Pov Author
The ground beneath Anna pulsed like a living thing.
She pushed herself upright slowly, breath shallow, palms pressing into ash-warm soil that shimmered faintly red. The sky above was not truly a sky—more like a wound torn across reality, bleeding color and shadow. No sun. No moon. Just a constant, oppressive glow, as if the world itself was watching her.
Whispers brushed her ears.
Not words.
Memories.
Fear tightened her chest.
"This place…" she murmured.
Her healing energy stirred instinctively—but recoiled. Whatever realm this was, it did not welcome mercy. It swallowed light the way a grave swallowed sound.
A shape moved in the distance.
Anna froze.
From the crimson fog emerged towering structures—ruins twisted upward like claws, etched with symbols that hurt to look at too long. Chains as thick as castle pillars stretched across the land, vanishing into the horizon, as if binding something enormous beneath the world.
Then she felt it.
Pressure.
Not magic.
Authority.
A presence descended without footsteps, without wind—simply there.
"You do not belong here, little healer."
The voice was neither loud nor soft. It existed inside her bones.
Anna turned.
A figure stood several paces away, cloaked in fractured light and shadow. No face—only a shifting void where features should have been.
"The Abyss Between Realms," the figure continued. "A prison. A throne. A graveyard for gods who broke the rules."
Anna swallowed. "Why am I here?"
A pause.
Then a low, amused sound. "Because you make gods forget themselves."
Her fingers curled into fists. "You're the one who took me."
"I am one of many," the entity replied. "But you were… claimed."
Anna's heart stuttered. "By Kazan?"
The shadows rippled.
"No," the voice said. "By the one who will tear this place apart to reach you."
---
The skies over the fractured realms darkened.
Shou Feng stood atop a ruined peak, black robes snapping violently as the air itself bent around him. Below, the land trembled—mountains cracking, oceans pulling back as if afraid to touch the shore.
The dragons circled above, restless, furious.
Renji knelt several paces behind him, one knee pressed into the fractured stone. His godly aura flickered—controlled, lethal, restrained by discipline.
"She is beyond sealed paths," Renji said carefully. "Even you cannot—"
Shou Feng raised one hand.
The air crushed inward.
Renji was slammed into the ground, stone folding around his body like water around a falling blade.
"You mistake restraint for limitation," Shou Feng said calmly.
Renji coughed, forcing himself upright despite the pressure. His eyes burned—not with fear, but defiance. "This isn't about power. This place devours gods. It will strip you down until—"
"Until what?" Shou Feng asked, turning slowly.
His black eyes were empty of mercy.
Renji faltered—just slightly.
"Until it takes what anchors you."
Silence fell.
For a moment, something dangerous flickered behind Shou Feng's gaze.
Then it vanished.
"I have no anchors," he said.
The shadows surged outward in violent waves, ripping open the sky itself. Cracks spread across reality—ancient seals screaming as they fractured under his will.
Kiyoshi appeared at the edge of the rupture, flute clutched tightly, eyes wide with dread. "Shou Feng—if you force your way in, the balance—"
"Is already broken," Shou Feng interrupted.
He stepped forward, standing at the edge of the abyss tearing open before him.
"She was taken from my reach," he continued, voice low, lethal. "That is an error."
The dragons roared in agreement.
Kiyoshi's voice softened. "This isn't justice. This is—"
"Retrieval," Shou Feng said.
He glanced back once—toward Renji, toward Kiyoshi, toward the trembling worlds.
"Anyone who stands between me and what is mine," he said quietly, "will be erased."
Then he stepped into the...
---
Anna staggered as the realm shuddered violently.
The chains screamed.
The entity before her recoiled slightly, its form distorting. "He's doing it already," it hissed. "He dares—"
"What?" Anna demanded.
The ground split open behind her.
Darkness poured in like a tidal wave.
A pressure slammed into the realm—overwhelming, absolute, familiar.
"No…" Anna whispered.
The sky fractured.
Shadows tore through the crimson haze, swallowing the land whole. The chains snapped like thread, echoing with a sound that felt like the death of stars.
Then he stepped through.
Shou Feng emerged from the abyss, darkness wrapped around him like a crown. His presence crushed the realm into silence. Even the whispers fled.
Anna's breath caught painfully in her chest.
"Shou Feng—"
His gaze locked onto her instantly.
Everything else ceased to matter.
The entity shrieked, retreating into the void. "You will doom us all!"
Shou Feng didn't even look at it.
"This realm," he said, eyes never leaving Anna, "has failed its purpose."
He raised one hand.
The world began to collapse.
Anna ran toward him. "Stop! If you destroy this place—"
He caught her wrist mid-step.
Not roughly.
Firmly.
Possessively.
"You were taken," he said, voice dangerously controlled. "That will not happen again."
"This isn't protection," she said breathlessly. "This is annihilation."
His grip tightened—not in anger, but certainty. "Then annihilation it is."
For a moment, she saw it—not love, not tenderness—
Fear.
Not of losing her.
Of not being able to reach her.
The realm screamed as it began to fall apart around them.
And the God of Destruction held her at the center of it all, unaware that the thing driving him forward was no longer war—
But her absence.
To be continued