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.
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter 10
Light swallowed Adrian whole.A roar of collapsing reality thundered behind him as the rift sealed shut, cutting off the Abyssal Executioner’s final taunt—“This time… you will kneel.”Silence followed.Then—Gravity returned.Adrian slammed into solid ground, one knee down, Lucy cradled tightly against his chest. His boots skidded across smooth floor tiles, stopping only when he willed the impact to stop.He lifted his head.He was back.THE ABANDONED LAB — EARTHThe shattered room was exactly as he left it—dark, cold, littered with debris. The portal sigils were gone. The tear in space sealed. Only faint scorch marks remained on the floor, still steaming.The portal he’d opened from the Sixth Abyss had collapsed behind him completely.Good.But not good enough.The Executioner’s voice still echoed at the back of his mind, like a ghost scraping the walls of his memories.Adrian exhaled once.It came out colder than ice.He lowered his gaze to Lucy.Her skin was pale.Her aura flicker
Chapter 9
Silence fell across the Sixth Abyss.Not the silence of calm.The silence of a battlefield realizing it had provoked something it should never have touched.Adrian stood in the center of the sealing circle, divine fire rising behind him like a second sun. His coat snapped violently in the blistering wind, shadows writhing away from him as if the very concept of darkness refused to touch him.The leading shadow robed figure recoiled.“This—this was not in the foresight—”Adrian tilted his head slightly.“No,” he murmured. “It wasn’t.”Then he moved.He didn’t ignite his aura.He didn’t release his power fully.He simply stepped forward.The entire realm convulsed.Cracks spiderwebbed across the bone-covered ground. The sealing formation lines flickered, destabilizing as the War God's presence warped everything around him. The shadows screamed in unison as the gravitational force of his divine resonance dragged them toward the center.“Stop him!” a voice shrieked.“Activate the Soul Ren
Chapter 8
The last ember of the black envelope dissolved into Adrian’s palm.And the night fell silent.Too silent.Not a bird.Not a passing car.Not even the sound of faraway students making their way back to their dorms.There was an uncanny quiet all about him.Shadow stillness.Adrian lowered his hand slowly, jaw tightening as he replayed the image of Lucy’s chained figure in his mind. Bruised. Drained. Barely conscious.But the detail that disturbed him most—Her aura.It wasn’t just weakened.It was hollowed, like something had carefully carved out pieces of her soul.A method only one rank of the Shadow Society used.Soul Renders.He exhaled once.Cold. Controlled.Then he disappeared from the courtyard.THE CAMPUS ROOFTOPHis presence was indicated by a blast of cold wind.Adrian had a view of the whole campus from the top of the tallest university structure. His eyes glowed with a small spark of divine sight, and his coat whipped behind him.He scanned every direction.Energy signatu
Chapter 7
The bathroom door creaked open.A wave of cold, oppressive air spilled into the room—thick enough to sting Adrian’s skin. The shadow smoke pooled around his shoes, curling like hungry snakes as a silhouette stepped into view.Tall.Lean.Wrapped in shifting darkness from head to toe.Not a Herald.Not a Null-Born.Something in between—stronger than the assassins he’d faced before, but weaker than the creature that invaded the divine hall.A Veiled Envoy.One rank below the Herald.Enough to kill an entire building of students without effort.The Envoy tilted its head. Its voice echoed like three people speaking at once.“Relax, War God. If I wanted to kill you… you wouldn’t have heard the door open.”Adrian’s fingers twitched once.He remained still.Calm.Unmoved.“Talk,” he said. “You have ten seconds.”The Envoy chuckled, the shadows rippling like it was amused.“Always so abrupt. Very well.”It lifted a hand.A black envelope slipped from the Envoy’s palm, floating across the air
Chapter 6
The 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
Chapter 5
For a long moment, the ruined arena held nothing but silence.Dust swirled around Adrian and Sera as if the air itself were hesitant to move.Sera’s blade—still glowing with that impossible sky-blue light—dripped residual energy that crackled against the broken tiles.Her eyes, cold and unwavering, locked onto Adrian without blinking.“Alive or dead,” she repeated.The words felt like chains tightening around him.Adrian’s jaw clenched. “You’re with them.”“Of course.” She stepped forward, the divine blade humming. “The Celestial Council never stopped searching. They traced the reincarnation cycle. They followed the astral signatures. They knew you were reborn somewhere on this plane.”“And you?” Adrian asked quietly. “What are you, Sera?”Her expression didn’t shift. “Their agent. Their weapon. And their safeguard against you.”Adrian studied her stance, posture, energy.Not possessed. Not controlled. Willing.That made her far more dangerous.“You were watching me from the start,” h
You may also like
REX: The Powerful Being
Moni Sky13.6K viewsWHIT
VKBoy20.1K viewsMakiya
Blentkills48.9K viewsSoul Avatar
Japhel14.7K viewsFrom Nothing to Powerful Heir
Kang_Makan1.1K viewsThe Return of Jason Hilton
Eg. Martina613 viewsI Turned Out To Be The King Behind The Scenes
doe18.3K viewsGodslayer's Rebirth
Sule Saheed Ayomide 195 views