The hall was vast. Too vast.
A golden radiance bathed the walls, yet no source of light could be seen. The gold did not shine… it breathed, in slow, rhythmic waves, like a slumbering beast. Colossal bookshelves rose into the darkness of the vaulted ceiling, and yet, despite the countless volumes, an unnatural emptiness lingered.
A silence. Heavy. Almost physical.
At the center—
a throne.
Massive. Ancient.
It did not merely dominate the room.
It was waiting.
"Woah—"
Wang Lin's breath caught mid-sentence.
His eyes remained wide open, but the spark of excitement died instantly. His smile faded, overtaken by a survival instinct he had never needed before.
"…Grandfather?"
The old man did not respond.
His silhouette, usually so familiar, now felt foreign—cut against shifting shadows that slithered between the shelves. Motionless. Watchful.
"Why…" Wang Lin frowned, his voice losing its usual confidence. "Why have we never come here before?"
The silence that followed was disturbed only by the low hum of golden energy, a vibration that seemed to seep into their bones.
"Because it was dangerous," the old man finally said.
His voice was cold. Controlled.
"For you…"
A pause.
"…and for the world."
The air shifted.
Not wind. Not sound.
A contraction of reality itself.
The space around them tightened, sealing them inside the golden glow.
The old man's gaze slowly turned toward them.
It stopped on Wang Lin.
"Especially you."
Cold fell—sudden and absolute.
The golden light dulled into a lifeless bronze. Shadows stretched across the marble floor like grasping claws.
Instinctively, Wang Chen stepped forward.
His black-and-white eyes sharpened, his body tensing like a drawn bow.
"Grandfather…" His voice was low, strained. "Why would you say that?"
The patriarch did not answer immediately.
For a brief instant, something flickered in his pupils.
Not anger. Not fear.
Burden.
Ancient. Crushing.
He turned toward the empty throne.
Silence fed on what came next.
"You are fifteen today."
The words froze them in place.
This was not a reminder.
It was a verdict.
"You wanted to know," he continued, finally facing them again. "Today… I will break the seal. It is time."
He stepped forward, his silhouette cutting through the golden sea like a fracture in reality.
"But understand this…"
His voice dropped to a whisper.
"Once this story is told, everything will change. For you… and for me."
---
The old man closed his eyes.
At once, the golden light began to ripple, twisting like flame under an unseen current. Shadows along the marble walls came alive.
Visions emerged.
Ancient. Violent. Unstable.
"The sky…" his voice trembled, heavy with millennia. "It was fractured. Like a broken mirror."
A red hue seeped into the visions.
Thick. Viscous. Alive.
No light pierced the heavens anymore.
"And then… they came."
Silence collapsed over the room.
"Beings… whose mere breath was enough to wither the world."
He opened his eyes.
An abyss stared back.
"Your world did not fall by chance."
A pause.
"It was found."
His gaze fell upon the two brothers, pressing down on them like an unseen weight.
"Because of a prophecy."
The word thickened the air.
"Two existences…" His hand slowly rose, pointing first at Wang Chen, then at Wang Lin. "…that should never have coexisted."
A breath.
"One draws in the light."
Another.
"The other… devours it."
Something invisible shifted between them.
A fracture.
Irreversible.
"They were looking for you," the old man continued. "To bend you… or erase you. You were taken from that world for this reason alone."
No comfort. No explanation.
Only truth.
Cold. Precise.
"And now…"
His voice darkened further.
"They are about to find you again."
A thin crack split through the air.
Wang Chen stepped forward abruptly, fists clenched, knuckles whitening.
"All of this…" His voice trembled with restrained fury. "All that blood… for a prophecy?"
The air around him thickened with energy.
Before it could erupt—
Wang Lin grabbed his shoulder.
"Wait…"
"Wang Chen, I… I don't feel—"
His voice collapsed.
His eyes rolled back.
He fell.
"WANG LIN!"
Wang Chen's scream tore through the hall.
Fear. Raw. Primal.
Everything changed.
The atmosphere no longer pressed—it warned.
Something catastrophic was coming.
The old man did not move to help.
His form was already dissolving into blinding light, fading like a reflection on water.
"Do not resent me," he murmured, his voice distant, almost unreal. "The truth is a poison… and you have just swallowed your first drop."
He raised his staff.
Then struck the ground.
CLANG.
The world shattered.
Golden light devoured everything.