Waking in the Ashes
Chapter 20
"Wha... what's... going on...?"
Eidolon opened his eyes slowly, blinking as if waking from a deep, twisted dream. His vision swayed-faces, shadows, sand, sky-all blurring together.
For a moment he thought he was somewhere else.
Then memory stabbed him.
The old man.
The beating.
The illusion.
The flames.
The roar that shook the heavens-
Eidolon gasped, clutching his head as agony tore through every nerve.
"Gaaaaar-!"
He fell to his knees, nails digging into the burning sand.
"I... I can't remember! What the hell happ-"
The sentence died in his throat the moment he looked up.
Five men in black stood around him in a tight circle, each holding a long curved blade pointed directly at his neck.
One wrong breath and they would slice his head clean off.
Their eyes were cold.
Their expressions blank.
Executioners-nothing more.
Eidolon's heartbeat spiked. Fear clawed at his throat.
But then-
"STOP."
The voice boomed across the ruins.
The five men froze instantly.
The old man appeared behind them, but this time... he wasn't the monstrous god who had nearly crushed the world with a step.
He was pale.
Shaking slightly.
Trying-and failing-to look composed in front of his men.
Eidolon recognized him and fear surged through his body like ice.
The black-clothed enforcers stepped back, lowering their blades. Their movements were perfect, disciplined, almost mechanical.
"We shall continue from where we stopped," the old man said, tone strained but steady.
One of the black-clothed men hesitated, taking a step toward him.
"Master, with your current condition, continuing is-"
He never finished.
A blur of motion.
A whisper of steel.
A wet sound.
His head rolled across the sand, eyes still open in disbelief.
The other enforcers did not react.
Not even a flinch.
Eidolon did.
His breath caught.
His spine clenched.
Even to his own people...
the old man was merciless.
Eidolon swallowed hard, forcing down his fear as the old man stepped closer-slowly, painfully, but with an expression that made Eidolon's blood freeze.
"Stand up," the old man said.
"What happened while you where traped in my illusion? You didn't just break out of it you somehow managed to kill my clone and injure me what the hell are you brat."
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