The last soul dissolved into particles of soft blue light and drifted into nothingness.
For a moment, there was only silence.
I stood within the crater my own aura had created, the ruined buildings around the central district reduced further to broken shells. The fractured ground beneath my feet still carried the imprint of my aura, but something else had changed.
The city reacted.
It was subtle at first. A faint vibration moved beneath the surface, traveling through the stone in slow, deliberate pulses. It was not violent. The cracked streets around me darkened slightly, not with shadow, but with depth, as though something buried far below had begun to stir after an immeasurable span of dormancy.
My Psynapse expanded instinctively, reaching downward, probing beneath the physical layer of the city.
There.
At the exact center of the district. Something was activating. The air grew heavier.
The ground ahead trembled.
Stone shifted.
Fractures spread outward in a perfect circular pattern, forming a massive ring etched into the ruined street. Dust and debris slid inward as the circle slowly sank, revealing a platform hidden beneath the surface.
It rose.
A circular platform, massive and ancient, lifted itself into view. Its surface was cracked, broken in places as though it had endured unimaginable force. Lines carved into its structure formed a teleportation circle, though unlike any I had seen before. The markings were very advanced runes.
And at the center—
A shadow sat.
It did not rise immediately.
The shadow remained seated at the center of the cracked platform as I approached, its form still and composed, the staff resting horizontally across its lap. It did not react immediately, and for a moment, I wondered if it was different from the others, if its purpose was something beyond direct confrontation. But the moment I stepped fully onto the raised circle, its presence shifted.
It rose. Its fingers tightened around the staff, and Essence began to churn within its form. I felt it clearly. The Essence was generated internally, flowing outward through its structure with controlled precision.
Its head tilted slightly toward me.
Then it vanished.
There was no blur of motion, no distortion to track. One moment it stood at the center of the platform, and the next it existed directly in front of me, its staff already descending toward my skull with absolute accuracy. The weapon cut through the air without wasted motion, its path direct and lethal, carrying the full weight of condensed Essence behind it.
I raised my hand.
Space obeyed.
The staff stopped.
It froze less than an inch from my face, its momentum completely erased as the coordinates around it locked into absolute stillness. The Essence flowing along its length flared violently in response, attempting to break free of the constraint, but the sealed space held firm.
The shadow reacted immediately.
Essence surged within its form, intensifying as it attempted to overpower my authority. The staff trembled, its structure straining against the locked coordinates, fractures of pressure forming along the invisible boundary that held it in place.
It was stronger than the others.
It was adapting.
But I was faster.
Chronostep activated.
Time fractured around me, and the world slowed into stillness. The shadow’s form remained frozen within the moment, its resistance halted along with everything else. I stepped forward through the broken flow of time, closing the distance until I stood beside it, close enough to see the internal movement of Essence circulating through its body.
Up close, its structure was imperfect. My hand rose slowly, my fingers extending toward its forehead.
I touched it.
The reaction was immediate.
Space rippled outward from the point of contact. The structure that held the shadow together began to fail at its foundation. Thin cracks formed across its surface, spreading outward in intricate patterns that multiplied with each passing fraction of a second.
The shadow resisted. Essence surged through it, attempting to repair the damage, to reinforce the failing structure. It was too late. The cracks deepened. Its form fractured completely. The shadow collapsed, its body breaking apart into fragments that dissolved into nothingness as the authority sustaining it ceased to exist.
But something remained.
A soft blue glow lingered where the shadow had stood.
It gathered slowly, condensing into a transparent figure.
An old man.
His form was thin and worn, his back slightly bent. Deep wrinkles lined his face, and his long beard drifted weightlessly around him. His eyes moved slowly, adjusting to awareness, searching his surroundings until they settled on me.
Recognition filled them.
Relief.
Understanding.
He held my gaze for a long moment, as though confirming something for himself.
Then he bowed. It was gratitude.
His form began to break apart, dissolving into countless particles of blue light that drifted outward before fading completely from existence.
The moment the last fragment disappeared, I felt it.
It entered my soul. It compressed inward, increasing my soul’s density without changing its size. My existence felt heavier, more stable, as though its foundation had been reinforced by something fundamental rather than external power.
I turned my attention to the platform. The teleportation circle waited. I stepped onto it. The moment my foot touched its surface, the symbols ignited.
Light erupted upward, consuming my vision.
Space folded around me.
And then—
The teleportation began.
But something else came with it.
Fragmented memories struck me without warning.
I stood in a battlefield. As an observer. Millions of bodies covered the ground.
Human.
Everywhere.
Their corpses stretched beyond the horizon, their forms broken, lifeless, their blood staining the land in endless crimson. Weapons lay scattered among them, broken remnants of a war long finished.
The sky above was dark.
At the center of it all stood a throne.
Massive.
Black.
Ancient.
And before it—
Someone stood.
I could not see their face.
Only their silhouette.
Tall.
Still.
Facing the throne.
Then the vision shattered.
I emerged somewhere else.
A massive hall stretched before me.
Its scale dwarfed anything I had seen before. Pillars rose from the ground to support a roof so high it vanished into darkness above. Each pillar was carved from a single piece of unknown material, smooth and untouched by time.
The air was still.
Silent.
Ancient.
Directly before me, a massive mural stretched across the wall. Its scale alone forced stillness, its detail carved with such precision that it appeared almost alive despite its age.
The surface depicted a floating landmass suspended within the void. At the very peak of that landmass, embedded firmly into stone, was the sword.
I recognized it instantly.
The same black blade with the single silver line running through its center. The same silent presence. The same weapon Theras had reached.
Around the floating landmass, seven enormous celestial bodies hung in perfect orbit. Each one differed from the others in appearance and nature.
Above the mural, carved deeply into the stone in characters.
"The Seven Realms."
I stepped forward slowly, my eyes tracing every detail, allowing my perception to absorb the full structure of what stood before me. This was not decoration. It was record. History preserved in form rather than text.
As I moved further along the wall, additional murals revealed themselves.
Each one depicted figures standing before the same sword.
They were not human.
Their forms varied in shape, scale, and structure, representing races I had never encountered and others I recognized only from fragmented knowledge.
Yet despite their differences, they all shared one detail.
None of them held the sword.
None of them touched it.
None of them claimed it.
They stood before it, facing upward toward the embedded blade, their postures reflecting something deeper than hesitation.
They had reached it.
But they had not taken it.