The Demon Realm

I took in my surroundings, or tried to. The Demon Realm. This was a place I'd only imagined, conjured from the depths of my mind, but now it was all real, right in front of me.

The city sprawls beneath a sky perpetually shrouded in ash and smoke, the sun never fully rising or setting. The streets are a clamor of clanging metal, hissing steam, and low growls.

Everywhere you look, there's some twisted blend of magic and technology.

The streets hummed with the sound of clanging metal, hissing steam, and a low, constant rumble. The architecture was a mix of stone, metal, and enchanted glass, with buildings carved into intricate designs that reflected the heritage of the Seven Clans of Sin. Bridges and walkways connected rooftops, allowing for movement across the city at multiple levels.

And then there were the people. Demons, yes, but not the monstrous creatures I'd expected.

Some wore Victorian-style suits, others ragged cloaks, and a few wearing armor embedded with runes that flickered softly. Some were entirely human in appearance, while others had been fused with machines, their limbs clicking and whirring as they moved.

There was a steady hum of activity, merchants calling out from open-air stalls, mechanical constructs carrying supplies, and messengers darting between buildings with parchment in hand.

Above, airships glided through the sky, their dark banners marked with the sigils of the Seven Clans. Occasionally, a dreadnought warship drifted by, its cannons perpetually trained downward, ready to purge whatever threatened their dominion. 

I stood there for a moment, trying to make sense of it all. This place, this realm, felt… foreign. My own creation. And yet, I wasn't sure if I'd ever truly understood it.

You've got to be kidding me.

How can this already hellish situation turn even worse?

Emil walked beside me, his steps unnervingly silent despite the rough cobblestone beneath us. I wanted to speak, to demand answers, but I held back. Every instinct told me that whatever Emil had become, he wasn't someone I could push for explanations.

Not yet.

He suddenly stopped. I did too, following his gaze toward a nearby plaza.

A public execution.

A lone figure knelt in the center, their hands bound in chains pulsing with violet sigils. They were demon-born, but something was wrong—their skin was cracked, shifting unnaturally, as if their very existence was unraveling. Echo Corruption. They had absorbed too much power, more than their body could contain.

A large demon stood before them, clad in obsidian armor, a massive halberd resting against his shoulder. His voice boomed across the square.

"For the crime of breaking the Nexus Veil, you are sentenced to oblivion."

The condemned demon barely moved. Their head tilted upward, empty eyes meeting the executioner's. For a moment, I swore I saw a glimpse of something familiar—defiance. Then, with one swift motion, the halberd fell.

A clean cut. A sharp silence. Then, a burst of energy as the body collapsed into nothingness.

No corpse. No remains. Just gone.

The crowd barely reacted. Some murmured, others simply moved on, as if they had seen this a hundred times before. Because they had.

I forced myself to breathe, to push away the unease crawling up my spine. This world is cruel. I wrote it that way.

I had no right to be surprised.

[You're quiet.]

Emil's voice pulled me back. I turned to face him, his golden eyes watching me with that unreadable expression.

"What? Expecting me to be used to executions?"

I muttered.

Emil tilted his head slightly, as if considering something.

[You created this world. You should understand how it works.]

His words made my stomach twist. I did understand. I knew the laws, the factions, the power struggles. But knowing something and standing in the middle of it were two entirely different things.

I exhaled slowly. No point in arguing.

"Where are we going?"

I asked instead.

Emil's smirk returned.

[Blackthorn Academy.]

My chest tightened. Of course.

Blackthorn Academy. A place that had once stood as the pinnacle of demonic power, where the strongest warriors were trained. But after the Bloodfall War, it had become something far worse.

A breeding ground for hatred. A place that existed only to prepare demons for the next war.

And I was the human walking straight toward it.

What the hell am I doing?

We kept moving through the streets, weaving through crowds, past markets filled with strange wares—enchanted weapons, bottled echoes, cursed artifacts. I ignored the stares, the murmurs that followed in my wake. They knew I was different. They just didn't know why.

I reached up instinctively, pulling my hood lower over my face.

Then, I heard it. A low growl.

It was subtle, just beneath the surface of the city's ever-present noise, but I recognized it instantly. A sound that sent a sharp pulse of instinctual fear through me.

I turned my head, and my breath caught.

Down a narrow alley, something was watching me.

It stood just beyond the flickering lanterns, its body twisted and wrong, as if it had once been something familiar but had long since lost its shape. Its eyes were black voids with specks of violet light—were locked onto me.

Then, in a single unnatural motion, it twitched. Not moved, twitched. Like reality itself had stuttered around it.

I felt my stomach churn. That thing. I didn't write that.

I took a step back. Emil followed my gaze, his expression unreadable.

[Ah.]

He murmured, almost amused.

[You're seeing them now.]

"What the hell is that?"

I whispered.

Emil didn't answer right away. He simply watched as the creature in the alley took a slow, deliberate step forward. Then, almost lazily, he raised a hand.

Snap.

The creature stopped.

For a moment, I swore I saw something shift—not in the creature, but in the world itself. As if an unseen force had reached out and pushed it back. Then, without a sound, it vanished.

Not fled. Not died. Vanished.

Emil lowered his hand, his smirk returning.

[You'll understand soon enough.]

I swallowed hard, my pulse still racing. My thoughts spun with a hundred questions, but I forced them down. Not now. Not here.

I exhaled and turned away from the alley, stepping back onto the main road.

One thing was clear.

This world had secrets. And I wasn't the only one who didn't belong here.

Emil walked beside me in silence, his golden eyes flicking toward me as if assessing something. There was an ease in his steps, a certainty that contrasted my own uncertainty.

For a while, neither of us spoke.

Then, without warning, Emil stopped.

I turned, confused.

"What?"

He stood still, staring ahead, his expression unreadable. The shadows around him seemed… wrong. They stretched unnaturally, flickering like something was pulling at them.

[This is where we part ways.]

My breath caught.

"What?"

[You heard me.]

Emil turned toward me, and for the first time since I'd met him, something in his gaze looked… strained. It wasn't fear. Emil didn't fear anything.

But it was close.

"You're just leaving?"

I asked, my voice sharper than I intended.

"After dragging me into this?"

[You misunderstand.]

His golden eyes burned brighter, the shadows curling at his feet.

[I was never meant to stay.]

The air around him grew heavier, charged with something beyond my understanding. It wasn't magic. It was something deeper.

Something absolute.

I felt it in my bones—the moment Emil had spoken those words, something had answered. A force that neither of us controlled.

I stepped forward instinctively.

"Wait—"

The space around Emil fractured.

Like glass shattering in reverse.

Like the world itself was correcting an error.

His form flickered, the edges of his body distorting.

[Do not forget, Damien.]

His voice sounded distant, like it was already being pulled away.

[You are bound to this world.]

I clenched my fists.

"You can't just disappear without—"

[You will grant my wish.]

A cold wind rushed through the street. The moment I blinked—

He was gone.

Vanished.

Like he had never been there at all.

The only proof that he had existed was the unnatural stillness left in his wake, the lingering presence of something beyond human comprehension.

And then—pain.

My wrist burned.

I hissed, clutching it as the mark pulsed violently, like it was reacting to something unseen.

Then, just as suddenly, it stopped.

The mark dimmed. The unnatural pressure faded.

And I was alone.

For a moment, I just stood there, staring at the empty space where Emil had been.

Then, I looked down at my wrist.

A small, flickering sigil had appeared beneath the mark—a tiny, shifting symbol etched into my skin.

It pulsed faintly.

Not constantly.

Not alive.

But waiting.

A way to contact him.

I exhaled, my breath unsteady.

"Figures."

I muttered.

Of course, Emil would leave some way to reach him. He wasn't done with me yet.

I flexed my fingers, watching the sigil fade until it was barely visible. It didn't feel like a simple communication spell. No, this was something else.

Something dangerous.

I had a feeling I wouldn't be able to use it freely.

And even if I could—

I wasn't sure I wanted to.

Emil was gone.

And for the first time since I arrived in this world, I was truly on my own.