Chapter 72 – The Second Gate: Twilight Reforged

The Second Abyssal Gate stood like a scar in the sky.

Taller than mountains. Wider than cities. It shimmered not with power, but with memory. Broken stars orbited its edges. Cries—some human, some monstrous—echoed from within.

Ren stood at its threshold, the Resistance behind him, the weight of the world pressing down like a vice.

Kael checked the seal runes on Ren’s gauntlet. “This gate is different. More than just monsters inside. It’s like… the gate itself is alive.”

“It remembers,” murmured Liora, stepping forward with a scroll of glowing script. “Every soul that ever tried to pass through. Every failure. Every regret.”

Ren’s eyes burned violet. “Then it’s time it remembers me.”

As he took his first step, the gate reacted—a pulse of time-splitting force shuddered through the earth.

[Void Monarch System Engaged]
[Permission Requested: Unlock Temporal Layer: "Twilight Reforged"]
[Danger Level: Fatal]
[Proceed?]

He didn’t hesitate.

[Confirmed.]

The world blurred.

He was no longer walking through the gate—he was falling through time.

FLASHBACK – 3 Years into the Abyss Era

A devastated city. Craters burned through black glass. Towers impaled by vines of screaming metal.

At the center of it all—a younger Nyx.

But not yet a king.

Not yet the Warden.

He stood bloodied, kneeling before a withered figure cloaked in voidlight.

“You crave power?” the being rasped.
“You will give up everything. Love. Memory. Name.”

Nyx didn’t blink.

“I already have.”

A rune burned itself into his spine. He screamed. And the First Abyss Warden was born.

PRESENT

Ren gasped as the vision ended. His feet touched down—inside the Second Gate.

The air was heavier. Gravity, memories, and madness coiled around him like chains.

And then the announcement:

[Abyssal Guardian Detected. Initiating Trial.]
[Opponent: Oris – Betrayer of Light.]

Ren blinked in disbelief.

Oris. His old mentor.

No…

A twisted, corrupted version—armor blackened, eyes hollow, smile broken.

“You followed me too far, Ren,” Oris whispered. “Now I’ll break what I once built.”