Chapter 4 ( Massacre ARC )

Lila clung to Sean’s legs, her wide eyes trembling with fear as the valley burned behind them, screams and demonic shrieks piercing the air. 

“What’s happening?” she asked, her voice small, her flower crown long gone in the chaos. Sean knelt, forcing a smile despite the blood and ash staining his face. 

“Don’t worry, little lion. Your face is better when it’s smiling.” He led her to a hollow beneath a massive fallen log, its mossy bulk shielding her from the horrors beyond. 

“I’ll be right back, okay? Stay here.” Lila stayed silent, her lips quivering but tears held back a brave spark in her tiny frame. 

Sean’s heart twisted; he couldn’t let her die. Not her. Not anyone. Not anymore. He rose, Ayumi’s katana gleaming at his hip, and plunged back into the fray. 

The valley was a slaughterhouse abyssal demons, their obsidian skin glinting, tore through huts, impaling farmers, ripping children apart. 

Their red eyes burned like coals, claws shredding flesh in sprays of crimson. Sean’s eyes narrowed, searching the chaos. 

The demons moved as one, their shrieks synchronized, drawn to a pulse deep in the fractured earth. A hive mind. A queen. Kill it, and they’d all fall.

The ground pulsed under a shattered orchard, where a gaping fissure spewed black smoke. Sean descended, katana drawn, the blade’s runes catching faint moonlight. 

At the chasm’s heart loomed the Abyssal Queen a towering horror, its body a writhing mass of tentacles and jagged maws, eyes like molten lava, pulsing with malevolent will. 

Its presence clawed at his mind, whispering his traumas wolves’ teeth, Ayumi’s screams, Eira’s blood. 

Sean gripped the katana tighter, resolve hardening. This was no time for fear.

The Queen struck first, a tentacle lashing like a whip. Sean dodged, but another caught his arm, tearing it clean off in a spray of blood. 

He roared, starfire surging as his arm regrew, bones snapping into place with searing agony. 

He swung the katana, slicing a tentacle, black ichor gushing, but the Queen was relentless. Claws raked his chest, splitting ribs; a maw bit down, 

crushing his leg to pulp. Each wound healed in cosmic flames, but the pain stacked, his mind fraying as traumas flashed his mother’s butchered womb, 

Ayumi’s broken gaze. He fought with control, the katana dancing: a thrust through an eye, a slash severing a limb, each move precise but not enough. 

The Queen’s mass overwhelmed him, tentacles pinning him, tearing his torso open, organs spilling as he screamed.

“No more,” Sean growled, blood bubbling from his lips. He couldn’t hold back. The Cosmic Dragon’s voice thundered in his skull “Unleash the beast, child of slaughter.” 

Starfire erupted, veins glowing like nebulae, eyes blazing with cosmic light. Sean let it free the power he’d sworn off, the monster he feared. 

His body surged, strength beyond human limits flooding his limbs. With a primal roar, he tore free, katana blazing with starlight. 

He carved through the Queen, blade slicing tentacles like paper, ichor spraying in torrents. A maw lunged; 

he grabbed it, ripping it apart with bare hands, teeth scattering like broken glass. 

He plunged the katana into the Queen’s core, twisting until it screamed a sound that shook the earth. 

With a final slash, he severed its heart, a pulsating black mass, and crushed it underfoot, the ground quaking as the demons above collapsed, lifeless, their hive mind shattered.

Sean staggered from the chasm, drenched in ichor and blood, the katana dripping. The valley was silent, save for the crackle of dying fires. 

Bodies littered the ground villagers torn apart, demons now still. His starry veins pulsed, the Cosmic Dragon’s power a heavy chain. 

He’d won, but at what cost? The monster had saved him, but it was a leash he couldn’t escape.

He found Lila under the log, trembling but alive. She ran to him, hugging his blood-soaked legs. “You’re back, laughing lion!” Sean knelt, her warmth a dagger to his heart. 

He carried her to the survivors elders, children, a few farmers, all wounded, their eyes hollow with loss. The Cosmic Dragon’s power stirred again, unbidden. 

Heal them, it whispered. Sean hesitated each use deepened his bond to the dragon, his fear of losing himself. 

But he couldn’t refuse. He touched the wounded, starlight flowing from his hands, mending gashes, knitting broken bones. 

A child’s leg reformed, an elder’s torn arm sealed, but the dead stayed cold no power could bring them back. 

Lila watched, awe in her eyes, calling him a hero. Sean’s chest tightened; heroes didn’t bring death wherever they went.

The villagers gathered, offering thanks, their voices heavy with grief but gratitude. “Stay,” an elder pleaded, 

his hands scarred from defending his home. “You saved us.” A woman joined, her child clinging to her. 

“You’re one of us now.” Lila tugged his cloak, her toothless grin pleading. “Stay, Sean. We can skip stones again!”

 Her words were a knife, twisting with memories of her laughter, her flower crown, her drawing of a warrior like him. 

He wanted to stay, to be her laughing lion, to rebuild in this broken valley. But the traumas screamed Ayumi’s violation, 

Eira’s arm, the demons drawn to his presence. I did this. I brought the storm.

“I can’t,” Sean said, voice breaking. “I came here, and your valley burned. The demons came because of me. Everyone I touch suffers.” 

He turned to leave, katana heavy at his side, Lila’s sobs echoing behind him.

The elder grabbed his arm, eyes fierce. “Listen, boy. It’s not because of you we suffered it’s because of you we’re saved. 

If you hadn’t come, our valley would be ash, our people gone. You fought the abyss and won. Don’t carry that weight alone.” 

His words cut through the fog of guilt, a faint light in Sean’s darkness. Lila ran forward, hugging him one last time. “You’re my hero,” she whispered, tears staining her cheeks. 

Sean knelt, brushing a curl from her face, memorizing her smile a spark to carry into the dark.

"Lila one day i want you to come and save me just like i saved you this time. Remember it's a promise " He said last time to her. 

He walked away, the katana his only companion, the elder’s words a fragile anchor. The Cosmic Dragon’s voice rumbled, mocking 

“Run, but you cannot escape what you are.” Sean didn’t answer. He’d chosen the blade’s control, but the monster lingered, waiting. 

The valley faded behind him, Lila’s laughter a memory he’d guard, even as he vowed to walk alone.

To be continued.