His world turned upside down as his senses slowly returned.
"It's him, isn't it?"
"It has to be him!"
"We've waited so long!"
When Father regained consciousness,
he wasn't alone.
A strange boy hovered excitedly around him ..
"It's really him!"
The boy looked about ten years old,
drowning inside a shirt far too big for him,
a hood pulled low over his golden-blonde hair,
bright blue eyes sparkling with life.
He shouted happily when he saw Abraham:
"It's him! Right, sis?"
He turned excitedly toward another figure.
That's when Father noticed her ..
a woman with dark skin and jet-black hair,
her muscular build the very definition of a warrior.
With a deep frown, she muttered:
"Is this really the one we've waited all this time for?"
"Of course it is!"
"Calm down, you're scaring him!"
More figures appeared...
A man with long black hair and black eyes,
carrying a massive spear strapped to his back.
An Old man, hobbling along with a cane, barely able to keep himself upright.
They all surrounded Father,
staring at him intently.
Their eyes held everything ..
longing, respect, obsession, admiration, and awe.
Father was confused.
And truthfully... so was I.
No matter how hard I searched my memory ..
I couldn't recognize a single one of them.
At that moment, I heard Father's voice once more.
"That day, when they surrounded me... I wasn't scared by them."
" But I was terrified by the fact that I couldn't sense a single thing from any of them."
After reaching SS rank, Father had developed an acute instinct ..
an ability to instantly gauge the strength of others, even those stronger than himself like Amygdala.
But now?
Nothing.
He couldn't read these people at all.
"Who are you? And how did I end up here?"
The moment he spoke, they all backed away, giving him space.
"See? You scared him!"
"It's not my fault! He probably freaked out because of your black skin, sis!"
"What did you just say?!"
Father shivered as the woman delivered a devastating punch to the boy,
unleashing a shockwave so powerful it shattered everything within its reach.
And yet ..
The boy stood there, completely unharmed.
"That's enough, Evankhell. You're the one scaring him."
"Even you!"
Those strange people began bickering amongst themselves.
They looked like nothing more than a bunch of lunatics .. madmen loitering inside the Shadow Sect, surrounded by the Nightmare Lands.
Both Father and I…
we felt the same void while watching them.
And as their argument escalated, a voice came from behind ..
a voice that made everyone fall silent,
a voice that froze me in place and darkened my face.
Everyone turned at once .. as he appeared.
The man shrouded in black,
his glassy blue eyes glowing ominously,
just like before.
The only difference I noticed was...
he now had two arms instead of one.
That bastard...
"Step away from him,"
the Engineer ordered, his voice cold and absolute.
"He's not the one you've been waiting for."
The atmosphere shifted instantly.
Those who had seemed like a bunch of reckless fools just moments ago ..
their entire presence changed in an instant, becoming something... monstrous.
They didn't unleash any visible aura,
but the void itself seemed to tremble around them as they glared at the Engineer with seething anger.
"What the hell are you saying?! He's not the one we've waited for?!"
Evankhell clenched her fist, stepping forward, pointing furiously at the Engineer.
"Didn't you say the time had come?! The one we've been waiting for all these years! If this isn't him, then why gather us here?! Damn you!"
Their rage boiled over.
"I told you never to trust him! He's not even human..."
Despite the surging tension, the Engineer remained perfectly calm, as if none of it could touch him.
In a simple, detached tone, he spoke again:
"This man is the key to his arrival."
He pointed at Abraham Starlight, continuing coldly:
"He is... necessary."
I could see the confusion written on all their faces.
Meanwhile, Father instinctively leapt back, widening the distance between them.
He didn't attempt to run ..
somewhere deep down, he already understood escape was impossible against them.
"Who the hell are you people?!"
he demanded.
"What were you mumbling about earlier? 'The key?' 'The one you've been waiting for?' What kind of bullshit is this?!"
Everyone stared at Abraham.
And the one who answered ..
was none other than the Engineer himself.
"You don't need to know that right now."
he said.
"Abraham Starlight, you want to find them, don't you? Your family. That's why you kept completing every task until now."
Father's expression stiffened as realization began to dawn on him.
"You... you're the one behind the system, aren't you?"
In response, the Engineer simply opened a screen in the air.
Written boldly across it were the words Father had been longing to see ever since entering the Nightmare Lands:
> Final Mission: Reach the End of the Eastern Nightmare Lands (Completed)
He had completed the task.
And now it was time to claim his reward.
"You fulfilled your mission perfectly,"
the Engineer said.
"Now, claim your prize."
In addition to an enormous amount of experience points,
the Engineer gestured toward the woman.
"Evankhell, give it to him."
Evankhell hesitated for a moment before sighing heavily.
With a flare of aura between her hands, something materialized .
A black, cursed sword ..
a katana radiating an overwhelming, ominous power.
"Take it."
With clear reluctance, Evankhell tossed the sword toward Abraham Starlight, who instinctively caught it midair.
The moment he touched the scabbard,
Father felt it ..
the overwhelming power contained within that blade.
Even I stared at it in awe, recognizing its distinctive features immediately.
It was one of the Seven Legendary Swords ...
The Dark Sister.
"You have no idea how much I suffered to reclaim that sword from that bastard Avalon,"
Evankhell grumbled.
"And now you want me to hand it over to some random guy?"
She glared, while the boy floating beside her chuckled.
"Not like you ever needed it anyway. You're an archer, not a swordswoman."
Father ignored their bickering for a moment,
focusing instead on the sword in his hands ..
then looking straight at the Engineer.
"You... what exactly are you? What's your connection to me? What do you want from me?"
Everything was a mystery to Abraham.
But surprisingly, the Engineer responded plainly.
"I am nothing more than an ancient will ... one that has lingered far too long, waiting for a certain event to come to pass."
"And what I want from you..."
he said coldly,
"is for you to finish your mission... to prepare the perfect vessel for his arrival. Nothing more."
"Vessel? Vessel for what?"
"..."
The Engineer did not respond.
Meanwhile, the others .. those strange beings who shared his kind, beings like him.. stared at him in complete silence.
Father wanted the truth.
The truth behind everything that was happening, and what it had to do with him and the story his son once told him.
Gripping the Dark Sister tightly, Father's eight-star aura ignited ..
the full might of the Stardust technique surging within him.
He prepared to strike.
"You're going to tell me the truth..."
he growled,
"even if I have to smash that strange face of yours to pieces."
Father had had enough.
Enough of the riddles,
enough of the confusion that kept piling up around him.
So he decided .. if the truth wouldn't come to him, he would tear it out by force.
Harnessing the terrifying power of the Dark Sister,
his aura exploded violently as he lunged toward the Engineer,
releasing a monstrous amount of power that shook the entire space around them.
The others present could not hide their surprise at his level.
"That man..."
"No aura pathways..."
What Father had achieved ..
mastering the legendary sword so seamlessly on his first attempt ...was astounding even for them.
With a devastating strike, Abraham aimed straight at the Engineer, intending to kill.
But just before his blade could reach ..
it stopped, as if time itself had frozen.
"You are still unworthy to fight at this level."
The Engineer's hand ignited with cold blue flames as he moved.
Too fast ..
Father didn't even see him coming.
With a single touch to his chest,
Father felt a burning surge of power rip through him, and his consciousness began to fade.
"You wish to meet him, don't you? Your son."
The Engineer's voice echoed faintly in his mind, just before darkness claimed him.
"Then continue what you started, Abraham Starlight… until the appointed day comes."
Father collapsed unconscious at the Engineer's feet.
The Engineer, unfazed, turned his attention back to the others gathered around him.
"I summoned you all today to discuss the next phase... to complete the preparations."
Everyone listened intently, still shaken after what they'd just witnessed.
"The day we've all been waiting for is near,"
the Engineer said,
"and there can be no mistakes. I will not allow another failure like Cheon ma."
No one dared to speak.
Especially after hearing the Engineer mention that name ..
Cheon ma.
The Engineer ..usually so mechanical, so void of emotion ..
had, for once, let a flicker of feeling slip into his words.
Longing.
Anticipation.
A hunger for a moment he could no longer delay.
That day ..
the preparations were completed.
For what was coming next.
...
...
...
A.N : There will be 3-4 more chapters released today for the castle gift we received yesterday. Thank you all for your support!"