The crystal was no longer still.
It pulsed now — softly at first, then deeper, heavier, like the **heartbeat of a world that no longer existed**. Zeravon stood frozen, his finger still touching the shard, but his mind had been pulled elsewhere.
Somewhere beyond space.
Beyond light.
Into the **echoing abyss of forgotten truth**.
There, memories **began to bleed** through the cracks of his sealed mind — not as visions, but as *impressions*. Feelings. Shadows without form.
He saw an ocean of stars weeping as something was erased.
He felt the cold silence of a sword that never missed.
And above it all… a name that brought weight to the very idea of eternity.
**Eternalis.**
---
> *"Who was he…?"*
> *"Why did I seal him?"*
> *"Why… can't I remember his face?"*
---
**Back in the Mortal Realm – Cloud Vein Sect**
Time resumed — but **not completely**.
The stars had moved only a fraction. The moon twitched slightly. Even wind, though returned, moved as if through honey.
Elder Lin stood outside the Silent Drop with Instructor Wei and several alarmed disciples.
> "Where is he?" Wei hissed.
> "He's beyond our sight," Lin muttered.
Suddenly — the ground beneath them trembled. But not from movement… from **sound**. A **name** was echoing across the land.
> *"Eternalis…"*
The word was heavy. Terrifying. And worst of all — **none of them knew why** they feared it.
Elder Lin fell to one knee, clutching his chest.
> *"That name… should not exist anymore."*
---
**Meanwhile – Inside the Chasm**
The symbols circling Zeravon began to rotate. The crystal shard disintegrated into golden dust, which began merging into his skin.
He didn't resist. He didn't understand.
But something inside him **accepted it**.
> *"I sealed Eternalis…"*
> *"…to protect him?"*
Or was it to stop him?
His heart beat once — and with it, the **first seal fully cracked**.
A flash of light surged from his body, invisible to mortals but bright enough to blind **cosmic watchers**.
Far above, celestial surveillance systems blinked out.
---
**Realm of Echoed Thrones – Council of Bound Realities**
The nine ancient beings from before had returned — now desperate, not regal.
A new crack had appeared in their center orb — but this one carried **a voice**.
> *"I am returning…"*
> *"Don't let him remember the second name!"* one of them shrieked.
> *"Seal him again!"* cried another.
But the Elder of Silence whispered:
> *"You fool… we were never the ones who sealed him. He did it himself."*
> *"If he breaks it…"*
> *"…he becomes the seal."*
---
**Back to Zeravon**
His breathing was steady.
A new kind of calm settled in his bones — not the emptiness of amnesia, but the stillness of **purpose**. Something was awakening inside him, but it was quiet. Waiting. Watching.
And then… it spoke.
His own voice — **unified**, ancient, cold.
> *"If Eternalis awakens…"*
> *"…then I must awaken too."*
Suddenly, his body lifted gently from the ground. The symbols turned into a spiral beneath him, and the world around the chasm shimmered — like reality was being rewritten.
And for the first time, **he remembered a moment of his past**.
A throne room that wasn't built — but imagined into being.
Endless stars orbiting a man who sat at the center.
His own eyes — glowing with **truth** that scared even the laws of the Dao.
He saw Eternalis kneeling before him.
> *"You must seal me,"* Eternalis had said.
> *"If I fall, the Concept of Time will follow."*
> *"Then I'll seal myself as well,"* he had replied.
> *"If you awaken… then I must return to stop you."*
---
Zeravon's body returned to the ground.
The light faded.
The crystal was gone. The symbols dissolved. But something had changed.
Not just inside him.
**The Realm itself.**
The Dao that governed cultivation now **recognized him** — not as a mortal, but as something beyond classification.
And high above…
the **Heavenly Dao**, long silent, stirred for the first time in a million cycles.
> *"He has remembered the First Name."*
> *"We are running out of time."*