"The Council's charter is a piece of paper," David interrupted. "It means nothing if you don't have the will to enforce it. But that's not my problem. My problem is the people who are planning to attack me."He looked at the old Universe Lord, and there was something in his eyes that had not been there before. Not anger. Not a threat. Just a cold, simple statement of fact. "I don't care about the past anymore. I've made peace with it. But give this message to whoever controls the Blackwood family. If they attack me for my inheritance, it will be their family's last day. If they think the old man in the God realm can save them, they should prepare themselves mentally. He is too weak. I will kill everyone in the Blackwood family, and no one will be able to stop me."Erevan felt a chill run down his spine. David had just named the Blackwood family's most closely guarded secret their God realm ancestor, a being whose existence was known to only a handful of people in the entire human race

A faint smile crossed Athena's lips. It was a rare expression, and it softened her usually stoic features. "Your face is adequate. But that's not what I was thinking about." She paused. "I was thinking about what you said to Lord Erevan. About the Blackwood family. About their God realm ancestors. How did you know about him?"David set down the reports. "I didn't. Not for certain. But I've spent five years in the Holy Land, and I've learned to listen. The servants talk and their guards gossip. The officials whisper when they think no one is paying attention. The Blackwood family has been throwing their weight around for centuries, and they always justify it by referencing some mysterious 'ancestor' who protects them. When I heard that the Blackwood family was one of the factions pushing to investigate my inheritance, I put the pieces together.""You bluffed.""Partially. I knew there was an ancestor. I didn't know his realm for certain. But the way Erevan reacted confirmed it."Athena

There was a pause. Then Trippy spoke again. "Sir, the station commander is requesting direct communication. He says he wants to speak with you personally."David raised an eyebrow. "Put him through."The holographic display flickered, and a face materialized before him. It was a man middle-aged in appearance, though David knew that meant nothing for an immortal with sharp features and eyes that gleamed with intelligence. His uniform marked him as a high-ranking officer in the Human Council's military division, and his presence, even through the holographic projection, carried the weight of authority."David," the man said, his voice calm and measured. "I am Commander Aldric Voss, commanding officer of Fortress Chronos. We received word from Lord Erevan that you would be coming. We've been expecting you.""Commander Voss," David replied. "I wasn't expecting a welcome party. Lord Erevan didn't mention the fortress.""Lord Erevan doesn't mention a lot of things. Operational security." T

The gravity was slightly lower than standard. The ground under his boots was hard and unyielding, studded with rocks that had been worn smooth by eons of wind.He extended his spatial senses, sweeping the area for any sign of danger. The planet was hollow in a way that was difficult to describe, not physically hollow, but spiritually. As if life had been drained from it a very long time ago and nothing had ever returned to fill the void."There's nothing here," he said aloud. "No wraiths. No temporal anomalies. Just a dead planet.""Appearances can be deceiving," Athena said, materializing beside him. "The Abyss is testing you. It wants to see how you react to emptiness. To silence. To the absence of clear threats.""Then it's going to be disappointing. I've spent enough time alone that silence doesn't bother me."He began walking. The rocky ground stretched in all directions, broken only by the occasional crater or outcropping. He walked for what felt like hours, though without a rel

David sat cross-legged on the cold stone floor of the cave, his eyes closed, his breathing slow and steady. The air around him shimmered with temporal distortions, waves of Time that rippled through the chamber like heat haze over a desert road. He could feel the Law of Time pressing against his consciousness, not as an abstract concept to be studied, but as a living presence that demanded to be understood.The cave itself was unlike anything he had encountered before. The walls were not stone in the conventional sense. They were crystallized moments fragments of Time that had been compressed into physical form. When David touched them, he felt echoes of the past. A battle that had been fought here, millennia ago. A cultivator who had sat in this exact spot, meditating just as he was now. A child who had been born in a village that no longer existed. The cave remembered everything, and it shared those memories freely with anyone who knew how to listen.The temporal wraiths had vanis