Darkness.
That was the first thing he felt.
An endless void stretched in all directions, suffocating and eternal. No light, no sound—just an overwhelming nothingness that gnawed at his mind like unseen fangs.
Then came the whispers.
Faint, fragmented voices echoed in the abyss. Some were pleading, some screaming, and others... laughing. The sheer chaos of it sent chills down his spine.
"Where am I...?" he murmured.
The last thing he remembered was stepping into an A-rank Dungeon as a newly promoted B-rank Hunter. It was supposed to be a simple scouting mission for the guild—confirm the dungeon's stability before the real raid team arrived. But something had gone wrong. Horribly wrong.
The moment he and his team stepped inside, the dungeon quaked, sealing the entrance behind them. Then, the monsters came. Not the usual low-tier dungeon beasts, but grotesque abominations, each radiating a suffocating aura that made even their A-rank leader shudder.
They were slaughtered.
No, it wasn't just slaughter. It was as if something—someone—was playing with them, enjoying their despair.
And then... he died.
Or at least, he thought he did.
Yet here he was, floating in this abyss, his body feeling weightless but his mind sharp as ever.
Suddenly, a deep, guttural voice boomed through the void.
"You are not supposed to be here."
A monstrous pressure bore down on him, heavier than anything he had ever felt before. His breath hitched, and for a moment, he thought his very existence would be crushed under its weight.
Then, a pair of enormous eyes opened in the void, glowing like twin eclipses.
They weren't human.
They weren't even mortal.
"And yet... you have come."
The darkness began to shift, forming a towering figure draped in a cloak of shadows. Its body was nebulous, shifting between solid and ethereal, and its presence was so suffocating that even S-rank Hunters would have crumbled before it.
He wanted to move, to run, to fight—anything to escape this presence. But he couldn't.
Then, the entity reached out.
A massive, clawed hand—if it could even be called a hand—extended toward him, and as it touched his forehead, something burned into his very soul.
A flood of memories that weren't his crashed into his mind. Wars fought across dimensions, beings beyond human comprehension clashing in a realm of eternal darkness, a throne that had been empty for eons—waiting, watching.
And then, he heard it.
Ding!
A familiar sound—one every Hunter feared or anticipated. But this time, it was different.
It wasn't a system notification.
It was a decree.
───
You have inherited the Throne of the Abyss.
The Shadow Monarch slumbers no more.
───
His eyes widened as black flames surged around him. His body, once weak and mortal, began to change. The pain was unbearable—bones cracking, muscles twisting, his very soul being reforged into something new.
He screamed.
And in that moment, the abyss responded.
A tidal wave of darkness erupted around him, countless shadowy figures kneeling before him, their eyes glowing with an eerie reverence.
They spoke as one.
"We greet the new King."
And with that, the void shattered—
And he awoke.