The Strongest Hero (Reader X Harem)

Chapter 19

Howdy, everyone! So I thought about it a little and came to the conclusion that I don't want to have the "12 Labors of man" as the main villains, instead I'm going use someone else. This chapter is his introduction.
Enjoy :D

Deep within the chasm of the abyss, he resided. Once a being of light and good now corrupted by the very thing he sought to destroy.
In the halls of the abyss, a warrior was going to give her King a visit. She opened the door and saw the figure of a man, Azazel. An elderly man who was almost on the verge of death, he was sitting on his favorite armchair.
"My lord..." The warrior greeted her King as she approached him.
"Ah, 'tis you... What brings you here, Shana?" Azazel replied.

She then took a glass and poured her king some water. "Your medicine, you need it." Said the warrior, but before she could give him the medicine, he pushed it away.

"No need. When I die in this world, who will know something of me? I am lost, but no one knows, there's no trace of my yearning."
The Warrior looked at him with a very confused expression.

Azazel isn't lamenting over being forgotten in death; he's lamenting that nobody will truly know who he was, a being found lost in another world, afraid of what stands before him and his new, dire circumstance. He doesn't want to die a monster, he just wants to return to the world he knew before he came to be the beast humans know him as. He was a god, that very suddenly, encountered an unfortunate fate.

"But I must carry on, my dear Shana. Nothing worse can befall. All my fears, all my tears, tell my heart there's a hole."

Azazel is facing a conflict of personality. The voices are two parts of a whole, a duality that tells the story of Azazel's death as a God and rebirth as a monster, his metamorphosis. The lighter voice represents the sadness and innocence in Azazel's nature, speaking primarily of the fate that has befallen him and how it is an inescapable fate, whereas the deeper voice tells of the rise of Azazel's anger, speaking of how he must destroy and slaughter to survive, as well as how it will continue on at whatever cost, just to find some kind of hope that may or may not exist.

"I wear a void, not even hope. A downward slope is all I see."

The remnants of Azazel's soul tell of how it has been wrapped in dark, trapped inside nothing, and that he cannot even hope anymore. All that is left for him is to continue falling through the downward slope, the only path that Azazel can even perceive at this point.

"As long as breath comes from my mouth, I may yet stand the slightest chance, a shaft of light is all I need to cease the darkness killing me."

Azazel has reached the breaking point, he is nearing his death and he knows it- but he is still alive. Somehow, by some miracle and in the most twisted way, Azazel has found the hope that he had lost before, but at the cost of destroying everything around him. As long as breath, an allusion to his Abyss power continues to flow in him then he might be able to continue living, whatever that even means for him anymore. To escape the void around him, to stop the vicious assault being laid upon him, all he needs is that shaft of light, that one ray of hope both figuratively, and with the manifestation of his Abyss power, literally.

Azazel has been through the wringer- trapped in a different world as a King. He's, surrounded by death and destruction, all alone, and nobody will know who or what he once was; all he can do to prevent the entire world from trying to slaughter him is to fight back and annihilate everything in his path. Being placed inside a monster wasn't his fault, but choosing to become one to live was all he could do. It really is a tragedy, and it really is all about Azazel and his choice to become the King.

The King then looked at her crying Warrior.
"No need to weep, my dear. My time has come." Said the King as he wiped the tear-off of her eye.
"B-But... You were the one who found me on that day... Without you... I'd be dead. So crying right now is excusable, right?"
"Yes."
"Thank you." Shana then straightened up. " What are your next orders, sir..?"
The King took a while to answer, he thought about it a little and gave Shana a reply. "I must seek for him, I must seek my son Azrael. There are some words I'd like to exchange with him before our clash and my inevitable death. I've grown weak during these past 17 years, seems like he has been harnessing my power. He either joins me or we must fight. There is no other way." Azazel then sighed and took his glass of water to drink his medicine while also murmuring. "How did it comes to this... Such a cruel fate..."

End of chapter 19!