Adams barely finished his sentence when the air grew heavy again, pressing down on everything like a massive weight. The gods, who had just started to relax, froze in place, their senses flaring with alarm.
The space where Oblivion had vanished suddenly twisted and pulsed, rippling with unnatural energy. Darkness poured back into existence, not as a slow trickle but a violent flood, swallowing the light Adams had unleashed.
The gods stared in disbelief as Oblivion reassembled itself, the nothingness it represented knitting back together faster than the eye could follow. The void swirled and condensed, shrinking rapidly until it was no longer a formless storm but something terrifyingly familiar—a humanoid figure.
The air around it stilled, unnaturally quiet, as if even sound feared to approach. The being floated there, its form pulsating faintly, as though struggling to contain the raw absence of existence within.
It stepped forward.
