The words echoed through the boundless astral court, ringing with a chilling finality.
"They broke the Heavenly Principles. And that single, unforgivable crime is the reason you were born."
Hide stood in the center of the midnight-black obsidian promenade, his fists trembling against his thighs. A suffocating, ice-cold numbness crept through his veins, dulling the senses.
His mind, which had always dissected every combat encounter with mechanical precision, felt as though it were fracturing under the weight of an existential hammer.
"What are you saying?" Hide asked, his voice shaking with a dangerous mixture of confusion and rising hostility. "My mother... Erin Volter was a human. She was an NEA researcher. What do higher gods and broken principles have to do with my birth?!"
