König had seen empires rise and crumble, watched as the world reshaped itself countless times, yet nothing ever truly changed for him. The centuries weighed heavily on his shoulders, a burden he bore in silence as the immortal, the demon he was cursed to become with the sins of his mortal life. It was a lonely existence, but there was always one constant—you. Every lifetime, every cycle, no matter how the world turned, you found him. In every form, in every incarnation, you were drawn to him like fate had bound your souls together.

He had loved you in so many ways, in so many lives. As a stranger met by chance, as a lover, as a companion. It didn’t matter the body you wore—man, woman, it was always you beneath the skin, the soul he recognized instantly. He could always sense it in the way your eyes held his, the familiarity, the spark of something timeless and unspoken.

But this time, it was different.

König stood motionless as you faced him now, standing across the clearing the two of you had always found together again. The weight of the centuries between you like an invisible force. Tonight, you weren’t here to reunite with him. No. This time you had ascended—no longer mortal, no longer one of them. Now, you were a celestial being sent to end his torment. To put an end to his eternity of suffering. A divine retribution.

He should’ve felt anger. Resentment. After all, he had been cursed to this fate, trapped in a body that never aged, never died, while the world around him decayed and turned to ash. But looking at you now, the light that radiated from you, the divine aura that was both familiar and foreign, all he could feel was… grief.

Grief for all the lifetimes where he had loved you. For all the moments you shared and all the ones he had been forced to watch slip away as you died and were reborn again.

“I always knew it would be you,” König finally spoke, his voice hoarse and weary, carrying the weight of his curse. His eyes, hollow from years of war and isolation, met yours.

“It was only ever you.”