The city didn't sleep.
Lights buzzed in the streets. Cars passed by in waves. But Rin sat alone in her apartment, eyes wide, heart still racing.
She couldn't forget what she saw.
A man walking into a crater.
Monsters rising.
Flames of light.
And then… silence.
Eon.
That was what he called himself.
He didn't shout.
He didn't need weapons.
But the way the world bent around him—it was like he didn't belong here.
Or maybe… like he belonged more than anyone.
Rin was twenty-three. A science student. Top of her class. She studied geology and spatial anomalies. She believed in facts. In data.
But today had broken all of that.
There was no explanation for what she saw.
The monsters weren't just weird animals.
They were impossible.
And the man… he had turned them to ash with just his hands.
No equipment.
No exosuit.
No spells from a game.
Just… fire that listened to him.
Rin opened her laptop and pulled up the footage she secretly recorded on her tablet.
She watched it again.
And again.
Every time, her breath caught when he raised his hand and the monsters flew back. She tried slowing the video down.
Frame by frame.
His eyes glowed gold.
Not a trick of light.
Real.
There was a force there. A pressure. Like the world bent to him.
Who was he?
She typed "Eon fire crater man" into the web search.
Nothing useful.
A few conspiracy forums were starting to talk. "City Gate Event," they called it. Some said it was a secret government weapon. Others claimed it was a demon sealed in the earth.
No one had answers.
Rin frowned.
But she had something they didn't.
She had heard his voice.
She had seen him up close.
And he had said something before leaving…
"Watch the sky. There will be more."
That didn't sound like a warning.
It sounded like a promise.
The next day, Rin skipped class.
She returned to the site.
The police had left. Only yellow tape remained, flapping in the wind. The crater was still there, but it looked… dead. Just a pit.
But she knew better.
She stepped carefully to the edge and stared down.
"Nothing," she whispered.
But her fingers itched.
There was a strange tingling in her palms.
She crouched and touched the ground.
And then…
pain.
A flash of heat ran through her arms.
She gasped and fell backward, landing hard.
Her hands glowed—red veins of light pulsing beneath the skin.
She stared, heart pounding.
"What… is happening to me?"
That night, she dreamed of fire.
She stood in a burning forest, flames around her, but she wasn't afraid.
The fire moved like water.
It whispered.
"You carry the Spark."
She turned.
Eon stood behind her, his eyes calm.
"You touched the gate," he said.
"What did it do to me?"
"It remembered you."
"Why?"
"Because it's waking up," he said. "And it's looking for those who can hear it."
She opened her mouth, but before she could speak—
She woke up.
Sweating.
Her palms still glowing.
Rin locked herself in her room for days.
She ran tests on her blood.
She scanned her hands.
No burns. No radiation. But still… the glow returned when she felt strong emotion. Anger. Fear. Wonder.
She discovered something strange: when she held metal, it melted if she wasn't careful.
She whispered, "fire," one day.
And a small flame appeared on her fingertip.
No matches.
No trick.
Real fire.
She needed answers.
She needed Eon.
Rin began tracking sightings.
Strange weather patterns. Underground tremors. Unexplained wildlife behavior.
Three days later, a report came in from a coastal village:
"Small-scale spatial tear. Fishermen saw red mist rising from the water. Local said a man burned it closed."
She boarded a train that afternoon.
The village was quiet. Simple homes, fishing boats, kind people.
She asked around.
Some said they saw a man in black.
He walked into the sea during the red mist.
Came back dry.
Left without a word.
Rin wandered to the edge of the shore.
There, in the sand, was a circle of melted rock.
Still warm.
She crouched and touched it.
Her hand burned again — but this time, it didn't hurt.
It welcomed her.
"Still following me?" a voice said behind her.
She jumped.
Eon stood there.
Same calm eyes. Same soft steps.
"How—how did you—"
"I watched you walk here," he said. "You left a trail of questions behind you."
"I need answers."
"You're not ready."
"I saw what you did! I saw the monsters! And my hands—they're changing. I'm changing!"
Eon looked at her for a long moment.
Then, he nodded.
"Walk with me."
They sat under a tree near the cliffs.
The ocean moved quietly below.
Eon looked out over the water.
"The dungeons are not random," he said. "They're scars from the Rift — another layer of reality, trying to bleed into ours."
"Why now?"
"Because something is guiding them. Something that remembers Earth. Something that wants it back."
"You said I carry the Spark."
He turned to her.
"You touched the gate. The Spark inside it remembered something in you. A pattern. A code. That means… you're a potential bearer."
"Bearer of what?"
"Of fire. Of resistance. Of balance. This world won't survive unless others like you awaken."
"But I'm just… me."
"So was I. Once."
He stood and pointed to the cliff's edge.
"There will be more dungeons. Some will be small. Some will be cities wide. People will suffer. They'll panic. And the Conquerors will use that chaos."
"Who are the Conquerors?"
"You'll know them when they arrive."
"I'm scared," she whispered.
Eon stepped closer. "Good. That means you still have something to protect."
Rin looked down at her palms.
The glow returned.
Not red this time.
But gold.
When she left the village the next morning, she didn't feel the same.
Something had shifted.
She felt it in her heart.
In her hands.
In the way the air responded to her thoughts.
She wasn't just a student anymore.
She was something new.
Something becoming.
Back in the city, she stood before a mirror.
She raised her hand.
A flame danced across her palm.
It didn't burn.
It waited.
For her command.
And far away, in the sky above Earth…
the Rift cracked wider.