Chapter 16
"When the thrones went silent, not all gods were dead… some simply ran out of reasons to rule."
—The Forgotten Sage
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A void darker than oblivion pulsed in the distance. No stars. No light. Only whispers. This was the Throneless Realm a place untouched by divine law, forgotten by time, and feared even by gods.
Here, titans once roamed, creatures whose names even the high pantheon dared not utter. Realms collapsed when they breathed. Worlds were born when they perished.
A voice echoed from nowhere, yet everywhere.
> "This is where he trained. Where even the most ancient fled."
The sage sat cross-legged beneath a dead tree growing upside down its roots in the sky, bleeding cosmic ink. His eyes, glazed with age, didn't blink as he whispered more.
> "Zereth Kaine… that name is not feared because he kills gods.
It's feared because even the things that gods feared… feared him."
---
Meanwhile, in the outskirts of a ruined world…
Zereth Kaine stood motionless on a shattered plateau where no sun rose. His body barely glowed, but the space around him bent unnaturally as if the universe flinched. His aura leaked in soft pulses, corrupting the ground, making it breathe like flesh.
His hands were behind his back. Eyes half closed. Yet, millions of aura threads spun silently around him, devouring dead star fragments, titan bones, godblood-stained stone, and even invisible dimensional fractures.
> "You're still feeding?"
A deep, crusty voice came from behind.
The sage approached with slow, careful steps.
Zereth didn't answer. He inhaled. The entire mountain range wilted.
> "The world can no longer contain you, boy," the sage muttered, almost amused.
"Every breath you take turns existence thinner."
Zereth finally spoke, his voice calm but firm.
> "Then existence should have grown stronger."
---
In a place beyond reach...
Within a hidden domain only accessible through paradox, a table of gods sat. Some headless. Some faceless. One was simply a cloak made of endless wings.
> "He grows again."
"He draws power from the forsaken."
"We sealed the Throneless Realm. How did he breach it?"
"We forgot… he was born there."
A single god stood. Its shape constantly rewrote itself—a reality glitch in motion.
> "Then we must awaken the Sleepers. Summon The One Who Ended Time."
"You would risk the Spiral for this?"
"If we don't, he will consume the Spiral next."
---
Back at the aura field...
The sage's narration returned as the camera-like vision panned upward into the void sky.
> "He doesn't need to conquer realms…
He becomes them.
He doesn't destroy laws…
He breaks the need for them."
---
Zereth opened his palm. The aura spiraled in, forming a black lotus that ate light. It pulsed once and space screamed.
> "They will come for me again…" he whispered.
"…but this time, I won't ignore them."
He took a step forward, and a crack spread across the sky.
Not thunder. Not lightning. Just Zereth's aura scratching the heavens.
---
In a distant prison where even names were stripped, a being slowly opened its eye for the first time in 900,000 cycles.
It exhaled. One realm ceased to exist.
A whisper followed:
> "Zereth Kaine… the cosmos still remembers me."