Chapter 36: What Is That Monster?

The gate loomed ahead—taller than mountains, wider than the horizon. It pulsed like a heartbeat made of bone and void, and the pressure it emitted twisted gravity itself. Time bent around its frame. Space rippled like water.

Ren stood frozen.

Not in fear—but in recognition.

It wasn't just a monster.

It was the first.

The thing behind the dungeon. Behind the void. Behind the illusion of balance that held the world together.

He stepped forward, eyes narrowing.

"What are you?" he whispered.

The gate hissed open—not completely, just a sliver.

And from within, the air itself screamed.

A limb slid through the gap—not clawed, not scaled. Shaped like a man's arm, but covered in symbols Ren couldn't understand, pulsing with memories of everything ever lost.

Then the face followed.

It wasn't a face at all—no eyes, no mouth, only a mask of stone shaped like a tear. Light and dark shifted behind it like stars being born and devoured at once.

Ren staggered.

The monster wasn't alive in the way he understood.

It was concept. It was absence. It was everything people denied, feared, buried, and forgot.

And it spoke—not in words, but in thoughts that ripped through his skull:

"We are the hunger behind creation."

"We are the wound that never healed."

"You are the heir. The broken thread. The one who chose defiance."

Ren's body trembled, his power flaring wildly.

He finally understood.

This thing—this Being of Ruin—was the reason his father was made.

Why the dungeon had rules.

Why awakening powers was never a gift.

Everything had been a containment effort.

And the seal had failed.

Ren clenched his fists.

This wasn't about power.

It was about stopping the end before it wore a face everyone recognized.

And it had already begun to open its eyes.