[Chapter 1 — The Ashes of a God]
A cold wind howled across the broken land.
Ash fell from the sky like black snow, covering mountains, rivers, even the ruined statues of long-forgotten gods.
In the center of a shattered battlefield — half-buried under rubble and bloodied relics — a hand twitched.
Fingers, torn and mangled, clawed at the dirt.
Then a breath.
Then a heartbeat.
He lived.
[Initializing System Recovery...] [Binding Host: Shen Nightfall... Success.] [Welcome back, God King of Chaos and Rebirth.]
A soft golden screen flickered before his half-open eyes.
But Shen didn't move immediately.
He remembered.
He remembered everything.
The faces of the gods who swore loyalty.
The blades that pierced his back during the Heavenly Rebirth Ceremony.
The mocking voices as he fell from the skies like a broken star.
"You were a mistake, Shen Nightfall."
"You cannot kill fate."
A low laugh escaped his cracked lips.
"Fate? I'll show you the death of fate itself."
Slowly, painfully, Shen pushed himself up from the dust. His black hair, once like flowing night, was now matted with dirt and dried blood. His once radiant divine body was broken, burned — but his golden eyes still blazed like twin suns behind a collapsing horizon.
The system spoke again:
[System Features Unlocked:]
[Essence Devourer]
[Skill Evolution]
[Divine Weapon Creation]
[Chaos Authority]
[Godbreaker Quests]
[Hidden Shop] — Special discounts active.
A second later, a faint chime rang out:
[First Godbreaker Quest:
Objective — Slay any Lesser God.
Reward — +1 Chaos Core Fragment, System Shop Gift Pack.]
Shen grinned, a slow, savage thing.
The gods thought banishing him would end him.
They thought stripping his power would make him kneel.
They forgot one thing.
Chaos never dies. Chaos always returns.
He flexed his shattered fingers, feeling the surge of dark, reborn energy flowing through his veins.
"Wait for me," Shen whispered into the dead sky. "This time, I won't just break your chains... I'll burn your thrones to ash."
He took his first step forward — and the world itself seemed to tremble.
The Age of Gods was over.
The Age of Nightfall had begun.