🌫️ The Trail of Destruction
The skies were quiet, but the world still shook.
The Queen's fastest mounts tore across the broken plains.
Seraphina rode in silence.
Her brother beside her, hands trembling on the reins.
They had felt it the moment he returned — a wave of pressure so thick the Queen's kingdom nearly collapsed under it.
Now they followed its path.
And what they saw chilled them to the bone.
"This was… the Verdantian route to Ashura," the Queen whispered.
There was nothing left.
Where once stood cities, bridges, farmlands — now stretched only a wasteland of dust.
Mountains flattened. Lakes dried.
Villages turned to ash.
"He did this alone?" Seraphina asked, voice cracking.
The Queen said nothing.
She only tightened her grip.
🔥 Ashura Was Gone
By the time they neared the remnants of Ashura's capital, even the sky seemed to weep.
There were no banners.
No corpses.
No buildings.
Only a black crater where a kingdom had once stood.
In the middle of it — a lone figure.
Collapsed.
Breathing.
Barely.
⚔️ The Demon King in Ruin
His cloak was torn. His hands scorched. His skin cracked from overuse of power.
Dark aura still flickered faintly from his body — pulsing like a dying star.
But even in this broken state…
He radiated more fear than any army.
Seraphina gasped.
Her brother dropped to his knees.
"He… he burned the world."
"And we did this to him."
They couldn't move.
They couldn't speak.
Only the Queen stepped forward.
Carefully.
🩸 "Who Brought Me Back?"
His eyes opened.
Half-lidded. Glowing faintly.
His voice rasped like stone dragged through blood.
"Who… brought me back here…"
"Who tore me away…"
The Queen knelt.
"It was me."
For a single moment —
His power flared.
The ground cracked again.
The Queen was thrown to her hands, barely shielding her face.
And he sat up, shaking, coughing blood.
"Why!?"
"I didn't want this!"
"I had everything—!!"
His strength failed.
He fell again, crumpling forward.
🕯 The World Holds Its Breath
For days… he slept.
His breathing shallow.
His power unstable.
He was kept in the Queen's highest warded room — not to contain him, but to keep others safe if he woke in rage again.
No one dared speak near his door.
No one dared ask what came next.
Because the one they had summoned…
…was not a savior.
He was the consequence of their past.
And he had just returned.