Ravian found himself floating in absolute darkness, suspended in the middle of nothing.

’Why did this happen?’ That was the first thought that surfaced.

He remembered everything that had led up to this — the mention of the Fourteen Taboos, the faction leaders’ suspicion, the naming of the Taboo of Fate, and then the blinding headache that had dragged him under.

He also remembered hearing Karius shouting at someone just before he lost consciousness, though he hadn’t been aware enough to catch exactly what was happening.

Now, when he looked down at his body, it was nothing more than a mass of light shaped like a human form — no skin, no features, no details of any kind.

And then suddenly, Ravian felt the space around him shudder in a way that sent a deep, instinctive dread through him, as though it were bracing itself for the arrival of something without equal.

And in less than a second — it came.

A white eye with a vertical black slit appeared from nothing and fixed its gaze directly on Ravian.

’Good God.’

If Ravian hadn’t already been unconscious, the shock alone might have knocked him out a second time.

The eye floating before him was larger than the entire castle he had walked into alongside Karius. And setting the size aside, the shape of it was deeply wrong — it did not look like it belonged to any human. It looked like the eye of a... snake.

As if it had been waiting for exactly the right moment, the rest of the body followed.

A second eye appeared, identical to the first, and then the body of a serpent materialized — absurdly, almost offensively massive, its scales enormous and ancient-looking, each one sharp and thick, shifting between colors with no fixed hue to settle on.

’Dear mother of mine, I think the decision I made after you left was the single worst decision any person could make — and that includes complete idiots.’ Ravian’s expression was somewhere between resignation and dry amusement as he watched the colossal entity materialize before him piece by piece.

’Hmm. Have I always been this calm when facing a snake larger than my entire existence?’

’Ah. I suppose they were right when they said the first time is always different. No, wait — that phrasing feels deeply inappropriate here—’ Ravian was on the verge of drowning in his own thoughts.

"What else could you possibly be thinking about, human, when I am standing before you?" A voice without any distinct tone suddenly shook the void — and its echo didn’t reach Ravian’s ears.

It resonated inside his soul directly.

"Agh! My head, you stupid snake — lower your damn voice!" Ravian snapped without thinking, and that strange state clicked into place the moment the serpent’s tone hit him.

"...Hmm? Are you speaking to me, human?" The serpent sounded genuinely unable to believe what it was hearing, and it brought its massive head closer to Ravian’s soul to look at him properly.

That seemed to be enough to jolt Ravian back to his senses. The strange state receded, and his usual composure returned.

"Ahem. Pardon my rudeness," Ravian said, in a tone that carried absolutely no actual apology.

The serpent narrowed both eyes at him, having noticed by now that Ravian had yet to show any genuine fear.

But it chose to let that go — there was something more important it had sensed, and it was what had brought it here in the first place.

"Human," the serpent said, "do you know who I am?"

"No," Ravian answered simply, and he sounded entirely different from how he had a few seconds ago.

The serpent stared at him for a few silent seconds without replying, its eyes gleaming in a strange way.

Ravian felt something unsettling about the way they gleamed.

He understood why a moment later when the serpent’s eyes suddenly went wide with something close to frenzy, and its scales shuddered with a force that rattled the entire void around them.

"You are lying!" the serpent roared — directly into Ravian’s soul.

Ravian felt his consciousness flicker from the sheer pressure of a scream that hadn’t come from a mouth but from the serpent’s awareness itself.

"What is your name?" the serpent said abruptly, snapping its eyes fully open and fixing them on Ravian.

Ravian looked back at it for a few seconds and said nothing.

’It’ll know if I lie. And I can’t give it my name. Whatever this thing’s abilities are, they’re clearly not normal — and asking for my name, out of everything it could ask, is the strangest part of all this.’ Ravian tried to work out why it wanted his name so badly and came up with nothing concrete.

’But I can’t afford to take any risks in front of something like this.’

He decided not to answer.

"Did you not hear me, human? You already know that I am Fate — and yet you act with this kind of recklessness? Do you not understand that I could end your life, and it would cost me no more than the tip of a finger?" The serpent circled Ravian’s soul as it spoke.

"I could curse you until you die. I could pull the threads of your fate to drag you into conflicts with beings you have no chance of surviving."

"I could trace your fate lines and send one of my followers to finish you with no effort at all."

"So then..." The serpent continued circling, utterly certain that Ravian had a connection to one of the Taboos — an unusual one, at that.

"What is your name? And which Taboo do you belong to?"

"And why haven’t you?" Ravian said, raising his head and looking up at the serpent with a faint smile.

"...What?" The serpent blinked.

"Why haven’t you done any of the things you just listed?" Ravian asked, tilting his head.

"Let me guess..." He raised his middle finger directly at the serpent’s face.

"Something is stopping you?"

"You—!" The serpent’s voice cracked through the void hard enough that the space itself seemed to split at the seams.

"Agh!" Ravian cried out, feeling his soul being eaten away by the sound alone.

"It seems you don’t understand," the serpent said, and its tone shifted into something heavier and deeper than before.

"My silence does not mean my inability," it said, and its tail lashed suddenly with enormous force.

A cluster of threads appeared above Ravian’s head.

"What?" The serpent’s voice carried unmistakable shock as it saw them.

"You... how do you have this many threads?"

Its eyes moved from one thread to the next, taking stock of each one.

"Are you... an Heir?" the serpent said suddenly.

Ravian remained perfectly, terrifyingly silent — not a single sound left him, even now, despite the fact that inwardly, he was deeply afraid.

’An Heir? Does it mean Sovereign Pride? Has it figured something out?’ Thoughts flooded his mind, but none of them came with answers.

And any question he asked would give away information — which was the last thing he wanted to do in front of something like this.

"Did you not hear my question?! Are you an Heir?!" the serpent repeated, and this time its voice carried a force that made Ravian’s mouth begin to move on its own.

The serpent’s expression shifted toward a smile when it noticed Ravian’s mouth moving in his soul form.

But Ravian’s mood snapped back almost immediately.

"And who do you think you are to command me, you worthless crawling thing?" Ravian said, his voice dripping with contempt.

The serpent stared at him, genuinely unable to process what it was hearing.

It had thought the human was about to speak — and he had. Just not anything it had ever wanted to hear.

"You have brought this upon yourself, human," the serpent said, and a glacial calm settled back over its massive form.

"I — the Star-Coiling Serpent — bring down upon you the authority of punishment, on the grounds of your prior deception against a Taboo entity. I command you to answer my next question."

"What is your name?"

The declaration of the Star-Coiling Serpent rang out, and its echo shook the foundations of the entire world.

This time, Ravian felt a strange and overwhelming force begin to drag an answer out of him against his will.

’No. No!’ The last thing Ravian wanted to do right now was give it his name — because he had understood, from how relentlessly the serpent was pressing for it, that this was something pivotal.

Whatever the serpent could do to him would hinge on it.

’Don’t,’ Ravian snarled at himself, feeling his mouth fall open against his own will.

There was nothing he could do. He was on the verge of giving his name to an entity of unknowable power.

And then an idea came to him. A dangerous one. But right now, it was the only solution available — because he couldn’t lie to this entity.

Ravian opened his mouth.

"My name is..." he began.

"Ryan," Ravian said.