The battlefield fell silent for only a moment.
A single moment.
The largest Watcher had been destroyed.
Its massive eye had split apart beneath Null's Authority Release, scattering across the underground sky as fragments of black light.
The remaining Watchers retreated.
Not far.
Just enough.
Watching.
Calculating.
Waiting.
Hyung landed beside Null and immediately noticed it.
The trembling.
Null's sword arm shook slightly.
Almost invisible.
But there.
"You overused it."
Null didn't answer.
Because Hyung was right.
Old Prime Stage Four was stable.
His body wasn't.
Not yet.
The inheritance had synchronized with his mind.
His flesh was still catching up.
D U dropped beside them.
Blood still stained his jacket from the battle earlier.
Yet he grinned anyway.
"First day using King-level authority and you're already bullying Watchers."
Null exhaled.
"I'm not winning."
D U's grin faded.
He understood immediately.
The Watchers were not retreating because they were defeated.
They were retreating because something else had their attention.
Something bigger.
Something worse.
Then—
The Door moved.
Everyone felt it.
The sensation traveled through reality itself.
Not sound.
Not energy.
Recognition.
Even the Watchers froze.
The black sky above the station stopped moving.
Every eye turned upward.
Toward something none of them could see.
Caelum's face turned pale.
"No."
Eris looked toward him.
"What is it?"
Caelum swallowed slowly.
"The Door isn't opening."
His voice became quieter.
"Something inside it is waking up."
The atmosphere changed instantly.
Even Adrax turned.
Luxion's smile vanished completely.
Aizeno narrowed his eyes.
Then—
A crack appeared in the air.
Not space.
Reality.
A thin vertical fracture opened high above the battlefield.
Darkness leaked from it.
Not black.
Not shadow.
Absence.
The crack widened slightly.
And an eye opened.
Not a Watcher eye.
Not Adrax.
Not OR'VYLLA.
Something else.
Something ancient enough to make the Watchers recoil.
The moment it looked downward—
every remaining Watcher immediately retreated.
No hesitation.
No resistance.
Fear.
Pure fear.
D U stopped smiling.
"...Well."
Hyung looked at him.
"Well?"
D U pointed upward.
"I've never seen Watchers scared before."
That was a problem.
A huge one.
The eye beyond the crack looked directly at Null.
Nothing happened.
For three seconds.
Four.
Five.
Then a voice echoed across existence.
Not through air.
Not through minds.
Through reality itself.
"I FOUND YOU."
The station exploded.
Every window.
Every pillar.
Every remaining light source.
Gone.
Shattered instantly.
Null staggered.
Pain erupted through his body.
The spiral eye burned.
The black blade vibrated violently.
Inside the gate—
deep within the inheritance system—
alarms began activating.
Ancient ones.
Warnings that had never triggered before.
Caelum's eyes widened.
"The gate recognizes it."
Hyung looked toward him.
"What is it?"
Caelum answered slowly.
Like he didn't want to say the words.
"The thing the King sealed."
Silence.
Even D U stopped joking.
The thing the King sealed.
Not Adrax.
Not the Watchers.
Not OR'VYLLA.
Something above all of them.
Aizeno finally spoke.
And for the first time—
he sounded serious.
"...Impossible."
Luxion turned immediately.
"You know it?"
Aizeno stared at the crack.
"Yes."
The answer shocked everyone.
Even Adrax shifted.
The darkness surrounding him becoming unstable.
The eye above widened slightly.
Then the voice returned.
"I REMEMBER."
The underground capital began collapsing.
Reality peeled away in layers.
The Watchers fled.
Actually fled.
Caelum looked horrified.
"Everyone move!"
The station floor split apart.
A massive canyon opened beneath them.
Null tightened his grip on the black blade.
The pain in his body intensified.
Then—
A memory appeared.
Not his.
Not the King's.
Someone else's.
A battlefield.
A younger Aizeno.
The Old King.
And a third figure.
A silhouette standing before a fully opened Door.
The King was bleeding.
Aizeno was terrified.
And the silhouette was smiling.
The vision vanished.
Null froze.
Aizeno saw his expression.
Immediately.
"You saw it."
Null slowly looked toward him.
"...Who was that?"
For the first time in the entire story—
Aizeno looked afraid.
Real fear.
Not concern.
Not calculation.
Fear.
Then he answered.
"The First Failure."
The crack above the battlefield widened.
The eye inside it opened completely.
And something began climbing out.