[: 3rd POV :]
The sun had barely risen, yet the wind still carried the scent of scorched soil and shattered armour from the battle that had ended mere hours ago.
The silence was heavy...but almost holy as Daniel knelt in the aftermath, held gently in Caelira's arms, surrounded by the warmth of those who still stood by him.
But that silence was shattered.
Like a blade splitting the world in half.
A tear in space opened above the horizon, ripping through the sky like paper set aflame—and from it descended an army unlike any mortal had ever seen.
First came the Knights of the Black Zenith, their obsidian armour pulsing with dark blessings.
Then came the Guardians of the Eternal Flame, cloaked in crimson fire, weapons forged from cursed stars.
Then the Ash Protectors, the deathless champions of the Velroth Lineage.
And at the centre of it all… stood he.
Velroth, the Lord of Ash.
He stepped down from the void as if gravity bowed to him.
His cloak of dusk trailed behind like a devouring storm, and his gaze, sharp as eternal punishment, fell instantly on Daniel.
His presence alone dried the air.
Burnt the grass.
Froze time itself.
Behind Daniel, Caelira stiffened. Rika gasped. Kiel's smile faded. Marnok's jaw tightened.
The man who had haunted their nightmares had arrived in the flesh.
And yet, as his boots met the scorched earth, he did not speak immediately.
He just… stood there silently.
His crimson gaze scanned the battlefield, lingered on the shattered remains of his son's guards.
His cloak fluttered, slow, solemn...like the mourning veil of a king who had buried his child.
Then, his voice rose; it was low and wounded.
"Where… is my son?"
The question wasn't just a command.
It was a cry from somewhere deeper.
Not just anger, but disbelief.
Not just rage, but… a grief too immense to name.
No one answered.
But Velroth's gaze settled on Daniel, on the boy who stood breathless and broken, the blood of the past still fresh in his memories.
Velroth took a slow step forward.
His voice was quieter now, but far more terrifying.
"You… smell like him. Like his blood… and his death."
His hands trembled at his sides, fists clenched...not in fear, but in mourning.
His eyes...those infernal eyes that had commanded legions...dimmed for a fraction of a second.
"Did you… Kill my boy?"
His voice cracked.
Daniel didn't answer.
Because he didn't have to.
The truth hung in the air like the smoke of a funeral pyre.
Velroth inhaled sharply.
A slow, broken sound that echoed louder than any battle cry.
For the briefest of moments, the armies behind him did not move.
They could feel it too...the sorrow buried beneath their lord's fury.
Velroth's gaze locked onto Daniel's eyes. And there it was...confirmation.
Grief turned to silence.
And silence turned to hatred.
In one blink, the pain in Velroth's eyes was replaced by fire.
Fire that devoured reason.
Fire that only a father could know when the last tether to his blood was severed.
He roared...and the skies screamed with him.
"Kill the boy and the rest. Leave nothing, not even a single strand of their hair"
His voice was no longer human.
It was the roar of a god that had lost his child.
And the earth obeyed.
Swords unsheathed and flames ignited.
Hundreds of elite warriors lunged forward without any mercy.
Manork moved to stand...his instincts screaming to protect them, but his wrists burned with agony.
The sealing cuffs, they glowed violently, suppressing every ounce of strength.
Caelira clutched Daniel tighter. "Run, Daniel!"
But it was too late.
They came like lightning, a full battalion that was unstoppable.
Daniel stood instinctively, heart hammering.
He summoned what little energy remained, tried to retaliate...but they were too fast and there were too many of them.
He had just awakened his bloodline, and he didn't even have the slightest idea of what to do with it.
''Daniel! Run!'' Rika and Kiel tried running towards Daniel, where they were lunging towards him with their weapons.
Manork was fighting against them with nothing but his fist and body.
Caelira was embracing Daniel as though she wanted to use her body as a shield against their attacks.
At this moment, everything slowed.
Caelira's scream.
Kiel's panic.
Rika's defiance.
Marnok's sacrifice.
And Daniel could do nothing.
He had promised he'd protect them.
But now?
All he could do was watch.
And then, he broke.
Not in anger.
But in desperation.
"No…..Not again…Please… I just want to protect them…"
"I don't care if I die… Just save them…"
It wasn't a command.
It wasn't a skill.
It was a cry...
The kind of soul-shattering plea that came from a boy who had been torn apart too many times…
A boy who had known too much suffering…
Who had finally found warmth, only to watch it be threatened again.
However, something heard him.
Something deep inside him...slumbering.
A silent will that had always been there, hidden beneath blood, sealed beneath pain and had always been there when Daniel was born into this world.
The world did not shake.
The world paused.
Time bent inward, light twisted, and a soundless pulse erupted from Daniel's body—not fire, not force, but void.
Pure nothingness.
The kind of nothing that chose not to destroy, but to preserve.
And the void listened.
Not to his power.
But to his desperation.
[: Physique Resonance Detected :]
[: Boundless Void Physique has awakened :]
[: Boundless Void Physique – Incomplete Form – Will has been acknowledged :]
[: Emergency Dimensional Warp Initiated :]
[: Physique Mastery Inadequate, Trajectory... Unstable :]
At this moment, Daniel's body pulsed.
A ring of purple-black energy burst from his chest—no skill, no incantation, no control.
A dome of pure void erupted outward, swallowing Caelira, Rika, Kiel, Marnok.
One by one, they were taken.
Caelira's arms melted into the wind.
Rika vanished in a blink, wrapped in a silver mist, her scent fading like an echo.
Kiel tried to grab Daniel before he disappeared.
Daniel met Manork eyes…and nodded, before being swallowed by a field of shimmering earthlight.
All of them shouted at Daniel, wanting to convey words that he wouldn't hear.
And then...
Silence.
And Daniel was swallowed by the void.
In an instant, they were gone from the battlefield, from Velroth's sight and from each other.
The next moment, silence returned.
Velroth stood still, eyes twitching with fury.
His enemies had vanished before him...before he could tear them apart.
''Where did they go...?'' He had questions, but no one at this moment could answer him.
It happened in a moment that should never have existed.
A heartbeat stretched between life and death, between despair and destruction.