📕 Chapter 12: The First Gate of Pain
Moon of the Fallen King
The sun rose behind the hills, setting the sky ablaze with crimson and gold. The forest below bathed in its light, quiet and heavy with the scent of ancient ash. Lucius walked silently behind the Master across scorched earth that crackled faintly with cursed residue.
"Flying toward the storm," Lucius thought, "doesn't make it any less terrifying…"
They soon arrived at the ruins of a forgotten temple — shattered walls, overgrown with vines, blackened by fire. Its silence was loud.
"This was once a shrine," the Master said quietly. "Now… it's the first gate."
Lucius stared at the cracked stone pillars. "The first gate to what?"
"To the truth," the Master replied, his voice deeper now. "To the pain we try to bury."
They descended stone steps that twisted beneath the ground. Cursed carvings lined the walls — glowing with a faint, sickly light. At the bottom of the stairwell, a mural stretched across the chamber. It showed Sukuna, not as a monster, but a warrior — blades drawn, back arched in defense.
"The world remembers only the demon," the Master said, brushing dust from the mural. "But before that… he was just like you."
Lucius stared, unsure how to respond.
"Just like me…?"
The room pulsed.
Suddenly, red mist bled from the walls. A shape twisted into view — a shadowy memory of the Devil King, flickering like a phantom. Power rolled from it in waves.
"This is only a shadow," the Master said, stepping aside, "but it still holds fury."
Lucius clenched his fists, jaw tightening. "Let it come."
The world around him collapsed.
His body was yanked into a mindscape — a red, fractured wasteland. Cursed wind howled. The battlefield from long ago.
Ahead, a younger version of Sukuna walked alone — blades at his sides, his figure framed by flame and ruin.
"He walked alone…" Lucius thought.
Then, somehow, the Master appeared beside him — as if drawn into the memory. His face was unreadable.
Lucius looked at him in shock. "How… are you here?"
"Because the pain that shaped him," the Master said softly, "also shaped me."
He walked over to a scorched mark in the earth, kneeling. Ash swirled up from the spot like a whisper.
"Power always asks for something in return."
Lucius stared. "What did it take from you?"
The Master's gaze didn't move from the ashes.
> "When I look back...
all I see are failures.
As if I've achieved nothing at all."
Ash curled around them, forming flickers of memory — glimpses of students, comrades… all lost.
> "Can you undo what's already done?
Can you change what's been broken?"
> "Time doesn't heal pain...
we just learn how to live with it."
Lucius said nothing. He only listened.
Then from behind them, Sukuna's dreamlike form emerged — not attacking, not threatening. Simply watching.
"Tch," the demon scoffed. "So the old man still has a voice."
Lucius turned slightly toward the Master. "You really believed in him, didn't you?"
The Master didn't flinch. "I still do."
Suddenly, cursed fire exploded beneath Lucius's feet. He gasped as red energy tore through his body. A blazing sigil flared across his chest.
"It's too much… too fast—"
The Master's voice echoed in his mind.
> "Let the flame break you — or shape you."
Lucius jolted awake.
Back in the real world, he lay on the temple floor, his chest glowing with a fiery symbol. His breathing slowed as he stared up at the sky.
"If I carry their pain… I must earn their power."
The dawn above shimmered like fire over darkness.
> "The fire no longer fears the dark.
It remembers… and it burns stronger."
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📘 To be continued…
✅ End of Chapter 12