The sky cracked open like brittle glass.
A deep, throbbing hum pulsed through the broken lands — louder than drums, older than time. Lightning struck upward from the torn ground, converging on the obsidian spires of the Black Gate. It was open now, wider than ever before, its spiraling core a screaming void.
Shadow stood before it, his black cloak trailing behind him like wings of war. His eyes were voids — not lifeless, but endless. Behind him, the remnants of the armies of Hell gathered. Fewer than a thousand remained. The Nine were long gone. The Demon Lords — dust. Even Valaria's Lightguard were now barely two dozen.
Yet they stood — unshaken.
Solren, red with blood and fire, leaned on his warhammer. "So this is it."
Shadow nodded once. "This is it."
Beside him, Valaria approached, her armor glowing faintly — silver-gold plate stained in demon ichor. Her hair was shorter now, cropped from battle, and her eyes held both fear and something deeper: finality.
"Where is Lidow?" she asked quietly.
"He wanted to come," Shadow said. "I told him no."
Valaria's face twitched. "He'll come anyway."
"He will," Shadow replied.
And somewhere behind them, on the hill just out of view, Lidow stood with a sword too big for his hands and power barely controlled. Sixteen now, yet the scar from his first loss still marked his face. His left arm — mechanical, forged in Hellfire. His eyes — shimmering silver and midnight black.
He watched the Gate.
And he waited.
The Black Gate opened wider, and from its infinite center stepped the Eater of Names — no longer bound by form.
It had no face — only mouths. No body — only arms, wings, tongues, chains. It screamed without sound, vibrating the marrow of the living and the dead.
Elenya stepped forward, her twin daggers drawn.
"Now or never," she whispered, and without hesitation, vanished into the darkness.
Solren roared, his hammer igniting as he sprinted behind her.
Valaria turned to Shadow.
"Do you believe in fate?"
"I've broken fate," he said.
She smiled sadly.
"Then let's break it again."
And they walked, side by side, into the screaming dark.
Inside the Gate, the world twisted.
Stone floated. Fire bled upward. Time folded like cloth.
The Eater towered over them now, laughing in words no tongue could shape. Its eyes — endless tunnels. Its voice — memory itself unraveling.
Elenya danced around it, slicing with moonlight blades, vanishing, reappearing — never still. But the Eater's eyes began to follow.
Solren struck the beast's torso — if it had one — and fire bloomed across its shifting body. He screamed oaths in languages lost, smashing again and again. Every hit burned brighter.
But then the Eater opened its true mouth — a spiral of darkness behind the others — and swallowed Solren's fire whole.
He turned once to Shadow.
"Tell him… tell him I fought like hell."
Then he was gone.
Valaria shouted in rage and grief, rushing forward, wings of holy fire erupting from her back. Shadow followed, slower, darker.
Together, they struck.
And for a moment — just a breath — the Eater reeled.
Shadow split the void with black fire. Valaria summoned a beam of searing light from above. The demon screamed. The Gate trembled.
But the victory was too quick.
The Eater surged again, arms tripling, mouths multiplying. It caught Elenya mid-dash, pierced her chest, lifted her into the void.
Elenya looked down, smiled through blood, and whispered, "You're too slow."
She pulled a blade from her chest, drove it deeper — and exploded in silver.
Silence.
Only four now.
Shadow. Valaria. Two unnamed guards.
And from behind — Lidow burst into the void, sword blazing, eyes crying.
"NO!"
Valaria spun. "Lidow, GO BACK!"
He didn't answer. He ran.
The Eater turned to him — but Shadow was faster.
In a blur, he was between them, catching a blow meant to erase Lidow from time itself.
Shadow snarled, shadows crackling around him.
"Run," he whispered.
"I'm not leaving you."
Shadow turned to him slowly. "This… is not your end."
Lidow's body shook. "But it is yours."
A pause.
Then a nod.
They turned as one — father and son — and charged the monster.
Shadow leapt first, blades out. Valaria rose above, wings of light. Lidow to the side, fury incarnate.
And the final battle began
The Gate cracked.
Not shattered — not yet — but splintered across its surface like ice beneath thunder. As Shadow and Valaria carved through the Eater's ever-shifting form, each strike stole a piece of reality, and each scream tore time asunder.
Lidow moved through the chaos like a storm.
His sword, forged from both light and darkness, pulsed with unstable power. Every swing left behind sparks of both creation and ruin. But for all his strength, for all his fury, he was not ready.
The Eater saw him. And it smiled.
A dozen jagged limbs lashed out in perfect unison — Lidow barely had time to raise his blade before they struck. He was flung backward through the air, crashing into a pillar of obsidian, shattering it on impact.
He didn't get up.
Shadow roared, black wings erupting from his back, his form warping under the weight of the full demonic force he had long suppressed. Horns curled from his skull, his arms now ablaze with void-fire. He soared above the Eater, spinning in mid-air, then drove a spear of abyssal flame through its heart.
It screamed.
Not in pain — but in rage.
Shadow didn't let up. He landed, rolled, then struck again and again — every movement clean, precise, deadly. He fought not like a warrior, but like a king with nothing left to lose.
Valaria joined him. Her armor now cracked and dimming, her eyes glowing with the last remnants of the Light she once carried.
She was burning out.
But she smiled anyway. Her golden blade spun, shielding Shadow from the left. She caught a blow aimed at his neck — and redirected it upward.
"You still move like a ghost," she muttered.
"You still shine too bright," he answered.
They fought as one. One light. One darkness. One final stand.
Behind them, Lidow stirred — bloodied, broken, but alive.
Valaria screamed suddenly — a high, agonizing sound. One of the Eater's tendrils had pierced her lower back, lifting her into the air. Another curled toward her chest — aimed for her heart.
"No!" Shadow howled and launched forward, cutting the tendril before it struck.
Valaria fell into his arms, coughing blood. Her grip tightened around his cloak.
"I can't… feel my legs."
"Don't speak," he whispered.
Her golden eyes flickered. "Let me burn, Shadow. One more time."
"No—"
Her lips pressed to his. "I choose this. I always did."
And with a burst of divine light, she shoved him backward.
Then she rose.
Floating. Glowing.
Her broken body consumed by the holy fire within. Her wings spread wide — and from them, a thousand lances of light shot into the Eater's chest.
The demon screamed.
Shadow reached for her — but she was already gone.
Just light.
And then ash.
The Gate shattered.
The Eater staggered. For the first time, it was weakened.
Shadow fell to his knees.
Lidow limped forward, arm broken, mouth trembling.
"She's… she's gone," he said.
Shadow didn't answer.
He stood slowly, head lowered, voice raw.
"She was the last light," he said. "And I… am the final shadow."
Then he raised his hands.
All of them.
From the black soil of the Gate's core, ancient chains erupted, latching onto the Eater's limbs. It screamed again — not in pain this time, but in fury. Rage. Terror.
Shadow dragged it downward, into the bleeding pit below the Gate.
Lidow's eyes widened. "What are you doing?"
Shadow turned once more — smiling, gently.
"This… is my kingdom. And this… is my war."
"You don't have to die—"
Shadow placed a hand on his son's shoulder.
"I already did. Long ago."
He pushed him back.
And then, with all the strength he had left — all the power of Hell, of loss, of vengeance and broken hope — Shadow pulled the Eater into the void.
And vanished.
The Gate collapsed.
The sky silenced.
The war was over.
Lidow crawled toward the ruin where his father disappeared.
He tried to scream.
He tried to stop it.
But the ground swallowed the last echoes of Shadow's presence.
And all that remained…
was the sword.
His father's blade, forged in fire and darkness.
Lidow held it. Pressed his head to it.
And wept.