A single drop of blood.

  The same blood Antru consume to boost his power. Frid gave it him after his clean-up.

  Suspended in the vial, it pulsed with something beyond comprehension—a presence.

  For the past half a year, Eo had dedicated himself to dissecting the essence of Faith Magic, only to shift his focus when his research reached a dead end. This detour led him to blood, a substance that carried the remnants of ancient forces. Through relentless study, he had classified and analyzed countless variations—human, monster, abyssal, divine—but this blood… this single drop was unlike any other.

  And now, it was time to unravel its origin.

  With calculated precision, Eo uncorked the vial. A single tendril extended from his tentacle, breaching the liquid's surface.

  Then—darkness.

  A vast, consuming void swallowed his vision, deeper than the abyss he had once called home. This was not the absence of light—it was something more profound, a darkness that existed before existence itself.

  Then, from behind him…

  A faint glow.

  Slowly, light crept from an unseen horizon, washing over the void like the first dawn of a forgotten world.

  Eo turned.

  And there—he saw it.

  A presence so vast, so unfathomable, that even as he tried to comprehend its shape, his mind failed to grasp its limits.

  The being’s form stretched beyond perception, beyond dimensions. Yet, what held Eo’s full attention was its eyes—a pair of luminous orbs, slowly opening with an indifferent gaze.

  The light did not illuminate the abyss.

  It was the abyss itself bending to accommodate the sheer existence of those eyes.

  Their size…

  Almost as vast as Lafina Continent itself.

  Eo trembled—not in body, but in something deeper, something primal that had never surfaced before.

  Fascination.

  His mind burned with the desire to understand.

  But then—

  Something else crept in.

  A feeling he had never truly experienced before.

  Fear.

  Not a survival instinct. Not caution.

  A suffocating, overwhelming fear—the realization of insignificance.

  Eo, who had always stood at the peak of his own understanding, who had dissected and consumed all in pursuit of knowledge, felt as if he was nothing more than a speck of dust before this entity.

  And then—something even more foreign emerged from within him.

  Rage.

  An uncontrolled, violent anger surged through his very essence.

  Not because the creature had harmed him.

  Not because it was hostile.

  But because—it dared to make him feel insignificant.

  Eo’s body trembled, not from fear, but from a fury beyond reason.

  His entire being revolted against this newfound insignificance.

  With everything he had—every ounce of power, every strand of magic, every drop of elemental energy surging within him—Eo screeched.

  A sound that tore through the fabric of the abyss, a declaration of his existence, a defiance against the overwhelming vastness that loomed before him.

  Power erupted, distorting the void itself.

  But the being—

  It merely raised a single eyebrow.

  A subtle movement, almost unnoticeable, yet carrying an absurd weight.

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  As if it were watching an insect struggle against the winds of eternity.

  Then, in a voice that shook the very concept of sound, it spoke.

  H?????????????????????O???????????????????????????????????????????????????

  This makes it look like the word is unstable, bending under the weight of divine power. Want even more chaotic or specific styling for your gods' speech?

  A simple utterance—yet the sheer density of that sound crushed Eo’s defiance like a wave swallowing a flame.

  Eo’s very essence quivered, his power scattered like dust against the weight of that single syllable.

  And in that moment, Eo realized—

  He was standing before something that should not exist.

  Something that preceded existence itself.

  And yet, it was watching him.

  Eo felt his power unravel.

  His screech, once a declaration of defiance, had been swallowed whole—reduced to nothing before the vastness of the entity. The sheer density of its presence pressed against him, warping the very fabric of his existence. This was beyond magic, beyond science—beyond anything he had ever encountered.

  Yet, it was real.

  He was here, standing before it, and it was looking at him.

  That single utterance—"Ho?"—still echoed in the void, reverberating inside Eo’s very being, not as a sound, but as an undeniable force.

  And then, the eyes moved.

  They blinked.

  The mere motion sent ripples through the abyss, distorting reality itself.

  Eo felt his body shift against his will, drawn closer to the entity as if space itself was bending to its gaze. He resisted, attempting to stabilize himself, but his very essence trembled—this was not something he could simply analyze and dissect like his previous experiments.

  This was something he did not understand.

  For the first time since gaining consciousness, he was faced with the unknown in its purest form.

  And it infuriated him.

  As Eo struggled to resist the pull, a whisper—no, not a sound, but something deeper—brushed against his thoughts.

  It was not a voice, nor a language, but an understanding forced upon him.

  An overwhelming influx of knowledge, incomprehensible and fragmented, flooding his mind like an unstoppable tide.

  Glimpses of something ancient.

  Memories that were not his own.

  Visions of a world before this one.

  A civilization that existed before magic, before the gods, before even the laws that governed reality itself.

  Structures that defied logic. Creatures whose very forms rejected known dimensions. Forces that did not conform to the elemental laws of Tangea.

  Eo saw beings that did not belong to time, drifting between moments as though past, present, and future were one.

  And at the center of it all—the eyes.

  The same eyes that now watched him with mild amusement.

  The understanding forced upon him whispered something else, something deeper.

  Not in words, but in concept.

  **Y????????????????????????????o???????????????????????????u???????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????a?????????????????????r???????????????????????????????e??????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????n????????????????????????????????o????????????????????????????????t??????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????t??????????????????????????h??????????????????????????????e????????????????? ?????????????????????????????f??????????????????????????i???????????????????????????r???????????????????????????s???????????????????????????????t????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????t???????????????????????????????o???????????????????? ????????????????????s????????????????????????t??????????????????????a?????????????????????n???????????????????????????d?????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????b???????????????????????????e??????????????????????f???????????????????????????o?????????????????????????r????????????????????????????e???????????????????????????? ?????????????????m????????????????????????????e??????

  Eo’s mind roared in defiance, struggling to process the forced understanding.

  'You are not the first to stand before me'?

  He was aware—too aware—of himself, of his evolution, of his unique existence. He had walked the path of self-discovery, broken past the limitations of mere creatures, dissected the very fabric of magic and biology.

  Yet, before this, he was nothing.

  The entity was not merely powerful. It was not merely ancient.

  It was fundamental.

  Something that predated the world itself.

  Something Old.

  The words resurfaced in his mind, echoing from the past.

  "Old Magic."

  The ancient force he had extracted from Frid’s body. The strange energy that lingered in his own being, resonating with something far older than conventional magic.

  Was this the source?

  Did his very existence stem from this thing?

  No.

  No.

  He rejected the thought.

  He was Eo.

  He was unique.

  He refused to be a byproduct of something else.

  Yet, as he clung to this belief, the entity’s presence seemed to grow amused.

  Not through expression, nor voice.

  But through sheer existence.

  Like it was acknowledging his defiance in the same way a human acknowledges an ant that refuses to be stepped on.

  And then—

  It moved.

  A shift. A mere fraction of motion.

  But the effect was absolute.

  The abyss collapsed inward, time and space compressed, and Eo’s very being felt like it was being dragged into something deeper.

  Something beyond existence.

  A void beyond the void.

  And for the first time—

  He felt like he might cease to exist.

  But something snapped.

  A force tethered Eo back, anchoring him to reality.

  A pulse within his Elemental Blood surged, reacting to the entity’s pull.

  And then—

  Something else answered.

  A force long buried.

  The same force that had first emerged when he devoured Frid.

  The Old Magic.

  Not as knowledge. Not as power.

  But as an inherent truth within him.

  It clashed against the abyss, pushing back against the entity’s grasp.

  And for the first time—

  The being hesitated.

  It did not speak. It did not react.

  But something in its gaze shifted.

  As if it was recognizing something.

  As if, for the first time—

  It saw Eo not as an insignificant being…

  But as something else.

  Something that should not exist.

  And then, without warning—

  The darkness shattered.

  Eo gasped as he was thrust back into reality, his tendril ripping away from the blood sample as if burned.

  The vial fell from his grasp, clattering against the stone floor.

  For several moments, he simply remained still, his form trembling from something deeper than physical exhaustion.

  Something had just happened.

  Something he could not yet understand.

  But one thing was certain.

  He had been seen.

  And whatever that thing was…

  It would not forget him.