The battlefield was thick with tension. The air itself seemed to bend under the crushing weight of the Gate Guardian's final attack. Heatwaves distorted the landscape, and the space around them crackled as the monster drew in more and more energy, preparing to unleash devastation beyond measure.
Every awakener present could feel their bodies breaking down under the sheer intensity of it. Their flesh burned, their bones ached, their very souls trembled as if caught in the pull of an invisible abyss.
And yet, it wasn't the Guardian itself that made them feel this way.
At the very front, Seraphine stood, gripping her weapon tightly. Her hands were shaking—not from fear, but from the sheer uncertainty of what was coming. She was nervous, yes, but she wasn't scared. At least, not yet.
If push came to shove, she had a trump card.
Though… deep down, she had no idea if it would be enough.
The Gate Guardian's attack reached its peak.
A singularity of annihilation formed within its maw, spiraling with chaotic destruction, a force that could reduce entire cities to dust. The moment of release was mere seconds away—
Then, the earth trembled.
No, it didn't just tremble. It convulsed.
The air rippled unnaturally, as though the fabric of reality itself was being stretched to its breaking point.
And then, as if the very concept of energy had been erased—
The Gate Guardian's attack disappeared.
Not a detonation. Not a backlash. Not a failed ignition.
Nothing.
The catastrophic energy it had amassed for minutes simply ceased to exist, erased from the universe in a way that defied all logic.
The awakeners' eyes widened.
The Gate Guardian—the fearsome, monstrous entity that had slaughtered thousands—staggered back, its form trembling. Its glowing eyes, which had always burned with the arrogance of a predator, were now wide with horror.
For the first time, it felt fear.
Seraphine's breath hitched.
"What… just happened?"
Zhuo, who had been reclining lazily behind a rock, removed his hand from his forehead and sighed. His once indifferent gaze turned sharp, serious.
"Haa… as I feared."
Then the gate shattered.
Not like glass breaking. Not like stone crumbling.
It was being undone.
The colossal structure—a rift between worlds, a bridge between dimensions—simply ceased to be. It unraveled, as though it had never existed in the first place.
Beyond it, where once there was only swirling void, the air itself distorted.
And then—something huge slipped through.
A hand.
A monstrosity.
No, calling it a "hand" was an insult to the very nature of existence.
It was something that should not be.
Even as it emerged, it did not settle into a singular form. Its shape twisted—constantly shifting, constantly mutating—as though reality itself was struggling to comprehend what it was seeing.
It was massive, larger than the Gate Guardian itself. Its fingers—if they could be called that—were elongated, jagged, and each one was wrapped in tendrils of black abyss, pulsing with something that defied mortal comprehension.
The skin—if it was skin—was an ever-shifting void, a fusion of flesh, shadow, and abyssal matter. It was neither liquid nor solid, but something in between, something that bent the rules of existence.
Jagged protrusions jutted out from its surface, moving as though they were alive, shifting like the tendrils of some eldritch parasite. And through the countless fissures that ran along its form, an unnatural light pulsed—a terrible, abyssal radiance that seemed to drain the very color from the world.
And then—
A sound.
Not a growl. Not a roar.
Something far worse.
It was a noise that did not belong in this reality. A warped, layered cacophony of voices that screamed in languages never heard before—voices of things that had no concept of life or death, voices of things that existed before existence itself.
The awakeners fell to their knees.
Their bodies trembled involuntarily, their souls recoiling.
Seraphine's breath came out in ragged gasps.
It wasn't just fear. It was something primal. Something beyond mere emotion.
The body feared death.
The mind feared the unknown.
But the soul… feared this.
Above them, the sky darkened.
Not like nightfall. Not like a storm.
It was as if the very concept of light was being drained from the world.
Zhuo sighed once more, but this time, there was no humor in it. His relaxed demeanor was gone. With a single motion, he dismissed his drink and sofa, his expression growing cold, unreadable.
Because what had just stepped into this world was not a monster.
It was not a mere creature.
It was something beyond comprehension.
An Outer Being.
A force that should not exist.
A presence that defied reality itself.
And it was only just beginning to emerge.