////
At the edge of Thirn's Hollow, the villagers stood in silence, watching the last two figures disappear down the dust road—the girl who glowed, and the kin who didn't walk like a man at all.
The Immortal King took one last look over his shoulder, eyes soft, then turned to Kye and whispered:
"Hold on tight Kye."
She barely had time to breathe before his arms were around her.
////
Then—he moved.
The wind entrelaced in between his feets crushed by a blue aura pressure near his toes as a few hidden pieces of magic glass reacted to his presence.
He simply disappeared, taking the earth beneath his feet with him as he and Kye phased through multiples layers of rocks, bones & sands.
Skimming across the ancient leybone roots of the continent — a forgotten aura transit line built during the Primordial Age of magic. Only accessible to Aura user with the hidden knowledge of transmitting their aura through the sands of Sederis.
The desert howled around them as they penetrated the mythical conduit.
Once, it was the jewel of humanity — Sederis, capital of the First Unified Throne of Human Magic Users.
Now? A wasteland, where glass cities had turned to dust, and the bones of the elder gods they made pact with still whispered beneath dunes taller than towers in this gigantic desert.
As they raced through the ghost-kingdom sand paths, Kye blinked through the haze, catching glimpses of:
Shattered spires, half-buried in glowing sand.
Temple mechs lying in pieces, still humming ancient defense prayers locked in the times corridors of theses passages.
Feral remnants of once-programmed humans now turned to instinct and sand-madness ghosts hunting any remnants of magic.
////
But through it all —he didn't stop.
The King moved faster than time would prefer,his rags flaring behind him like flags of the old world.The desert did not dare touch him.
Not because he commanded it—
But because he had earned it.
////
"Where are we going?" Kye finally whispered as she held as tight as she could to his torso against the wind.
"Away from Gorgon's long range satellites," he said."And toward a past dangerous enough to produce fear in their hearts.""But don't worry Kye, i'l keep you close by..."
////
Location :Ber'Herek Capitol City – Gorgon HQ, Central Command Spire
Time: 06:44 PM
Alert Status: Tri-Threat Response Level: GODSFALL-Level 1
Broadcasting News Alerts : [BLACK GOD REBELLION] [IMMORTAL KING TRACE] [FAE QUEEN PRIMAL STIRRING]
The alarms ringed through out the city in her 130 sectors, mobilising all forces governementals and hunters associations alike...
They sang —a low, harmonic thrum of synchronized war preparation that vibrated through every wall of the city.
Ber'Herek — "Capital of the planetary order" — shifted overnight from sprawling technopolis to locked-down fortress.
Skyscrapers folded into bunkers.Civilian drones were retrofitted with tracking and stun protocols.Satellites aligned into kinetic-grid formations.
[MARTIAL CODE: BLACK PROTOCOL 7-A]— Trinity-Class Global Threat Imminent— Total Oversight Engaged— Martial AI "CHORA-9" Level 1 Activated
Inside Gorgon's central spire, 9 empty chairs blinked red.
Only three were occupied physically.
The rest? Already hidden. Watching. Calculating.
A new voice echoed across the chamber — sharp, young, military.Director-General Netharyn Vos, former warchild of the Titan School, now the head of Tactical Defense Command.
She addressed the council with fire in her lungs.
"We have three live threats, all confirmed in different quadrants. The governments has been made aware of their potential combined powers and triggered the city lockdown."
"One: The Immortal King — now active. His speed signature triggered three seismic arrays in the Sederis Desert this morning . Estimated maximum: Mach 72, and he's not even using skill accelerants based on our last sattelite runic scanner intel."
"Two: Black God Hunter rebellion. Varnex is down but will be with us shortly. The Void Annex ship was lost in their act of barbarism. They are the most active threat towards our grand organisation dear collegues. And will be dealt with shortly."
"Three: Faerisy — the Mad Fae Queen. Her last signal destabilized our orbitals sattelite in the Gigantia canopy. The Energy pattern resembles the mythical legend of the First Tree Genesis Event. That's not evolution. That's potentialy a mythical rank Magic era restoration problem on our hands."
An old scientist raised her voice.
"So you'r saying we're facing three God level threats..."
"Why not accept the proposition of this worldclass SSS hunters group... they dealt with entities like this before ! Killing the Evil god Eragonak."
Netharyn narrowed her eyes.
"Because that request will consume 3% of our total aura stocks, reprensenting a potential 70Giga tonnes runic aura battery power in loss."
////
Outside, across Ber'Herek, the skies began to dim.
Shields activated over the civilian zones.Defense Vaults containing Magic enhanced super soldiers opened, as they began patrolling the streets.
////
"And the people?"
Ezarion whispered arms crossed on the magical obsidian war table.
"Because everyone — even the faithless — had heard stories of:
The King who erased armies with a tap.
The 4 remaining black gods unleashed to hunt him.
And the Mad Fairy Queen, heir of Gigantia."
"And now? —All three have been FUCKING MOVING— In the same week !" Ezarion shouted slamming his fists on the table as a thunderous electric current roared and bursted on impact.
"PAY THOSES DAMN HUNTERS AND BRING ME THEIR HEADS !! BEFORE WE LOOSE FACES AGAINST OUR LAME INVESTMENTS !!!"
////
Location :Sederis Hidden remnants CoreTime: 09 PM
They reached the heart of the hidden underground ruins by dusk.
Sederis — what was left of it — stood like a mausoleum made of sand and divine punishment several hundreds of meters under ground as the thick layer prevented any satellite signal to pass.
From the ruined core center, Glass towers melted by time layed for ever in theses shattered aspects. Solar liquid rivers now bone-dry.Stadiums demolished, hollowed by soundless wars.Giant statues of human kings half-buried beneath dunes, their faces cracked by their own ambition and the consequences of their reigns.
The Immortal King finally stopped.Dust settled at his feet as he slid on the fast from the speed recoil.
He sat Kye down gently on a broken stone platform of what once had been the First Throne Plaza — the ceremonial center of the ancient Human Dominion.
Kye looked around, wide-eyed.
"This was... a city?"
The King nodded.
"The capital of humans from a long gone era."
"What happened?"
He knelt, touching the ground softly — a nostalgic reverence in his fingertips.
"I did."
The silence after that was thick.
Not with guilt — but memory.
Kye felt the air here differently.The ground was saturated with aura residue — not just from one war, but many.Centuries of buried skill echoes.Ghosts of battles so divine that reality hadn't healed.
"Why did you bring us here?" she asked.
The King stood and pointed toward the sunken colosseum a kilometer ahead — half-covered by sand, its entrance glowing faintly with deep blue sigil-fire.
"Because before we run forward, we need to walk through my past."
"There's something inside that survived."
"Someone who trusted me."
////
Elsewhere, inside Ber'Herek's most classified war room — High in the Orbital Gorgon's HQ tower, beneath a 1 kilometer of quantum-forged steel bunker — Project: WORLD SSS SQUAD 1 was activated.
The holograms of three global icons hovered in the chamber, being briefed under heavy clearance.
These were not ordinary hunters...
These were the God Intercept Specialists — a squad of 3 World threats experienced hunters directly trained by mythical trainers and legendary entities for direct engagements with divine-class anomalies.
////
✦ Operative 1: KASHA VAYNE (Tactic member)
Race: Human female
Appears : 30 (real age unknown)
Codename: "Halo Reaper"
Class: Archangel Slayer
Bio:Bionic ascetic enhanced with stolen angel code from the Third Era of Magic. Wings made of photonic blades. Zero fear signature, removed from inner cortex. Can override divine field logic for 9 seconds. Former Hope believer turned weapon in the Age of Tech & magic.
"If I see my target, I erase them without distinction. I don't ask where they came from. Only Aura energy in my personnal account matters to me, the more the better."
////
✦ Operative 2: RAKHUL THE SKINLESS IMMORTAL (Team leader)
Race:Ogre / Titan Forged Hybrid
Appears : 40 (real age : 210022)
Codename:"Null Claw"
Class: Divine Vampire
Bio: Skinned alive by the Immortal King 200 000 years ago during the Siege of Hollow Bastion for enhancing his titanic body with the lives of 4M innocents orcs citizen on the orcish Continent of Sumar. Survived by sheer will. Joined Gorgon high end paid SSS hunters list. Now wrapped in nano-iron flesh and death-vow bindings hand crafted by Varnex himself. Hates the King more than anything.
"You don't understand. He didn't kill me. He erased the idea of me. And I'v yet had my revenge."
////
✦ Operative 3: ELYN GRAVES (Support)
Race: High-Elf (Void-Walker Subtype)
Appears : 21 (real age : 320524)
Codename:"DestinyWarper"
Class: Reality warping Grand Invoker
Bio: Can bend timeframes and reweave causality for 1.7 seconds at a time. Only survivor of Faerisy's rain of comets containment day. She remembers the song of war before the meteor rained on everyone — and is the only one still alive haunted by it.
"I heard her lullaby once. I still wake up screaming. I'll kill her before she can remember how to sing again."
////
These three were paid high to lead the first strike protocol against the active god threats.
Their orders were simple:
"Find the Immortal King and capture him. Kill on sight any black god weapons. Locate the fairy.Use any means necessary. Do not wait for permission."
As the team prepared for descent from orbital stealth-drop, Director-General Netharyn stood before the global broadcast drone:
"This is not a war."
"This is a correction of our great Gorgon's Group Honor !! We paid you well Hunters !"
"This world has forgotten who really owns it. We will remind them. Tonight! Make us Proud !" As she almost finished her speech the Orcish pilot Denzel's voice destabilized her for a quick second.
"ENTERING ORBITAL STRIKE ZONE IN SEDERIS IN 20 SECONDS !! OPENING JUMP TRAP !! GO GO GO !"
"DONT SHOUT DENZEL JUST OPEN THE DAMN TRAP!!" she shouted back.
The SSS hunters jumped mid air as they landed somewhere in the Sederis desert. Their impact in the sand beneath their feets, caused a fast fireball in the crater, melting into tiny spiked crystal shards the ripples of sand.
"Arrival point reached, beginning the quest..."