CHAPTER 1: THE LAST PROMISE
The rain battered the glass sliding doors of the balcony, blurring the neon lights of Mumbai into a smear of electric color. It was October 14, 2026.
Sohel stood motionless, watching the storm. His phone buzzed in his hand, the screen lighting up his tired face. A single message from Danny: "It's ready. Come over."
Sohel let out a breath he didn't realize he had been holding. A knot of anxiety tightened in his stomach—a primal warning that tonight was the end of everything he knew. He turned back to the small wooden table in his living room, where his leather-bound diary lay open. He uncapped his pen, his hand trembling slightly, and wrote one final line:
"If I don't wake up tomorrow, remember... I tried."
He closed the book. The silence of the apartment felt heavy, like a goodbye.
Danny's underground lab was a chaotic mess of wires, humidity, and the smell of ozone. In the center stood the metallic ring—The Gate.
"Sohel! Look at this," Danny shouted over the hum of cooling fans. "We're going back in time. We're going to fix our mistakes."
Sohel stepped closer, eyeing the exposed cables. "Danny, did we double-check the safety protocols? Something feels off."
"Don't be scared, man," Danny grinned, typing furiously on his console. "This machine will only take us back ten years. Same Earth, same timeline. We'll just be there, in the past."
Danny flipped the master switch.
The machine began to hum. But the sound was wrong. It wasn't the mechanical whir of technology; it was a low, guttural growl, like a beast waking from a slumber.
WARNING. TARGET NOT FOUND. REROUTING TO SERVER B.
The mechanical voice blared through the lab.
"Server B?" Sohel yelled over the noise. "Danny, what is it saying?"
"I don't know!" Danny's face went pale. "I didn't write that code!"
Arcs of purple and black lightning erupted from the ring. The ground lurched violently. Gravity seemed to invert, and Danny was lifted off his feet, pulled helplessly toward the swirling vortex.
"Danny!!"
Sohel didn't think. He lunged forward, jumping through the distorted air to grab his friend's hand. Their fingers brushed, then locked.
But as Sohel gripped him, Danny's hand began to pixelate. It wasn't flesh anymore; it was disintegrating like a corrupted digital file.
"Sohel, don't let go—" Danny screamed, his voice distorting into static.
BOOM.
The world turned white. Then, silence.
CHAPTER 2: THE MIRROR WORLD
Sohel gasped, his eyes snapping open. He was lying on hard pavement. Rain was no longer falling.
"Danny?" he croaked, pushing himself up.
He looked around, and his blood ran cold. It was the same street. The same city. But it was a corpse of the world he knew.
The skyscrapers were ruins, skeletal remains choked by pulsating black vines. The sky wasn't blue or black; it was a deep, bruised crimson. Instead of dust, grey ash floated in the stagnant air. A billboard nearby hung crookedly: "Welcome to 2026." But the text was backward, mirrored.
I didn't die, Sohel thought, his heart pounding against his ribs. I am still here. But this world... this world is sick.
Thud. Thud.
Heavy footsteps echoed from behind a collapsed wall. Sohel scrambled behind a pile of rubble, peering through a crack.
A creature stepped into view. It was at least eight feet tall, with crimson skin and massive tusks protruding from its jaw. An Oni—a demon from Japanese folklore. It held a giant iron club, a Kanabo, dripping with fresh blood. This was no cartoon; the muscles rippled with terrifying realism.
At the demon's feet lay a survivor, a human man weeping in the ash.
"Please..." the man begged.
The Oni didn't speak. It didn't hesitate. It simply raised the iron club and brought it down. Splat.
Sohel covered his mouth to stifle a scream. Nausea rose in his throat. He took a step back, and his foot kicked a loose stone.
Clack.
The sound echoed like a gunshot. The Oni's neck snapped a full one hundred and eighty degrees. Its yellow eyes locked onto Sohel. It smiled, exposing rows of razor-sharp teeth.
Sohel ran.
He sprinted through the ruins, his lungs burning, but the demon was faster, smashing through walls as if they were paper. Sohel skidded into a dead-end alley. He was trapped.
"No... please, no..." Sohel whispered, backing against the cold brick wall.
The Oni loomed over him, raising the club for the killing blow.
Sohel's eyes darted frantically. On the ground lay a broken metal pipe with a jagged, razor-sharp edge. As the club came down, something inside Sohel snapped—a primal survival instinct.
He ducked, the club smashing into the wall above him, and drove the pipe downward with all his weight. It pierced the Oni's foot, pinning it to the concrete.
The demon roared in agony.
Sohel didn't stop. Adrenaline flooded his system, washing away the fear. He ripped the pipe free, leaped up, and drove it straight into the creature's eye.
The demon fell, thrashing and screaming. Sohel, panting and shivering, struck again. And again. And again. Until the monster stopped moving.
Suddenly, a glowing Azure Orb rose from the demon's corpse. Before Sohel could react, it shot into his chest.
His eyes flashed gold. The exhaustion vanished. The fear evaporated. A surge of raw, intoxicating power flooded his veins.
"What was that?" Sohel whispered, looking at his hands. "Did I... did I just steal its soul?"
In the silence of the dead city, he realized the truth. In this world, there was only one law: Hunt. Consume. Become the Emperor.
CHAPTER 3: THE GOLDEN REALM
Sohel blinked, and the red sky was gone.
He was standing on soil that glittered like gold. Above him stretched a perfect, cloudless blue sky. This was the Golden Realm, the sanctuary of the Gods.
But peace was a lie here. The Gods looked down on him with disgust. To them, he was a filthy mortal who had stumbled into paradise.
"Send him back," a voice thundered. "He is unworthy."
But a Spirit Queen—a Goddess of light—stepped forward. She had watched him fight the Oni. She saw the fire in him. She healed his wounds and tried to bless him.
"There is something strange about your soul," she said gently. "I will grant you a fraction of power to help you survive."
She placed a hand on his chest, channeling divine light.
BOOM.
Sohel's body violently rejected the energy. A shockwave threw the Goddess back.
"I don't need charity," Sohel growled, his eyes burning. "I am enough on my own."
The Goddess was stunned. She thought he was unable to hold magic. She was wrong. Deep within Sohel lay a power so dense, so ancient, that it refused to bow to any lesser god. It was a power waiting to be woken.
Before she could speak, the sky darkened. Cyrus, a Demon Lord, breached the realm's borders. He snatched the Goddess, dragging her toward the Demon Territory.
Sohel stood alone. He had no magic. He was weak. But his ego was massive.
"She saved my life," Sohel muttered, clenching his fists. "And now that filth took her? I'll show him what a 'Soul Hunter' really is."
He walked into the Demon Territory not as a hero, but as a predator. He used traps, fire, and ruthless cunning to slaughter hundreds of lesser demons. When he finally reached Cyrus, he was covered in blood, barely standing.
"You have no sword, no magic," Cyrus laughed, holding the captive Goddess. "What will you do?"
Sohel spat a mouthful of blood and grinned. "I didn't come to kill you... I just came to tell you that you messed with the wrong guy."
A terrifying aura of Black and Gold erupted from Sohel's body. It was the dormant power, reacting to his rage. Without a spell, without a weapon, he grabbed the Goddess and triggered a massive explosion of pure energy, escaping the fortress and leaving Cyrus humiliated.
CHAPTER 4: THE USURPER
The escape had a cost. Sohel's physical body was shattered. It lay encased in ice within the Demon Realm's Frozen Fortress.
Cyrus stood before the frozen body. He knew this vessel was unique—it was the "Source," capable of holding infinite energy. Cyrus projected his soul—a noxious black mist—and forced it into Sohel's mouth, hijacking the body.
Sohel's eyes snapped open. They were blood-red.
"Such power..." Cyrus whispered, using Sohel's voice. "This isn't just a body. This is a gateway to the universe."
But deep inside the mind—in the Soul Space—the real Sohel sat in the dark.
"A parasite has entered your home," a voice echoed.
Sohel looked up to see a figure identical to himself, but with white hair and eyes like burning stars. It was his Soul Origin.
"I am you," the entity said. "And you are me. We are the Emperor. Stand up."
In the real world, Cyrus began to scream. Sohel's body was tearing itself apart. One half radiated Cyrus's dark magic, the other half glowed with Sohel's gold energy. The clash shattered reality. They fought through dimensions—falling through a mirror world, spinning through a time loop where they aged and grew young in seconds, finally crashing into the Void.
"What are you?!" Cyrus shrieked. "You are no human!"
Sohel's voice changed. It became deep, echoing with the authority of a thousand kings.
"I am the source from which your soul was born," the Soul Emperor declared. "And I am taking it back."
Sohel plunged his hand into his own chest. He gripped Cyrus's soul and ripped it out like a weed. He crushed the demon spirit, absorbing its energy, and froze the entire realm with a single wave of his hand.
CHAPTER 5: FEAR AND INSANITY
The High Gods panicked. They could not allow a mortal to hold the power of the Source. While Sohel recovered, they attacked, using forbidden magic to split his soul into seven fragments: Ego, Wrath, Wisdom, Hunter, Gluttony, Fear, and Innocence.
They wiped his memory and trapped him in a fake reality—a college campus in a parallel 2026.
Sohel lived a normal life, unaware of his past. But Valeria, an Evil Goddess in disguise, entered his life to manipulate him. Ironically, she fell in love with his innocent soul.
When the other Gods attacked the campus to kill Sohel, the illusion shattered. The seven soul fragments were pulled back together from across the dimensions.
They stood in a circle, trying to merge. But the balance was wrong.
The weakest soul—Fear—watched as Valeria was struck down. The soul that had only ever cried and run away snapped. Fear, when pushed too far, becomes Insanity.
The Fear Soul began to laugh. A high, twisted, terrifying sound. It grabbed the other six souls—even the mighty Wrath and Ego—and forcibly devoured them.
"You all scared me?" the Insane Sohel whispered, his eyes wide and unblinking. "Now... let me show you the fear you haven't even seen in your nightmares."
He tore through the fabric of the fake dimension, stepping back into the God Realm as the True Soul God. He didn't just defeat his enemies; he broke their minds.
CHAPTER 6: THE RETURN OF THE KING
Sohel learned the truth: his real, physical body was still trapped in the Frozen Mountains, being used for experiments. He was fighting as a spirit, growing weaker by the second.
To save his lost love—the reason he started this journey—he needed his body back.
"I am done playing games," Sohel told his allies, including Danny, whose memory had returned.
Sohel gathered every ounce of energy he possessed. He didn't look for a door; he shattered the walls of the pocket dimension. His soul shot across the cosmos like a comet, slamming back into his original body in the ice.
The ice shattered.
Sohel stepped out. He was whole. The Soul Emperor had returned.
He walked into the Great Divine Hall, where the Highest Gods and Villains had gathered. They sneered at him.
"You think you can fight us with a mere mortal body?" the Main Villain laughed. "We are Gods!"
Sohel stopped. The air in the hall grew heavy, gravity increasing until the floor began to crack. He looked the Villain in the eye, his expression calm, void of fear.
"You are mistaken," Sohel said softly.
He released his aura. A pillar of Black and Gold light pierced the heavens. Behind him, a spectral avatar the size of a mountain rose up, staring down at the ants below.
"I AM THE EMPEROR OF SOULS," Sohel's voice shook the foundations of the universe. "WHICH MAKES ME YOUR KING!"
The pressure forced every God, Demon, and Warrior to their knees. They couldn't stand. They couldn't breathe. They could only bow.
EPILOGUE: THE SILENT GUARDIAN
The war was over.
Sohel sat alone on the highest peak of the God Realm, looking down at the mortal world. He watched people praying to false idols, begging for miracles from beings that only wanted to use them.
He chuckled softly. It wasn't a laugh of arrogance, but of pity.
He knelt, looking up not at the flashy lights of the false gods, but at the infinite, starry void above.
"Thank you, Creator," Sohel whispered. "For this power. These false gods claim to be masters, but I know You are the Truth. I have felt You not in their magic, but in the silence of the cosmos."
He stood up, flowers blooming where his feet touched the barren rock.
"I will clean up this mess," he promised. "I will be the Guarantor. No false God will deceive humanity again."
Sohel returned to the world, not as a ruler, but as a legend hidden in plain sight. He walked among the people, a quiet student with a book in his hand, watching, waiting.
He was the wall between the darkness and the light.
True strength, he thought as he walked into the sunset, lies in bowing down to the Creator... not in forcing others to bow to you.
THE END