The Facility in the Forest
The forest was unnaturally quiet.
Not even the crickets dared to sing as Kryos pushed aside the tall grass, his breath ragged from hours of wandering. He had heard the rumors—an abandoned facility, buried deep where no map marked—but he never thought he would actually find it.
When the trees parted, the ruins appeared before him: concrete walls cracked by time, steel doors hanging from rusted hinges. The place looked dead, but a strange pulse echoed from within, like a heartbeat too vast to belong to any human.
Kryos swallowed hard.
> Should I go inside…?
The air grew heavier the deeper he stepped. Lights flickered weakly on broken panels. Cables as thick as serpents coiled along the floor, sparking faintly with dying energy.
Then he heard it.
A voice, low and resonant, not in his ears but in his mind.
???: "At last… a child of man dares to enter."
Kryos spun around. The air itself seemed to warp. From the darkness, a shape emerged—a towering figure of shifting starlight, its form both human and infinite. Its eyes burned like collapsing suns.
Kryos: "W-what… what are you…?"
The entity's presence shook the walls. Yet its voice remained calm, almost sorrowful.
Astrion: "I am Astrion… once a king among stars, now forgotten and bound to this ruin. I have waited countless ages for a vessel. For a child worthy of my fragments."
The ground trembled. Kryos fell to his knees, clutching his chest as an overwhelming pressure crushed the air from his lungs. He felt his bones scream, his soul being pulled from his body.
Kryos: "N-no…! Stay away from me—"
But Astrion reached out, a hand of burning constellations closing around him.
Astrion: "Do not fear. I will not take… I will share. You and I… shall walk the same path."
In that moment, light swallowed Kryos whole. Stars collapsed and reformed inside his veins, space and time bent and unbent in his heartbeat.
When the glow faded, Kryos collapsed on the cold floor, gasping for breath. His body was still his… but not entirely.
From the shadows, Astrion's voice echoed one last time:
Astrion: "Rise, Kryos. From this day, you carry the weight of the stars."
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