Three Days Before the Rumbling of Gonaya
The Kingdom of Aethelgard did not feel like a kingdom. It felt like a funeral that had lasted a thousand years. There were no songs in the streets, no fires in the hearths. The city was a sprawling labyrinth of marble towers and infinite archives, where the wind carried the scent of old parchment and the dust of forgotten histories.
Zen Severus Faust, Acting Leader of Orizon, walked through the silent gates. His black military trench coat billowed behind him, and the floating, leather-bound Faustian Ledger trailed at his shoulder, its pages scratching with a phantom quill.
He had no choice. With his Emperor missing for weeks and the Orizon military stretched thin, Aethelgard's intervention was the only hope for the Seven Kingdoms. But Aethelgard was ruled by a man who viewed the end of the world as a welcome correction to a bad draft.
Zen reached the Throne of Nullity. King Xyzer Aethelgard was slumped in his seat, his crown tilted so far it nearly covered one of his hollow, dark-circled eyes. His royal robes were tattered, dragging on the floor like a shroud.
"The Vice Captain of Orizon," Xyzer sighed, his voice sounding like a ghost exhaling. "You've traveled quite far to find someone who doesn't care if you exist, Zen."
"The world is ending, Xyzer," Zen said, his voice echoing in the hollow hall. "The Pact of Obsidian has turned Limana into a slaughterhouse. Gonaya is next. If they fall, the script of this world will be burned by a fire you cannot ignore."
Xyzer stood up, his movement jerky and uncoordinated, as if he found the act of standing a chore. "Then let it burn. Fire is just nature's way of hitting 'delete.' Why struggle to be the protagonist when I have the eraser?"
He raised a pale hand, and the air between them fractured.
"The Script of Nullity: Title Page – EXISTENCE."
A massive, ethereal Tome manifested in the air, its pages glowing with a sickly, white light. Zen felt a sudden, crushing stasis. The world became a still-life painting. He couldn't move his fingers; he couldn't even blink. He was "on hold."
Xyzer walked toward him, a charcoal-stained finger reaching for the floating book. "You think you're important, Zen? Let's smudge the ink of your being. Let's see how thin your 'existence' really is."
THE DUEL OF WILLS
Xyzer's finger touched the page, smudging the lines that defined Zen's physical density. Zen's hands began to blur, becoming transparent, turning into a ghost.
But Zen didn't panic. He bit his lip until blood dripped onto the Faustian Ledger.
"My demons don't belong to your script, Xyzer," Zen growled. "They are the sins you try so hard to pretend don't exist! Summon: ASAMON, The Demon of Pride!"
A pillar of black tar erupted from Zen's shadow. From it emerged a towering, obsidian-clad knight with wings of jagged metal. Asamon's presence alone stabilized the reality around Zen.
Xyzer frowned. He tried to "Edit" the demon, but his finger passed through Asamon as if it were a thought. "What is this? It's not human... it's not Maiju..."
"It's a concept," Zen rasped, his skin turning pale from the blood price. "Mirror of the Inferior!"
Asamon raised a massive shield. As Xyzer tried to smudge more of Zen's existence, 50% of that erasure reflected back onto Xyzer. The King's own arm began to flicker and turn into mist.
"Interesting," Xyzer murmured, his expression unchanging even as his arm vanished. "You use your own failures to shield yourself. But what about your heart? Personality Page – THE PSYCHE."
Xyzer flipped the Tome's page. He found the line: ZEN SEVERUS FAUST – FUEL: LOYALTY TO ORIZON.
"A pathetic motivation," Xyzer said, his finger poised to strike. "Let's rewrite that to... APATHY."
As the ink changed, Zen's eyes began to glaze over. He felt his heart slowing. The war, the Emperor, the children of Limana—suddenly, they all felt like distant, boring dreams. He began to lower his guard.
"Yes," Xyzer whispered. "Join me in the void, Zen. It's so much quieter."
"ASTRATA!" Zen yelled through the fog of his own mind.
The Demon of Envy, a serpentine shadow with a thousand eyes, surged out. It tasted the ink on the Psyche Page. Instantly, Astrata replicated the Arcane of Nullity. It didn't rewrite Zen back to normal; instead, it "Envied" Xyzer's nihilism so much that it created a localized "Counter-Script" that mocked Xyzer's own apathy.
The mental pressure snapped. Zen lunged forward, his ledger glowing.
THE RECKONING OF THE SUICIDAL KING
"You want to die, don't you?" Zen shouted, dodging a swing of the Tome. "You've tried to delete your own page, but your Arcane won't let you! You're a King who can't even grant himself the mercy of an ending!"
Xyzer's face finally showed a flicker of emotion—a deep, ancient agony. "The pages are indestructible! I have to watch the ink run dry on everyone else while my tragedy never ends! If I can't die, then I will make the world as empty as I am!"
Xyzer grabbed the bottom of the Historical Page and tore it. "THE CLIFFHANGER!"
The world around Zen began to loop. He was forced to relive the last ten seconds of the fight over and over, his body wearing down with every repetition.
"I can't reach him," Zen realized, his breathing becoming a series of short, sharp gasps. "He's editing the future. I have to hit the 'Total Sum' of his life."
Zen opened his ledger to the final page. "JUDGMENT DAY: THE GREAT RECKONING!"
Seven pillars of black fire erupted around Xyzer. Chains of Pride, Envy, Wrath, Sloth, Greed, Gluttony, and Lust burst forth, hooking into Xyzer's tattered robes.
"You say nothing matters?" Zen roared, his eyes turning pitch black as he entered his Awakening: Prince of the Pit. "Then face the weight of the nothingness you've created! Face the sin of your Sloth! Face the Greed of your isolation!"
The chains pulled Xyzer into the air. The Seven Demons merged into a Colossal Avatar of Purgatory—a skeletal giant that raised a hand to strike Xyzer's soul.
Xyzer didn't fight back. He looked at the giant with a strange, hopeful smile. "Is this it? Is this the end of my chapter?"
The Avatar's fist collided with Xyzer's chest. The shockwave leveled the library, sending millions of scrolls into the air like white birds.
THE AFTERMATH
When the dust settled, the Colossal Avatar had vanished. Zen was on one knee, coughing up blood, his ledger tattered.
Xyzer Aethelgard was lying on his back in the middle of the ruined hall. He wasn't dead. His "Indestructible" nature had saved him again, but for the first time in centuries, his crown was gone, and his eyes were clear.
"You survived," Zen wheezed. "Your script... it's too strong to be broken by a demon."
Xyzer sat up, looking at his hands. "Your demons... they didn't try to delete me. They just made me feel the weight of the space I occupy. It was... exhausting."
Zen crawled toward him, grabbing the King's collar. "Listen to me, Xyzer. If you want to die—if you truly want an ending that isn't a typo—then don't do it here in this dusty tomb. Come to Gonaya."
Xyzer looked at him, curious. "Why?"
"Because there are monsters there who have forgotten what it means to be human," Zen said, his voice burning with conviction. "The Pact of Obsidian... they are writing a story of blood. If you want a meaningful death, die on the battlefield protecting the living. Die as a King, not as a suicide note."
Xyzer looked up at the ceiling of his broken kingdom. He saw the stars through the holes in the roof.
"A battle against the gods of obsidian," Xyzer murmured. "A place where the eraser might finally meet its match."
Xyzer stood up and closed his Tome with a soft, final thud. "Very well, Zen Severus Faust. I will join your 'Orizon.' Not because I believe in your cause, but because your hell is more interesting than mine."
Zen let out a breath he felt he'd been holding for a week. "Then pack your books, Xyzer. We leave for Gonaya at dawn."
As the two men stood amidst the ruins of the library, the wind picked up the fallen pages, carrying the news of a new alliance toward the south. The King of Nullity and the Prince of the Pit were marching toward the Rumbling.
[TO BE CONTINUED]