Death Paradox 💥BAKUDEKU💥

Chapter 32

The Emperor

✧༺✦✮✦༻✧

Chapter 32

A scream tore through the heavy darkness, sharp and raw, sending a violent jolt down Katsuki's spine. For a moment, it didn't register where it was coming from. Was it Izuku? Shoto? His own throat?

Master! Kirishima's voice thundered in his head, as loud and clear as if the dragon were roaring right next to him. The prince—he's shifting back!

Before Katsuki could even process the warning, his eyes caught something in the smoke. A pair of glowing eyes, sharp and feral, staring back at him. They hovered in the smoke like embers, bright and wicked, watching him with an intensity that had him whirling to face it.

No. Not just one pair.

Two.

Katsuki's breath hitched as the figures began to emerge from the writhing smoke. The first figure was eerily familiar, her silhouette light and deceptively delicate, her movements fluid as she stepped out. Her grin was wide, a flash of white teeth in a face that was unnervingly cheerful, but the manic glint in her yellow eyes made Katsuki growl. Toga.

Her pale skin gleamed faintly in the glow of the dimly lit lava pools, and the knives in her hands twirled with a casual ease that was anything but harmless. She tilted her head, her smile widening as her gaze zeroed in on Izuku. "Little mouse," she purred, her voice honeyed and saccharine, dripping with false affection. "You came all this way to see us?"

Katsuki barely had time to process her presence and the two others that ginned at Deku when another figure stepped through the smoke. This one was taller, broader, with a gait that exuded pure menace. His obsidian horns curled upward, wreathed in writhing blue flames that licked at the air like living things. His black hair billowed with the heat radiating off him, and his pale skin was marred with deep, jagged scars that only added to the sinister gleam in his piercing blue eyes.

Dabi.

"Didn't expect a reunion, did you?" Dabi drawled, his voice a low, lazy rasp that made Shoto gape at his older brother. He flicked his wrist, and a plume of blue fire erupted from his palm, the heat so intense it made the air around it shimmer. "Looks like we got all the key players right here."

Shoto staggered backward, his breaths coming in short, sharp bursts as his flames flared uncontrollably. Katsuki recognized the look in his eyes—the barely-contained chaos, the fear of losing control. The prince's left side was fully scaled, the inky veins of his half-demon form creeping across his unmarked skin.

"IcyHot!" Katsuki snapped, his voice sharp and cutting. "Get your shit together! You're not losing it now!" But Shoto's gaze didn't move from Dabi. The prince's lips parted, his voice barely a whisper. "Touya..."

Dabi's grin widened, his scars pulling taut against his skin as he tilted his head. "Still clinging to your humanity, huh, little brother?"

Katsuki barely registered Shigaraki's hiss before the rune slammed into Shoto, embedding itself into his chest with a glow that was both mesmerizing and horrifying. The prince's scream cut through the cavern, a sound of pure agony that twisted into something feral and raw. As the scream morphed into a snarl, Shoto's body arched unnaturally, his eyes flashing a deep, demonic yellow as he lunged towards Izuku, intent clear in his warped features.

Shoto wasn't Shoto anymore. The prince's features were twisted in a grimace of rage, his movements jerky and unnatural as he advanced. Every step he took was a betrayal of the man they knew, driven by the dark rune burning in his chest. the two other demons lunged for Deku as the prince advanced.