2025-12-04 21:46:13The color returned to the world.
Adrian was gazing at the bathroom's cracked mirror for a time. The next moment, he found himself in a completely different location—cold, quiet, and surrounded by thick, ancient-feeling air. The tiled walls of the Elite University restroom were gone. Replaced by a vast stone hall stretching infinitely in every direction.
A hall he’d been in once before.
A hall that shouldn’t exist in this realm.
Adrian exhaled slowly.
So… they found me.
He looked around warily, his footsteps echoing quietly. Thin crimson lines, like old runes pulsating with power, shone brightly on the stone floor. A huge golden eye slowly opened above him, floating in the shadows.
It wasn’t human.
It wasn’t mortal. It was the Gatekeeper.The last guardian of the Celestial Battlefield.
The glowing eye observed him, unblinking.
“War God Adrian Kane,” a low rumble vibrated through the hall.
“You have ignored our summons fifty-three times. This one cannot be disregarded.”Adrian rolled his shoulders.
“Maybe stop summoning me in the middle of exams and family dinners.”The eye narrowed slightly.
“Your reincarnation was meant to be strategic. Temporary. You were expected to regain strength quickly.”
“I’m regaining it just fine.”
“You are… delaying.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
He wasn’t delaying.
He was hiding.
There was a difference.
The rumble continued. “Reports indicate hostile activity in your vicinity. You were attacked by a Null-Born?”
“Two of them, yeah.”
“Unacceptable. Null-Born should not exist in that realm.”
“I’ve noticed,” Adrian replied dryly.
The eye dimmed, as if thinking.
“War God… your presence at that university was to be brief. To repay your debt. Nothing more.”
Adrian’s fingers curled slightly.
Here it comes.“Why have you not eliminated the threat and departed?”
Adrian exhaled. “Because it’s not just a threat anymore. The Shadow Society knows I’m alive.”
The hall went silent.
Even the runes dimmed.
“…Impossible.”
“Tell that to the corpse of the one who came for me.”
The eye flickered violently, golden light bursting outward in ripples.
“If the Shadow Society is moving openly… then your realm is compromised.”
“Yeah. I noticed that too.”
The eye lowered, glowing brighter.
“Adrian Kane… listen carefully. The Shadow Society hunts only one thing—divine power. If they know you walk the mortal realm, then someone has betr—”A crack thundered across the hall.
The golden eye shuddered.
The runes dimmed instantly.
Adrian’s eyes sharpened.
That wasn’t normal.
The area behind the Gatekeeper was divided by a second crack that ripped into the atmosphere. Pulsating like a wound, a jagged split of pure blackness erupted.
The Gatekeeper roared:
“YOU ARE NOT WELCOME HERE!”
A hand—thin, skeletal, wrapped in living shadows—emerged from the rift.
Adrian inhaled sharply.
No way.
Not a servant.
Not an assassin. Not a scout.A Shadow Herald.
Here.
Invading a divine hall.
While he was inside it.
“Great,” Adrian muttered. “Just what I needed.”
The Herald's voice oozed from the darkness, cold and amused.
“Found you… War God.”
Adrian’s muscles tensed.
If a Herald breached the hall, it meant one thing:
This wasn’t an attack.
It was a message.
"YOU WILL NOT TOUCH HIM," the gatekeeper's voice echoed across the stone.
Light erupted as the eye unleashed divine force. The Herald’s arm shrieked as parts of its shadowform sizzled away.
Yet the Herald only laughed.
“He is weaker now. Mortal. Reborn. A perfect target.”
Adrian cracked his knuckles.
“Come on then,” he said softly. “Try it.”
The Herald reached further, forcing more of its grotesque shadow-body through the gap.
But instead of lunging toward Adrian…
It pointed behind him.
Whispers slithered across the floor.
“…your debt ties you down…”
“…your weakness chains you here…”
“…your mortal attachments will kill you…”
Adrian froze.
The voice…
It wasn’t mocking.It was revealing something.
They know about the Kaslan family.
They know about my reincarnation.
They know about my debt.
His whole body flooded with cold rage.
The Herald hissed,
“Your past life ended in glory, War God. This one will end in suffering. We will start… with her.”Adrian blinked.
“…Her?”
The Herald’s smile expanded unnaturally.
“Your… wife.”
For a moment, the hall went silent.
Then—
Adrian’s eyes went dead cold.
“Gatekeeper,” he said quietly.
“Yes, War God?”
“Send me back.”
“…Are you certain?”
“Now.”
The Herald lunged, shrieking—
The Gatekeeper’s power snapped like thunder.
Light swallowed the hall.
The screaming Herald. The runes. The rift.And then—
Adrian was hurled back into his body with great force.
BACK IN THE REAL WORLD
With a pained gasp, he crashed into the restroom wall. His knees gave way, but he managed to catch himself on the sink before passing out.
Sweat trickled down his temples.
His heart pounded.
They know.
They’re coming.
He wiped his face, breath steadying.
Then he straightened, expression turning razor-sharp.
If the Shadow Society truly sent a Herald…
Then Lucy wasn’t just in danger.
The entire Kaslan family was.
And if they came into contact with a single hair on her head—
His fists were clinched.
Then the war starts early.
A sudden metallic tap echoed behind him.
Adrian froze.
He moved slowly to face the bathroom door.
From the opening underneath it, a narrow thread of black smoke curled.
Not ordinary smoke.
Shadow smoke.
The same aura the Herald used.
Someone was on the other side of the door.
Someone waiting.
A voice drifted through the crack—soft, distorted, almost playful:
“War God… are you done washing your hands?”
Adrian stepped back instinctively.
The door handle began to turn—
Very slowly.
Very deliberately.
Adrian’s pulse sharpened.
His stance shifted.
His eyes went cold.
You dare come here?
To this campus?
To my presence?
The door clicked.
A shadow fell across the tiles.
And the voice whispered—
“Let’s talk… son-in-law.
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Chapter 81
The planet screamed.Not in sound.In strain.Continents groaned as if pulled by opposing hands. The oceans recoiled from their basins. Gravity fluctuated violently, slamming Lucy to the ground as Adrian planted his feet and absorbed the force without moving.The chasm beneath Nova Imperium University widened another kilometer.Light poured upward—not fire, not energy—but exposure.The Foundation was no longer hidden.It was rising.Sera clung to Adrian’s arm, sobbing.“It’s unraveling the load paths,” she cried. “Reality is sloughing off it like loose skin!”Adrian stared into the abyss.At the structure beneath the world.At the thing that had carried the weight of gods and lies for longer than time had been measured.And for the first time—He understood.THE TRUTH OF THE WAR GODThe Foundation was not evil.It was not angry.It was exhausted.“I know what you are,” Adrian said quietly, his voice carrying through the tremor.The voice answered immediately.“THEN SPEAK IT.”“You wer
Chapter 80
The scream did not travel through air.It traveled through mass.Every tectonic plate on Earth shuddered as if struck by a single, unified nerve. Mountains groaned. Oceans recoiled. Cities felt it as nausea, vertigo, sudden panic without cause.And far below—Something stretched.Adrian stood perfectly still as the signal finished broadcasting itself through the planet’s core. His expression did not change, but something ancient and unpleasant tightened behind his ribs.Lucy clutched her chest.“It feels like… like the ground just realized it was alive.”Sera dropped to her knees, palms pressed hard against the fractured marble.“I can see it,” she whispered, horrified. “I can see the binding layers.”Adrian turned sharply.“How many?”Sera swallowed.“…Too many.”THE TRUTH THE WATCHERS BURIEDThe irregular presence did not retreat.It observed.“EARTH WAS NEVER A PASSIVE NODE,” it said calmly.Adrian’s eyes narrowed.“No,” he said. “It was a prison.”The ground beneath Nova Imperium
Chapter 79
The god’s weapon fell.It did not cut space.It imposed itself.A descending slab of glowing law tore downward, dragging gravity, time, and authority with it. Every atom beneath it screamed as existence was ordered—be still, be corrected, be erased.Lucy couldn’t breathe.Sera dropped to one knee, blood pouring freely from her nose and ears.“This is enforcement,” she gasped. “Pure—old—unfiltered!”The irregular presence did not move.It simply waited.So did Adrian.At the last possible instant—when the god’s blade was a heartbeat from annihilating everything beneath it—Adrian stepped aside.Not back.Aside.The law-blade struck the ground.And the world did not end.WHEN A GOD MISSESThe impact shattered the quad.Stone vaporized.Buildings folded inward like paper under a hammer.But the strike—meant to overwrite—found nothing absolute to bind to.The laws embedded in the weapon screamed in confusion.They had no system to report to.No watcher to validate their authority.The go
Chapter 78
The sky did not tear.It stepped aside.That was the only way Adrian could describe it—the heavens above Nova Imperium University bending not like fabric, but like etiquette. As though reality itself recognized something approaching and politely made room.The presence did not descend.It arrived already standing there.Students froze mid-scream.Wind died.Gravity hesitated.And in the center of the fractured sky stood a figure that did not cast a shadow—because shadows required a light source willing to define it.This thing refused definition.Lucy’s knees buckled.“I can’t look at it,” she whispered. “My eyes keep… sliding.”Sera’s teeth chattered despite the heat bleeding from the air.“That’s not a god,” she said hoarsely. “Gods reflect belief. This thing doesn’t care if we understand it.”Adrian took one step forward.The pressure responded immediately—testing him, measuring resistance, comparing weight.“YOU ARE DIFFERENT,” the voice said, now closer.“THE OTHERS SHOUTED. YOU
Chapter 77
The sky did not close.It simply… failed to respond.Where once divine systems asserted order—where watchers recalibrated, where balance corrected itself—there was now only open, unsettled space. The heavens above Nova Imperium University hung fractured and silent, like a battlefield abandoned mid-command.Adrian stood at the edge of the abyss as it began to collapse inward—not sealing, not healing, but withdrawing. The question it had become sank slowly beneath reality, leaving behind scorched sigils and a pressure that refused to dissipate.The universe had lost its excuse.Lucy staggered toward him, blood on her lip, eyes wide.“Adrian,” she whispered. “I can’t feel it anymore.”He turned.“What?”“The pull,” she said. “The background pressure. The sense that something was watching, weighing every breath. It’s gone.”Across campus, students were rising shakily to their feet. Some were crying. Others were laughing in disbelief. A few stood perfectly still, faces pale with dawning ho
Chapter 76
The silence was absolute.Not empty—deliberate.The abyss held its breath. The fractured remnants of the watcher drifted like frozen ash. Even the Verdict Blade seemed to hesitate, its edge wavering as if unsure which truth it was meant to sever.Adrian stared at the figure before him.Same height.Same build.Same scar along the collarbone—the one earned in a war that no longer existed.But the eyes were wrong.They were calm in a way Adrian’s never were.Not controlled.Resolved.“So,” the future-Adrian said again, stepping down from the throne of collapsed timelines. Each step caused entire potential histories to fold inward and vanish. “This is the moment you finally reach.”Adrian didn’t lower the blade.“Explain,” he said.The future version smiled faintly.“That alone proves I’m real,” he replied. “You always demand context before killing something.”THE MAN WHO FINISHED THE WARThey began to walk—circling one another through the suspended void.“I am you,” the future-Adrian sa
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