Chapter 49 – The Abyss Trembles

Lightning cracked across a blood-red sky.

And then… silence.

A void opened in the heart of the ruined city of Elaris. A tear in reality pulsed, warping space like ripples across a still lake. From it, a single figure stepped out—cloaked in shadow, eyes gleaming like stars buried in the night.

Ren Kisaragi had returned.

His boots crunched against ash-covered ground. Rubble surrounded him. Once-towering spires now lay shattered. Streets were barren, but the air was thick with a suffocating, invisible presence.

He was home—but it wasn’t home anymore.

[Warning: Abyssal Presence Detected.]
[Initiating Recon Mode.]
[Tracking Signature: Abyss Warden “Zariel.”]

Ren’s eyes flickered. He could feel it—the weight of Nyx’s conquest, embedded into the earth itself.

“Still so quiet…” he muttered. “I remember when this street was filled with voices.”

Suddenly, a tremor rolled through the city.

A shadow streaked above him—fast, hulking. Then another.

Figures landed all around him—Abyssal Sentinels, armored beasts with jagged blades for arms and eyes burning with unholy light.

[Threat Level: B+ Rank]
[Combat Permission: Granted.]

Ren slowly drew his new weapon—Voidfang, a blade that looked like obsidian ice, humming with chronal energy. His smirk returned.

“Tch. Only B-rank?”

The Sentinels rushed him.

Ren moved once—and three fell, sliced clean through with delayed precision. Their bodies didn’t realize they were dead until his blade was already back in its sheath.

[New Ability Activated: Temporal Severance.]
[—Effect: Strike across timeframes, delay the consequence.]

He vanished from sight—an afterimage streaking across the battlefield.

Ten more monsters dropped. Then twenty.

And then—

A massive explosion rocked the outskirts of the city. A Warden appeared—tall as a tower, armored in black, wielding a hammer made from fused bone and flame.

“YOU DARE RETURN?” the creature roared.

Ren didn’t flinch.

He cracked his neck.

“I’m not here to return,” he said, lifting Voidfang. “I’m here to end it.”

The sky darkened.

The war had resumed.