The One King

As the black-purple cocoon enveloped Azrael, his consciousness sank into an endless darkness.

There was no sound.

No light.

No sense of time.

Only an infinite abyss that seemed determined to swallow his consciousness completely.

Yet, deep within that darkness, something began to change.

It was as though Azrael's mind itself had activated a final mechanism to preserve his consciousness from being consumed. One memory after another began to surface, illuminating fragments of his existence.

The memories of his first two incarnations.

Scenes that had been buried for countless ages began to unfold within the darkness.

At first, they appeared as vague shadows.

Then they became clearer.

Ancient battlefields.

Countless supreme beings clashing across endless dimensions.

Worlds collapsing beneath the footsteps of incomprehensible entities.

A throne standing above an endless sea of stars.

And, at the center of it all, a figure whose presence even the memories themselves seemed reluctant to reveal completely.

Azrael.

Or rather…

The Azrael who had existed before this life.

The memories continued to emerge, one after another, as though some invisible force was deliberately showing them to him.

Perhaps it was not merely his mind.

Perhaps something deeper was awakening.

Something that had been sleeping within his very existence.

Outside the cocoon, the Ten Thousand Beasts Mountains had fallen into an eerie silence.

Where the battle between Azrael and the Emperor Ape had once taken place, an enormous black-purple cocoon now stood like an unnatural monument.

It was hundreds of meters tall.

Dark, silent, and terrifying.

An indescribable aura radiated from it, spreading across the surrounding mountains.

Every living creature that approached it instinctively felt an overwhelming sense of submission.

Within a radius of nearly one kilometer around the cocoon, an even stranger scene could be witnessed.

Countless beasts were kneeling.

Some were powerful beasts that had dominated their territories for centuries.

Others were ancient creatures whose strength was enough to terrify ordinary cultivators.

Yet all of them remained motionless.

Their bodies were frozen in place.

Their heads were lowered.

Their knees pressed against the ground.

Even the Emperor Ape, an existence who had reached the Divine Ascension Realm, remained kneeling among them.

None dared to move.

None dared to breathe too loudly.

It was as though an invisible law had descended upon this region.

A law that declared:

Kneel.

And every creature obeyed.

One month passed.

Then another.

The strange scene remained unchanged.

The cocoon did not move.

The beasts did not move.

Even the Emperor Ape could only endure the terrifying pressure while staring at the cocoon with a mixture of fear, confusion, and vigilance.

He had fought countless battles throughout his long life.

He had encountered ancient inheritances, terrifying bloodlines, and creatures far stronger than himself.

But he had never encountered anything like this.

What exactly was happening inside that cocoon?

What kind of existence was being born?

The Emperor Ape did not know.

And for the first time in countless years, uncertainty made him uneasy.

Three months passed.

On the final day of the third month, something finally changed.

A faint sound emerged from within the cocoon.

Crack…

The Emperor Ape's eyes narrowed.

Another sound followed.

Crack… Crack…

Then another.

The surface of the enormous cocoon began developing thin purple cracks.

At first, they were barely visible.

But with every passing moment, they became deeper.

More numerous.

And brighter.

A dark-purple light slowly leaked through them.

The Emperor Ape instinctively tightened his muscles.

The beasts around him trembled.

Then—

BOOM!

An enormous explosion erupted.

The cocoon shattered.

A massive wave of black mist burst outward, swallowing the surrounding area.

The terrifying existential pressure that had restrained the beasts suddenly vanished.

For several seconds, none of them moved.

The Emperor Ape slowly raised his head.

His eyes widened.

He had almost forgotten how to move after being forced into that strange state for three months.

Then, as though remembering something, he suddenly turned toward the remains of the cocoon.

Nothing could be seen clearly.

Only thick black mist.

The Emperor Ape immediately released his divine sense.

It spread toward the mist like an invisible tide.

But the moment his divine sense touched the black fog—

Buzz!

It was instantly blocked.

The Emperor Ape's expression changed.

His divine sense, powerful enough to penetrate mountains and search vast regions, had been completely rejected.

He withdrew it immediately.

For the first time, a trace of genuine caution appeared in his eyes.

"What exactly are you…?"

He stared at the black mist.

No answer came.

Only silence.

Then—

A low growl emerged from within the fog.

"Grrrrrrr…"

The sound was not loud.

Yet the moment it reached the surrounding mountains, every beast trembled.

The Emperor Ape's pupils contracted.

There was something terrifyingly primordial within that sound.

It did not resemble the roar of an ordinary beast.

It sounded like the first cry of something that had never existed in this world before.

The black mist began to dissipate.

Slowly at first.

Then faster.

Until, finally, a massive silhouette emerged from within.

The Emperor Ape's expression changed completely.

A creature stood before him.

A dragon.

But not a dragon the Emperor Ape had ever seen.

It was an enormous black-purple dragon, standing approximately two hundred meters tall.

Its scales were pitch-black, darker than the deepest abyss, yet their edges carried a mysterious purple sheen that seemed to absorb the surrounding light.

Its four limbs were thick and incredibly muscular.

Each ended in five enormous claws.

The claws were completely black, sharp enough to make the surrounding space seem distorted around them.

Behind its body stretched two enormous wings.

They resembled the wings of a bat, yet they were far larger and more majestic.

Each wing extended nearly seventy meters.

The dragon's tail was long and immensely thick, covered from its base to its tip in black scales edged with deep purple.

Its head was enormous.

Four thick horns emerged from its skull, long and curved upward toward the heavens.

They resembled a crown.

A crown belonging to something born to stand above all other creatures.

Its eyes were the most terrifying feature of all.

Dark-purple pupils, vertically slit like blades, stared into the world with an ancient and incomprehensible calm.

Its mouth slowly opened.

Rows of long, gleaming fangs became visible.

Each fang was sharp enough to resemble a divine weapon.

The Emperor Ape stared at the creature in silence.

For some reason, he felt that the creature before him was not merely a beast.

There was something else.

Something he could not understand.

Something that made his instincts scream.

The dragon slowly raised its head.

For a brief moment, the entire mountain range became silent.

Then—

ROOOOOAAAAAAR!

The dragon unleashed a terrifying roar.

The sound swept across the Ten Thousand Beasts Mountains like a storm.

Mountains trembled.

Ancient trees shattered.

Clouds were blown apart.

Countless beasts fled in panic.

Even some powerful cultivators hundreds of kilometers away felt their souls tremble beneath the roar.

It was not merely the roar of a dragon.

It was an announcement.

A declaration to the heavens and the earth.

Something new had been born.

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