Chapter 2756: Story 2757: The Truth Before Creation

The crowns shattered into thousands of fragments.

Gold, silver, black, and violet pieces struck the stone floor, but none made a sound. The silence was worse than any scream.

Ronan stared at the creature’s split heart. Inside it, a second face slowly emerged—a pale, ancient face with eyes like burning stars.

Cael stumbled backward.

“No,” he whispered. “You were erased before the first kingdom existed.”

The face smiled.

“Erased? You mistake silence for death, little failure.”

The creature’s bone armor cracked wider. Black roots withdrew from the child’s skeleton, revealing a small body wrapped in darkness. Yet the ancient face remained suspended inside the glowing heart.

Darian raised his violet flames. “What are you?”

“Ask your mother.”

Every eye turned toward the white-haired woman.

She stood trembling, her red eyes fixed on the face within the heart.

“I buried the truth,” she whispered. “I thought it would remain buried.”

Ronan retrieved his sword. Its red symbol had vanished, leaving the blade completely black.

“What truth?”

His mother looked at him, then at the child trapped inside the creature.

“You were not the first life I tried to save.”

The ancient face laughed.

“She tried to save creation itself. Instead, she divided it.”

The chamber trembled. Cracks spread across the ceiling, and through them poured a light darker than night. The dead warriors fell to their knees, pressing their foreheads against the ground.

Even the gigantic creature beyond the gate lowered its head.

Cael dropped his weapon.

“Father is bowing.”

“No,” Kael said, gripping his ancient blade. “He is hiding.”

A deafening impact shook the mountain. Something enormous moved beyond the gate, dragging chains through the depths. The creature that had terrorized them moments earlier suddenly looked small.

The ancient face turned toward Ronan.

“Four brothers. One forgotten child. And a mother who believed love could repair what existed before love.”

Ronan stepped forward. “Release him.”

“Release whom? Your brother? Your hunger? Or the thing your mother placed inside you?”

Black veins appeared beneath Ronan’s skin.

Lyra seized his wrist. “Ronan, don’t listen.”

He looked at her, and for one precious moment, recognition returned to his eyes.

“I know your voice,” he whispered.

“Then hold on to it.”

The ancient face narrowed its eyes. The chamber’s darkness surged toward Lyra, but Ronan raised his sword and cut through it. For the first time, the darkness recoiled from him.

His mother gasped.

“You have awakened the choice.”

“What choice?” Elias demanded.

The child’s skeleton lifted its head. Two tiny red lights appeared inside its empty eye sockets.

“Who gets to live,” it whispered.

The creature’s heart burst open.

A blinding wave threw everyone to the ground. When Ronan struggled upright, the monster had vanished. In its place stood the small child, whole and alive, holding a broken crown.

He looked exactly like Ronan as a boy.

Then he turned toward the gate.

“Mother,” he said softly, “he’s coming.”

From beyond the darkness, a voice answered.

“MY CHILDREN, YOUR CREATION ENDS TONIGHT.”