The gate did not simply open.
It detonated outward in a storm of pale gold light and black pressure so immense that the entire underground capital bent around it.
Shockwaves tore through the station.
Broken rails ripped free from the ground.
Support pillars shattered.
The Watcher's descending arms froze mid-motion.
For one impossible second—
everything stopped.
Then Null stepped out.
Silence followed him.
Not forced silence.
Not fear.
Authority.
The black blade rested loosely in his right hand while layers of controlled Old Prime energy revolved around his body like orbiting rings. His left eye no longer flickered uncontrollably.
The spiral had stabilized.
Perfectly.
Hyung stared.
D U slowly lowered himself from the wall he'd been smashed into.
"…Okay," he muttered weakly. "That's new."
Even Eris looked unsettled now.
Null's presence had changed completely.
Before, his power felt unfinished.
Now—
it felt aligned.
Not stronger in a chaotic way.
Sharper.
Cleaner.
Dangerous.
The Watcher reacted first.
Its colossal eye narrowed instantly.
"H E I R C O N F I R M E D."
Thousands of black arms twisted violently around its body as if responding to a threat.
Aizeno remained still beneath the falling debris.
But his eyes never left Null.
The smallest smile appeared on his face.
"So the gate accepted you."
Null looked at him calmly.
"No," he replied.
"It trusted me."
The underground city trembled again.
Adrax descended lower through the shattered ceiling, shadows spreading across entire sections of the ruins.
"The resonance has stabilized," Adrax observed.
Luxion looked directly at Null now, no longer amused.
"…His pressure changed."
Caelum nodded grimly.
"He completed the first inheritance phase."
Hyung stepped beside Null carefully.
"You alright?"
Null answered without looking away from Aizeno.
"No."
But his voice was steady.
"For the first time, I just understand what's happening."
D U laughed painfully.
"That somehow sounds worse."
Then suddenly—
The Watcher moved.
Its black mass expanded violently outward as hundreds of arms descended toward Null simultaneously.
The station disappeared beneath darkness.
Hyung reacted instantly.
D U warped upward.
Eris phased into motion.
But Null raised one hand.
That was all.
Old Prime authority spread outward.
The descending arms stopped.
Frozen.
Not restrained by force—
commanded.
The entire battlefield went still.
Even Aizeno's eyes sharpened.
Null slowly closed his fist.
Every black arm collapsed inward simultaneously, compressed into nothingness by invisible pressure.
The Watcher recoiled violently.
For the first time—
it screamed.
D U stared openly now.
"…Yeah. That's definitely the King's son."
The Watcher's eye widened again.
"U N A C C E P T A B L E."
Its body split apart.
More eyes opened beneath the darkness.
Then more.
Dozens.
Hundreds.
An entire mass of observing entities hidden beneath the original form.
Caelum's face went pale.
"…There's more than one."
Aizeno finally stepped forward again.
"Of course there is," he said calmly. "The Watchers were never individuals."
Null looked toward him.
"You knew."
Aizeno nodded once.
"I knew the gate would wake them."
Hyung's anger flared instantly.
"You planned this?"
"I accelerated it."
The station shook harder.
Reality around the underground capital began collapsing inward as the awakened Watchers spread across the ceiling like a living sky.
Luxion looked upward.
"The barriers are failing."
Adrax's shadows expanded protectively around Aizeno's side of the battlefield.
But Null noticed something important.
The Watchers weren't focused on everyone.
They were focused on him.
The King's inheritance had marked him as a threat.
A correction target.
Null understood immediately.
"If I stay here," he said quietly, "they'll destroy everything around me first."
Hyung looked at him sharply.
"What are you thinking?"
Null's grip tightened around the black blade.
The weapon resonated softly.
Then—
a memory surfaced inside his mind.
His father's voice.
Power is not measured by what you can destroy.It is measured by what you can keep standing.
Null inhaled slowly.
Then he stepped forward.
Toward the Watchers.
Toward Aizeno.
Toward the collapsing battlefield itself.
D U immediately frowned.
"…Kid."
Null looked back briefly.
"You said inheritance doesn't ask permission."
D U sighed.
"Yeah."
Null's eyes sharpened.
"Then I'll decide what to inherit."
Old Prime Stage Four erupted outward fully for the first time.
The underground capital cracked from end to end.
The Watchers screamed.
Adrax descended lower.
Luxion raised radiant constructs instantly.
Aizeno smiled faintly.
And Null pointed the black blade directly at the sky full of eyes.
"Come down," he said.
The war truly began