Chapter 57 : Seeds of Calamity
In the oppressive heart of a shadowed chamber lit only by flickering candles, two figures conversed in hushed tones. The air was thick with ambition and barely concealed malice.
"Tharug," the youth began, his voice calm and commanding, as though addressing mere subordinates, "have you heard of the Silver-ranked rumored to have fought a Platinum ranker?"
"Yes, my lord," Tharug replied smoothly, bowing with practiced deference. "Everyone has heard the whispers. The one who escaped the Punishment Hall. The boy said to have claimed the lives of civilians during his mission. His name spreads like wildfire,Liam Heart. They call him the Blind Devil."
A heavy hand rose slowly from the darkness, cutting the air like a guillotine. "You sing his praises as if you wish to kneel and worship at his feet." Lord Ruben's voice dripped with venomous displeasure.
A crushing, depressive aura flooded the room, so heavy it caused the candles to gutter and cast grotesque, writhing shadows across the stone walls. The very light seemed to cower.
Tharug remained unflinching. "It is not what you think, Young Lord Ruben. Your power transcends that of any mere child. But for our grand design to unfold without the slightest hindrance… should we not eliminate even the smallest threat before it takes root?"
Ruben's eyes widened, a flash of manic delight cutting through his deep dissatisfaction.
Golden-rank aura erupted from his body in radiant, oppressive waves, illuminating his twisted, aristocratic features. "You are right, Tharug," he purred, pouring himself a cup of dark tea with elegant, controlled precision. The liquid steamed like blood in the dim light.
"We must uproot every weed in my path." His grip tightened on the delicate cup until the porcelain creaked. That brat… merely thinking about him gives me a pounding headache.
The thought burned bitterly in his mind. "At the end of the day, he is nothing but a Silver-ranked stepping stone on the road to my destiny."
Tharug's lips curled into a dark, honeyed smile, his voice sweet with promises of a glorious future. "Then allow me to handle it personally, my lord. I offer you not merely his head, but an unchallenged reign. With Liam Heart removed, the path clears completely, no more thorns, no more unpredictable variables.
Only your rightful ascension to power beyond imagination. The Demon Continent will bow. Your enemies will crumble. And I… will stand faithfully at your side as we reshape this world in your image." The energy in the room thickened, wicked and pulsating, as if the shadows themselves hungered for the coming bloodshed.
Ruben leaned back in his throne-like chair, his dissatisfaction momentarily soothed by the intoxicating vision. "Initiate it immediately."
Tharug bowed deeply and vanished into the darkness, moving with lethal intent.
Meanwhile, in a secluded training hall far removed from prying eyes, Bobaros and Garuda stood locked in tense conversation. For the first time in days, an unnatural unease clung to them both, like an invisible, unblinking gaze pressing relentlessly against their souls.
It was cold. Patient. Omniscient.
"Brother… what in the hells did that bastard do to us?" Garuda snarled, pacing like a caged predator. His voice echoed off the stone walls. "I can feel it constantly. A gaze. Watching. Waiting. It never leaves me, even for a second. It's driving me mad!"
Bobaros remained deathly silent, staring at his raging brother with haunted, conflicted eyes. "How do I tell him that the thing is already inside us?" he thought, dread coiling in his gut. I feel no pain, no chains… only its endless, patient stare, as if it's studying every breath we take.
The weight of it pressed deeper into his bones, heavier with every passing moment.
Without warning, Bobaros hurled a devastating fist, sending Garuda crashing violently into the far wall with bone-shattering force. Before his brother could recover, a surge of unnatural water manifested from thin air, coalescing into razor-sharp ice that pinned Garuda mercilessly, piercing his throat, stomach, and waist in a brutal, frozen crucifixion.
"Garuda!!" Bobaros roared, lunging forward in sheer panic. He desperately tried to dissolve the ice with his own water techniques, but every attempt only strengthened the prison, making the shards pulse with malevolent life. "Please… don't die on me, brother!"
Sorrow crashed over him like a merciless tidal wave. Memories flooded his mind in vivid, painful detail: the two of them sharing their mother's womb for years, inseparable even before drawing their first breaths. The countless battles fought back-to-back.
The shared laughter in rare moments of peace. The rivers of blood they had spilled together. "How am I supposed to live in Apocia without you?" Bobaros fell to his knees, voice breaking into raw sobs as he watched his brother's body slowly freeze over. Tears carved hot tracks down his face. "I can't do this alone… I won't."
Deep within a vast, lightless void, Garuda sat with cold, detached resignation. He could faintly hear his brother's desperate cries echoing from somewhere far away, but they felt muffled, distant, as though separated by an ocean of darkness.
A ghostly figure materialized before him, pitch black, yet distinctly more profound than the surrounding abyss, like a void carved from the heart of oblivion itself.
"Have you come to claim my soul?" Garuda asked softly, all his usual bravado stripped away.
The shadow figure raised a hand almost hesitantly, then forced its form to speak. "The Endless Darkness has chosen you… and your brother." Slowly, deliberately, the silhouette shifted and solidified, taking on the unmistakable, smiling face of Liam Heart.
"From this day forward, you and Bobaros have been chosen to serve Apocia," the image spoke with calm, abyssal wisdom.
Each word resonated like the slow turning of ancient cosmic gears, heavy with inevitability and profound understanding of fate's hidden currents.
"What do you mean?" Garuda rasped, eyes narrowing. "Haven't I already succumbed to death?"
The figure, (Liam),laughed softly, a sound both gentle and utterly terrifying in its serenity. "Do not judge the seeds of Apocia by the petty limitations of common knowledge. Death is merely fertile soil. You are not ending… you are becoming something far greater."
Garuda's eyes snapped open with a violent gasp. The ice encasing him exploded in a horrific cataclysm of roaring flames. The entire training hall erupted in an inferno as his body underwent a terrifying transformation, black hair now leaking living flames, old wounds and scars vanishing under a powerful, regenerative new healing factor that knit flesh with unnatural speed.
"Bobaros… I'm about to explode. Move!" Garuda warned, voice booming.
Bobaros eyes widened in shock as he turned and fled like a streak of lightning, laughing wildly for the first time in what felt like ages. "What the hell is happening, his alive?!"
The explosion that followed was nothing short of apocalyptic.
Flames consumed the building in a sonic roar of raw, unleashed power. Elders and teachers from across the academy descended like falling stars, auras blazing, fearing another catastrophic attack.
But deep within a quiet, isolated room, a solitary man glanced out the window toward the rising flames, his young face painted with profound sorrow. "Calamity is upon us all," he murmured, slowly closing the ancient book in his hands. His wide-brimmed hat swayed gently in the night wind. "I must return to the Holy Grounds at once. These bizarre events… we cannot allow them to spiral further."
Worry etched deep lines across his features. "We need to act fast… before they grow even stronger."