Hakan stirred awake, his body still aching from the aftermath of his battle with Karan Kumar.
"Quarkfall Execution…"
The words echoed in his mind like a whisper caught in static.
Suddenly—
"My liege."
Rhalvion materialized behind him, his voice calm, but urgent.
"What do you want?" Hakan asked, rubbing the side of his head.
"My liege, I must ask… please refrain from using that technique again."
"Why?" Hakan said sharply, sitting up.
"You haven't mastered it yet," Rhalvion explained. "Had it not been for the dragon power I infused into your body during the clash, you would've died."
Hakan blinked. "So… it was you."
"Yes, my liege."
There was a pause. Then Hakan stood.
"Your job here is done, Rhalvion. Return to Drakareth and ensure everything is in order there."
Rhalvion bowed. "Yes, my liege."
With that, he vanished in a shimmer of gold.
Hakan dressed in silence, slipped on his shirt, grabbed his bag, and stepped out of the room. The corridor outside was pristine—repaired and rebuilt, a testament to engineering merged with ability. Metal and magic woven as one.
As he made his way toward the infirmary, he crossed paths with Iqbal.
"Where are you going?" Iqbal asked, surprised. "You just woke up."
"I don't have time," Hakan replied. "I need answers. Quickly."
Iqbal exhaled a long sigh. Hakan was always like this—on his own path, whether healed or half-dead.
"If you need anything… just call," Iqbal said quietly.
"You're going back?"
"Well, yeah. The elven diplomat has been assigned to us—specifically to the Silver Valkyries."
Hakan stopped in his tracks.
"What?"
"Yeah," Iqbal nodded. "The elf—she requested an all-female circle. So Soren decided the Silver Valkyries were the best option."
"I see…" Hakan replied, going quiet for a moment.
Then he reached into his bag and pulled out a sealed envelope.
"Give this to the leader of the Silver Valkyries," he said, handing it to Iqbal without another word.
Iqbal took it, nodding.
"Until next time," Hakan said simply, raising his hand.
And with that, he continued walking—headed for the room where Karan Kumar was.
Hakan stepped into the quiet room.
There, sitting upright on the infirmary bed, was Karan Kumar. Bandages wrapped around his chest and shoulder, his skin still marked with traces of the battle's chaos. Beside him sat Tavina, her eyes wary as they met Hakan's. She didn't speak—she didn't need to. The look she gave him was sharp. Protective. Not welcoming.
Hakan said nothing at first. He simply stood in the doorway for a moment, looking at the man he'd nearly annihilated—and who had nearly annihilated him.
"I wanted to see you before I left," Hakan said finally.
Karan turned his head, his voice tight. "Why? What's it to you? I lost."
Hakan walked in slowly, each step calm and deliberate. He reached the foot of the bed and tapped Karan lightly on the shoulder.
"Well... you nearly did what no one else has ever done," he said.
Karan didn't reply. His expression was unreadable.
"I mean it," Hakan added. "You pushed me further than anyone else ever has."
Karan's voice came low. "Is there something you want to say?"
Hakan nodded.
"Yes."
He looked Karan in the eye.
"You have the highest potential of anyone I've fought. To be honest… your potential feels infinite."
Karan's eyes widened—just slightly, but enough for Hakan to notice. For a moment, the arrogance, the edge, the calculation—it all faded. No one had ever said something like that to him before. He had always been seen as a weapon. A force. A threat. Never… as someone with promise.
"What do you—"
Karan started to speak, but his voice caught. He fell silent.
Hakan continued, quieter now. "Just… be careful with that final technique. Don't use it unless something truly matters. Something you'd die for. Otherwise, it'll eat away at you every time."
He paused, letting the words sink in.
"That kind of power can kill anyone. Including you."
Karan stared at him. This time, when he spoke, his tone had changed—no longer guarded or cold.
"Thank you. For saying that."
Hakan gave a small nod. "Let's have a rematch someday. When you're really ready."
He reached out and tapped Karan's back again, not as a rival… but as a fellow warrior.
As Hakan turned to leave, Karan's voice stopped him.
"Mr. Hakan…"
Hakan paused in the doorway.
"When you come back... will you teach me?" Karan asked, his voice clear. "What you did in that fight—your style, your power. I want to learn."
Tavina blinked, visibly surprised. Karan Kumar… asking to be taught?
Hakan looked over his shoulder, a faint smile tugging at the corner of his lips.
"Sure," he said. "When I return. But until then... get stronger."
And with that, Hakan stepped out, the door closing quietly behind him—two warriors now bound by something more than battle.
Hakan moved through the sleek corridors of the facility, his pace steady, eyes sharp. He didn't stop to admire the engineering marvels or the recovery efforts outside. He was heading for one place—the main control room.
The doors hissed open.
Inside, Verrian Solace sat alone at the center console—bathed in low blue light, flanked by endless rows of high-tech terminals and glowing holo-screens.
He didn't turn.
"So… here you are."
There was a pause. No movement. Just tension.
Then Verrian finally stood.
"I won't waste your time. This—" he gestured, turning to face Hakan fully "—is everything you need."
He stepped aside, revealing the chamber in its entirety: a panoramic, high-clearance command deck with 360-degree displays, live feeds from every part of the world—and beyond. Sensitive data, interdimensional readings, even secret experiments no world government dared to admit.
"This is Grade Zero access," Verrian said. "The highest clearance in human history. And now... it's yours."
Hakan stepped forward, his eyes scanning the room.
The weight of it all settled on his shoulders. Knowledge. Power. Responsibility. Secrets.
But one thing didn't sit right.
"Wait," Hakan said, turning toward him. "The fact that you're here… does that mean you also have Grade Zero?"
Verrian gave a small smirk, then shook his head.
"No. I hold Grade Alpha. That gives me 95% of access—military intelligence, hero rosters, planetary scans, magic-tech weaponry. But not what you have."
He stepped closer, lowering his voice slightly.
"You can go deeper. Beyond borders. Beyond satellites. You can see into locked realms, shadow programs, classified vaults buried under ten layers of clearance. You can see what even I can't."
Hakan folded his arms, eyes still on the monitors.
"Then let's begin."
Verrian raised an eyebrow.
"You're not even going to take a breath, are you?"
"There's no time to waste."
Verrian let out a quiet breath, not in frustration—but in respect.
"Very well. The console's yours. Type in your DNA key. From here on out… the world is no longer unknown to you."
Hakan stepped toward the center console.
And history held its breath.
"Alright. First things first," Hakan said, turning to the analysts seated at the control consoles. Dozens of techs were lined up across the tiered room, fingers flying over glowing keyboards.
"Show me any major energy spikes detected roughly two years after the second asteroid impact."
The operators got to work instantly. Lines of encrypted data streamed across the holo-screens.
Most of it was indecipherable to ordinary personnel—but with Hakan's DNA signature now coded into the system, the encryption unlocked. One by one, the results came in.
A massive global map lit up.
"Sir," one analyst called out, "we've located approximately 160 significant energy spikes across the globe from that time frame."
Hakan stepped forward, studying the data.
"Narrow it down. Filter for unique signatures—unmatched, unidentified, or one-time anomalies."
The map recalibrated. Numbers dropped.
Twenty-six markers remained.
"Much better…" Hakan muttered under his breath. His eyes scanned the map. Shizumi. Islamabad. The Pacific.
He frowned.
"That pattern doesn't make sense… I can't piece it together yet."
Then another thought struck him.
"How much energy does it take to teleport?" Hakan asked aloud. "Would teleportation show up in these spikes?"
One of the operators nodded. "Yes, sir. But if we pull all teleportation logs, it'll include everything—heroes, government tests, experimental devices. The result set will be enormous."
"Show me anyway," Hakan ordered.
A second later, the system lit up with a flood of red dots.
Billions of spikes. Across every continent, every major city. Like static across a globe.
Hakan winced.
"Yeah… that's a mistake," he said quietly, almost to himself.
Then he straightened. "Filter it again. Narrow the data to Shizumi only."
The room shifted. The screens flickered.
Now it was time to find what no one else had ever seen—buried in the noise, a trail of something long forgotten… or hidden.
The screen updated again.
Only fifteen spikes remained—each one marked in Shizumi, all on the same day.
Hakan leaned forward, eyes narrowing.
"That's the day I came back," he muttered. "The Break… when I met Alaric, Sylvia… when we first set foot on Japanese soil."
He took a breath, then looked to the nearest operator.
"Can you scan the rest of Earth for anything similar to these fifteen signatures?"
"Yes, sir," the operator said. "But we'd need a physical energy object tied to those spikes to use as a traceable anchor."
"A physical object…?" Hakan whispered to himself.
Then it hit him.
"The stone. That damn stone…"
His eyes widened.
"If we use it, we might be able to trace where it started. Back to Wang… Liang…" He froze mid-thought, everything crashing together.
"What if… what if those people were the human primordials? Why else would they be in a place so detached from the rest of the world? Their control… their presence… it wasn't normal."
Realization was now a roar in his head.
Hakan closed his eyes, reaching out with his thoughts.
"Xyvarion."
The mighty dragon heard his master instantly—even while training with Alaric and Sylvia. The command echoed like thunder through his soul.
"Yes, my liege,"* Xyvarion said, bowing instinctively despite the telepathic distance.
Sylvia and Alaric paused in their training, surprised by the sudden shift in Xyvarion's posture.
"Ask Sylvia," Hakan said through the link, "where the teleportation stone is—the same one we used to return to Shizumi."
Xyvarion turned to Sylvia, relaying the words exactly.
"It's with me," she said, confused. "In my room."
Without another word, Xyvarion vanished into a streak of dark energy—and reappeared moments later in Hakan's control room, now in a smaller, compact form. He knelt and presented the stone.
Hakan took it with a quiet nod.
"Thank you, Xyvarion. Now go back. And do your job. Make them stronger."
The dragon gave a bow and disappeared once again.
Back in the training field, Xyvarion appeared in front of Alaric and Sylvia.
Sylvia blinked. "Why did he need the stone?"
"I don't know," Xyvarion replied. "But he said it's time to train."
The three of them fell silent.
They could feel it—whatever was coming next, it was bigger than before.
And Hakan was already chasing the storm.
"Here. Use this."
Hakan tossed the stone to the nearest operator. The technician caught it carefully and placed it into a scanning cradle, syncing it with the system's high-precision energy signature readers.
The machine hummed—an eerie glow filling the chamber as readings processed.
Then—ping.
A new map flickered to life on the holo-display.
Only three spikes registered worldwide.
Shizumi. The North Atlantic. The Bermuda Triangle.
Hakan's eyes narrowed.
"The North Atlantic and Bermuda..." he muttered. "Those places have always had their conspiracies, haven't they?"
"Sir," the operator called out, eyes glued to his monitor. "These are the only three locations on Earth that share even a trace of resonance with the stone."
He pointed at the map.
"Shizumi shows the strongest connection—high output, dense energy signatures. The other two are faint. Almost unreadable… but still there."
Hakan nodded slowly, his mind clicking into motion.
"That's fine. I don't need much. I know exactly where to go now."
He turned to leave the control room, his coat swaying behind him.
"Oh—right."
He raised his hand without looking back. "The stone."
The operator rushed it to him. Hakan caught it and slid it into a pouch on his belt.
"Thanks. Keep your systems hot—we might need more deep-level scans. Fast."
"Yes, sir."
Hakan stepped out into the corridor. Waiting for him—leaning against the wall with arms folded—was Verrian Solace.
"So," Verrian said calmly. "Where are you headed?"
Hakan didn't slow.
"Bermuda."
He walked past him without another word, boots echoing against the steel floor.
Outside, a high-speed tactical helicopter was already prepped on the launch pad, rotors humming low.
Hakan climbed in.
And the sky opened up before him. and His Journey began in which he was entirely Alone.