The sky rippled behind him.
The ruins below were silent now—like they, too, feared what had awakened.
Null hovered above the cracked continent, the glow of his core pulsing dim violet. But inside, the seed left by the Hollow Warden had started to germinate.
[Mutation Trigger: Sovereign Echo – Stage 1][Core Signature Splitting… Processing Partial Recall.]
His vision blurred.
For a moment… he saw himself.
Wearing a cloak of nothingness. Sitting on a throne of carved bones. Worlds at his feet.
He blinked.
It was gone.
"Fragments of what I once was."
"Or what I still am?"
[New Skill Awakened: Sovereign's Echo – Shatterstep]Type: Void MovementEffect: Allows instant phase-shift over a distance while creating a delayed echo that replicates the last action with 60% force. Echo lingers. Echo remembers.
Null clenched his hand. Shadows coiled around his fingers like living smoke.
He was no longer just a Devourer.He was becoming a concept.
A Sovereign that could fracture himself across moments.
Suddenly, a wind blew.
Real. Not void-made.
[Alert: Mortal Realm Detected][Coordinates: Kingdom of Braska – East Marches]
He turned. In the distance, just beyond the decayed forest-line of the Sovereign Ruins, small flickers of torchlight danced.
Humans.
He could smell fear and faith in the air.
Null descended. Step by step, like gravity was too shy to pull him.
As he stepped onto the soft earth, the entire Marching Hamlet froze. Dogs howled. Children screamed. Cattle fainted.
A young priest dropped his sacred book and stared, mouth agape.
"You… You bear the Hollow Mark…"
Null looked at his own hand.
The symbol of a broken ring surrounded by an inverted flame pulsed like a heartbeat.
"No," Null replied."I am the Mark."
And with a single step, the earth beneath the temple cracked.
[Title Earned: Reclaimer of Dread – First Descent]Effect: Your arrival is now marked by Prophetic Tremors. All temples within 10 miles will lose divinity for 3 hours.]
He looked up at the sky again.
The moon was still blinking.
But now… it was bleeding.