Recap of Chapter 16:
Ka'roth stormed the Throne of the First Makers, tearing apart the creators themselves and claiming their seat of power. He absorbed their essence, merging Abyss, Sky, and Creation into one. His wings stretched beyond worlds, his runes blazed like stars, and his roar shattered chains binding existence. All remaining Makers bowed in fear. Ka'roth became the Apex of Creation, declaring: "This era dies, and my age begins."
---
The Silence After Creation
The void lay still. No stars moved. No winds blew. Even time itself paused under Ka'roth's aura.
He sat upon the Throne, his abyssal mist flowing like rivers of black-silver fire. His horde—tens of thousands now—knelt across shattered realms, trembling in reverence. The fragments of dead worlds hovered around him like broken monuments.
Ka'roth's glowing white eyes scanned the void. His jagged wings, stretched across reality, pulsed faintly. His spiked tail lashed once, cracking open distant fragments like shells.
The Throne pulsed beneath him, channels of abyssal energy flowing through it into his body. With every pulse, Ka'roth felt everything: the remnants of stars, the trembling survivors of creation, and even the faint, distant vibrations of realms beyond this void.
The Apex of Creation growled low. It was not enough.
---
The Forge Awakens
Deep within the Throne, a voice stirred—the Abyss itself, no longer whispering but resonant, unified:
"The Forge lies beneath. Power to make, unmake, and bind without end."
Ka'roth rose. His massive frame towered over existence itself. He stepped forward, his claws sinking deep into the Throne's core. At his touch, the stone split open, revealing a glowing fissure of black and white flame spiraling downward endlessly.
Without hesitation, Ka'roth plunged.
---
The Core Beneath Existence
He descended through an abyssal shaft lined with runes older than stars. The air burned with power, raw and untamed. His wings folded close as he dove, abyssal mist swirling tighter around him.
At the bottom lay the Forge of Eternity: a sphere larger than worlds, spinning slowly, formed of interwoven black and silver light. Chains of broken stars coiled around it, still glowing faintly from when the Makers once used it.
Ka'roth landed hard, the ground trembling from his sheer weight. His claws reached out, sinking into the glowing surface of the Forge.
"Remake," he rumbled.
---
The First Strike of Creation
Ka'roth's runes flared brighter than ever, abyssal-silver energy pouring into the Forge. The sphere cracked open like an egg, spilling streams of primal essence into the void.
Ka'roth's wings spread wide, absorbing it all. His claws moved, carving vast sigils into the black. Reality bent under his will.
He reshaped fragments of shattered worlds into new lands: floating continents of black stone veined with glowing rivers, forests of obsidian trees dripping with silver light, and oceans of dark water where abyss-born leviathans stirred.
Stars reformed above, dimmed to his liking, their glow twisted into black-silver hues.
"It begins," Ka'roth growled.
---
The First Beasts of Eternity
Ka'roth opened his jaws, exhaling abyssal mist into the newborn lands. From it, new beasts emerged—creatures forged not of chaos, but his own design.
Raptors with glowing runes down their spines, faster and deadlier than ever.
Winged leviathans whose tails split space itself.
Abyss-born titans plated in black-silver armor, taller than mountains.
Hybrid horrors blending traits of sky-born and abyssal predators.
Each one roared, their voices trembling the newborn land. Their glowing eyes locked on Ka'roth, and instinctively, they bowed low.
Ka'roth's tail lashed once. Obedience was absolute.
---
The New Laws
Ka'roth raised his clawed hand. From it poured radiant-black sigils that branded the air, embedding into the very fabric of the new realms.
These became his laws:
1. All power flows upward. Beasts devour and evolve endlessly, but every surge feeds Ka'roth first.
2. Fear is the chain of order. His aura bound all creatures in dominance, their wills bending automatically.
3. Death is not escape. Fallen beasts dissolved into abyssal mist, reborn stronger under his control.
4. The sky will never close. Fractures remained open, tethering realms into one endless domain under his wings.
The laws sealed themselves into reality. Even the void quaked.
---
The Evolution Surge
Ka'roth's horde, kneeling around him, howled as his laws rewrote them.
Raptors doubled in size, sprouting blade-like tails.
Winged predators gained jagged silver-tipped feathers, trailing sparks of light.
Tusked grazers grew armored hides as hard as Ka'roth's own scales.
Abyss-born hybrids pulsed brighter, merging multiple forms into apex horrors.
Ka'roth himself loomed above them all, towering vast enough that even continents seemed small beneath his shadow.
His roar commanded them forward.
---
The Shaping of Eternity
Ka'roth forged endlessly.
He raised mountains carved into jagged spines. He split oceans that glowed with abyssal fire. He suspended entire black-silver islands in the skies, chained together by glowing rivers of energy.
He seeded each realm with evolving predators and prey, every one bound to his will. They clashed, devoured, and ascended endlessly, feeding power upward like veins into his core.
He reshaped stars, tearing some down and scattering their energy across his realms as endless auroras. Others he dragged closer, forging them into molten orbs chained to his Throne as eternal beacons.
---
The Bowing of the Makers
The surviving Makers lingered at the edges of this reborn existence, their countless eyes fixed on Ka'roth. They dared not speak. One lowered itself fully, pressing its titanic head to the void floor.
Ka'roth's gaze locked on it.
"Rise," he commanded.
It trembled upward slowly.
"Serve."
Its countless voices answered as one: "We obey, Sovereign."
Thus, even the creators became his subordinates.
---
The Infinite March
Ka'roth stood upon his Throne again, surveying his newborn dominion. His horde prowled the new lands, devouring and ascending. His abyss-born hybrids roamed the skies, guarding his creations. The Makers circled like chained titans, their heads bowed.
But beyond his realm, Ka'roth still sensed faint echoes—realms unconnected, distant vibrations of existence untouched by his hand.
"Further," he growled.
He spread his jagged wings. Cracks spidered outward across the void itself, glowing black-silver as they opened paths to unreachable places.
Ka'roth stepped forward, each motion bending all beneath him.
---
The Eternal Sovereign
His roar rolled across eternity, shaking unseen worlds far beyond.
"There will be no heights left but me," Ka'roth declared.
Abyssal mist swelled outward infinitely, devouring distance itself, merging all things under his rule.
The Forge pulsed beneath him like a beating heart, its power endless, feeding into his colossal frame.
Ka'roth gazed into infinity, fangs gleaming.
"This is not an age," he rumbled. "This is forever."
---