Chapter 46 – Edge of Time

The air was still. Too still.

Ren stood upon a floating fragment of land surrounded by an endless, shifting void. Time itself seemed fractured—each moment felt stretched and compressed all at once. The stars above moved erratically, like broken gears in a cosmic machine.

The white-clad man stood motionless, eyes glowing faintly gold. His presence radiated calm, but Ren sensed a terrifying power beneath it. This man was no ordinary being.

Ren narrowed his eyes. “You said… the edge of time?”

The man gave a small nod. “You were expelled from the Abyss—by Erebus himself. That should’ve erased you.”

“Then why am I here?” Ren asked, voice tight.

“You were saved. Or perhaps… chosen.” He turned away, staring at the void. “This realm is where those who’ve defied fate are cast. Those too strong to be destroyed… but too dangerous to remain.”

Ren’s eyes widened. “There are others?”

“There were,” the man said quietly. “But most were consumed by the Void’s hunger. You, however… you carry the Monarch’s Will.”

Ren took a step forward, fists clenched. “You know about the Void Monarch System?”

The man smiled faintly. “I was the first to bear it.”

Ren’s breath caught.

The first Void Monarch.

“You’re lying,” Ren whispered.

The man turned to face him fully now. “I was defeated long ago… sealed away by the same cosmic order that created the Abyss. But the system endured. It found a new host—you.”

Ren's heart pounded.

“All of this… the trials, the power, the Abyss… it’s part of something far bigger than you know,” the man said. “Erebus is only a herald. He serves a higher force—The Architect.”

Ren’s mind reeled. “What is the Architect?”

“A being who controls reality, rewriting fate through the Abyss. It wants a world without resistance. No Monarchs. No rebellions.”

The man stepped closer.

“But you… you’re a fracture in its grand design.”

Ren’s body trembled—not with fear, but with resolve. “Then teach me. Show me how to fight it.”

The former Monarch gave a small smile.

“Then let your training begin.”

Chapter 47 Preview – Monarch's Training: Breaking the Chains of Fate
Ren begins his brutal training under the first Void Monarch, learning to manipulate time fragments, resist the Architect’s influence, and awaken the hidden depths of the system… but the Abyss never sleeps.