Before Liss ever knew his name, she knew his shadow.
It started as a dream.
A dark field under a violet sky.
An endless silence.
She walked barefoot through black grass until she found a mirror.
But there was no reflection.
Only eyes.
Unblinking. Watching from the other side.
And then—
"You."
"The one who wasn't made."
"The silence between breaths."
She touched the glass.
It shattered.
The shards floated upward like stars. And inside them—
A name.
Ling Kushi.
She woke in a cold sweat.
And the window of her dorm was cracked from the inside.
The next day, Liss skipped class.
She walked deep into the ruins beneath the Academy—the abandoned Scriptorium, where they used to store forbidden divine scrolls.
There, hidden behind runes no one else could see, was a door that shouldn't exist.
Her fingers brushed the frame—
It opened.
Inside:
A single floating shard of glass, glowing faintly with colors not meant for human eyes.
The moment she saw it, she remembered:
> The chaos that made gods weep.
The hunger that formed before time.
The being called Azathoth.
But that wasn't his real name.
No.
He was Ling Kushi.
And she had already locked him away once—long ago—into a prison made of nothing.
Why?
She didn't remember.
But she felt him stirring.
And the glass cracked.
"I see you again, devourer.
You thought you could bury me.
But your nothing is no longer silent."