Chapter 132: A Day Ago
Amon did not move.
The stranger remained several hundred meters away.
Black robes shifted slightly despite the complete absence of wind inside the Dead Expanse.
Gray hair.
Royal crest.
Human appearance.
Black eyes.
Amon’s Danger Sense continued screaming.
Not at the wall.
Not at whatever remained sealed behind it.
At the man.
"You’ve been waiting eleven years for me."
Amon repeated the words silently in his mind.
Eleven years ago, the previous king entered the Dead Expanse.
He returned alone.
Three months later he abdicated.
One year after that he disappeared.
Amon studied the stranger’s face.
Older.
Thinner than the portraits he remembered seeing inside the capital.
But recognizable.
King Alaric Veyne.
Former ruler of the Veyne Kingdom.
Amon tightened his grip on Azrael.
The man noticed.
A faint smile appeared.
"You recognized me."
Amon remained silent.
Alaric looked toward the wall.
"Good."
He slowly raised both hands.
Empty.
"I know what they told you."
No response.
"Do not answer the wall."
Alaric tapped one finger against his throat.
"Do not speak your name."
He looked at Amon again.
"Do not acknowledge anything that calls you."
Amon’s expression remained unchanged.
The former king smiled.
"Those rules don’t apply to me."
That did not make Amon more willing to speak.
Alaric seemed to understand.
He reached beneath his robes.
Azrael moved instantly.
The blade pointed toward his heart.
Alaric stopped.
Then slowly pulled out a small metal disc.
He threw it.
The object landed halfway between them.
Amon did not approach.
The disc activated.
A pale barrier expanded.
Not around Amon.
Around the space between them.
The Fate Devouring Seed reacted.
[Isolated communication field detected.]
[Foreign observation interference reduced.]
[Verbal recognition risk: Minimal.]
Amon looked at the barrier.
Then at Alaric.
"Minimal isn’t zero."
Alaric’s smile widened.
"You’re cautious."
"You look disappointed."
"No."
The former king stepped inside the barrier.
"I’m relieved."
Amon remained outside.
Alaric waited.
Amon activated Seal Recognition.
The field around the disc became clear.
Three layers.
One blocked sound.
One disrupted spiritual perception.
The final layer severed external fate observation.
Crude compared to his Fate Concealment.
But effective.
No hidden opening.
No visible trap.
Amon stepped inside.
The barrier closed around them.
Immediately the pressure from the wall weakened.
Alaric exhaled.
"You have no idea how long I have wanted to have a conversation without that thing listening."
Amon stared at him.
"You said you were waiting for me."
"I was."
"Why?"
Alaric looked at him.
"Because eleven years ago, I saw you."
Silence.
Amon’s eyes narrowed.
"You didn’t exist here yet."
"Correct."
Alaric crouched and touched the metal disc.
Several additional symbols appeared around them.
Then he sat on the pale ground.
Amon remained standing.
The former king glanced at him.
"You can sit."
"No."
"Fair enough."
Alaric looked toward the wall.
"When I crossed the breach eleven years ago, I thought I was entering a ruin."
His expression changed.
"I was wrong."
Amon waited.
"It is exactly what the records called it."
"A prison."
"Yes."
Alaric’s voice became quieter.
"But not for one creature."
That answer immediately caught Amon’s attention.
"How many?"
"I don’t know."
Alaric laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
"Thousands, perhaps."
Amon’s eyes hardened.
"Of what?"
"Things from other worlds."
The Fate Devouring Seed pulsed.
Alaric noticed the tiny change in Amon’s expression.
"You already suspected."
"I met one."
"In the crawler dens?"
Amon’s gaze sharpened.
Alaric smiled faintly.
"That surprised you."
"How do you know about it?"
"Because it came through after I damaged the first containment layer."
Amon’s grip tightened around Azrael.
Alaric continued quickly.
"I didn’t release it intentionally."
"That doesn’t change the result."
"No."
The former king lowered his eyes.
"It doesn’t."
For several seconds neither spoke.
Then Amon asked the question that mattered more.
"You said you saw me."
Alaric looked up.
"When I reached the second chamber inside the prison, there was an object suspended above a black lake."
"What object?"
"A mirror."
Amon frowned.
"It didn’t show reflections."
Alaric’s black eyes seemed darker.
"It showed arrivals."
Amon said nothing.
"People who would enter this world from beyond its normal fate."
Amon’s expression finally changed.
Alaric saw it.
"I saw myself first."
"Then?"
"A woman."
Amon waited.
"I still haven’t met her."
"Then me?"
"No."
Alaric shook his head.
"There were seven others before you."
Amon’s eyes narrowed.
"Seven?"
"Some had already arrived."
"Where are they?"
"Dead."
The answer came immediately.
Amon stared at him.
"All of them?"
"Every one I managed to find."
Amon’s voice became colder.
"You killed them?"
Alaric met his gaze.
"Most."
Danger Sense surged.
Amon moved.
Azrael appeared against Alaric’s throat.
The former king did not flinch.
His black eyes remained calm.
"That’s the reaction I expected."
"Give me a reason not to remove your head."
"Because if I intended to kill you, I wouldn’t have walked into a sealed field where the prison can’t help me."
Amon pressed the blade slightly deeper.
A thin line of blood appeared.
Black blood.
Not red.
Amon’s eyes hardened.
Alaric glanced downward.
"Now you see the problem."
Amon withdrew Azrael half an inch.
"What happened to you?"
"The prison."
Alaric raised one hand.
Black veins spread beneath his skin.
"They call it assimilation."
Amon remembered the creature beneath the dens.
Its altered body.
Its foreign fate.
"You’re becoming one of them."
"Slowly."
"How long?"
"Eleven years."
Amon stared at him.
Alaric smiled bitterly.
"I should have died the first week."
"But you didn’t."
"No."
"Why?"
Alaric looked directly at him.
"Because I wasn’t born here either."
Silence.
The words landed harder than Amon expected.
The former king continued.
"I was born in another world."
Amon’s gaze sharpened.
"Earth?"
Alaric’s expression froze.
That was enough.
Amon understood.
"You know it."
The former king stood.
"How do you know that name?"
Amon said nothing.
Alaric took one step forward.
Azrael rose again.
He stopped.
"Answer me."
"You first."
For the first time since approaching, Alaric looked genuinely unsettled.
Amon continued.
"What year were you born?"
Alaric stared at him.
Then slowly answered.
"1994."
Amon’s eyes narrowed.
"Where?"
"London."
Amon remained silent.
Alaric’s breathing changed.
"You know Earth."
"Yes."
"How?"
Amon looked at him.
"I died there."
The former king froze.
The pale communication field suddenly felt much smaller.
Alaric took another step.
"How long ago?"
Amon thought about the difference between the two worlds.
"I don’t know what year it is there now."
"What year did you die?"
Amon gave him the answer.
Alaric stared.
Then laughed.
Not quietly.
Not calmly.
He threw his head back and laughed until his voice broke.
Amon watched.
Eventually Alaric stopped.
His expression became almost empty.
"So time really is different."
Amon said nothing.
Alaric looked toward the wall.
"I died in 2017."
That meant their lives on Earth had overlapped.
Possibly by years.
Amon’s eyes narrowed.
"How did you die?"
"Car accident."
"And you woke up here?"
"In the body of a seven-year-old prince."
Amon understood.
"Then you became king."
"Eventually."
"Why enter the Dead Expanse?"
Alaric’s expression hardened.
"Because I spent decades trying to find a way home."
Amon’s attention sharpened instantly.
Alaric noticed.
"There it is."
"What?"
"That look."
The former king smiled faintly.
"The same one I had when I first learned Earth still existed."
Amon did not deny it.
Alaric stepped closer to the edge of the communication field.
"The prison has routes between worlds."
Amon’s Fate Devouring Seed reacted.
"It has coordinates."
"Yes."
"Gate structures?"
Alaric slowly nodded.
Amon’s gaze became colder.
"Then why are you still here?"
The smile disappeared.
"Because the gates don’t lead where you choose."
Amon waited.
"They lead where the prison wants."
The wall beyond the barrier seemed to grow darker.
Alaric continued.
"The first time I activated one, I thought I had found Earth."
His hands clenched.
"I opened something else."
Amon thought of the ancient creature.
"The Night Crawler entity."
"That was one."
"One?"
Alaric looked at him.
"There were three."
Amon’s Danger Sense reacted.
"What happened to the others?"
"One died."
"And the third?"
Silence.
Amon already knew he would not like the answer.
Alaric looked east.
Toward the kingdom.
"It crossed before I closed the gate."
Amon’s expression changed.
"Where is it?"
"I don’t know."
"How long has it been inside the kingdom?"
"Eleven years."
Amon’s grip tightened around Azrael.
Alaric continued.
"It can change appearance."
"Human?"
"Perfectly."
"Energy signature?"
"Whatever it wants you to sense."
Amon’s eyes narrowed.
"What does it want?"
"I never learned."
The former king looked toward him.
"But I know what it was searching for."
Amon waited.
Alaric’s black eyes settled on him.
"Someone carrying a fate system."
For the first time, the Fate Sign-In System reacted before Amon could.
[Warning.]
[Possible hostile system awareness detected.]
Amon’s expression hardened.
Alaric stared at him.
"You have one."
It was not a question.
Amon said nothing.
Alaric nodded slowly.
"I knew the moment the wall reacted to you."
His voice dropped.
"Then it’s already too late."
Amon’s eyes narrowed.
"For what?"
Alaric looked east again.
"For it to start hunting you."
The communication disc suddenly cracked.
The barrier flickered.
Both men turned.
Amon’s Danger Sense exploded.
Not from the wall.
Not from Alaric.
From far to the east.
From the direction of the capital.
The system flashed.
[Warning.]
[Protected bloodline connection has entered extreme danger.]
Amon’s expression changed completely.
Ciara.