I Awakened as an SSS-Rank System Maker!

Chapter 45 - Shadow X Prestige

The moment Lucas crossed the threshold of the palace, something shifted inside him. The outside world, with all its brightness and chaos, seemed to vanish, replaced by a suffocating silence that consumed his senses. When his cold shoe touched the stone floor, a shiver ran through his body, and he felt the weight of the ancient place pressing down on him.

The ground beneath his feet was made of dark, glossy stone, so black it seemed to absorb the faint light struggling to pierce the shadows. Each step echoed through the vast hall, shattering the silence that enveloped the place. The walls around him stretched into an infinite darkness, adorned with strange carvings that Lucas couldn’t even begin to comprehend. The symbols twisted and turned, odd and mysterious, as though etched by a forgotten civilization. The air was thick with ancient energy, almost suffocating. It rose in the corners like dark mist, dense and oppressive.

Lucas couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being watched. His chest tightened with a strange sense of pressure that seemed to seep into his very soul, as if the palace itself were alive, breathing with a force that threatened to swallow him whole. Each step he took on the ground made it feel as though the earth itself was about to devour him.

As he ventured deeper into the palace, his attention was drawn to the faint glow of strange lamps affixed to the walls. The light they emitted was uncomfortable, dim yet sharp, casting long and distorted shadows that twisted and danced across the floor like ghostly hands reaching out to him. The further he went, the more oppressive the atmosphere became. Every corner of this place seemed to conceal something unknown, something untold. It wasn’t just the shadows creeping on the walls, but the tangible, suffocating energy seeping from the stone beneath his feet.

Then, something unexpected happened.

A faint sound broke the silence, the creak of wood groaning, stone scraping. Lucas turned just in time to see a massive door slowly opening. Its sound echoed through the halls like a funeral procession, and before he could even wonder where it came from, the door revealed a dark corridor stretching deeper into the palace.

He hesitated for a moment before advancing, spellbound by an invisible force. As he entered the corridor, a cold breeze passed over him, carrying with it faint whispers at first, barely audible, but growing clearer with each step. The whispers came from all directions, as though the palace walls were alive and trying to speak to him. These weren’t words, but an overwhelming sense, a feeling that urged him forward, compelling him to delve deeper into the heart of the darkness. The air itself seemed to roar with power, as if the corridor had a life of its own.

There was something in this place... a power, a presence... that could not be ignored. It was a reminder that no matter how far Lucas had come, he was still nothing in the grand scheme of things. The force that resided here was ancient, unfathomable, and beyond anything he could comprehend.

At the end of the corridor, Lucas found himself standing before a vast hall, its walls stretching above him like the jaws of a massive beast. In the center of the room, seated on a throne made of black stone, was Simaen’s father.

The air seemed to radiate with an invisible force, and Lucas felt it pressing down on his chest, weighing him down. The man before him was an imposing figure, his presence suffocating. Even from a distance, the man’s aura exuded raw, limitless power. A force that made Lucas feel small, insignificant, like a child playing in the shadows of giants.

Siman’s father’s eyes, as black as an abyss, met Lucas’s gaze. There was no warmth or sympathy in them, only cold, incomprehensible authority that seemed to weigh on his very soul. It felt as if they pierced through his being, analyzing his essence, as if he were nothing more than a mere pawn to be judged and discarded. There was no kindness here, no pretense of friendship only the horrifying truth of dominance.

Then he spoke. His voice was a steady, unsettling tone. Each word was like a hammer striking at Lucas’s consciousness, heavy, deliberate, and precise.

"You are here... because Siman sees something different in you. But what do you see in yourself?... I see weakness, extreme weakness. Do you know why?"

A chill ran through Lucas as he heard the man’s words. He opened his mouth to respond, but the words seemed to stick in his throat. He had expected many things maybe a welcome, perhaps a challenge but this was different. This was something darker. The tension in the air was suffocating, as if the distance between them pulsed with a promise of a dreadful judgment.

Siman’s father’s gaze did not shift. His eyes burned with intensity, and Lucas could feel it even from across the room. There was no malice in the man’s voice, only a cold indifference, as if Lucas’s fate had been sealed long before he had ever set foot in this palace.

"Do you think you deserve the power you seek?" he asked.

Lucas swallowed hard.

Deserve?

What did that mean? He had fought, struggled, bled for power, yet here, before this man, everything seemed trivial, meaningless.

The man’s lips curled slightly, as if enjoying Lucas’s internal turmoil.

"You stand in the presence of a being who has surpassed ordinary human limits. Do you feel it? The weight of my power? Do you understand the gap between us?"

Lucas stood frozen, unable to respond, caught between awe and a deep, primal fear. His knees trembled, and his heart raced in his chest.

In his presence, Lucas felt his humanity being stripped away, reduced to nothing.

Then Siman’s father rose. The air around him distorted as he moved. The throne groaned under his immense weight, and the shadows parted in reverence as he approached. With each step, the pressure in the room intensified.

"You are weak," the man repeated, his voice now a whisper, but it reverberated within Lucas’s bones.

"But that’s why you are here. To be refined."

Lucas’s breath caught in his throat. The truth struck him like an electrified sheet of metal.

This wasn’t a trial.

Then Siman’s father’s words echoed one last time, clear and final.

"Prove your worth, Lucas. Prove that you are more than what I see before me."

With those words, it felt as though the very fabric of the palace crackled with energy.