The creature smiled. That was the moment panic truly began.
It hadn't started when the mountains exploded, when the sky cracked, or when the second eye opened. Those events were terrifying, but they could still be categorized as disasters—vast, unstoppable, and incomprehensible, but ultimately impersonal. A smiling enemy was different. A smiling enemy made the threat personal, and the thing beyond the broken seal was looking directly at Orion.
Every instinct in his body screamed at him to act: run, fight, hide, do something. The problem was that none of those choices seemed remotely useful. The creature existed beyond mountains, beyond their perceived reality, and beyond common sense, yet its attention had settled entirely upon him.
The notification remained suspended before his eyes, burning with a strange, dark intensity.
◈ SOVEREIGN PATH DETECTED ◈
*Origin User Identified*
*Designation:* FIRST SOVEREIGN
*Status:* CORRUPTED
* **Current Objective:** Consume Successor
