Not everyone who awakens returns as they were.
For there are those who open their eyes to begin a new day, and there are those who open them to awaken an entire age, buried beneath the ruins of time.
Since the dawn of mankind, humanity has believed that wars begin when swords clash or when the first bullet is fired. Yet it has never understood that the most terrible wars are born within a single soul—when truth struggles against memory, faith against temptation, and man against the thing that dwells within him.
Some doors were never sealed because they were strong... but because they had not yet found the fool brave enough to open them.
And today...that fool has been found.
Or perhaps... the chosen one has.
As for the truth, it still awaits your judgment, dear reader.
What you are about to read—will it be the birth of a savior who restores balance to existence?
Or the moment a tyrant is born, one by whose hand the worlds will fall, one after another?
Do not rush to answer.
For even fate itself... does not yet know which path Abdul Karim will take.
All I know is this: the clock that stopped thousands of years ago... has begun to tick once more.
Silence filled the hall.
But it was not the kind of silence that brought peace.
It was heavy... so heavy that even the falling snow seemed to hesitate before touching the frozen ground.
Abdul Karim stood at the heart of the icy vortex, the golden sword resting firmly in his hands. His eyes slowly wandered across the hall, as though they could see things hidden from everyone else.
He could no longer hear the wind.
Nor the soldiers' breathing.
Not even the beating of his own heart.
Instead, he heard something else...
Distant whispers.
Voices speaking in languages he had never learned, yet somehow understood as though they were fragments of memories stolen from him thousands of years ago, only to be returned all at once.
On the other side of the hall, no one dared to move.
The female soldier remained on one knee, her sword trembling in her hands.
The Ice Queen concealed her unease behind a calm expression, but deep down she knew the truth.
The man who had entered her kingdom only moments ago no longer existed.
The one standing before her now...was someone else entirely.
Jacquard Smarda smiled faintly.
This was no longer the smile of a victor.
It was the smile of a man who had finally found what he had spent centuries searching for.
In a calm voice, he asked,
"Do you remember now?"
Abdul Karim did not answer.
He remained silent.
Then, slowly, he closed his eyes.
The moment he did...The world around him vanished.
He found himself standing upon a vast plain of black earth stretching endlessly in every direction.
There was no sky.
No sun.
No stars.
Only darkness, broken by glowing crimson cracks, as though the land itself bled fire.
Far in the distance stood a lone figure.
Its back was turned toward Abdul Karim.
A long black cloak draped over its shoulders, while both hands rested upon the hilt of an enormous sword driven deep into the ground.
Abdul Karim took a cautious step forward.
Then another.
Before he could utter a single word...
The stranger spoke without turning around.
"You are late, Heir."
Abdul Karim stopped.
His heartbeat echoed through the endless void.
"Who are you?"
Silence answered him.
A few long seconds passed.
Then the mysterious figure slowly began to turn.
Just as Abdul Karim was about to see its face his eyes snapped open.
He was back inside the Hall of Ice.
Everyone was still staring at him in fear.
Everyone...Except Jacquard.
A wider smile spread across his face, as though he already knew exactly what Abdul Karim had seen.
"So..."
Jacquard said quietly,
"It has finally begun speaking to you."
A heavy silence settled over the Hall of Ice.
No one spoke.
No one even dared to breathe.
Abdul Karim remained motionless, his fingers wrapped tightly around the golden sword, while the mysterious whispers continued to echo inside his mind.
The Ice Queen watched him carefully.
For the first time in centuries, fear had found its way into her heart.
Not fear of Jacquard Smarda...But fear of the man standing before her.
Jacquard slowly turned his back to them.
"You've seen the beginning,"
he said calmly.
"But the end..."
He paused.
"...is still waiting for you."
Without another word, his body dissolved into black smoke.
The shadows swallowed him whole.
Then he was gone.
The hall remained silent for only a heartbeat.
A deafening crack suddenly echoed beneath their feet.
The frozen floor split open.
One crack became two.
Two became dozens.
Within seconds, the entire throne room shook violently.
The Ice Queen's eyes widened.
"No..."
From the endless darkness beneath the shattered ice came a low growl.
Then another.
And another.
Something ancient...
Something that should never have awakened...
Was rising.
Abdul Karim tightened his grip on the sword.
For reasons he could not explain...He already knew that sound.
He had heard it before.
Long before he was ever born.
Then, from the depths below, two colossal crimson eyes slowly opened.
They stared directly at him.
The growling stopped.
The world itself seemed to hold its breath.
Then a voice, older than creation itself, echoed through the abyss.
"Welcome back..."
The eyes slowly blinked.
"...my King."