As always... don't let your eyes drift away the next chapter is coming in just a few minutes!"đź—żđź‘Ť
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In one of the white rooms inside the Heroes' Federation headquarters, Amishia lay on a medical bed. Her breathing was calm, but her eyes refused to surrender to sleep. Bandages wrapped her shoulder, and her right arm was enveloped in glowing layers of healing magic.
She was still recovering from her severe injuries sustained during the last mission... in the S-Class city.
She had risked her life, and she remembered that harsh moment... her mentor, that strong man she had always considered an unbreakable rock, was begging one of the leaders not to kill her. She had never seen him break like that.
But the leader didn't listen. He was on the verge of finishing her off… if not for Sergeant Jeff's intervention.
He appeared suddenly, like a flash in the storm, and vanished just as quickly. Amishia only realized what had happened when she woke up in a hospital bed.
And though she was saved, her heart found no peace.
There was something suspicious about Sergeant Jeff.
Especially since Korghami's disappearance...
Since that day, everything had changed. Jeff began constantly watching her family, moving in the shadows as if guarding something... or hiding it.
What snapped her out of her thoughts was the doctor's voice, quiet but decisive...
"You're recovering quickly, Amishia," the doctor said with a forced smile, reviewing the numbers on the blue crystal beside her bed.
She gently shook her head without replying. Her face was pale, as if what hurt wasn't a wound in her body, but an emptiness somewhere else… deeper.
She stared at the ceiling, then murmured, barely audible:
"Brother... I hope you're alright."
A whole year had passed with no news from him. No letter, no trace, not even a body. Still, she believed.
"He's stubborn... impossible to die easily," she told herself, trying to smile, but failing.
She often thought about what she had once told him: "I'll join the Heroes, Korghami, and I'll pull you out of poverty, I'll get our mother out of that cursed neighborhood… just wait for me."
And now… she had indeed become an S-Class Hero, at a very young age, and had saved enough to move her family to an upscale neighborhood, and her mother was finally living in peace… but Korghami wasn't there to see it.
Despite her pride, there was a thorn in her heart.
She wanted to tell him she had succeeded. That she hadn't forgotten her promise. That she missed him, and hated the world that had stolen him from her.
"Maybe he is... dead." She thought it in her heart, then quickly closed her eyes, as if afraid of the very thought.
But despite her silence, her hand touched a small necklace tucked under her pillow — his old necklace. She kept it, like an anchor keeping hope alive.
Then… the room trembled for a moment.
"What was that?!" A nurse rushed in from outside, her eyes darting towards the window.
Amishia lifted her head, staring at the sky through the glass.
Distant black shadows were fading there… as if a meteor of darkness had exploded in the sky minutes before. She didn't know the cause, and she didn't feel danger, but something else…
Her heartbeat changed. As if something inside her had awakened.
Warmth.
As if a familiar soul had passed near her. As if something in her heart… stirred for a moment, then settled.
"Korghami..." she whispered unconsciously.
Impossible, he's dead...
"I must still be delirious..." Amishia muttered, trying not to believe what she was saying...
A few minutes later...
Amishia was still lying on the medical bed... but she felt something immensely powerful approaching the Federation headquarters...
Amishia quickly got up from the bed. Her hand trembled as she pushed the bandages away from her injured shoulder, the healing magic gradually fading with each movement.
"Stop! You'll hurt yourself!" the doctor yelled in alarm, stepping towards her.
But her gaze wasn't here... it wasn't with him.
She was transfixed on the window, on the sky that was gradually turning a dark hue… as if a strange sunset had begun prematurely, without a sun.
A pulse in her chest intensified, and her body trembled despite stillness.
"I feel it... It feels like my brother's energy when he trained a year ago on that mountain..." she whispered, her breath quickening.
It was the only time she'd seen him angry... that day, the mountain shook.
She stepped towards the blue crystal, and the moment she touched it, its color changed momentarily… then it exploded with dark sparks!
"This is impossible!" the doctor cried, stepping back.
Amishia did not retreat.
"He's coming..." she said, tears flooding her face, she didn't know where they came from.
....
Outside, sirens wailed, their echoes reverberating between the ancient walls of the Heroes' Federation headquarters, accompanied by the relentless flashing of red emergency lights, as if warning of an inevitable nightmare approaching.
Amishia remained at the window, her eyes watching the sky teeming with moving shadows, like black waves of hidden energy devouring the horizon.
A gate formed from dark space opened...
Korghami emerged from the dark space, dragging behind him four dense shadows taking the form of the leaders of the Flying Fortress, whom he had defeated hours earlier in a battle that shattered the laws of nature.
These copies were shackled with chains of darkness, collapsing under the weight of a power that didn't belong to this world.
His body was still weary, covered in remnants of his black energy that rose from his feet like mist burning the air, and his eyes... deep violet like a bottomless abyss.
At that moment, the door to the room burst open violently, and Sergeant Jeff entered with quick steps, his face charged with a fearless expression, but his features were darker than ever.
He approached her, speaking in a low but stern voice:
"It's bigger than we imagined. The shadows aren't confined to the horizon anymore; they're entering the headquarters. Abnormal movements in all sectors."
Amishia looked at him; something in his eyes made her tremble despite the exhaustion nesting in her bones.
"Korghami..." she whispered, "Is he really here?"
Jeff didn't answer. He turned towards the door as if awaiting an order, then cautiously gestured to her:
"You need to get ready. We cannot allow the owner of this power to get any closer."
Amishia felt a strange pang in her heart, as if her soul was struggling to inhale fresh air, while the healing magic gradually dissolved in her veins.
She rose, leaning on the bed, defying the pain, the sound of the sirens echoing inside her head.
In the outer corridor, guards and S-Rank heroes gathered, on high alert, preparing for a battle that could be decisive between survival and collapse.
Amishia was not alone in this struggle.
Inside her heart was a whispering voice, undying, pushing her forward.
"I won't let them take everything."
She realized the coming battle wasn't just for the Federation, but for Korghami, for an unbroken promise, for hope rising from the ashes.
When she left her room, Jeff stood by her side. He didn't speak, but he was the silent, unwavering protector. They flew upwards and stood beside the ranks of heroes facing that person..."
---
Amishia looked at him. But this time, her eyes never left that masked figure. Her silence screamed from within, a tumultuous conflict between hope and despair.
She whispered to herself, her voice almost choked by her pounding heart:
"Is he truly my brother? Or a shadow shrouded in darkness?"
She remembered his old laughter, those rare moments when she felt safe beside him, and she reassured herself:
"Korghami... you are that unbreakable rock, why do you look like this?"
But his eyes, hidden behind the mask, held no warmth, no spark of the life she once knew.
"Have you turned into something I can't understand? Did you fail me?"
Thousands of questions swirled in her mind, but she found only a heavy pain residing in her soul.
Then she remembered her promise to herself, to never give up, to fight for him and for what they had dreamed of.
"Even if you are different, I will find you... I will bring you back to yourself, no matter the cost."
Her words were like an inner flame igniting her resolve, despite the fear and doubts consuming her heart.
Korghami remained suspended in the sky, like a shadow belonging neither to light nor the world, as if he was the barrier between them...
Before everyone's eyes, he lowered the four figures shackled in chains. Their bodies were lifeless, their energies bound by a complex black seal coiled around their wrists like a sleeping serpent.
They were whom the Heroes' Federation believed to be the leaders of the forbidden Organization. They thought they had captured the prize.
But they didn't know… that what was brought to them was merely a false image, crafted specifically to make the scene complete.
Korghami descended slowly, his steps on the ground echoing in the souls of those present, not in the soil.
He approached the Federation representative, who unconsciously took half a step back, and said in a deep voice devoid of agitation:
"Four of the Organization's most dangerous criminals. As requested."
The official stared at him in astonishment, then at the bodies, then said, trembling:
"Impossible… We've been pursuing them for seven years."
Korghami nodded without replying, then pulled a sealed document from his cloak:
"The bounty for their capture, as mentioned… one hundred billion crystal stones per head."
He didn't speak an extra word. Everything about him said: Don't ask me who I am, take what I brought and leave.
In the background, Amishia stood… watching him from afar, wishing she could ignore the resemblance, but her heart was screaming something else.
She took a step towards him.
"Wait..." she whispered.
He heard her.
He froze for a moment.
His heart hesitated, not out of fear… but out of a longing he tried to strangle.
"Brother..." she said in a broken voice, yet filled with a strange plea.
He turned to her, slowly.
His gaze pierced her like an arrow, but she didn't find herself in his eyes… she found a mask of shadows.
A moment of silence fell like an eternity, then he said in a voice as soft as death:
"You are mistaken… your brother is dead."
Her breath caught, as if the earth had lost its meaning, then… her words fell with a shaky voice:
"But… your energy… it can't be wrong."
He didn't approach. He didn't retreat. He just stood there, a body of suppressed fire.
Then in a sharper voice, coated in ice:
"If you truly loved your brother… forget him."
He then continued towards the Federation representative to receive the bounty in silence, the air around him pulsing with distorted… strange energy.
Korghami didn't lie… her brother *was* dead.
But… he didn't tell the whole truth either.
For what remained… wasn't someone anyone could love.