My steps were slow, as if the will to walk had been drained from me. Nobody forced me to come here, yet I still followed my childhood friend to his usual basketball court.
The rain had stopped half an hour ago. The air smelled clean, and a cool breeze brushed against my skin. For a moment, I almost felt alive.
My friend walked ahead, lost in his own world, while I dragged myself behind him like a ghost. Lately, nothing really moved me. Doom-scrolling, fantasy anime, and writing dark stories on my phone — that was my routine. A pathetic loop I couldn't seem to escape.
"No beauty can compare to this…" I mumbled as I looked at the sky.
The setting sun painted everything in shades of orange and grey. Puddles on the ground reflected the clouds like shattered mirrors. It was beautiful. Almost painfully so.
"What are you on about?" my friend said, grinning. "Look, that girl's looking at you."
I glanced over. A group of girls quickly looked away and started whispering. One of them laughed.
I sighed and waved him off. "Go play."
He ran onto the court while I sat on a slightly wet brick wall, crossing my legs. I pulled out my phone, opened my notes, and started typing. The story had been stuck in my head for days.
Chapter 1: Tears of a Demon
Visha Sura's seven golden eyes showed a hint of uncertainty. His gaze fell from the starry sky to a lake of black blood, upon which he saw his own reflection alongside the three ancient moons.
Corpses of demons and deities littered the Arawata Mountain, a testament to a war that had lasted millennia.
Visha Sura's chest bore a gaping hole — his bones and lungs laid bare, the very source of the bloody lake beneath him.
"Lord Sathanama! This old Fiend is about to be killed! Haha… he… he truly is about to meet his end! Right!?"
A young man clad in golden light stood before the dying giant. His waist-length hair shimmered like threads of gold, and his eyes burned like stars.
"Neither your twelve arms nor your vicious fangs can save you, oh demon. You dared to disturb the order of the Divine. Now you shall be remembered as a precedent for all who defy righteousness."
Visha Sura tilted his massive head and smiled.
"Hahaha… Treacherous. Truly treacherous is your entire bloodline. Even if the mortals sing your name for eternity… you know what you did, scoundrel."
He opened his fist. Inside lay the broken corpse of a young mortal girl.
Sathanama's expression darkened. Golden light exploded from his body as he transformed into a towering giant of lightning.
Visha Sura stood up despite the hole in his chest, laughing wildly.
"You think that would be enough to kill me!?"
***
Drip.
Drip.
Cold raindrops hit my phone screen. I hadn't even noticed the rain starting again. My head felt heavy. The world around me began to blur.
A sharp pain exploded in my chest.
"Agh—!"
My knees hit the mud. I clutched my chest as my breath turned ragged. People started gathering around me.
"Hey! Are you okay?! What's wrong with him?!"
The pain was unbearable. It felt like something was crushing my heart from the inside. I looked up at the grey sky, rain mixing with the tears I couldn't hold back.
Pathetic… truly pathetic.
I don't want to die like this.
"IT HURTS!!"
A scream tore from my throat — raw, inhuman, and far too loud.
Then everything went black.
When I opened my eyes again, I was no longer on the basketball court.
I stood in the middle of a lake of black blood. My chest had a massive hole in it. Blood poured out like a waterfall, yet I felt no pain — only a terrifying numbness.
Seven golden eyes blinked in confusion.
A deafening roar escaped my throat. The sound shook the entire mountain range.
This voice… this body…
I looked down at my massive hands — claws instead of fingers. White hair, longer than any human's, brushed against my face. A gaping wound where my heart should be.
Visha Sura…?
I had become the demon I was writing about.
Above me, a golden giant hovered in the stormy sky, lightning crackling around his form. Sathanama. His star-like eyes widened in shock.
"What… is this?" he muttered.
I tried to speak, but only a low, guttural sound came out at first.
"…What is happening?" I finally managed to mumble.
Sathanama's expression hardened.
"You are dying," he said coldly. "That is what is happening."
I looked at the hole in my chest. Blood continued to gush out, hot and thick. I could feel the wind whistling through my ribs. It was real. All of it.
My mind was spiraling. I had only just started writing this scene. I didn't even know how the story was supposed to end.
I tried to speak again. My voice came out low and broken, like grinding stones.
"…Heavens will laugh at me… and I will laugh back at the heavens…"
Sathanama's golden form began to glow brighter. Lightning pulsed violently around his body as he raised one massive hand. A spear of pure golden light formed in his palm, crackling with divine power.
"For your arrogance," he declared, "you will die here."
He hurled the spear.
It shot toward me with terrifying speed, a streak of blinding light aimed directly at my throat.
I didn't move.
I couldn't.
Inside, I already knew.
This is it.
There's no escaping this.
Yet on the outside, I laughed crazily.
A deep, rumbling laugh that shook the black lake beneath me. Blood poured from the hole in my chest as the golden spear grew larger and larger in my vision, closing the distance between us with every passing second.
The laughter didn't stop.
Even as the spear came closer.
Even as I knew I was about to die.