The wind was different now.
Not cruel, not kind—just...aware. It moved through the trees with the hush of an audience after a tragedy. No birdsong. No distant thunder. Just the quiet judgment of a morning that knew too much.
Atlas exhaled slowly. The breath dragged out of him like thread from an unraveling spool.
[Mind stat unlocked… Congratulations.]
[With the Heart of an Ancient Being, the Blood of Jörmungandr, the Seeds of Yggdrasil, and now the Mind capable of comprehending true Reality and Law, Host is eligible to evolve.]
[New Evolutionary Path Unlocked: High Human.]
He stared at the notifications.
Not with joy. Not with awe.
With curiosity .
"…What kind of plot progression is this?" he muttered.
His hand went to his temple, pressing there like he could smother the ache from the inside. The other clenched against his thigh, knuckles white from restraint. His vision swam—not from tears or fatigue, but the weight of a world that was no longer written in his language.
