Chapter 9: It Hurts

Outside the towering black wall, Ray stood, his fists were clenched tight,

"Stay back. I'll open the way."

Ray inhaled deeply, muscles in his arms tightening as he stepped forward. Then, with a roar that carried through the air, he slammed his fist into the wall.

A deafening crack.

Splintered stone.

The ground quaked under their feet.

With a final surge, the wall shattered, a blast of dust and rubble exploding outward. A massive hole gaped where the barrier once stood, revealing the hole of the Reuben’s palace.

Ray flexed his fingers, wincing slightly, then grinned with boyish pride.

"See that? That's how strong I am!"

He turned to Nagi, waiting for some kind of praise. But the boy with the dead eyes only stood there, silent.

Ray's smile faded a little. He quickly shook it off, jerking his thumb toward the opening.

"Come on, we don't have much time. The war's about to begin."

“Wait.”

The single word froze him. Ray turned back.

Nagi's voice was quiet but heavy, his black eyes staring through the dust.

"I don't want to join a war."

Ray blinked, completely thrown off.

"What? But… this is it! Reuben and Welch are about to clash, and the prince—"

“I didn't come here to fight.” Nagi's tone didn't change, cold and calm. “I came to find Serania.”

Ray's breath hitched. He stepped closer, his voice dropping into a whisper.

"The God of Immortality?"

Nagi nodded once.

Ray's confident expression cracked. His voice came out shaky, as though speaking his name might summon something forbidden.

"N-Nobody's seen her in over a hundred years. She never shows herself in this world anymore. It's… history now."

There was a long pause.

Nagi's eyes lowered slightly, his tone flat as ever.

“So that “prince” hasn't even met his god yet.”

Ray opened his mouth but couldn't find words.

“Prince Evan was strong,” he muttered, almost defensively. "He's the one giving people hope. That's why they made him prince. He... he has to be."

Nagi said nothing. His footsteps echoed softly as he walked through the broken wall, deeper into the city.

Ray stood there a second longer, his heart pounding for reasons he couldn't name.

He swallowed, then jogged after him without asking another question.

CLANG!

Lyon threw himself against the cell bars again. The iron bent slightly under his weight but refused to give way. His shoulders ached, his breath heavy as sweat ran down his temples.

“Tch… damn it…”

He dropped to the floor, sitting against the cold stone. For the first time since they'd left Luminette, he felt completely helpless.

—click

The sound of the cell door unlocking made his head snap up.

Standing there in the dim light was Princess Jorelle. Her long white hair swayed slightly, eyes still shut in that perpetual sleepy state, yet her faint smile held something almost pleased.

Lyon stunned, “Thank you—”

“No chit-chat,” she said gently, her voice calm as a breeze. "Get up. Things might get serious."

For a second, Lyon froze, caught off guard by the subtle tension in his voice. Then, he nodded sharply.

“Right.”

Blood sprayed against the cracked ground as Abaddon's scorpion tail tore through Evan's body.

The air turned ice cold.

Welch soldiers screamed. Cerys's red eyes went wide. The tail pulled back with a sickening gush, leaving a hole that shouldn't let anyone live.

Evan collapsed to one knee, coughing blood onto the dirt.

“Prince Evan!” one of the Welch fighters screamed, but the prince raised a trembling hand to silence them.

Cerys reacted fast, snapping her fingers. Her imagination formed into a massive spiked wall that slammed against Abaddon, the ground shaking under the impact. But when the dust cleared, the demigod still stood tall, his armored feet only dragging lines through the earth where he'd been pushed.

Evan gritted his teeth and stood up. Slowly… shakily. Then the wound sealed itself before their eyes, muscle stitching, skin reforming. His chest rose and fell with shallow breaths.

A nervous grin stretched across his pale face.

“So… this is what immortality feels like.”

Abaddon's glowing eyes narrowed and from the back, Samael chuckled, his crimson eyes glinting.

"To steal demigod’s ability... You've got an incredible power, mortals."

But Samael tilted his head. "How much longer can you stay standing, though?”

Evan’s face was pale and blood running from its nose. He wiped the blood with his thumb, smirking despite the tremor in his legs.

Abaddon raised his tail again, prepared to strike.

And then—

A figure walked right past him.

No rush. No fear. Just quiet footsteps crunching on broken stone.

Kawamura Nagi.

Everyone freezes.

Cerys's heart skipped, her tail stiffened.

“H–How… how the hell did you break out from my place!?”

Evan's head snapped to her, fury flashing in his eyes.

"I knew it! It was you who kidnapped him."

Cerys flinched at his voice.

Ray, hidden among the Welch crowd with Pupa perched on his shoulder, gripped the straps of his ragged shirt. He didn't dare move. Pupa's half-lidded eyes followed Nagi in silence.

Nagi stopped in front of Evan and Cerys. His blank red eyes locked onto Evan.

“Do you… really know where Serania is?”

Evan straightened his back and tried to regain his confidence, smirking through the taste of blood.

"Hah. If you want me to tell you, then show me your po—"

SLAP!

The sound of skin meeting skin echoed like a whip.

Nagi's hand was still raised. Evan's head snapped to the side, a red mark already blooming on his cheek. His yellow eyes widened in utter disbelief.

The Welch soldiers gasped. Cerys's jaw dropped.

“I'll ask again.”

Nagi's voice was cold, empty.

“Do you really know where Serania is?”

Evan's smirk died. For the first time, his voice failed him as he stared into those hollow red eyes.

And then—

SHLKT!

Blood exploded between them. A scorpion tail burst through Nagi's chest, the impact rattling the ground.

“MR. NAGI!” Ray's voice cracked as he screamed his name.

Abaddon's towering figure loomed behind him, his cold voice rumbling like thunder.

“Mortals… should never speak a god's name so casually.”

Nagi didn't flinch. His head turned slowly, his eyes locking onto Abaddon behind him.

Nagi trying to reached up his hand to the edge of Abaddon's death mask.

The demigod's body jolted, instinct screaming. In a blur of motion, Abaddon leapt back beside Samael, his scorpion tail curling defensively.

The battlefield went silent.

Samael's calm eyes widened a fraction as he looked at him.

“Abaddon. You—"

"That boy..."

For the first time, the demigod's voice carried a hint of unease.

“Something about him… feels dangerous.”

The hole in Nagi's chest is sealed shut like it had never been there. He exhaled slowly, his expression as empty as ever.

Samael's lips curved into a smile.

"Regeneration… Immortality… eerily similar to yours, Abaddon. Is it possible that he got it from the god of immortality?"

Abaddon said nothing. His tail stayed coiled tight as his glowing green mask fixed on Nagi.

Nagi's chest had barely finished sealing when he turned his head back toward Evan. The Welch prince, still pale from blood loss, frozen under the weight of those black, unreadable eyes.

"So?"

The single word hits harder than the slap. Evan's throat went dry. His fingers twitched against his side as if his body wanted to move but couldn't.

“I…” His voice cracked, and for the first time, the confident prince sounded like a child.

“I… don't know…”

His eyes refused to meet Nagi's. His shoulders shook despite himself.

From the distance, Samael's smooth, calm voice cuts through the thick silence.

“Mortals… why do you want to meet the God of Immortality so badly?”

The battlefield held its breath as Nagi turned, his gaze falling on the white-haired demigod.

“Everyone who meets me…” Nagi said, his tone was flat, but the words carried something deeper

He touched the place where Abaddon's tail had torn through him. His hand lingered there as if feeling the echo of pain.

“Always stabs me.”

His voice didn't crack. His face didn't change. Blank as ever.

“And every single one of them…”

His eyes shifted across Abaddon, Samael, Evan, Cerys, and everyone.

“Asks the same question.”

Nagi's hand dropped to his side, and for the first time, there was the faintest trace of exhaustion in the way his shoulders lowered.

“It hurts.”

The words were quiet. Almost too quiet.

"And I'm tired."

Samael's crimson eyes gleamed, lazy amusement curling on his lips.

“I might know where to find your precious God of Immortality.”

Nagi's head turned toward him, slow and deliberate, “Where?”

Cerys snapped, her tail lashing like a whip.

"Don't trust him, idiot! He might fool—"

Nagi's cold voice cuts her off, sharper than any blade.

“Shut up.”

The tail and her wings flinched. For the first time, she stayed silent.

Samael chuckled, tilting his head as though observing a rare creature.

"You can pressure them... and yet you're neither god nor demigod. What exactly are you?"

He raised one pale hand.

"No matter. Let me show you something interesting."

The ground trembled. Dark matter spilled from his palm like liquid shadow, crawling across the cracked earth, twisting, rising. The air turned heavy, rancid—the stench of death bleeding into every breath.

From the writing blackness, shapes began to form.

A man with black hair streaked with gray.

A woman with gentle, warm eyes.

An old man leaning on a cane, smiling faintly.

And a young boy.

Nagi's feet locked to the ground. His eyes widened for the first time since he arrived in this world.

The woman's lips trembled as she spoke.

"Nagi..."

The old man chuckled softly, his voice breaking.

“You've grown so well…”

Nagi's throat worked. His voice cracked like thin glass.

“Father…”

His trembling gaze moved.

“Mother…”

His fingers twitched as if reaching for something far away.

“Grandpa…”

And finally, his breath hitched.

“Big Brothers…”

The boy stepped forward. That same soft smile, the same warmth Nagi had seen in his last moments in the car.

"It's okay, Nagi. I'm here." Said the young boy figure.

Samael's voice slithered like silk. Cruel. Amused.

"Ah... now that's the reaction I wanted. Now, tell me..."

He leaned in slightly, his red eyes reflected the boy's trembling figure.

“…does it hurt more than being stabbed?”

Something inside Nagi shattered. His legs buckled slightly as he stepped forward, shoulders trembling, fingers clawing at the air like he wanted to hold on to ghosts.

“Stop…”

His voice was quiet. Broken.

Samael tilted his head, feeling confusion.

"Hmm? What was that?"

“Stop…”

His aura writhed around him like a living thing, black and red colliding violently. It pulsed with every heartbeat, staining the air itself. His once-white eyes were now pitch black, his pupils burning an unnatural crimson.

For the first time since entering this world, his expression cracked. His face twisted, not in fear, not in sorrow, but in raw, unfiltered rage.

Cerys felt her knees weaken. She stumbled back, her voice barely a whisper.

“What…?”

Even Evan, who had stood fearlessly against Abaddon minutes ago, couldn't move. His hand shook on instinct, as if trying to grip a weapon that wasn't there.

“This… this isn't human…”

Nagi took another step. The ground beneath his feet faded into ashen grey, the vibrant grass around the stone road becomes withering where his shadow passed.

Each step felt slower. He wasn't running. He didn't need to.

The oppressive silence crushed everyone watching. Even Abaddon's scorpion tail twitched once, a subtle motion betraying a trace of instinctual warning.

The black-red aura calmed, but it wasn't peaceful. It was the kind of calm before the earth itself split open. The kind of calm that made predators lower their heads.

Samael's smile faded for the first time. His red eyes narrowed as he watched Nagi approach, the cold, easy amusement replaced by something else. Something that looked almost like… curiosity.

Nagi's voice was low, deep, a growl beneath the calm.

“You…”

Another step. Another patch of the world turned grey.

“I told you to…”

The last step cracked the ground under him.

“…STOP.”

The aura around him pulsed like a heartbeat, and the air warped, bending under the weight of something far beyond mortal.

Abaddon took a measured step back. His tail swayed, uneased, his voice low.

"Samael. We need to leave. The boy… he's unstable."

Samael raised an eyebrow, but didn't argue. He took one last glance at Nagi, a gaze that wasn't just curiosity anymore. It was wariness.

"Interesting." Samael said.

With a sweep of his arm, black mist coiled around Abaddon's armor while a shaft of celestial light enveloped Samael. In the blink of an eye, both vanished, swallowed by shadow and brilliance.

Nagi kept walking. His trembling steps cut through silence like blades. His hand clutched at his chest as if something clawed to escape from within.

The ghostly silhouettes of his family, his mother, father, grandfather, and his brother watched silently. But the moment their ethereal feet crossed into the greyed, dying earth near Nagi, they began to vanish, one by one.

First his mother's gentle smile dissolved.

Then his grandfather's silhouette broke apart like smoke.

And finally, his brother, still smiling with warmth, disintegrated in front of Nagi.

The people of Reuben and Welch, who had once fought each other with blind hatred, are now scattered in terror.

Those who stepped into the gray near Nagi fell in place become soulless, lifeless. As if death itself passed judgment.

For every soul that died, a crack appeared on Nagi's face. A jagged, dark vein spreading through his skin.

One. Then another. Then another.

Ray still couldn't move. He just stood there, paralyzed by a storm of horror.

“Mr. Nagi…” he whispered.

Then—

—Pupa lifted off from Ray’s shoulder. It glowed midair and, with a shimmer of ethereal light, transformed.

A young girl emerges.

Long, flowing hair, a perfect split of white and black.

Eyes mismatched, one glimmering blue, the other glowing red.

She ran towards Nagi without fear.

Inside Nagi's mind.

He lay on his back. A red fog clung to him like smoke, thick and suffocating. The world was black behind it, empty.

His face, cracked.

He sat up slowly, dizzy, and saw the silhouette, neither solid nor smoke. It hovered in the distance, the smile on its lips impossibly wide.

The figure's voice echoed. So familiar, so ancient.

"We meet again."

Nagi stood. His body felt light and wrong, like a dream he couldn't wake from.

“Are you Serania…?” he asked.

The silhouette didn't answer. It only smiled wider.

Nagi's voice cracked, desperate.

"Take it back. This immortality... lift the curse. Let me die already."

The figure tilted its head, amused.

"Do you really want to die?"

"Yes." Nagi nodded.

The smile grew wider. And then—

A voice, sharp and merciless, echoed from all directions.

"LIAR!"

Nagi's eyes widened in horror.

The fog howled like a storm, blowing past him with incredible force, sweeping away everything.

Reality crashes in.

Warmth.

Someone was hugging Nagi, arms wrapped tight around his torso, face pressed against his chest.

“It's okay,” she whispered gently. "Everything's going to be okay."

The red-black aura dissolved into nothing.

The gray earth brightens.

Nagi's black eyes slowly returned into normal, now soft and dull.

The girl looked up at him and smiled gently, sincerely.

And at last, Nagi’s eyes rolled back. His body fell limp in the young girl’s arms.