A cold wind blew across the sands of Elbor. It was not just any desert wind—but the breath of a thing buried deep beneath the world's oldest mountain. The wind curled over dunes, whispered through cracked stones, and then vanished beneath a sealed door that hadn't opened in over four thousand years.
In the farthest south of the known world, beneath the Mountain of Rauth, a silence awakened.
But not the kind that meant peace.
This one listened.
---
Black Tower – The Council Reassembles
Kai stood with his hand on a screen showing no signal.
"Gone," he muttered.
"He just walked into the Rift and vanished?" June's voice cut through the silence.
"No," Leo corrected, frowning at the same data. "He didn't vanish. He entered it. Willingly."
Saeed rubbed his temples. "He called himself Elior…"
The name had already traveled through satellites and private lines, encrypted, decoded, and passed through networks no nation controlled. But what truly shook them all wasn't just the return of the Rift.
It was Laga's silence.
The man who had once ended a thousand-war conflict with just three strikes… had not spoken since Elior disappeared.
Kai finally turned from the screen. "What do we do?"
"We don't do anything," Saeed said. "We wait."
"Wait for what?"
"For Laga to decide."
---
Solis – 19 Hours After the Gate Collapse
Laga sat alone in the ruins of the hall, the crystal remnants of the Gate glowing around him. Mira approached slowly, careful not to make a sound.
"You know who he is, don't you?" she asked softly.
Laga didn't look up. "Not exactly."
"But you've guessed."
He finally turned, and his eyes were darker than night. "He's not just someone's child."
"What then?"
"He's the result of what was buried." He stood, his voice steady. "A life no one was meant to carry. A memory that should have stayed erased."
"But it didn't."
"No," Laga said. "Because something still breathes beneath Rauth."
---
Somewhere Deep – The Mountain of Rauth
Chains moved. Not loudly. Not with violence. But slowly—like someone was testing them.
A single light burned in a chamber large enough to hold a city. The walls were etched with runes from the first language—so old, even the wind refused to echo them.
In the center lay a figure.
Still.
Asleep.
But breathing.
One breath every three hours.
That breath now changed.
It quickened.
It deepened.
And one eye… opened.
Not human.
Not beast.
But something in between.
It whispered the name… "Elior."
---
Hollow Glass Corporation – June's Private Bunker
June's team had traced the energy signature Elior left behind at the Gate. It wasn't just Rift energy—it was old magic. Pre-Rift. Pre-Era. The kind no one dared speak of.
"Why would a child born in the last twenty years carry something older than the world?" her analyst asked.
June's face remained cold. "Because he's not just a person. He's a convergence."
"Of what?"
"Of failure."
---
Back in the City – The Secretary's Questions
Yemi sat in her dark office, lights off, replaying the footage.
She'd worked for Sanda for seven years. She had seen him command rooms, freeze enemies with a glance, and close billion-dollar deals without touching a pen.
But this…
This wasn't Sanda.
Or maybe it was.
She remembered the first time they met.
She was crying behind the reception desk, thinking she'd been fired on her first day.
He had brought her tea.
He never asked her why she cried. Never told anyone. Just smiled and said, "You'll do well here."
That wasn't a businessman.
That was something else.
And now she knew.
She wasn't working for a CEO.
She had been working for a master.
---
Desert South – Ruins of the Fourth Temple
Toma stood with dust in his hair, boots on glass, and one fist pressed into the shattered rock. He had been here before.
Long ago.
Before he became the world's most feared defense magnate.
He was younger then.
Wilder.
Angrier.
And he had sworn an oath to a man who never told him his real name.
That man had taught him to wield silence like a weapon. To crush armies without lifting a finger.
That man was Sanda.
But now…
Now he was Laga.
And now, that same man was standing against something even he feared.
"Elior…" Toma whispered. "You better not be a mistake."
---
Meanwhile – Inside the Rift
Elior knelt on an invisible path, surrounded by nothing but drifting light. There was no sky. No ground. No air.
But the Rift breathed through him.
It was alive.
He saw visions—of cities still unborn, of wars that hadn't started, and of him… standing before a throne built not from gold, but from promises broken by generations.
A voice whispered to him.
Not loud.
But eternal.
"You are not ready."
He looked up. "I don't need to be ready."
"Then you will break."
"I've already broken."
The Rift shifted. It didn't test him with pain. It tested him with truth.
Images surged again—
—A woman with bleeding hands opening a Gate no one else could even see.
—A man burying a crown inside his own chest.
—A child born with the breath of silence itself.
He understood now.
He wasn't born by chance.
He was built.
---
Far Away – A Hidden Room in the World's Richest Estate
A woman in her late sixties sat beside a piano no one had touched in a decade. Her name was Laina.
She was Sanda's sister.
She had seen him five times in her life.
Never the same face. Never the same voice. But always the same eyes.
And now… she looked up from a letter that had just arrived.
No stamp.
No name.
Only a sentence written in the ancient language they'd sworn to never use again.
She read it aloud.
"When silence calls, tell our brother his time has come."
Her hand trembled.
"Laga…" she whispered. "What have you done?"