Side Chapter: "The Coronation of the Shadow"
(How Shädow became the King of Hell)
Long before Shadow.
Long before the fall of Ash'Var.
When the world was still young, and even demons feared names…
There was one.
He had no name.
Only hunger.
A shadow among shadows — born from the first betrayal of the gods, from the first curse ever spoken.
A thought that refused to die.
He crawled through the deepest layers of Hell, growing in the cracks of reality, feeding on memory, twisting pain into power.
The Lords of Hell — six eternal demon kings — laughed at him.
Until he came.
He did not take a throne.
He tore them down.
Not in battle — but in dream.
He whispered into their souls, made them fear one another, hate, destroy.
And when the last king fell — the demon Zar'Ek, who breathed fire that devoured even light —
he stood atop a mountain of corpses.
Not crowned.
Not celebrated.
Acknowledged.
"What… are you?" asked a dying prince.
"I am the shadow that remains when even darkness dies," he answered.
From that moment, he was known as:
Shädow.
Not a king.
Not a god.
But what comes when both have failed.