Several days had passed since the return deadline expired.
During that time, the reconstruction and reorganization of humanity had continued without pause.
The newly built cities were filling with inhabitants.
The military forces were restructuring their units.
And resources were being transported to designated locations.
As for the Sovereign Palace...
It remained as quiet as ever.
But on this day...
The Four Pillars arrived at the palace.
They had received permission to enter its deepest reaches.
It was not something that happened often.
Even for them, there were parts of the Sovereign Palace that could only be accessed with direct permission.
The four walked through the ancient corridors in silence.
None of them spoke.
They knew that being summoned at a time like this meant that something important was about to happen.
After traveling a long distance, they finally reached the inner chamber.
They stopped before the massive stone doors.
Then...
The doors slowly opened.
The Four Pillars entered.
And the moment their eyes fell upon the black throne...
They all stopped.
For several moments...
Not a single one of them spoke.
Upon the throne...
Sat Fafnir.
But the man before them was not the same body they had grown accustomed to seeing over the past few days.
The dry white hair was gone.
The skin that had clung to his bones was gone.
The face that had seemed to belong to a man who had been dead for thousands of years was gone.
Fafnir had returned to his natural appearance.
Long, thick black hair flowed freely behind him, dark as the endless depths of space.
His youthful face was extraordinarily handsome, with sharp, perfectly balanced features.
Thick black eyebrows.
A strong jaw.
A straight nose.
And flawless skin radiating a vitality that no ordinary human could possess.
His body was tall and imposing, with broad shoulders, a powerful chest, and perfectly proportioned muscles that gave him the appearance of a warrior who had reached the limits of physical perfection.
His build was not excessively massive.
Instead, it was perfectly balanced.
Every movement carried a quiet strength.
And his eyes...
They were completely black.
Deep.
Calm.
As though endless darkness lay hidden behind them.
There was no anger in his gaze.
No agitation.
Only profound tranquility—the tranquility of a man who had watched an entire age pass before awakening after five thousand years.
The Four Pillars stood frozen in place.
They had seen Fafnir before his awakening.
They had seen him after his awakening.
They had watched his emaciated body endure pain year after year.
But they had never expected to witness such a transformation so quickly.
The man before them...
Was Fafnir.
And yet...
He was also closer to the Fafnir they had known from the records of the ancient era.
One of the Pillars slowly lowered his head.
Then, with a trace of astonishment in his voice, he said:
"Your Majesty..."
Fafnir did not answer.
He merely looked at them calmly.
The four took several steps forward.
Yet even after approaching him...
They remained silent for several moments.
Then Thorin spoke:
"Your appearance has returned..."
Fafnir looked at him.
"Yes."
It was only one word.
But it was enough for the four to realize something undeniable.
The restoration was not merely a minor improvement.
Fafnir had truly begun to return.
One of the Pillars said:
"I never expected your body to reach this state so quickly."
Fafnir replied:
"It hasn't."
Silence descended.
Then he continued:
"The restoration rate is still only thirty-five percent."
Their eyes widened slightly.
Only thirty-five percent...
And yet his appearance had almost completely returned to normal.
What would happen when it reached fifty percent?
Seventy?
Or one hundred?
None of them allowed their thoughts to continue.
They lowered their heads.
They knew this was not the time for questions.
Valor spoke:
"You summoned us, Your Majesty."
Fafnir nodded.
Then he said:
"I want you to carry out an order."
"What is it?"
Fafnir slightly raised his eyes.
"Seal Zeta."
Silence.
None of them had expected such an order.
Thorin asked:
"Seal the continent?"
"Yes."
Fafnir looked at them.
"I want Zeta completely isolated."
The Four Pillars exchanged glances.
One of them asked:
"Do you mean sealing the borders?"
Fafnir replied:
"No."
He paused for a moment.
"I want the space itself sealed."
Their eyes widened.
This time, it was more than mere surprise.
It was something far greater.
Valor asked:
"The ancient formation?"
Fafnir nodded.
"Yes."
A long silence followed.
They knew this formation.
In fact, they were among the very few who knew that it truly existed.
An ancient formation.
Older than most of the cities that existed today.
Older even than some of the institutions that had governed humanity for thousands of years.
A formation prepared during the Primordial War.
Its purpose was not to defend a city.
Nor to protect a palace.
It had been designed to isolate an entire region of the world from everything beyond it.
And its center...
Was the Sovereign Palace.
Thorin said:
"The formation has remained dormant for five thousand years."
Fafnir replied:
"The time has come to activate it."
One of the Pillars asked:
"Shall we seal all points of entry and exit?"
"Yes."
Then Fafnir added:
"I don't want anyone entering."
He paused.
"Nor leaving."
Then he looked at them.
"And I don't want anyone outside to know what is happening within Zeta."
The Four understood immediately.
Valor asked:
"Even divine sense?"
"Even divine sense."
Silence.
That meant the formation would not merely be a physical barrier.
It would be complete isolation.
Fafnir said:
"No one will be able to see Zeta from the outside."
Then he continued:
"No one will be able to extend their consciousness into it."
"No one will be able to open a spatial passage."
"And no one will be able to breach it through spatial transportation techniques."
He raised his hand slightly.
"The very fabric of space will be sealed."
The Four Pillars lowered their gazes.
None of them asked why.
It was not their place to question him.
Valor said:
"We will carry out your order."
Fafnir nodded.
"Begin."
Shortly afterward...
Orders began spreading throughout Zeta.
But no one knew the true reason.
Instructions reached the designated units.
Teams were dispatched to ancient points scattered across the continent.
Most of the soldiers had no idea what was about to happen.
Even the officials participating in the operation knew only that they were carrying out an order issued by the highest leadership.
As for the formation itself...
It had remained hidden for thousands of years.
Deep beneath the earth.
Beneath mountains.
Within remote regions.
And in locations known to only a very small number of people.
Its nodes were scattered throughout Zeta.
And at the center of it all...
Stood the Sovereign Palace.
The moment the formation was activated...
Something humanity had not witnessed since the Primordial War occurred.
The Sovereign Palace began to glow.
At first...
The light was faint.
Then it intensified.
Until the ancient walls of the palace became the source of an enormous golden radiance.
Ancient inscriptions carved into the floors and walls illuminated one after another.
Then...
BOOOOOOM!
A torrent of golden energy erupted from the heart of the palace.
The light surged toward the heavens.
It was no ordinary beam.
It was a colossal golden pillar.
It rose from the Sovereign Palace and pierced into the highest reaches of the sky.
It was so immense that humans in distant cities raised their heads in astonishment.
The pillar looked as though it were a golden support holding up the heavens themselves.
People stopped in the streets.
Caravans came to a halt.
Construction work stopped.
Millions raised their heads.
No one understood what was happening.
Then...
Another pillar appeared.
In the far north of Zeta.
Then another in the south.
Then the east.
Then the west.
Then dozens.
Then hundreds.
Then thousands of enormous golden pillars began rising throughout the continent.
They emerged from the earth.
Pierced through the clouds.
And climbed toward the heavens.
Each one was connected to the ancient formation.
And all of them began extending toward specific points in the sky.
Golden lines began appearing.
Massive lines stretching between the pillars.
Then they intertwined.
Overlapped.
Merged.
Until an enormous golden network began forming above Zeta.
People raised their heads.
The sight was beyond their ability to comprehend.
And within minutes...
The network began transforming into something else.
A dome.
An enormous golden dome.
Covering the entire continent.
From the far north of Zeta...
To its southernmost reaches.
From east...
To west.
Until Zeta was completely surrounded by a golden barrier whose boundaries could scarcely be seen.
Then...
The formation was complete.
DOOOOOONG...!
Space itself trembled.
There were no explosions.
No mountains collapsed.
Yet something far deeper had occurred.
The laws of space had changed.
For a moment...
Some of the most powerful practitioners within Zeta sensed something strange.
It was as though the entire continent had been separated from the rest of the world.
As though Zeta no longer existed within the same space it had occupied moments before.
Outside...
A powerful practitioner attempted to use his divine sense to observe Zeta.
But the moment his consciousness extended toward the continent...
It struck something invisible.
Then vanished.
His eyes snapped open in shock.
He tried again.
The result was the same.
He could see nothing.
He could sense nothing.
Zeta...
Was empty.
As though it did not exist at all.
Elsewhere, another practitioner attempted to open a spatial passage leading into the continent.
But the space before him refused to respond.
He tried again.
Failure.
Even the laws governing spatial transportation...
Could no longer penetrate the barrier.
Space itself had been sealed.
Within Zeta...
People began realizing that something enormous had occurred.
But they did not know why.
One man stared at the golden dome and said:
"What is that...?"
No one answered.
Another said:
"Have we been attacked?"
"I don't know."
"Was this created by the Council?"
There was no answer.
Even most officials possessed no complete information.
All they knew was that the continent had been sealed.
Deep within the Sovereign Palace...
Everything returned to silence.
The golden radiance gradually faded.
But the formation remained active.
The golden dome still existed above Zeta.
Its immense height made it nearly invisible from certain regions.
But it was there.
Surrounding the continent.
Isolating it.
And sealing its very space.
The Four Pillars stood before Fafnir.
Valor said:
"The formation has been activated."
Fafnir nodded.
"Is it operating at full power?"
"Yes."
Then Valor added:
"No divine sense from outside can penetrate it."
Thorin said:
"Nor can a spatial passage be opened through the barrier."
Fafnir nodded again.
"Good."
Then he returned to his throne.
He sat down calmly.
He did not explain why Zeta had been sealed.
The Four Pillars did not ask.
They understood that there were reasons Fafnir did not wish to reveal yet.
Before they left...
Fafnir spoke:
"From this moment onward..."
The four stopped.
"No one enters."
Then he opened his eyes.
"And no one leaves."
"Until I give another order."
The Four Pillars bowed.
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Then they left the chamber.
The doors closed behind them.
Silence returned.
Fafnir sat alone upon the black throne.
He slightly raised his head.
He knew that sealing Zeta was not merely a defensive measure.
The time had come to shield humanity from the eyes of the outside world.
The next stage...
Would not be like anything that had come before.
And as cosmic energy began circulating around his body once more...
The system appeared before him.
[Ancient Formation activated.]
[The designated region has been isolated.]
[The internal space has been sealed.]
The screen paused for a moment.
Then one final message appeared:
[No being outside the designated region can observe or penetrate the interior.]
Fafnir looked at the message.
Then closed his eyes.
Outside the palace...
Humanity was witnessing the golden dome for the first time.
But no one knew who had activated it.
Nor why the continent had been sealed.
Nor what was happening beyond that barrier.
Deep within the Sovereign Palace...
Fafnir continued restoring his strength within a world now completely isolated from everything beyond it.
And for the first time in five thousand years...
Zeta was under his complete control.
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