The sword stopped.
It hung in the air inches above Saltraf's throat.
Frozen.
Unmoving.
Impossible.
The wind stopped blowing.
The flames consuming the houses froze mid-dance.
Ash and dust remained suspended in the air like tiny stars trapped in glass.
Even the screams that had once filled the village had vanished.
Silence swallowed everything.
Time itself had stopped.
Saltraf lay on the ground, barely conscious.
His body trembled weakly.
Blood soaked the dirt beneath him.
Every breath burned like fire inside his chest.
Yet somehow…
he was still alive.
His blurry eyes lifted slowly.
The stranger stood above him, sword raised.
But he wasn't moving.
Not even blinking.
He had become like a statue carved from stone.
The entire world looked the same.
Still.
Frozen.
Dead.
Saltraf's mind struggled to understand what was happening.
His thoughts were slow.
Distant.
Like echoes fading into darkness.
He tried to move his fingers.
They barely twitched.
Pain exploded through his body.
"I… can't die…"
The words formed weakly in his mind.
Not spoken.
Not heard.
Just a fragile thought clinging to existence.
His vision darkened further.
The edges of the world began dissolving into black.
Life was leaving him.
Slowly.
Inevitably.
And then—
the universe trembled.
Far beyond the stars.
Far beyond space.
Far beyond time itself.
Beyond the multiverse.
Beyond even the zeroverse.
There existed a forbidden place.
A place that reality itself refused to acknowledge.
Beyond the Rock of Eternity.
It was not darkness.
It was not emptiness.
It was something far worse.
A place where nothing existed.
Not even nothingness.
Even the concept of void had no meaning there.
It was the ultimate prison.
The place where the cosmos had sealed something it feared.
For countless eons…
that prison had remained silent.
Unmoving.
Unchanging.
Until now.
A fracture appeared.
A thin crack across existence itself.
And from that fracture…
something opened its eye.
The eye was vast beyond comprehension.
Within it spun layers of existence.
Time.
Space.
Concepts.
Dimensions.
Entire universes rotating like grains of sand.
It gazed across infinite realities.
Across endless timelines.
Across every possible world.
Searching.
Observing.
Waiting.
And then—
it stopped.
Its gaze had found something.
A dying child.
On a distant planet.
Inside a destroyed village.
A boy lying in the dirt while time itself remained frozen.
Saltraf.
The ancient presence watched him silently.
It saw everything.
His broken body.
His fading life.
The corpse of the woman who had protected him.
The hatred burning within his fragile heart.
But it saw something else too.
Something far more interesting.
His blood.
The entity's gaze sharpened.
Deep within Saltraf's body…
something existed.
Something that should not exist.
A bloodline.
Ancient.
Erased.
Forbidden.
A bloodline that the universe itself had tried to delete from history.
Not sealed.
Not destroyed.
Erased.
As if it had never existed at all.
Yet somehow…
this boy still carried it.
The entity watched silently for a long moment.
Then something rare happened.
Something that had not occurred in countless ages.
It smiled.
"Interesting."
The voice echoed through existence itself.
It was not loud.
Yet it reached everywhere.
Across universes.
Across dimensions.
Across time.
"A child rejected by the universe…"
The entity's gaze deepened.
"…just like me."
Long ago…
the cosmos had united to seal this being.
Primordial universes.
Cosmic laws.
Conceptual authorities.
All had joined forces to imprison it.
Because it was something the universe could not control.
Something that refused every rule of existence.
Something that could adapt.
Evolve.
Break.
And rewrite reality itself.
A paradox.
And now…
it had found another.
The entity observed Saltraf once more.
His breathing was fading.
His heartbeat was weakening.
Death was seconds away.
But the will inside him…
was burning.
Bright.
Fierce.
Unyielding.
A will to survive.
A will to grow stronger.
A will to never be powerless again.
The entity laughed softly.
For the first time in endless ages…
it felt something close to amusement.
"Very well."
Invisible chains of cosmic law trembled around the ancient prison.
Reality itself resisted.
But the entity did not care.
It extended a fragment of its will.
A tiny piece of its infinite existence.
"If the heavens deny you…"
Its voice echoed across eternity.
"…then I shall become your heaven."
The fragment descended.
Through dimensions.
Through time.
Through space.
Through reality itself.
It reached the frozen village.
It reached the dying boy.
And then—
it entered him.
Saltraf's consciousness flickered.
His mind drifted between life and oblivion.
Darkness surrounded him.
Cold.
Endless.
Silent.
Then suddenly—
a voice appeared.
Deep.
Ancient.
Infinite.
"Binding successful."
Saltraf's fading mind trembled.
He couldn't see anything.
But the voice continued.
"Primordial Zeroth System activated."
Strange symbols began forming across his chest.
Burning.
Glowing.
Carving themselves into his flesh.
Saltraf's body convulsed violently.
Pain surged through every nerve.
But his mind barely registered it.
The voice continued calmly.
Host Identified: Saltraf
Bloodline Status: Unknown
Bloodline Record: Erased by Universal Will
A pause followed.
Then—
"Bloodline anomaly detected."
The burning mark on Saltraf's chest grew brighter.
Dark symbols intertwined with glowing patterns.
Something ancient awakened within his body.
The voice spoke again.
"Host condition: Near death."
"Initiating survival protocol."
Energy surged through his broken body.
His heart beat once.
Then again.
Then stronger.
Bones began repairing.
Blood stopped flowing.
Wounds started closing.
And at the center of his chest—
a symbol appeared.
Dark.
Ancient.
Terrifying.
The First Zeroth Mark.
Far above him, time remained frozen.
The stranger's sword still hung inches above Saltraf's throat.
But something had changed.
Something fundamental.
Something irreversible.
Saltraf's eyes suddenly opened.
They were no longer the same.
Deep within them…
something ancient had awakened.
The voice spoke once more.
"Primordial Zeroth System fully activated."
Saltraf's body trembled as power—something completely unknown to this universe—began flowing inside him.
And somewhere far beyond existence…
the ancient entity watched with quiet satisfaction.
Because the boy the universe had tried to erase…
had just become something impossible.
The world would soon hear a name it had once tried to destroy.
Saltraf.
And when that day came…
even the heavens would tremble.