In a hospital room in New York.
"I wonder what standing in the rain feels like..." Lex said softly as he looked at the world through the window.
Outside, the rain fell in thin lines, sliding down the glass. Puddles formed on the street below, and cars drove by, sending small ripples across the water.
Lex watched silently as he lifted his hand a little, stopping just before it touched the cold window. Even that small move made his arm shake.
I've never felt rain on my face…
The thought passed through his mind while Lex watched the rain from behind the glass.
He had long forgotten what it felt like to be healthy.
At the age of twenty-one, his world had shrunk to sterile hospital rooms, the hum of machines, and the quiet terror of nurses when they whispered about his blood — RH-null.
It was so rare that even his doctors treated him like a relic in a glass case.
Lex slowly moved his hand again while listening to the IV drip ticking time away. A single drop of golden blood fell down his fingertip as he closed his palm. That's how weak he was.
He hated this blood. His RH-null blood, which only a handful ever had throughout the world. The same blood that chained him to needles and transfusions, the same blood that kept him alive just enough to suffer.
When Lex was four years old, he had seemed healthy. But one day, he suddenly collapsed. His parents rushed him to the hospital, where the doctors discovered his blood type.
They told him it was so rare that only seven people in history had ever been recorded to have it.
Along with the rare blood came an even rarer disease: Diamond–Blackfan Anemia. Because of this illness, Lex's body couldn't make enough red blood cells, and without a donor, he was forced to spend his life inside hospital walls.
His parents kept him around not out of love, but to show him off like a strange trophy — something rare that made them special. Such was his life.
I wish I could taste real food…
Lex thought once again as he glanced at the IV line beside him, which quietly dripped nutrients into his body.
Then, something changed.
A soft breeze ran through the tightly packed room of the hospital. Outside, the rain paused in mid-air.
Lex frowned weakly as he looked at the view, unsure if his tired mind was playing tricks on him again.
Then the ceiling light flickered. The heart monitor by his bed let out a sharp beep, louder than before.
Words which were glowing faint blue began to appear in the air above his bed, as if they were being written on invisible glass:
[Akashic Records have been activated.]
[Mana has returned to Earth.]
Lex's eyes widened as he read the message. His weak heart skipped a beat, and the rain outside changed. Instead of falling gently, it began to downpour as if this were the end of the world.
Lex felt a certain warmth spread through his chest. But it wasn't a comforting warmth. it burned wildly through him, crawling through his veins like fire.
The IV beside him rattled. His body shook as the mana wave flooded into the world, pushing through walls, glass, and flesh alike. He could feel it sinking into his blood — and his blood, rare and strange, reacted to it in a way no one could ever imagine.
Before this moment, Lex had always looked fragile: a thin boy with messy black hair that fell over his hollow black eyes. His skin was so pale it almost seemed transparent.
His arms were little more than bones wrapped in skin. Every breath had felt like work to him, and every step, a fight.
But at this moment, pain exploded inside him, stronger than he had ever felt it. His vision blurred, then darkened.
Lex gasped for air as he felt his body change from the inside out. His weak limbs started shaking, and his tired heart started pounding faster and stronger with every passing second.
A dark hunger rose in his chest. A hunger for flesh.
Lex's black hair lost its color, turning stark white like fresh snow. His dull black eyes changed too, glowing a deep, unnatural red that seemed to burn in the dim room.
The pale skin on his arms grew even paler, almost like polished bone, but the veins beneath turned darker, almost black, pulsing like living shadows.
Outside, the world fell into chaos.
The frozen rain turned black — as if ink had spilled across the sky.
The air itself grew heavy and hot, pressing down on everything. Steam rose from puddles as the heat spread, turning the street into a wavering mirage.
Cars came to a halt with their windshields fogging over. Lex could hear the faint sound of horns blaring and people shouting in panic.
But the heat didn't last. The sky shifted once again, and snowflakes began to fall, covering the wet streets and steaming rooftops.
And then the snow melted as soon as it touched the ground. The dark clouds cracked apart, and the frozen rain began to fall once more as if nothing had happened.
Water rushed through gutters, and puddles reflected the strange light that still hung in the sky.
Beyond the hospital walls, animals let out twisted, broken howls that didn't sound natural. The ground itself trembled, as if the earth was trying to breathe under the weight of something new.
Mana — the strange power that had returned to the world seeped into stone, metal, and flesh likewise, twisting them into new forms.
Inside the hospital room, Lex finally opened his eyes.
In the reflection on the window, he no longer saw the weak boy he had always been.
What stared back at him was something both familiar and terrifying: white hair framing a pale face, red eyes that glowed faintly in the dark, and dark veins that traced cruel lines beneath the skin.
Above his head floated a blue screen.
[Lex Wintoff -
[Level: 1]
[Race: Ghoul]