"In short, Grandfather, there is no forgiveness for the likes of us, only judgement."

Those were the last words Armand Aubrecht heard before being wrapped in darkness.

It was to Armand like in an instant, the entire world was replaced by this one.

Armand looked around and saw that it all looked so real yet, yet this sight was too surreal to be real.

It was a world of mainly two shades of black and red, along with a cinder-like color that was the ground under which he was standing, with nothing but plain and barren ruin around. Above him, Armand saw overworldly zapping and mighty red lightning, which he could feel would be his doom if it were to somehow struck him, but as he stared at the sky, was something else floating in the sky, that was impossible to ignore, a giant shattered spherical object.

"Is this a moon?"

Just as his attention was entranced by that moon, something else grabbed his attention. Looking around, yet again, he saw on the horizon something that resembled a boundary yet didn’t. From sight alone, he could clearly tell that he would never reach it.

If he were to describe this world, it would be what one would imagine the end of the world would look like.

This felt too real to be an illusion, yet, everything around from that moon, this barren land, everything around him, felt completely surreal.

It only came somewhat later, but slowly he realized that this place was somewhat familiar to him, but he couldn’t put his finger on how come it was.

"Is this all even real?" He wondered.

"This is where I rested for two years, so of course, it is real. " A voice he recognized stated

He looked around, yet he saw no one from whom the voice could’ve originated from.

"What is this place?"

"Hum, I have still not chosen a name for it, but what about the Plane of transcience and perpetuity?" the voice said, in a voice from which it was impossible to tell from where it came from, "The domain, in which change meets immutability and chaos, harmony."

At that moment, at the mention of these words, as vague as they were, Armand finally realized where this familiarity he felt came from.

This place reminded him of the place he, Amon, and Barbosse fell into while fleeing away.

An empty void from which they almost wouldn’t have escaped if it weren't for Barbosse's ultimate sacrifice.

Though their appearances were different, the sense of reality and unrealness they both exuded was the same.

"You can think of this place as the source of your nobles' mana, or you can think of it as the fruit of my consciousness. Though, in a way, one could say that this was the fruit of my labor over the past 17 years of my existence, for this place is where it all began for me. The place where I and your church, along with you and your fellow fourteens, crossed path for the first time. The place I was born as your people's Faceless One."

The world shifted, molding itself beneath and above Armand.

Then suddenly, he saw, not so far away from him, a silhouette taking form. As soon as it turned human enough, Armand immediately recognized it.

"Syrus..." He mumbled.

"This is not him. Syrus is gone. This is merely my own remembrance of the vessel that I once made for him. "

As if to prove his point, the silhouette disappeared only to be replaced a moment later by a monster Armand recognized as a DeathSeeker.

"Vessels I have subsumed are gone from the real world but here they remain, like a memory one cannot bring oneself to forget. They cling onto me as much as I clung onto them. As, now, part of me, here in this place they lie. "

The Deathseeker was then replaced by yet another creature, again and again, ultimately taking the form of a giant wolf-like creature.

"You and your friends came at me without even knowing what I was guilty of. You came at me assuming that I had done the unforgiveable. Without even knowing what it was exactly. That was your first mistake."

"Of all the living beings out there, it chooses to prey upon them, drawn by their ability to wield chaos and harmony." The voice explained.

It was at this moment that it appeared.

The ground robbing beneath his feet, Armand floated, then something of titanic proportions appeared out of thin air.

"And here I was, thinking that I was unlucky." The voice laughed derisively.

It was a creature that, in comparison, would dwarve mountains and raze countries by his mere presence alone.

"Behold, Great Grandfather! This, which is in front of you, is the very thing you and your expendable fellow Holy Paladins and ArchBishops were after. "

"This... is..."

"An, the one who, despite being completely forgotten by history, singlehandedly by his presence and disappearance, triggered the war between Rana, the two-headed Dragon, and Rena, the first Dragon, but also led a wandering goddess to ultimately sacrifice herself. "

"To you and to you alone in the family, I shall reveal who and what I really am and how I came to be born and how I came to be your people, "The Faceless One."