The forbidden continent was silent.
Not the peaceful silence of a calm forest.
But the kind of silence that came after something terrible had happened.
Ash floated in the wind like black snow. The air carried the bitter smell of burnt blood and shattered souls. Entire mountains of stone had collapsed as if an invisible god had pressed his hand upon the land.
Once, a clan had lived here.
Now… nothing remained.
The Crimson Clan had been erased.
Bodies lay scattered across the valley. Houses had been reduced to burning skeletons of wood and stone. The earth itself was cracked, as though reality had been wounded.
Standing above the destruction was a single figure.
A man cloaked in divine authority.
One of the Twelve Venerable Supreme.
His eyes were cold, ancient, and merciless.
Before him lay the last elders of the clan, their bodies twisted into grotesque shapes. Black veins crawled across their skin like living parasites.
Corruption.
Deep within their souls, something had taken root.
Something ancient.
Something hungry.
Something born from the Dark Forest.
The Dark Forest was not a place.
It was a conceptual horror that existed beyond ordinary understanding—an entity that fed on sin, despair, hatred, and broken hearts.
Once its influence entered a civilization, it slowly rotted their existence until they became abominations.
The Venerable Supreme had sensed the corruption early.
And so he did the only thing the world allowed.
He eradicated the entire clan.
A single sword swing had split the valley.
Another erased thousands of lives.
Within minutes…
Everything was gone.
The Venerable Supreme looked at the corpses once more.
His voice echoed quietly.
"Better ashes… than abomination."
Then he vanished into the void.
The wind returned.
And the valley grew silent again.
But not everyone had died.
Deep beneath the rubble of a destroyed home, hidden within a small dimensional rift, two children trembled in silence.
A boy.
And a little girl.
The boy was six years old.
Raven-black hair framed his pale face, and his eyes burned like crimson flames.
His name was Blake Crimson.
On his back was a strange tattoo.
A three-eyed crow.
Beside him slept a four-year-old girl with long black hair and the same crimson eyes.
She clung to him even in sleep.
Her name was Eva Crimson.
On the back of her hand rested a strange mark—a serpent twisted into the shape of infinity.
A tiny beauty mark sat beneath her lower lip.
They looked like twins.
Blake's arms wrapped tightly around his sister.
His body trembled violently.
He had seen everything.
Through the thin veil of his Absolute Concealment Cloak, he had watched as his entire clan was slaughtered.
His parents.
His grandparents.
His friends.
Everyone.
He didn't know why.
He didn't understand corruption or conceptual horrors.
All he knew was that a man had come…
And destroyed everything.
Tears fell silently down his cheeks.
His small fists clenched until his nails pierced his skin.
A whisper escaped his trembling lips.
"I'll kill him…"
His voice cracked.
"I'll kill everyone… connected to him."
The hatred inside the six-year-old boy was terrifying.
But exhaustion soon claimed him.
The concealment cloak flickered.
The small dimensional rift slowly collapsed.
Hours passed.
Darkness grew deeper.
And something else arrived.
The smell of blood had attracted monsters.
A massive pack of Level 3 beasts crawled through the ruined valley.
Creatures capable of destroying entire cities.
Their eyes glowed with hunger.
They surrounded the sleeping children.
One of the beasts stepped forward.
Its gigantic claws rose into the air.
The earth trembled.
The children were about to be crushed.
And then—
A man appeared.
He wasn't walking on the ground.
He was walking on the void itself.
Step by step.
Like gravity had forgotten him.
His silver hair danced in the wind, and a faint aura surrounded him like a quiet storm.
His name was Reinhard Astrea.
The Sword Saint.
One of the three beings known as the Misfits.
He had been traveling through the sky when he sensed something strange.
A faint fluctuation of mana.
And a dying echo of corruption.
Curious, he had teleported here.
What he saw now made his brows furrow slightly.
Two sleeping children.
And a horde of monsters.
Reinhard sighed.
"…Troublesome."
The beasts roared and charged.
Thousands of Level 3 monsters surged like a tidal wave.
Reinhard looked around.
Then casually picked up a tree branch from the ground.
The monsters were already meters away.
Reinhard moved.
The branch flickered once.
Just once.
The world went quiet.
Thousands of monsters froze.
Then—
They split apart.
Cleanly.
Perfectly.
Their bodies fell in silent pieces.
Blood flooded the valley like a crimson river.
Reinhard stood there holding the broken stick.
"…Too weak."
He glanced down.
The two children were still asleep.
Exhausted.
Traumatized.
Unaware that they had just been saved.
Reinhard examined the ruined valley.
His senses expanded across the battlefield.
He felt it immediately.
A faint lingering presence.
Corruption.
And the overwhelming will of a Supreme venerable
His eyes narrowed slightly.
"…So that's what happened."
He opened a small spatial portal and calmly collected every corpse and remnant of the clan.
Evidence had to be preserved.
But then his gaze returned to the children.
He stared at them for a long moment.
"What should I do with you two…"
For a second, he considered leaving them.
He had already saved their lives.
That was enough.
But then he remembered someone.
His little granddaughter.
A faint smile appeared on his face.
"…Troublesome."
He whistled softly.
The sky thundered.
A gigantic shadow descended from the heavens.
A legendary beast.
The Sky Thunder Eagle.
A creature known as the Paragon of the Skies.
Reinhard picked up the two sleeping children and stepped onto the eagle's back.
"Let's go."
With a roar of thunder, the eagle soared into the sky and disappeared beyond the clouds.
The ruined valley was left behind.
Silent.
Empty.
Dead.
Minutes passed.
Then something strange happened.
A thick fog slowly crept across the battlefield.
The air grew heavy.
Cold.
Ancient.
Suddenly—
BOOM
A pressure exploded across the continent like a supernova.
A vast.
Boundless.
Terrifying presence awakened.
Across the twelve continents, countless powerful beings froze.
The Venerable Supreme.
Ancient dragons.
Hidden gods.
All of them felt it.
A primal instinct screamed inside their souls.
Something unholy had stirred.
Something ancient.
Something that should never have awakened.
Deep within the fog…
A voice whispered.
"…Finally."
And the darkness smiled.