Deep in the eastern Phoenix Mountains, an Ancient Altar that had been covered in dark-red Vines for countless years suddenly exploded. A figure burst from its Ruins.
The figure was humanoid but withered like a desiccated corpse. His skin had the texture of weathered leather, and he wore a tattered dark-red Battle Robe embroidered with countless twisted Runes. Two dark-red Flames burned in his eye sockets, like beacons rekindled.
At the western end of the Nether River, another withered figure slowly rose from the silt on the riverbed. Its form was as insubstantial as smoke, seemingly condensed from countless tiny dark-red motes of light that took human shape in the air.
Its face was indistinct. Only its dark-red eyes shone in the Void like two burning stars.
On the southern Death Wasteland, a huge fissure suddenly split the ground. Dark-red smoke poured out and coalesced in the air into figures of every shape: human, beast, and forms like twisted trees. They hovered in the Void like an Army of Vengeful Spirits crawling from the depths of the Underworld.
In the northern Frozen Mountain Range, dark-red ice that had lain frozen for countless years shattered layer by layer. Figures broke free from deep within it, fine shards of ice still clinging to their bodies and refracting a diamond-like gleam in the dark-red light.
More and more figures emerged from every corner of Cycle World, converging on the Undying God King like an awakened tide.
They took many forms. Some wore broken armor like decaying warriors and gripped rusted weapons; some were gaunt as corpses, their skin stretched tight over bone; others had lost all human shape and become twisted beasts.
But they all shared one trait: dark-red Flames burned in their eye sockets.
The Undying Race.
These Ancient beings had been