Gods...
Mighty beings endowed with divine powers; superior to humans, immortal entities. A race full of unknowns that everyone both wonders about and fears. Their existence lies at the center of the endless pursuit of those who seek to comprehend the secrets of life and the universe.
But… could there be a god deprived of might and immortality?
A god with no purpose of existence, one who has searched for himself for thousands of years yet never found himself… Is he helpless, or does he stand at a different boundary?
The man walking slowly toward the corner of the park looked to be in his thirties. He wore a black coat; his hands in his pockets, shoulders slightly slouched. His long, wavy hair hung loosely over his face, and his eyes were utterly empty, as if lost in his own inner world. He was about 1.90 meters tall, and as he stood alone in the park, his tall silhouette seemed completely detached from the crowd around him.
Struggling with his thoughts, the man approached the bench at a slow pace. Each step reflected the rhythm of the tangled questions inside him. When he sat down on the bench, he cast a broad glance around; in the calm and quiet of the large park, he felt his loneliness even more deeply.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, as if trying to lighten the burden he carried within.
But his thoughts refused to leave him in peace. Even when he tried to sleep with his eyes closed, unease wrapped around him. It was as if something invisible kept making its presence felt, disturbing him. His eyes opened again against his will. Unintelligible words, half formed mutterings spilled from his lips.
He stayed that way for five minutes; an inner struggle with sleep was going on, but in the end, he realized he would not be able to rest. He slowly opened his eyes and looked around. The nighttime silence of the wide park, the rustling of trees swayed by a gentle wind… Everything was calm, yet the turmoil inside him was the opposite.
His hand went to his pocket, fingers closing around a cigarette pack. As he brought a cigarette to his lips, his eyes caught on a nearby sign that read "No Smoking." For a moment, he paused and looked at it; the letters on the black and white plaque seemed to offer him a meaningful warning.
But he ignored it and took out his lighter. Slowly bringing it toward the cigarette, he struck a spark. It didn't light on the first try. He tried a few more times, each attempt accompanied by an irritated "Damn it" from his lips. At last, the spark caught, the flame burned, and the tip of the cigarette was seared.
He inhaled deeply; the bitter taste of the smoke dulled his restlessness, if only for a moment. His gaze shifted to the right; toward the dark corners of the park, to shapes vanishing among the trees.
But at the same time, Kael was looking somewhere else; as if his eyes were cursed to see that place hard, resentful, and cold. There was an anger inside him, as if he were filled with hatred toward the whole world, locked in a constant conflict.
Name: Kael
Age: ???????
Race: God
Title: –
Location: Outer Realm, Human World
Divinity: ??
Abilities: (Sealed)
Reincarnation:Each time you die, a new life awaits you, but you have lost most of your memory.
Purpose of Existence: Codex Not Found
Lumen: 0
These words, written in white letters over blue, defined him completely; as if he were a being without existence. It was as though he had been cursed by someone, a prisoner of his own being. He could barely contain the hatred within; it felt as though everyone were his enemy.
With an age unknown, unlike mortal gods, even his own race was wrong. Kael was so engrossed in the system window before him that he hadn't even noticed the voices coming from nearby.
"Hey, young man!" called an old woman. When the voice rose a few more times, Kael flinched and slowly turned to his right.
Before him stood a white haired, well dressed woman. She wore a white dress. Behind her was another woman, in her twenties, who looked like her daughter; they seemed like mother and daughter.
The old woman spoke in a calm and gentle tone: "My child, smoking is forbidden," she said, pointing to the sign nearby. "Don't smoke here," she added kindly.
In Kael's mind, that word "my child" echoed. He had perhaps lived for thousands of years, yet he still could not get used to this world, to these humans. Slowly, he turned toward the young woman beside her; her beauty was striking, but she was shy, quiet.
Without saying a word, Kael rose slowly to his feet. He took one last drag of the cigarette, extinguished it, and then walked toward the trash. He dropped the butt into the bin. Without looking at the old woman, he walked away silently.
The woman watched him leave, a look of surprise on her face. There was a weight to his gait that did not belong to any ordinary person. His hands were in his pockets, shoulders straightened, and with his tall frame, he seemed to overshadow every shadow around him. With his black coat, jet black hair, and dark gaze, he looked as though he had stepped out of the night itself.
The old woman's eyes lingered on Kael's turned back. Parting her lips, she murmured in a half mocking, half wary tone, "I wonder what his problem is." Her words carried both curiosity and a hint of judgment. Then she turned her gaze to the young woman beside her. This time her words were clearer, more serious:"If you bring someone like that again, I won't truly consider you my daughter."
The young woman did not respond to her mother's words. Her eyes remained fixed on Kael's silhouette as he walked away with heavy steps. His gaze was neither kind nor malicious. It expressed… nothing. Emotionless, soulless, empty. As if the man before her was not human, but a being she could not comprehenda stranger. There was neither mercy nor anger in him; only a distant yet deep observation.
As the young woman looked at the way Kael's coat swayed slightly behind him, she noticed how the wind toyed with its edges, yet he walked on without reacting to anything. At that moment, she realized Kael's very presence was of the unsettling kind; as though he walked in a body without a soul.
The old woman noticed her daughter had been watching Kael for some time. Seeing her gaze still fixed on his departing figure, she frowned."Hey, what are you looking at? Walk," she said, giving her a light tap on the shoulder.
The young woman flinched. "Why are you hitting me, mother," she muttered with a slight smile. Then she added, "We'll be late, come on… Liora."
Liora began to walk after her mother. As she quickened her pace, she could still see Kael's dark silhouette in the distance. Just then, Kael turned his shoulder slightly and looked back at them. His expression was unreadable; as if he had both seen something familiar and noticed some detail for the first time.
"Weird," he murmured to himself. A feeling rose inside him an emotion he could not define. He stared for a few more seconds, then turned forward again and continued walking. His steps held no haste; rather, he walked slowly but firmly, as if expecting something.
As he neared the park's exit, he felt that the thing he had been waiting for had finally arrived. Immediately after, a strange, mechanical sound echoed through the air. Like the deep reverberation of twisted metal, an unfamiliar timbre to human ears. The sound left a cold, ominous vibration deep within Kael's mind.
There was not the slightest surprise on his face. It was as if he had heard this sound countless times, lived with it every day. But an ordinary person, if they heard it, would find it enough to push the limits of their sanity, to drop them to their knees in fear.
Kael slowly turned toward the direction of the sound. In his eyes were mixed emotions: a faint unease, yet also a sharp fearlessness. Nonsensical words began to spill from his mouth; words without meaning, perhaps part of a long forgotten language. The movement of his lips was in sync with the strange sound that coiled around his soul.
A peculiar unease surrounded Kael. It was as if the air had grown heavy, the park's colors had faded. At that moment, he felt even time itself had slowed.