DEATH OF A HERO

—  Welcome. I was expecting you. —

The voice, a distortion of his own, chilled Asimil's blood. The Void Chief stepped forward, and the world seemed to hold its breath.

There was no heroic charge. There was no battle cry. With a single movement, a simple wave of his gloved hand, a wave of pure invisible force swept the room. Asimil's friends were sent flying like rag dolls, crashing into the far walls of the throne room before falling to the floor, inert.

A sepulchral silence. They did not move.

Asimil, in shock, believed he had killed them all.

And in that silence, something inside him broke. The fear, the doubt, the strategy... everything was consumed by a pure white fury. — YOU! — His cry was that of a wounded animal.

He lunged at him. He unsheathed the dagger Luce had given him and the Dagger of the Broken Echo, using both in a whirlwind of desperate attacks. Each thrust, each slash, sought a gap in the enemy's perfect armor.
But it was useless. The Void Boss parried each of his attacks with only one hand, sometimes with an open palm, sometimes with only two fingers, without even bothering to use his own sword. With insulting ease, he held the Echo Dagger with one of his hands. Asimil pulled with all his might, but it was like trying to move a mountain.

With a soft crack, the dagger blade, that weapon of immense power and mystery, shattered easily in the Chief's hand. The fragments fell to the ground, their light fading.

Asimil panicked, instinctively recoiling. His best weapon, his connection to a power he didn't understand, had been shattered as if it were made of glass.

The Void Chief slowly brought his hands to his head and, with a hiss of metal, removed his helmet.

What it revealed was frightening. It was not a face. It was a skeleton, parched and ancient, with a few thin wisps of white hair clinging to the skull. And in its eye sockets, there was nothing but a deep void, with a single, malevolent point of red light shining in the center of each.

He spoke. And the voice, though distorted and ancient, was unmistakably his own. — Disappointed? — -said the skeleton. — Perhaps you were expecting to see your own face, but look at me.... This is what's left when you lose everything. —

He pointed to the broken fragments on the floor. — That insignificant weapon you call the Echo Dagger... it was a gift from me. A fragment of my own power, left on the first timeline to guide you, to make sure you became strong enough. To get you this far. —

Asimil trembled, unable to process the truth. — Those nightmares that tormented you night after night... — he continued, taking a step toward him. — They were my memories, seeping into your weak mind. The pain of my failure, of my loss. —

— And Noelia... — Her voice was filled with an icy venom. — I didn't take her away from you. You never had her. She was always an echo of my tragedy, a ghost in love with a ghost. You were only a substitute. —

After completely humiliating him, he hit him. A simple backhand that sent him to his knees on the ground. He turned, turning his back to him, and raised his sword of darkness, pointing it at the unconscious bodies of his friends. — And now, I will finish what I started. I will erase these mistakes. —

A charged attack, a sphere of annihilation, began to form at the tip of his sword.

Asimil, from the ground, saw the scene. He saw Luce, Ikel, everyone... about to be erased. And in his mind, there was only one thought. To protect them.

With his last strength, he stepped in. He stood up, holding the broken dagger like a useless shield, his body trembling but his will firm. The attack was launched.

He stopped the attack. For a split second. Dark energy slammed into his body, his broken dagger instantly disintegrating. Then, the energy gave way and he took the blow completely.

He was thrown backward with cataclysmic force. It went through the wall of the throne room and landed in the rubble of the adjoining chamber.

There was a moment of silence.

The chamber was in ruins. And in the center, lay Asimil. Or what was left of him. His body had been split in half, a perfect vertical line from left shoulder to right leg. The left side of his body had disintegrated, leaving only a bloody, unrecognizable half.

The light in his eye faded.

He had died.