For centuries he had stood in darkness that was not absence of light but absence of permission. Bound beneath the mundane world, beneath its cities and highways and glass towers, sealed in a chamber that no human architect knew existed. Not asleep. Never asleep. Simply restrained.
And when the final seal loosened...
He had opened his eyes.
There was no scream.
No explosion.
Just a slow inhale.
The air above ground was different. Thinner. Polluted. Laced with metal and impatience. It tasted of machinery and ambition.
He stepped forward.
The earth parted for him.
Not dramatically.
Respectfully.
He emerged in the shadow of towering buildings that stabbed into the sky like arrogant declarations of progress. Neon signs flickered. Vehicles roared past in endless streams. Humans moved quickly, heads bent toward glowing devices clutched in their hands as though afraid silence might swallow them whole.
He stood still in the middle of it all.
And the world… adjusted.
