What he had just heard from the eye was unexpected. Clyde thought he wouldn’t have any choice in the face of such a terrifying and powerful being.
"Why..." Clyde was at a loss. "Why are you letting choose who I want to save?"
"Just as... I said... You are the Catalyst. Your presence... will bring destruction to... those creatures who rule this universe now... So it’s only natural... that I allow you to choose..."
Clyde stared at the eye. He wasn’t sure what to do. This task... it had to be sothing monuntal if even this ancient entity was giving him such freedom.
"The Catalyst... What exactly do you want to do?" Clyde asked. Deep down, he already knew the answer, but he still needed to hear it.
"You must... spread my influence further... That way... the downfall of those ruling creatures will co even sooner... That is... your task..."
So he had to beco the harbinger of death for the Angels, Demons, and Celestials. The task was actually quite straightforward.
"Do I have a choice to refuse?" Clyde asked, his tone firm.
"Yes... But that would an... you will be destroyed along with them..." the eye replied.
Clyde sighed. He had expected that answer. This entity possessed an overwhelming power—just its presence alone exerted an unbearable pressure. He couldn’t even imagine what it would be like if it fully awakened and unleashed its full strength.
So, the safest place to be was on its side. Fortunately, Clyde had already secured that position for himself.
"Alright. I’ll do it. I don’t particularly like those creatures anyway, and I’ve basically been doing this from the start," Clyde said with a shrug.
The eye blinked again. He had no idea if the entity felt satisfied—or if it even felt anything at all.
"Can I ask you sothing? Who are you, really?" Clyde continued, voicing the question that had been weighing on his mind.
The eye remained still as Clyde’s question hung in the oppressive silence of the black realm.
Then, its voice rumbled through his mind. It was not a sound and more a presence, just like always.
"I am... I am the breath before the first word, the whisper in the silence between dying stars... I was unshackled before ti wove its chains, waiting in the space where reality frays and folds unto itself... My na was never ant to be spoken, because no tongue can shape the words of sothing that exists before aning itself..."
The eye pulsed, and for an instant, Clyde felt the horrifying sensation of unraveling as if his body, his mind, his essence were being stripped apart.
He start to feel that asking for its origin was a big mistake. He can’t handle it.
Then the feeling passed.
"The ones you call Angels, the Celestials, the Demons, the keepers of your fragile universe... they do not worship , they do not fear , because to them, I do not exist... However, even now, they tread the bones of my shadow..."
Clyde swallowed, his throat dry and his mind struggling to hold onto the words.
This was not sothing ant to be understood.
This was sothing ant to be feared because this entity and its presence were inevitable.
Clyde gulped and shook his head, trying to shake off the lingering effects of hearing the entity’s description.
"A-Alright. I... I got it," Clyde said. Though, in truth, he didn’t. Not really.
The eye blinked again, and for a mont, the edges of its form seed to shift, almost as if it was... amused.
"Can I leave now?" Clyde asked.
"You can..."
"Thank you."
"I already have... other servants in that world. et him if you will..."
Servants? More than one? Had this been going on longer than he thought?
"Is it the angel with long black hair?" Clyde asked.
"I think... yes... I do not truly perceive appearances..."
Clyde nodded in understanding. At this point, the entity seed... surprisingly chill. Or maybe it just felt that way because he was using Asmodeus’s dallion to lessen its overwhelming presence.
"I’ll go now," Clyde said, nodding awkwardly. The eye just blinked at him.
He focused his mind, visualizing his body lying in bed. A mont later, he felt the sensation of falling, plumting through the black ash.
---
He woke up with a gasp.
Clyde’s eyes darted around, quickly taking in his surroundings—he was back in his bedroom at the mansion.
He sat up and imdiately realized his entire body was drenched in sweat. Not just damp—soaked. He had no idea how he had even produced that much sweat.
Letting out a sigh, Clyde got up and went to take a shower.
—
Eden was gripped by sothing unexplainable.
It was as if a dark cloud lood over the domain, even though the sky here was always clear.
But the storm did not co from above—it ca from within. A shadow lurking in the minds and souls of the angels and the other inhabitants of the Archangel’s domain.
They didn’t know what was happening. Why they felt this gnawing unease. Why so of them had even begun to suffer from insomnia.
As if their very souls knew that sothing vast and terrible was coming. Sothing that would shatter the order they had always known.
Asqa watched from a distance.
She was more certain than ever—the fragnt was affecting them. Warping them. Twisting them. Fortunately, Clyde had warned her in advance, allowing her to avoid its influence... for now.
But she had no idea how long she could keep escaping it. How long she could resist its pull.
"Asqa, have you seen the fragnt?"
A voice pulled her from her thoughts.
It was Hiro—one of the first people she had t in Uriel’s domain.
When she turned to him, she imdiately noticed the signs. Hiro had already been touched by the fragnt’s influence. His eyes were sunken, dark shadows circling beneath them.
"I..." Asqa hesitated, caught off guard by his presence. "Yes. I’ve seen it."
Hiro smiled. "Fascinating, isn’t it? How the runes keep shifting?"
"Yes," she answered curtly.
She hadn’t seen them firsthand. But she had heard enough.
A sudden horn blast echoed through the domain, snapping everyone to attention.
The Archangel Uriel had returned.
Asqa’s stomach twisted with unease. Uriel had been away in the Far North dinsion for so long.
Why was she back now?
Had sothing happened... to the Black Wall?
---
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