Eiden walked.
Or at least — he thought he did.
The world around him felt unreal, weightless, as if every step he took was happening a fraction of a second after he intended it. His boots touched the floor, but the sensation was muted, distant, like he was walking through a memory rather than a place.
The corridor stretched endlessly before him, carved from black stone so polished it reflected the torchlight like dark glass. Each step echoed softly, but the sound didn't behave normally — it traveled too far, too long, bouncing down the hall in slow, drawn‑out waves.
The air was cold.
Not biting, not painful — but ancient. The kind of cold that felt like it had existed long before he was born.
Torches lined the walls at perfect intervals, each flame burning a steady orange that never flickered, never wavered, as if the fire itself was holding its breath. Their light cast long, thin shadows that stretched across the floor like reaching fingers.
Eiden frowned.
He didn't remember walking here. He didn't remember entering this place. He didn't remember anything before the moment his eyes opened to this corridor.
But the air carried voices.
Soft. Muffled. Layered, like several conversations happening at once behind a thick wall.
He followed the sound.
The corridor widened gradually, the ceiling rising higher until it vanished into darkness. The torches grew larger, their flames brighter, illuminating carvings along the walls — swirling patterns, runes he didn't recognize, shapes that seemed to shift when he wasn't looking directly at them.
Ahead stood two colossal doors, each one towering at least three times his height. They were carved from the same black stone, but the surface was etched with spiraling designs that pulsed faintly with a dull, rhythmic glow — like a heartbeat.
The voices were clearer now.
Still blurred, still indistinct, but undeniably real.
Eiden approached the doors. His hand lifted. He pushed one open just enough to see inside.
The chamber beyond was vast — impossibly vast. A circular room with a ceiling so high it disappeared into darkness. The air inside felt heavier, thicker, as if saturated with power.
Blurry silhouettes stood in a wide ring around a raised platform. Their forms were humanoid, but indistinct — as though the dream itself refused to give them shape. Their edges wavered like smoke, their outlines shifting with every breath.
Their voices drifted through the air, clearer now:
"I've heard the Angel King and Yajin have died… against the First Divinity and the Umbramage."
"Yes… I heard the same. Soon they might be invited to join our council."
"Perhaps. But we should ask the Three Gods."
Eiden's breath caught.
The figures turned toward the center of the room, where a large crystal orb hovered above the platform. It glowed faintly, swirling with light that shifted between white, gold, and deep violet.
One of the silhouettes leaned closer.
"Three Gods… what do you think?"
The orb brightened.
But Eiden couldn't hear the response.
The sound warped instantly — muffled, distorted, as if someone had pressed hands over his ears. The voices stretched and twisted, slipping away no matter how hard he strained to listen.
He stepped forward—
And froze.
A hand touched his shoulder.
Soft. Cold. Deliberate.
The temperature of the entire room seemed to drop.
A woman's voice whispered into his ear, close enough that he felt the breath against his skin:
"To become one of us… chant the third invocation."
Eiden's heart pounded.
A second voice — deeper, echoing, ancient — began to chant somewhere behind him. The words were indistinct, but the rhythm pulsed through the air like a heartbeat, vibrating through the stone beneath his feet.
The crystal orb flared.
The chamber trembled.
The silhouettes blurred, their forms dissolving into streaks of shadow. The torches flickered for the first time, their flames bending toward the orb as if pulled by an unseen force.
Eiden's vision blurred, the world dissolving into white light as the whisper repeated, softer this time:
"Chant it… and awaken."
His body felt weightless.
The voices faded.
The chamber collapsed into nothing.
And the dream shattered.