The battlefield was already ruined—cracks splitting the earth, the sky darkened by the lingering shockwaves of combat. The air carried the scent of charred stone and blood, but now… now it was different.
Now, the battlefield was suffocating.
The moment the Gate Guardian fully emerged, reality itself seemed to tremble in protest.
Its presence wasn't just oppressive—it was monumental.
The ground beneath it sank under the sheer weight of its existence. Space around its form twisted unnaturally, as if the world itself struggled to accommodate something that shouldn't be here. The behemoth stood over thirty meters tall, but its aura made it feel far, far greater.
This wasn't just another beast.
This was a calamity incarnate.
Its six arms moved with dreadful precision—two grasping void-cleavers that distorted space with each shift, another two carrying shields dense with ancient, unbreakable power, and the final pair crackling with formless energy, an abyssal force that disobeyed logic.
And then, there were the eyes.
Four eyes, golden-red, burning with something beyond hunger—intelligence.
But the fifth eye, the vertical one in the center of its forehead…
That one was different.
It didn't just see.
It pierced.
Like a blade through reality, it scanned the battlefield with an eerie slowness, its glow pulsing, sending waves of dread through every awakener present. Those who had barely managed to stand after the previous battle collapsed, their knees failing them, their bodies instinctively bowing as though the weight of existence itself had pressed upon them.
It wasn't just looking at them.
It was judging them.
The Veil Interface materialized beside Zhuo.
> [Veil Interface]: Master, this entity is far beyond Seraphine's capabilities! Its energy output alone suggests it is at least of the Ascendant Realm.
Zhuo barely acknowledged it.
Instead, he simply leaned back against the jagged boulder, tilting his head slightly as he took another sip of his soda. The fizz of carbonation was the only sound in the suffocating silence.
His expression remained unreadable.
A sigh left his lips, casual, almost bored.
"Yeah, I can see that."
> [Veil Interface]: Should I prepare countermeasures?
Another slow sip. His fingers tapped against the can, a dull metallic sound that somehow felt sharper than any weapon in this battlefield.
"Why bother?"
The moment those words left his mouth, something shifted.
A ripple in the air. A break in the static tension.
The Gate Guardian's massive head snapped to the side.
It turned.
Its five eyes locked onto something in the far distance—something out of place.
Something that shouldn't be there.
Zhuo.
For the first time, the battlefield was no longer the focal point of this creature's awareness. The fallen awakeners, the broken land, the lingering energy of battle—it all ceased to matter.
A cold, heavy silence fell.
A pressure unlike anything before weighed down upon the land. It wasn't an attack. It wasn't an ability.
It was just awareness.
And it had chosen to focus on him.
Zhuo's drink froze mid-air.
His gaze, previously indifferent, slowly lifted.
For the first time, his black eyes met the Guardian's.
It was a small thing. A simple thing. Just a glance.
And yet—
The world itself shuddered.
An invisible force rippled through the battlefield, as if something fundamental had just been disrupted. The sheer scale of the Guardian's presence was vast, suffocating, an immovable wall of power—but the moment it locked eyes with Zhuo, something deeper stirred.
Something infinitely vaster.
Zhuo did not look away.
He did not flinch.
He did not react with fear.
He simply observed.
For a moment, there was nothing.
No movement.
No sound.
Just the silent confrontation between something monstrous and something… far, far worse.
And then—
The Guardian turned away.
A slow chuckle escaped Zhuo's lips.
Not loud. Not forced. Just a quiet amusement that sent a ripple through reality itself.
His fingers tapped once against the can.
"Wow."
His smirk didn't reach his eyes. Those black depths still shimmered with something old, something unfathomable.
"Not bad."
For the briefest of moments—so fleeting that no one else would have noticed—his presence flickered.
It was nothing more than a whisper, a single heartbeat of something far beyond mortal comprehension, something that even the Veil itself struggled to perceive.
It was a moment where the world seemed to question itself—where reality wavered as though trying to understand what it had just sensed.
And then, as quickly as it came, it was gone.
His smirk faded, his gaze sharpening into something colder.
"At the end of the day…"
Zhuo tilted his head slightly, black eyes narrowing, reflecting something infinitely deeper than what should have existed in this world.
"…it's still just a glorified watchdog."
The Gate Guardian did not react.
It did not flinch.
It did not attack.
It did not even acknowledge him again.
Instead, it simply continued forward—focused on its intended purpose, as if Zhuo had never been there in the first place.
But was it truly ignoring him?
Or had it simply chosen not to acknowledge something it could not comprehend?
Was it dismissal.
Or was it fear.
Anyway,
the Gate Guardian turned its gaze away from Zhuo, it finally acknowledged the battlefield again.
And then, it roared.
A deep, guttural, earth-shaking sound tore through the air like a shockwave, not just heard, but felt—a force so raw and overwhelming that it disrupted reality itself.
The battlefield shattered beneath the weight of its voice.
The very air trembled as an invisible force expanded outward, an unstoppable tide of sheer dominance. The skies overhead, once ominous and dark, seemed to pulse in response—cracks of unnatural lightning flaring between the clouds as though the world itself was rejecting the Guardian's existence.
Those unfortunate enough to stand too close were blasted backward.
Elite awakeners, warriors who had survived countless battles, found themselves hurled through the air like ragdolls, their bodies spinning uncontrollably before they crashed into the fractured ground.
Some were sent dozens of meters away, colliding with shattered ruins or tumbling like lifeless husks, their weapons clattering uselessly beside them. Even the more experienced fighters, those who had braced themselves, found their feet skidding across the earth, boots carving trenches into the ground as they fought to remain standing.
And then there were the weaker ones—those whose bodies simply couldn't withstand the force.
They collapsed instantly, blood leaking from their ears, their minds overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the roar. Some clutched their heads, their eyes wide in shock and terror as their souls instinctively screamed in the presence of something they were never meant to witness.
Among them, Seraphine stood at the edge of the devastation.
Her body, already battered and exhausted, trembled as she dug her fingers into the ground, her breathing ragged.
The shockwave threatened to send her flying—her boots scraped against the stone, her legs barely holding against the sheer force of it. Her arms shook, veins bulging as she strained to remain anchored.
Her black hair, once pristine, whipped wildly around her face, strands cutting across her vision as the roaring force tried to rip her from the ground.
For a moment, she felt her grip slipping.
Her strength was failing.
But she refused to fall.
With a sharp grunt, she slammed her other hand down, forcing herself to stay rooted. Her body screamed in protest, her muscles burning, but she held on—barely.
The sheer pressure of the roar pressed down on her like a mountain, making her chest feel like it was caving in. She gritted her teeth, eyes narrowing as she fought to breathe, each inhalation feeling like she was being crushed under an invisible weight.
The world around her blurred, her vision darkening at the edges as her body fought to stay conscious.
And yet, despite everything—
She held her ground.
Even as blood trickled from the corner of her lips, even as her knees threatened to buckle—
She refused to kneel.
She had faced death before.
She wouldn't break now.
As the roar finally subsided, the battlefield was left in ruin.
Bodies littered the ground, some motionless, others groaning in pain. Dust and debris filled the air, the echoes of the monstrous bellow still ringing in the ears of those who remained standing.
And yet, through the haze, one truth remained clear—
The Gate Guardian had arrived.
And nothing would ever be the same again.