The vision solidified around Josh, and he found himself standing in the Frozen Realm—but not as it was now. This version was darker, colder, more chaotic. The sky churned with violent storms, and the ice beneath his feet was cracked and unstable.
The young man from the first vision—the one who would become the King—stood alone in this wasteland, shivering despite the dark energy now coursing through his body. He looked terrified and lost.
"Where am I?" the young man screamed into the howling wind. "What is this place?"
No answer came. He was alone in a dying realm, with no way home.
"This was the beginning," the King's voice narrated, his present form standing beside Josh like a ghost. "I was taken from Earth, thrown into a dimension that was collapsing. The beings who once lived here had fled or died. I was the only living thing for thousands of miles."
Josh watched as the young man stumbled through the frozen wasteland, searching desperately for shelter, for warmth, for anything. Days passed—or what felt like days. Time moved strangely here. The young man grew weaker, hypothermia setting in despite the dark energy protecting him.
"I should have died," the King said quietly. "Would have died. But then I found them."
The scene shifted. The young man collapsed near what looked like ruins—remnants of a once-great civilization, now buried in ice. And there, huddled in the wreckage, were people. Or things that had once been people. They were frozen, trapped in ice, but somehow still alive. Still conscious. Their eyes moved, tracking the young man as he approached.
"Help me," the young man begged. "Please, I don't know where I am. I don't know how to get home."
One of the frozen beings spoke, its voice crackling like breaking ice. "You... carry the Shard. The dark power. It has chosen you."
"I don't want it! I just want to go home!"
"There is no home. Not anymore. The Shard binds you to this realm now. You are its vessel. Its instrument." The frozen being's eyes glowed with ancient knowledge. "But there is hope. The Shard can save us. Can restore this realm. You have the power to rebuild what was lost."
"I don't know how!"
"You will learn. Or you will die. And we will die with you."
Josh watched as the young man broke down, sobbing in the frozen ruins. He was just a kid—barely twenty years old—torn from his world and told he was now responsible for saving an entire dimension.
"I had a choice," the King's voice said. "Die alone in the cold, or learn to master the power inside me. Learn to survive. To adapt."
The vision fast-forwarded. Weeks passed, then months. The young man learned to control the dark energy, learned to manipulate ice and cold. The frozen beings taught him what they could, shared their knowledge of this dying realm. And slowly, painfully, he began to change.
His body became ice. His thoughts became colder, more focused. The scared young man faded, replaced by something harder. Something that could survive.
"I saved them," the King said, gesturing to the frozen beings. "Gave them new bodies, new purpose. I restored the ruins, built new cities. I learned to feed on the dimensional energy itself, sustaining myself when there was no food, no water. I became what this realm needed—a ruler. A savior."
The vision showed the young man—no longer quite human—standing atop a tower of ice, looking over a city he'd created. The frozen beings bowed to him, grateful for their salvation.
"They called me King," the narrator's voice continued. "Not because I demanded it, but because I had earned it. I had saved them from extinction. Given them hope when there was none."
"But you were still trapped," Josh said, finding his voice. "Still stuck in this realm."
"Yes. The Shard that gave me power also bound me here. I searched for a way home, for decades. Found nothing. Earth was lost to me." The King's form became more solid, more present. "Until I discovered the weak points. Places where the barrier between dimensions was thin. And I realized—I couldn't go home. But perhaps I could bring home here. Could expand my realm to include Earth. Save both worlds by merging them."
The vision shifted again, showing the King's experiments. Sending creatures through small rifts, testing the barriers, searching for ways to connect the realms permanently. Each failure taught him more. Each success brought him closer to his goal.
"You see, Joshua? I am not a conqueror. I am a survivor. Everything I do, I do to save those who depend on me. To fulfill the purpose the Shard chose me for." The King turned to face Josh fully. "You call me a monster. But I am simply someone who refused to give up. Who chose to fight rather than die."
"By trying to freeze Earth and enslave everyone," Josh countered. "That's not saving. That's conquering."
"Is it? I offer immortality. Freedom from pain, from aging, from death. I offer purpose and belonging. What does your world offer? War, poverty, suffering, death. Which is truly better?"
"People have the right to choose their own lives. Even if those lives are hard."
"Do they? Or do they simply endure because they know nothing else?" The King moved closer. "You've touched my power, Joshua. You know what it feels like. The strength, the clarity, the freedom from human weakness. Don't you want that? Don't you want to be more than what you are?"
"Not like this. Not by losing what makes me human."
"Humanity is what got me beaten in that alley. What left me broken and bleeding while people walked past without helping. Humanity is weakness disguised as virtue." The King's voice turned bitter. "I was human once. It brought me nothing but pain. Why would I choose that again?"
Josh wanted to argue, but the King's words hit harder than he expected. Because there was truth in them. The young man in the vision had been abandoned by humanity. Left to suffer. The Shard hadn't chosen him randomly—it had found someone desperate enough, broken enough, to accept its power without question.
"You pity me," the King observed. "Good. Pity is the beginning of understanding. In the third truth, I will show you what happens when desperation meets power. When survival requires sacrifice. And you will understand why I cannot stop. Why I must continue, no matter the cost."
The vision began to fade, the Frozen Realm dissolving around them.
"Wait," Josh said. "What's your real name? You were human once. You had a name."
The King paused, his form flickering. For a moment, Josh thought he wouldn't answer. Then, so quietly Josh almost missed it, the King spoke.
"I had many names, in the life before. But the one that matters... the one the Shard calls me... is Azazel."
Josh woke with a gasp, the name echoing in his mind. Azazel. Not the King. Not some faceless monster. But a person with a name, a history, a reason for becoming what he was.
Kyla was immediately at his side. "Josh? You okay? You were glowing again."
"Azazel," Josh said, his voice hoarse. "His name is Azazel."
"Who?"
"The King. That's his real name. Or what he calls himself now." Josh sat up, his head pounding. "Kyla, I saw more. Saw how he became what he is. And it's worse than I thought."
"Worse how?"
"Because he's not wrong about everything. The things he says about humanity, about Earth—some of it's true. And that makes it so much harder to fight him."
Josh told her everything he'd seen—the young man's terror, his desperation, the choice between death and transformation. The frozen beings who needed saving. The decades of building a new civilization from nothing.
"He's not just evil," Josh concluded. "He's broken. Traumatized. And he's convinced himself that what he's doing is heroic. That freezing everyone is saving them."
"That doesn't make it right," Kyla said firmly.
"I know. But it makes it understandable. And that's dangerous." Josh looked at her seriously. "Because part of me gets it. The power he offered—I feel it inside me. The temptation to just give in, to let the cold take over. To stop fighting and just accept that maybe he's right."
"Josh, you're scaring me."
"I'm scaring myself." Josh took her hands. "But I need you to know—I'm not giving in. I'm not joining him. I just need to understand him. Because the only way to stop Azazel is to figure out what drives him. What he really wants."
"And what does he want?"
"To not be alone anymore. To not be trapped. To save the people who depend on him." Josh's voice was quiet. "He wants what we all want—purpose, belonging, a reason to exist. He's just so twisted up inside that he can't see his solution is worse than the problem."
They sat in silence for a while, processing everything. Finally, Kyla asked, "One more night, right? One more truth?"
"Yeah. Tomorrow night. And I have a feeling that one's going to be the worst."
"Then we'll face it together. Like everything else."
The next day was relatively quiet—just routine monitoring and training exercises. But Josh couldn't focus. His mind kept returning to the vision, to the young man who'd become Azazel. He found himself wondering what would have happened if someone had helped that young man in the alley. If anyone had shown him kindness instead of cruelty.
Would Azazel still exist? Or would that young man have lived a normal life, never touching the Shard, never being pulled into the Frozen Realm?
"You're thinking too hard," Stevens said, finding Josh in the cafeteria that afternoon. "Want to hear a joke?"
"Please, God, no," Josh groaned.
"Too bad. Why did the ice cube go to therapy?"
"Stevens—"
"Because it had too many issues to freeze over!" Stevens grinned at his own joke. "Get it? Freeze over? Like gloss over, but—"
"I get it. It's terrible."
"Terrible enough to distract you from whatever's making you look like someone kicked your puppy." Stevens sat down across from him. "Seriously though, you okay? You've been weird since Paris."
Josh considered lying, but Stevens had been with them since the beginning. He deserved some version of the truth. "The King—his name is Azazel. I've been seeing his past in dreams. Learning what made him."
"And?"
"And it's complicated. He's not just some evil villain. He's a victim who became a monster. And I don't know if understanding that makes it easier or harder to fight him."
Stevens was quiet for a moment, unusually serious. "You know what I think? I think it doesn't matter why someone becomes a monster. What matters is what they do now. And right now, Azazel is trying to freeze the planet and enslave everyone. That's what we judge him on. Not on what happened to him decades ago."
"When did you get so wise?"
"I've always been wise. I just hide it behind bad jokes and questionable life choices." Stevens smiled. "But seriously, Josh—don't let him get in your head. Understanding your enemy is good. Sympathizing with them is dangerous."
"I know. I'm trying to keep them separate."
"Good. Because we need you here, with us. Not off in dream land wondering if the ice king has feelings."
That night, Josh tried to stay awake again. Delayed sleep as long as possible. But eventually, exhaustion won. And when he closed his eyes, the cold came quickly.
Azazel was waiting, but his form looked different. More tired, somehow. More human.
"The third truth," he said without preamble. "The hardest one to share. The moment when I truly became what I am. Are you ready, Joshua?"
"No. But show me anyway."
The vision formed around them, and Josh knew—whatever he was about to see, it would change everything.
End of Chapter 27