Chapter 414: The Four Seals and a City’s Gamble
Ethan stood frozen, his eyes locked onto the ancient characters etched into the seal. Everything else—Bongo’s mockery, the flickering firelight, the faint rustle of wind—faded into nothing.
The words of the second part of the prophecy echoed in his mind:
’Four seals unite, the King appears.
The sand sea unified, now at hand.
Eight years to break the void and return to the sky. One hundred years, the sand sea becomes a forest.’
He had never truly grasped their meaning until now. But seeing this seal—feeling its quiet, terrifying weight—everything clicked. That’s what it meant. That’s what they were talking about. But who had left those words behind? And just how long ago had they been spoken?
"Ethan," Uncle Jed said, his tone unusually grim. Gone was the usual laid-back smirk he always wore. "You alone must know this. Not even a whisper to anyone from Hurricane City. If word gets out, it might cause tremors across the Sea of Death. And someone... someone might try to silence you."
That warning landed like a hammer. It wasn’t just a threat—it was a promise. Ethan glanced at Julian, who nodded solemnly beside him. From what Julian had told him, there had once been a War God–rank City Lord eliminated in under a minute. That alone said enough. The Sea of Death wasn’t just dangerous—it was crawling with hidden monsters, old powers who had retreated from the world but could still shake it if they chose to stir. If their interests were even lightly brushed, if the balance tipped—those relics of the old world would awaken.
Ethan breathed out slowly. He was lucky. The people he had met so far—Julian, Jed, the quadruplet sisters—they were trustworthy. If he’d ended up in any city other than Beastfall, who knew if he would’ve lived long enough to understand the seal’s meaning?
"Dinner’s ready!" Bongo shouted, shattering the tension like glass.
The scent of roasted meat filled the room, and Ethan didn’t hesitate. He grabbed a chunk of sizzling flesh from some unrecognizable beast and bit in, the savory flavor grounding him back in the moment. Bongo brought out fruit wines and several strange beverages.
As they ate, Julian explained the rules of the upcoming Sacred Assembly. There were no preliminaries—the trial was the final event. Each region’s main city had already selected their champions, usually the top ten from major regional festivals. In Beastfall’s case, that had been the recent Beastfall Festival.