Chapter 21: Unrelenting Darkness

Kuragami no longer remembered what light felt like.

He had fallen deeper than any mortal, god, or demon ever had. The Gate had accepted him, dragging him into a realm where time, space, and sanity ceased to exist. There was no sky, no ground—only the abyss stretching endlessly, swallowing everything in its path. His own body had become unrecognizable, shifting between flesh and something far worse. His fingers stretched into claws, his skin cracked, and something inside him pulsed like a heartbeat, but it was not his own.

Here, darkness was not the absence of light. It was alive.

It whispered in voices that bled into his mind, words he could not understand yet felt deep within his soul. Each sound was a promise, a curse, a prophecy. Every step he took sank him further into an existence beyond comprehension. He could not scream. The darkness did not allow it. The weight of it pressed into his skull, filling his mouth, his lungs, his veins.

And then, the first test came.

A figure stood before him, its body shifting in and out of reality like a shattered reflection. It had no face, only an endless void where its head should be. But Kuragami knew what it was.

His sister.

"Johnny..." The voice slithered into his ears, soft, innocent. "Why didn't you save me?"

He staggered back. The ground—or whatever mockery of reality this was—sank under his feet. His heart clenched. He knew this wasn't real. She wasn't real. She couldn't be.

She took a step forward.

The abyss moved with her. The ground twisted like a living thing, pulsating under her feet. He could not breathe.

"You let him touch me," she whispered. Her words were knives, burrowing under his skin. "You let him ruin me."

His throat tightened. "I tried—"

"You failed."

He blinked, and she was in front of him. Her hands—cold, brittle—pressed against his chest. And then she pushed.

The abyss devoured him.

—

He fell.

Fell beyond reason, beyond existence. The darkness wrapped around him, sinking into his flesh, devouring everything human left inside him. His bones cracked, his mind stretched beyond its limits. He felt himself breaking, shattering, becoming something else.

And still, he fell.

Memories surfaced—his mother, his past, the village burning, the gods, the demons. They twisted into grotesque versions of themselves. His mother was chained, her body torn apart by divine hands. Alexandra's daughter lay in a pool of blood, her golden hair soaked in black liquid. His past self—Johnny—stood in the distance, holding his sister's broken body, whispering curses, damning him for all eternity.

The darkness laughed.

This was not a trial. It was a rebirth.

He opened his mouth to scream, but the darkness surged inside. His lungs burned. His heart stopped. He was no longer Kuragami.

He was nothing.

—

And then, he landed.

The impact should have killed him. But there was no death here. His body—his new form—twitched, adapting, shifting. He raised his hands. They were not his hands. They were claws. He could no longer see his reflection, but he knew.

The abyss had consumed him.

He was part of it now.

And it whispered: You are ready.

The first gate had broken.

The darkness had only begun.

—