[PAGE 1–2]
Full-page spread. A quiet forest clearing. Birds fly off. The air shifts…
Narrator (Kai's thoughts):
"Being Embraced… I thought it would give me peace.
But peace doesn't come easy… not in this world."
[PAGE 3]
Kai walks down a dirt path, shirt torn from training. He stops. Silence.
SFX: CRACK…
A stone cracks beneath him. He flinches.
VOICE (off-panel):
"So you're the one."
[PAGE 4–5]
A tall, bandaged figure steps from the shadows.
Eyes covered by worn cloth, body wrapped like a pilgrim who forgot where home is.
Kai:
"…Who are you?"
???:
"Someone who used to care.
Then I tore my eyes out so I wouldn't have to see anymore."
Kai (narrating):
"A Hollow…"
[PAGE 6–7]
Flashback (Tremor's memory):
A young boy watches as a house burns. His families screams.
He turns away, trembling, running.
Void (off-panel):
"If you can't stand to look…
Give me your sight. Let me be your eyes."
The boy kneels, fingers digging into his own sockets
[PAGE 8–9]
Kai (back to present):
"You gave up your eyes…?"
Tremor:
"To stop seeing suffering.
But I still feel it.
The quake never ends."
He lifts his foot—stomps the earth.
SFX: BOOOM!!
A pulse rips through the field. Kai is sent flying.
[PAGE 10–13]
A brutal, realistic fight unfolds:Tremor moves like a ghost, sensing vibrations.Each punch lands with seismic weight.Trees shatter, rocks rise and fall.
Kai (panting):
"He's fast—how can he move like that…?"
Tremor:
"I don't need eyes to see your soul screaming."
[PAGE 14–16]
Kai gets up, absorbing one of the tremor bursts.
Energy glows around his arm like flickering photons.
Kai (inner voice):
"Absorb…"
He redirects it—Tremor is caught off guard.
Tremor (falling):
"You… reflect pain… without giving… anything?"
[PAGE 17–18]
Tremor crashes to the ground, broken. Rain begins to fall.
Tremor:
"I sacrificed everything…
and I'm still not free…"
Kai (kneels beside him):
"Maybe that's the problem.
You were never meant to throw it away."
[PAGE 19–20]
Kai walks away, rain washing the blood off his arms.
Tremor lies still, not dead—but quiet. Maybe listening.
Narrator (Kai):
"I'm not here to win.
I'm here to understand.
And if that makes me rare… so be it."
VILLAIN INTRODUCTION:
[LAST PAGE — AFTER KAI WALKS AWAY]
Scene shift. A high cliff overlooking the forest.
A figure in shadow watches the entire battle below. His arms are crossed.
One eye burns with celestial light… the other is dark and hollow.
Unknown Figure (muttering):
"So… you really did it, Kai. You became the Embraced…"
The wind rustles. Two voices whisper inside his mind—one angelic, one demonic.
Voice (demonic):
"He walks the path you rejected."
Voice (angelic):
"Or perhaps… the path you never deserved."
Villain (revealed half-face):
"No… I was supposed to be the one…"
He steps back into shadow. Only his hand remains, glowing with twisting, unstable energy—a cursed fusion of Vein and Hollow.
This villain is the one who failed to become Embraced.
Instead, he became a contradiction—endlessly enduring, endlessly sacrificing.
He sees Kai as the symbol of everything he could never become.