The eyes opened.
And the world stopped.
Not metaphorically.
Not figuratively.
Actually stopped.
The charging army froze.
The titan froze.
The winds ceased.
The drifting clouds became motionless.
Even the black lightning gathering above halted in place.
As though existence itself had forgotten how to move.
Silence.
Absolute silence.
Deep within my soul, something stirred.
Something ancient.
Something vast.
Something that should not exist.
For a brief moment, I felt myself standing within an endless sea of darkness.
No stars.
No sky.
No ground.
Only darkness.
Then—
Two eyes opened.
Ancient.
Cold.
Indifferent.
The moment they appeared, my consciousness nearly shattered.
Not because they were hostile.
Not because they were powerful.
Because they were too much.
Like a mortal trying to comprehend the universe itself.
My instincts screamed.
My bloodline trembled.
Even my soul felt insignificant.
The eyes simply watched.
Nothing more.
Nothing less.
Then—
They blinked.
And the vision disappeared.
BOOM!!!!
Reality restarted.
The frozen world lurched back into motion.
The gathered black lightning exploded across the heavens.
The titan staggered backward.
Actually staggered.
Its enormous body took three steps back.
Three.
Steps.
Back.
The entire battlefield fell silent.
The countless shadow warriors stopped advancing.
Every single one of them stared.
Not at me.
At the space around me.
At the invisible presence they had sensed.
The same presence I barely understood.
Far above.
The floating marble platform trembled.
Azuryx's pupils contracted.
"What was that?"
His voice was barely above a whisper.
Nyxaroth did not answer.
For the first time in thousands of years—
The Elder God's face had gone pale.
His purple eyes were locked onto Velzahar.
Locked.
Unmoving.
As though afraid to blink.
As though he had just seen a ghost.
"No..."
The words escaped him involuntarily.
"That's impossible..."
The titan slowly lowered its sword.
Its enormous eyes remained fixed upon me.
Then—
For the first time.
Fear appeared.
Fear.
On a creature made from the shadow of an ancient God.
Fear.
On something that could not die.
Fear.
On something that had fought in wars long forgotten by history.
The titan knelt.
BOOM!!!!
Its knee struck the ground.
Mountains collapsed from the impact.
Then a second knee followed.
BOOM!!!!
The entire army froze.
Every shadow soldier.
Every dragon.
Every beast.
Every warrior.
All staring in disbelief.
The titan lowered its head.
And spoke.
"The Sovereign..."
Its voice shook.
"The Sovereign..."
The words echoed through the realm.
The shadows began trembling.
The black sky darkened further.
The Shadow Realm itself reacted.
Violently.
As though rejecting the statement.
As though refusing to acknowledge it.
Above.
Nyxaroth clenched his fists.
His breathing had become heavier.
Memories surfaced.
Memories he had spent millennia burying.
A white dragon.
A smiling face.
A city in flames.
Mountains of corpses.
Countless deaths.
The fall of clans.
The splitting of races.
The destruction of everything.
All because of one title.
One existence.
One bloodline.
The Pure Ones.
"No."
Nyxaroth muttered.
His voice carried an unusual amount of tension.
"No..."
His eyes narrowed.
"This is different."
The realization slowly dawned upon him.
The Pure Ones he knew were monsters.
Tyrants.
Calamities.
Walking disasters.
Yet the feeling coming from Velzahar was different.
Dangerous.
Far more dangerous.
Yet different.
As though he was incomplete.
As though something was sleeping.
Something not yet awakened.
Below.
I frowned.
The titan's reaction confused me.
The fear.
The hesitation.
The kneeling.
None of it made sense.
I had done nothing.
At least nothing intentionally.
Then—
The Shadow Realm screamed.
ROOOOOOOOAAAAAAARRRRRRRR!!!!!
The sound echoed from every direction.
From the sky.
From the mountains.
From the earth itself.
The entire realm roared.
Not in anger.
Not in fear.
In hatred.
Pure hatred.
Ancient hatred.
The hatred of countless generations.
The hatred of endless years.
The hatred of a wound that never healed.
Black lightning erupted throughout the heavens.
Thousands.
Then tens of thousands.
Then hundreds of thousands.
Bolts gathered into a single point.
A single target.
Me.
A warning exploded inside my mind.
DANGER!
DANGER!!
DANGER!!!
SYSTEM WARNING!
SHADOW REALM HOSTILITY HAS REACHED CRITICAL LEVEL!
REALM TRIBULATION INITIATED!
All color drained from my face.
"What?"
Far above.
Azuryx's eyes widened.
Nyxaroth cursed.
Actually cursed.
For the first time since arriving.
"That idiot realm!"
The Elder God vanished.
BOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!
The heavens split apart.
A pillar of black lightning descended.
Large enough to erase mountain ranges.
Fast enough to ignore distance.
Powerful enough to kill Gods.
And it was heading directly toward me.
The Shadow Realm had made its decision.
It did not care who I was.
It did not care why I was here.
It only cared about one thing.
Destroying me.
Before whatever slept inside me could awaken.
To Be Continued...