The air at the base of Gunung Padang was unnaturally cold.
Kael paid the driver, the man's fearful eyes a reflection of the oppressive silence that had swallowed the entire mountain. The car sped away, leaving him utterly alone in the crushing darkness.
He was back at the place he had died.
Ding!
A familiar window appeared, its golden light a lonely beacon in the night.
[You have entered a hostile zone: The Beast of Oblivion]
[Time Remaining: 25:47:01]
Kael's jaw tightened. The clock was ticking.
He began his ascent. The world was unnervingly still. No insects chirped, no leaves rustled. There was only the sound of his own breathing and the crunch of his boots on the gravel path. This wasn't just silence; it was a void of sound.
As he climbed, a new sensation began. A faint, warm hum that vibrated deep in his bones, a single pure note in the suffocating emptiness. It was a beacon, a thread of warmth pulling him forward and upward.
The Genesis Shard.
He passed the fifth terrace, the place where the hound had lunged, where his life had ended. A wave of phantom terror washed over him. He gritted his teeth, his Willpower stat flaring as he pushed the feeling down. He was not the same person who had died here.
The climb grew steeper, the ancient stones slick with a strange, cold dew. The hum grew stronger, guiding him to a flat, altar-like stone at the highest point of the site. In its center was a circular indentation, just big enough for a human hand.
He pressed his palm into the cool stone. Nothing.
It's a lock. The memory of the system notification flashed in his mind. The dormant blood of the Guardian awakens.
Blood.
Without hesitation, he found a sharp-edged piece of obsidian and sliced a shallow cut across his palm. Wincing, he pressed his bleeding hand back into the indentation.
The moment his blood touched the stone, the entire summit lit up. Glowing golden lines, like a divine circuit board, flared to life across the altar. With a low groan of grinding stone, the indentation retracted, revealing a hidden compartment. Nestled inside was a shard of what looked like solidified night, shaped like a serpent eating its own tail, a soft, internal light pulsing within it.
The Genesis Shard.
The moment his fingers closed around the relic, a surge of raw, untamed power flooded his body.
Ding!
[You have acquired the Guardian's Heirloom: The Genesis Shard!]
[Your bloodline has been fully awakened!]
[Passive Skill Pantheon Synergy has been upgraded]
[All Stats have greatly increased!]
[Your Resonance with the Codex has been unlocked to its next stage!]
[Your ability to manifest summons has been enhanced!]
He felt the change instantly. The deep-seated exhaustion was gone, replaced by a thrumming river of energy. Then, a deafening hiss echoed from the terrace below.
A wave of pure, soul-crushing despair washed over the mountain. The Genesis Shard pulsed with a warm light against his chest, and the wave of apathy shattered against him, harmless.
[The effect of Eternal Domain has nullified the Aura of Torpor!]
Kael looked down from the summit. On the fifth terrace, the beast waited. A colossal hound of shifting obsidian plates, cracks of purple, void-like energy pulsing between them. A crown of jagged, bone-like spikes adorned its head.
Torpor, the Ancient Beast.
With the relic's power coursing through him, Kael descended. He was no longer hiding. He was approaching a hunting ground.
He stopped one terrace above the beast. Torpor's featureless face turned toward him, and it let out a silent roar, a psychic scream of pure negation.
Kael stood his ground, his heart hammering with adrenaline."Okay," he whispered. "Let's even the odds."
He raised his hand and poured every ounce of his newfound power into a single, undeniable command.
"Descend!"
The sky shattered.
A pillar of pure, blinding solar light slammed down onto the terrace. From within the pillar of fire, a figure emerged.
It had the powerful, muscular torso of a warrior god, covered in golden, feathered armor. Its legs were semi-human, ending in the deadly, sharp talons of a hawk. From its back erupted a pair of magnificent, colossal wings, each feather a blade of burnished gold. Its head was that of a majestic, terrifying eagle, its eyes blazing like twin suns.
The true form of Garuda.
It landed silently between Kael and Torpor, the ancient stone groaning under its divine weight. A voice, deep and resonant like grinding stone, emanated not from the creature's beak, but from the very air around it, a tangible force of sound.
"So, this is the monster that defiles this sacred place."
Torpor hissed and lunged, a blur of shadow and obsidian.
Kael didn't need to speak. His thoughts, his strategies, were an open book to the being he commanded. But Garuda's replies were spoken, its voice a physical thing.
It's fast, Kael thought, his mind linked to Garuda's. Its armor is thick, but its movements are linear.
Garuda received the thought instantly, sidestepping the attack with impossible grace. "Its hide is unnatural," the divine being's voice boomed, echoing across the silent mountain. "An armor of solidified nothingness."
I see it too, Kael projected back, his eyes darting across the beast, analyzing it like a complex puzzle. But it's not seamless. There are gaps, the purple lines between the plates. Those are the weak points!
Garuda became a whirlwind of divine fury, its talons and the edges of its wings slicing precisely at the glowing purple seams.
CRACK!
A plate on Torpor's leg shattered. The beast howled in silent pain. It spun, its entire back bristling as it fired a shotgun-blast of razor-sharp obsidian shards.
Shield! Kael thought, and Garuda snapped its mighty wings forward, creating an impenetrable golden barrier. The shards disintegrated against it.
The beast was smarter than he'd thought. It was learning. It began to crouch, protecting the glowing seams on its legs and chest.
"It adapts, Conductor," Garuda's voice rumbled. "A direct assault is now difficult."
Then we won't be direct.
Kael's eyes scanned the battlefield. The ancient, towering stone pillars. An idea, sharp and brutal, sparked in his mind. He sent the entire strategy to Garuda in a single, telepathic burst.
Garuda tilted its hawk-like head, its golden eyes seeming to glint with approval. "A fine strategy."
With a powerful beat of its wings, Garuda shot into the sky. While the beast was distracted, Kael sprinted towards the base of the largest stone pillar, directly behind it.
Now!
Like a meteor, Garuda dove from the darkness, not at Torpor, but at the top of the pillar.
BOOM!
The colossal pillar groaned, leaned, and then crashed down with the force of an avalanche, directly onto the unsuspecting beast. Torpor was crushed, pinned beneath tons of rock, its back plates cracking and shattering. Its core, a swirling vortex of purple energy, was completely exposed.
"The core! A concentration of void energy in its chest!" Garuda roared.
I see it! Finish it!
He and Garuda knew what to do. Their wills aligned.
Garuda landed gracefully before the trapped beast. Its hawk-like head arched back, its entire body blazing like a newborn star. It unleashed a devastating, point-blank beam of pure, concentrated sunlight directly into the beast's core.
The world turned white.
When Kael's vision returned, the beast was gone, its body completely erased. As its last essence faded, a single, dark purple crystal fell to the ground with a soft clink.
Ding!
[Special Mission: Defeat Torpor - COMPLETE!]
[You have defeated Torpor, an Ancient Beast!]
[Your understanding of the Codex has deepened!]
[REWARDS ISSUED]
All Stats have increased exponentially.
New Title acquired: [Slayer of the Ancient Beast]
Item acquired: [Core of the Ancient Beast]
[Synchronization Rate with the First Codex has reached 10%!]
[Condition Met: The Seven Pillars resonate with your victory.]
[Hint: Seek out the anchors of the remaining six core pantheons to complete the foundation.]
Kael's legs finally gave out. He collapsed to his knees, utterly spent.
Garuda did not disappear. It turned its massive, sun-bright eyes towards him, and the colossal, divine being did something that shocked Kael to his core.
It knelt.
It lowered its body, bowing its proud, hawk-like head in a gesture of profound respect.
"You command with the will of a King, yet you fight with the wisdom of a scholar," Garuda's voice boomed, filled with a new, profound reverence. "The blood of the old Guardians is merely your foundation. You are something new."
"I... You don't have to do this," Kael stammered, overwhelmed.
"No," Garuda stated, its voice absolute. "This is insufficient for what you are destined to become. From this day forward, I, Garuda, King of Birds, pledge my undying allegiance to you."
Garuda raised its head, its golden eyes blazing with loyalty.
"My King."
The weight of that single, spoken word was heavier than the entire mountain.