeri’s fear slowly changed.

A strange relief entered his mind.

Maybe... this is better.

If he died here, everything would finally stop. He wouldn’t have to understand what Yuuta was. He wouldn’t have to see those hands crawling from Yuuta’s mouth again, and most importantly, he would never have to stand before this shadow creature again.

Just let me die.

For the first time in his existence, Zeri welcomed death.

If I somehow survive... I’ll have to face this monster again.

His remaining consciousness began slipping away.

So it’s better if I disappear.

The shadow figure smiled.

Zeri saw that smile through his fading vision, and the tiny amount of peace he had found disappeared instantly.

There was something horrifying about it. The figure looked almost amused, as though it had heard every desperate thought passing through Zeri’s mind.

Its crimson eyes narrowed slightly.

The smile seemed to ask a question without words.

Who said I was going to let you find peace?

Zeri’s consciousness suddenly sharpened.

"No..."

The shadow figure reached toward what remained of his opened skull.

Its fingers didn’t grab flesh.

They went deeper.

Zeri felt something seize him from somewhere that wasn’t part of his physical body, and terror unlike anything before exploded through his consciousness.

"No! What are you doing?!"

The shadow figure pulled.

Something came out.

Zeri suddenly found himself staring downward at his own destroyed body.

For several seconds, he couldn’t understand what he was seeing. The two halves of his physical form remained on the road below, completely motionless, while the shadow figure was holding something strange within one hand.

Then Zeri looked down at himself.

He had no physical body anymore.

His golden eyes widened in absolute horror.

"No..."

The shadow figure was holding him.

Not his flesh.

Not his regenerated body.

His soul.

Zeri struggled instinctively, but there were no muscles to command and no tentacles to attack with. His regeneration couldn’t create an escape because there was nothing physical for it to restore here.

The shadow figure raised Zeri’s soul until they were facing one another.

"You love regenerating, don’t you?"

Zeri stared at those crimson eyes.

The figure’s smile slowly returned.

"Every time someone destroys you, you simply come back. Again and again."

Zeri began struggling harder within its grasp.

"No... Please..."

The shadow figure tilted its head.

"Then I have somewhere special for you."

Zeri froze.

"A place where you can regenerate as much as you want."

The figure lifted one leg and stomped against the road.

The entire city shook.

A deep, unnatural sound rose from somewhere beneath them. It didn’t resemble an explosion or an earthquake. It sounded as though something impossibly ancient had been buried beneath the world for countless years and was finally beginning to move again.

Cracks spread across the shattered road as thick darkness poured from them like smoke. Zeri watched in horror as an enormous structure slowly emerged from beneath the city. Two colossal doors rose higher and higher, covered in markings and twisted shapes that he couldn’t understand. The remaining streetlights flickered violently before dying one after another, leaving the massive gate illuminated only by a faint, unnatural glow leaking through the narrow opening between its doors.

Zeri had spent decades among demons. He had witnessed monsters, forbidden places and atrocities that would drive ordinary humans mad, yet the moment he looked at that gate, something inside his soul recoiled.

Whatever existed beyond those doors was not a place he wanted to understand.

The enormous doors slowly began to separate.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

The first scream came from somewhere deep beyond the gate.

Then another followed.

"AHHHHHHH!"

More joined them until millions of agonized voices overlapped one another. Zeri’s golden eyes widened as the doors opened farther, revealing the darkness waiting on the other side.

Countless shadowy figures were inside.

Some crawled across the ground while others twisted against one another, their bodies barely resembling human shapes anymore. Some reached desperately toward the opening, while others appeared trapped farther within the darkness, endlessly screaming in agony. There were so many that Zeri couldn’t even begin to count them.

The sight alone made his soul tremble.

"What... What is this place...?"

The shadow figure raised Zeri’s soul higher.

That small movement drew the attention of everything beyond the gate.

The screaming suddenly changed.

Countless shadowy heads turned toward them at once.

For one horrifying second, there was silence.

Then the creatures erupted.

"SOUL!"

Zeri flinched violently.

"FRESH SOUL!"

The shadows began pushing against one another, reaching toward the gate with distorted hands as their voices merged into a deafening chorus.

"SOUL! SOUL! SOUL!"

"FRESH SOUL!"

"GIVE IT TO US!"

Zeri’s terror became absolute.

He struggled desperately within the shadow figure’s grasp, but without his physical body there was nothing he could do. His regeneration couldn’t save him, his tentacles were gone, and his demonic strength meant nothing. He could only watch as countless hands reached through the darkness toward him.

"No! No, please!"

The shadow figure remained perfectly calm.

Zeri looked at the gate again and saw those creatures fighting to get closer. Some were crawling over one another while others stretched their arms so far that their forms distorted, all of them screaming for the same thing.

His soul.

Zeri began crying.

"What did I do to you?!" His voice broke as he looked desperately toward the shadow figure. "What sin did I commit against you?! Tell me! Whatever it was, I’m sorry!"

There was no response.

"Please forgive me! Uncle, please! I don’t want to go in there!" Zeri struggled harder, his voice becoming increasingly desperate as the enormous gate continued opening behind him. "I’ll never come near Yuuta again! I’ll never touch the girl! I’ll disappear! I’ll go anywhere you want! Just don’t throw me in there!"

The shadow figure finally looked at him.

"Sin?"

A faint smile appeared within the darkness covering its face.

Zeri immediately became silent.

The figure brought his trembling soul slightly closer, allowing those glowing crimson eyes to stare directly into him.

"You want to know what sin you committed?"

Zeri desperately nodded.

The shadow figure’s smile widened.

"You interfered with what belongs to the Covenant."

Zeri’s eyes widened.

Before he could beg again, the figure swung its arm toward the gate.

"No....WAIT!"

It released him.

Zeri’s soul flew through the darkness.

"NO! PLEASE! PLEASE!"

The moment he crossed the threshold, countless shadowy hands reached for him.

Zeri screamed as they seized his arms, legs, face and body from every direction. More shadows climbed over one another to reach him, dragging him deeper while others fought to tear him away for themselves.

"FRESH SOUL!"

"OURS!"

"SOUL! SOUL!"

"NOOOOO!"

Zeri desperately reached back toward the gate.

For one final moment, he saw the ruined streets of Yuno City beyond the opening. He saw his destroyed physical body lying on the road, General Malakar’s motionless corpse nearby, and the shadow figure standing calmly outside the gate.

"PLEASE! I’M SORRY!"

His fingers stretched desperately toward the figure.

"PLEASE SAVE ME!"

The shadow figure simply watched.

Zeri’s screams grew louder as the countless hands dragged him farther into the darkness.

"PLEASE! I DON’T WANT TO...!"

His voice disappeared among the countless screams.

The enormous doors began to close.

Zeri’s hand remained visible between them for several seconds, desperately reaching toward the mortal world.

Then the gap vanished.

BOOM.

Silence returned to Yuno City.

The shadow figure stood alone before the sealed gate.

To Be Continued...