The Citadel of Ivory Thrones was silent.
Not from reverence — but terror.
The surviving Hunters, bloodied and shaking, were dragged before the High Council. One still bore scorch marks from a spell that failed. Another had gone half-mad, whispering a name over and over again.
"Vae… Vae… Vaeren… Tenebris…"
That name hadn't been spoken aloud in seven million years.
The name etched into forbidden history.
The name that once split a continent in half by its utterance.
One of the archivists vomited. Another knelt to pray. The Grand Strategist simply stared.
"That's impossible," one whispered.
"The Tenebris bloodline was erased during the Final Seal War. Not even the Death Priests remembered—"
"We never erased him," muttered the Serpent-Masked Warden. "We buried him. Deep enough to forget."
A single sigil blinked to life on the command table:
THREAT LEVEL: ???? // CLASS: PRIMORDIAL ENTITY
"We don't have a ranking for what he is," said the Warden.
"He's not a monster. Not a man. He's… Vaeren Tenebris. The First Calamity."