The world thought he was gone, but inside him a war began. Darkness. Cold. Still. Empty. No ground. No sky. No heartbeat. Just endless space and the echo of something unfinished. Mirshad floated, not with grace or strength, but drifting… lost. "Where am I…" he whispered, and there was no answer, only silence. Then, a whisper — "You failed." A shadow emerged from the dark, peeling itself out of his own skin. It was him. Same face. Same eyes. But twisted by fear, doubt, and shame. "You gave the world everything, and still you fell. Now look at you. Alone. Forgotten. Dead."
Mirshad clenched his fists. "You're not real." The shadow's grin was a wound in the dark. "I'm more real than you've ever been." No swords. No lightning. Just fists. Rage. Truth. Every punch from the shadow came with memories — the night he cried as a child believing he was weak, the first time he bled and questioned his strength, the moment he stood before the Tribunal knowing he could die, the instant he fell in battle thinking, "This might be it." He fought back, but it wasn't working. The fear was stronger.
He dropped to one knee, breathing hard. And then, a light appeared behind the darkness — floating, spinning, glowing like a galaxy trapped in a crystal cage. It wasn't warm. It was eternal. "You can't win like this," the voice said — not with sound, but with presence. "Who are you?" he asked, but the answer came like a heartbeat in the void. "I am what you buried. I am what you feared. I am your truth. You were not born to be a hero. You were born to be a god. But you chose love. You chose mercy. You chose humanity. And that's why you fell." His head lowered, blood running down his lip. "I chose them… because they made me more than a god." The galaxy pulsed once, paused, and whispered, "Then prove it." The shadow returned, laughing, taller, stronger.
"You'll never break me, because I'm you. Your fear. Your weakness. Your failure." Mirshad stood, silent, and stepped forward — through the voice, through the dark, through himself. The shadow screamed and shattered like glass. Silence returned. Then the cage cracked. The galaxy inside roared. Lightning tore in every direction. The power rushed to break free. But the voice came again "Not yet. You are not ready. But soon…" The light poured into his chest. His wounds sealed. His eyes opened. The void collapsed. And the scream was born.
On Earth, the chamber walls shook, the sky cracked, the oceans stilled, and then it came The scream of the reborn. The scream of the deathless god. The scream the world would never forget. And inside the chamber, Mirshad breathed again.
He didn't return because death failed. He returned because fear died. And in its place… a god began to rise.