CHAPTER 34 —
The Herald had vanished… but his presence had not.Aetheria did not breathe after his disappearance. It held its breath, suspended between one heartbeat and the next, trapped in a silence that felt sharper than knives.
Haruto didn't move for a long time, his hand still gripping Airi's trembling shoulder. Her chest rose and fell too quickly, eyes red, breath caught somewhere between panic and shock.
"Onii Chan…" Airi whispered again, softer this time. "…it came for me."
Haruto pulled her close, arms wrapped around her as if trying to shield her from something neither of them could fully comprehend. He did not speak, not yet. His mind raced too fast, too violently.
Because he understood something:
That Herald…It had not arrived.It had scouted.
A scout from a nightmare older than the first empire. A scout from an organization buried in the world's darkest history. A scout sent specifically for Airi.
Haruto shut his eyes.
This wasn't an attack.
This was a declaration.
Airi clutched his coat tightly. "Onii Chan… the smile… the circle… I saw it in my dream. It was dripping darkness. It was calling me."
"I know." Haruto's voice was low, barely more than a breath. "I felt it too."
Footsteps echoed in the Skyhub corridor, fast, panicked, uneven. Frost burst into the doorway first, fur raised like a storm. Lunara followed, wings shaking with something dangerously close to fear. Lyria stumbled after them, her glow flickering erratically.
"Haruto," Lunara said, voice rough, "where did it go? Did it leave anything? Did it—"
"No," Haruto answered. "It just… vanished."
Lyria placed her trembling hands over her chest. "It is not gone. Its pressure… its echo… it is still clinging to the world." She gasped as if out of breath. "The world's heartbeat— it is still twisted."
Airi hugged her knees, still trembling.
Frost sniffed the air around her and growled. "It marked her. That thing… it marked the princess."
Haruto felt his entire body stiffen.
Marked.Targeted.Chosen.
For erasure.
He straightened slowly, lifting Airi into his arms. She clung to him without hesitation. Lunara and Lyria exchanged grim looks.
"We need the council," Haruto said. "Now."
They nodded, following him into the hallway… but none of them expected what waited outside.
The world was no longer the same.
AETHERIA IN CHAOS
When Haruto opened the Skyhub gates, Aetheria was no longer peaceful. The entire city throbbed with fear.
Elves shouted frantic orders.Dwarves ran with weapons half-forged.Spirit beasts whimpered under benches.Fairies clung to mana lamps whose light flickered dangerously.Dark elves crouched on rooftops, scanning shadows that twisted wrong.
Whispers echoed like ghostly winds:
"What was that pressure?""Why did the lanterns die?""The mana lines collapsed for three seconds—three whole seconds!""Is Aetheria… under attack?""Where are the Princess and Prince?!"
Haruto stepped forward, Airi still in his arms, and the moment the people saw him, all voices fell to silence.
Fifty eyes.A hundred.Hundreds more turning, watching him with fear and desperate hope.
They didn't see Airi shaking.They didn't see Haruto's clenched jaw.They didn't see Lunara's wings trembling.
They only saw their protectors.
A dwarf shouted first.
"Prince Haruto! Was it a monster?! Tell us!"
Haruto did not answer immediately.
He couldn't lie.But he couldn't say the truth either.Not now, not while the entire city trembled.
Before he could speak, the rails beneath their feet gave a sudden, sharp tremor.
Airi flinched.Lyria gasped.Even Lunara froze.
The entire Skyhub shuddered as if something deep underground had shifted sideways.
Then…
Every lantern in Aetheria blinked.Dimmed.Died.
For two seconds.
Two seconds of perfect darkness.
Aetheria screamed.
Children cried, merchants grabbed their belongings, warriors unsheathed blades, and the ground shook with a collective fear none of them had ever felt before.
Haruto tightened his grip around Airi, ready for an attack, but then, light returned.
Not strong.Not normal.Just barely enough to see.
Aetheria was not the same anymore.
Something was wrong with the world itself.
THE EMPIRES FEEL THE RIPPLE
Far away, in the Solaris Empire, crystal monitors across the main plaza suddenly turned black, then flickered to life with static. People screamed. Tech priests tried to restore power.
"What is happening?!"
Then one monitor showed something impossible:
A black silhouette for half a second, too tall, too thin, grinning.
The moment it vanished, news anchors panicked.
"W-we are receiving information that the Great Forest.. Aetheria's territory, has turned unnaturally dark. Our scouts cannot see past the treetops!"
A noble clasped her mouth.
"Is… Aetheria collapsing?"
A general whispered:
"This is no accident. Something ancient is walking."
In the Dominion Empire, mana sensors shrieked and overloaded. Entire rooms filled with sparks as runes cracked.
Commander Tarken roared, "REPORT!"
A mage staggered in.
"Sir— the Great Forest's mana signature… it vanished."
Tarken froze. "Vanished?"
"Yes. As if… devoured."
An old sorcerer leaned heavily on his staff.
"The second sign."
Everyone turned to him.
"The second sign of the void waking."
His voice trembled.
"Soon the third sign will fall."
In the frozen halls of Velnar, the ice oracle collapsed to her knees. Her breath formed black frost again.
"My king… the darkness spreads…"
The king approached quickly. "What darkness?"
She raised a shaking hand toward the south.
"The forest… is gone."
"Gone?"
"Not cut. Not burned. Not frozen."
She swallowed.
"Erased."
Deep in Abyssion, the emperor's shadows writhed in agitation. The assassins who always moved silently now trembled.
"Report!" the emperor demanded.
An assassin whispered:
"The Great Forest is blank on the shadow map. A void. An unmarked region."
The emperor's fingers tightened on his throne.
"Aetheria has been swallowed by something."
He lowered his head.
"The storm nears."
THE TWO HIDDEN EMPIRES WATCH
High above the sky, in the Celestial Sovereignty, the High Oracle suddenly dropped to one knee, gripping her chest.
"Oracle!" guards shouted, running to support her.
Her staff flickered with panicked starlight.
"I feel it… the second awakening…"
A guard asked, "What is awakening?"
Her voice cracked.
"The Herald's path… the countdown… the world's script is changing…"
She stared at the distant darkness.
"Seven days."
The guards froze.
"Seven days until the first fall."
In the Obsidian Republic, thunder cracked black across the storms. The masked governor stepped onto a balcony high above swirling clouds.
A messenger knelt behind him.
"Governor… the Great Forest has disappeared."
The governor exhaled, amused. His voice echoed like a smile hidden behind stone.
"So. The child of eternity has drawn the Herald's eye."
The messenger shivered.
"Should we intervene?"
"No."
The governor clasped his hands behind his back.
"We will watch. Until the seventh day."
Lightning roared in response.
AETHERIA REALIZES THE FOREST IS GONE
Haruto and the others reached the outer balcony of the Skyhub. Spirit beasts followed, trembling. Elves held lanterns. Dwarves clutched weapons.
Airi peeked over Haruto's shoulder.
Her breath froze.
The forest, the Great Forest that had always surrounded Aetheria.
Was gone.
Not cut down.Not burned.Not destroyed.
Just gone.
Replaced by a spreading void-like darkness, thick like ink, swirling with faint patterns, as if the world had been sketched in reverse.
Nothing moved in it.Not grass.Not trees.Not sand.Only the dark.
"Where… where is the forest?" Airi whispered.
Lyria cried openly now. "Airi… the forest was alive. I could feel its heartbeat. But now… it is silent…"
Frost growled deeply, stepping closer to Haruto.
"This is not destruction. This is erasure. Something removed the forest from existence."
Haruto clenched his fists so tightly blood nearly dripped from his palms.
"Because of the Herald."
Lunara closed her eyes briefly. "This darkness… this pressure… yes. This is the work of a Herald."
Airi clutched Haruto's cloak tighter. "What… what is a Herald?"
Lunara inhaled slowly.
"They are the weapons of the Grinning Circle. When the Circle wants a nation erased, they send a Herald."
Airi looked up. "H-how strong is a Herald?"
Lunara's wings trembled.
"A low Herald can wipe out a city."
Haruto stiffened.
"A high Herald can shatter continents."
Airi swallowed. "And… and the Herald we saw…?"
Lunara's voice dropped.
"That was a mid-tier Herald."
A heavy silence fell over Aetheria.
Frost's fur bristled violently. "A mid-tier Herald is enough to erase an entire empire in one breath."
Lyria whispered shakily. "Even if we three ancient beasts, Lunara, Frost, and I,combine everything… everything… it would take us a full minute to erase an empire."
Airi blinked. "One minute…?"
Lunara nodded. "A mid-tier Herald can do it in one second."
Haruto felt a coldness sink into his bones.
Airi stared into the void darkness surrounding them, tears clinging to her lashes.
"Why would something like that… come here?"
Lyria hugged her tiny hands.
"Because of you, Airi."
Airi flinched. "…me?"
Frost nodded grimly.
"You disrupted their prophecy. You changed the world's path. And the Circle hates anything that defies fate."
Haruto lowered his head. "They see you as a threat to their doctrine."
Airi hugged Haruto back tightly, refusing to cry.
"I… I never wanted to hurt anyone… I just wanted to make Aetheria happy…"
Haruto wrapped his arms around her and held her close. "You didn't do anything wrong, Airi."
Lunara stepped forward, scanning the dark horizon. "This darkness is not natural. It is a message… a stage."
"A stage?" Haruto asked.
"Yes. Heralds like theatrics. They love inevitability."
As she said that.
The sky shifted.
Clouds twisted.
Wind reversed direction.
And glowing letters formed in the air, written by something unseen:
7 DAYS REMAINING
Gasps echoed through Aetheria. Some fell to their knees. Others cried. Some warriors raised weapons desperately.
Airi pressed her face into Haruto's chest.
"What… what does it mean…?"
Haruto stared at the words until his breath chilled.
"It means the Herald will return."
Frost growled. "It means the countdown has begun."
Lunara closed her eyes.
"It means we have seven days left before the Herald tries to kill the princess."
Lyria sobbed softly.
"And Aetheria will be the battlefield."
Airi gripped Haruto's cloak, voice shaking.
"Onii Chan… seven days…"
Haruto lowered his forehead to hers, his hands trembling with determination.
"We will not run."
Lunara nodded. "We will not kneel."
Frost bared his teeth. "We will not break."
Lyria wiped her tears. "We will not let you fall."
Haruto cupped Airi's face gently.
"Airi… I will fight this."
Airi shook her head softly.
"No, Onii Chan… you forgot."
He blinked.
She took his hands in hers.
"It is not you."She squeezed them tighter."It is not I."She pressed her forehead to his."It is we."
Airi exhaled shakily.
"When you fall… I will catch you."
Haruto whispered back.
"When you cry… I will hold you."
They spoke together, the words trembling but firm.
"And when darkness comes… we will face it together."
A calm fell over them, fragile but real.
But it didn't last long.
Because the darkness outside Aetheria pulsed once.
Just once.
As if something very, very far away…
Had smiled.
Airi held Haruto closer, voice barely audible.
"Onii Chan… I'm scared."
Haruto held her with both arms, staring defiantly into the darkness.
"I know."
He didn't lie.
He was terrified too.
But he whispered the next words clearly.
"But they should be scared too."
A faint glow passed through his silver eyes.
"Because they are coming for the wrong siblings."
And far outside the world, in the void between realities…
The Herald answered with a whisper only Airi heard:
"Six…"
END OF CHAPTER 34 — The Darkness That Swallowed the Forest