THE FEAR "[English]"

Chapter 10

The chapter begins where the last one left off—in a tense confrontation between Gabriel and Zulish.

Gabriel, still bound and bloodied, hung upon the golden cross, his laughter echoing through the chamber. Before him, the sorcerous rift pulsed, and within it loomed Zulish, the skeletal horror.

Its voice, grinding like shifting stone, reverberated through the void:

"What is this laugh, mortal? Have you ever considered becoming truly Evil ?"

Gabriel: What are you doing here, my skeleton, Helousti?

Zolesh: I am not Helousti, mere mortal. I am one of the rulers. If I were of no use to you, I would have destroyed you and your world.

Gabriel, laughing hysterically: What do you want now?

Zolesh: Have you thought about signing the demonic pact I gave you?

Gabriel, sarcastically: Do you see me in a position to think?

Zolesh: Do you want me to save you? But that would turn it into a pact of servitude, not an alliance.

Gabriel: In your dreams, skeleton. Anyway, let me die. I no longer care.

Zolesh: You are such a miserable human. I don't understand why you creatures grieve. Every day you wake up with the opportunity to kill many humans, yet you're sad!!

Gabriel: Damn you, skeleton demon.

Zolesh: Anyway...

Zolesh snaps his fingers, and they both instantly teleport back to the demons' mansion balcony.

Gabriel: What happened? How did we get here? What is this madness?

Zolesh: What don't you understand, little one? I am a cosmic entity. I can do anything.

Gabriel: What the hell… What the hell just happened there?

Gabriel is shocked by what he saw. Half of the island had completely disappeared, along with part of the sea. In its place was an enormous black void, as if the island and the sea had been drawn on a piece of paper, and one part was torn away. Gabriel couldn't believe what he was seeing. He screamed hysterically and fell to the ground, clutching his head, trembling.

Gabriel: What the hell happened there? What the hell is in that spot? Did you do this? Were there people there?

Zolesh: Oh, you definitely don't remember. I erased them from time and space. You won't remember anything about them. But I'll restore the memory for you. They were members of the cult that worships my father, the ones who kidnapped you.

Gabriel: Oh, I wish you hadn't restored my memory. Wait, you did all this with a snap of your fingers?

Zolesh: With a snap of my fingers, I can destroy 20 planets the size of Earth. I've been holding back my power severely.

Gabriel: I wanted to know more about that red aura that comes from you and stretches into the sky. It looks like the demon lord from an isekai anime or a fantasy game.

Zolesh: Oh, that's the aura of terror. Every cosmic entity has one. I try to suppress it as much as I can. Do you see all these rings on my fingers? They help me suppress my energy.

Gabriel: You're impressive. If I were a teenager, I'd be in awe of you.

Zolesh: You forgot to mention if I were a fictional character I am real .

Gabriel: I still hold on to the faint hope that you're just another hallucination.

Zolesh: Look, Hunter of the dark , I am someone who believes in deals. I won't force you to sign the contract. I won't manipulate your mind into making you sign it against your will. You, in any case, long for death, so power doesn't matter to you.

Gabriel: For what, then?

Zolesh: I am a cosmic entity, as I told you. So, wish what you want, and I'll make it happen for you.

Gabriel: One thing... can you...?

A massive snowstorm arrives, so we can't hear what Gabriel wished for.

Zolesh: Yes, of course. But there will be consequences after I grant it, and don't hold any grudges against me. I have no control over it.

Gabriel: Do it then. I don't care about the consequences anymore.

Zolesh: So, I understand this means you'll sign it.

Gabriel: Before that, I want to ask you: in that church, there was a painting of a woman. I've never seen such beauty before. Is she a cosmic entity as well?

Zolesh: Yes, she is my older sister, Erkantha. She is one of the most powerful princes and one of the strongest children of the Shadow Demon, the Mistress of Witches, and the most skilled sorceress in the universe. Actually, that miserable house is hers. She would travel the planets, teaching creatures magic and turning them into slaves. When she came to Earth, she made this cottage her home. She manifested as a human, and people from all over the world came to her.

Gabriel: Sounds like she had quite the reputation.

Zolesh: Indeed, but before she left Earth, she erased her name from the records of history. She's also the reason for my alliance with you. My father wants to give her five galaxies to rule, but the whole thing is just an experiment. He hasn't decided yet, but his hatred for me is immense.

Gabriel: It seems like you have something akin to mythology. Anyway, another question. What's your story about slaves?

Zolesh: In short, the smart ones increase power, and the foolish ones, like those who kidnapped you, are useless.

Gabriel: All the information you know about your father... was there a god of the world who was defeated, for example?

Zolesh: If you're asking about old stories, well, before I came here, I destroyed a solar system because they didn't have the avocado-flavored crisps I like. Don't test my patience, chatterbox.

Gabriel: Alright, alright, I'll sign. The rest of humanity is innocent, honestly.

Zolesh: That's good. I was thinking about returning you to the time of those cocaine addicts just before you intervened and left you frozen.

Gabriel: Speaking of which, what happened to the children?

Zolesh: Dead.

Gabriel: Damn you, psychopathic skeleton. Anyway, give me the pact.

As Gabriel signs the pact, a magical circle appears, engulfing them and transporting them to a vast, desolate desert. In the center of the sky, there is a giant sun shaped like a skull resembling Zolesh's head, and above it is the eye that sees everything.

Gabriel hands the contract over: "Here is your contract. Though, I expect you want to be your father favorite. You must have realized that defeating him is impossible, right?"

Zolesh: Actually, I am smarter than you. You are the smartest creature, and I am a cosmic entity.

Zolesh takes the contract, spreads his wings, and soars high into the sky, saying, "Whatever my goal is, Gabriel, you will follow me, eyes closed, because you want your wish more than anything." He ends his sentence with an evil, terrifying laugh that shakes the island. "Hahaha...

We now shift to another island, the Island of the Devil's Skull, where Simon and Eva achieved the miracle that the poor prisoners had waited for many years.

The helicopters flew through the night sky over the ocean, escaping from the bloody hell, finally escaping from the Island of the Devil's Skull. Below them, the black waves crashed against the sharp rocks, as if announcing their victory. The sounds of joy filled the sky, the joy of the prisoners who had survived after all that hell. Inside one of the helicopters, Eva sat beside Simon, her heart still pounding with the thrill of victory.

She looked at him with a sideways smile, resting her head on his shoulder.

"We did it, Simon. We survived."

He kissed her forehead and held her close, his eyes gleaming with a shadow of a smile that wasn't quite complete.

"Yes, but survival is not the goal; it's only the beginning."

Eva narrowed her eyes. She knew that Simon always had more secrets up his sleeve. But she couldn't stop herself from asking:

"You knew that some European governments were supporting you, didn't you? Especially Germany?"

A mysterious smile appeared on his face as he looked out at the vast ocean ahead of them.

"There are things that should not be said at the wrong time."

"Is now the wrong time?"

"Anyway, we succeeded, and that's what matters now." He turned towards her with his sharp grey eyes. "What's left is meeting Gabriel and Rose... and finding a new hideout for us. We'll need all the support we can get."

Eva let out a short sigh as she relaxed into her seat, but an uncomfortable feeling began to creep into her heart. There was something bigger unfolding on the horizon, and Simon knew exactly what it was.

They flew off into the distance towards their unknown destination. We leave the heroes and prisoners celebrating their historic victory, and we move to a faraway place in this universe, a place where no entity or creature dares to go – the throne room of the Shadow Demon.

At the base of the throne stood Erkantha, her raven-black hair cascading like a waterfall of the night itself, interwoven with flickers of starlight, much like distant galaxies shimmering in the cosmic abyss. Her eyes were not mere pools of darkness but rather portals to the unfathomable secrets of the universe, as deep as the nebulous voids between the stars, as radiant as the flickering demise of a dying sun. She was a vision beyond mortal comprehension, a beauty surpassing by a hundredfold the portrait that had once captivated Gabriel's eyes.

Emerging from the flowing fabric of her robe, black serpents slithered onto the ground, their sinuous bodies coiling around her form like shadows given life. Her body was sculpted with an artistry that defied mortal understanding—a perfection of balance between ethereal grace and ominous power, as though the very forces of creation had conspired to mold her into an apex of existence.

Her waist, delicate and slender, was the meeting point of a tempest and tranquillity, while her legs extended like pillars of celestial light—long, poised, and ending in feet that seemed barely to touch the astral void beneath her. Her arms, slender yet carrying an aura of concealed strength, moved with the slow precision of an ocean's tide. Her fingers, elongated and refined, resembled the branches of an ancient tree that had witnessed the dawn of time itself.

Her chest was not merely a detail of her form, but an artwork sculpted by the hand of the cosmos, full yet balanced, a harmony of delicacy and majesty, as though within its contours lay the very essence of beauty itself. Her skin, neither merely flesh nor mere surface, radiated a living luminescence, smooth as though woven from the finest marble and the most fluid of waters, glowing with an inner incandescence.

Her crimson eyes, burning like molten rubies, slowly lifted their gaze towards the entity upon the throne.

It was he… the Shadow Demon.

And Erkantha, the woman whom all creatures in existence feared—the untouched maiden whom no being, mortal or divine, had ever dared to claim, the one who had never bowed nor bent the knee to any ruler or god—knelt before him.

She, whom the greatest sorcerers, the most terrifying of cosmic entities, and the rulers of forbidden realms had revered and feared alike, now prostrated herself in silent submission.

The being upon the throne, the one who bore the true name of dread itself, remained unmoving. His favored form—an enigmatic woman draped in a formless abyssal cloak—sat in perfect stillness, an immeasurable presence emanating from the very fabric of their existence. Behind him, a colossal star loomed, pulsating with an eerie, unnatural rhythm, as though it were a heart beating at the threshold between life and death.

One hand held within it a gathering of spiders and butterflies, their delicate, nightmarish forms writhing and shifting in ways that defied sanity. The other, resting upon the arm of the throne, bore the weight of innumerable worlds, as though the very act of existence itself was upheld by his touch alone.

He did not turn to acknowledge her, nor did he offer any sign that her presence mattered.

But she, in a voice that caused the very fabric of space to waver, the whisper of which made the unseen forces of the cosmos tremble, spoke:

"My Lord … I believe Zulish is betraying you."

End of the Chapter.