The moment Megumi stepped through the glowing mirror, he was engulfed by fire—not the kind that burned skin, but the kind that scorched the soul.
He stumbled forward, blinking as the world around him shifted.
No more obsidian canyons. No wind or stone.
He now stood in a boundless void of white, where echoes didn't return and time didn't exist.
A figure stood at the center.
It was… him.
Or rather, a version of him—taller, cloaked in a regal shroud of black flame. A white crown of light hovered above his brow, flickering like it was on the verge of shattering. His wings were not like before. They were massive, divine—black edged in gold, and white etched in starlight. But it was his eyes that struck deepest: calm, resolute… terrifying.
Megumi took a step forward. "What is this place?"
The crowned version of himself didn't answer. He only raised a hand—and with it, the void shifted.
Suddenly, Megumi stood in the middle of his old school.
The halls echoed with laughter and footsteps. Locker doors slammed. Students passed him by, faces familiar and warm.
He looked down—he was wearing his old uniform.
"…What is this?"
Behind him, Ava's voice.
"Megumi?"
He turned.
There she was, smiling. Hair bouncing in that way it used to when she jogged over to him. Her eyes full of light. Hope.
It was the last good memory before everything went wrong.
Megumi reached out, but her image flickered.
Then the world twisted.
The sky cracked open. Screams erupted. Flames tore through the walls.
Lythic appeared in a flash of dark lightning, Chloe's lifeless body in his arms, tossed like a puppet.
"No—"
Ava screamed. Shadows pulled her backward. Megumi ran, heart pounding—
But he was frozen.
Paralyzed.
Useless.
The crowned version of him reappeared in front of the chaos. "This is the truth of your fear."
Megumi gritted his teeth. "I couldn't save them."
The crowned one nodded. "And you never forgave yourself."
The scene collapsed into ash, and they were back in the white void.
Megumi dropped to his knees.
"I let everyone down."
"You did," his other self said. "And you will again—if you keep clinging to guilt instead of letting it forge you."
Megumi's head snapped up. "Then how do I change that?"
"Face it."
The void rippled. From its depths rose himself, again—but twisted.
Eyes feral. Mouth snarling. A corrupted version of Megumi—dripping with power, radiating pure fury.
The Fallen King… unbound.
"This is what you become when rage alone rules you."
The corrupted Megumi charged.
Megumi leapt back, summoning his aura in a flash. Wings unfolded—still mismatched, still not whole.
They clashed, light against shadow.
Fists cracked the void. Megumi ducked a savage strike and countered with a pulse of lightning. The corrupted version snarled, slamming him into the unseen ground.
"You failed Chloe."
A fist slammed down.
"You'll lose Ava."
Another.
"You don't deserve this power."
Megumi screamed, his aura flaring—but unstable, flickering like dying embers.
He was being pushed back.
Until he heard her voice.
Ava's voice.
"Come back to me."
A whisper.
Just like before.
Megumi's eyes widened. Something inside him clicked.
He surged upward, power radiating from his core—not rage. Not guilt.
Resolve.
He roared, wings flaring—now glowing from within. White burned into black, black melted into gold. The halo above his head cracked, then reforged into a ring of radiant black flame encircled by a corona of light.
The corrupted version screamed as Megumi struck through him—shattering the fear, the doubt, the guilt in one final blow.
Silence.
The void pulsed.
And then—
Demon Realm – Reality
Megumi's body arched in the training chamber as the energy burst from within him. The walls cracked. The floor splintered. Leonidas looked on from the shadows, eyes narrowing in approval.
Wings of twin radiance spread wide.
His aura no longer flared wildly—it flowed. Smooth. Controlled.
The flame was no longer chaos.
It was a crown.
Leonidas stepped forward. "You found it."
Megumi dropped to one knee, breathing deeply, but smiling faintly. "I… saw her. And Chloe. And me."
He looked up, eyes glowing softly. "I accepted everything. The pain. The fear. The loss. I'm not running anymore."
Leonidas gave a solemn nod. "Then rise, Megumi Valentine."
Megumi rose. Stronger. Whole.
Changed.