The Damned Demon

The Damned Dimension stretched endlessly in every direction—an infernal wasteland bathed in eerie emerald flames and shifting, twisted shadows. The skies above were fractured mirrors, reflecting not the world beneath, but twisted echoes of Derek's greatest atrocities.

Asher stood motionless, an undying wraith cloaked in hellfire, calmly watching as Derek stumbled and crashed against jagged volcanic rocks, coughing violently as his charred, trembling hands clawed at the scorched earth beneath him.

"Where…is this…" Derek gasped, his immortal flesh quivering and twitching uncontrollably as the sinister atmosphere relentlessly devoured his mana and clawing away at his life force rapidly. Not in a million years had he felt such a mortal, suffocating sensation.

"This place…" Asher's voice echoed, calm yet mercilessly cold, reverberating with thousands of anguished souls intertwined within it, "...is where your soul learns the true meaning of damnation."

Derek staggered upright, his form shaky, already showing signs of decay. He spun around, horrified as he stared at the distorted reflections above—the mirrored sky displaying nightmarish scenes of past torment. Each pane of glass replayed moments of brutality and betrayal, all performed by Derek's own hands.

He saw his younger self, calmly yet with cold satisfaction, commanding countless innocents into horrific experiments, disregarding their screams as their flesh peeled away in the labs he had built.

"No!" Derek shouted, his voice filled with a desperate denial. "Y-You think…their pathetic screams will scare me?! They were nothing…I…I gave them a purpose…even in death through their sacrifices!"

Asher raised his skeletal hand slowly, emerald flames roaring into a terrifying crescendo. "No, you scum. They weren't sacrifices. They were victims—victims who died so that your arrogance might thrive. And now… their vengeance begins."

From the darkened landscape around them, countless shadowy figures emerged, manifesting from the very darkness itself—spectral, twisted apparitions whose features flickered between clarity and grotesque agony. Their whispers filled the stagnant air with accusations and sorrowful lamentations:

"You took my family…"

"You turned me into a monster…"

"You stole my life…"

"I was only a child…"

Derek's eyes widened, his face paling as the shades moved closer, surrounding him like predators circling their prey. He scrambled backward, tripping over protruding stones, his voice trembling in fear.

"Keep—keep away! I am a sovereign! You're nothing but remnants of failures!" Derek's voice cracked, his bravado rapidly dissolving into desperation. "You died because you were weak!"

"You died…" Asher stepped closer, dark green magma dripping from the cracks of his black diamond bones, "…because he was weak."

Suddenly, the shades lunged forward in unison, their shadowy fingers latching onto Derek's body. Derek howled in agony as their touch seared his flesh, tearing at his skin, corrupting and decaying everything they grasped. His giantl form, once proud and flawless, started to crack and peel away, exposing bone beneath shredded flesh.

"You feel that, Derek?" Asher whispered, his voice echoing softly, hauntingly intimate amidst the chaos. "That's the weight of every innocent soul you've damned. That's the pain you've inflicted a thousand times over, multiplied endlessly."

"AAARGHHH!!"

Derek screamed, thrashing violently as ghostly hands sank into his chest, gripping his very soul, twisting it, tearing it, filling his consciousness with their suffering.

"THIS…will never END!!" Derek cried out, his voice raw with rage, terror and desperation. "I know about your fate…Do you think it ends with me?!"

Asher's skeletal visage twisted into a hauntingly sinister smirk, molten green tears of soulfire pouring from his hollow eye sockets. "But you won't be alive to see my fate. Instead, you will serve me. But first, you will suffer as they suffered. You'll taste every second of agony you dealt—until you understand what you've truly become."

The damned souls pressed deeper into Derek's being, their agonized screams and weeping echoing throughout the twisted dimension.

"YARGHHHH!! NO!!!!!"

Derek's flesh continued to char and decay, his form now barely recognizable. Charred bone became visible as dark flames consumed his body, eating away at his flesh, turning him into something monstrous.

Hours—or perhaps centuries—passed in that realm of eternal punishment, with Derek's torment seemingly infinite. Time had no true meaning here, each moment stretching into a horrifying eternity of pain. His screams never ceased, each shriek filled with the despair and suffering of millions of souls exacting their vengeance.

Finally, Asher stepped closer, flames parting around him respectfully as the damned souls recoiled slightly, acknowledging their master's presence. Derek lay at Asher's feet, his giant body reduced to a grotesque, burnt husk—bones charred black, flesh hanging in shredded patches, his form barely coherent. Yet somehow, he was still aware, still conscious—still feeling every moment of pain.

Derek weakly raised his charred face towards Asher, pleading from empty, burning sockets. "Mercy… please, Asher. Mercy…"

"Mercy?" Asher's voice thundered with scorn, the dimension itself trembling. "Did you ever show mercy to anyone in a forgotten timeline? To my wives, to my children, to the millions of souls whose agony created your empire?"

Derek or whatever was left of him shivered violently, crumbling onto the barren earth, gasping broken sobs as he shook his head in delirious denial. "I—I only wanted—"

Asher's voice turned deathly quiet, dripping with chilling disdain. "Wanted to become more than this? You forced screams from innocent throats, every ounce of despair you extracted from broken souls. You became a god of cruelty—but now, you're nothing more than a shattered husk begging for forgiveness. This is who you really are."

Slowly, Asher reached down and grabbed Derek's charred skull, raising him up effortlessly. Derek's body twitched, dangling helplessly as emerald flames enveloped Asher's grip, further searing Derek's corrupted soul.

"I will forgive you, Derek…" Asher whispered coldly, his voice frighteningly gentle, "...but not today. Not tomorrow. You will earn your forgiveness through an eternity of service—an eternity of atonement."

Asher's grip tightened, and a pulse of dark energy surged into Derek's broken form. The emerald flames roared, burning Derek's final remnants of humanity away, leaving behind a smoldering skeleton wrapped in tattered charred flesh, bound forever to the flames of the Damned Dimension.

Derek's voice was now just a ghostly whisper, barely audible, yet deeply broken. "No…no…no…"

"Rise, slave," Asher commanded, his voice a terrifying mixture of regal authority and merciless justice.

Derek's mangled, burned skeletal frame jerked upright against his will, bound by the chains of Asher's immortal power. Hollow eye sockets now flickered with faint emerald embers—the same tortured soulfire Asher himself possessed—marking Derek's eternal servitude.

"You are nothing now," Asher continued mercilessly, "but my eternal reminder of justice served. For every lifetime you've stolen, you will suffer a thousand deaths. For every soul you've damned, you will bear their agony."

Derek's head hung low, now a skeletal thrall trembling before his new master, whispering in broken yet unwavering obedience, "Yes… Master…"

The damned souls surrounding them fell silent, bowing in recognition and submission, their vengeance fulfilled. Asher stood tall amidst the desolate dimension, his flaming wings unfurled majestically, burning brighter than ever.

"Look around you, Derek," Asher said, stepping back, gesturing at the endless expanse of his damned domain. "This is your eternity—your existence now defined by endless remorse, endless pain. And in time, you will learn to cherish this torment—because it will be the only thing keeping your shattered soul from complete oblivion."

Derek's enslaved form crumbled to his knees, silent now, the broken shell of the proud immortal he had once been, now forever a slave to the very souls he'd destroyed.

Asher gazed coldly upon his fallen foe, his hollow eyes blazing with finality. "Welcome home, Derek Sterling. Welcome… to eternity."

And within the Damned Dimension, beneath shattered mirror skies and amidst endless emerald fires, Derek's eternal punishment had only just begun.