"That," he said slowly, "is not a simple question to answer." He looked past briefly, his gaze drifting across the endless ocean as though the answer existed sowhere within mory rather than words.
"But if you wish to stop the Eternal invasion," he continued, "then you will have to defeat him."
I stared at him.
"He is connected to the Eternals?"
Amun nodded.
He did not elaborate imdiately.
The confirmation alone was enough to send a ripple through my thoughts. Every Eternal I had faced, every fragnt of their existence I had consud, every anomaly that had surrounded their presence, all of it suddenly pointed toward a single origin.
Not a race but a person.
"Why did he say he killed all the Ironharts?" I asked. "And how was he able to affect my blood?" I asked the question that was bugging from the beginning.
Amun paused.
The sweet hovered halfway between his hand and his mouth. For the first ti since we had begun speaking, his expression lost its casual ease. He exhaled quietly and set the sweet back onto the plate without eating it.
His blue eyes returned to mine, and when he spoke again, his voice carried none of its earlier amusent.
"In the war to claim the Empty Throne, the Ironharts stood against him," Amun said calmly. "And so he hunted them down."
He did not dramatize it. He did not soften the truth. He stated it the sa way one would describe the fall of an empire or the collapse of a star, as sothing inevitable once the path had been chosen.
"But since you are sitting here," he continued, his gaze steady on mine, "you already know the outco was not absolute. So survived. Not just the Ironharts. Many of the lineages that exist today in the Pri Universe trace their origin back to my ho world."
He leaned back slightly, folding his arms loosely across his chest.
"The Ironharts were not a minor force," he added. "Your ancestors did not rely exist. They ruled. Entire galaxies bent under their authority. Their influence extended across regions most civilizations never even learned existed."
His eyes narrowed faintly.
"I would place your lineage within the top five of that era in terms of achievent and influence. That alone would have made them targets."
He paused briefly.
"And the fact that you are sitting here now, carrying that blood, having reached this far… that is not a small achievent."
I processed his words carefully. The Ironharts had not originated in the Pri Universe. They had co from sowhere else.
From his world.
A world that predated everything I had known.
"Are the Eternals from your ho world?" I asked.
He nodded without hesitation.
"Yes."
The confirmation settled into place imdiately, aligning with everything I had observed so far. "How was he able to control my blood?" I asked.
Amun did not answer imdiately.
Instead, he picked up another sweet and studied it thoughtfully before speaking.
"Because he understood it," he said. "He had fought it before."
He looked at again.
"Tell ," he said. "How many visions have you seen from the book?"
"Two."
He nodded faintly.
"Good. In the third vision, you will see his talent."
His tone shifted slightly, becoming more serious.
"And when you do, you will understand why your blood responded to him."
"Why are you both enemies?" I asked again.
He smiled.
"I am not telling you."
The simplicity of the refusal was almost insulting.
I resisted the imdiate urge to reach across the table and punch that calm expression off his face.
"Why did he say you are planning to give your position?" I asked instead.
Amun shrugged lightly, as though the question carried no particular importance.
"How would I know why he said that?" he replied. "You should ask him."
He picked up another sweet and took a bite, completely unconcerned.
I stared at him in silence. Sohow, despite everything Theras had done and everything he represented, I found him easier to deal with than Amun. Theras was direct. Violent. Honest in his hostility. Amun, on the other hand, hid everything behind calm smiles and casual words, as though nothing in existence truly burdened him.
He chuckled softly, clearly reading my thoughts from my expression alone.
"Billion," he said, "do you rember when I told you that I know where your parents' souls are?"
My expression hardened instantly.
I rembered.
Back in the chained realm, when I had stood before him without understanding who he truly was, he had said those exact words.
"You see," he continued, his tone calm, "the Eternals cannot capture Ironhart souls. They can destroy bodies. They can kill them. But souls like yours… they cannot be contained by them. Your parents' souls are safe. They exist sowhere beyond his reach."
He paused briefly.
"And the day you reach Saint," he said, "I will tell you where."
He stood up from his chair and walked a few steps toward the endless ocean, his hands resting loosely behind his back as he looked out across the still surface.
"The Theras you saw here was not the real one," he said. "It was rely an avatar ford from a single drop of his blood. And yet even in that limited state, he was able to overwhelm you so completely."
There was no accusation in his voice.
Only truth.
"You should understand what that ans," he continued quietly. "What you will face in the future is not that fragnt. It is the original. And he is far more powerful than what you witnessed."
He remained silent for a mont before continuing.
"He is my enemy because I stopped him from achieving sothing he believed was his right. I made a choice based on what I believed was necessary. I did what I believed was right. But he does not see it that way."
His voice softened slightly.
"He is my brother," he said. "But he hates with every part of his existence."
He turned back toward .
"And he will co."
There was no uncertainty in his words.
"He will co for the Pri Universe. He will co for revenge. He will co for ."
His gaze locked onto mine.
"And he will co for you."
I did not look away.
"You carry the Executor authority now," he said. "And you carry Ironhart blood. To him, you represent both the past he tried to erase and the future he cannot control."
The weight of those words settled heavily within .
"The System is not powerful enough to stop him," Amun continued. "Not when he arrives in his true form."
"So when that day cos," he said, "it will be on you."
Silence stretched between us.
I studied his face carefully.
"Will you not fight him?" I asked.
He did not answer imdiately.
Instead, he turned his gaze back toward the endless ocean, his posture calm, his expression unreadable.
"I wish," he said quietly.
And in those two words, I heard sothing I had not expected.
Regret.
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