If I understood him correctly—and this wasn't some sick game—he was me from the past, and I was merely a personification of his humanity, born as a separate entity. That explained why we shared the same face, the same voice, and a similar past.

"Am I even real?" I barely managed to utter in a low tone.

"Of course we are!" he exclaimed.

"Stop saying 'we'!" I screamed, grabbing him by the collar and shoving him off the throne.

"But we are! You need me as much as I need you!" he taunted with a wide smile.

"No, I don't!" I shouted, getting on top of him and punching his face. "I am my own person!" With each hit, my knuckles became bloodier. "I am nothing like you!" Blood spattered in all directions as I continued to pummel him like a beast. Even though I knew it wasn't real—since we were dead and this blood was nothing but an illusion—it felt good.

"You're starting to look more like me with each moment..." he said with a wide smile, lying in a pool of his own blood.

The sight of what I had done made me flinch in fear; I feared the person I was becoming. I sat on the stairs in front of the throne, trying to calm myself and rid the hatred that had momentarily controlled my actions.

"Now, that was fun!" he said, jumping to his feet without a scratch.

"What do you want from me? Haven't I done enough already?" I asked, feeling utterly defeated.

"No, you haven't done nearly enough to call it quits. Our journey is far from over. The only way for us to return to life is to become one! I offer you a chance to come back, the only chance you'll ever get."

"But what will become of me? If I return, whose life will it be—mine, or yours?"

"It will be ours," he reassured me, though I sensed he was hiding something crucial. Then he spoke again. "I don't know exactly what will happen. Your guess is as good as mine. But if I were to wager, it would be you in control, since it's your blood and flesh we're returning to; mine was lost long ago."

"It can't be that simple. There must be consequences."

"Of course, dear Valerian. You would change—your morals, your essence. Ultimately, you would no longer be the person you were. You would be whole again."

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"What if I say no?"

"I'm not asking," he said coldly. "You must be forgetting, I'm still the king of the Abyss, even if I haven't sat on the throne in ages. It only takes a word for demons to invade Emberfield and kill the family you love so much."

His threat revealed the answer to a question that had been haunting me. When the fey queen showed me the future where avians and demons attacked Emberfield, leading to my family's demise, it wasn't just the avians at fault—it was him as well. He likely orchestrated the entire event, commanding the demons to ravage the village. When he finally broke me, he played the friend and took my body as a vessel for his return. Everything he says is either a lie or a twisted truth that becomes a lie.

This confirmed one thing: he spoke the truth when he said I was born from his humanity that had been sealed away. No one can be this cunning and evil with even a shred of humanity. I know I can't trust him, but I don't have a choice. I have to go along with his plan for now and return to life.

"How do you propose we become one exactly? Is one supposed to eat the other?" I joked, but the silence that followed was chilling. "Say something..." I said, worried.

"Not exactly eat each other, more like devour," he explained thoughtfully.

"That doesn't make it better!" I protested.

"Now, now, let's not jump to conclusions, shall we? Do you know the power I bestowed upon you; the one where shadows coat your body and essentially make you a god?"

"Yes, what of it?"

"That power is called the Void Veil, born from the essence of the Abyss itself. It devours anything with the essence of life, be it a living being, a plant, or even a letter in your case; once the shadows devour something, it's erased from existence. If my theory is correct, and one of us uses that power to devour the other, we shall be reunited and erase this dimension from existence. Since your life was lost, and I never died in the first place, it will be my heart that beats and your mind that leads," he explained, his crimson eyes gleaming with deceit. I had no choice but to agree.

"The first time we met, you said you wanted to use my body as a vessel for your return. Why not do it now? Why do you want to become one with me when you could have my vessel all to yourself?" I asked, scrutinizing his face for any hint of a lie. But his expression remained cold and unreadable.

"I can't do that anymore since you went on and bloody died! You're just a pound of flesh lying somewhere in the dirt now; I can't do anything with that, really. This is my only option now."

"Fine, let's get this over with."

"Before we continue, I have a favor to ask," he said.

"You? A favor to ask? I'm sorry, I don't think I heard you right. You usually take what you want, even if it's not yours. How can I possibly help you?" I asked, shocked.

"Since it will probably be you in charge, I won't be able to accomplish the only thing I ever wanted: to free the dragons and bring them back to their rightful home. Promise me, you'll at least try to find a way."

"Only if you promise me to take care of my family if you end up in charge. That includes Silas. If you have a grudge against the mortal, so be it, but leave my family alone; do you understand?" I warned, knowing his word was my only reassurance, and it did not carry much weight.

"We have a deal," he said coldly, extending his arm as a sign of goodwill, which I blindly took.