"Pathetic fools! You really believe you can take me down without a struggle?" Zephyr's fury echoed off the walls as he unleashed his wrath. With a burst of energy, he kicked back, sending the heavy table flying and propelling himself and his chair away from looming peril.
In a whirlwind of action, Zephyr nimbly dodged Jeff's thrusting dagger, seizing the moment to unsheathe his beloved katana—the same weapon that had sealed the fate of many foes. The katana cut through the air with lethal grace, severing Jeff's neck with a swift, clean strike.
Jeff's body hit the floor with a thud, and Zephyr winced, his hand clutching his poisoned abdomen. The pain was excruciating, but he bore it with gritted teeth, standing firm, his determination outshining the agony.
Jeff's decapitated form lay still, his head rolling to a stop nearby—a grim reminder of Zephyr's resolve to fight his destiny, no matter the odds.
Before Zephyr could plan his next move, three deadly strikes impaled his abdomen. The supernatural kings had taken their chance amid the turmoil, plunging their swords into Zephyr's body in a ruthless, calculated attack.
Zephyr faltered, feeling his strength drain away. The icy blades inside him twisted with each pulse, a deliberate move to stop him from unleashing his fearsome power—a threat to their plans.
"You... vile creatures..." Zephyr's voice broke, weakened by his diminishing vitality, as he faced his foes against the encroaching shadows. Blood pooled around him, a vivid symbol of his valiant stand and its cost.
Zephyr locked eyes with his enemies, their sense of victory clear as they left him to his fate. Despite the darkness closing in and the consuming pain.
"You think you've triumphed," Zephyr gasped, his speech labored as darkness crept closer. "But the surprise is on you."
His spirit unyielding, Zephyr's last words rang out with a vow of vengeance.
In the quiet that followed, Zephyr's body lay defeated, a stark reminder of power's transience and fate's cruel toll.
Zephyr, the Shadow Lord, had met his end at the hands of the other supernatural rulers. His body was now just a cold, still husk.
"At last, he's fallen," the Undead King observed, though Zephyr's final declaration lingered in their thoughts. They quickly dismissed it; such words from Zephyr couldn't possibly be true.
In Zephyr's throne room, the runes he had painstakingly created flared up once more, shining a brilliant yellow before going dark. The wall, etched with these complex symbols, crumbled.
....
In a void so deep that light itself seemed a myth, a profound emptiness prevailed. It was a place of nonexistence, where even the idea of light was alien, and the sheer vastness radiated an indescribable fear, like the edge of the abyss. Yet, in this void, a faint life force persisted in the shadows.
Suddenly, the void's silence was broken by a faint pulse, like the beat of a heart. As quickly as it appeared, it vanished, leaving behind an energy manifestation—a fiery sphere burning with the intensity of a soul in torment.
"Hahahaha!! It worked. It actually freaking worked," a voice cackled, filled with malevolent glee.
It was Zephyr, the Shadow Lord. He had long schemed to create a transmigration method—a way to transfer his consciousness to another vessel after death, achieving immortality. The runes in his throne room were key to this plan.
These runes, charged with the blood of many sacrificed supernaturals, formed a transmigration spell that Zephyr had refined. Aware of his impending doom due to the relentless hatred of the other supernatural kings, he knew each triumph only deepened their enmity.
"Yes, I was merciless. But they forced my hand, taking those I cherished. Even Jeff, almost a father to me, turned on me. Ending him was an act of mercy. I yearned for an honorable end in combat, to lay my tired spirit to rest. But I was tricked, poisoned, and slain by those cowards," Zephyr seethed, angered by his premature end.
As Zephyr dwelled on his fate, another pulse stirred the void, revealing a massive rune formation behind him. The runes, glowing with a strange light, drew his attention.
The design was a large circle with smaller ones, like zodiac constellations, marked with symbols unknown even to Zephyr. The runes exuded mystery and power.
"Who cares," Zephyr had scoffed when he first made the runes, using dark magic from captured witches. Though he had mastered many secrets from conquered races, the true meaning of these runes remained a mystery.
Then, the runes blazed with a regal purple light, and a vortex formed at the center, pulling everything toward it. Zephyr's soul, a dark, fiery orb, felt the vortex's pull. He tried to resist, but the force was too strong.
Zephyr's soul was sucked into the rune's depths, and his surroundings blurred, a grating noise filling his ears, causing pain.
"Oh, my head," Zephyr groaned, pressing his hands to his temples to ease the pain. Slowly, the pain faded, and he became aware of his new surroundings.
"Did I just... touch my head?" he wondered, suddenly alert.
Opening and closing his eyes, Zephyr realized he was no longer in the void but in a rocky cave, lying on a bed of sharp stones.
"Where am I?" he whispered to himself.
The cave was silent except for the drip of water, suggesting he was indeed inside a cavern.
Zephyr cautiously attempted to stir his body, feeling the subtle shifts despite the stiffness that bound his joints and spine, as though he had been frozen in time. The sound of his bones creaking broke the silence, and an unfamiliar ache shot through him as he managed to sit upright.
"Ouch! Since when does a simple tumble hurt?" Zephyr mused, taken aback by the strange new pain that accompanied his fall.
He dragged himself across the rough ground until his back found the support of a wall, where he slumped down, trying to make sense of his situation. It was then that a shimmer from a nearby puddle caught his attention. Leaning over for a closer look, he was confronted with his own reflection.
His eyes, wide with shock, stared back at him from the water's surface.
"What in the world! I'm... human?!" The words tumbled out, laced with disbelief and a trace of fear.
*****