Chapter 4: The Watcher's Gaze
The cosmic abyss was silent, save for the whisper of forgotten stars and the tremor of worlds born and dying. But in the deep, where time itself folded and warred against existence, an ancient presence stirred — an entity who was neither bound by time nor confined by the limits of mortal comprehension.
In this place, where shadows draped the edges of reality and nothing was ever truly whole, it watched. The One who Was. The One Who Had No Name. Its very essence stretched across dimensions, slipping between them like smoke through the cracks of a door too small to notice.
It knew the game. It knew the players.
The Game Master was not the only one who wielded such power. There were others, forgotten ones — the rulers of entropy, the architects of time's undoing. They were the true balance, the ones whose eyes never blinked, whose minds never forgot. They did not speak, for there was nothing left to say.
One such being, ancient beyond understanding, surveyed the battlefield.
The board was changing.
A flicker of darkness in the void. A pulse of raw, unrestrained power as Malvark, the forgotten piece, took his first steps upon the savage world. The Wood Dragon. His roar had cracked the skies, and his hunger could already be felt, rippling across the realm like a storm.
For now, he was just a flicker, a ripple, but soon...
Soon, he will wake the others.
---
Malvark
The Name of Ruin
Malvark's eyes glowed with the intensity of a thousand stars being swallowed whole. The land before him was vast, beyond what any mortal mind could comprehend. It stretched on endlessly, but to him, it was merely a vast canvas, waiting to be filled with carnage, destruction, and the taste of things broken beyond repair.
The first beast he encountered was a monstrosity, an immense creature the size of a continent. Its skin was made of dark stone, and its eyes were like twin suns, burning with an insatiable hunger. It bellowed in challenge as it charged toward him, its immense form shaking the ground with every step.
Malvark did not flinch.
He did not need to.
His massive tail whipped through the air, smashing through trees and boulders alike. The creature's charge faltered, its eyes narrowing as it sized him up. But it was too late.
Malvark's jaw snapped shut with a sickening crunch. The beast let out a final roar, its form crumbling into ash beneath his teeth. His hunger had been sated — for now.
The Evolution System stirred within him. It fed on the carnage, the chaos. His body thrummed with power, shifting and changing as it always did after each battle.
[Mutation Detected]
[Host: Malvark]
[New Ability Unlocked: Barkskin – Resistance to elemental attacks increased]
It was an ongoing process. Every beast he destroyed, every land he claimed, brought him closer to something greater, something he could not yet comprehend. But he did not care. He was the storm now. The lands would tremble before his will.
---
The Watcher
The One Who Is Forgotten
The Watcher, an entity whose existence defied logic, observed the rise of Malvark. It was not the Game Master's will that drew its gaze, nor the movements of lesser beings. It was the crackling of the ancient chains that bound the world. The fractures, deep and unnoticed, that were growing by the moment.
"Too soon," the Watcher murmured, its voice echoing through the silence of nothing. "The cracks are widening... the pieces are in motion."
In the depths of the darkened vastness, the Watcher could feel the tremors. Each move Malvark made, each victory, was slowly unraveling the delicate balance that held everything together. The board had always been in motion, but now, it was accelerating. Soon, there would be no turning back.
This was no mere game of power. This was the end of an age, the closing of a chapter that had spanned eons.
---
Gareth
The Soul Called
On the barren wasteland of a distant world, another soul stirred. Gareth had been a man of ambition, a conqueror of men, one who had ruled through fear and sharp intellect. He had once held the throne of a dying kingdom, his power overwhelming, but now...
He was nothing.
His memory of who he had been was fading, washed away by the void, but something still burned within him. A will. A drive.
He felt it now — an echo, a pull, something pulling him forward.
"Rise," a voice whispered, ancient and cold, yet strangely familiar. It was a voice that made his blood boil, a voice that seemed to understand him in ways no mortal could.
With a primal roar, Gareth rose from the wreckage of his broken form, his new body, a hulking beast forged from blackened stone and molten fire. His fists clenched, and his eyes glowed with a fury that could scorch the heavens.
The world around him seemed to bend and warp, as though reality itself was being torn asunder.
"I will rise," Gareth muttered, his voice a low growl. "I will not be a pawn. I will be a king."
But deep inside, a nagging fear gnawed at him. The game was in motion, and the pieces were not all set. He could feel the weight of the Watcher's gaze, heavy and omnipresent.
It was not just a game. It was a war.
---
The Watcher
The One Who Watches
From the void, the Watcher turned its attention to another piece. A soul called from the depths, its name forgotten, its past erased, but the essence of its purpose remained intact. It would take shape, it would grow.
The Watcher could feel the pull of the Game Master, the invisible hand guiding the souls. But the Game Master was not the only force at play. There were other players, other watchers, those who lurked in the dark corners of the multiverse. The Game was never one-sided.
"Let them come," the Watcher said, its voice a whisper carried on the winds of time. "Let them all come."
---
Malvark
The Name of Ruin
The world was beginning to change around him. He could feel it in his bones, the subtle shifts of power as the landscape reshaped itself with each step he took. It was as though the very land was bowing before him, submitting to his will.
He was not just a player on the board. No, Malvark was more than that.
He was a force of nature, a harbinger of chaos and destruction. And he would not be denied.
With each beast he crushed, with each mountain he shattered, the very air around him trembled.
Something deep within stirred.
There were others. He could feel them.
Not just the beasts of this world, but... something more. He could sense the souls of others, rising like storm clouds on the horizon. The players were entering the field, and the game was about to begin.
Malvark turned his head, his massive eyes narrowing as he surveyed the horizon. There was power in the distance. Other challengers. Other pieces.
And he would crush them all.
With a roar that shook the heavens, Malvark let loose a challenge to the world — a declaration of war. The Game had begun, and he would reign supreme.
---
The Watcher
The One Who Will Remain
The Watcher felt the tremors of Malvark's roar ripple through the fabric of the universe.
"Let the game begin," the Watcher murmured, its voice carrying no emotion. Only an endless, eternal truth.
In the shadows, where the players moved, where the pieces took their first steps — the Watcher waited.
And the universe bent beneath the weight of what was to come.