The Devil's Son and His Fated Bride
Chapter 216: The Tunnel of the Future IV

Chapter 216: The Tunnel of the Future IV

"My wife lived her mother’s past in hell, and I’m living my future in the Gods’ prison. If this celestial game isn’t brutal, then tell me, what is it, Saint Saga?"

Kaisun’s voice was low, but it carried a weight that pressed against the walls. Despair laced every word, heavy and raw with the pain in his heart, as though his soul had been cracked open.

From beyond the iron door came the unmistakable rustle of movement, whispers, and shifting feet.

"Hey, let me listen!" Benkin murmured, cupping a hand to his sister’s ear.

"Shut up! You’ll expose us!" she hissed back, elbowing him.

Kai rose without urgency. Each step toward the door was steady, deliberate. He was amused. He could feel them, young ears straining, hearts pounding, curiosity burning in them to know who he was.

With a sudden swing, the door creaked open. The two eavesdroppers tumbled forward in a heap, faces flushed with embarrassment.

They scrambled to their feet, brushing dust and shame from their clothes.

"Sorry, it was my fault!" Benkin blurted, stepping in front of his sister protectively.

But Seraphina’s brow was furrowed with something more than shame. She stared at Kai, lips parted as though she’d tasted a secret.

"I heard something," she confessed slowly. "But I need you to confirm it."

Kai already knew. He could feel the question tightening the air like a drawn bowstring.

"Ask it," he said.

"Are you truly our father?"

Benkin jolted like she’d struck him with a whip, "What are you saying?" he gasped, nudging her arm.

"I heard it," Seraphina whispered, her eyes locked on Kaisun. "He is our father, Kaisun Al-Gathiran."

The boy blinked, stunned, and shook his head in disbelief. "He was dead. They brought his body back, his soul was burned," he insisted, his voice cracking with confusion.

As if summoned by the words, the air in the vast chamber thickened. A shadow gathered in the center of the room, spiraling upward into a towering shape cloaked in gloom. Then, it solidified, flesh and spirit twisting into the form of a tall man.

He stared at Kaisun, his face unreadable as if carved from obsidian.

Kai narrowed his eyes, recognition dawning. "Azrael," he muttered. "I didn’t summon you."

The siblings stared at each other, eyes wide with awe and unease.

"This is the Lord of Death?" Seraphina whispered to her brother.

Azrael turned his head slightly, his voice as still and cold as winter. "Yes. I am your uncle. And I was the one who brought him back."

Kai felt the memory resurface, the moment he crossed the Gate of the Future. That gate had been unlike the others. It had been touched. Altered. Azrael’s doing.

To bend such a gate required divine force beyond reckoning. How? Kai wondered. How did Azrael gain such power? He must have ascended, become more than what he was before.

"What is happening here?" Prince Benkin demanded, his young voice rising with righteous fury.

Azrael didn’t flinch. "I fractured time," he said, each word deliberate, "so I could lead your mother to your father. But I’m running out of time."

Even Kai stepped back slightly, unnerved by Azrael’s new presence, so calm, so commanding.

A glowing portal rippled into being beside him, its edge humming with celestial energy.

"Do you wish to remain in this future," Azrael asked, his tone final, "or will you come with me? The choice is yours."

Kai’s gaze settled on his children, and a soft smile touched his lips, full of pride, sorrow, and a thousand unspoken promises. He would give his life a thousand times over to see Ren deliver their children in peace, far from the claws of war. No man would ever claim her. He had sent Luther to his end just to keep him away from her, how could he now let another man near her? The very thought was madness.

"I’ll see you again, kids," he said gently.

Without another word, he turned and stepped into the portal beside Azrael. The shimmering gate sealed behind him like the closing of fate’s curtain.

Seraphina dropped to her knees, her sobs breaking the heavy silence. "That was our father," she cried. "We didn’t even speak to him properly..."

The Owlman knelt beside her, his arms wrapping gently around hers. "He’ll do everything he can to raise you," he said softly. "To become the father he always dreamed of being. Don’t cry."

...

On the other side of the portal, Kai emerged in the place where he had first seen his children, a haunting echo of what had just passed.

Azrael stood beside him and glanced at Kai’s blade. "Slash your sword through the air, here," he instructed, pointing to the space before them. "It’ll take you back to the Tunnels of the Future. But hurry. Time is thinning."

Kai hesitated for only a breath. He gripped his sword, surprised by the quiet hum of power still within it, despite the absence of Shadow. In this strange future, he couldn’t even feel the presence of his demon.

He lifted the blade and swung it downward with force. The air screamed and split where it landed, a jagged crack ripping through the earth. From that wound, heat surged upward and light bled out in waves. A rift opened, glowing red, like a vein of a living world.

"Go," Azrael said. "Reneira will come to you. I’ve waited for this moment... for years."

Kai paused, eyes narrowing. "Why?"

The portal trembled. Time was collapsing.

"Because it was my fault that you died," Azrael replied, barely louder than the wind.

That wind surged, catching Kai’s hair like fingers tugging him home. He launched himself forward, vanishing through the light.

He slammed into the rocky floor of the tunnel with a grunt, but it wasn’t the pitch-black hellscape he remembered. Sunlight streamed in through an opening far above.

Kai blinked, looking down at himself, his wounds were gone. Was that future an illusion? Or something like the hall of mirrors in the Underworld?

He pushed himself to his feet, eyes locking on the jagged hole in the ceiling. He had to climb.

Somewhere beyond that hole, Reneira would be coming for him, just as she always had during those futures that he experienced.

He didn’t want to imagine the pain she must have felt when she held his lifeless body. He set his hands on the rough edges and began to climb.

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