Chapter 21 -THE QUEEN BEHIND THE VEIL"
The basement that was once part of their school no longer obeyed the laws of space.
Adrian felt it the moment his boots touched the cracked floor—gravity pulling sideways, time stretching thin like a breath held too long. The room had expanded into something vast and impossible, a cathedral of darkness where ten dimensional portals hovered in the air like open wounds in reality.
Each portal pulsed with a different hue.
Blue. Crimson. Silver. Void-black. Ember-gold.
And from each one stood another Adrian and Adriana.
Ten versions of the twins, each shaped by a different fate.
The Blue Adrian stepped forward first, his armor sleek and glowing with frost-runes, eyes calm and calculating. Beside him, Crimson Adriana cracked her whip once, red energy snapping like lightning across the floor.
"You're late," Crimson Adriana said with a grin. "We've been holding the line."
Adrian swallowed hard.
Even after everything he had seen—demons wearing human faces, massacres in the halls of his own school—this still felt unreal.
Ten versions of himself.
Ten versions of his sister.
Adriana took a step closer to one of her alternates, studying her crimson counterpart. "So… this is what I could become."
Crimson Adriana smirked. "Only if you survive."
Before any more words could be exchanged, the room shuddered violently.
The portals flickered.
The walls screamed.
A pressure like a god's hand pressed down on them all.
Blue Adrian's eyes narrowed. "She's here."
The lights died.
Darkness swallowed everything—absolute and suffocating.
Then—
Footsteps.
Slow. Deliberate. Regal.
The shadows peeled back like curtains, revealing a towering throne formed from fused bones, broken crowns, and crystallized blood. Seated upon it was a figure wrapped in flowing black-and-violet robes, her form shifting between beauty and horror.
A crown of jagged obsidian hovered above her head.
Her eyes burned with ancient intelligence.
The real Demon Queen.
Asmodra.
"So many versions," she purred, her voice echoing from every wall at once. "So many failures… and yet, only one timeline truly matters."
Adrian's heart pounded.
This was not Malraeth.
Not an elite masquerading as royalty.
This was the beginning.
The true origin of the darkness.
Adriana stepped forward, crimson energy flaring around her whip. "You've been using our world like a playground."
Asmodra smiled. "Correction. I've been cultivating it."
She lifted one clawed hand.
The air exploded.
Shadow-beasts poured from the ceiling, shrieking as they descended. Tall, skeletal demons with twisted halos and burning maws—Asmodra's honor guard.
"FORMATION!" Blue Adrian shouted.
The alternate twins moved instantly.
Ice barriers snapped into place.
Crimson whips lashed, tearing demons apart mid-air.
Void-Adrian vanished and reappeared behind enemy lines, blades slicing through spines.
Gold-Adriana summoned radiant chains, binding three monsters at once.
Adrian felt the pull—like instinct calling to instinct.
He raised his weapon, dark energy surging through him.
Adriana was beside him.
"Together," she said.
They charged.
Adrian carved through a demon's chest, shadow and blood spraying across the floor. Adriana vaulted off his shoulder, whip wrapping around another beast's neck and ripping its head clean off.
The battle turned into chaos.
Ten twins.
Hundreds of demons.
Reality tearing itself apart with every strike.
Asmodra watched from her throne, amused.
"So much fire," she murmured. "So much rage. But rage alone does not kill a queen."
She stood.
The throne dissolved behind her as she descended to the battlefield, her mere presence causing demons and portals alike to tremble.
With a single motion, she stopped time.
Blades froze mid-swing.
Fire hung suspended in the air.
Blood crystallized into red glass.
Only Adrian and Adriana could move.
Adrian's breath came out ragged. "Why us?"
Asmodra approached slowly, eyes locked onto him.
"Because you were never meant to be ordinary," she said softly. "Your bloodline was touched long before your birth. Your suffering was not random—it was preparation."
She stopped inches from Adrian.
"You are keys," she whispered. "And keys are meant to open doors."
Adriana stepped between them, whip blazing. "Touch him again and I'll—"
Asmodra flicked her finger.
Adriana slammed into a wall, cracking concrete.
"Adriana!" Adrian roared.
Time snapped back into motion.
The battlefield erupted again.
Blue Adrian shouted, "She's destabilizing the portals! If this continues, every dimension collapses!"
Crimson Adriana skidded to Adrian's side. "Decision time. We either seal her now—or lose everything."
Adrian looked around.
At his alternates.
At his sister.
At the demon queen who had orchestrated their suffering.
He made his choice.
"All Adrians. All Adrianas," he shouted. "Channel into me!"
The alternates hesitated only a second—then nodded.
Power surged.
Blue. Crimson. Gold. Void.
Ten destinies collided inside one body.
Adrian screamed as energy ripped through him, his eyes blazing white.
Asmodra's expression finally changed.
"Impossible…"
Adrian raised his weapon, now forged from every version of himself.
"This is your call," he said, voice echoing with ten voices at once. "And we're answering it."
The strike shattered the throne room.
Asmodra was thrown back, her form cracking with fissures of light and shadow.
She laughed—even as she fell into the abyss below.
"This is not the end," her voice echoed. "Only the awakening."
The portals began to stabilize.
One by one, the alternate twins stepped back toward their dimensions.
Crimson Adriana gave a final salute.
Blue Adrian nodded once.
"Survive," he said. "This war isn't finished."
The portals closed.
Silence returned.
Adrian collapsed to his knees.
Adriana caught him before he hit the floor.
Above them, the darkness receded—but something deeper had been set in motion.
The Demon Queen was wounded.
But awake.
And the call in the dark… had been answered.
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