The golden mist that once resisted him had begun to fade. The Draconic Tree Sentinel, once an unyielding bastion, had fallen and joined his ranks.
Jin-Woo glanced at the massive shadow kneeling before him. Even in undeath, the knight's presence remained daunting.. a titan of golden power now wrapped in the abyss. His lightning no longer shone with the Greater Will's favor, but with something far darker.
Yet the city did not break.
No, it only grew more silent.
Jin-Woo narrowed his eyes. Something is watching.
A cold sensation trailed along his spine. It was not fear, but a primal awareness, an instinct honed through countless battles, through encounters with beings far beyond mortal comprehension.
Leyndell was not done with him.
He exhaled sharply, then turned.
"We move."
The shadows followed.
The city stretched before him, an endless sprawl of gilded ruins and towering monuments. Golden banners, now tattered and worn, fluttered in the stale wind. Statues of figures long revered stood cracked and broken, their divine visages marred by time and war.
Jin-Woo walked through the once-glorious capital, his footfalls eerily silent against the stone paths.
Beru moved beside him, his insectoid frame barely making a sound as he skittered forward. He clicked his mandibles thoughtfully.
"This place… reeks of something foul, my liege."
Jin-Woo nodded. He could feel it too.
There was something here. Something beyond the reach of his shadows. A presence that did not move, did not breathe, but simply existed.
Watching.
Waiting.
The silence was oppressive.
Even his shadows, normally brimming with dark vitality, seemed subdued beneath the weight of the city's slumber.
Jin-Woo's fingers curled around the hilt of his dagger. His instincts, honed by both life and death, screamed at him.
He was being led.
Not by an enemy.
By the city itself.
Leyndell wanted him to see something.
They passed through the shattered gates, stepping into a grand plaza. The remnants of an ancient battle lay before them, scorched earth, broken weapons, and the remains of warriors long forgotten.
But something still lingered.
Jin-Woo halted. His eyes flickered.
A shadow moved.
Not one of his.
Something hunched in the distance, its body wrapped in chains, its form twisted and wretched. Its breathing was ragged, wet with a deep, festering sickness.
Jin-Woo knew what it was.
An Omen.
A cursed child of the Erdtree.
Born with deformities that the Golden Order deemed impure. Cast aside. Hunted. Erased from history.
Yet here it stood.
Alive.
Barely.
It turned its head slowly. Its eyes gleamed in the dim light, hollow and unseeing, yet filled with something close to recognition.
Then, it spoke.
A voice like gravel and sorrow.
"You are… not of the Erdtree."
Jin-Woo didn't respond immediately. He studied the creature.
The Omen's body was broken. It had been shackled for so long that the metal had fused with its flesh. Its horns, once mighty, were shattered.
Yet something within it still burned.
A will.
Jin-Woo took a slow step forward. The Omen did not flinch.
Instead, it chuckled, a dry, bitter sound.
"They feared me once… and so they bound me."
It shifted its gaze, looking past Jin-Woo, beyond the ruined capital, beyond the golden mist.
"But you… They will fear you more."
Jin-Woo's grip on his dagger loosened.
This creature did not seek to fight.
No.
It sought something else.
It sought revenge.
Jin-Woo tilted his head. "Then tell me, Omen… Who should I kill first?"
The Omen smiled. A ghastly, broken thing.
And then, it pointed.
Beyond the shattered palace gates.
Toward the throne of the Erdtree.
****
The Omen's twisted finger lingered in the air, pointing toward the heart of the capital, toward the seat of the Golden Order's power.
Jin-Woo's gaze followed, his expression unreadable. The Erdtree's throne, hidden beyond the grand walls of the Royal Capital, radiated an unnatural glow. Even from here, its divine presence pressed down on the world like an unshakable weight.
Yet, the Omen still stood. Bound, broken… but not destroyed.
It should have been erased like the others. And yet...
Jin-Woo narrowed his eyes. "Why are you still alive?"
The Omen let out a breathless chuckle.
"A question I have asked for centuries."
The air around them remained still, thick with the weight of an unspoken truth.
Beru twitched beside him, claws flexing. He didn't trust this thing. Neither did Igris, who stood rigid, his crimson eyes locked on the prisoner.
But Jin-Woo…
He understood.
Survival. It was something he had mastered, something he had clawed for when the world sought to take everything from him. This Omen was the same. Shackled, tormented, yet still breathing.
Still waiting.
"You want vengeance." Jin-Woo stated.
The Omen's smile widened. "I want justice."
Jin-Woo scoffed. "Call it whatever you want."
Silence stretched between them.
Then...
Clank!.
Chains hit the ground.
The Omen's eyes widened in disbelief. He looked down at his wrists, once bound by ancient sigils, now unshackled. His ruined hands trembled.
Jin-Woo turned away. "If you want revenge, then take it."
The Omen looked up. And for the first time in centuries...
He moved.
They advanced through the ruined capital, the echoes of past battles still whispering through the golden halls.
Leyndell was not just a city, it was a corpse. A once-glorious civilization now rotting from within. The streets were littered with the remnants of a kingdom that refused to die. Statues of revered figures stood cracked, their expressions worn down by time. The banners of the Golden Order hung limp, stained with age and blood.
Jin-Woo's shadow army followed in perfect silence. The Draconic Tree Sentinel marched beside them, its lightning no longer of the Erdtree but of the abyss.
The Omen walked at Jin-Woo's side, silent but purposeful.
"This place reeks of arrogance," Beru hissed, his mandibles clicking.
Jin-Woo didn't respond.
His eyes remained locked on the path ahead.
Something was coming.
Something that did not welcome his presence.
They reached the inner gates.
Beyond them, the throne awaited.
But so did a guardian.
A lone figure stood before the gate.
Tall. Proud. Clad in resplendent golden armor, untouched by the ruin around it.
The last loyal knight.
The last defender of the Order.
Sir Gideon Ofnir, the All-Knowing.
He did not move as they approached. He simply stood, waiting, his hands clasped over his staff. His gaze, hidden behind his gilded helm, burned with understanding.
"You've come far," Gideon said at last, his voice smooth, knowing. "But did you ever stop to ask yourself why the path was so open?"
Jin-Woo halted.
Gideon tilted his head. "You were allowed to come this far."
The words settled over them like a cold wind.
Jin-Woo did not respond. He simply looked at Gideon… then at the throne beyond.
A trap?
Or a challenge?
It did not matter.
Because he would break whatever stood in his way.
Jin-Woo took a step forward.
And Gideon raised his staff.
" Oh come... Rise out, The Great Emperor Of Barrenness"
"Barran!!!"