The Promise of the Shadow

The crackling of the fire was not just a sound; it was the roar of existence undoing itself.

(CRACK-SHHH-BOOM! WSHOOOOOOM! CRRRRUMBLE!)

The spectral flames devoured the laboratory at an unnatural speed.

(SKREEEEEE-GRRRRK! CRRR-INK! SKRONK!)

The metal panels twisted into spirals of invisible heat, the air boiled with ozone particles, and the last remnants of advanced technology melted like wax under the influence of an unleashed reality.

"I know this place is my grave and that my time has run out."

In that place, the scientist, kneeling on the burning ash, kept his gaze fixed on the primordial girl, who floated weightless in the center of the vortex.

"I ask for nothing more than a favor..."

His plea hung in the air, a final breath of control in a dissolving universe.

(WHIIIIIIIRRRR-ZZZZZZZT!)

And watching him from amidst the flames, Khaos, with her childish smile intact, tilted her head.

<<"A favor...?">>

Her eyes, a galaxy of fluctuating colors, settled upon the man who dared to ask her for a favor.

<<"Why?">>

Immediately after, the fire—as if responding to a silent command—intensified around her, creating a dancing aura of incomprehensible power.

(FWI-SHHHH! KR-ZAAA-THOOOM!)

Then, the girl began to change.

(VROOOOOM... VROOOOOM... WHIRRRRR!)

Her form became liquid; the stars in her cosmic hair stretched into threads of light that pierced the air.

<<"That night, you lost love...">>

Her body elongated and contorted, transforming into a silhouette that defied Euclidean geometry.

(FSHHHHH-OOOOM! SZZZZZZZ!)

From amidst the fire, shadow tentacles with tips of light sprouted from her shoulders, each with eyes that blinked with the fury of a thousand suns.

<<"You lost your friends.">>

Her childish face stretched, revealing a mouth that was a jagged abyss, a portal to vacuity.

(HU-WHOOOOSH! CRACKLE-SNAP!)

In an instant, she became a creature of incomprehensible nightmare, with membranous appendages that billowed in the air, whispering incomprehensible words that Shija was unable to even process.

<<"That night you cast everything aside... And everyone... Why...?">>

The image fragmented and recomposed in an instant.

(SHHHHK-THWUMP! GLOOP-CRACKLE! ZZZZT-VRRRRR!)

The tentacles turned into crystal wings that reflected the spectral fire in millions of colors; her body became a tangle of interlaced bones that mutated and reformed with every beat of entropy.

<<"You lost your home... You lost your family... You lost your sense of self...">>

From her chest emanated ethereal threads that extended and contracted, a ballet of pure energy that rewrote the laws of physics with every turn.

(WHOOOOOM! HSSSSSSSS! CRACK-POP!)

Dancing amidst the flames, still with a smile as she centered her attention on the scientist, a tower of flesh and light—a representation... No, one of the most incomprehensible and familiar existences to every form of creation stared back at him, filled with curiosity.

(WOOOOSH! CRUUUUNCH! PIK-POW! ZZZ-RRUMBLE!)

For in each of those transformations, Khaos's childish smile remained the only fixed point in the middle of her being's storm...

<<"You shed tears... You were left empty... So... Answer me.">>

Khaos's form ceased to be something the human mind could process.

<<"Why are you still here?">>

She no longer mutated from one creature to another; she became a visual anomaly that changed at will, without pause or meaning.

<<"You stared into the abyss... You went mad... And yet... Why do you live...?">>

In a microsecond, she was a fractal of transparent flesh; in the next, a polyhedron of golden eyes, only to collapse into a patch of living static that devoured light.

<<"Revenge... Justice... For the sake of someone else... Why do you live... ████?">>

It was an incessant flickering of impossible geometric shapes, appendages appearing and disappearing in dimensions that should not exist, all while her childish laughter kept vibrating in the air like a macabre constant as she asked innocently.

(VUP-ZAP-FLICKER! BZZZT-GLITCH! SHHH-POP!)

As she spoke, the spectral fire consuming the laboratory began to act as a canvas for a past that had been buried long ago...

<<"That night you faced the odds... And you won~">>

Among the tongues of fire, silhouettes of a city in flames began to be projected—a metropolis collapsing under the weight of a war that originated in the absurd.

<<"But that night, you also lost~!">>

The flames showed scenes of absolute depravity and carnal corruption, where those who had ceased to be themselves fought one another according to the logic that now dictated their existences.

<<"You saw with your own eyes how everything fell and collapsed.">>

And in the center of that vortex of memories, an image emerged...

(FSSS-W-W-WISH...!!)

In the reflection of the fire, a young version of himself ran desperately through the rubble of the crumbling city.

"...."

As he remembered those events, the scientist's expression darkened.

(Waaah! huuuaa waaah!)

Back then, his face was distorted by desperation as he tightly clutched two babies against his chest, trying in vain to protect them from the imminent collapse of everything he knew.

"It is enough..."

In response, his shoulders slumped, and a sigh heavy with centuries of fatigue escaped his lips.

(BOOOOOM!! CRACK-SHHHH!!)

And as if his words were the signal for the final act, the spectral flames erupted with renewed fury.

(BWAAAA-SHHHHHH!!)

The fire expanded in shockwaves, devouring the last pillars of the facility and turning metal into incandescent liquid.

(SKREEE-GLOOOP!)

The area transformed into a nightmare furnace where reality itself evaporated into a dense, grayish smoke.

<<"Come on, don't be like that... It was one of the best nights! Besides, I see you're ready to answer~">>

In the middle of that pyrotechnic storm, the entity stopped fluctuating.

<<"As you said, tonight you will die... And it won't be pretty... But surely you were already prepared for that, so let’s drop all the drama!">>

The forms collapsed inward, regaining the density and appearance of the original girl.

<<"ANSWER.">>

Khaos remained there, floating with her bare feet over the burning ground, her nebula hair waving gently while the sparks of destruction surrounded her like fireflies.

<<"Why, despite everything you have experienced, suffered, and sinned, did you decide to keep living?">>

She tilted her head, watching the scientist with a curiosity that was simultaneously innocent and cruel. Her smile did not fade, but her tone became deeper, resonating directly in the man's mind as it shifted through all kinds of tones, genders, ethnicities, and ages.

"I..."

The primordial girl's question hung suspended in the air, more dangerous than any flame, challenging the man to face the true reason for his persistence despite his own emptiness...

"I desire nothing."

The man began to stand up.

"No... I want nothing more."

His movements were slow, heavy, as if every inch of ascent were a struggle against the gravity of a past that could not be erased.

"The man I was... died that day, amidst the ashes of the city along with the rest."

The laboratory around him continued to disintegrate, but he no longer paid attention to the alarms or the collapse of his machines.

(Tap... Tap...)

At the same time, as the flames danced in a hypnotic frenzy, heavy footsteps began to resonate in a rhythmic echo alongside the man, marking the end of an era.

"However... Despite what I have done, they... do not deserve to suffer... or rather, to 'remember' any of that."

The scientist brought a trembling hand toward his glasses, releasing the weight he had carried for millennia.

"Nothing matters to me anymore... However... I made a promise..."

With a solemn slowness, he took them off.

(TING... TCHIII-ZZZ!)

As the glasses fell to the burning floor, the light from the fire fully illuminated his face.

"All that remains of me is this... a mere shadow that refuses to dissipate."

There were no eyes to reflect "nothing," and instead...

"A shadow that only lives to see the end of what started so long ago."

In their place, the man's face showed two closed eyelids, sealed by deep and rugged scars.

<<"Hahaha! Then stop beating around the bush already!">>

In response, Khaos let out a laugh that made the remains of the laboratory vibrate, a sound that mixed innocence with genuine curiosity.

<<"Say it! Say what you feel for once, Doc!">>

At the same time, two figures emerged from the flames.

(VROOOOOM-THOOOOM! SZZZZZZZZ-PLOP!)

Their forms were erratic, shrouded in a fire that did not consume them but instead enveloped them as they advanced toward the scientist.

"Please..."

The scientist, with his scarred eyelids and his face bathed in the crimson glow, traced a final smile.

"Take care of them."

It was a human expression, devoid of the laboratory's coldness; the smile of someone who has finally found peace in surrender.

(KRA-BOOOOOOOOOM!!! SHHHHH-RRRR-ACK!!!)

With a slow gesture, he pointed with his thumb behind him, toward those two figures, as the flames consumed everything in an explosion...

(¡¿?!)

Which expelled Shija, returning him to reality.