Chapter 24: The Abyss That Devours Hope

Kuragami could no longer hear his own heartbeat.

It wasn't that it had stopped.

It was just drowned out by the screams.

They weren't coming from his surroundings. The world around him was still, silent in its suffocating darkness. No, the screams were coming from inside him—a chorus of broken voices wailing in despair, echoing endlessly inside his skull.

He walked forward.

Or at least, he thought he did.

The ground beneath him was shifting, made of countless writhing hands, their pale fingers reaching, clawing, begging. Some grasped his ankles, others dragged their jagged nails across his skin, leaving behind trails of raw, open wounds.

But Kuragami no longer reacted to pain.

Pain was all he had left.

—

A voice whispered.

"Why are you still trying?"

Kuragami didn't answer.

"You have lost everything. Your sister. Your mother. Even your humanity."

He kept walking.

"Your father doesn't even know you exist. Your so-called 'friends' will betray you. Your body is breaking. You will never be strong enough."

Kuragami stopped.

He didn't want to listen.

But…

What if it was right?

What if this was all pointless?

His fingers trembled. His breath turned shallow. The abyss pulsed, pressing down on him, seeping into his thoughts like ink spilled on paper.

It wasn't lying.

He had failed again and again.

His sister had been defiled and murdered.

His mother had been taken.

His enemies were gods, beings who had existed for eternity. No matter how much he fought, how much he trained—

Was it ever enough?

Was he just some deluded child, thinking he could change anything?

His knees buckled.

The hands tightened around him.

—

Then—

He saw them.

Bodies.

Countless bodies.

Twisted. Broken. Faces frozen in their final moments of pure despair.

The corpses stretched into the horizon, an endless sea of death, their eyes locked on him.

They were him.

Every version of him that had tried.

Every Kuragami that had fought and failed, slaughtered, crushed beneath the weight of gods and demons alike.

A hundred Kuragamis with their heads split open, brains leaking onto the ground.

A thousand Kuragamis impaled, their corpses still twitching, whispering it hurts, it hurts, it hurts.

A million Kuragamis with their eyes gouged out, fingers torn off, tongues ripped from their mouths, reduced to blind, voiceless husks.

They had all reached this place.

And every single one of them had failed.

Kuragami's breath hitched.

"You are just another corpse waiting to happen."

No.

"You are not special."

No—

"You will end like them."

No. No. No.

He clenched his fists, his nails digging into his palms so hard his skin tore.

Blood dripped down his fingers.

The abyss laughed.

—

Then the bodies began to move.

One by one, they twisted their heads towards him, their mouths stretching open, wider and wider—until their jaws snapped, hanging limply as a single sound poured out.

A voice.

His voice.

"You will never escape."

And then—

They rushed him.

—

Kuragami screamed.

He turned, trying to run, but the hands from the ground gripped him tighter, pulling him down. The bodies tore into him, their fingers piercing his skin, their broken teeth sinking into his flesh.

It was beyond pain.

It was destruction.

They were ripping him apart, piece by piece.

His arms were shredded. His ribs snapped. His throat was torn open. His own voice died, consumed by the overwhelming chorus of his own despair.

It was over.

He was just another failure.

—

And then.

He heard her voice.

"Johnny..."

His breath froze.

No.

No, it couldn't be.

He forced his bloodied, torn body to look up.

And there she was.

His sister.

Standing above him, untouched, smiling.

"Why do you keep fighting?" she whispered.

Kuragami's throat closed.

"You couldn't save me. You let them hurt me. You let them kill me."

He tried to speak. He couldn't.

Her smile widened.

"Give up, Johnny. This isn't your world. It never was."

Kuragami broke.

He felt his soul crack, splintering like glass.

The weight of his failures, his regrets, his weakness—all of it crushed him.

"Let go."

Her fingers touched his face.

"Join me."

His vision blurred. His breath slowed.

Maybe…

Maybe she was right.

Maybe he should let go.

Maybe…

Maybe this was the end.

—

Then—

A memory surfaced.

Not of pain.

Not of blood.

Not of gods or demons or war.

But of her smile.

Not this twisted, hollow thing in front of him.

Her real smile.

The one that mattered.

The one that was stolen from him.

—

Kuragami snapped.

The abyss shattered.

And he moved.

His hand—his real hand—tore through the illusion, fingers wrapping around the throat of the imposter wearing his sister's face.

"You're not her."

The thing shrieked, its flesh melting under his grip.

Kuragami's eyes burned—gold and red, light and darkness intertwining as his power surged.

The abyss screamed, its illusions crumbling, its whispers dying.

He stood—bloodied, broken, but alive.

And as the darkness collapsed around him, a single truth burned in his mind.

—

He would never give in to despair.

He would tear apart the gods themselves before he let them win.

And if the abyss dared to call him another failure—

Then he would become the first to crawl out.

And destroy it from the inside.

—

Kuragami has faced the abyss, but it has left its mark. Despair is no longer his enemy—it is his weapon. The gods, the demons, the world itself—none of them will break him.

Because Kuragami has already been broken.

And now—

He is the one who will break them.

—