"Asahi!"

The double doors leading to Asahi's workplace were angrily and forcefully opened by an upset Tetsuro who stormed inside and immediately confronted the King who was leaning against the front of his table.

The King was already waiting as if he knew that Tetsuro would barge inside any minute. He anticipated his arrival with a leer on his face that showed that he had no logical reason for his actions earlier nor did he have any regrets.

The teal yanked the King forward by his neckline and glowered at him with rage.

"How could you do that to those people? Why did you put yourself down to their level? Asahi...those children...Those children are part of the future of our Kingdom!" he snarled against the King's face.

Asahi wrapped his hands around Tetsuro's wrists and gently removed them from him.

"Calm down Tetsuro, you are causing a great scandal," he spoke calmly.

"Scandal?" Tetsuro and I scoffed in unison.

At the moment I was not sure what to feel with Asahi's actions. Everything he had done at that podium wasn't in the name of love; everything was the product of his insanity. What those rebels did was unforgivable but what Asahi showed was even more so because he influenced the people that it was alright to act like those rebels. That it was alright to violently handle situations because the King permitted to do so.

There were children in that crowd and they get to see children at their age get their heads removed.

So what did Asahi imprint in their minds at an early age?

He was watering their young minds with the ideas of sadism. He was raising people who were worse than those rebels.

So who was the disreputable man between them now?

"You call this a scandal Asahi? Really?" Tetsuro questioned.

His formality with the King was long gone.

"Then what do you call your acts earlier? Do you really believe that what you did was righteous?" he proceeded to ask another question.

Asahi crossed his arms over his chest and bear no evidence of ill-feeling against Tetsuro's behavior towards him.

"My acts assured those people that they have a King that can protect them. I avenged them, I avenged you and our son," Asahi justified his actions with the emphasis of avenging Tetsuro and Sachihiro.

"Then you should have punished the rebels not the children and their child-bearers! Those children and child-bearers shouldn't have atoned for the sins of those revolutionists," Tetsuro talked back.

The tension in the room mildly came from Tetsuro's anger while the rest was coming from the unusual behavior of Asahi and the hidden secrets behind that smile of his.

"You put those child-bearers in an unwilling state of sexual displeasure just like me who was forced by those rebels to perform things in which I only swore to do with you. You murdered those children and stole the life from the unborn even before they can fully enjoy it. How different are you from them Asahi? You are no different from those rebels. You are no different from Shiro," Tetsuro retorted bitterly in which Asahi took a moment to reply.

He was looking down not from regret but because he was waiting for Tetsuro to finish. He was offering his ear to the words that he already knew that Tetsuro would say.

"You are right...I am no different from them," Asahi admitted with a small grin after concluding that Tetsuro was finished. He gazed at his eyes with no remorse and shame.

"But you and Sachihiro are different," he spoke and finally straightened in a dignified posture. "Both of you belong to me and to me only," the King claimed. The menacing aura that he had at the podium began to grow in intensity.

"I can kill more...and more..." he whispered and began to walk forward causing Tetsuro to walk back but did not deter from Asahi's gaze.

"I will kill every man, woman, and child and erase the whole existence of this Kingdom if it meant that I can save you and that you'll only belong solely to me," he murmured and a trembling smile spread across his lips.

Shock was evident on Tetsuro's expression and he grasped Asahi's face firmly.

"A King shouldn't rule for only one person Asahi," he scolded and gazed deeply at the King's exposed eye in hopes of reaching his reasoning. "A King rules the whole Kingdom and therefore should serve all and not just one. I am just one person Asahi. I am not the entire Kingdom."

Asahi's jaw clenched from the grinding emotion pounding his heart. There was denial in his eye. There was opposition and defiance on his expression against every word that Tetsuro was telling him.

"But I only accepted the Kingship because of you..." he began. His tone was begging Tetsuro to understand him. "And you are worth an entire Kingdom, a Kingdom in which I wish to rule."

With that conclusion, Tetsuro's hands curled away and he dropped them to his sides.
At that time I remembered feeling disappointed not for Asahi but for myself. I must have done something wrong that made him that way. What Asahi was at that time, I anchored the blame all to myself.

Tetsuro turned away and began to walk out of the room.

He was at lost at that time.

His mind was in disarray.

He felt like he was going to lose Asahi against whatever was consuming him but then he realized something when he heard running footsteps and a tight hug that followed from behind.

"Don't abandon me... Please don't abandon me. You're all I have Tetsuro...You're all I need..." he begged with his head placed firmly against his shoulder.

There was still a fragment of light in his darkening heart but the darkness looming over him was too powerful.

The shift changed and showed Tetsuro peeking inside a room with Asahi having an inner turmoil. I remembered that the news arrived about the council planning to take Asahi down from the throne and that he will be persecuted. With Shiro still alive, Asahi was desperate to take the council down along with my brother.

"Get out of my head!" Asahi shouted and yanked his bright red hair. Once he looked to the other way, he cracked a malicious smile.

"You can't do it can you? You are too weak. Release me brother, I'll finish them off."

Asahi released a groan and looked up in defiance and resistance. "Stay there! Nothing good comes from your ways!" Asahi yelled and fell down on his knees from the struggle to keep the darkness at bay.

The same grin pierced through the gritted teeth of the King seconds later. "You can't suppress me for long. I am you and you are me. We are of the same entity."

Asahi released a pained growl and began to bash his head down the ground. That was when Tetsuro finally decided to come out to prevent Asahi from further hurting himself.

"Enough!" Tetsuro yelled and attempted to pull Asahi from the ground only to be swatted away with just one hand and have his back hit a shelf. Asahi twisted on the floor onto his back which then arched in an insane arc before losing consciousness.

Tetsuro recovered from the hit and immediately came to his side to check if the King was alright. He gave the King shakes as he called out his name and just as when he was about to leave to call someone, Asahi's hand wrapped around his wrist. He darted his gaze back down at Asahi and even I shivered from what I witnessed.

Asahi was smiling widely. The patch on his eye was removed and revealed the other eye completely consumed with obscurity. Dark veins branched out around the affected eye and his skin grew paler.

"Not to worry Tetsuro. I am feeling well," Asahi assured.

By the looks of Tetsuro's expression, he wasn't buying Asahi's assurance. The man was just trying to crack his head open a second ago. Even I would ask Raphael to check on Samael if Peaches tried to do that to himself.

Slade?

Well cracking his head was his hobby.

"Who are you?" Tetsuro questioned. "You are not Asahi."

The King tilted his head at Tetsuro's claim before chuckling. He rose to his feet with his eyes never leaving Tetsuro's.

"You say the silliest things sometimes Tetsuro. You never fail to amuse me..."

Asahi cracked his head side to side and then rolled his shoulders. The veins branching out from his eyes grew even more and his voice changed into a deeper character which was very different from his usual velvety and silvery voice.

"I am the other King that you unknowingly raised and I have finally awakened."

Tetsuro leaped back and his alarm was raised high with the unknown man in front of him. This man was not the same Asahi who he knew. The one he was talking to now was the catastrophic side of Asahi.

Throughout the years he had interacted with Asahi's aishah side but he never once figured that his catastrophic side had a separate personality.

Asahi extended his hand with a sneer. "Now, why don't you serve me the way you served my other self?"

There was a shift of setting and revealed Tetsuro and Asahi on the emperor's bed. The Shadow night was sleeping on his stomach with Asahi continuously giving his pale bare back long, wet and ravenous kisses. Their lower halves were covered by the red blanket and Asahi moved up to kiss Tetsuro's nape before whispering in his ear.

"It's time for the world to fear me...And together, you'll be hailed as a King with me."

He slipped out of the bed and a cloud of dark power swirled around his body. The dark cloud hardened and became an armor and once he left the room through the window, Tetsuro's eyes opened.

He released a breath of air and his eyes began to glisten.

https://youtu.be/0l-4b8Pcb2Q

All his life he had sworn his allegiance to him. He was there to guide him, nurture him, protect him and love him. He became the father and mother that Asahi never had. He became his best friend, his brother, his advisor, and his other half. He was Asahi's entire family.

He was always there by his side.

He was always there when the King needed a shoulder to lean on.

He was always there when the King needed a hand to help him up.

He was always there in every slope of his life.

But now...

"Forgive me Asahi...but I don't think I will be there with you this time..."

There was another shift of setting revealing Tetsuro on the ground in front of Tom-Ak-Ta's statue which reached the highest ceiling of the temple. It was the statue in which Tom-Ak-Ta was kneeling down on one knee with one of his arm placed on his raised thigh. He was gazing down with mercy as if he was ready to listen to whoever would speak to him.

Tetsuro was trembling as he placed his whole body on the ground in surrender with his knees folded back beneath him.

"I failed you..." Tetsuro whispered. "I failed his parents...I failed Asahi. I failed everyone."

A flashback of Tetsuro's memory appeared with this recollection and I watched a woman with bright red hair carrying a detka kneeling inside a small and humble temple. She was bleeding all over and she was at her last breaths of life. The baby in her arms started to get cranky and she continued to weakly rock the baby in her arms to keep the detka as quiet as possible.

"Spirit of Kings...please...please protect my child...he is the future of our Kingdom. With him the aishahs and the dearils will no longer fight..." the woman was interrupted with a harsh and painful cough that came along with blood. She breathed with much difficulty but she continued with her plea.

"Bless him with your power...Guide him...I beg of you..."

The detka in her arms started to whine due to hunger but the only thing his mother could offer was a kiss of farewell. "I love you Asahi. Be a good King. May Tom-Ak-Ta and the Spirit of Kings be with you always..."

The woman gently placed the baby down on the short pillar before wobbling out of the small temple. Blood continued to drop from where she walked and when she was finally out of the temple, a small figure with blue hair flew over the whining detka. He was no older than three and he was wearing white and clean puffy clothes. His blue eyes were enormous and they blinked over the detka as he observed him. His light feathery wings were two times bigger than him.

"King...Asahi...Yes..." he murmured.

Shockingly, the small figure was able to carry the baby into his arms with no difficulty and he flew out of the temple through the hole of the ceiling. The flying boy brought the detka to Tom-Ak-Ta's temple and once he landed in front, a very tall and muscular figure wearing nothing but a leaf on his crotch materialized in front of him.

"Spirit of Kings, what brings you here?" the man questioned. "And who is that adorable baby?"

The Spirit of Kings flew over Tom-Ak-Ta and the man offered his hand for him to sit on. He placed the detka on Tom-Ak-Ta's other hand and he gazed at him with his big blue eyes.

"What am I looking at here?"

"King...Asahi...Yes..." the boy repeated.

Tom-Ak-Ta smiled. "I see so you have chosen him?"

The boy nodded with no visible expression on his face except there were tears starting to form at the corner of his eyes which Tom-Ak-Ta immediately noticed.

"Oh, what is the matter?" Tom-Ak-Ta asked with worry.

"No more...no more. Alone..." he spoke and rubbed off his tears.

Tom-Ak-Ta having to read what must have happened before the Spirit of Kings arrived, looked at Asahi with sadness.

"He is alone isn't he?"

"I come with him..." the little boy requested which took Tom-Ak-Ta by surprise.

"You will live with them to guide him better? But you'll have to trade your spirit form. The world is dangerous. I won't allow that," Tom-Ak-Ta disapproved but the Spirit of Kings continued to look at him expecting for approval. With a few more seconds of staring at those eyes, Tom-Ak-Ta gave in.

"Alright fine, I will look for a foster family for you and for this little one...I'll need to look for trusted people."

The Spirit of Kings brightened up and he flew around Tom-Ak-Ta expressing his mirth for his decision.

The flashback ended and the full-grown Spirit of Kings was now before my eyes with a fallen resolve.

Tom-Ak-Ta finally appeared and knelt down and took the trembling Tetsuro in his arms. "Yes I can hear you. Yes I will embrace you. Yes I will stop him. Yes I will hear his prayers too."

Tom-Ak-Ta closed his eyes and breathed against Tetsuro's neck. "Welcome back Spirit of Kings. You have done well. Let me handle the rest."

The God of Aishahs made the King of Ancients seal himself inside a ring created by his own vessel. I had no idea of what their deal was that made the King agree to submit to him but once Tom-Ak-Ta dropped the ring on Tetsuro's hand, he smiled.

"I suppose you'll refuse to become a King even if I suggest it?"

Tetsuro stared at the ring emotionlessly. "No, I know someone better."

Tom-Ak-Ta ruffled his hair and placed his hand on his hip. "I see...You'll meet someday but maybe not in this era. For now, explore the world. I give you the liberty. Come back to me if you are tired and one day, I'll be visiting you and you must be prepared because I need you for something."

The scene changed and Tetsuro was standing in front of Genshi while he was presenting a ring.

"I choose you as the new King," Tetsuro deadpanned which made Genshi freak out.

"Don't joke like that baka!"

"I have no sense of humor," Tetsuro spoke monotonously. "Take it or else the Spirit of Kings will curse you."

Genshi raised his hand to whack Tetsuro on the head but the teal was able to catch his hand and easily slip the ring on a finger.

"Gah! You sneaky little—"

"I have to go now," Tetsuro announced causing Genshi's aggressive expression to fall and become a kicked puppy's.

"Whe-where will you go?"

Tetsuro stayed silent for awhile before replying. "I will explore the world. Do not worry, I shall visit you every now and then and see how well you are doing. Please don't burn the Kingdom."

"What do you mean burn?!" Genshi snarled before sighing and looking at the ring on his finger. "I don't think I can—hey I'm not done yet talking why are you walking away?!"

"You can do it," Tetsuro encouraged. "Your Light is too bright that a Shadow like me will become useless and will cease to exist," he added and stopped on his tracks.

Genshi looked down and clenched his fists from suppressed confessions. "Ma-make sure to visit!" Genshi reminded him. "I'll be waiting."

"Of course thank you..." Tetsuro replied with a grateful tone. "And take care of that ring..." Tetsuro advised and turned around. "The vengeful soul of King Asahi resides in it..." he told Genshi who then shouted in horror and began to thrash around and tried to remove the ring.

"What the fuck?! I don't want it! Get it off!"

Tetsuro gave Genshi a quick chuckle before finally departing.

The known Shadow Knight explored the world for many years gaining knowledge and wisdom from so many races and experiences. There were tight situations in which he almost thought that he could not survive through but he prevailed.

He became a helper of all but never a lover for one.

Because his heart still belonged to someone.

The age came for war where many ancients died causing the heartless and mindless havoc of what were known as catastrophes. The ancients secluded themselves from the world depriving life from the living and Tetsuro took it upon himself to help. He used his power to cleanse the parts in which he could reach.

And one day, he met two boys who were a victim of Queen Eliza's assault. Their whole tribe was wiped off and he decided to take them under his wing until the day that Tom-Ak-Ta will make that visit.

It was a shock really.

This must be the master that they were talking about where they learned so much about catastrophes.

"Slade we just had fish yesterday," a younger version of Sevor sighed.

"I know I know!" Slade snapped. "Master, what do you want for lunch?" he asked.

Tetsuro petted their heads and smiled. "Black bean salad sounds nice."

"I'm adding meat on mine!" Slade announced.

"Please do include me on that portion," Sevor requested.

Tetsuro's face saddened as he watched the twins bicker.

This was his last day with them and he wished he could have prepared them more for the future. 

 Once the day ended and the siblings were sleeping soundly, Tetsuro placed a kiss on their foreheads along with a letter on a table written on a leaf.

A glowing figure which shed glowing sparkles appeared behind him and Tetsuro turned around sadly.

"It's time Tetsuro," Tom-Ak-Ta whispered. "It's time for your rebirth."

====================================================

A/N: that was a long lol Was this shocking? The last Chronicle of Asahi is the next update.