The ground shook with devastating force as the crack in the temple expanded. A primal darkness emerged from within, thick and pulsing, as if time itself were distorting around it. Akihiko felt a chill run down his spine; this wasn't just power... this was something older than the Tree of Eden itself.
Viktor, for the first time, took a step back. His arrogant expression turned into a sneer of distrust. "This... isn't part of the plan."
Twisted figures emerged from the rift, shapeless shadows that seemed to consume the light around them. They weren't like the previous specters; these entities weren't soul fragments, but something else entirely.
Kael activated his scanner, but the screen flickered and failed. "This isn't normal. It's not just darkness... it's like they're made of pure emptiness."
Orpheus frowned, feeling his power resonate unsteadily. "This presence... does not belong to this world."
Viktor gritted his teeth and turned to the group. "I don't understand what's going on, but I'm warning you all: if this destroys us, no one will be able to claim the Tree."
Akihiko ignored her warning. His inner emptiness reacted to the creatures, drawing them in as if they shared a common essence. He felt an involuntary connection, a call inviting him to dive deeper into the abyss.
First Contact
One of the void figures moved with inhuman speed and lunged at Helena. Before she could react, the shadow passed through her and threw her against a stone pillar, knocking the wind out of her.
Isabella launched her resonant threads, but upon touching the entity, they instantly disintegrated. "No... we can't attack them like the previous specters."
Kael, desperate, tried an electromagnetic pulse, but the creature didn't even react. "They don't respond to anything!"
Viktor summoned his dark energy and launched a blast at the shadows, but the attack dissipated without effect. "This is a joke... not even I can hurt them."
Orpheus watched the scene with a chill running down his spine. "They're not shadows... they're something more. They're fragments of what the Tree sealed."
Akihiko watched the entities move, as if searching for something. In a flash of lucidity, he understood the truth. "They're not looking to fight. They're... testing us."
Isabella looked at him in disbelief. "How do you know?"
"They feel my presence. As if..." Akihiko swallowed. "As if they recognized me."
The Last Threshold
The entities stopped, as if waiting for Akihiko to make a move. He took a deep breath and stepped forward, feeling his inner emptiness vibrate in tune with the creatures. At that moment, one of the shadows extended a shapeless arm and touched him in the chest.
An avalanche of visions invaded his mind.
He saw ancient civilizations falling into darkness, men and women losing themselves in the abyss, consumed by their own desire for control. He saw the Tree of Eden flourishing amidst the devastation, as if feeding on the chaos. And, at the very end, he saw a figure with his back to him... someone identical to him, standing before the Tree with his hand outstretched, as if trying to seal it or awaken it.
Akihiko fell to his knees, panting. "This... isn't just a test. It's a message."
Kael rushed to help him, but Akihiko raised a hand, stopping him. His eyes reflected the same darkness as the entities. "The Tree isn't just the source of power. It's the seal of something far worse."
A new tremor shook the temple. The void entities began to merge, forming a gigantic figure, an ancient presence that had been waiting for this moment for centuries. Its silhouette seemed a distortion of reality, shapeless, with multiple limbs that expanded and retracted without apparent logic.
Isabella, still recovering from the shock, whispered, "This isn't just a manifestation of the void... this is what's always been trapped beneath the Tree."
Orpheus took a breath and prepared his Resonance of Doom. "If we don't close this rift now, everything we know could disappear."
Akihiko wielded his katana, his emptiness responding more intensely than ever. But inside him, something else was awakening. An echo, a presence that wasn't his own.
Viktor clenched his fists and looked at the beast in formation. "It seems that, for once, we're on the same side."
Kael analyzed the entity's aura, and his face darkened. "We can't kill it. If we destroy it here, its essence will be completely released."
The mafia leader let out a nervous laugh. "So what's the plan? Negotiate with a being we can't even understand?"
Akihiko looked at the creature and felt something strange... a trace of familiarity. Something inside him knew this battle wasn't just about strength.
The final battle was not just for the Tree.
It was for existence itself.