The shard pulsed again in my hand, its deep purple glow brightening the room just a little too much. My fingers tightened around it, but it was less an act of control and more of a reflex.
Whatever this thing was, I wasn't sure I understood it.
I could feel its energy buzzing through , its power seeping into my bones, and I still wasn't sure whether it was helping or making everything worse.
I had just unlocked the mory from the fifth fragnt. Thɪs chapter is updated by novel※fire
It had hit like a freight train.
One mont, I was standing in the throne room, still reeling from the aftermath of the previous fragnts.
The next, I was pulled into it. Pulled into the mory itself, like being dragged under the surface of so vast ocean, my senses overwheld by the sudden weight of it.
The landscape was desolate, an endless stretch of cracked earth. There were no trees, no grass, no signs of life at all.
It was barren. Dead.
And yet, despite the lack of anything living, there was an overwhelming feeling of weight, of ti itself pressing down on . The air felt dry, arid. Every breath tasted like dust.
I wasn't alone.
Of course, I wasn't alone.
The figure was there. The sa mysterious figure from the first fragnt, the one I'd seen in the strange, dreamlike mories before.
But this ti, it was different.
He was standing just a few feet away from , his back to as he stared out over the empty plains.
I didn't understand how, but it was like he knew I was there.
He didn't even look surprised.
"You're here again," he said, his voice low, rough, as though he hadn't spoken in years.
There was sothing almost familiar about it, but at the sa ti, it felt like I was hearing it for the first ti. "Why do you keep waking up?"
I wanted to say sothing. I had questions, so many questions.
But for so reason, I couldn't get the words out. The mories, the feelings, everything was just too much to process.
Instead, I found myself moving closer to him, as if the pull of his words and presence was stronger than my will to stay back.
"You don't need to wake ," he continued, still facing away from . "I don't want to wake up. I don't deserve it. I've done too many wrongs, and there's no way to undo them."
I felt a strange weight settle over , a sadness, a regret that wasn't mine but still made my heart ache. He spoke like soone who had carried the world on their shoulders for too long, like soone who had seen the destruction they'd caused and was now too tired to even try to fix it.
I opened my mouth, but again, no sound ca out.
His voice softened, his shoulders slumping. "You don't even know who I am, do you?"
I didn't respond. I wanted to. I wanted to ask who he was, what all of this ant. But before I could get the words out, he finally turned toward .
And that's when it hit .
His face was... blurred. Like it was blocked by sothing, like there was sothing in my mind preventing from seeing it clearly.
I could make out the shape of his features, the silhouette of a man who had once been strong, perhaps regal, but now... now it was as if soone had taken a brush and smudged the details until they were nothing more than a haze.
I reached forward instinctively, wanting to clear the blur, but my hand passed right through him, like he wasn't really there.
"Please," the figure said, his voice barely a whisper. "Protect this realm. Don't wake up. Don't... don't let return."
And just as quickly as the mory had begun, it faded. The plains, the man, everything dissolved into a blur of light, and I was back in the throne room. My hand was still clutched around the fragnt, my pulse racing.
I blinked, trying to clear the haze in my head, the weight of the strange interaction still pressing down on . My legs buckled beneath , and I collapsed to the cold, stone floor.
I gasped for air, still disoriented by the vision. But I wasn't alone.
I looked beside and found Hades sprawled face down on the floor. I swallowed hard, my stomach twisting. He wasn't moving. Not even a twitch.
"Hades?" I rasped, my voice weak. I crawled over to him, desperately checking for any sign of life. His body was unnervingly cold. Panic surged through , but then I felt it—a faint pulse beneath his skin, a soft rise and fall of his chest. He was breathing, just barely.
I let out a breath I didn't realize I'd been holding, relieved for a mont, but that relief was short-lived.
The sound of heavy footsteps echoed through the room, breaking my montary calm.
My head whipped around, and I saw it: the doors to the throne room burst open, and a dozen warrior gods stord in, weapons drawn.
They moved with precision, surrounding in a matter of seconds.
Their eyes locked onto , and every spear tip pointed straight at my chest. I froze, my heart thundering in my ears.
"You!" a deep voice barked.
The warrior who spoke had a scar running down his face, a rough-hewn, intimidating figure. "What have you done to him?"
I stamred, raising my hands in the air. "I didn't kill him! I swear! It wasn't !"
The warriors didn't lower their weapons.
If anything, they looked more tense, more on edge. One of them spoke up, his voice barely above a growl.
"Explain yourself, mortal. You were found beside Lord Hades, unconscious. What did you do?"
"I didn't do anything! I swear!" I repeated, my voice getting more desperate. "This... this purple fragnt, it did sothing to him. I'm not the one you're looking for!"
The warriors exchanged uncertain looks, but they didn't seem convinced. One stepped forward, still keeping his spear trained on . "You're lying. How did you get that fragnt?"
I glanced down at the shard in my hand, still glowing faintly. I didn't know what to do, but I had to make them see that I wasn't the enemy here. I raised the fragnt, holding it out in front of , hoping that sohow, it would calm the situation.
"This is the fragnt! It's not . It's this thing—" I started to explain, but before I could finish, sothing strange happened.
The warriors recoiled, taking a collective step back, eyes wide with fear. It wasn't just suspicion now. It was genuine terror. Their hands tightened on their spears, but they no longer advanced.
"What... What's going on?" I muttered, blinking in confusion.
I waved the shard again, trying to get a better sense of what was happening.
When I did, the warriors took another step back, their faces pale with fear. It was like they were terrified of the fragnt itself.
"What is this?" I asked, looking from the warriors to the glowing shard in my hand.
I tried to test it again, holding the fragnt up in my hand and waving it slowly in the air. The mont it caught their gaze, the warriors all jumped back, a few even stumbling over their feet as if trying to distance themselves from the glowing object.
"What the hell?" I muttered under my breath, thoroughly confused.
Was it the fragnt that was scaring them?
The scarred warrior hissed through clenched teeth, his eyes locked onto the shard in my hand. "You... you possess it?" His voice was a mix of awe and terror.
"Possess... it?" I echoed, raising an eyebrow. "What do you an? It's just a piece of—"
The scarred warrior stepped back and hissed, "You... You have the shard. The shard of the Ancient One."
"The what?" I asked, completely baffled. This was new. I had no idea what they were talking about. "What the hell are you talking about?"
But before I could get an answer, the ground beneath us trembled. A deep, guttural rumble filled the room. The floor shook violently, the stone under my feet cracking with the force of it.
"Earthquake?" soone shouted, but it didn't feel like an earthquake.
Another rumble. Louder this ti.
The warriors braced themselves, their spears pointing outward, but no one seed to know what was causing the shaking.
I looked down at the fragnt in my hand, which now seed to hum with a strange energy.
"It's the shard," I whispered under my breath, the realization dawning on . "It's connected to this—"
Before I could finish, sothing massive crashed into the throne room doors. The ground shook again, this ti with such force that I nearly lost my balance.
The doors splintered and shattered, and sothing dark and hulking appeared in the doorway.
I couldn't see it clearly at first, but then it stepped forward, its massive form blocking out the light from the corridor. It was a creature, huge and terrifying, covered in dark, rocky armor. Its red eyes glowed ominously in the dim light of the throne room.
And then, in a voice that rumbled through the room like thunder, it spoke.
"You woke ."
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