A confused gaze.
Eyes heavy with haze.
Breath,ragged, echoed in the chest.
"Ah..." Emmanuel rubbed his eyes slowly, trying to understand where he was.
The first thing he saw was a high ceiling of pale white,intersected with exquisite wooden beams.
The opposite wall was pristine wood,scattered with dancing shadows from the grey morning light creeping through a high window.
On the opposite wall hung a large painting.A man and a woman of high class,standing opposite each other with their backs turned, each holding a red rose.But the shadows cast behind them didn't hold roses…one shadow held a knife, the other a sword.
Emmanuel stared for a long time, until he felt a cold shiver run down his spine.
"Where am I?"
He muttered in a hoarse voice,trying to sit up quickly. But the moment he did, a sharp pain shot through his back.
"Aah... my back!"
The memory returned suddenly — the stab. The blood. The rain. Crawling towards the tavern.He froze in place,catching his breath, then slowly looked around.The room was luxurious,strange, unlike any place in the human world.
He knew in that moment he was no longer there…he had entered the World of Doors.
And suddenly — a light knock on the door.
Click... click...
Emmanuel tensed, his voice trembling as he spoke hesitantly:
Come in...
The door opened slowly, revealing a small child no more than eight years old.
His hair was white and soft like winter snow,his eyes blue like a still sea.
He wore elegant clothes,resembling those of noble children.
He stepped forward quietly, his voice soft yet firm:
Don't be afraid...You are no longer in the human world. Just rest. When you recover, we can talk.
He placed a small plate before him — on it, warm bread and a cup of clear water reflecting the window's light.
The child stood for a moment,observing him, then left with light steps, closing the door behind him.
Emmanuel remained stunned.
A child?Here? In this place?
But he didn't dare ask.His words carried a warmth he had long missed… simple, yet genuine care.He smiled faintly,ate the food slowly, and surrendered to sleep once more.
The days passed.Only a few days,but they felt like weeks of stillness.His back healed completely,he regained his strength, and began to wander the palace that had saved him.
The palace was massive. Unlike any structure he knew from his life.
Every step he took produced adeep echo that reverberated through the halls,
Click... click... click...
As if the walls were swallowing the sounds.
The white walls, adorned with faint engravings, sometimes seemed to move under the dim light.And sometimes...he heard whispers.Faint laughter coming from them.
"Am I imagining things?"he muttered under his breath, glancing around, but no one was there.
He spent a full day searching for the mysterious child, roaming the long corridors and identical hallways that seemed like an endless maze,until he finally reached a vast hall resembling the heart of the palace.
There, was the main chamber — the throne room.
A black, gilded throne hung in the air, suspended by massive metal chains emitting a faint humming sound.A long staircase led up to it from the floor paved with stones,half red and half white,but the staircase was notorious…only those "accepted by the palace" could ascend it; those not accepted would be led by the stairs to Eternal Hell.
Emmanuel stood in the center, his breath heavy, his voice echoing off the walls:
Who are you?
The child's voice came from above, from near the throne:
I am Faiden.A demon… isn't that obvious?
Emmanuel froze in place, his body ready for combat, his eyes gradually narrowing.
Faiden smiled,descending step by step on the suspended stairs, his voice filling the space:
"Do you want to fight?Why? Because I'm a demon?
Am I not the one who saved you?Fed you? Brought you into my palace?
Has any human ever treated you this way?"
Emmanuel hesitated slightly, unclenched his fist, but his eyes remained wary.
While his mind drowned in questions.
Faiden continued in a strange tone, tinged with sad mockery:
"You humans…you are the real demons."
Emmanuel's eyes widened.
Faiden continued as he descended the last steps,his footsteps emitting a metallic ring:
"You enter our world,you kill us, for what? A reward? Money? It doesn't last more than a month?"
"We are trying to build our own world,free from your hypocrisy and your performative acts full of lies."
"You invade our world and fight us without reason."
Emmanuel raised his head and said cautiously:
"You inhabit the homes of the living and harm them…isn't that an assault?"
Faiden laughed lightly.
"Throughout my time here,I have not interfered in the world of the living.
True,some demons do that, but… believe me, most of them have stories in your world.Stories of pain that followed them even after death,leaving them trapped between life and death.Some manifest their hatred towards the humans who ruined,stole, plundered, and assaulted them. But I hold no hatred, because if I did, there would be no difference between me and humans."
He moved closer, until his face was just steps away from Emmanuel, his voice lowering as if whispering in his ear:
"But you…are different. You are lost. And it shows."
Then he extended his right hand, pointing towards the horizon within the hall, illuminated by a faint, celestial light.
"Now,I will give you two choices, no third."
"You will choose freely,and walk the path you choose for yourself."
He fell silent, and the wind whirled through the hall with a soft whistling sound, as if watching the decision.
Faiden finally said:
[The first path:You return to your human world, without power, without a weapon, to live the false dream of heroism, while others laugh at your weakness because they possess but a drop of power, no more.You save humans…only for them to turn their backs on you.]
[The second path: You stay here, in this world, away from the moody humans, and gain absolute power, and fight every day against knights who adore chivalry like you. Expect no one, save no one. Save only yourself.]
The sound of the silence itself grew heavy.
Emmanuel froze,not knowing what to choose.
But the memory came…
That scene,when he was crawling in the rain, and the girl he had saved was laughing at him.
He raised his head, looked around.The walls whispered more clearly now,the small mouths engraved on them moving as if awaiting his answer.The paintings around him also whispered with their historical figures,their shadows watching him in an eerie silence.
Murmur... murmur... Choose... Choose...
Emmanuel looked up steadily and said:
I want to stay.
Faiden smiled a faint smile.
Thus are demons made.
He drew his long, silver sword, lifted it lightly, and placed it on Emmanuel's shoulder, saying in a ceremonial tone:
From now on…you are part of the Palace of Dreams.
Then he pointed behind him.
When Emmanuel turned,he saw his old black armor, but it was no longer as it had been.
It was now gleaming,perfect, the colors glowing upon it as if alive.
No more holes or flaws.
In that moment, everything changed.
From deficiency to perfection.
From pain to tranquility.
From weakness to strength.
Emmanuel lived there, in the Palace of Dreams, for 200 full years, without feeling the passage of time.
And outside that world…
No one asked about him.
No one missed him.
Not even the tavern owner.
For in the end, the world forgot his name…
But the palace,and the shadows, and the whispering paintings, remembered well:
A new demon was born that night.[ The wild Knight.]
A demon different from Faiden,a demon who surrendered to hatred and spite.