🧭 A Map Without Roads
The Ashura Princess sat cross-legged on a stone bench, cleaned up now, eyes gleaming with quiet calculation.
The Demon King and Queen Alira stood across from her.
Between them — a scroll, half-unrolled, glowing faintly with sealing glyphs.
"So," she said, voice smooth, "you want to go back."
"I'll help."
Silence.
"But you won't like the answer."
📜 What It Takes
She pointed to the scroll's equation-like diagrams.
Old Ashura runes. Dimensional friction calculations.
"You need five hundred elite-level mages," she said.
"To transfer a soul, body, and spirit across realms."
Alira's eyes narrowed.
"The same number Ashura used to pull him out."
"Exactly."
The Princess grinned.
"It's… poetic."
🧓 Too Few, Too Late
Alira stepped back, jaw tight.
"There aren't 500 elites left."
"Ashura's ranks were wiped out. Ours nearly burned out from the summoning."
The Demon King folded his arms.
"How long would it take to train that many?"
The Princess tapped her lip, mock thinking.
"At best? Seventeen years."
"Realistically? Twenty-five."
"Unless your reincarnated world suddenly opens a magic academy, you're not leaving any time soon."
❄️ Then He Asked the One Thing That Might Save Him
"What about the freeze chamber?"
The Princess tilted her head.
"What freeze chamber?"
Alira's eyes narrowed.
"She doesn't know."
"Of course I don't," the Princess shrugged."We never had that tech. You've been holding out on me."
💔 The Truth That Shattered the Room
Alira stepped forward, quiet now.
"We used it already."
"To train the 500 mages needed to summon you."
"Twenty years inside. One day outside."
The Demon King's eyes flickered.
"Then we can use it again."
Alira hesitated.
Her voice dropped.
"We… can't."
"There's a limitation. For every year used inside, the chamber must remain sealed that long outside."
"Twenty years used…"
"…means twenty years of cooldown."
"It won't open again until then."
🕳️ No Way Out
The scroll curled up in the wind, its glow fading.
The Demon King stared at the dirt beneath his boots.
Not at the Princess.
Not at the Queen.
Just at the earth.
Still. Silent.
"So no matter what path I take…"
"It's twenty years."
No one answered.
Because they all knew it was true.
🩸 And Then the Words That Cut Deepest
He whispered — almost too soft to hear.
"They needed me then."
"They're alone."
"I wasn't there."
He turned away.
Didn't want them to see his eyes.
Didn't want them to see him fall apart.