"We're here."
The ruin stretched before them, a monolithic structure partially swallowed by the ancient forest. From their vantage point on the hill, Evolis, Aeliana, and Orion could see the vast, crumbling remains of what must have once been a grand citadel—now reduced to fragments of stone and broken pathways suspended in eerie stillness.
Jagged spires of blackened obsidian jutted from the ground like the ribs of some long-dead titan, their surfaces engraved with intricate, glowing inscriptions that pulsed faintly with an otherworldly light. The ruin itself was surrounded by a shimmering distortion, a veil of bending space that twisted the very air around it. The deeper they looked, the harder it was to focus—some parts of the structure seemed closer than they were, while others stretched impossibly far, as if time and distance had lost their meaning here.
At the center of it all, a single massive gateway stood, carved from an unknown metal that gleamed under the dim light of the realm. Its surface was etched with symbols that seemed to shift when not directly observed. Unlike the rest of the ruin, which had succumbed to decay and overgrowth, this gate remained pristine, untouched by the passage of time.
The terrain leading up to the ruin was no less strange. The forest that had accompanied them throughout their journey seemed to resist encroaching upon the structure, as if wary of what lay within. The trees, ancient and gnarled, stopped at an unnatural boundary, their roots clawing at the earth but never crossing an invisible threshold.
Between the forest's edge and the ruin's entrance lay a barren expanse—a field of cracked, sand-covered stone that shimmered under the twilight of the secret realm's sky. The sand, a silvery-white hue, moved as if alive, swirling in unnatural patterns, forming fleeting shapes before dispersing into nothingness.
The air seemed to distort with a particular energy, as space bent in some parts, and sand shifted weirdly in others.
Faint echoes whispered through the windless air. Voices which seemed to be remnants of whatever had once called this place home.The pressure in the atmosphere was heavy, almost suffocating, as if an unseen force weighed down on them.
Evolis narrowed his eyes, his golden irises flashing as he activated his Divine Sense, stretching it toward the ruin.
The moment his consciousness touched it—
Something pushed back.
A barrier.
One which prevented him from gaining information before he entered.
"Looks like whoever built this thing doesn't want people to know what's inside of it."
Evolis had never seen anything like this before.
He checked his status, as he hadn't looked at it in a while.
---
Name: Evolis Aetherion
Age: 18
Race: ???
Attributes:
Strength: 301 (+8)
Agility: 308 (+7)
Endurance: 313 (+6)
Vitality: 312 (+8)
Intelligence: 297 (+7)
Charm: 323 (+13)
Etherion Core Level: 109 (+9)
Stage: Early Advanced
Talent: SSS
Bloodline(s): Locked
Affinities:
Greater Gravity (Stage 7)
Greater Space (Stage 7)
Unique Plantae (Stage 7)
Time (99% unlocked)
Fire (93% unlocked)
Earth (95% unlocked)
Water (94% unlocked)
Wind (96% unlocked)
Abilities:
✦ Spatial Abilities
Spacial Severance (Basic) – Cuts through space itself, allowing unavoidable slashes. Teleportation (Advanced) – Instantly moves within a 500m radius.
Space Bind (Intermediate) – Restricts an opponent's movement by locking their position in space.
Space Loosening (Intermediate) – Can loosen the space around oneself and enemies
Spatial Bomb (Basic) – Creates unstable space that collapses into an explosion.
✦ Gravity Abilities
Gravity Damage Absorption (Advanced) – Distributes power from attacks into different areas.
Gravity Float (Advanced) – Allows indefinite floating using controlled gravity shifts.
Attraction (Expert) – Pulls objects up to 5000kg with high precision.
Repulsion (Expert) – Pushes enemies and objects back with immense force.
✦ Plantae Abilities
Energy Siphon (Mastered) – Absorbs surrounding energy for recovery and enhancement. Revenge Counter (Basic) – Stores received energy and releases it back at full force.
Innate Skills:
The Seer's Gaze [Grade: Stage 1] [Evolvable]
Body of the !O# %F @$%pt$b$%#@y %$& G#$wt% [Grade: Stage 1] [Evolvable]
---
Evolis exhaled as he absorbed the information. He had leveled up significantly from the battles against the ethereal beasts in the forest, as well as from his brutal spar with Orion. The Cosmic Ascension Record had neatly categorized his abilities, making it easier for him to track his growth. It seemed that as his proficiency in an ability increased, so did its classification, refining his control and maximizing its efficiency.
Still, he wasn't satisfied.
Despite all his progress, something about this ruin unsettled him. His instincts, honed through countless battles, told him that whatever was waiting inside would be unlike anything he had faced before.
He clenched his fists.
He wanted to experiment more—to push his affinities, refine his control, break past his limits. But there was no time. Not now.
They had a war to return to.
The Elves had no idea what was lurking in this ruin, and Evolis knew that if they didn't uncover its secrets, they might be walking into something far worse than just an invasion. The Elven Council, the King—they needed to know.
And more than anything…
He needed to get back to his people.
A familiar face surfaced in his mind, silver hair and warm crimson eyes, filled with that stubborn determination he had come to rely on.
Lyris.
It had been the longest they had ever been apart, and he felt the absence of her presence like a missing piece of himself. She had always been there—his closest friend, his anchor, the one who knew him better than anyone.
Was she safe? Was she still holding her own on the battlefield?
He had no doubt she was strong, but that didn't stop the feeling gnawing at his chest.
Evolis took a steadying breath, pushing the thoughts aside for now.
They still had this ruin to deal with first.
He lifted his gaze, taking in the monolithic gateway that loomed before them.
His golden eyes gleamed with resolve.
"This place is... strange," Aeliana murmured, her silver eyes narrowing as she studied the ruin.
"You feel something?" Orion asked, shifting his stance. He was reckless by nature, always eager for a fight, but even he felt uneasy.
"Yeah… It's weird. My Moonlight Affinity is reacting to it, almost as if whatever's stopping our senses from getting inside is connected to it."
Evolis frowned. A reaction? That wasn't normal. His Divine Sense still couldn't pierce through the distortion surrounding the ruin, and Aeliana's affinity responding meant there was more at play here than just a simple barrier.
Sighing, he rolled his shoulders. "Well, we're not going to find out by standing here."
He stepped forward.
The air shuddered.
And then—
Everything changed.
Evolis froze as the world around him shifted violently. Aeliana and Orion were gone. One moment they had been right beside him, the next, the space they occupied had been swallowed by an unnatural mist.
Not mist.
Something else.
It moved with intent, tendrils of silver vapor twisting like grasping hands, curling toward him—only to stop.
Something kept it at bay.
He watched as the mist coiled and recoiled, almost as if it was hesitant to touch him. It was avoiding him.
Evolis took a step forward experimentally. The mist reacted, parting away from his body.
That was wrong.
Mist didn't do that.
His fingers twitched toward his sword—
"That won't help you here, young one."
A voice. Deep, calm, weighty.
Evolis' blood ran cold.
Somehow, without a single sound, a man had appeared before him.
Tall—impossibly tall—standing at a staggering seven feet. His presence was monumental, like a force of nature given shape. A long, silver-braided beard draped over his chest, his chiseled features weathered, as if worn down by time itself.
His eyes.
They burned.
A deep, molten orange, swirling with fractal patterns of endless complexity. And all across his arms, his neck, his very skin, glowing inscriptions pulsed faintly, forming intricate pathways of living energy.
Evolis had never seen a being like this before.
An enemy?
"No," the man spoke before Evolis could act, his voice stirring the very mist around them causing it to weave chaotically. "I am not your enemy."
Evolis tensed. That was twice now this man had answered his thoughts.
His eyes flickered as he instinctively activated Seer's Gaze, trying to analyze the being before him
Pain.
A sharp, searing pain exploded behind his eyes, as if molten knives had been driven into his skull.
Evolis clutched his head, gasping.
The old man sighed. "Fool. Gazing at something beyond your understanding might have been simple before, but you should know—" His molten gaze locked onto Evolis, sharp and knowing. "What you stare at... may also gaze back."
Evolis swallowed.
"Had I not intervened, you would've died from trying to read my existence. And unlike a normal death, your soul would've been erased, leaving you a husk."
There was no arrogance in his tone, no smugness. Just fact.
Evolis immediately became ten times more cautious.
This man wasn't just powerful. He existed on an entirely different level.
"What do you want?" Evolis asked, keeping his stance measured. He had no delusions of winning a fight, but if things went south, he had to at least be ready.
The old man studied him. Then, after a long pause, he asked:
"Who are you?"
A simple question. But Evolis knew that wasn't what he was really asking.
The man's molten orange eyes bore into him, as if searching for something beneath his skin.
"Your soul is… strange," he murmured. "Contained by countless seals, yet even now, they are weakening. And more than that…"
He took a slow step forward.
"Your soul is not fully merged with your body."
Evolis stiffened.
"Which should be impossible." The man's expression darkened. "So I ask you again—who are you?"
Evolis felt his pulse quicken.
This man had seen through him.
Not just his power. Not just his Sealed Soul.
Something deeper.
And yet…
Even Evolis himself didn't have an answer.
The man continued to study him, his gaze unreadable.
Then, as if sensing something more, his expression shifted.
Slightly.
Barely.
But the difference was palpable.
His gaze hardened.
Evolis felt pressure pressing down on his soul, the weight of a force that wasn't quite killing intent, but something worse—judgment.
And when the old man spoke next, there was no longer curiosity in his voice.
Only cold, simmering rage.
"You… you are connected to them."
Evolis frowned. "Them?"
The old man's body tensed. The mist around them quivered.
"The gods."
A spark of anger—ancient, deep-seated, absolute—flashed through his fractal-marked features.
Evolis barely had time to process it before the man's energy surged.
The sky above them fractured. The ground trembled. The mist itself began to howl as if in mourning.
"You carry their mark," the old man muttered. "The same gods who forced my people into the shadows. Who hunted us. Erased us. Slaughtered us."
Evolis' blood ran cold.
He didn't know why, but something in the way the man spoke, the sheer weight behind his words—
It felt real.
Like history itself was screaming through his voice.
He was a forgotten race.
That was what he was.
And the gods—his kin—had been the ones to wipe them out.
Evolis opened his mouth—but before he could speak, the old man's gaze pierced deeper.
And something shifted.
The rage in his expression faltered. Just slightly.
"You…" He narrowed his gaze. "No… You are different."
Evolis felt a strange pressure in his mind, like something was sifting through his very existence.
A realization dawned across the old man's face.
"Your family… was never on their side to begin with."
Evolis froze.
What?
"You do not even know, do you?" The man's voice softened—just a fraction. "Interesting."
His molten gaze bore into Evolis one final time.
"Perhaps… you are not beyond redemption after all."
And then—
"Come with me." The man turned as he started heading deeper into the mist, not even looking back to see if Evolis was following him.
"Wait! What about the people I came with, where are they?"
The man turned back to him with a calculating look in his gaze, "They are facing their own trials boy, memories which they have repressed and avoided. Memories which they haven't come to terms with yet."
"I swear if you hurt the-" Evolis didn't care if the man before him was god himself, he would risk his life to cut him down if he had hurt Aeliana and Orion.
"Calm down."
Two words.
But these two words seemed to have the effect they intended as Evolis felt a wave of calming energy enter his mind.
"If they manage to pass these trials they will come out stronger than they were before, but even if they fail they will merely have to spend a thousand years healing their broken minds."
Evolis couldn't believe what this guy had just said, his gaze grew so cold that the mist almost seemed to begin to solidify, and a pressure began radiating out from him.
"But they will pass, I have seen it in their eyes. Their resolve to grow stronger so that their past isn't able to haunt them again."
This seemed to do the trick as Evolis managed to calm down.
His gaze flickered to the mist curling at his feet, shifting restlessly as if mirroring the storm brewing inside him.
The old man studied him for a moment longer, before turning on his heel. "Come. There is much to discuss."
Without waiting, he began moving deeper into the mist, his form almost merging with the surroundings, his presence somehow heavier yet more distant at the same time.
Evolis hesitated only a second before following. He had no other choice.
The mist seemed alive.
It coiled around him like whispering spirits, and though Evolis was sure they were moving forward, the surroundings never changed. There were no landmarks, no sign of the ruin they had seen from the outside—just an endless expanse of shifting silver fog.
Until it wasn't.
A single step.
And the world snapped into focus.
They stood in a grand chamber, unlike anything Evolis had ever seen.
The ceiling stretched impossibly high, vanishing into the shadows above. Towering pillars lined the room, carved from blackened stone and etched with glowing silver inscriptions—not just decoration, but words, stories, history.
At the far end of the chamber sat a massive throne, or perhaps an altar, formed from interwoven crystal and dark metal. It hummed faintly with latent power, as if awaiting something—or someone.
And hovering in front of it was a—
'What the hell is that thing.'
"It's a tesseract. Forged to hold something which my whole race held dear."
Once again as if reading his thoughts the strange being told him.
But none of that mattered to Evolis.
Because they were here.
His breath caught in his throat.
Aeliana. Orion.
They were curled up against the far wall of the chamber, their bodies tense, their faces hidden in the crook of their arms.
Aeliana's silver hair cascaded over her shoulders, glistening even in the dim light. Her body trembled slightly, breath uneven, her lips pressed into a tight, painful line.
Orion was much the same, his usual carefree smirk replaced by a cold, hollow stillness. His fingers dug into his arms, his knuckles white, his entire frame wound tight like a coiled spring.
Both of them looked lost.
And worst of all—
Tears.
They weren't sobbing. There were no cries of anguish.
Just silent, unnoticed tears.
Evolis felt a deep, unfamiliar rage coil in his chest. Not anger at them. No—anger at whatever they had just been forced to endure.
He moved before he could stop himself, his body tensing as he took a step toward them—
"Leave them."
The old man's voice cut through the air, sharp and absolute.
Evolis' head snapped toward him, his gaze frighteningly cold.
"They are breaking free from the final remnants of their trial," the old man said, his molten orange gaze steady. "If you interfere now, it will only weaken them."
Evolis could only endure for now.
He knew. He knew that if they had endured something so painful, robbing them of the chance to finish it on their own would be an insult.
But that didn't mean it was easy to watch.
So he stayed where he was, jaw clenched, hands curling into fists at his sides.
And waited.
The old man exhaled, walking past Evolis toward the center of the chamber, near the strange object. He placed a single hand upon it, and for a moment, it glowed.
Then, it spoke.
Or rather—it sang.
The inscriptions along the walls lit up, symbols shifting, moving like flowing water as the air grew heavy with something indescribable.
The weight of time itself.
"You wish to understand what happened to my people?" the old man asked, his voice softer now, yet tinged with something far heavier. "Then listen. And remember."
Evolis listened.
And the tale began.
The Astravyn had once been a proud, unparalleled race, their mastery of mind, will, and creation making them a force beyond comprehension.
They had no need for cities built by hand, for they shaped their homes with thought.
They did not war with steel, for their very existence could bend the laws of reality.
And it was precisely because of this power—because of what they represented—that the gods feared them.
"They called us dangerous," the old man murmured, his gaze distant. "They called us unnatural, defilers of order." His lips curled into a humorless smirk. "They hated that we could exist without their chains."
Evolis' stomach twisted. He had heard it before from his past self in the trial—the arrogance of divine beings, their obsession with maintaining their so-called balance.
But this was worse.
"The war was not one of conquest. It was not a battle of pride. It was a massacre," the old man continued, his voice filled with something haunted. "We had no champions. No great warriors. We were scholars, creators, explorers of the mind and spirit."
His fingers tightened on the stone.
"And yet, the gods descended upon us as if we were a blight to be wiped clean. They came with fire, with curses, with divine laws that shattered even our greatest defenses."
Evolis knew that kind of destruction.
Evolis had heard of how the gods were from his past self. He had given them the benefit of the doubt that maybe he was exaggerating. I mean they couldn't really be as bad as they were portrayed right? But this… this was different. It wasn't 'keeping the universe in balance'. It was sick genocide. The systematic erasure of an entire people. A race that had defied the gods not by war, but by existing outside their control.
And somehow, despite it all, he had his own ties with them.
A sick, bitter feeling curled in his stomach. What did that make him?
The old man's gaze darkened.
"They did not kill all of us," he said, and this time there was something else beneath the words. Something raw. "No… that would have been mercy."
The worst of us, they took.
The strongest of us, they enslaved.
And the wisest of us, they erased.
"They broke minds," he murmured. "Bent wills. Turned our own kin against us. Until there was nothing left but ruins, whispers, and silence."
Evolis felt something cold settle in his chest.
He knew now.
He knew why this place felt wrong.
Why the very air here ached with something deeper than simple age.
This was a tomb.
A graveyard.
A memory of a civilization that had been murdered, erased from time itself.
The old man finally turned to Evolis again, his molten eyes piercing.
"I have been waiting, perhaps for thousands of years. A mere remnant of a civilization sent to find a spark of hope. To find a successor."
"And now," he said, voice quieter than before, "you stand here. A descendant of those who brought ruin upon us, yet carrying a burden which was brought upon you by them."
He stepped closer.
"So I ask you, Evolis Aetherion…"
Evolis' eyes widened as he realized this man had seen through more than he allowed.
The air hummed with something powerful, something primordial.
"Do you seek strength for the sake of proving yourself?"
Or—
"Do you seek it so that what happened to us, to my people—never happens to you?"
Silence stretched between them.
And Evolis, standing amidst the ruin of an empire lost to time, had to choose his answer.