Chapter 309: Unknown Voice

The word feel crashed through Han with anger, pain, guilt and that sickening sense of powerlessness. All of it piled on him so violently that for a moment he wasn’t even sure if he was still conscious. He felt too many emotions at once. Too much. So much that he started hearing a voice.Fool. If you do not want to die, release me.

The voice was calm, cold, detached. Too calm for this hell.

Wait... Navi? Is that you?

Me? What are you saying. Maybe the Knull Lord struck your head too hard.

Han actually believed that for a second. He wanted to push the strange voice away and blame it on the pain, on delirium, on anything. But then it spoke again, louder, cutting straight through the chaos.

What a fool. If you want to live, I am the only one who can save you. Release me.

Han froze. He didn’t know if the voice was real. He didn’t know if it belonged to something he should trust. But whatever it was said it could help. It could save them. And at this point, they were all going to die anyway. Trust meant nothing when death was already waiting.

So he let himself listen.

Tell me. How do I release you.

Silence. A long tense silence. Then the voice answered.

Say the word release. I will be freed.

Han didn’t understand how that made any sense, but he still whispered it.

Release.

Nothing happened. No shift. No spark. No change.

The voice sounded almost offended.

How am I supposed to be freed when you mutter like a dying rat. Will you speak it with your might or will you let yourself and your friends be butchered by that creature. Choose.

Han’s face twisted. His vision blurred. His body felt like it was collapsing in on itself. If he didn’t pass out soon, it would be a miracle. So he forced every scrap of breath left in him and screamed from the pit of his soul.

Release.

His shout cracked through the entire palace hall. Everyone whipped around to stare at him like he had finally lost his mind.

What is wrong with him, Balor muttered, staring at Han like he had just gone insane.

Little One, despite the dread gnawing at him, almost smiled. Who knows. Maybe the beating finally knocked the sense out of him.

Han didn’t care about any of them. He waited. He waited for that strange figure behind the voice to burst free.

Nothing.

His hope fell apart. He never truly trusted the voice, but he needed something. Anything. Accepting that all of them were doomed was something he refused to do. But he was powerless. Too weak to change anything.

Then the cold voice returned.

Fool. When I told you to call the word out with your might, I did not mean shout like a possessed madman. I meant call it with your will. Your will, nothing else. Now say it with all of it. Your will. Your hope. Everything.

Han didn’t question it this time. He had no strength left for doubt.

He called it again. Release. This time with his will, his last shred of hope, everything he had left.

For a heartbeat nothing happened.

Then a tremor rippled through the hall. Soft at first. Barely noticeable. Passing through humans and monsters alike.

But it didn’t stop.

The tremor kept growing. What started as a faint ripple turned into something heavier, something rising deep in everyone’s chest like an invisible fist slowly closing around their lungs. The air thickened with every passing second.

But the changes hit Han the hardest.

His entire body shuddered. His blood tingled like something cold and ancient was crawling through his veins. The amulet around his neck trembled violently. The white T and blue chain pattern, the so-called family heirloom his mother left him, crackled like it was being torn apart from the inside.

Then it shattered.

A burst of vibrant, chilling energy leaked from the broken charm and shot straight into Han’s body. His system reacted immediately.

Warning. Warning. Warning. Alert. Strange energy attempting to override host consciousness.

Han was too weak, too dazed to issue any order. But Navi wasn’t.

Neutralize the energy.

The system processed. Seconds dragged. Then new notifications flashed.

Failure. Failure. Suppression failed. Neutralization failed. Energy has overtaken the host.

Navi went silent, cursing Han inside the collapsing mindscape. The system flared with a blinding white light, then shut down completely. Han’s consciousness slipped even faster, falling into a cold, empty darkness.

He was gone.

But the reaction did not stop with him. It spread outward.

Han’s limp body twitched in the air. Then it began to rise, slowly, like something unseen was pulling him toward the sky. Higher. Higher. Ascending like some figure from an old myth.

And the moment he reached a certain height, the world shifted.

At first it was subtle. A whisper in the atmosphere. A tiny shift in the air pressure.

Then it hit everyone.

The entire group felt their blood turn cold. Monsters too. Even the Knull soldiers with their unnatural resilience paled visibly as that pressure slammed down on them. It wasn’t normal. It wasn’t earthly. It wasn’t something any living thing should feel.

The pressure kept dropping. Heavier. And heavier. Until Clara and the others were forced to their knees without a single hand laid on them. Even the strongest monsters buckled under it.

But the palace was only one place. The same phenomenon was spreading across the world. Every Knull. Young or old. Strong or weak. Small or massive. All of them crashed to their knees at the same moment.

As if the entire world was being forced to bow.

If someone had seen the full picture they would have thought a god was descending. But it wasn’t a god.

It was something far worse.

Back in the Knull palace, Han’s suspended figure finally began to move. His body was almost unchanged, but not entirely. His skin looked smoother. His fingers thinner and longer, touched by something unnatural. But the most frightening change was his hair.

The black half of his hair slowly lost its color. The white seeped in from the center where both sides met. Bit by bit the black drained away until all of it was white. Bright. Flowing. Unnatural. Like the hair of something that should not exist among mortals.

What the hell is Han doing, Little One coughed, blood streaking down his lips. If he continues like this he will kill us before he kills the Knulls.

Ronan stared up at the floating figure. His face was bleak, twisted with emotions he couldn’t put into words.

I think you are missing something, he said quietly. That figure hovering up there.

He paused as if unsure about what his instinct was clearly telling him of.

That is not Han.

As if responding, Han’s eyes snapped open at that exact moment. The pupils were gone. His gaze burned with a deep, powerful icy blue that glowed with a monstrous cold.

TO BE CONTINUED.....