The space around him felt like it was spinning, giving him a constant headache. Darkness. Empty. Hollow. That was the place he was in right now.
After being thrown into a black hole by his brother, Gill was now in a place he didn't recognize. It was empty and dark, with only distant, countless points of light surrounding him. Like a universe filled with uncountable stars.
It was beautiful. If you saw it, you'd be amazed. But he didn't care whether it was beautiful or not. What he cared about now was what had just happened to him.
Holding back the pain in his head, he tried to feel something around him. He looked around, and suddenly, his expression changed.
His handsome face now looked sad, with tears welling up in his eyes. They slowly rolled down his cheeks. Like a broken dam, the tears kept flowing, and he couldn't hold them back anymore.
'How could he throw me away like this? Even if I'm useless, I should've waited until my people were safe!"
'I know I'm a burden. I know I'm the weakest among them. I know they could save everyone without me. I might've even slowed them down.'
His eyes turned red, and the tears kept flowing.
'But... I'm still a prince. I should protect my people. How could I run away like a coward while they're fighting out there?'
'It's really sad... even if I'm not as talented as them, I still wanted to do my duty, even just once.'
Then came a quiet sob. It was so soft, no one would've heard it.
'What about you, father? Are you okay? I miss you so much. What about grandfather, uncle? I'm sorry for being useless.'
'And you... my brothers. Are you escaping with them too? I hope you don't do something stupid.'
He was really worried about them. His two older brothers who always seemed cold... deep down, he knew they loved him. Even if they rarely showed it at the castle, he could feel it.
Their cold faces that scared nobles and officials would soften in front of him. Their voices would grow gentle. They never talked bad about how weak he was compared to them.
Now, they were probably fighting to save as many people as they could. Fighting alongside other races. Trying to stop the destruction of the world.
Then, he remembered something—and the tears fell faster. His sobs got louder. A word escaped his mouth—just one—but filled with deep sadness:
"Mother..."
He cried even more. His tears soaking his cheeks.
His mother... he remembered her. How could he forget? She had died even before the destruction began.
Before she died, something had changed in her. And that was the beginning of the disaster.
One day before the destruction, his mother changed. Her white skin began to rot. Her beautiful face turned swollen and full of pus.
That day, she suffered terribly. She kept crying in pain, screaming with a strange voice, and releasing a foul, dark aura from her body.
His father tried everything to help. But if even he, the strongest man in the empire, couldn't save her—who else could?
There was no one left to help.
And that was when the darkness began. The aura from his mother's body spread quickly, infecting everyone in the castle. Even the strong ones got infected, let alone the weak—they were the first to change.
Not long after the aura spread, the entire castle was in chaos. So many people got infected, it became impossible to help them all.
Even with help from all the other races, even dragons with the strongest bodies, couldn't resist the infection.
The infection wasn't just in human territory. Other races also suffered, in the same way—through the people most important to them.
As more people got infected, their behavior started to change. They would hurt themselves, bleed constantly, and then start killing others. It didn't matter if someone was infected or not—they would kill them anyway.
Only a few strong ones could resist, but even they acted strangely. Instead of killing, they tried to turn others into the infected.
The emperor—Gill's father—created a barrier around the entire castle to stop the aura from spreading to the nearby cities.
And that was the real start of the destruction.
When the barrier closed, the sky tore open. A thick black mist came out, and with it, ten humanoid figures.
They looked like humans, with two arms and two legs. But their faces were strange—blurred, unclear, distorted. As if the world itself rejected their existence.
They gave off the same foul aura—only worse. Stronger, darker, more rotten. Like it came from something ancient and evil.
More of them came. Not just ten, or a hundred—many, many more. And they weren't weak. They were stronger than the high-ranking leaders of every race.
Right after they appeared, they attacked. No words, no warning—just destruction.
That was when the real chaos began. The remaining leaders of every race joined forces to fight them back.
Before Gill's father joined the war, his mother, who still had a little consciousness left, begged him.
She begged him to kill her.
She had seen what happened to the world. She saw the creatures. She didn't want to become one of them.
But the emperor—her husband—how could he kill the one he loved most? He refused. He believed there was still hope to bring her back.
She kept begging, and when her last bit of consciousness began to fade... he—
Before Gill could remember that painful moment, something happened.
The space around him shook uncontrollably. He groaned as it hit him suddenly.
He tried to adjust his body and look around. It was still the same—he was still floating in emptiness, like a universe filled with stars.
He wiped the tears from his face and tried to think.
"What's going on with this portal? Did something happen? I've never traveled between realms before, but I'm sure it's not supposed to be like this.'
Suddenly, a thought crossed his mind, and his face turned pale.
'Did they lose? Are those things trying to stop anyone from escaping? No! That's impossible! Father is strong—he can't lose to them!"
Then he noticed something strange. The stars that were still before—one of them suddenly moved. And fast.
He saw it. A light, flying straight at him. The space trembled more and more as it came closer. The light moved too fast to see clearly—just a bright flash heading his way.
He tried to move, to dodge it—but he couldn't. No matter how much he tried, his body stayed in place. He couldn't move from where he was.
He didn't even know how this portal worked. All he knew was—it wasn't taking him anywhere. It was just isolating him in empty space.
Then the space cracked. The portal started to break.
And then it happened.
As he tried to understand what was going on, the light hit him.
It crashed into his body at impossible speed and strength. His body shattered into pieces.
Before he could even process what had happened, everything turned black.
The last thing he saw... was the portal, and his own body, breaking apart into pieces—vanishing into the darkness.