Chapter 2667: Story 2668: The Door to the Beginning

The floor split beneath Kael.

A violent wind erupted, pulling stones and dust into the abyss.

“Hold on!” Lena shouted.

Kael grabbed her hand.

Azael seized Elias.

The fifth and sixth children clung together.

Then the voice returned.

“Azrael.”

Kael looked down.

A gigantic crimson eye opened beneath the floor.

It was older than the enemy.

The woman screamed.

“Do not look into it!”

Kael stared.

A vision appeared.

He saw a world before the first kingdom.

No cities. No armies. No dead.

Endless white land stretched beneath a black sky.

Seven children stood around a glowing tree.

Six were familiar.

The seventh was Kael.

But he was different.

He wore white armor and carried a sword made from light.

Azael whispered,

“That is you.”

“No. That was before Azrael.”

The vision changed.

A colossal shadow descended.

Its body had no shape.

Only a white eye.

The children cried.

The seventh stepped forward.

“Stay behind me.”

The shadow spoke.

“You were created to remember.”

Kael’s chest burned.

The vision shattered.

He returned.

The woman of white fire cried.

“You saw it.”

“Tell me.”

“I cannot.”

“Because remembering your first life will wake the thing sleeping inside you.”

Kael touched the seventh symbol.

“It already woke.”

The symbol opened, surrounding him in white light.

Lena stepped toward him.

“Kael!”

He looked at her.

His eyes became completely white.

Then he heard another voice.

Not the enemy.

Not the First Soul.

His own.

“You are not Azrael.”

Kael froze.

“What?”

The voice continued.

“Azrael is the guardian’s name.”

Azael stared.

“Then who are you?”

Kael’s sword began changing.

The blade became transparent.

Inside it appeared countless stars.

The sixth child whispered,

“I remember.”

Everyone turned.

“You had another name.”

Kael’s heart stopped.

The child pointed toward the sword.

“Before Azrael, before Kael...”

The crimson eye opened wider.

The woman screamed,

“Do not say it!”

The sixth child spoke anyway.

“Elarion.”

Silence filled the chamber.

Kael repeated the name.

“Elarion...”

Symbols exploded.

A heartbeat answered from beneath the abyss.

Boom.

The fifth child fell to his knees.

“That name is older than the First Kingdom.”

Elias’s golden veins spread across his face.

“I hear something.”

“What?”

“A voice beneath the heartbeat.”

Lena raised her glowing hand.

“Stay together.”

The darkness stopped moving.

Then a staircase appeared inside the abyss.

It descended endlessly.

At its bottom stood a gigantic white door.

The door from Kael’s first memory.

The woman looked terrified.

“It began there.”

Kael stepped toward the staircase.

Azael followed.

“We go together.”

Lena nodded.

Elias joined them.

The fifth and sixth children followed.

The woman remained above.

“Kael!”

She pointed at his sword.

“Remember this.”

“What?”

“You were not created to destroy the beginning.”

Fear filled her eyes.

“You were created to survive it.”

The door opened.

A voice came from beyond.

“Elarion.”

Kael raised his sword.

Stars moved inside the blade.

And somewhere beyond the white door, something ancient whispered,

“Welcome back, first guardian.”