Time had stopped.
The snow remained suspended in the air, motionless, like tiny white stars frozen in the middle of their fall. The wind that had moments ago roared throughout the forest had vanished completely. The trees remained bent beneath the storm, petrified in unnatural stillness.
The entire world had fallen silent.
At the center of that frozen landscape, a massive crimson egg pulsed slowly.
Each heartbeat released waves of Umbra energy that spread through the forest like dark ripples. Around it, the ground had turned black and cracked, as if life itself had been expelled from that place.
Standing before the egg was a small figure.
A child.
Or at least, that was what he appeared to be.
His breathing was uneven, and his body trembled slightly. The ritual had been far more exhausting than expected, even for someone like him.
And yet…
He was smiling.
And it was not a small smile.
It was enormous. Unrestrained. Filled with such overwhelming happiness that it became disturbing.
Slowly, he raised one hand and reached toward the frozen air.
His fingers passed through a suspended snowflake.
The contact made him shiver.
His breathing grew unstable.
The cold.
He could feel the cold.
Slowly, he closed his eyes.
For several moments, he said nothing.
He simply felt.
The frozen wind against his skin.
The dampness of the snow.
The scent of the earth.
The icy temperature of Raganorth.
Such simple sensations… and yet unimaginably distant to him.
His hands began trembling even harder.
Slowly, he crouched down and picked up a handful of snow mixed with dirt. He stared at it with fascination, as if holding the greatest treasure in existence.
Then he slowly brought it toward his face.
He smelled it.
And finally, took a small bite.
The taste was horrible.
Bitter.
Cold.
Unpleasant.
His body trembled once more.
But then…
He began to laugh.
At first, it was low and exhausted.
A small chuckle.
Then another.
And another.
Until he finally leaned backward while uncontrollable laughter escaped his mouth.
—Hahahahaha…!
His voice echoed through the frozen forest.
Madness and joy blended together within every laugh.
Tears slowly formed in his eyes.
He could not control himself.
After countless ages…
He was free.
His entire existence had been spent imprisoned.
From the very instant he first opened his eyes, he had known nothing except chains.
Darkness.
Silence.
Loneliness.
Even with the monstrous power he possessed, he had never been able to leave that prison.
Never feel the wind.
Never walk freely.
Never touch the earth.
And now…
Now he could.
His heart, normally as still as a dead ocean, churned violently.
It was a storm.
An emotion so intense that even he struggled to control it.
He took several deep breaths before finally calming down slightly.
His gaze slowly shifted toward the massive crimson egg behind him.
A faint expression of annoyance appeared on his face.
—You made me waste more time than expected, child…
His voice no longer sounded euphoric.
Now it was calm.
Tired.
Even so, the annoyance quickly disappeared.
After all…
Thanks to Tharok, he had awakened ahead of schedule.
That alone held immense value.
—I suppose you deserve a reward…
He murmured those words while watching the egg pulse.
He already knew what he would do.
Once everything was over…
He would free Tharok.
Not immediately, of course.
He still needed him.
But eventually, he would.
After personally experiencing the horror of eternal confinement, even he felt a certain rejection toward imposing such a fate upon another being.
Though…
For Tharok, many years would pass before he regained his freedom.
An enormous amount of time.
But to someone like him…
That time meant nothing.
He could no longer even remember exactly how many ages he had lived.
The concept of time had lost meaning long ago.
—Consider yourself fortunate, child…
His expression softened ever so slightly for an instant.
—Very soon, you will learn what it truly means to be free.
Silence returned.
Around him, the world remained completely frozen.
The lightning bolts were suspended between the dark clouds.
The snow still hung motionless in the air.
Even the enormous portal leading to the Realm of Nightmares appeared frozen in place.
Beyond it, a dead forest covered in black mist could be seen.
There was no life there.
Only darkness.
The child slowly lifted his gaze toward that place.
His home.
The joy within his eyes disappeared for a few moments.
Only coldness remained.
A deep and ancient coldness.
Then he slowly exhaled.
—It's time to work.
His expression hardened once more.
The emotion was over.
Now came what truly mattered.
Because he had not awakened merely to obtain a herald.
That had never been his true objective.
Slowly, he extended one hand.
The space before him began to distort.
Thousands of images appeared floating around him.
Like an endless river.
Fragments of possible futures.
Destinies.
Timelines.
Millions of scenes were constantly appearing and disappearing.
His eyes moved across those visions with absolute concentration.
The atmosphere around him became heavy.
Even space itself seemed to tense as he used laws no mortal being should ever touch.
The laws of fate.
Fortune.
Causality.
And many other ancient forces.
The images shifted at absurd speeds.
Wars.
Destroyed cities.
Split oceans.
Corpses.
Burning continents.
Entire futures were born and erased before him like mere waves.
His brow slowly furrowed.
—Annoying…
He muttered those words with obvious irritation.
Searching was becoming more difficult than expected.
And he did not like that.
Something like this should have been trivial for him.
But now…
His condition was far from perfect.
Very far.
His eyes narrowed slightly.
—I can't believe how weak I've become…
His voice sounded irritated.
And then…
At last, he found what he was searching for.
The images stopped changing violently.
A single scene appeared before him.
His expression turned serious.