The campfire was still crackling when Liam awoke, though the warmth it offered felt thinner, dulled, like something unseen had bled into the night.
He sat up slowly. Elira was curled beside him, her golden hair spread across his chest like silk. Kaelion kept watch from a rock outcrop above, his swords resting in the dirt. Tazir and Varnak stood motionless on either side of the gorge, sentries of flame and fury.
And still… the air felt colder than it should.
Then the message appeared.
---
GOD SYSTEM – WORLD EVENT TRIGGERED
New Threat Detected: "The Sovereign of Silence" – Glacien, Lord of Absolute Stillness
Class: Primal Archmage
Level: 60+
Status: Woken from millennia of hibernation
Warning: Divine power incompatible. Danger level: Critical.
*Advised Action: Prepare for immediate resistance.
---
Liam's heart dropped. He stood, rousing Elira.
"Something's coming."
She stirred, blinking. "More cultists?"
"No… worse."
Kaelion leapt down, face grim. "The sky just froze."
Liam looked up.
The stars were still. Not twinkling. Not moving. Just… frozen in place like insects trapped in glass.
Moments later, snowflakes began falling—each one hexagonal, each glowing with a dim blue light. Not cold enough to sting. Just… unnatural.
Seriel materialized. "This is Glacien's magic. I feared this day would come."
"I thought he was a myth," Elira said. "A silent god buried beneath the Crystal Deep."
"He was real. He still is. And now, he's awake."
---
GOD SYSTEM – STATUS
Level: 24
Faith Points (FP): 50
Followers: 335
Angels: 34
Demons: 2
Title: Breaker of Despair, Flame of Rebirth
Alignment Shift: 71% Anti-Hero, 29% Divine Justicar
STATS:
• Strength: 45
• Speed: 46
• Endurance: 50
• Divine Power: 78
• Willpower: 58
• Charisma: 40
• Perception: 42
NEW TRAIT UNLOCKED: Divine Resistance: Frostbane I
> Reduces the impact of Primal Ice magic by 20%. May evolve.
---
The next morning, the group marched northeast, toward the frostbitten cliffs known as the Silent Crown. The landscape changed quickly—verdant forests turned brittle and pale, rivers stilled mid-flow, and time itself seemed to lag.
Creatures once native to the lands were now silent statues. Wolves frozen mid-leap, deer encased in translucent ice.
"This isn't weather," Liam muttered. "This is domain control."
Varnak growled. "He's asserting his rule. Challenging yours."
Tazir's wings shimmered with red lightning. "Let me fly ahead. If I find his fortress—"
A sound pierced the frozen air. Not a roar. Not a voice.
A chime.
Soft. Clean. Pure.
But it shattered the boulder beside them into powder.
The group dropped to the ground, eyes wide. And then—
A figure stepped from the mist.
He was cloaked in white and silver, his skin faintly crystalline. His face ageless, genderless, lips stitched with runes of silence. A crown of ice hovered above his head, never touching him. His feet didn't touch the ground. And around him, time wept.
Glacien, the Sovereign of Silence.
---
SYSTEM WARNING – BOSS ENCOUNTER IMMINENT
Glacien – Lord of Absolute Stillness
Level: ???
Threat Level: God-Tier
Note: Communication attempts ineffective. Non-verbal magic dominant. Will test domain supremacy.
---
Liam raised his staff. "Form up!"
But Glacien didn't attack. Instead, he raised a finger. A single rune of frost bloomed in the air—hovering, spinning.
Suddenly:
[Faith Connection Severed.]
[Followers Lost: 15]
[Angels Weakened: -20% effectiveness]
Liam gasped. His chest ached. The faith lines tethered to him had snapped like spider silk in fire.
"He's silencing belief," Seriel said in horror. "This isn't just magic—it's conceptual."
Liam gritted his teeth. "Then we fight concept with will."
---
He unleashed Solar Judicator Form again, divine fire consuming the ice around him. But Glacien's aura simply dampened the flame—nullifying motion, dulling reaction time.
Kaelion blinked as his blades slowed mid-swing.
Tazir's wings faltered.
Even Elira's spells became sluggish, as though dragged through mud.
Glacien glided forward, placing a hand on the air—and froze time in a cone before him. Varnak was trapped mid-punch, unmoving, a sculpture of rage and heat.
"Liam—!" Elira cried.
Glacien moved faster than light—appearing behind her, ready to strike with a blade of pure silence.
Liam shouted, "NO!"
And activated something new.
---
Emergency Faith Core Activation
Command Phrase: "Divinity Burn"
> Converts all remaining Faith into raw divine flame. Increases domain expansion temporarily. Removes debuffs. Area denial effect for 15 seconds.
Faith Points Burned: 50
DIVINE BURN ACTIVATED
---
The entire glacier trembled.
Fire that sang.
Flames that roared music into a world of silence.
Glacien stumbled back—the aura of stillness breaking under Liam's will.
Elira escaped the killing blow.
Kaelion returned to motion, slashing upward and scoring Glacien's arm.
Tazir tackled the ice god, screaming a curse from the infernal tongue.
For 15 seconds, silence was broken.
---
Then Glacien raised his hand again.
The ice flared back.
And then he spoke—not with words, but with runes burned into Liam's skull.
"You do not belong."
"This is not your realm."
"The silence will return."
Then Glacien vanished—ripped from the plane by some unseen command. His presence withdrew like a receding glacier.
---
Silence returned—but it was mortal silence now, not divine.
Liam dropped to one knee, his armor steaming, vision blurry.
Varnak finally moved again, falling to his knees, coughing smoke. "That… was not a man."
"No," Seriel said. "That was a concept in skin."
Kaelion wiped blood from his jaw. "And he just left?"
Elira helped Liam up. "No. He tested us. And now he's going to prepare. Because he knows…"
"…We're coming," Liam finished.
---
GOD SYSTEM – UPDATE
Faith Points: 0
New Trait Unlocked: Domain Will I
> You have resisted a god-tier domain. Your divine will is evolving. +10% resistance to conceptual suppression.
New Title Earned: Flame That Defies Silence
Public Perception: Shifting. New rumors forming among cities and tribes.
Next Threat Level: Unknown. Glacien has marked you.
---
That night, the stars began to move again.
And the flame beside Liam burned a little brighter.
But so did a strange warmth in his chest—not divine. Not magical.
Elira laid beside him, hand over his heart.
"You would burn the world to protect us," she whispered.
"I'd burn it again," he said. "If it meant keeping you safe."
She smiled softly. "Then maybe… you're not lost after all."
---
[End of Chapter 24]