Eternia's Requiem

The underground auction hall had descended into absolute chaos.

Moments earlier, it had been a place of greed.

A place where nobles, criminals, merchants, assassins, smugglers, and opportunists gathered beneath masks and false names.

Now it resembled a battlefield.

Smoke filled the corridors.

Cracked stone littered the floor.

Burning debris illuminated sections of the underground complex with flickering orange light.

Screams echoed from distant halls.

People were running in every direction.

Some were escaping.

Others were chasing stolen treasures.

Many were dying.

And right in the middle of the disaster stood Etherius Draven Sinclair.

Holding the Seven Spirit Refined Elixir.

The very item half the underground market would happily kill for.

Etherius calmly looked down at the crystal bottle in his hand.

"...Worth it."

A guard nearly exploded from rage.

"WORTH IT?!"

"That is not the point you should be focusing on."

The man pointed at him.

"YOU STOLE IT!"

Etherius nodded.

"Correct."

The guard froze.

For a moment he almost looked confused.

Most thieves denied stealing.

Most thieves attempted excuses.

Most thieves ran.

This silver-haired menace was calmly admitting everything.

"Then hand it over!"

"No."

The guard twitched.

Another guard stepped forward.

"Listen here, brat—"

"I prefer genius."

"YOU ARE A THIEF!"

Etherius shrugged.

"A temporary ownership transfer specialist."

The guards collectively looked like they were about to suffer heart attacks.

Even Nysera, standing nearby, buried her face in her hands.

"You are making this worse."

"I disagree."

"You are literally insulting armed guards."

"They seem emotionally invested."

"ETHERIUS."

"I am conducting scientific research."

The nearest guard looked ready to explode.

"What research?!"

Etherius pointed.

"How quickly grown men can abandon rational thought."

Three guards immediately charged.

Nysera groaned.

"There it is."

Etherius sighed dramatically.

"See?"

"See what?!"

"You failed the test."

The three charging guards never reached him.

The moment they crossed the broken hallway—

BOOOOM!

A ring of fire erupted around Etherius.

Not a powerful spell.

Not an advanced spell.

A simple area denial spell.

Yet it was perfectly timed.

The guards had already committed to their charge.

They ran straight into the explosion.

All three were launched backward.

One smashed into a pillar.

Another rolled across the floor.

The third hit a wall hard enough to knock himself unconscious.

Silence followed.

Etherius slowly lowered his hand.

"...As expected."

The captain finally understood.

His eyes widened.

"It was a trap."

Etherius smiled.

"Congratulations."

The captain immediately raised his arm.

"STOP CHARGING HIM!"

The remaining guards froze.

The captain's expression darkened.

This kid wasn't strong.

Not really.

The captain was Fifth Circle.

Several of his men were Third Circle.

Normally this would be an easy arrest.

Yet something felt wrong.

Very wrong.

Every move this boy made felt deliberate.

Calculated.

Like he was playing a game they couldn't see.

The captain slowly drew his wand.

"Form up."

The remaining guards obeyed.

Three Third Circle mages.

One Fifth Circle captain.

They spread out.

Creating a formation.

Finally.

Competence.

Etherius almost smiled.

"Much better."

The captain frowned.

"You sound disappointed."

"I was hoping more of you would run into fire."

Nysera snorted.

The captain's eye twitched.

"Attack."

Magic erupted.

Fire.

Stone.

Wind.

Lightning.

Spells immediately filled the corridor.

Etherius moved.

Not fast.

Efficiently.

There was a difference.

He slid behind fallen debris.

A lightning bolt destroyed the stone behind him.

A fireball exploded nearby.

A stone lance narrowly missed his shoulder.

The corridor became a storm of destruction.

Nysera moved beside him.

Twin daggers flashed.

She deflected a wind blade.

"Any brilliant plans?"

"Several."

"Useful plans."

"One."

"Good."

"Run."

Nysera stared.

"You are unbelievable."

Etherius peeked from cover.

More spells.

More explosions.

The captain was surprisingly disciplined.

No wasted attacks.

No reckless advances.

He was methodically forcing Etherius into fewer and fewer options.

Not bad.

Not bad at all.

Unfortunately—

Etherius knew something the captain didn't.

Something was coming.

Something huge.

Something wrong.

Ever since arriving at the auction hall, Etherius had felt it.

A subtle sensation.

A disturbance.

A thread pulling against fate itself.

The feeling had been growing stronger.

Stronger.

And stronger.

Now it felt overwhelming.

Like something was descending.

Something ancient.

Then it happened.

The world froze.

Not literally.

Yet it felt that way.

A pressure descended from above.

Every guard immediately collapsed.

BOOOOM.

Knees hit stone.

Wands fell from trembling hands.

The captain crashed to the ground.

All four limbs pressed against the floor.

His eyes widened in terror.

"What... is..."

He couldn't finish.

The pressure increased.

Cracks spread across the walls.

Dust rained from the ceiling.

Everyone inside the underground structure was forced downward.

"This is not what I thought it was going to be, It's much worse than the Celestial Saint pressure of my Master."

"Who is this..." Etherius thought.

Even Etherius.

His body trembled.

Every muscle screamed.

Every instinct screamed.

Run.

Hide.

Survive.

The pressure felt alive.

Malicious.

Ancient.

Hungry.

Etherius gritted his teeth.

This wasn't normal.

This wasn't possible.

Nothing like this had happened in his previous life.

Nothing.

His mind raced.

What was causing this?

Who was causing this?

Then he noticed something.

The ceiling.

Dust continued falling.

More.

And more.

And more.

Then cracks appeared.

Large cracks.

Impossible cracks.

The underground structure began shaking violently.

"What is happening?" Nysera whispered.

For once...

Etherius didn't have an answer.

The shaking intensified.

Stone shattered.

Entire support pillars collapsed.

The ceiling broke apart.

Then—

The roof vanished.

Not collapsed.

Vanished.

Like a giant hand had ripped away the earth itself.

Moonlight flooded the underground complex.

Etherius froze.

His mind struggled to process what he was seeing.

The sky.

He could see the sky.

They were underground.

Hundreds of meters underground.

How could he see the sky?

Then realization struck.

The underground wasn't underground anymore.

Everything above them had been erased.

Roads.

Buildings.

Districts.

Entire sections of the city.

Gone.

Etherius slowly looked upward.

And immediately wished he hadn't.

The battlefield above resembled the end of the world.

The earth was gone.

In its place lay an endless abyss.

Mountains of corpses.

Rivers of crimson ether.

Golden lights illuminating impossible heavens.

Dark shadows crawling through reality itself.

Angels.

Demons.

Monsters.

Thousands of them.

Fighting.

Killing.

Dying.

And standing above all of them—

A figure.

A terrifying figure.

Etherius felt his blood freeze.

Silver hair.

Four arms.

One side radiating heavenly brilliance.

The other radiating pure corruption.

Golden runes covered her body.

A star-shaped mark burned upon her forehead.

The air around her distorted.

Reality itself seemed afraid.

And worst of all—

Etherius recognized her.

"Eternia..."

The name escaped before he could stop himself.

Yet immediately he knew.

That wasn't Eternia.

Not anymore.

The thing looked down.

Directly at him.

Their eyes met.

Every sound disappeared.

Every thought vanished.

Only fear remained.

Pure fear.

The entity smiled.

The expression wasn't human.

It understood humans.

It understood emotions.

It understood smiles.

Yet somehow it used those concepts incorrectly.

Like a predator mimicking kindness.

Like a nightmare pretending to be a friend.

Then it spoke.

Its voice echoed across heaven and earth.

Each word carried impossible weight.

Each syllable felt like a hammer striking reality.

"I do not need your Axis."

Etherius stopped breathing.

Axis.

How did it know?

How could it know?

The entity continued.

"Not yet."

The pressure intensified.

The surviving guards began crying.

One passed out instantly.

Another vomited blood.

The captain couldn't even raise his head.

Meanwhile Etherius felt every hair on his body stand.

The thing was speaking directly to him.

Specifically to him.

Not to the crowd.

Not to the battlefield.

To him.

The entity slowly tilted its head.

Silver hair moved like flowing moonlight.

Its four arms remained perfectly still.

And somehow that felt more threatening than any movement.

"Stay alive."

The words echoed endlessly.

"It would be troublesome to search for the next holder."

Silence followed.

Then realization hit Etherius harder than any attack.

Holder.

Axis.

Next holder.

The meaning became terrifyingly obvious.

If he died—

The Axis would pass to someone else.

The creature wasn't preserving him out of kindness.

It was preserving him out of convenience.

Like a farmer protecting livestock.

Like a collector protecting a rare artifact.

Like a monster preserving prey.

For later.

Etherius felt sick.

The First Dream.

The name surfaced instantly.

Ancient records.

Forbidden texts.

Mad prophecies.

Legends dismissed as fiction.

Everything suddenly aligned.

Everything suddenly made sense.

The massacres.

The disappearances.

The impossible catastrophes.

The gaps in history.

The hidden truths.

The things even Godlings feared.

The Name of the entity that defies all logic.

The thing before him—

Was the First Demon King's Deity....

The First Dream.

And for the first time since his regression...

Etherius understood something horrifying.

His previous life had been a lie.

Not entirely.

But partially.

A carefully edited version of reality.

The Capital Massacre.

One of the greatest mysteries in modern history.

Hundreds of thousands dead.

Entire districts erased.

No culprit ever found.

Countless theories emerged afterward.

Secret organizations.

Foreign invasions.

Ancient cults.

Failed experiments.

None had ever fit perfectly.

Because none had been correct.

Etherius slowly looked at the monster wearing Eternia's body.

And the truth settled over him like ice.

This thing.

This thing caused it.

Not a cult.

Not an organization.

Not a conspiracy.

One entity.

One ancient monster.

One being older than history.

The realization terrified him more than the battlefield itself.

Because if the First Dream existed—

Then everything connected to the Axises was real.

Every prophecy.

Every forbidden scripture.

Every ancient warning.

Every impossible legend.

All real.

And if those stories were real—

Then the future was far worse than Etherius remembered.

Far worse.

The First Dream's gaze lingered.

For a moment.

Two moments.

Three.

Then suddenly—

Its attention shifted elsewhere.

As if Etherius had already been categorized.

Already evaluated.

Already filed away for future use.

The entity turned.

The pressure eased slightly.

Not enough to stand.

Not enough to breathe comfortably.

Yet enough for survival.

Far away another explosion shook the world.

The battle resumed.

Reality screamed.

The heavens burned.

The abyss expanded.

And Etherius remained kneeling amidst the ruins.

Staring upward.

Trying to understand what he had just learned.

Nysera slowly crawled closer.

Her face was pale.

"Etherius..."

He didn't answer.

"Etherius?"

Still nothing.

The silver-haired boy continued staring upward.

His expression had become unusually serious.

Unusually quiet.

Unusually afraid.

And that frightened Nysera more than the monster in the sky.

Because she had never seen Etherius afraid before.

Not once.

Finally he spoke.

His voice sounded distant.

Cold.

Thoughtful.

"We have a problem."

Nysera almost laughed.

"A problem?"

He slowly nodded.

"A very big problem."

"How big?"

Etherius looked toward the sky.

Toward the First Dream.

Toward the battlefield that resembled the end of existence.

Then he gave an answer.

One that made Nysera's blood run cold.

"Big enough that my previous life might not matter anymore."

And for the first time since his return to the past—

Etherius truly did not know what would happen next.