The moment Illyan's body entered the boundary within the door, the outside light no longer reached his eyes as darkness engulfed him and everything around him.

He relied only on his senses to barely make a roll on the ground without falling disgracefully since he didn't know where up and down were.

However, what should have originally been the ground was just an empty abyss blending with the darkness.

Illyan's body flipped several times through the air but never fell down, as if he had started levitating midair while being unaware of which direction was which.

'What is this? I saw that it was dark inside, but this is a little extreme… Is it some kind of sorcery?' Illyan cursed in his mind as he tried to find the ground by touch unsuccessfully before brandishing the red mace.

But he didn't see anything. It was as if he had lost not only his sense of sight but also as if he was completely isolated from his surroundings.

He tried to move in one direction carefully, but it was more difficult than expected because there was no floor. Instead, it felt as if he were swimming in the depths of the ocean.

However, despite 'swimming' in certain directions, it was as if he had walked no distance at all. There was nothing around him to verify his position either…

Everything was still.

'What now?' Illyan finally felt nervous. He was prepared for any kind of hardship, but he certainly didn't expect this.

'Is it an illusion? Hallucination? Or a dream?' Illyan had no way to counter something as esoteric as this at the moment. He tried to use spiritual perception, but he felt nothing. It was as if this place was completely sealed from spiritual energy.

His eyes also didn't detect any anomalies.

He didn't have anything that would help at this very moment.

However, it was at that time, when Illyan thought about a way out, that suddenly his sense of sight finally detected something moving in front of his eyes.

The darkness in front of him finally brightened.

"Ah?!" Sudden light stung his eyes, causing him to almost instinctively close them.

The light was so bright that it engulfed everything in the darkness, Illyan included.

A few seconds later, when the light became less intense, Illyan finally came to his senses.

And it was at that moment that he finally saw something in the darkness.

A humongous eye.

It took up all the space in front of him, spanning across the entire field of Illyan's vision.

'T-this… What kind of creature is this?' Illyan was shaken for a moment. This thing reminded him of that dragon spirit inside the Cold Sea.

The difference, however, was the fact that this was even bigger.

But soon, Illyan calmed down.

He felt something was off.

The eye didn't look natural at all. Instead, there were all kinds of carvings on it, and the texture of it seemed kind of… rocky?

Only its pupil, which was a perfect circle, shone with light as the eyeball started to rotate, causing weird noises to emanate from it.

The pupil moved from one corner of Illyan's body to another, making him feel naked under its observation.

Vroom

Suddenly, the pupil focused its sight above Illyan.

Illyan was confused about what it was looking at and glanced upward.

'What in the world… Is this a thread?'

When Illyan looked above, he saw a single string floating in the darkness.

Its color was gray, and it simply drifted there with its end out of sight.

However…

The other end was leading toward Illyan.

As he moved his head, the thread moved along.

Intrigued, Illyan tried to touch it, but when his hand reached for it, there was no resistance as it effortlessly passed through the thread.

Just as his own hand passed through the thread, yet another hand was reaching for the string.

It seemed as if it came from the abyss, a forbidden place for any living being.

The hand was shriveled up, with long fingers and nails of a blackish color.

When it finally caressed the thread, an inexplicable terror arose inside Illyan's mind.

It felt as if he was going to die in a second.

No, it was actually something much worse.

As if… he was going to be erased from existence if the string was snapped.

Fortunately, the hand also seemed to be powerless against the intangibility of the thread.

When Illyan wanted to sigh in relief upon seeing that, yet another hand appeared.

Then another.

All around the string, hands of various sizes emerged from the darkness, trying to catch the thread. Not only were their sizes different, but even their shapes varied.

Some of them were bulky, with packed muscles on each finger, while others were bony, as if they had only bones under their skin. There were those that had only three fingers, but there were also those that had as many as thirteen, while others had maws with yellowish fangs covering them.

These hands, full of an evil aura, seemed otherworldly.

However, Illyan was ignored. All of their attention was upon the string.

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This fiendish scene looked as if the devils from the underworld had invaded the world.

Soon, the thread was encircled by those hands, as if to completely obliterate it.

But the fact that Illyan was ignored didn't make him any happier.

In fact, Illyan was in no state to have such emotions.

The breath was taken from his lungs as his muscles stiffened with unbearable fear for his existence.

There was nothing he could do—only watch these things slowly creep toward that mysterious string…

It was at that moment that the eye's illumination grew even brighter as it was directed at these otherworldly hands.

It was so bright that a sizzling sound came from the hands as their mouths screeched in pain before they retreated into the darkness.

Then, the eye closed with mechanical sounds as the darkness melted into the surroundings.

Poof

Illyan fell onto his back as he lay on the ground, watching the ceiling with a dazed expression.

In the center of the ceiling, a massive eyeball, several meters wide, was carved straight into the black rock that the citadel was made of.

It seemed to be just one piece of carving with no functionality, but Illyan begged to differ.

'Is this alchemy?' Illyan sighed as he slowly stood up.

But something was off.

He slowly touched his head. A disgusting sensation spread from the top of his head, covering his entire body. It was as if something slimy coated him from head to toe.

This kind of feeling… it was the same as what he had felt inside the illusion.

Not as strong, but it was there for sure.

However, there was no time to ponder this, as Illyan felt a vibration that passed straight through his body.

In fact, the entire room had started to vibrate.

Illyan didn't even need to look around to know it was happening.

It was only then that he finally took a proper look at his surroundings.

He was in a small hexagonal room made of black rock, with a high ceiling where the eye dwelled.

There were no doors leading outside, no windows, and no sources of light. Yet, he could see perfectly fine.

He was standing right in the center of the room on an altar.

The ground was lit up with various symbols that circled the altar, frighteningly similar to the array outside the citadel.

'Well, this doesn't give me a good feeling.' Illyan chuckled as he remembered the traumatizing times when he was almost sacrificed to the 'Lord.'

But before he could move, the vibrations changed frequency.

If before they were long and deep, now they were quick but shallow.

However, a few seconds later, the frequency changed again as the vibrations revealed a certain rhythm.

This continued for a while until…

'O traveler who seeks my inheritance…'

The vibrations were finally perceived as sound.

The deep and majestic voice resonated throughout his entire body. He didn't recognize the language that was spoken, yet he understood it.

The entire room shook under the voice that came from nowhere and everywhere, and Illyan was left paralyzed by the enormous pressure it exuded.

'Is that… Emperor of Eternal Gondoris?' Hearing what the voice said shocked Illyan.

'Wasn't he dead? How come he is here?'

Illyan wondered as he listened to the next words of the man.

'The All-Seeing Eye of Alchemy has approved of you, which makes you a worthy candidate for my inheritance.'

Continuing to listen, Illyan's eyes shone.

'This means I have a chance at getting the inheritance!' However, Illyan's excitement was doused as soon as he heard the next words spoken by the man.

'I seek not an inheritor based on the nobility of their lineage, nor for the grandeur of their destiny, nor for the might of their strength or the promise of their untapped potential…'

The voice continued speaking without any sign of stopping.

'What I seek is not merely a successor but an avenger. This world upon which we stand, its fragile balance upheld by the waning power of the Divine Beast, teeters on the brink of ruin. All of this decay stems from a singular, insidious source: the False Gods that trespassed upon our lands from Beyond the Nothingness, bringing corruption in their wake.'

After saying this, silence ensued. However, the silence was as loud as the eruption of a volcano in Illyan's mind.

'What?' He felt his mind go blank after hearing these words.

It sounded like nonsensical fairy tales to Illyan.

After all, something like this was too distant for the current him, who was so weak.

'The world is crumbling? Because of False Gods? What about the Divine Beast?' So much information was given to Illyan, but he was barely able to grasp it.

'It is for this reason—and this reason alone—that this inheritance, which was touched upon by the Truth of Alchemy, cannot fall into the hands of those who might become puppets of these parasitic invaders.

Only those marked as enemies, those cast aside and deemed unworthy by these foul entities, are granted the chance to claim it. Your ties to their machinations have been severed, your fate rewritten as one they seek to annihilate. Whether you are virtuous, wicked, or indifferent to the world's endless suffering, one truth remains immutable: if you do not stand against them, you stand against yourself.'

After saying all of this, the voice sighed.

'By accepting this inheritance, you may gain power beyond mortal ken—longevity, riches, and treasures untold. Yet these gifts are but ash if darkness consumes all. No one, not even the strongest could escape their encroaching grasp, let alone all those who dared to take what they coveted the most.

Now, choose. Take the key and stand among the dwindling few who still resist. Not for the world, if that holds no meaning to you, but for the sake of your own survival. Or flee, and gamble on the fleeting hope that you may live unnoticed a while longer. But know this: they will find you. They always find you. And when they do, they will make you curse the very air you breathe, tormenting you with the kind of regret that scars the soul.

I speak from experience. My own failures, born of ignorance and misplaced trust, unleashed irreversible consequences. The cruelty of their manipulations left me broken, and the regret of my blindness is a weight I can never cast off.'

The sorrow in the man's voice was palpable. Even Illyan, dazed by the words, noticed the pain behind them.

'There is no middle ground. You are either with them or against them. Yet for you, the first choice has already been denied. So fight. Struggle. Resist with every fiber of your being so that you may find the strength to live without regret. Seek the truths within this inheritance, and perhaps you may right the wrongs that I could not.

Farewell, seeker. May your path be chosen wisely. May your defiance light a fire in the void. And may you, with the fusing of the keys, bring an end to my lingering sorrow.'

"What? That is all?! You can't just stop now! Who are the False Gods?! What do you mean that everything will fall into darkness?! You crazy…!" Illyan got anxious for once.

This man, whom people worshipped as the Last Emperor of the Eternal Empire, talked about False Gods that allegedly decimated this world and manipulated him to do their bidding.

Illyan was beyond flabbergasted. He didn't know what to expect in the citadel, but this wasn't it.

'The world is being doomed, huh? How lucky to be born here… What was this even supposed to mean? The voice… It didn't seem like he was present… It seemed to be a… Message? But then, that would mean this message is at least ten thousand years old. Yet the world seems fine…' Illyan thought cynically before his mind steered in the wrong direction.

But then… Illyan bit his tongue until it bled to clear his mind.

'The dragon in the ocean… He killed me because he thought I was with 'them.' He was killed, and only his spirit remained. It didn't happen in recent years, but it definitely was way later after the Eternal Empire. Normal mortals won't notice it since their lifespans are too short. If these so-called False Gods can live for thousands of years, then they have nothing to worry about.'

Illyan sighed helplessly.

It was at this moment that his suspicions were finally answered.

The feeling that someone was trying to harm him from the shadows. Or rather, something. Now, he knew what they were—False Gods that usurped this world.

'I can't escape unless I die willingly. Maybe even that won't help. After all, they are still gods, albeit false…'

In the end, Illyan didn't have any choice from the beginning, and so he steeled his determination.

The moment he did so, there was a shift in his psyche as his eyes showed a will that seemed to be perceived by the eye above as it once again opened with a loud rumbling.

Illyan looked straight at it and waited.

Rumble

Suddenly, the runes surrounding the altar finally lit up as the mechanisms started to go off.

The ground shook, and the altar slowly divided into four parts that shifted to their corners, leaving the center with a hole.

Soon after, another mechanism pushed an ordinary stone pedestal from that hole.

'That's… a chest?' Illyan, who stood on the altar's stairs, watched all of this in awe while preparing to run if something happened.

Instead, he was surprised to see a chest on that pedestal.

The chest seemed to be ordinary at first sight, but something was off about it. It seemed to be made out of gold. But the gold appeared darker than normal. In fact, Illyan felt that this metal was extremely beautiful. At the same time, a lot of symbols covered it. There were so many of them squeezed closely, and they were so shallow that they were almost impossible to see from a distance.

Illyan barely saw them when he slowly got closer.

But just as he got close enough to touch it, a strange feeling overtook him.

Thump-

Thump-

Thump-

Beating sounds resounded inside as the chest shook heavily.

The beating was rhythmic and strange.

However, Illyan recognized it immediately.

How could he not when he was a physician?

"Heart?" Still, doubt overcame his mind…

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