Hundreds of voices merged together, forming a hollow, inhuman echo.
"Why... why didn’t you become one of us, Arthania?"
Even the air itself trembled from those madness-laden words.
"Arthania... Arthania... I waited for you, but you always refused."
The voices echoed again, growing steadier, while Arthania stood with cold calm before the crowd.
"...You were the last piece I wanted. So why... why... why?"
"Why did you refuse?... Why didn’t you become one of us?... Why didn’t you surrender yourself?"
It wasn’t like a crowd speaking all at once — it was more like a defiled, corrupt entity speaking through the mouths of the masses.
It was terrifying... terrifying and crawling.
But Arthania remained standing, unmoved.
At the front, Rem extended her hand forward — toward Arthania — as if inviting her to take it.
"Let’s start everything over... I’ll let those strangers leave... but in return, become one of us. As it should have been."
Silence blanketed the area for a moment as Arthania appeared to consider the offer presented by this ancient entity.
But the silence didn’t last forever.
"Hahaha... hahaha."
Arthania’s laughter tore through the quiet, her tone dripping with contempt.
"I can’t believe I’m receiving a deal from a monster... have you finally developed some civility after all this time?"
But the only response she received was a cold, collective echo — nothing more than a single question.
"What is your decision?"
Arthania stopped laughing, taking her time to respond, buying every second she could.
"What if I refuse?"
Rem lowered her hand as the voices rippled around her. "Then I’ll force you — you and those strangers."
Slowly, a wrong smile carved itself onto Reem’s face. "They’re a remarkable group... adding them would have given me a significant boost.... but unfortunately, you’re the better choice, Arthania."
Reem extended her hand into the air once more as the voices surged behind her at a deafening pitch.
"Arthania."
"Arthania."
"Arthania."
It felt as though the very place itself might go mad from it.
"So make the right decision... and don’t abandon your people the way you always have."
Arthania scowled at the grating noise, barely holding back another laugh.
"Force me?... The right decision?" she murmured quietly.
"Don’t abandon my people?"
Her amber eyes gleamed as she stared into the crowd that had formed before her — hundreds of Awakened, and still growing with every passing moment.
Beside her, Elias stood in silence, watching it all unfold.
The old man had nothing left to do here, nothing left to offer. His life had ended long ago, and the only thing keeping him on his feet were those threads.
Without a word, Arthania turned her head toward him, an amused smile forming on her lips.
"So — how smart of a decision is this, old man?"
She asked without even telling him what the decision was, while Elias smiled, remembering the days he taught her how a leader must act — back when he had decided to hand her his seat.
"The stupidest one imaginable."
He glanced back at the crowd. "Just make sure I’m the first..." His voice carried no regret, no sorrow... instead it was calm. Peaceful.
Arthania closed her eyes for a moment, drawing a slow, deep breath as the echo of the unified voices swirled around her.
"Arthania, don’t be foolish."
In a single fluid motion, she reached back and drew the spear mounted on her back.
In that instant, Rem and several Rank Four Awakened launched toward her at full speed.
But to Arthania, everything was slow.
Essence surged and coiled around the tip of her spear as she sliced through the air above Elias in a flash, invoking her Principle.
A Principle that allowed her to wield Essence in a way unlike any other — burning it, converting it into pure energy. Power crafted for one purpose alone.
Destruction.
And it wasn’t limited to her own Essence.
The moment her spear passed above the old man, the Essence along the blade shifted — and burned. In the same instant, it scorched every thread it touched, and they vanished.
"Goodbye, old man," she murmured quietly, unexpectedly, as she walked past the body of Elias, who had just lost his life.
It was swift. Even Arthania herself was startled by how easily she had done it — without hesitation.
’Perhaps part of me had been ready for this since that day.’
She thought as she stepped toward Reem and the Awakened.
The world moved in slow motion around her, and before Elias’s body could even begin to fall —
Essence coiled again around the tip of Arthania’s spear, but unlike the first time, the amount was immense... immense beyond measure.
She looked into the faces of the crowd before her one last time before her spear moved, cutting through the air — no, cutting through the world itself.
The Essence on the spear ignited, forming a colossal arc of pure energy directed at the crowd.
But it didn’t strike them.
It passed above them and burned every single thread that bound them... even the ones she couldn’t see, she could still feel them.
For a moment, the world above the Awakened blazed as Arthania’s slash consumed hundreds of meters in every direction, erasing every thread above the crowd before continuing toward the city and fading into nothing.
Before her, hundreds of bodies began to crumple to the ground, one after another, drowning in the thunderous sound born from Arthania’s cut.
And reflected on the surface of her amber eyes — the haunting sight of hundreds of bodies withering, some faster than others.
She had thought she would hesitate.
That she might feel sorrow.
That she might lose control of herself and drown in her emotions.
Or even cry.
But all she felt in that moment was anger.
Pure anger.
"You think you can threaten me with words?" Her voice resonated across a vast range, as if the world itself carried it.
"Then you’re nothing but a fool... even after all these years, you still don’t understand how humans think."
Arthania laughed... a laugh tinged with a hint of madness.
"Hahaha... pitiful creature."
In the next instant, Essence flooded through her body in a frenzy, extending to her spear and igniting across its surface.
Had it not been for Arthania’s extraordinary control, the spear would have crumbled to dust in a single heartbeat.
She twisted her torso slightly, gripping the spear with monstrous force.
Her muscles coiled beneath her loose clothing.
Then in the next moment — she released everything.
Her spear swept upward, carving a wide arc toward the sky above the city.
In that instant, a thunderous tearing sound rang out as a colossal arc of pure white light blazed into existence, soaring above Asfaria and burning every thread in its path... thousands of threads that had bound her people for hundreds of years began to dissolve.
This was the power of someone at the peak of Rank Five... no.
This was the peak of Arthania.
Someone born between rivers of blood.
Someone standing one step from Rank Six.
Someone who could have reached Rank Seven — had she been given enough time.
Slowly, the massive arc faded above the city, and with it, thousands of souls were freed from this false stage.
In that moment, the world itself trembled as words echoed from every direction.
"Arthania."
"Arthania."
"Arthania."
Her name came from everywhere around her, while her amber eyes stared into the sky, a smile forming on her lips.
"What a vile creature you are."
The fabric of space above Asfaria shuddered and warped like an invisible curtain. A thin line stretched for several kilometers beneath the darkening sky that had begun to lose its stars — running the full length of the city.
In that moment, Arthania’s smile widened as the overwhelming presence of the hidden entity above Asfaria crashed down upon the entire labyrinth.
Every living creature within dozens of kilometers felt it.
Great birds burst from the cracks of the labyrinth, their cries filling the sky as they soared away from this place, abandoning their nests behind them.
Not just the birds — every monster within the labyrinth began to flee and hide.
With each passing moment, the labyrinth sank further beneath the crushing weight of this entity’s immense presence.
And several kilometers away, Caius and the others felt it too, the color draining from their faces.
’Damn it... damn it... damn everything.’ Caius thought.
"What in the hell is that?" Elliot ground his teeth as he kept running, while Izel instinctively tried to glance back.
"Don’t look." She snapped back to her senses at Caius’s shout.
She fixed her eyes forward, cold sweat forming across her body even as she sprinted at her absolute limit.
"Not this again," Ellen bit her lip, muttering under her breath.
"Just run forward — faster. Faster!" Caius shouted at everyone.
Behind them, above Asfaria, the fabric of space shifted and warped like an invisible curtain being pulled apart.
The thin black line expanded — as if someone were tearing the sky open like a false drape.
And there, the source of the ethereal threads was revealed. The thing that had orchestrated this false stage for hundreds of years.
The Ancient entity at the peak of Rank Six.
Overlord of Puppets.