"Pain... it hurts..." an ethereal voice echoed in an undefined space.

Darkness reigned supreme, with no trace of light nor the laws of gravity, as if that void existed beyond the limits of known reality.

In that incorporeal limbo was Thamuz, floating in a fetal position, his eyes tightly shut, his face twisted in a grimace of agony.

"It hurts..." he repeated incessantly, his voice broken by suffering.

But there was no answer to his desperate cry, not a single compassionate hand to help him alleviate the torment that gripped his body and mind.

Suddenly, another voice, deep and mocking, broke the silence:

"Does it hurt, boy?"

Thamuz's eyes shot open, abandoning his fetal position. His hands instinctively clutched at his ribs, which seemed to have been torn apart by some fierce rival in a brutal fight.

"Who... who said that?" Thamuz asked, his voice trembling with fear and pain.

What seemed to be the silence of something lurking in the darkness turned into sinister laughter that echoed in Thamuz's ears, reverberating in the void around him.

"You really overdid it in your fight. Did you think you were immortal?" mocked the voice, dripping malice with every word.

Thamuz frantically scanned his surroundings, trying in vain to locate the source of that terrifying voice. Suddenly, he felt an overwhelming and malevolent presence materializing behind him. A chill ran through his body as he slowly turned, afraid of what he might find.

"At last, we meet face to face, my little creation," declared the voice with cruel satisfaction.

Paralyzed by horror, Thamuz finally beheld the source of the voice: a colossal demonic skull floated before him, crowned by enormous twisted horns. Its eyes were pits of darkness, barely illuminated by a tiny red point at the center of its deep, hollow sockets.

Overcome with panic, Thamuz reacted instinctively. With a swift motion, he raised his arm and delivered a powerful palm strike to the demon’s jaw. The force of the impact sent the supernatural being hurtling toward a solid surface that seemed to materialize out of nowhere.

"Damn it!" the demon roared, its voice filled with fury and indignation. "If you weren’t so important for my return to the universe, I would have annihilated you the moment you dared to touch me."

The demon rose slowly, materializing two long, pale arms from nowhere. With a fluid movement, these spectral appendages grabbed its jaw and realigned it with a chilling snap.

image [https://cdn.leonardo.ai/users/949f3f4e-1043-419c-8dd6-941c61d0ec71/generations/300d1d22-f8bc-4f2a-96a2-c3dfbb107fda/Leonardo_Lightning_XL_A_pair_of_demonic_hands_adorned_with_sha_1.jpg]

"You have great strength, I’ll admit that," the demon conceded, flashing a macabre smile that revealed rows of razor-sharp teeth.

"Who are you?" Thamuz inquired, maintaining his defensive stance, his muscles tense and ready to react to any threat.

The demonic skull widened its smile to impossible limits and suddenly vanished into the surrounding darkness. The black abyss seemed to expand, swallowing everything in its path. However, in the midst of that unfathomable void, a warm, bright light emerged, as if a dimensional door had opened in the middle of nowhere.

"Enter," the same deep voice ordered, echoing from everywhere and nowhere at once.

Thamuz gazed at the light with a mix of fascination and suspicion. The warmth it emitted was irresistibly enticing, but his caution kept him alert, aware that the unknown could conceal unimaginable dangers.

Gradually, gravity seemed to stabilize. Thamuz felt himself stop floating, and his feet touched solid ground, invisible in the darkness. As he took his first steps toward the light, he noticed he was limping, a reminder of the brutal fight that had brought him to this enigmatic place.

He continued moving toward that luminous firmament. Upon crossing the threshold, the warmth enveloped him entirely. The pain that had gripped his body disappeared as if by magic, while the blinding light embraced him, purifying his wounds.

As the radiance slowly began to fade, darkness reclaimed its dominion. Thamuz found himself standing with no reference point in that absolute void.

"Are you feeling better?" asked the familiar voice of the demon.

"Yes, much better," Thamuz replied, surprised by the absence of pain.

The demon gradually reappeared from the shadows, this time with a less terrifying appearance. Its arms, now visible as separate entities, moved with a certain disarray, as if they had a will of their own.

"So, little creature," said the demon, as one of its hands scratched its bony chin thoughtfully, "how have these six years treated you?"

Thamuz felt a strange pang at the question. Six years... exactly the time that had passed since he was found in that small crater.

"Why do you want to know?" Thamuz asked, wary.

"Because right now, I would be the one controlling that body, sowing destruction and terror across this damned universe!" the demon roared, its voice filled with fury and frustration.

The dark space seemed to rumble with the demon’s bellow. Thamuz fell to the ground, overwhelmed by fear, watching as the creature’s skull turned a burning red and its fists clenched with supernatural force.

"If only that wretched Huzarboth hadn't had contact with those hairless apes, our return would have been glorious! Plagues would have consumed all of reality. But no, that doctor had to stand between us. And now... only I remain."

The last word was uttered with rage and melancholy. The demon turned its back on Thamuz, its fists still clenched in a gesture of helplessness.

"Well," the demon said, its voice now calmer and more reflective, "it seems your parents raised you well. You look big and strong."

"Yes, I’ve always eaten well, though I haven’t trained," Thamuz replied, a hint of insecurity in his voice.

"I see," the demon murmured, snapping its fingers with a sound that echoed in the void. "Come, walk with me."

Thamuz stood up, watching as the demon moved through the darkness. Its arms flowed with supernatural grace, its fingers tracing enigmatic shapes in the air.

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Suddenly, the darkness began to lift, revealing the image of a colossal planet, a deep and intense red.

"What is this place?" Thamuz asked, his curiosity momentarily surpassing his fear.

"This is Celhiux Octavo, the planet of war, one of a kind," the demon explained with a tone that conveyed both reverence and bitterness. "Here, the fiercest wars in the universe have been fought, from planetary conflicts to multiversal battles. And yet, the planet still stands. It was here that we lost the war... the war that changed everything."

As they walked, Thamuz observed the scars of countless battles: craters the size of planets, colossal mountains split in half, eternal fires that still burned millennia later. But the most shocking were the mountains of decaying bodies and bones, a silent testament to the incalculable cost of war.

image [https://cdn.leonardo.ai/users/949f3f4e-1043-419c-8dd6-941c61d0ec71/generations/523012ec-6b0e-4d78-88fd-6ef98b522acb/Leonardo_Lightning_XL_make_an_planet_completely_destroyed_with_1.jpg]

Thamuz looked upon it all with fascination and horror. Finally, turning to the demon, he asked:

"Why are we here?"

The demon stopped, glancing at Thamuz out of the corner of its fiery eyes.

"After your fight with the sharp-fingered opponent, your parents and friends took you home. They submerged you in a tub filled with strange water, presumably to heal your wounds. You're unconscious, Thamuz. It’s just you and me, in this plane of reality that is your mind."

"No... I don’t believe you," Thamuz stammered, refusing to accept this possible reality. "Maybe... I'm just dreaming."

The demon's eyes began to glow with an intense red. It fixed its piercing gaze on Thamuz and raised one of its arms. The vision of the planet faded, replaced by a blurry image in which dark shadows could be distinguished.

"What is this? Where are we?" Thamuz asked, nervousness evident in his voice.

"You’re looking through your own eyes, from the depths of your mind," the demon explained, placing a bony hand on Thamuz's shoulder. "Those shadows are your parents, who have been watching over you and caring for you since they brought you home. You see them blurry because you're submerged in that healing liquid."

Thamuz began to hear familiar voices—those of his parents, filled with concern.

"How long do you think it will take him to heal?" asked a female voice, undoubtedly Aolani’s.

"More than a week," replied a male voice, clearly Tawnylon’s. "His body is severely damaged by Bhaxmunt's attacks. All we can do is wait and watch over our son."

Thamuz and the demon listened to the voices, which grew more anguished with each passing moment until they seemed to break into sobs.

"Do you see?" said the demon, his voice tinged with a strange mix of satisfaction and empathy. "They are very worried about you. At the climax of the battle, your opponent killed you. I had to use all my energy to take control of your body for a few seconds and eliminate him. I also used the few seconds I had left to make your heart beat again. Without that, you’d be dead."

The vision faded, and darkness spread once more, leaving only Thamuz and the demon floating in the void.

"By the way," Thamuz said, clenching his fists and raising his gaze with determination, "what exactly are you?"

"Me?" the demon let out a guttural laugh. "I was once a plague, a villain, as most would say. But I was a god to those who truly admired power. I embodied it. To feel that essence in your hands, pure power... it’s something addictive."

As it spoke, red liquid oozed from its mouth, as if its words were bleeding.

"I see," Thamuz said, thoughtfully bringing a hand to his chin. "So, you're the bad guy."

"You got it!" exclaimed the demon, raising his arms in a macabre gesture of triumph.

"So, if that's the case, what's my purpose here?" inquired Thamuz, lowering his arms and locking his gaze on the demon. "You've shown me various places, explained so many things with ease... I don't think you're doing it out of kindness. You want something."

The demon's smile faded, and the glow in his eyes dimmed. His arms moved in circles, conjuring an image: the crater where Thamuz had been found as a mere baby.

"This place... feels very familiar," murmured Thamuz, feeling an inexplicable warmth in his heart.

"Of course it does," replied the demon, playing with a stone between his bony fingers. "Here you 'were born,' thanks to me, though in truth, I should be the one inhabiting your body."

"What? What do you mean?" asked Thamuz, his voice faltering.

The demon sighed, a sound that seemed to resonate throughout the void.

"You see, during the war against me and the plagues, we were easily defeated thanks to the betrayal of Halebeorth, the first plague. The surviving plagues, Yhax and Itogreth, created a portal so I could escape, regain my strength, and destroy the universe from a dead zone. But that doctor..." the demon spat the words with venom, "managed to push me and enter the portal with me, stabbing me in the neck with a pure Ethyminium knife."

The demon mimicked the action of stabbing his throat, sticking out his tongue in a grotesque gesture.

"I landed on this insignificant piece of land called a planet and tore off my flesh to be reborn. But something went wrong, and now you're the owner of my body. I can't do anything about it, but..."

"But?" added Thamuz, intrigued by the demon's dramatic pause.

"But you could do something to help me," the demon continued, his voice tinged with a sickening optimism. "I would grant you my power, the ability to absorb everything: whether it be power or the essence of a living or dead being. You could absorb it all. But since I'm so weak, I can only transfer that power to your right hand. Each time you absorb something, you'll help me recover my original strength, so I can free myself from your body and move on."

Thamuz raised his right hand and clenched it tightly, feeling his bones creak. His eyes filled with shadows, leaving only the red dots of his irises visible.

"Me? Help you?" Thamuz scoffed, his voice dripping with disdain. "With everything you've told me, you're nothing but incomprehensible evil. I'm not going to help you or set you free."

The demon was silent for a moment. He lowered his gaze, and his red eyes burned with an intensity that revealed a primordial rage. He raised his hands and opened his palms in a menacing gesture.

"Tell me, kid, do you really think I don't know what you love most in this world?" asked the demon, his tone heavy with menace.

Thamuz's eyes widened, taken aback by such a direct comment. He raised his arms in a fighting stance and ground his teeth.

"What are you saying?" Thamuz growled, the anger palpable in his voice.

"I'll explain it to you simply," said the demon, fading into the darkness. "Right now, we are in a place from which you cannot escape. This is my domain: your mind. When you sleep or rest, that’s the only time I can appear and see what happens."

The demon paused and reappeared behind Thamuz, whispering in his ear:

"But that has allowed me to see that what you love most in this world is your family. Your father, and especially your mother. What do you think their reaction would be if I prevented your body from healing its wounds, even if they submerged you in that medicinal liquid for a month? How would they react to feeling that their precious son's heart isn't beating, simply because I don't allow it? I can't imagine the heartbreaking screams that would echo. Their only son, the only son they have had in their short lives..."

Thamuz spun around abruptly, trying to strike him, but the demon vanished, leaving only his laughter echoing throughout the place.

"I can't imagine when they have to bury you, their precious son, dead by the whim of a false king," continued the demon's voice, omnipresent. "Their weeping will be a delight for me. And if that happens, you and I would be together for eternity, covered in dirt. It wouldn't bother me; after all, I've been trapped in a dead universe for billions of years. But what about you? Could you bear that burden? A burden you could avoid if only you helped me with my main goal... to return to this reality."

Thamuz covered his ears, as if every word from the demon was a knife piercing his brain. He fell to his knees, screaming in anguish.

"Come on, kid, accept my offer," the demon said, materializing in front of Thamuz with his arm extended and palm open.

Thamuz slowly lifted his head, small tears welling in his eyes. He reached out his trembling hand and weakly grasped the demon's.

"I'm only doing this for my family," Thamuz murmured, his voice cracking. "I want to see them again."

"Good," the demon replied, satisfied. "As a gift, I will help with the healing of your wounds. They won’t magically heal instantly, but it will be enough for you to get out of that tub."

A red light emanated from the demon, enveloping Thamuz completely. The young man felt that warmth embrace him again and stretched out his arms, floating as his vision gradually faded.

With his last strength, Thamuz asked one final question:

"What is your name?"

The demon was taken aback by the question, his eyes widening. But then he broke into a macabre smile.

"My name..." he replied, his voice resonating in the darkness, "my name is Thamuz."