Ashar stood in the silence of ruin.
The mist was gone.
The Fenrir was gone.
The ground still bore the scars of their clash–deep fractures spiraling outward, scorched earth pulsing faintly with fading malice. The shadows that once clung to him peeled away like ash in the wind, and the Bloodveil Edge in his hand crumbled into smoke.
His right arm hung limp. His breath came shallow. The black veins across his body throbbed once, then began to fade–sinking back into flesh like ink bleeding into water. His eye, still marked with the twin pupils of the entity within, dimmed.
His body had been used–pushed beyond its limits, not by himself, but by the unknown entity that took over his body. Its power was vast, but Ashar's mortal vessel was never meant to carry that weight.
His mana channels were fractured. His soul felt… scorched. His mind, splintered by the lingering residue of the fusion.
He fell to one knee, then to the ground entirely.
"Ashar!"
A voice cried out–muffled, distant, like it echoed from across a crumbling world.
"Wake up! Ashar, please… say something!"
But Ashar heard none of it.
His eyes closed.
His breathing slowed.
The world… vanished.
Yet within him, two presences remained awake.
A vast inner space–cold, dark, and formless–crackled with tension. It wasn't Ashar's mind, nor the realm of the living.
It was something deeper. Where souls could speak. Where truths had nowhere to hide.
"Who are you? What are you?!" Renart's voice tore through the darkness, furious.
He stood in the hollow vastness, the echo of Ashar's inner self looming around them.
"Say something, damn you! You nearly killed him! You used his body like a puppet!"
The entity remained still. Its form was a silhouette made of shifting shadows, eyes faintly glowing like twin suns in eclipse.
Silence followed.
Renart's fists clenched. "You bastard. Answer me! If you hadn't been so rough with him, he wouldn't be in this condition. He's barely holding on. My child… he's suffering so much because of you."
The entity finally turned.
Its voice was ancient. Low. Layered with too many tones to be human.
"Your child? Don't make me laugh, human."
Renart froze.
"He is not your child. He is my friend's son. And if I hadn't intervened, he would have died on that battlefield. Or did you forget how helpless he was when I awakened?"
The air between them grew heavy.
Renart's voice faltered. "W–what are you talking about…? What do you mean… he's not my son?"
"You raised him. Fed him. Cared for him. I watched it all. I remember the way he clung to you like a lifeline. But blood does not lie. Ashar is not yours."
Renart staggered back as if struck.
"No… that's not true. I held him when he couldn't sleep. I taught him to walk, to fight, to survive! I was there! I am his father!"
"Not by blood." the entity said flatly. "He carries a legacy older than you, darker than you."
Renart was silent.
He looked at the entity, voice raw.
"Then… who is he? Who were your friend and the woman who bore him? You must know why he was thrown in the forest to die? Who tried to kill him?"
The entity turned away.
"The same ones who feared his father. The same ones who killed your friend–Regal."
Renart froze. The air seemed to thicken.
"Regal?" he breathed. Then louder, with a roar that cracked through the void:
"How do you know about him?!"
His fists clenched.
"You bastard! I knew it… this energy--it's slightly different, but it's the same! Are you the one that killed Regal?!"
"Who are you? And who are they that you mention?!"
A silence followed, vast and suffocating.
Then, the entity spoke again.
Its voice was quiet now. Heavier.
"Do you care about that child?"
Renart stiffened. His fury cooled to cold steel.
"More than anything."
"Then help me protect him. That's all that matters now."
A pause.
"You will get your answers soon. If it helps… I wasn't the one who killed Regal."
The shadows shifted slightly.
"…It was my brother. That's all I can tell you for now."
Renart stood in stillness for a long moment.
The storm inside him didn't settle, but it paused.
He exhaled through clenched teeth, then slowly nodded.
"Fine."
His voice was low, but resolute.
"I'll wait. For Ashar's sake."
Then he narrowed his eyes.
"At least tell me your name."
The entity turned.
Those eclipse-like eyes met Renart's without blinking.
"I have been called many things."
"But the one your kind used… was Neruin."
"Neruin? Never heard of it."
He hesitated. Then, almost reluctantly–"Are you going to tell Ashar… about his real father and mother?"
A pause.
"Yes," Neruin said at last. "He will find out eventually. So why lie?"
Renart's shoulders sagged. A shadow passed across his face.
He didn't say anything–but the look in his eyes said it all.
Neruin studied him for a moment.
For the first time, his voice softened.
"…I will not tell him. Not yet. He'll learn it on his own, when he's ready."
Renart looked up, surprised.
"Thank you." he said, barely above a whisper.
Ashar waking up:
Ashar stirred.
His eyes fluttered open, his body heavy against the strange, weightless surface beneath him. He gasped for air–like surfacing from dark waters.
A faint hum still echoed in his ears, like a voice fading into silence.
Renart's voice cut through the haze.
"Ashar…! You're awake!"
Ashar blinked, dazed.
"Father…? What… happened?"
Renart moved closer, his soulform flickering gently in the dim, ambient light of the pocket realm. Though not bound by flesh, he still carried the shape and presence Ashar knew.
Relief softened Renart's features–but he hesitated. The warning echoed in his mind:
"Tell him what he needs to hear. But not more."
He knelt beside Ashar–not in body, but in the way a soul might lean closer, presence pressing nearer.
"You nearly died," Renart said quietly.
"That thing inside you–it protected you. It spoke to me."
Ashar's eyes widened slightly.Renart continued.
"Its name is Neruin… and it claims to be your protector. Not your enemy."
Silence lingered.
Ashar whispered, voice thin but steady:
"…I heard him too."
A silence followed–thicker than before.
Then, from somewhere within Ashar, that ancient voice echoed again. Calm. Composed. Impossibly old.
"Then I see no point in hiding it."
Ashar's breath caught. His eyes snapped toward Renart, who froze as the voice continued–filling the space around them.
"You heard more than just my voice. You heard the truth."
A flicker of darkness shimmered at the edge of the realm–like shadow bending around reason. A figure stepped forth. Humanoid, tall, cloaked in a flowing shape of night itself. No footsteps, no breath. Only eyes–black suns with twin eclipses.
Neruin.
"Your father," the entity said, "was the previous Demon King. The strongest to ever walk the lands. And your mother--"
His eyes narrowed slightly.
"--was human. The daughter of the last king of the Furata Empire."
The words dropped like boulders into still water.
Renart's expression cracked, his soulform trembling faintly.
"…Furata…?" he muttered. "Then he is…"
Neruin turned to him with a subtle nod.
"Yes. She was Regal's daughter."
"Ashar is his grandson."
Ashar stared between them, barely breathing.
"My grandfather… was the king of the Furata Empire…?"
Renart was still in shock. Since Renart had already told Ashar about what took place in the royal palace that day. When his mother and he died. So Ashar knew that Renart and Regal previous king was friends and that Renart was charged with Regal death and even though he didn't refuse those accusation he never explained himself and Ashar never asked.
"So…By Regal daughter you mean he is Silika's son? But how could it be possible, everyone died that day. You must be lying."
Neruin's voice was calm, unshaken.
"Did you see her body yourself?"
Renart hesitated.
"No… But I know what happened. No one could've survived it. She was just eighteen."
"The previous Demon King--Eronath--saved her," Neruin said. "He arrived in time to save only one. Even that cost him everything."
His tone deepened, laced with old pain.
"You were close to Regal. You must have known… he dreamed of uniting humans and demons."
Renart looked away, his soulform dimming like a candle flickering low.
"Yes," he murmured. "It was a dream we both believed in… once."
Neruin continued.
"That's why Regal made a bold proposal. To marry his daughter--Silika--to Eronath. An alliance not written in treaties… but sealed in blood."
Ashar's world began to tilt.
His voice came out hollow.
"My mother was meant to… marry the Demon King?"
"She did," Neruin said.
"And you… are their son.
The fruit of Regal's hope.
Of Silika's courage.
Of Eronath's sacrifice."
Ashar froze, the truth clashing with everything he thought he knew. His voice was barely a whisper.
"No… That can't be…"
Neruin turned his gaze toward Ashar.
"The day Renart found you in the forest… it wasn't by chance."
Ashar looked up slowly.
"The current king had discovered who you truly were," Neruin said darkly. "Your father wasn't there to protect you. Your mother fought alone… and in the end, the soldiers killed her and took you away."
Ashar's jaw tightened.
"He knew that if you lived, the truth of your bloodline could tear apart everything he'd built. So he poisoned you."
Neruin placed a hand over his chest.
"But I was inside you. Sealed within… by Eronath himself. I suppressed as much of the poison as I could. But even I couldn't stop it completely."
Ashar's fists clenched at his sides.
"When you didn't die," Neruin went on, his voice like stone, "they threw you into Gurkhaha Forest. A place where no child should have survived. They thought the beasts would finish what the poison couldn't."
"But Renart saved you that day and raised you ah his own."
Ashar's breath hitched. His gaze slowly turned to Renart's soulform.
"...Father," Ashar whispered. "This is all a bad dream, right?"
His voice trembled, barely more than a child's plea.
"If I can just wake up from it… I'll see you both again. You and Mother… standing there… smiling like before, right?"
"I wasn't supposed to live…"
His voice cracked. "I wasn't supposed to be me…"
Tears blurred his vision, but the pain was sharp--searing through every breath.
"All of this was a lie…"
Renart's soulform knelt beside him, faint and flickering like the last ember of a dying fire.
Though he had no body, no arms to hold him, Ashar still felt the warmth of a father's presence--gentle, steady.
"I'm sorry…" Renart said at last, his voice a whisper in the dark.
"I should've told you sooner. But I was afraid… that if you knew the truth, you'd break. That you'd stop calling me Father. That Sofiana would stop being your Mother…
I just wanted it to last… a little longer."
Ashar shook his head through the tears.
"No. I didn't break… I was broken. All this time. I just didn't know why."
Renart's soul glowed softly.
"And yet… you still stood back up. Again and again."
Ashar looked up at him. His voice was raw but steady.
"You are my father. And you always will be."
Renart's expression wavered--soullight flickering--but he smiled.
"Thank you, Ashar."
Ashar clenched his jaw, wiping his face roughly with the back of his arm.
"Then tell me what to do now… Tell me what I'm supposed to be…"
A long pause.
Then came Neruin's voice, firm as fate:
"Be the heir of two worlds–and make them one."
Silence followed. Then after some time. Ashar spoke
"...You said my real father wasn't there when they took me. Does that mean… he's also dead?"
Neruin's voice was quiet but certain.
"No."
Ashar's breath caught.
"Then where is he?"
Neruin looked away, his gaze distant–haunted.
"He is…"