As soon as the terrifying voice finished its final words, silence once again swallowed the small palace located in the outer region of the strange city.
For several moments, nothing happened.
The ancient city remained immersed in its majestic stillness, while Immortal Energy continued to flow toward it from every part of the Upper Continent, as though the world itself were supplying it with the power it had been deprived of throughout countless ages.
Then...
The palace gate opened.
Very slowly.
A deep scraping sound came from the door, as though it had been produced by something that had not moved since an ancient age.
When the gate had fully opened, nothing could be seen behind it except absolute darkness.
It was an unnaturally dense darkness, concealing everything within the palace.
The corridors could not be seen.
Nor the walls.
Not even the floor of the palace.
It was as though the darkness within was not merely the absence of light, but a profound veil separating whatever lay inside from the outside world.
Then...
A step.
Its sound echoed throughout the palace.
A slow step.
Heavy.
Calm.
Then came another.
A step...
Then another.
A step...
The owner of those footsteps was slowly approaching the gate.
With every step, the sound echoed throughout the ancient palace, as though every part of the city were listening to the return of that existence after a long slumber.
There was no haste.
No tension.
Nor any attempt to conceal his presence.
Instead, there was a strange kind of tranquility—the tranquility of someone emerging from an extremely long slumber, someone who had found nothing in the world worth hurrying for.
The footsteps continued to approach.
Until they finally reached the edge of the gate.
Then...
They stopped.
For a brief moment, nothing appeared.
Then the owner of those footsteps took one step forward.
At that moment, his body emerged from the darkness, and sunlight fell upon him.
A middle-aged human man appeared.
His appearance was strangely ordinary.
His features were not exceptionally sharp, nor was his body excessively large or muscular.
No weapon.
No armor.
No adornment.
Nothing in his outward appearance could reveal how terrifying his existence truly was.
But none of that mattered.
Because the thing that made the air around him feel completely different was his aura.
A terrifying aura.
Vast.
Profound.
It emanated naturally from his body, without any sign that he was deliberately releasing it.
And yet, its mere presence was enough to make the surrounding space seem heavier than usual.
His aura was nothing like the auras of mortal cultivators.
There was a fundamental difference between it and everything the current world knew.
It was as though his body no longer belonged to the level of life inhabited by mortal humans.
As though his very existence had ascended to a higher layer of life.
The man stood before the palace for several moments.
Then he slightly raised his head.
He took a deep breath.
The air entered his lungs...
But he did not release it immediately.
He held it within him.
His eyes closed, as though he were savoring something he had longed for across a span of time that could not be measured.
He remained like that for several moments.
Then he slowly opened his eyes and exhaled the breath from his chest.
He spoke in a tone carrying a hint of pleasure and strange nostalgia:
“Ooooh... I haven’t breathed the air of the outside world in ages.”
He raised his gaze toward the sky.
His eyes held a strange calm, as though he were seeing the world for the first time after an extraordinarily long absence.
But his appearance was only the beginning.
As soon as the man stepped out of his palace, other auras began rising from the small palaces surrounding him.
One...
Then another...
Then several at once.
All of them were just as powerful as the aura surrounding the middle-aged man.
Terrifying life auras, profound and heavy, suddenly rose from within the palaces, as though something that had been sleeping inside them had begun to regain consciousness.
Then voices rang out from within those palaces.
As though they were speaking to the world again after a long absence.
One of them laughed and said:
“Hahahahaha! We have finally returned... I wonder, how many years has it been since we entered this slumber?”
Another voice answered, calmer and more cautious:
“I don’t know... but the return of Immortal Energy alone is enough to tell us that something momentous has happened.”
Then a third spoke, the casualness in his voice replaced by unmistakable solemnity:
“Since Immortal Energy has returned... this means that the Supreme Will has begun to awaken.”
The voices fell silent for several moments.
Then the palace doors began opening one after another.
One palace.
Then another.
Then a third.
As though the entire ancient city were beginning to breathe again after a slumber whose duration no one knew.
Humans of different ages and genders emerged from behind the doors.
Men and women.
Young and old.
Different faces, different bodies, different appearances.
Yet despite their differences, there was one thing that united them all.
Their auras.
Their auras belonged to an entirely different level of life from that of mortal cultivators.
Heavy and terrifying auras, carrying within them the nature of a higher form of life.
They were...
Immortals.
The Black Mountain
In a distant corner of the Upper Continent, a barren desert stretched all the way to the horizon.
Endless sand.
A vast sky.
And nothing but silence.
The wind passed gently over the dunes, slowly shifting the grains of sand, as though this part of the world had known no change for ages.
Then...
BOOM!
A powerful tremor struck the desert.
The earth shook for several seconds.
But at first, the tremor was enough to cause nothing more than a disturbance in the sand.
Then things began to change.
The sand itself began to ripple.
It no longer moved like sand.
Instead, it appeared like vast waters being disturbed from beneath.
Waves of sand rose.
The dunes collided with one another.
Then...
Something rose from the depths.
At first, only a small portion appeared.
Then it rose higher.
Then the size of that thing began to swell against the sky.
Sand slid away from it in every direction, while something enormous tore its way upward.
A mountain.
A colossal black mountain rose from the heart of the desert.
It was no ordinary mountain.
Its width stretched across hundreds of kilometers.
It continued rising at an astonishing speed, tearing through the sand before it, until it seemed as though the earth itself were giving birth to a stone giant that had remained buried since the beginning of the ages.
It rose...
Then rose even higher...
Until its peak reached the heights of the sky.
One thousand kilometers.
The mountain stood at the heart of the desert like a colossal black pillar stretching from the earth toward the heavens, appearing from afar as though it were a gigantic support holding up the sky itself and preventing it from falling.
Its mere appearance was enough to drown the surrounding region in silent awe.
As for its foothills...
They were filled with thousands of dark caves.
Enormous, deep caves spread throughout the mountain.
No one knew what was hidden within them.
But after the great mountain finally stopped rising, something else began to happen.
The Immortal Energy spread across hundreds of kilometers around the mountain began to move.
At first, it came in thin strands.
Then streams.
Then it transformed into visible currents that even mortal cultivators could see.
The Immortal Energy was mysteriously drawn toward the mountain and entered the caves scattered across its slopes.
Then it disappeared into their depths.
As though the thousands of caves were nothing more than enormous mouths devouring the Immortal Energy.
This continued without pause.
An hour...
Then several hours.
Then an entire day.
Then another.
The beings within the caves continued greedily absorbing the Immortal Energy without emerging.
Until an entire week had passed.
A week of ravenous absorption.
A week during which the Immortal Energy surrounding the mountain steadily diminished, while terrifying life auras began to emerge from within the caves.
One aura from a cave.
Then another.
Then dozens.
Then hundreds.
Then even more.
The Black Mountain, which had initially appeared lifeless, gradually became filled with auras of life.
Then...
ROOOOOAAAR!
A terrifying dragon roar erupted from one of the caves near the lower foothills of the mountain.
The roar was so immense that even the air itself trembled.
Then a massive figure emerged from the cave.
It soared into the sky.
It was a blue dragon.
Blue scales covered its enormous body, reflecting the sunlight, while its limbs were thick and muscular, carrying obvious strength despite being only a Human Immortal.
It powerfully beat its wings.
Whoosh!
The wind swept across the desert.
Then the dragon rose proudly into the sky, its enormous body stretching nearly three hundred meters in length.
It raised its beastly head.
It surveyed the world with its draconic eyes.
It remained silent for several moments.
As though inspecting the world from which it had been absent throughout its slumber.
Then it opened its enormous mouth, and a savage laugh filled the sky:
“Hahahahahahaha! Finally... that boring slumber is over! I have missed this world!”
Its voice was rough and violent, carrying the pride of a dragon in every syllable, as though it had not merely awakened from a long slumber, but had returned to reclaim its place in the world.
Only a few minutes later, other caves throughout the Black Mountain began responding.
A different light appeared from one of them.
Then another dragon emerged.
Then a third.
Soon, dragons of different colors began emerging from their caves one after another.
Blue dragons.
And others of different colors.
They soared excitedly through the sky, their enormous wings beating above the Black Mountain as their roars rose toward the heavens.
Another dragon spoke in a hoarse voice filled with savage excitement:
“HAAAAAA! How I have missed flying through the sky!”
Another answered with a roaring laugh:
“Show me first whether you can still keep up with me!”
Several dragons shot into the sky, their roars filling the desert.
The scene resembled the return of an ancient race to the world after an age beyond counting.
The Land of Giants
In another distant region of the Upper Continent, there were neither deserts nor black mountains.
It was a vast land surrounded by immense plains.
Nothing about it appeared particularly extraordinary.
Until something strange happened.
The wind stopped.
Then the sounds of nature vanished from the region for several moments.
As though something had imposed absolute silence upon the land.
Afterward, the earth itself began to change.
There was no violent tremor.
The ground did not split open.
Instead, enormous footprints began appearing across the surface of the earth.
One after another.
At first, they appeared without anyone being there.
A step.
Then another.
Each footprint was the size of a massive building.
Then...
A gigantic hand emerged from beneath the earth.
It rose slowly.
Then an enormous arm appeared.
And afterward, the body of a giant began rising from the depths of the earth.
He did not emerge through a gate.
Nor did he appear from within a palace.
Rather, it seemed as though the earth itself had hidden him in its depths, and when the time came, it returned him to the surface of the world.
The giant slowly rose.
He was unimaginably enormous, yet there was no disturbance in his expression.
He stood in silence.
Then raised his head toward the sky.
He breathed.
He said nothing.
He simply remained standing as his Immortal aura spread around him with unmistakable weight.
Then the earth around him began to respond.
More footprints appeared.
Then other giants emerged from the depths of the earth.
One after another.
Their silence was different from the dragons’ clamor.
Their return required neither roars nor laughter.
The weight of their bodies and their auras was enough.
After some time, one of the giants spoke in a deep, slow voice, as though the words themselves were heavy upon his tongue:
“The sky... seems smaller than I remember.”
Another giant looked down at the earth beneath his feet, then spoke calmly:
“It is not the sky that has changed.”
He raised his head.
“It is the world that has changed.”
Silence descended.
Then a third giant said:
“Immortal Energy has returned.”
There was no excitement in his voice.
Instead, it sounded like a heavy judgment spoken after recognizing an undeniable truth.
He added:
“Then... something has begun.”
No one answered.
But their auras rose even further.
And those auras alone were enough to prove that an ancient age had begun reclaiming its existence.
The Lands of the Dark Elves
Elsewhere on the Upper Continent, there was a dark region surrounded by dense forests.
Towering trees.
Interwoven branches.
And the light reaching the forest floor was weak, as though the place had grown accustomed to living in the shadows.
Deep within that forest was a still, black lake.
Its waters did not move.
No sounds came from it.
Then...
Small circles appeared on the surface of the water.
One circle.
Then another.
Then dozens of circles.
No stone had fallen into the water.
Nor was there any wind.
Yet the surface of the lake began moving on its own.
The circles expanded.
Then the water began to rise.
It rose very slowly from the center of the lake, as though an invisible force were lifting it toward the sky.
Within that column of water, the figure of a woman appeared.
She stepped calmly out of the water.
Then stopped above the surface of the lake.
She was a Dark Elf.
Young in appearance, with beautiful, cold features, yet her beauty was not what drew the most attention.
It was the ancient sensation surrounding her.
A terrifying life aura.
An aura belonging to a Human Immortal.
She stood upon the water without her feet sinking into it.
Then another woman appeared behind her.
Then another.
Soon, other figures began appearing from different parts of the forest.
Most of them were women.
Some emerged from within the trees.
Others from the shadows of rocks.
And still others appeared quietly from among the black mist covering parts of the forest.
Their emergence was not loud.
There were no roars or explosions.
Only a quiet, continuous appearance that made the forest seem as though it were reclaiming ancient inhabitants who had been hidden within its heart.
One of the Dark Elves looked toward the sky.
Her gaze was cold and unwavering.
She spoke in a soft voice that nevertheless carried a distinct chill:
“The energy of the world has changed.”
Another raised her eyes toward the space surrounding them and spoke thoughtfully:
“It is not merely Spiritual Energy...”
A brief silence followed.
Before a third woman spoke in an even quieter and more mysterious voice:
“It is Immortal Energy.”
The expressions of the Dark Elves changed.
There was none of the dragons’ excitement, nor the giants’ heaviness.
There was something more restrained.
Something resembling the instinctive caution of those accustomed to observing the darkness before stepping into it.
Another Dark Elf said:
“Then... the world has begun to return.”
A woman beside her answered without looking at her:
“Or perhaps...”
She paused for a moment.
Then raised her eyes toward the sky.
“...something else has begun returning with it.”
No one replied.
But their gazes became more serious.
The Lands of the Vampires
And in another region at the farthest reaches of the Upper Continent...
There was a gloomy land covered in cold mist.
There was no visible palace.
No mountain.
No cave.
Only a dark plain stretching beneath a still sky.
At the center of that plain, countless stone coffins were buried beneath the earth.
They were invisible to the eye.
But after the Immortal Energy spread through the region, the earth above them began to change.
Fine cracks appeared.
Then widened.
And slowly...
The coffins buried deep beneath the earth began rising to the surface.
One.
Then two.
Then dozens.
Then hundreds.
The coffins rose with almost no sound until they settled upon the earth in wide rows.
Then...
The first coffin opened.
Dense black mist poured from within.
It spread around the coffin.
After several moments, a pale-skinned man emerged.
His eyes were closed.
He stood before the coffin without moving.
Then he opened his eyes.
A crimson glow appeared in the darkness.
Another coffin opened after him.
Then a third.
Then dozens of coffins.
And each time, another vampire emerged.
Men and women.
Young and old.
All of them carried the same aura.
An aura of life higher than that of mortal cultivators.
One of them stopped for several moments, then took a deep breath.
The air was different.
The world was different.
Even the energy filling the sky was no longer the same.
He slightly raised his head and spoke in a low, cold voice:
“Immortal Energy has returned...”
A voice came from behind him, soft and chillingly calm:
“Rather... it has returned, and so have we.”
The man slowly turned around.
A female vampire had emerged from one of the coffins, her gaze directed toward the sky.
She spoke in a tone carrying a trace of quiet sarcasm:
“It seems the world we left behind did not wait for us.”
The man remained silent for several moments.
Then he said coldly:
“No.”
His gaze remained fixed upon the horizon.
“It simply is no longer the way we left it.”
A faint smile appeared on the woman’s lips.
But she said nothing.
The remaining coffins began opening one after another.
And each time, another Human Immortal emerged.
Until the land was filled with terrifying auras of life.
These scenes were only a part of the changes beginning to appear across the Upper Continent.
In different places, ancient eras were reclaiming their traces.
Palaces that had remained sealed for countless ages began opening their doors.
Mountains that had been buried beneath the sands returned to the surface.
Ancient caves released what had been hidden within them.
Lands that had concealed sleeping bodies returned them to the world.
And the common thread connecting all those scenes was a single thing.
The Immortals.
They were not gods.
Nor were they beings capable of shaking the world merely by appearing.
But they were Human Immortals.
Existences that had surpassed the boundaries of mortal humanity and elevated their lives to a higher level.
And after millions of years during which the path to immortality had been severed...
They began to return.
One after another.
Across different regions of the Upper Continent.
While most of the inhabitants of Ibiron still had no idea what was truly happening.
But one thing was clear.
The return of Immortal Energy was not merely a change in the nature of the world.
It had begun awakening existences that had chosen slumber throughout countless ages.
And as those existences opened their eyes upon a world that had changed completely, they carried a single question deep within their hearts:
What happened to Ibiron during their absence?
And deep within the world...
The answer remained hidden.
As for the ancient ages...
They had already begun to return.