chapter 75: Children of Ash — The Final Chapter
_"When the world collapses, a hero is not born… an echo is."_
The light vanished.
The Gate of the Ashen Realm opened, yet it revealed not a world—
but nothingness.
A space outside of time, where there was no color, no weight, no sound…
Only a dense feeling resembling longing… or regret.
Shao stepped in, and as he crossed the threshold, his body gradually dissolved.
His footsteps became tremors in the ether.
He was no longer human, nor had he become a god—
He transformed into an idea, manifesting within the void itself.
And before a mirror suspended in nothingness, he stood.
In it, he did not see his face, but all the faces he had slain.
He saw Aster weeping,
He saw Heim burning,
He saw his mother dying so he could live,
And he saw the small child within him… screaming.
Then, he heard one voice:
> _"Who are you?"_
It was his own.
He answered in silence.
Then suddenly, his former selves appeared:
— Shao as he was at the beginning of the journey, innocent and afraid
— Shao the savage
— Shao the survivor who sold pieces of himself to continue
— Shao the bearer of the cursed blood.
They all stood around him.
And the truth was clear:
He didn't have to destroy them…
He needed to understand them.
In a moment of realization, he lifted his hand and gathered them into his heart.
And then… the ash fell.
Not to end,
but to become seeds.
…
Far away, in a world slowly healing,
Aster stood on a green hill for the first time in a thousand years.
The sky was blue again, and the breeze no longer carried screams.
In her hand, a message written in Shao's blood—
No words… just a symbol:
*A broken circle.*
> "He chose the end… so that everything could begin."
…
Deep within the Ashen Realm,
The grey key sank into the earth.
And a tree sprouted—
Its roots cradling a sword,
Its branches radiating ash transformed into light.
> _"This tale will not be told in songs,
For the hero who chooses not to be…
Is the one who forged the legend."_
…
And so, Shao's journey ended—
Not as a hero,
But as a symbol…
For the one who dared to face himself.
28/05/2025
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12/07/2025
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Thank you for your support I wish you continuous success and good fortune See you in an upcoming novel or perhaps in Part 2 of this story😢✍️🇲🇦