CHAPTER 90
Rain whispered against the paper windows gentle, persistent, unbroken. A soft tapping, like fingertips drumming lightly on the edge of memory. The scent of old cedar and burning incense hung in the air, mingling with the faint touch of cold carried from the outside. Takeda's countryside home was modest, wooden, and still holding a silence that felt less like peace and more like the quiet that lingers before a storm.
Lanternlight filled the room in warm, golden tones, but the warmth failed to reach the people gathered inside. It flickered against tense faces, rigid shoulders, eyes that watched without blinking.
Dracan sat cross-legged near the low wooden table. Even in a humanoid form, he could never hide what he was. His very presence carried weight ancient, heavy, enormous. He had once been a ruler, not just of land, but of a world. The last king of a dying realm. His pale hair flowed like white silken strands of moonlight, and his amber eyes..faintly glowing, patient and sorrowful felt like they had seen every ending there was.
Across from him stood Renji.
Not postured as a warrior. Not braced for confrontation. Just standing ..quiet, steady, though a stillness deeper than calm clung to him. A boy who carried something that no boy should carry. That no human should ever carry.
Hiroto shifted beside him, the silence unbearable. He opened his mouth.
"Ren—"
Renji lifted his hand.
Not abrupt. Not sharp.
Just final.
"I'll say it myself."
His voice was level. Controlled. But everyone in that room felt it the edges of something vast behind his tone. Something that had been buried under flesh and bone for years, pressed down, swallowed, hidden.
Everyone's attention turned to him, and in that moment, the world felt smaller.
Renji's gaze rose to meet Dracan's. Not defiant. Not afraid. Just… steady. Like someone who had accepted the pain long before speaking it aloud.
"Dracan," he said quietly. "I am the vessel of Jánuza."
The room did not erupt.
It collapsed inward.
The silence that followed was suffocating thick enough to press against the chest, to make breathing feel like trespassing.
Dracan's eyes widened not in shock, but in recognition. He had heard that name spoken with reverence and terror. He had seen what it meant to stand in the path of a god's will.
"What… did you just say?" Dracan's voice was low, trembling beneath its attempt at composure.
Renji did not move. He did not look away.
"It's exactly what it sounds like."
Dracan rose not like a man standing, but like a mountain shifting its weight. The tatami mats creaked. The air tightened. Shadows flickered unnaturally. His presence surged heavy, overwhelming, ancient power pressing like the memory of a thousand storms.
"No," Dracan said, voice hard. "Impossible. A mortal cannot withstand the essence of a god. Their soul would collapse. Their body would disintegrate. No human could "
"But he did." Takeda said.
Quiet. Calm. Certain.
Dracan's head snapped toward him. Takeda's expression was grim no hesitation, no uncertainty. His old warrior hands rested on his knees, fingers curled just slightly.
"I was there," Takeda continued. "A year ago.. During the tang shi incident ....When Renji awakened… I saw something inside him. Something not his own. I saw him rip a hunter apart with his gaze alone. The air shook. The land trembled. I have not felt power like that since the Golden Age of Hunters."
Choji swallowed hard, stepping forward.
"And I saw something else. He...he used to wake up screaming. He saw things in his dreams. Dead bodies. Battles. Places that don't exist anymore. Memories that weren't his."
Renji closed his eyes.
Yes.
The dreams.
The battlefield of a world that was no longer here.
Screams echoing into stars.
Blood on ash.
The laughter of something divine.
He remembered it all.
Dracan stared at Renji again no longer with disbelief.
But with fear.
Not fear of him.
Fear for the world if the seal ever broke.
Renji inhaled slowly, voice soft.
"I know it sounds impossible. I didn't believe it either. I was born without magic. Nothing. No aura. No mana. No resonance. Everyone thought I was defective. Even I did."
His fists tightened almost imperceptibly, but Lily saw it. She always saw.
"But two years ago… everything changed. And I learned the truth. He chose me long before I was born. Before any of us were born. Maybe… since the First War."
Hiroto took a step forward.
"The First War…? You mean the war after the battle with the gods when the world nearly ended?"
Renji nodded.
"He told me… he could see a thousand years into the future."
The room went still.
Not quiet.
Still.
Dracan's breath caught.
Impossible.
Unthinkable.
Unmatched.
"A thousand years… into the future?" Dracan whispered.
"Yes." Renji said. "He planned everything. Since the beginning of time."
Hiroto's voice cracked.
"Renji… what do you mean he told you?"
Renji didn't answer.
Because the answer itself was too large.
Lily reached out her hand small against his sleeve fingers trembling.
He looked at her. Just a slight glance. And his expression softened, barely but enough.
Enough to tell her he was still here. Still Renji. Still her brother.
Dracan exhaled a heavy, weary sound of a creature remembering something ancient and terrible.
"So it's true…" he murmured. "He really has the eye."
Renji's brow tensed.
"…The eye?"
Takeda's eyes narrowed.
"What do you mean the eye, Dracan?"
The dragon lowered his gaze. His voice deepened into a tone that felt like memory carved in stone.
"The Eye of Alcaraz. The second most powerful ocular ability in existence."
The words fell heavy.
Choji swallowed, voice tiny.
"That sounds… ridiculous. Like a myth."
President Nakamura closed his eyes.
"No. I've seen remnants in ancient records. Written in languages older than human civilization. Something that could see fate itself."
Dracan nodded.
It's called the all seeing eye
"The Eye of Alcaraz sees all possible outcomes. Every branching future. Every timeline. Every dimensions Even layers of realities stacked on top of one another."
Hiroto's voice was barely a whisper.
"Like… the eye sees everything that could ever happen?"
Dracan nodded.
"Yes it can see thousands of years into the future That is why some call it the Eye of Eternity."
The rain outside hammered harder wind rising like the outside world recoiled from the truth.
Renji felt the weight of it settle. Something cold and ancient uncoiling deep within him. Not awakening but remembering.
Every future.
Every possibility.
No freedom.
No unpredictability.
No choice.
Just… inevitability.
Hiroto's voice trembled.
"Does that mean Renji will… become like him?"
Renji's hands trembled.
Just once.
Just briefly.
He said nothing.
Dracan answered.
"…I don't know."
Five words that felt heavier than destiny.
"But if you truly are his vessel… and you awaken his full ability… then yes. You will inherit the Eye."
Dracan lifted one finger.
"But the eye has six patterns. Six stages. Each one breaks the rules of dynamics."
Renji's breath tightened.
Six.
And he hadn't even touched the first.
Dracan continued.
Each god has one pattern
"Only Jánuza ever awakened all six. That is why he could battle the Gods of Creation."
Takeda spoke, reverently.
"So the legends… were real well I wouldn't be surprised anymore since renji is technically a living legend."
Dracan nodded.
"Yes. Jánuza truly fought the gods. And the world trembled."
But there is one who rivals januza in strength.!
Lily stared at Renji not in fear.
But in heartbreak.
Choji's voice rose.
"Wait—wait—are you saying there's someone as strong as him?!"
Dracan's voice was quiet.
"Strength does not matter. Only balance. And yes. There was one."
Everyone held still.
Everyone listened.
"When my world fell… when I battled a low-tier god for 35 years to prevent the collapse of reality… that god spoke one name."
Renji's heart beat once, hard.
The lantern flames flickered.
The air vibrated.
Something unseen stirred.
Dracan closed his eyes.
"He is called…"
The wind screamed outside.
As though the world itself remembered.
"The God of Corruption and Nothingness."
He's the only one to awaken 5 patterns of the eye.
The room froze.
Not by magic.
By dread.
Renji felt something shift inside him something asleep turning in its sleep a whisper of something infinite brushing against the walls of his soul.
No one spoke.
No one could.
Because they all understood
This was only the beginning.