Sami did not sleep that night.
Although his body was so exhausted that every muscle screamed in agony, sleep remained distant, as if it, too, were afraid to approach him.
He sat alone in front of the window of his dormitory room at the academy.
Outside the glass…
The city of Novarith glittered under a sky draped in silver moonlight, while the crystalline towers reflected streaks of light like giant mirrors, making the city look as if it were floating above a sea of stars.
But inside the room…
There was only silence.
A heavy silence…
Strange…
The very same silence that preceded the appearance of the Eclipse in the Grand Resonance Plaza.
Sami lowered his head, then looked at his right palm.
He opened it slowly.
Closed it.
Then opened it again.
It was the same hand…
But it no longer felt like his own.
Every time he remembered that moment…
The moment he tore through reality to draw the sword…
He felt as though something was looking at him from the other side of that rift.
Something…
That he shouldn’t have seen.
He sighed slowly.
“What is happening to me…?”
No one answered.
But as soon as he closed his eyes…
The sound of the wind vanished.
The moonlight vanished.
And his room vanished.
…
…
…
When he opened his eyes again…
He was not standing inside the academy.
Instead, he was above a smooth, black, reflective ground that stretched into infinity.
No sky.
No stars.
No sun.
Only…
A void.
A void that did not resemble nothingness.
Rather, it resembled a place born before light was created.
The air was still.
Even time…
Seemed to have stopped in reverence for that place.
Sami slowly raised his head.
And in the distant horizon…
Something resembling a mountain appeared.
But it was not a mountain.
It was…
A throne.
A massive throne, larger than palaces, carved from black stone that did not reflect light.
Giant rusted chains crawled up its sides, while thousands of cracks stretched across it, as if time itself had tried to shatter it and failed.
Sitting on one of its steps was a figure swinging their legs in the air.
A familiar laugh cut through the silence.
“The lazy Prince finally wakes up.”
Lyra smiled broadly, biting into a red apple.
“I was betting with Valdrak that you’d stay asleep for a whole week.”
Sami sighed.
“Am I… sleeping right now?”
“Sort of.”
A deep voice came from behind him.
He turned.
Valdrak stood there, like a mountain of shadows.
His black armor looked as if it were forged from the remnants of a dead night, and the sword plunged into the ground was longer than two men, while his crimson eyes were fixed on Sami without a blink.
Near him stood Elysion, holding a thick book bound in white leather, over which ancient imperial symbols danced.
As for Seraphine, she looked at the throne in silence, as if she were waiting for something that wouldn’t come.
Sami stepped forward.
“I thought we were going to continue the sword training.”
Silence reigned.
Then…
Lyra burst into laughter until she almost fell off the throne.
“Did you hear that?”
She pointed at him, wiping away tears of laughter.
“He thinks real training is the sword!”
Even Elysion closed his book, a small smile on his face.
As for Valdrak…
The corner of his mouth rose for the first time.
He smiled.
A very small smile.
But it was enough to make Sami feel that something impossible had happened.
Valdrak said in a calm voice:
“The sword…”
“Is nothing but a tool.”
Then, he plunged his sword into the ground.
The entire void shook.
Black cracks emerged, stretching across the horizon.
But they weren’t cracks…
They were lines through which the world was being rewritten.
Valdrak raised his eyes.
“You learned how to hold the sword.”
“And you learned how to use the Decay.”
“And you awakened the Will of Kings.”
He paused.
“But…”
“You are still incapable of using the greatest power any Emperor possesses.”
Sami frowned.
“The greatest power?”
Elysion closed his book and said quietly:
“The Domain.”
Silence reigned.
Sami looked at them one by one.
“…Domain?”
Then he asked with genuine confusion:
“Wait…”
“Do I… have a Domain?”
Silence lasted for a second.
Then…
All four burst into laughter.
Even Valdrak.
For the first time…
He laughed.
A short laugh, but it carried a hint of irony.
Lyra sat on the floor, holding her stomach.
“I swear, I forgot!”
“The Emperor doesn’t even know he has a Domain!”
Seraphine sighed, shaking her head with a gentle smile.
“Every living creature…”
“Possesses a Domain.”
Sami raised his eyebrows.
“Even the students?”
She nodded.
“Even the child born a minute ago.”
“Even the weakest creature.”
“And even the first human who was ever created.”
Elysion stepped forward.
“But humanity…”
“Forgot.”
“After the two holy wars, the knowledge vanished.”
“Everyone started believing that Aura is the peak of power.”
“Even though it is nothing but a faint shadow.”
Sami asked:
“If it exists within everyone…”
“Why does no one use it?”
Valdrak looked directly into his eyes.
And his voice this time was like a judgment passed upon the world.
“Because they learned how to live inside the world…”
He raised his hand. Visit g.com for the full chapter.
The black sky above them fractured.
And from inside the rift…
Mountains began to be born.
Then rivers.
Then forests.
Then cities.
Then castles.
Then an endless sea.
Everything was being created before Sami’s eyes…
From nothingness.
Valdrak lowered his hand.
And everything vanished.
Then he said slowly:
“A true Emperor…”
Silence reigned.
“Does not fight inside the world.”
His crimson eyes rose.
“A true Emperor…”
The entire void vibrated.
“Is the one who creates the world…”
And in the next moment…
White light exploded on the horizon.
“…And forces his enemies to fight inside it.”
Valdrak’s final words continued to echo in the void.
“A true Emperor… does not fight inside the world.”
“A true Emperor… is the one who creates the world… and forces his enemies to fight inside it.”
Silence reigned.
It was not an ordinary silence.
It was the kind of silence that precedes the birth of something that should not exist.
Sami stood motionless.
His mind tried to grasp what he had heard, but the words seemed too large for a human memory to contain.
Create…
A world?
How could a human create a world?
He felt as though the logic he had lived by all his life had begun to crack before him.
He looked at the Four Knights.
None of them were joking.
Even Lyra…
Who was accustomed to turning the most terrifying moments into a joke…
Was looking at him this time in silence.
Seraphine stepped forward with quiet steps.
Her long white dress flowed over the black ground without making a sound, as if the void itself was clearing a path for her.
She stopped in front of Sami.
She smiled a small smile.
It held no sarcasm…
No pity…
But longing.
A longing that spanned thousands of years.
She raised her right hand slowly.
Her fingers were as pale as moonlight.
She approached Sami’s forehead.
And before she touched it…
She whispered.
“Do not try to imagine.”
Sami closed his eyes.
“For imagination…”
She touched his forehead with her finger.
“…Is too weak to see the truth.”
…
…
…
There was no explosion.
No light appeared.
And the ground did not shake.
Rather…
Everything disappeared.
Even the void.
Even time.
Even the sensation of his body’s existence.
Sami felt as though he were falling.
But…
It was not a fall downward.
It was inward.
The more he fell…
He began to hear distant sounds.
At first…
They were just whispers.
Then they became music.
An ancient melody…
Sweet…
And indescribably sad.
It was not human playing.
It was like a prayer the sky had been reciting since the beginning of creation.
Then…
He opened his eyes.
And his breath stopped.
…
…
…
Before his feet…
A garden stretched out.
But the word “garden” was an insult to that place.
It was a world.
A paradise…
Built by someone who knew the meaning of beauty…
Then learned the meaning of loss.
The plains stretched to the horizon, covered in pure white grass that shimmered as if every blade had been woven from the light of dawn.
And when the wind touched it…
It did not bend.
Rather, it emitted faint musical echoes, until it seemed as if the earth itself was playing music.
Sami raised his head.
And saw the trees.
They were towering trees, unlike any kind he had ever known.
Their trunks were white as marble.
As for their branches…
They were black, curling toward the sky as if they were the arms of broken angels.
And their leaves…
Were not green.
They were crimson.
The color of the final sunset.
Every leaf glowed with a faint light, then fell slowly…
But it never reached the ground.
Rather, it turned into a small red feather.
Then into points of light.
Then it vanished.
Sami whispered.
“…Beautiful.”
Seraphine smiled.
“Wait.”
And in the next moment…
He began to hear the trickle of water.
He turned.
And he saw rivers stretching between the trees.
But they were not rivers of water.
They were rivers of light.
A transparent, golden liquid flowing quietly, inside which small stars floated, as if the sky had melted and become a river.
And on the banks of those rivers…
Flowers grew.
Black flowers.
Their petals absorbed light instead of reflecting it.
But the heart of every flower…
Pulsed with a warm red color.
As if they held a living heart.
Sami approached them.
He reached out his hand.
And before he touched it…
Seraphine said quietly:
“No.”
He looked at her.
She said, staring at the flower:
“Every flower here…”
“…is a name.”
He frowned.
“A name?”
She nodded.
“The name of a person.”
“A person who sacrificed themselves…”
“…so that this world would continue to exist.”
Sami stepped back slowly.
He looked at the horizon.
The flowers stretched endlessly.
Tens?
No. Hundreds?
No. Millions.
He could see no end to them.
He felt something choking him.
“All of these…”
Seraphine whispered:
“All of them.”
Silence reigned.
Then he continued walking.
And with every step…
He felt something strange.
The earth…
Recognized him.
The breeze…
Recognized him.
Even the trees…
Leaned slightly when he passed by them.
Not because of the wind.
But…
As if they were bowing.
He felt a chill.
“Why…”
“…do I feel like I’ve been here before?”
Seraphine did not answer.
She only smiled.
And continued walking.
After minutes…
The fog began to lift.
And then…
He saw it.
…
…
…
The palace.
Sami’s heart stopped for a moment.
It was very far away.
And yet…
It filled the sky.
It was not a palace…
But a celestial city built upon a god’s dream.
Countless steps rose toward the sky, and each step was carved from pure white stone interwoven with black veins, as if the night were coursing through it.
Towering pillars embraced the clouds.
Crystalline domes reflected a sun that did not exist.
Balconies hung over the void.
And giant windows radiated a calm golden light.
But what caught his attention most…
Was not the palace.
But…
What was behind it.
Six massive wings.
Wings of crimson light.
Each wing was larger than a mountain range.
They were not attached to a body.
But to the palace itself.
As if the palace…
Was the angel.
Whenever those wings moved slowly…
The whole sky shook.
And thousands of red feathers fell from their edges.
But they were not feathers.
They were fragments of memories.
Every feather that fell…
Gave birth to a flower.
Every flower…
Gave birth to a tree.
Every tree…
Gave birth to a life.
Sami stood speechless.
His eyes were trembling.
And something inside his heart…
Began to ache.
A pain…
That had no explanation.
A warm tear slid down his cheek.
He raised his hand quickly.
He looked at it.
“…I…”
“…Why am I crying?”
For the first time…
Seraphine approached him more closely.
Then she said in a faint voice, as if she were afraid the place itself might hear her:
“Because this is not just a Domain.”
She looked at the palace.
Then she completed:
“It is your home.”
Sami’s eyes widened.
“My home…?”
She shook her head slowly.
“No.”
“But…”
“The home of the soul you carry.”
He looked again at the palace.
And in that moment…
A great bell rang.
One single sound.
But it made the entire garden respond.
The trees bowed.
The rivers lit up.
The flowers bloomed at the exact same moment.
And the sky…
Split slowly.
Then…
The giant doors of the palace began to open.
Quietly.
As if…
They had been waiting for him for thousands of years.
A deep voice echoed throughout the garden.
A voice that belonged to no man…
Nor woman…
Nor any creature creation had ever known.
“Welcome back…”
A long silence reigned.
Then the voice added, in a tone that carried a longing thousands of years old:
“…Oh, Emperor of Chaos and Catastrophe.”
Sami froze.
His eyes widened.
And behind him…
The Four Knights lowered their heads in silence.
Not in respect to the palace…
But in respect to its master who had finally returned to the place he never forgot… even after he had forgotten himself.