What had happened deep within the human palace...
was not something that could remain confined within the boundaries of the Sacred Land.
The moment that ancient voice reverberated throughout the palace...
something else happened.
Something that was not felt by humans alone.
In distant places across Gandalia...
and in remote corners separated by distances beyond the imagination of ordinary beings...
things that had slept for ages began to stir.
Ancient beings.
Terrifying beings.
Existences whose names had vanished from the records of history, to the point that some races no longer even believed they had ever existed.
Those beings had entered seclusion thousands of years ago.
Some had sat upon forgotten thrones.
Some had hidden deep within mountains.
Some had slept beneath the earth.
And some had chosen places that even the mightiest experts could never reach.
But in that instant...
countless eyes opened.
One after another.
As though a voice that could not be heard by human ears...
had swept across the entire world.
As though that ancient voice had not merely been a voice.
But rather...
a call from the past.
On a continent far from Zeta...
there stretched a vast and desolate land shrouded in darkness.
A continent so deeply covered in shadows that it seemed as though the sun itself had forgotten it since the dawn of the world.
Dark clouds hung perpetually across the sky, never seeming to disperse.
Black forests and bottomless valleys covered the land, while ancient castles and cities rose here and there, bearing the remnants of civilizations that had existed thousands of years ago.
The darkness here was different.
It was not merely the absence of light.
It was something that seemed almost alive.
Something that made those who set foot upon this land feel as though unseen eyes were watching them from the depths of the shadows.
And upon this continent...
lived one of the supreme races of Gandalia.
The Vampires.
From a distance, they resembled humans.
But their skin was unnaturally pale, as though blood had abandoned their bodies from the moment they were born.
Their fangs were long and razor-sharp.
Their eyes were crimson red.
And their bodies...
possessed a strange stillness unlike that of humans.
Some among them were capable of living for centuries...
even thousands of years.
They were an ancient race beyond measure.
So ancient that no one knew when they had first appeared.
Even the oldest records preserved in Gandalia had failed to determine their origin.
No one knew...
whether they had existed before some of the other races emerged...
or whether they had appeared in an age that history itself had forgotten.
Deep within the continent...
there stood a colossal city.
A city so dark and gloomy that its atmosphere was almost impossible to describe.
Its buildings stretched across vast expanses of land, while towering stone structures pierced the heavens.
Its streets were narrow and elongated, and its architecture resembled that of the ancient medieval era.
Black domes.
Pointed towers.
Tall windows.
And enormous castles surrounded by towering walls.
As though an entire city had been torn from an ancient age...
and buried within the darkness.
At the heart of the city...
stood a gigantic palace.
It was black, adorned with dark crimson lines and intricate red patterns.
Its walls seemed as though they had absorbed the blood of countless beings throughout the ages.
Ancient symbols whose meanings had long since been forgotten were engraved upon its enormous gates.
The palace was silent.
Terrifyingly silent.
No voices.
No guards.
No movement.
And yet...
not a single ordinary vampire dared approach it.
Because they all knew that within this palace...
there existed a being who could not be provoked.
Deep within the palace...
there was a magnificent hall.
A vast chamber whose enormous pillars stretched toward a lofty ceiling that disappeared into darkness.
Red flames burned along the walls.
Yet their light did not dispel the darkness.
Instead...
it made the hall appear even more terrifying.
At the very end of the hall...
stood a throne.
A massive throne made of skulls.
Human skulls.
Beast skulls.
And perhaps even the skulls of creatures that no longer existed in this era.
They were piled upon one another in such a way that the throne seemed to have been forged from death itself.
Its color was a deep crimson...
like blood that had dried thousands of years ago.
And upon that throne...
sat a man.
A man whose beauty was difficult to describe.
His hair was pure white, long and silky, cascading over his shoulders.
His eyes were closed.
Yet behind those eyelids...
there was something that made the entire hall feel dangerous.
His body was lean and muscular, perfectly proportioned.
But his aura...
was different.
Ancient.
Vast.
Heavy.
An aura that made the very air around him seem denser.
As though his mere existence was pressing down upon the laws of the world.
It was not merely the aura of a powerful individual.
It was the aura of a being who had lived for an unfathomably long time...
so long that even time itself seemed to have left its mark upon his existence.
The man was in a state of deep cultivation.
He did not move.
He did not speak.
Even his breathing was almost nonexistent.
The entire palace was silent alongside him.
Then...
something happened.
The man's eyes suddenly opened.
Wide.
The movement was so abrupt that it seemed as though something terrifying had pierced through the depths of his secluded state.
A trace of astonishment appeared within his crimson eyes.
He stared ahead.
Then into the empty space.
As though he were trying to see something that his eyes could not perceive.
Several moments passed.
Then his low voice emerged:
"What is this feeling?"
Silence.
His brows furrowed slightly.
"I feel as though something has changed in the world."
He slowly raised one hand.
He attempted to sense the changes surrounding him.
He tried to analyze the source of that strange sensation.
He searched the heavens.
The earth.
The energy surrounding him.
But no matter how hard he tried...
he could find no answer.
He remained silent for some time.
Then his eyes slowly closed again.
And he returned to his seclusion.
As though nothing had happened.
Yet before his eyes closed completely...
a strange feeling surfaced deep within him.
A feeling he could not explain.
A feeling that he had...
heard something he had been waiting for since a distant age.
Elsewhere in the world...
there existed an entirely different continent.
A continent covered by vast rainforests.
Its trees soared to astonishing heights, some appearing as though they were holding the heavens upon their branches.
The trunks were enormous.
The foliage was dense.
And the variety of vegetation was breathtaking.
Strange flowers.
Glowing herbs.
Colossal vines.
And twisted branches stretching across vast distances.
Nature here was overflowing with life.
Yet deep within those forests...
there was something else.
A kingdom.
A kingdom hidden from most of the world.
Its homes were built upon enormous trees.
Some were carved within their trunks.
Others rested upon their branches.
And some were connected by wooden and living bridges stretching from tree to tree.
Within this kingdom lived beings resembling humans.
Graceful bodies.
Beautiful features.
Calm movements.
And long ears.
The Elves.
One of the supreme races of Gandalia.
Their beauty was renowned throughout the world.
But beauty was not the only thing that distinguished them.
This ancient race possessed a history that stretched back into primordial ages.
At the center of the kingdom...
stood a group of colossal trees.
They were far larger than all the surrounding trees.
Their trunks rose toward the heavens, while their branches and roots intertwined in a breathtaking manner.
And as the ages passed...
those very trees became part of a magnificent palace.
A living palace.
A palace not built by human hands.
But created by nature itself.
Its walls were made of white and golden wood, adorned with flowers that never withered, while luminous vines descended from its ceiling.
At the center of the palace...
there was a vast hall.
Around a long table sat a group of female elves.
They were beautiful, elegant, and imposing.
But they were not merely beautiful.
Each of them possessed an aura of her own.
An aura that made it clear they were far from ordinary elves.
At the head of the table...
stood a throne made of plants and flowers.
And upon it sat a woman.
A woman of extraordinary beauty.
Her pale white skin seemed as though it had been sculpted from moonlight.
Her golden hair cascaded around her body like a waterfall of gold.
As for her bright green eyes...
they resembled the deepest forests in the height of their flourishing season.
Her full figure possessed alluring curves, enormous breasts, and wide hips.
The woman was discussing an important matter with the women around her.
Her words were calm.
Yet her tone carried an authority that compelled everyone to listen attentively.
Then...
she stopped.
In the middle of a sentence.
She did not move.
The expression on her face gradually changed.
The calmness vanished from her eyes.
And astonishment replaced it.
She slowly raised her head.
As though a mysterious sensation had swept through her very soul.
It was not something she could see.
Nor was it something she could hear.
Yet it was there.
An ancient feeling.
A feeling that made her heart beat for the first time in an extraordinarily long time.
She whispered:
"This feeling..."
Silence filled the hall.
The women stared at her in confusion.
Then she spoke in an even quieter voice:
"Could it be him?"
She stopped.
She did not continue.
The women around her began asking questions.
Who?
What did you feel?
What happened?
But the woman did not answer.
She remained silent.
Her gaze fixed upon a distant place.
Toward a direction where she could not see what lay there.
As though something...
had returned to this world.
These incidents were not limited to the Vampires and the Elves.
In other places across Gandalia...
ancient eyes were opening.
In the Beast Continent...
the Beast Emperor opened his eyes after a long period of seclusion.
The moment his eyes opened...
some of the beasts nearby trembled without knowing why.
As for him...
he said nothing.
He merely stared toward the sky.
As though trying to remember a feeling that time had buried.
In the Continent of Angels...
ancient beings ceased their meditation.
Their eyes opened.
And they stared silently at the sky.
Some were confused.
Others were uneasy.
But in the eyes of some...
there appeared a trace of something impossible to explain.
As though they understood the meaning behind that feeling.
In the lands of the Demons...
several ancient existences ended their seclusion.
Terrifying auras erupted from places that had remained sealed for thousands of years.
Some demons did not understand what was happening.
But they all felt that something had changed.
Something unrelated to battle.
Unrelated to energy.
Unrelated to any natural disaster.
Something...
far older than any of those things.
And within the lands of the Werewolves...
other ancient eyes opened.
One.
Then another.
Then another.
Beings who had spent thousands of years in seclusion began sensing a mysterious change.
No one knew the reason.
No one knew the source of the feeling.
But they all felt the same thing.
Something had changed.
Something ancient...
something that should have remained buried in the past...
had returned to the world.
But upon the human continent...
things were different.
The voice that had thundered from the depths of the palace within the Sacred Land did not remain a secret for long.
The news spread with astonishing speed.
An ancient voice.
A terrifying voice.
It had emerged from the depths of a place that most humans had never even dared to approach.
What made the matter even more mysterious...
was that no one knew where the voice had come from.
But when the details of that voice reached the four rulers of humanity...
something unexpected happened.
There was no fear upon their faces.
Instead...
there was something else.
Excitement.
An excitement they tried to conceal...
but failed.
There was something within that voice...
something that stirred their hearts in a way they had not experienced for years.
The War King...
Thorin.
The Great Sage...
Valor.
The Saintess...
Morgana.
And the White Lady...
Eleanor.
Four of the most prestigious figures in the human race.
Four rulers standing at the pinnacle of humanity's current authority.
When they heard the words spoken by the owner of that voice...
"I have returned."
Silence descended between them.
None of them asked:
Who is he?
None of them said:
What happened?
And not one of them showed the slightest hesitation.
Instead...
the four exchanged a brief glance.
A glance carrying a meaning that no one but them could understand.
Then...
they moved.
The four rulers left their respective locations at the very same moment.
And they rushed toward the Sacred Land at their fastest speed.
There was something strange in their eyes.
Something resembling anticipation.
And something resembling longing.
As though they were chasing an ancient memory whose name none of them dared to speak aloud.
None of them questioned the identity of the voice's owner.
None of them hesitated.
As though...
they knew exactly who was waiting for them there.
And deep within the ancient palace...
the man remained seated upon his throne.
Still.
Calm.
His black eyes staring into the void.
Outside...
the ancient forces of Gandalia had begun to stir.
Eyes had opened.
Seclusions had ended.
Auras forgotten for thousands of years had begun to emerge once more.
Yet no one knew the truth.
Was that voice merely an announcement of the return of a single person?
Or was it...
the beginning of something far greater?
Somewhere in Gandalia...
perhaps there was someone who had been waiting for this day for five thousand years.
And perhaps...
there were those who feared its arrival more than anything else.
But the world...
did not yet know that a single voice from the depths of an ancient human palace...
had been enough to awaken the Echoes of the Ages.