The heavy silence that blanketed the Ash Forest lasted for only a few seconds.

After the mysterious voice faded away, the survivors stared at one another with pale faces. Not a single person dared to move.

"The Shadow World..." The phrase still echoed in Surya’s head.

He glanced around. Roughly thirty people were scattered across the clearing. Some were still clad in sleepwear, others in office attire, and a high school student was even tightly clutching his school backpack.

They all shared one single thing in common: A look of utter confusion. And paralyzing fear.

"Is this... some kind of television show?" muttered a plump man, forcing an awkward laugh. "Gotta be a massive prank."

No one answered him. A young woman hugged a small child tightly as she wept. "I want to go home..." "We have to find a way out!" shouted another man. "There has to be a way!"

His words seemed to rouse the others from their stupor. Right. They couldn't just stand here and wait.

"Let's stick together!" "Don't go wandering off alone!"

Surya nodded slowly. He thought the same way. An unfamiliar place like this was clearly anything but safe.

"I'm Surya," he told the few people standing closest to him.

A bespectacled man nodded nervously. "I-I'm Dimas." "Rina." "Mr. Yusuf."

They exchanged quick, rudimentary introductions. There was no time for small talk. A small group of over a dozen people began to move, picking their way along the forest edge.

The farther they walked, the more unnatural the forest felt.

The trees were ash-colored. The ground was black. There was no grass. Instead, the earth was covered by a layer of fine ash several centimeters thick, emitting a soft, muffled crunch beneath every footstep.

Crunch...Crunch...

The air was heavy with the scorched scent of newly burned wood. Surya looked around. No birds. No insects. No sounds of life whatsoever.

"This is really weird..." he muttered. "Weird how?" Dimas asked. "If this is a real forest, there should be animals."

Dimas fell silent immediately. He was right. Not once had they heard a single living creature since arriving. And that absolute silence made the terror crawl even deeper under their skin.

Fifteen minutes passed. They came across a narrow path nearly swallowed by the drifting ash.

"Let's follow this trail!" someone cried out. But before any of them could take another step—

Surya stopped. "Wait."

Everyone froze in their tracks. "What is it?"

Surya stared at the ground. The layer of ash right in front of them was shifting subtly. As if... Something was crawling directly beneath it.

Crunch...Crunch...

The ground trembled ever so slightly. "A rat?" someone muttered.

Surya shook his head. "Too big."

Before he could finish speaking— CRASH!!

The earth exploded upward. A pitch-black figure leaped out from the depths.

"AAAAAAAH!" Screams instantly tore through the forest.

The monster stood nearly three meters tall. Its body was emaciated, resembling a mummified corpse stripped of all flesh. Its skin was absolute black, like hardened charcoal. Four long arms ended in claws as sharp as daggers.

And most horrifying of all was its face. It had no eyes. Only a massive maw that split open from ear to ear, filled with hundreds of tiny, independent teeth writhing on their own.

"A monster!"

The creature lunged straight for the man at the front of the line.CRAASSSHH!!

Blood sprayed across the air. The man didn't even have time to scream. His body was sliced clean in two.

"Ruuuuuuun!!"

Panic erupted instantly. Everyone scattered in every direction. The monster moved with terrifying speed. In a single bound, it was already behind a woman.

SPLAT!! Her head was knocked clean off. The headless body stood upright for a few agonizing seconds before collapsing.

"Don't leave me behind!!" a teenager wept hysterically.

Yet the monster had already clamped its claws around his frame.SNAP! His spine shattered.

Surya froze. His entire body trembled. This wasn't a dream. They were genuinely being hunted.

"Surya!" Dimas yelled, grabbing his arm. "Run!"

That snapped Surya back to reality. He bolted after Dimas, weaving through the gray trunks. The sounds of screaming continued behind them. One by one. Until they faded away.

Surya’s breathing turned ragged. His chest burned with every gasp. Yet the heavy footsteps of the monster still echoed behind them.

Thud!Thud!Thud!

The creature was closing the distance.

"Over here!" shouted Mr. Yusuf. Ahead of them lay a small, rocky slope. The surviving group scrambled up the incline as fast as their legs could carry them.

The monster lunged forward. But this time, its massive claws slammed hard against solid stone.CRASH!!

A massive boulder fractured and collapsed directly onto the creature's body. "Keep moving up!"

Surya didn't dare look back. They ran until they reached a small, elevated plateau, collapsing onto the ground in sheer exhaustion.

Surya took a quick count. Out of the roughly thirty people who had arrived... Only eleven remained. Eleven. That meant... More than half had died in a matter of minutes.

A heavy silence enveloped the survivors. Soft weeping began to rise. Rina covered her mouth, her shoulders shaking. "They're..." No one had an answer.

Surya tried to steady his breath. He forced himself to stand. "I'm going to look around." "Don't go too far!" Dimas warned.

Surya nodded. He walked slowly along the edge of the plateau. The farther he stepped, the stronger the sensation that something was calling to him. It was a bizarre feeling. As though an unheard whisper was drifting through the air.

Come here...Come here...

Surya stopped. His gaze fell upon a large boulder nearly buried under a thick blanket of ash. For reasons he couldn't explain... His heart hammered against his ribs.

He stepped closer. Crouched down. And with his bare hands, he began to sweep the ash away. The more ash he brushed aside... The more something beneath it revealed itself.

Metal. Black. Rusted.

Surya kept digging. Until the object finally emerged entirely.

An ancient sword. Roughly a meter in length. Its scabbard had long since rotted away. The hilt was etched with strange carvings resembling a cluster of closed eyes. The blade was dull, fractured with countless hairline cracks, as though it had lain buried for thousands of years.

"A sword?"

Surya reached out and grabbed the hilt. The moment his fingertips brushed the ancient metal— BOOM!!

A burst of black light erupted from deep within the earth. Wind whipped violently around them. The surrounding ash was sucked upward into a swirling vortex.

"What is that?!" Dimas and the others whipped their heads around.

The black symbol on Surya’s palm suddenly flared with brilliant light. The ancient sword trembled. Once. Twice. And then... The cracks along the blade began to glow with a faint, bruised-purple light.

The soft sound of grinding metal echoed through the air.Clink...

The sword... Moved on its own.

Surya instinctively let go. Yet the sword did not fall. It hovered a few centimeters above the ground. Everyone stared, their eyes blown wide.

"What the hell is that?" "Is it... alive?"

The fractures on the blade slowly mended themselves. The carved eye on the hilt... Fluttered open.

A single purple eye stared straight at Surya. The gaze was ancient. Profound. And heavy with the weight of someone who had waited an eternity.

And then... A soft voice echoed directly inside Surya’s mind. Not through his ears. Straight into his thoughts. A voice that was raspy. Weary. Yet brimming with a long-suppressed, fierce joy.

“Finally...”

Surya froze. The voice whispered once more.

“...a new heir.”